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30 September 2009

Cheeky Quote Day over at The Social Poets 30 Sept 2009



This lampshade chef had a very long day at the hotel kitchen... - Photo by Tracy Hunter @ Flickr

From Denny: Had some fun today and put up a post chock full of funny cooking quotes! When it comes to cooking there are a variety of opinions. Here's a "chef's table" sampling of the cheeky quote menu:

* In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport. - Julia Child

* Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne

* The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. - Calvin Trillin

* When men reach their sixties and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right on cooking. - Gail Sheehy

* Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. - G. K. Chesterson (1874-1936)

* Recipe For Chili: Put a pot of chili on the stove to simmer. Let it simmer. Meanwhile, broil a good steak. Eat the steak. Let the chili simmer. Ignore it. - Allan Shivers, former governor of Texas

* I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead - not sick, not wounded - dead. - Woody Allen

* Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat. - Alex Levine

* In Mexico we have a word for sushi: bait. - Jose Simon

For more of Cheeky Quote Day, go here! :)

29 September 2009

Video: Dreams Explained and What We Can Learn From Them

From Denny: Did you know that you can dream up to 20 dreams in one night? Dream analysis has long been the subject of fascination for the psychology world as well as the general public. These ladies discuss the most common dreams and to remember that dreams are metaphors in your life.

What's fun is to keep a notebook by your bed and when you wake up in the middle of the night, record as much as you can remember. Even when a dream is vivid and you think you will remember it easily a few hours later, you often don't. I've written some of my best poetry and other writings like this in the middle of the night, sketching down some brief thoughts or insights.

They also talk about how you can train yourself to remember your dreams. True. They also said you can go back into a dream that isn't going well and rewrite it to a better scenario. Also true. You can even incubate a dream to help you solve a problem in your waking life. True. I've done them all. Why waste a nightly resource of eight hours working for you to help you have a better life?


28 September 2009

Video: Children Who Are Spanked Have Lower IQs

From Denny: This is an interesting study to back up other studies about the brain and development. From other posts I've done on the brain and children - and what is not mentioned here - is that when experiencing stress the brain is bathed in stress chemicals. Those stress chemicals inhibit the brain from learning. Abused children experience long term stress, long term batheing the brain in stress chemicals and so do not easily experience success in the world as adults.


27 September 2009

3 Videos: Free Health Clinics Serving Middle Class America Now, Republicans Party of No Answers

From Denny: This is a disturbing report. As foolish Republican strategists, conservative media and everyday citizen political hacks continue to fight the President on health care reform because their incomes are paid for by the insurance industry, middle class people with jobs have to resort to free health clinics for basic needs.

Free clinics were once the last resort of the poorest of the poor in America. Today, people call their local fire department and 911 calls for free help as much as overwhelming the emergency rooms of hospitals. Now the new trend is free clinics. Has America become a third world nation? We are a nation in distress and Big Business and the Repubican Party doesn't give a damn.

Americans are dropping their health insurance premiums in droves. No one can afford the $15,000 a year premiums just to own basic coverage. That doesn't even address catastrophic coverage if they were to experience a cancer diagnosis.

Nor does the health insurance industry any longer guarantee, even if rated up to higher premiums, that a person can get coverage because of pre-existing conditions, some as easy to treat as Type 2 Diabetes.

Doctors and nurses are already overworked across America from a stressed out medical system. Yet, here they are, a number of hardy loving souls, volunteering their "free" time to help offer health care to folks who can no longer afford health care premiums. Those $100,000 a year jobs are now only paying $30,000. With a 70% cut in pay across America (because of Big Business still continuing to outsource our jobs as no one has stopped the so-called "work visa" program), no one can any longer afford what they used to pay, yet the insurance industry keeps rocking along gouging the American consumer.



26 September 2009

Music Video: Thats What Love is About, Band from Utah

From Denny: Friend Mystic Dave - all the way across the country out in Utah - filmed a favorite band singing a really mellow song to end your day on a good note - That's What Love is About. For more of his music and video choices, go here.

25 September 2009

Video: On Board the Artic Sunrise with Greenpeace

From Denny: Check out the Greenpeace's boat the Artic Sunrise. Those are some seriously cold waters with all those icebergs! The Artic Sunrise is on a three month tour around Greenland to publicize climate change and house scientists conducting research. Can you imagine living for months on this cold vessel so remote from civilization?

24 September 2009

Astronomy Video: NASA Gives Us View of Saturns Rings Up Close

From Denny: From the photographing spacecraft Cassini comes these awesome photos of Saturn's rings. Almost looks like an animation!

