Bufnagle: the Podcast

Once numbering billions of trees in eastern North America, the once-dominant American Chestnut has been nearly destroyed in the last 120 years by a blight.  The stems and branches die off, leaving only the roots that regenerate new shoots that climb into the sky but then also fall victim to the blight before they can generate seeds.

A number of scientists and foundations and wood-workers and all manner of citizens, however, has been working since the blight was first discovered in 1904 to develop a way to restore this once mighty tree to its rightful place in the woods of eastern North America.

This week's episode provides an update on the story of the American Chestnut, presenting the current state of things, as presented in a recent article by Susan Charkes in River Towns magazine.

#bufnagle #evolution #americanchestnut #blight #genetics #resistance #rivertowns #americanchestnutfoundation #americanchestnutcooperatorsfoundation

Return of the American Chestnut Tree story:
https://rivertownsmagazine.com/stories/the-return-of-the-american-chestnut-tree,146154

River Towns Magazine:
https://rivertownsmagazine.com

American Chestnut Foundation:
https://tacf.org

American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation:
https://www.accf-online.org

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

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As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™ and Big Brain Smart Head™ Bob Luzenski joins Rafe to discuss the very recent (yesterday!) Starship Superheavy flight, this one complete with an achieved orbit, payload deployment, de-orbiting, and an entertaining splashdown.

Bob discusses the nuances of the launch and all the parts of the flight and tells us why this one is important in the grand scheme of the current state of space technology.

We also get an update on the topics that were discussed in Episode 304: crash landings on the moon, satellite rescues, and Blue Origins launchpad reconstruction.

#bufnagle #space #startship #starlink #satellites #orbitalmechanics #reachingforthestars

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Rafe discusses equinoxes and how they are defined, specifically, how to determine when they occur and how long they last.

The conclusion: you can legitimately celebrate the 2026 Autumnal Equinox for over 32 hours, enough to take two days off from work!

#bufnagle #vacationdays #equinox #astronomy #algebra #timezones #autumn

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Rafe talks about a lesson learned during an ordinary baptism during an ordinary mass on an ordinary Sunday at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in downtown Indianapolis.

Sacraments and their Rites offer us a portal to another realm.  They are transformational events fills with sign and wonder, things earthly and things of heaven.

#baptism #sacraments #basilica #indianapolis #grace #rejectSatanandallhisworks #priestprophetandking #christiandignity #keepthelightburning #bufnagle 

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Rafe discusses cabinet furniture design, joinery tricks, and what planing wood by hand can teach you.

#bufnagle #furnituredesign #cabinetry #woodglue #drawborejoints #tenons #mortises #DIY #patience #handplane #jointer #seekthegood 

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Following last week's Ozymandias poem and the lesson concerning avoiding hubris, Rafe walks the Buf listeners through John Henry Cardinal Newman's 1827 poem "Snapdragon".

In it we learn to bloom where you are planted, to be gracious for the opportunity to reveal the glory of God, even if you are just a small flower serendipitously planted in a crack in a stone wall.  Greatness can be obtained there if you seek to display the Unseen, the Will of God.

#cardinalnewman #bufnagle #snapdragon #oxford #poetry #humility #stonewall #WillofGod #Ozymandias #flowers

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Rafe takes the Buf listeners through Shelley's poem Ozymandias, a sonnet that lays out the futility of seeking worldly gain.  Today's glory will be tomorrow's despair; even great civilizations fall, eventually we are left simply with "Boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away."

Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

So, what to do?  Well, Jesus says in Matthew's gospel to lay up for yourself treasures in heaven; that is all that matters.  Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all you need will be granted to you.

#bufnagle #shelley #ozymandias #moses #passover #poetry #hubris #ramsesII #tencommandments #exodus #statues #sculpture #frowning #wrinkledlip #sneerofcoldcommand #sportsmanship #sermononthemount #lilliesofthefield

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Rafe discusses two entries from the book "The Gospel In Dostoyevsky", a collection of entries from Dostoyevsky's works that touch on gospel themes.  The two entries were both from The Brothers Karamazov, a Russian classic.

One story retells a Russian folk story of an evil woman whose only good deed in life was once giving an onion to a beggar.  The other story tells of Alyosha's dreaming vision of the Wedding Feast at Cana; in the vision he sees his recently-departed mentor at the feast who tells him that heaven is indeed a feast that constantly grows as Christ is constantly calling in more and more celebrants, sometimes even those who have only given a beggar an onion.

These two stories (and many others) reveal the rich gospel underpinnings of many of Dostoyevsky's great works.

#bufnagle #dostoyevsky #brotherskaramazov #onion #fokltale #beggar #heavenandhell #weddingfeastatcana #christ #waterandwine #miracles #visionsofheaven #cometothefeast 

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™ and Big Brain Smart Head™ Bob Luzenski joins Rafe to discuss the current state of things rocket-related.  Bob updates us on what happens (and is happening) to various jettisoned rockets parts, how to build a spacecraft to rescue another spacecraft and how to do it when the first try is met with some issues, and, of course, where we are with regard to the big rockets that are in development.

#space #bufnagle #rockets #projectpluto #spacejunk #collisionswiththemoon #satelliterescue #swiftsatellite #blueorigin #spacex #bigbrainsmarthead #americasfavoriterocketscientist 

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

In this Buf Classic Re-drop from 2023, Harry and Rafe discuss Millet's 1859 painting The Angelus, a copy of which fortuitously once hung in Rafe's elementary school library.

Of course, this podcast being what it is, the conversation wends its way through all sorts of topics (other paintings,  Daylight Saving Time, drone delivery vehicles, Calvin and Hobbes, etc) but generally addresses the subject of placing art in locations where it can provide opportunities for learning and models for behavior, especially for children.

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!