If you take a flash picture at night with an entirely empty background, the foreground object will seem to be floating in inky blackness. In this picture, a bearded iris is in the foreground but all the background stuff is so far off that the flash doesn’t reach it.

I would have tried a few other things to see if I could get a better example, but it was cold and I got bored quickly. Maybe some other time. What would be a good object to study?

December 16, 2020 — Irvine, California

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December is make or break for us. A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. A strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength. A weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

The December 31 deadline is closing in fast. To reach our $400,000 goal, we need readers who’ve never given before to join the ranks of MoJo donors. And we need our steadfast supporters to give again today—any amount.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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