23 September 2009

3 Videos: Atlanta Badly Flooded, Damage at $250 million

From Denny: Having lived in Atlanta, I knew full well this could happen one day. What this video does not say is that most of the suburban areas and high end shopping centers on the west side of Atlanta are built upon, you guessed it, a flood plain!

That's why a lot of those flooded buildings were not insured as they could not get insurance or the cost was prohibitive. At the time I lived there the flood plain of the Atlanta area had not flooded in 100 years. The builders and business people were confident it would never happen. Mother Nature had other plans.

This was 21 September when only 20 inches of rain had fallen:



This was filmed on 22 September:



This was when 50 inches of rain had fallen by 23 September:



Today, as I write this post it has been raining all day. The weather systems in this part of America starts the rain in Houston, comes east to southern Louisiana and then moves on east on to Atlanta, Georgia. We may be seeing some more videos of this terrible excessive flooding in Atlanta because it's been raining here all week.

Cheeky Quote Day at The Social Poets! 23 Sept 2009



From Denny: Make sure you collect your work week laughs of funny quotes over at The Social Poets! I've been wrestling with my Twitter account for several months now and it's been slowing down my daily posting on time. Along the way of building a new account I've found a lot of funny quotes on Twitter to give you some grins! For your dose of cheeky quotes, go here.

Photo by I'm Fantastic @ flickr

22 September 2009

3 Funny Quotes About Human Nature



Photo by snuzzy @ flickr

From Denny: While I was setting up a new account on Twitter now called DennyLyon7 (the old one - warriorlight - got messed up from putting a badge of support on my avatar.

Note to self: Never put a badge of support on your avatar ever again. Write this 1,000 times on the blackboard or digital equivalent thereof. It was a lemonade badge to support kids with cancer. No good deed goes unpunished. :)

So, while I was laughing at myself (and groaning about all the tedious tech work for the past week this has required) I thought I'd fish around for some funny quotes about human nature so you could laugh with me! Even the dog is laughing...

Quotes

* Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, a sense of humor to console him for what he is. - Oscar Wilde

* All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it. - H. L. Mencken

And my absolute favorite:

* Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century. - Dame Edna Everage

21 September 2009

Video: Greenlands Ice Melt to Create Colossal Oceans Rise Worldwide

From Denny: Great. Here we go again with the Doomsday reports. This one is trumpeting that if the ice on Greenland melts at a rapid rate we will see oceans rising at a colossol rate the world over.

Well, for the past 30 years this scientist has been studying the local ice, gasses and sediment trapped in the ice from the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompei. Much of the ice he studies is snow that fell over 60,000 years ago! His studies have taught him how the Earth's climate has changed over a long period of time.

Greenland's ice has gone through dramatic change in the past decade. Today the ice is 4500 feet shorter and a lot thinner. Clearly, the times they are a changing. All right, everyone, let's starting ordering the moving vans. All together now: moving to higher ground! (just like our ancestors probably did...)

20 September 2009

Video: Fun Campy Video Version of Song 'Do You Love Me' From Dirty Dancing Movie

From Denny: This is pretty funny, a campy little video with an easy rock song to enjoy. I was looking at Patrick Swayze dance videos, none of which could be embedded, but ran across this video using one of the Dirty Dancing songs "Do You Love Me?! (Now that I can Dance)" crossed with a music video visual. It's a bit odd and enjoyable. You go, girl, Xena warrior! :)

18 September 2009

Do You Know What a Dangerous 'Internal Wave' is in the Air or the Ocean?



From Denny: This was new to me. What the heck is an 'internal wave' and why is it important to know about this phenomenon? It's one of those hidden dangers the public isn't aware of when they fly or take an ocean cruise.

These things can get huge, like 1,000 kilometers wide. They can have a tremendous impact upon our Earth's climate and are prevalent in both the oceans and the atmosphere. What they can adversely affect are oil drilling rigs out in the oceans, undersea communications cables, submarines and aircraft in flight.

A recent example of sudden danger that went undetected from radar or a talented pilot was what happened to a Canadian flight in clear skies last year. For absolutely no apparent reason the plane plummeted 2,000 feet in a mere 15 seconds and then an additional 2,000 feet before the pilot was able to right the plane and level off. Passengers and crew were terrified with 10 passengers requiring hospital treatment for injuries.

