Happy aphelion to all.

For that subset of you also celebrating Independence day with fireworks (be safe): The Awesome Physics in a Simple Sparkler

(I do have a nit with this: At the end Rhett claims that a gas won’t emit blackbody radiation, but that big ol’ ball o’ gas we orbit around emits a pretty good blackbody spectrum. Get enough atoms together, and you’ll get a blackbody spectrum)