#dahlgren

Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology passed away on January 17, 2026.

Dr. West was born in 1930 in Virginia. Despite the oppression of Jim Crow laws in the south, she was able to pursue higher education at Virginia State College (now named Virginia State University), obtaining bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics. In 1956, West was hired at what is now called the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA. Her focus during the 1970s and 1980s was creating accurate models of the Earth's shape based on satellite data, a complex task requiring the type of mathematical gymnastics that would make the average person dizzy. Those models later became the backbone for GPS. West worked at the Dahlgren center for 42 years, retiring in 1998. 

Perfect Hiking Socks By Dalhgren

They're not flashy, or a big name brand, but Dahlgren might make some of our favorite socks. Made in the USA from awesome blends of merino wool, alpaca and synthetic fiber, Dahlgren socks are designed from cuff to toe to be some of the most comfortable socks you'll wear. Their built-in arch support is like a loving hug, and their distinctive "wicking channels" keep you cool and dry. Even though they're designed for hiking and running, you'll find Dreamers wearing their pairs of Dahlgren for the most mundane activities, and every time we need to get pictures of them, we have our pick of volunteers. They look basic, but they feel like a dream come true.

Most Dahlgren come in two sizes, though some colors may not be available in both sizes. 

Medium: Fits women's US shoe size 6.5-10, men's 5-8.5. 

Large: Fits women's US shoe size 8.5-12, men's 7-10.5.

A short story/poem about life and other things almost all based on Cornelia’s song titles.

Living, in Reality, was never easy for I always seem to be stuck in my Aquarius Dreams.  My family never really understood where my brain would wander off into a different world where Life’s so Easy and I am friends with the deer and more popular peers. 

Having been born into this world where it is one’s, Birthright and privilege to fix and heal the world from the one’s that came before us. Where Everything and everyone need help to some degree. I have taken that responsibility to be that person to take on others’ problems and help them through, but who do I go to when the Pieces of me are broken?

I always look back on The Meaning of That Day where that one person came to my side. Wondering what was in it for them to help me?  It was them who brought me back to light even when I thought that not even an Army Of Men couldn’t even bring back from the darkest thoughts of my mind. They had that Piece of Cake, that slice of life that I had been looking for.

They became my Sweeper of my house and my tears. I would ask them why they would say. They would say it was because of “Something in Your Smile” and would leave it at that for Now and Hereafter. We would sit By the Fire and I would wonder if we were just Cruising through this or what? They would say “Baby, this ain’t Love it’s something on whole new level like Life on Mars.”

I believed them and I became Careless and didn’t see the signs of how Pretty Ugly your attitude started to become towards me. I had never had someone like you before so I assumed this was normal for all like you. I didn’t know How to Tango with you in this one particular situation and I left that day with quite a Whopper on my face. 

That night in the Stormy Weather that's when I realized of How Far you could go. 

I left and fell back to my old self the I was before I met you. My family took me back with open arms letting them Fill Me Up with love and comfort all that they had forgotten to give to me. They helped me come to the conclusion of how Not in Love I was with you. 

I would break down and call them off saying “I want to Know why” But I moved on and got better I said”Oh Well” to the past and welcomed my new future and I feel like I’m Livin It Peach now. 

Delany is either a normie or bad at casting value judgments on characters. He clearly had strong opinions about the writer character, Ernest Newboy, so much so that he thought they would be self-explanatory to the reader.

I still don't know what Delany's problem was with Newboy. What, that his prose was purple? Newboy appeared to be honest and was an interesting middleman who offered clearer commentary than other characters. Was he supposed to be annoying because he was vain and frequently full of hot air? I mean, so is the Kid, and by extension the author, both without realizing it, which is worse.

Maybe I was supposed to be hit harder by Newboy's presence and mien. But it is really hard to annoy me now. People can rush up at me screaming and I'm like lol hi sounds like u have a problem that isn't mine. Maybe this is a me thing.

The fact that this book frequently makes me wonder if my problems with it are a difference of personality and preference is itself fascinating. Usually I understand why a famous book is famous. I understand why Delany is well regarded but also I think I hate him.

Btw there was a new sex scene between characters who I only saw a couple of times before. I could not buy any kind of attraction between them. Also it was sex between a 27-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy, and it was honest enough that you could see why it's a bad idea for an adult to fuck someone that young. Also now I'm cursed and that sex scene lives in my brain. Thanks for nothing Samuel R. Delany

Delany cannot write a sex scene. Or rather, he can, as long as you want it to be the most viscerally disgusting series of physical explanations imaginable. Half of the time it's described as technically as an IKEA instruction manual. Here's how parts slot together, or don't, and here's where there's temperature changes and wetness occurs and the skin texture and tendons tensing and bone bumping. All he'd have to add is a thermometer and a few scientific measurements and he could write a paper. I've never seen blowjobs described so dispassionately in my life. Frequently the sex is so unappealing that I don't understand why anyone wants it to begin with.

All the characters are filthy all the time so that doesn't help.

This very well may be the intention, of course—the reduction of human experience to mechanical action—if there were not also elements like hatred-of-Newboy. There are many places in-text where it is simply supposed that you understand where the writer is coming from, all of which I stumble through utterly baffled.

Oddly, I could believe the sex scenes and some of the other unmotivated social interactions if I took another step back and watched them play out without being able to look inside of the Kid. But if I did, I would clearly be assuming motivations that the author doesn't employ.

Does the author think sexual desire is so innately desirable that he doesn't see any reason to sell it? Because this book is the kind you can smell. And maybe that's some people's kink but eghhh.

I'm starting to wonder if this is a difference in personhood. I have always felt like I've had to explain myself to the nth degree to be understood by other people. Is this just what happens to your perspective when you're cocky and rich and neurotypical and a man?