For the past five years there's been a mechanical engineering professor over at MIT that has been studying this scary phenomenon that can sneak up on us and cause acute damage quickly. This professor, Thomas Peacock, has been figuring out how internal waves form and propagate. For the high brow scientist crowd you can find his latest papers published in a few months in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

What do his papers cover? The first one discusses the forms of internal waves that are generated in the oceans. The second one talks about a mystery in a channel of the Hawaiian Islands. Tied to the tides there is something that occurs twice a day here on a regular basis: a focused beam of internal waves. What's peculiar is that the internal wave occurs in the channel yet vanishes as it progresses near the ocean surface.

Researchers want to understand these internal waves to help create better models for climate change. They believe that these internal waves in the ocean are important to the mixing process of carrying warmer surface water to the deep and bringing colder water to the surface. Internal waves are one of the ocean mechanisms that strongly impact Earth's climate. This oceanic mixing rate is the least understood and if studied further could go a long way to creating more accurate climate projections.

So, what is it that bedevils these researchers about internal waves? They have come a long way toward understanding how internal waves are produced. Their next step is figuring out how their energy dissipates. Right now they can account for 20% of the wave "break" but the remaining 80% is still a mystery.

Because there are practical applications for his research, Thomas Peacock has drawn some heavy weight investors, providing funding to aid him in his study: the National Science Foundation, the MIT France Program and the Office of Naval Research.

How do internal waves form in the ocean? One way is when tidal currents pass over a submerged ocean ridge that acts as an obstacle, setting up a disturbance. Powerful storms like hurricanes can produce them too by displacing the ocean surface.

How do internal waves form in the atmosphere? Thunderstorms passing over a mountain range can cause them as in the case of the Canadian flight that was terrified in the example stated above. Those internal waves are label 'mountain waves.'

To help us understand this phenomena better the Discovery Channel has been working on a film with professor Thomas Peacock. They have been filming in Western Australia and the South China Sea. Guess what they will be chasing in the hopes they can film it? It's called a Morning Glory cloud which is a long, narrow cylindrical cloud formation that can span up to hundreds of miles.

Peacock and the film crew hope to 'surf' that cloud in a glider since this is the time of year most conducive to this kind of cloud phenomenon. Like Peacock says, "It's a challenge, to try to be there when it happens," he says. "But it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to surf the Morning Glory." Sounds like an extreme sport!

17 September 2009

Astronomy: Jupiters Moon Creates Great Light Show



Photo of Jupiter's south pole, Grodent/Hubble Space Telescope Team; HST program GO-10862, May 2007

From Denny: Ganymede is Jupiter's largest moon, also the only one with serious gravitational pull. Scientists have analyzed and studied thousands of images from the Hubble Telescope to figure out that it's partly the magnetic field from the moon Ganymede creating the spectacular auroras seen at Jupiter’s poles. You can imagine just how long it has taken scientists to analyze all this data to gain this new information.

These bright spots seen at the poles are known as "auroral footprints." Don't you just love the names these guys come up with? Io is another moon of Jupiter's and is volcanically active. Along with Ganymede, Io too also interacts with Jupiter's plasma as they both orbit around the planet, generating those auroral footprints. Up until Hubble returned the latest images scientist were unable to determine just why those spectacular light shows were created or how big was Ganymede's footprint.

Today researchers have measured the exact size of the Ganymede footprint to realize it is not being projected by Jupiter because it's just too big. What its size does correspond with is the diameter of Ganymede's protective magnetic field.

What about the moon Io's footprint? Researchers measured that too because its footprint is created by its active volcanoes ejecting charged particles.



Photo of auroral footprint - Grodent/Hubble Space Telescope Team; HST Program GO-10140, PI: Denis Grodent (ESA Univeristy of Liege), filter F125LP, exposure time 110 sec, April 2005

"Each of these auroral structures is telling an ongoing story about vast transfers of energy taking place far away from the planet,” astrophysicist Denis Grodent of the University of Liege in Belgium said in a press release. “By analyzing the exact locations of these features and how their shape and brightness changes as Io and Gaynmede move in their orbit around Jupiter, we have created the most detailed picture to date of how Jupiter and these moons are electromagnetically interconnected.” Grodent presented his research today in Germany at the European Planetary Science Congress.

Grodent's and his team's accomplishments:

They linked the footprint of Ganymede to its magnetic field.

They discovered something unexpected about the moon's aurora: there were periodic variations in its brightness. They measured this occurence on three different timescales.

They are speculating that each variation may be reflecting a specific interaction between Jupiter's plasma and Ganymede's magnetic field. They admit they still don't know exactly what is causing the interactions.

