Tom Sadowski

Physicist, academic, home brewer, and routinely confused for the actor who spells his name the wrong way.

[James Lindsay, anti-Communist @ConceptualJames]

You've probably heard this before, but it's always worth repeating. Something extremely cool about the "Star-spangled Banner," the American national anthem, is that it asks a question, and it's the question at the heart of everything in the American worldview.

"Oh, say, can you see
By the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight's last gleaming..."

So the anthem begins with a question and a scene. One man, a patriot, is asking another man, another patriot, "can you see it?" at sunrise after a long, dangerous night.

The "it" in question is going to be revealed to be the flag, our "star-spangled banner," which they had last fully recognized and honored as the sun set, daylight failed, and night crept over them the evening before.

Can you see it? Say! Can you see it?!

IS IT STILL THERE?!

"Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming..."

Here we find that the "it" is in fact the flag, our star-spangled banner, and we learn why the question is being asked.

The flag is described as having flown and streamed gallantly over ramparts of war through a perilous fight. All could have been lost. The flag, and even the fledgling country for which it stands, one nation under God and indivisible.

Say! Can you see it? Now that the light is back?

IS IT STILL THERE?!

"--And the rockets' red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there!--"

They could see it through the battle in the light of the rockets and bombs that threatened them, here and there in quick glimpses. But it was still there throughout! But now? At dawn?

Say! Can you see?

IS IT STILL THERE?!

"Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave?"

The urgency is palpable with every refrain. They have to know. It's the first thing they must know as the sun begins to light the sky, even before it rises.

IS IT STILL THERE?!

Say! Say!! Can you see? Can you see it?!

At the heart of every American beats the fundamental truth and reality that what we have here is precious, that it's worth fighting for, to the death if necessary, and that it's fragile. That at any moment it can be lost. That we have to remember to look for it because last night might have been the night in which it failed.

Every day, every year, every generation.

The American fight for freedom, to live in self-governance within ordered liberty, is ongoing and never-ending. The price of the land of the free is that it must be the home of the brave. We have to defend it, defend it, and defend it again, against all enemies foreign and domestic, because what we have is amazing, rare, fragile, and worth every cent of treasure, every drop of blood, and every risk to our sacred honor to protect it.

Our anthem is not a declaration. It is not a proclamation. It is not a statement.

It is a question.

Every time we sing our wholly unique national anthem, we as American ask the question again. IS IT STILL THERE?! Are we still America? Does that star-spangled banner yet wave?

Because it's a question, the answer is not known. It is not a guarantee. It cannot be taken for granted and isn't. And what an honor to ask and take up our part in the story, in the American Experiment, in the greatest country the world has ever known.

For tonight, the last night of our first 250 years, as the sun gave way to twilight's last gleaming and darkness overtook our land once again, the answer was still yes. We can see it even tonight in the red glare of rockets, with small bombs bursting in air, fill the sky with the noble tribute of fireworks once again.

And we all ask ourselves, will it still be flying at dawn?

This is what it means to be an American.

Happy 250th, America! Now for many happy returns!
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Physics In History @PhysInHistory]

I don't know anything, but I do know that everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough.

- R. Feynman

[Mid-Major Madness @mid_madness]

They didn’t listen to the fans

They didn’t ask the coaches.

They shut themselves out to the outside world and voted in a boardroom to make themselves marginally richer at everybody’s behest.

[Mister Hot Balls ☄️☄️ @MisterHotBalls]

Total joke and a complete charade. If football schools can't keep up in spite of their huge financial advantages, they don't deserve to be there.

The first four is a joke as-is. This is even worse.

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

The exact point my heart stopped

[NCAA March Madness @MarchMadnessMBB]

OH MY GOODNESS 😱

UCONN LEADSSSS UNBELIEVABLE

#MarchMadness

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

@jitsu_lastmile Just wondering--does your last-mile delivery plan intentionally include notifying customers that their @HelloFresh and #QuinceClothing packages have been "delivered" at 1 AM to a completely unrelated address on the other side of town (not the one printed on the shipping label), forcing them to drive over and pick it up themselves first thing?

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

@johncraven1 @GovNedLamont @GovKathyHochul In the early 2000, AG Blumenthal had quite the averse opinion about underwater power cables RE navigation & environment. Has anyone ever asked him what changed?

https://t.co/FFQ3UBhB2N

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

@ChrisMartzWX Interesting point about the lotion, general amateur scuba clumsiness was always my supposition. Australia's draconian lockdown on tourism during C19 correlating with Barrier Reef regrowth seems a good data point to study more

https://t.co/7icdzAdMUY

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

@MatthewWielicki @USAID @elonmusk @DOGE @POTUS On balance yes. But it's like losing weight. Make a couple behavioral changes, lose a pound or two, feel better about yourself, then you realize that 20 That's hanging around your midsection might not be so impossible with larger changes

[Norm Macdonald Joke of the Day @NormSNLJokes]

For years, Hillary Rodham Clinton has told people that she was named for the first man to climb Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary. But, as Esquire magazine recently pointed out, Sir Edmund did not climb Mount Everest until 1953, six years after Hillary was born.

However, the First Lady does have a good explanation for the discrepancy: She loves to lie.

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

@Oilfield_Rando Federal government already owns 45% of it

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

@GeorgetownLaw @vicnourse One of the most prestigious law schools in the country and you tweet this? Fucking pathetic

Trying to George Costanza this into reality will not make this anymore true

[Bonchie @bonchieredstate]

The average apartment size is 320 sq/ft in China. The average house size is 640 sq/ft.

American grifters with four-plus-bedroom homes: “Man, China really is so much better!”

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

@Veritas_Voxx @WallStreetApes Being the only good or service where you don't know how much anything costs until after the fact certainly doesn't help.

[BaseballHistoryNut @nut_history]

And this right here folks will forever be my favourite Rickey Henderson story

[Physics Memes @ThePhysicsMemes]

"I'm a particle physicist, not an occultist!" #laboratory

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

@Samantha_SN1 There is nothing worse than a scientist elevated to celebrity status

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

@BasedMikeLee Can we put FEMA on this list. There are people that need to answer for their response, or lack thereof, in NC

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

@bonchieredstate She literally regurgitated her campaign video from September

https://t.co/tBD16uZHeB

[Tom Sadowski @Tom_Sadowski]

@RobertDocBacon @MatthewWielicki Agreed. These back of the envelope calcs inherently cite the SQ-limit as what they achieve across cell life, even though those are only practically demonstrated in lab settings