Having made known my plans to leave academia, I've been asked by a few people whether I dislike science, or my field in particular, and whether I regret having gone to graduate school, or determining to go for the PhD. While I think it's fairly common to feel a certain ambivalence towards many things at the end of this process, I do not regret the friends made, the learning, or the experiences I've had, and shared. I have simply decided that there are things I would like to do which would not be possible or as effectively achieved within the framework of academia.

I certainly do not feel this degree was a `waste of time' in any way. Regardless of whether the flashy piece of paper and extra letters near my name help me in any way, the tools and methods and ways of looking at problems I've learned in the past nine years are universal. Physics has at its heart the paradigm of problem solving...and there are always problems to solve.

It was not till I really started thinking about it that I realized how many thanks I could potentially pass around. There are the obvious people, the big ones, but a thesis is a lot of words and images, and there's a lot of work in and behind it. Everything I create and do and even think is the end result of experiences and influences, knowledge and wisdom, built up in sometimes odd or surprising ways, from myriad sources. Some of the people I would like to mention cannot know that I did so, and others would not care if they did know; yet, I feel motivated to make the list fairly exhaustive...

Thank you to my mother, for raising me to be such a nerd, and then putting up with the results. To all of my family all over the world, for their love and support. And to Belle von Woo for keeping me sane and warm, and tolerating my shenanigans.

To Jim LaBelle for his enthusiasm and expertise, and for not giving up on me. Well-met to my colleagues at StingeCo: Chris, Nick, Matt, Xi, Howard, and Spencer—not only would science have been more difficult without you, it also wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining.

My gratitude for help and advice to David McGaw and Mike Trimpi, Bill Hamblen, Richard Brittain, Susan Schwarz, and Terry Kovacs.

Much thanks to Doug Rowland for NASA GSRP mentoring, to Steve Kaeppler for camaraderie and assistance, and to everyone at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, for making our science things go into space, as well as for being pretty awesome to work with. Thanks also to the support staff at South Pole Station, for endless help with our recalcitrant equipment.

Cheers to all of my Dartmouth friends and cohorts—if suffering shared is suffering halved, then this all can't have been that big a deal...right? Right. Shout-outs to Jess, Jerod, and Julie, Thiago, Nic, Mingyun, and Idan—alas, Ben, we hardly knew ye. Thanks to Damian for dinners and dramatics, and to all my wine and cheese connoisseurs. Thanks to Greg Feiden, for many things, including making this Latex template.

Much gratitude to my committee members, for reading this brick, and then making it better. Thanks to all the faculty in the Dartmouth Physics & Astronomy department, for enlightening classes and discussions.

To Franklin & Marshall faculty and friends, especially Ken Krebs and Beth Praton for being amazing undergrad research advisors. To Tim, Brian, Becky, Rory, Elizabeth, and Zach, for making long, homework-filled nights seem short. To the Fry Guy, for being pretty damned awesome.

And of course, thanks to my HACC Lancaster friends, faculty, and coworkers—every journey starts somewhere, and though it was `only' a quarter of my time in college, my experiences at the Ha'vahd of Pennsylvania still influence everything I do and create—even this thesis.

Special thanks to Stephan Williams, for enlightenment and laughter, for being a dear and lasting friend, and for supporting dastardly schemes.

Long live The Herodotus Society!

Love to Gingerbread, for listening when I fall apart—to Arch, for that thing, and Cinna, for words and snacks. To Exto, Jackie, HMC, and Archer, for amusement and consternation, and Ara, for a cheesesteak. To Xaq, for her hard work and nerdery. Hi, Jesin! Thanks to Bolty, for J.

To Beatrix and Butterflies, for focus, and to the Pink One, for having my back.
One needs one's totems, after all...

For being both the oddest and best mixture I've known of thoughtful discussion, absurdity, and amusement, thanks to the Jury, ya crazy sack of lemurs. And of course, my gratitude to He of Many Names, for making it happen, and for fueling the wild-and-nearly-baseless-speculation part of my brain.

To the East Horse, and Scrivener, for endless drama. To Sanguinius, for breadcrumbs, and Dromicosuchus, for a revelation. To Faust, for being a fan, and the unforeseen consequences thereof.

To Quinn, Sigmund, Miko, Isis, Osiris, Faust, Mayet, and Florian, for faithful service.

To Reiska, for never losing touch.

To Linus Torvalds, and Steve Jobs, for operational diversity.

To Notch, for infinity.

To Nintendo, Square, Cyan, and Valve; Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Davey Wreden, and Jonathan Blow—for interactive art.

To Takashi Miike, for The Happiness of the Katakuris.

To Gene Roddenberry, for vision.

To Jamie W. Zawinski and Laura Lemay, for early influences.

To Adam and Jeff, Vir, Thethi, Sev, Erin, and Deth, for personalities.

To Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Steven Brust, Bill Watterson, Jon Rosenberg, and Pete Abrams, for good humor.

To Terry Brooks, Celia S. Friedman, Iain M. Banks, Mercedes Lackey, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, Karl Schroeder, Anne McCaffrey, and C. S. Lewis—for worlds.

To Mrs. Beal, for recognition, support, and immersion.

To Bob Ross and Julia Child, for being modern sages.

...and to the Sun and Moon, for life and inspiration.