Well, that was fun to learn the why and how of Jupiter's light show! Thanks for visiting!

16 September 2009

Photo: Weird Transparent See Thru Live 'Glass' Frog



From Denny: Someone put this up on Digg and it sure is strangely beautiful too. This "glass" frog is from Venezuela. You can see the frog's eggs inside its body and its internal organs as it is photographed from underneath a piece of glass it is sitting on. When animals get photographed like this and then sent all over social media sites, don't you ever sometimes wonder, "So, what does the frog have to say about her 15 minutes of fame?" Does she ever complain this photo is an invasion of her privacy and just a little too much TMI? :)

If you want to go directly to the link for a more detailed large photo of better resolution, go here.

Astronomy: The Tarantula Nebula



From Denny: These astronomy photos of the day from NASA are really something! I'm bug-eyed from having to reconstruct my Twitter account that who knows how it got messed up and I need a mini-vacation. Looking at astronomy photos really changes your focus and gives you something to wonder about.

First we have the Cosmic Hand Nebula known as the Hand of God and now we are starring in the universe the cosmic arachnid! Really does make a person wonder about just who is living in space sometimes... The Tarantula Nebula is over 1,000 light years across in diameter and is part of a large star-forming region. It's located in our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud and lies just left of center in this photo.

The Tarantula's designation is NGC 2070. What is energizing the nebula glow? Try intense radiation, stellar winds and supernova shocks from the central cluster of young massive stars, cataloged as R136. They all come together to create the spidery filaments that resemble a cosmic spider.

What is surrounding the cosmic spider? Those bubble-shaped clouds, filaments and young star clusters all comprise the violent star-forming region. All this is located in the constellation Dorado.

Ah, I feel better now. How about you? :)

Cheeky Quote Day at The Social Poets! 16 September 2009



Photo by *L*u*z*a* @ flickr

From Denny: Here's an idea of what Cheeky Quote Day is like over at The Social Poets, enjoy!

***

Since so much is up in the air with the economy worldwide, and my audience is an international one (BTW, thank you everyone for your great support!), I thought I’d put up some quotes about retirement. After all, we all are dreaming about that “one day” of what we would like to do without anyone telling us it can’t be done!

While I was driving all day Monday out of town on sales calls I saw a lot of travel trailers and motor homes towing SUVs. I sure wondered where they were going and what they were going to do when they got there. I’ve been seeing those happy people motoring down the road for several months now and it sure got my curiosity up and turned my mind to the subject of retirement.

The first comedian from the past that came to mind concerning retirement was George Burns. He was quite the character and well loved in America. As he aged he made a new career out of standing on stage with an unlit cigar, a sly grin, and cracked jokes in his understated manner until his late nineties. He was in show business all his life beginning in Vaudeville.

George Burns isn’t the only comedian to craft a whole routine around the subject of retirement. The following are all kinds of perspectives about what it is like to retire from your job – or what you thought it might be like to retire! :) Get a grin and think good thoughts for your future.

Quotes

Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples. - George Burns

The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before the boss does. – Anonymous

Retirement: It's nice to get out of the rat race, but you have to learn to get along with less cheese. - Gene Perret

Retirement is wonderful. It's doing nothing without worrying about getting caught at it. - Gene Perret

When you retire, you switch bosses - from the one who hired you to the one who married you. - Gene Perret

I enjoy waking up and not having to go to work. So I do it three or four times a day. - Gene Perret

I'm now as free as the breeze - with roughly the same income. - Gene Perret

The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off. - Abe Lemons

The money's no better in retirement but the hours are! - Anonymous

When a man retires, his wife gets twice the husband but only half the income. - Chi Chi Rodriguez

A retired husband is often a wife's full-time job. - Ella Harris

I've been attending lots of seminars in my retirement. They're called naps. - Merri Brownworth

I'm retired - goodbye tension, hello pension! – Anonymous

Retirement itself is the best gift. No gold watch could ever top it. - Abigail Charleson

Retirement: World's longest coffee break. – Anonymous

Retirement has been a discovery of beauty for me. I never had the time before to notice the beauty of my grandkids, my wife, the tree outside my very own front door. And, the beauty of time itself. - Hartman Jule

Middle age is when work is a lot less fun and fun is a lot more work. – Anonymous

Life begins at retirement. – Anonymous

The challenge of retirement is how to spend time without spending money. – Anonymous

If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles. - Doug Larson

There are some who start their retirement long before they stop working. - Robert Half

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. - J. Lubbock

When you retire, think and act as if you were still working; when you're still working, think and act a bit as if you were already retired. – Anonymous

The question isn't at what age I want to retire, it's at what income. - George Foreman, prize fighter

I'm not just retiring from the company, I'm also retiring from my stress, my commute, my alarm clock, and my iron. - Hartman Jule

Golf is played by twenty million mature American men whose wives think they are out having fun. - Jim Bishop

Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness. - William Wordsworth

Retirement means no pressure, no stress, no heartache... unless you play golf. - Gene Perret

In my retirement I go for a short swim at least once or twice every day. It's either that or buy a new golf ball. - Gene Perret

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. - Phyllis Diller, comedian

If you drink, don't drive. Don't even putt. - Dean Martin, actor, comedian, singer

If you are going to throw a club, it is important to throw it ahead of you, down the fairway, so you don't have to waste energy going back to pick it up. - Tommy Bolt

Retirement kills more people than hard work ever did. - Malcolm Forbes

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save. - Will Rogers, Autobiography, 1949

When men reach their sixties and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right on cooking. - Gail Sheehy

There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want. - Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, cartoonist

A gold watch is the most appropriate gift for retirement, as its recipients have given up so many of their golden hours in a lifetime of service. - Harry Mahtar

Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering. - Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A.A. Milne

Retire from work, but not from life. - M.K. Soni

Retirement is like a long vacation in Las Vegas. The goal is to enjoy it the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money. - Jonathan Clements

Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life. - Herbert Asquith

Retirement is the ugliest word in the language. - Ernest Hemingway, writer

First you forget names; then you forget faces; then you forget to zip up your fly; and then you forget to unzip your fly. - Branch Rickey

You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely. - Anonymous

In retirement, every day is Boss Day and every day is Employee Appreciation Day. – Anonymous

Retirement: That's when you return from work one day and say, "Hi, Honey, I'm home - forever." - Gene Perret

Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow. - Douglas Pagels, These Are the Gifts I'd Like to Give to You

*** Comedy writer Gene Perret has been writing television comedy since the 1960’s. For more about him, go here.

Have a great work week, everyone! Keep your head down and your attitude looking up! You never know when you will get to retire and add some cheeky quotes of your own to the funny category of life…

15 September 2009

News and Dance Videos: Actor Patrick Swayze Passes Away

From Denny: Well, we all knew it was coming as pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms of cancer. It was a miracle he lived as long as he did after diagnosis. Most patients don't make it past three months; Swayze soldiered on for another two years which is quite amazing.





I always enjoyed his dancing and he was a great guy, loved by his fellow actors as much as by the public. Here are some of the headlines about him:

Film heartthrob Patrick Swayze dies of cancer at 57

Appreciation: Patrick Swayze's Sexy Film Career

'The View' talks Swayze, Swift and Gosselin

Photo gallery of Swayze by Life Magazine

Jennifer Grey: I Remember Being in Patrick Swayze's Arms for the movie Dirty Dancing



To watch the rest of the group dance, of course, the profit makers disabled all the Swayze dance videos, so go to this YouTube link.

Patrick Swayze danced his way through life, into our hearts, made us laugh, gave us a lot of joy and danced on into Heaven. Rest in Peace and our prayers are with your wife and family...

Astronomy: Hand of God Nebula



From Denny: This cosmic hand sure is a curiosity! The photo was captured by Nasa's Chandra observatory, circling 360 miles above our Earth. The task of this orbiting observatory is to take photos of events in our universe like the remnants of exploding stars.

This Hand of God Nebula is quite spectacular to view. It is also 17,000 lights years away from us and was produced by the pulsar B1509.

The outstretched fingers on the hand were actually produced by the spinning of a neutron star. The neutron star is known as a pulsar. This pulsar is buried deep inside the fist area and as it rotates it releases energy to create this look.

Get this: the pulsar itself is only 12 miles in diameter yet it produces the nebula to stretch across 150 light years of space!

What's a neutron star? These beauties are created when regular stars run out of fuel, collapsing. NASA seems to think that this nebula is rotating around at seven times a second.

Yeah, so explain those golden red lights. The lights are produced by a neighboring gas cloud. The gas cloud was energized by the pulsar's wind of electrons and ions spit out.

And the colors of this image represent what exactly? They represent different energy intensities: blue lights are the areas of highest energy X-rays, followed by the green and then the red.

This cosmic hand gives new meaning to the old saying, "God will get you for that!" :)

13 September 2009

Beautiful Night Art Photo and Reflection on Life Quote



Quote

* Listen to your life. All moments are key moments. - Anonymous

12 September 2009

Video: Singer Bill Withers Pranks USC Football Team

From Denny: This is from ESPN of all places. When do I watch sports? Rarely. But, as I was crossing the room in the house my husband had on ESPN and they were profiling the Southern California team, the Trojans, and a favorite musician was there talking to them: Bill Withers. It's also inspirational.

Turns out he was invited there by the head coach to pull a prank on the team. It's really cute and funny. As Bill Withers said to the team, "You've been punked!" And they all cracked up laughing.

Beautiful Angel Photo, Quote, Healing Poem Link



Psalm 91:11 - And He will give His Angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways.

Yesterday I wrote:

From Denny: Since this particular poem was a hard write, and I'm a bit emotionally tired and saturated to say the least, here's the link to my latest poem over at The Social Poets, called Rock, My Children. Found some awesome art photos over at flickr to illustrate it!

Rock, My Children is about how to deal with loss. Never planned on writing about these experiences but lately there has been so much news about people encountering terrible loss in their lives. And, here it is the 911 anniversary, a tough day for so many folks all over the world.

When I was fishing around for inspiration I found Robin's blog Naked in Eden and some of those word phrases sprinkled throughout one of her posts just struck me right (like "abyss of emotion") and before I knew it the poem was forming in my head. Went to flickr first before writing it down as the poem was still a lot of raw emotions swirling and I needed some visual anchors.

Rock, My Children deals with loss, disappointment, and looking to the future for understanding Life's Plan. When you ask the question, you receive the answer though it may take fifteen years like it did in my case.

Received an incredibly awesome comment from fellow spiritual blogger Robin from Naked in Eden after I sent her the link to show her how she had inspired me to write the poem. Just skip on past the poem to read what she has to say it's that great! I've been grinning silly all day - and behind in my posting - since she posted that loving comment...

Rock, My Children, go here.

11 September 2009

Astronomy: Carina Stellar Nursery Nebula



From Denny: "Where stars are born" takes on new meaning when talking about the cosmic universe! The pillar is actually composed of gases and star dust. This nebula is one happening place for it is a tempestuous environment.

How far away is this star birthing nebula? About 7,500 light years and located in the southern constellation of Carina.

This newest image of this nebula gives a crisper look at the details not previously seen yet are now visible from near-infrared light.

How is this pillar being sculpted? It's a violent sculpting environment of scorching radiation and fast winds which are streams of charged particles from these stars. The result is that new stars form within this new artwork.

Check out what is going on at the top of the pillar structure: streamers of gas and dust flowing off. Very cool photos, NASA, thanks!

10 September 2009

Funny Video: Bride Laughing Loud at the Altar During Vows

From Denny: Just found this hilarious true video of a bride laughing so hard at the altar she almost fell over when they were trying to say their vows. The laughter is contagious! Laughter really IS the best medicine!

Astronomy: Butterfly Nebula



From Denny: This week, Sept. 9, NASA's been releasing new Hubble Telescope photos taken since those billion dollar repairs of the Telescope in May. The new photos are sharper of awesomely beautiful nebulas and galaxies in our universe, some with halo effects of light.

The Butterfly Nebula is known by other names such as the Bug Nebula and proper - and boring - catalogue name of NGC 6302. The Butterfly Nebula is in our own Milky Way Galaxy! It's approximately about 3,800 light years away in the constellation of Scorpius.

How did this nebula get that cool looking glowing effect on its outer edges? Photoshop, cosmic level? No, it's caused by a glowing gas that's being expelled out over 2,200 years! Quite the spectacular view from our perspective.

The butterfly shape stretches out over two light years. How do you envision the distance of two light years? It's about half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.

09 September 2009

Its Cheeky Quote Day at The Social Poets! 9 Sept 2009



From Denny: It's Cheeky Quote Day over at The Social Poets and today I'm featuring another early American entertainer who was a big hit during the dreary Depression years: actress Mae West.

The woman was known for being a bit saucy and downright risque for her time period. She was a child actress in Vaudeville who grew up to write her own comedic material and star in many a Hollywood movie during the 1930's.

To read more about her and enjoy many more rib-tickling quotes from her and a couple of short videos from her movies, go check out Cheeky Quote Day, here.

3 Quotes From Mae West

* I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.

* Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.

* Don't keep a man guessing too long - he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.

For Cheeky Quote Day featuring Mae West, go here.

Weird News Video: Middle Aged Guy Puts Elderly Parents for Sale on Craigslist

From Denny: Uh... OK, what does this story have to do with science? Uh... nothing. Just thought you might get a chuckle today!

There's nothing like putting your parents up for sale to get the conversation started like this guy did! This news story sounds like a tutorial on how to do it. What started as a fun idea snowballed into a sensation. I can only imagine what his parents told their son off camera ... :)

08 September 2009

Top 10 Most Remote Extreme Observatories in the World



Photo of the South Pole Telescope at sunset by NSF (U.S. National Science Foundation)

From Denny: Brrrrr! Check out this article on the Top 10 Extreme Observatories in the world. Some of these stargazing facilities are truly one of a kind places around the globe. Remember, this is the Year of Astronomy.

This is the South Pole Telescope on the Antarctic Plateau where this place is so barren it sits atop a two mile thick glacier supporting little life.

What is their job down here in cold land? They are measuring cosmic background radiation that's been traveling for billions of years through space and is now bombarding Earth all over the place.

So, why here for this job? This barren place is perfect because you get a clear sky with very little, sometimes, no, moisture. That moisture can absorb the light.

What that amounts to is that this special place is like a perfect window out into space with a clear view without the expense and bother of having to leave the planet to get the same results. Not bad! Just don't go putting up a row of fast food chains, guys, as we all know that civilization lights are bad for stargazing...



Photo of Svalbard EISCAT system (European Incoherent Scatter)

Remember hearing about the Doomsday Seed Vault located in Norway in case the world ended and we had to start over again? Yep, located in one inhospitable place in the Arctic Ocean! There are more polar bears than human in this frigid place, about 2100 humans to 2500 polar bears if you want the count. They study the auroral ionosphere here since those famous romantic northern lights are best visible in far northern locations. These scientists spend all their time observing the aurora borealis (northern lights) as they best reveal the interactions of the sun and Earth relationship in the atmosphere.

There are some really cool places and studies going on all over this planet! Let's see, there's Puerto Rico, Hawaii (volcano), Chile (desert), Japan (underground), Siberia (Lake Baikal, the largest fresh water lake in the world)and much more. Check out the How Stuff Works article from Discovery for the other observatories, go here.

07 September 2009

Video: Watching the Skies for UFOs

From Denny: NBC's The Today Show did this interesting segment about UFO's. Of course, it covers from the whacky cultural fun to the serious endeavors as documented by world governments.

As a kid growing up in the intelligence community I remember all the adults talking about this subject endlessly: what they had heard from pilots' eye witness accounts - as well as the mathematicians and scientists speculating as to the percentages of other intelligent life. I guess at some point in human history we will have to deal with the meeting of alien species.

Of course, if you take a look at ancient cave drawings, Egyptian hieroglyphs and the mountain top airstrip like earth drawings in Peru it does give you pause, wondering if humanity has already met and friended people from other worlds.

Rest assured, the SETI project set up by co-founder of Microsoft, is still listening to the universe for signs that company might be coming...

06 September 2009

Awww News Video: Check Out This Snow Leopard Cub

From Denny: Check out this new story depicting a snow leopard cub. This little animal is quite the beauty! Never seen a snow leopard and the story gives you some interesting facts too.

05 September 2009

California Wildfires Photos: Frightening and from Space too



From Denny: Check out this link to the British news article of the California wildfires.

The devastation is unbelievable for the land and the people. Just the other day I was reading an account from a psychologist that was posted on Digg about how they felt about this experience. Clearly, the psychologist was overwhelmed and stressed, talking about how this event has taken over their lives locally, fading into the dim background all other news in the country or the world.

Of course, in the back of my mind is the Hurricane Katrina experience after the storm, in my area of the country. I know how difficult it is going to be for the survivors of this California wildfire event to rebuild their lives. The insurance companies will not pay them the full amount for what their premiums have paid. The insurance companies will also drag their feet - for years - to finally pay up - and then only when the customer hires a lawyer to pursue them. All the while the customer may be basically homeless unless they have a friend or relative who can help.

Hopefully, with a responsible person in the White House, Obama may choose to slam the insurance companies into doing responsible and moral business practices. Baring that, the whole country needs to demand legislation from Congress with some strong teeth in it to curb bad dogs big business into submission.

The British news article has photos taken from aerial views as well as from space showing the fires raging and the aftermath of when the fire has passed. Incredible photos that are quite impressive, especially from space, go here.

Photo by mbtrama @ flickr

04 September 2009

Libations Friday! over at The Social Poets



From Denny: It's Libations Friday! over at The Social Poets! Featured is a new poem that is rich with wonderful art photos: Soul Journey. If you are a blogger or writer you can place these wonderful photos in your posts and articles as they are from flickr's Creative Commons.

To read Soul Journey and enjoy its wonderful art photos, go here.

Photo by alicepopkorn @ flickr

03 September 2009

Video: Smart Thinking Parrot

From Denny: Until I moved into this recent house near what we locally call a lake (but is really a large drainage pond in low-lying Louisiana to handle flooding - great place for wildlife!) did I discover birds and how smart some of them really are! Ran across this video over at Digg yesterday and found it incredible this parrot is a thinker and able to think logically. Take a look.

Blogger Followers and Google Connect Gadgets Erasing People



From Denny: I've contacted Blogger several times and no response for the past two almost three months this has been going on. Apparently, there are hundreds of bloggers on blogspot with the same issue and yet there are others who have no problems.

Thinking it might be the placement of ads on the sidebar, I moved them to other places on the blog. When that didn't work, I just removed many ads. That didn't work either. Tried other bright ideas and none of them worked.

In total frustration, just removed the offending gadgets that are not working right. Can I tell you that I'm not happy with Blogger and Google right now over what should be a simple fix? :) It's rude to allow the erasing of other people like they don't exist. People want that connection to you as a blogger and the free marketing feature of their sites connected too.

What's the temporary solution until these disappearing faces on the gadgets get resolved? The next best solution is that even if you are not a blogger you can have your face and site featured on my other gadgets that do seem to have their act together: MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog and FuelMyBlog. I'll try and get more featured gadgets by joining some more blog directories. Then there's Twitter Counter too for advancing your Twitter followers' count and marketing your site.

Thanks for your support, everyone, and sorry for this inconvenience.

02 September 2009

Cheeky Quote Day! at The Social Poets 2 Sept 2009



From Denny: It's Cheeky Quote Day! over at The Social Poets! To enjoy some really great funny quotes and a short bio on one of America's funniest men in history, Will Rogers, go here.

3 Videos: How Its Made - Coffee, Car Clunkers Recycled, and Back to School Pencils

From Denny: Watched this yesterday and, as usual, was mesmerized with how they come up with how to mass produce items.

Since it's back to school time and we just finished up the popular program "Cash for Clunkers" to boost the auto industry sales, these videos were perfect companions to the latest news!

Of course, coffee videos are always interesting and this incredibly detailed process of how our coffee comes to us is nothing short of amazing.

How do people dream up and craft these machines? You really wonder how long it takes to perfect the machinery or fix it when something breaks down.





01 September 2009

5 Funny Quotes That Spit on Death



From Denny: Death is a subject few people in America want to deal with and yet it happens to us all - well, almost all, maybe some of us are part of the Highlander's Immortal Clan. Time will tell on that one! :)

Death is like this celebrity no one wants to meet. (Hmmm... sounds like one of those quotable quotes your own spirit speaks out loud when you just know something is really true...)

This past week the news coverage has been heavy on the passing of a political American icon, Senator Ted Kennedy. He was fully prepared for death as he had his faith and relationship with God. People who are spiritually connected do well when their time comes.

People who are more connected only to religion and only on the mental, not heart, level don't do well. The heart really is the center of our spirits. Yet, it's amazing how easily we can hide the truth from ourselves - until a significant event like the passing of a celebrity or a beloved family member opens the door to our heart to take some inventory.

This has been a rough week of spiritual shake-up and awakening for millions of people in America. People are examining their own lives as to their current path and how they would like to alter their course to something far more positive. Observing Ted Kennedy's life in review from the shameful to the triumphant gives us all pause to say, "What's next?"

I thought folks might like a little emotional cool down from all the intensity this past week. Included today are some funny witty quotes about how others perceived Death, that unwelcome odious guy no one wants to invite to their house. To me, there is nothing better than putting your face into the wind and pushing forward into the scary unknown, only to discover incredible new wonders and be delightfully amazed at newly found spiritual awareness. It also helps to laugh a lot along the way.

Quotes

* Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it. - W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, 1874 - 1965

* Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. - Susan Ertz, short story writer and novelist, 1894 - 1985

* I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. - Mark Twain, writer and American humorist, 1835 - 1910

* I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure. - Clarence Darrow, American lawyer, 1857 - 1938

* Some men are alive simply because it is against the law to kill them. - Edward W. Howe, American writer
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