19th st dreams

a noisy helicopter



click to enlarge

Carmina Burana

An ex-Latin scholar nods her head to the beat as the poetry and music flow...

comet Lulin

Photo by amateur astronomer Jack Newton from his backyard observatory in Arizona, taken from a 14-inch telescope.

A comet with quite the story.

It came from the outskirts of the solar system, 18 trillion miles away, and once it's made the journey around the sun, Lulin will gain enough speed to escape the solar system.

While all the planets and most of the other objects in the solar system circle the sun counterclockwise, Lulin circles clockwise. Thanks to an optical illusion, from Earth it appears as if the comet's tail is in the front as the comet approaches Earth and the sun. It still has many of its original gases -- gases that are usually stripped away as comets near the sun.

In 1996, a 7-year-old boy in China bent over the eyepiece of a small telescope and saw something that would change his life--a comet of flamboyant beauty, bright and puffy with an active tail. At first he thought he himself had discovered it, but no, he learned, two men named "Hale" and "Bopp" had beat him to it. Mastering his disappointment, young Quanzhi Ye resolved to find his own comet one day.

And one day, he did.

Fast forward to a summer afternoon in July 2007. Ye, now 19 years old and a student of meteorology at China's Sun Yat-sen University, bent over his desk to stare at a black-and-white star field. The photo was taken nights before by Taiwanese astronomer Chi Sheng Lin on "sky patrol" at the Lulin Observatory. Ye's finger moved from point to point--and stopped. One of the stars was not a star, it was a comet, and this time Ye saw it first.

from NASA

Best chance to see it is with binoculars or telescope, away from City lights, on Monday, before dawn in the southern sky. But, if you just look up, you never know what you may see.

more on this beauty! apod link 02.21.09 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

color of moods

ColorForward 2010 identifies 20 colors – five colors for each of the four societal and lifestyle trends.

Some examples:

The color palette for Reinventing Happiness features a warm dark-chocolate brown called “Goldiva” and a rich, creamy raspberry red called “Satisfaction.” It also includes a soft greyish blue named “Balance,” a pearly champagne color called “Cashmere,” along with a light turquoise blue, dubbed “Spring Fling,” which is reminiscent of shallow Caribbean waters. People will respond to these colors, the Clariant team feels, because they express harmony and balance, combining a feeling of luxury with the warmth and safety of a cocoon.


The color choices for Age Shock, on the other hand, are bright and fresh, with a hip and trendy appeal. They break new ground even as they hark back to the tie-dyed fabrics of the 1960s. This palette includes an energetic fuchsia called “Transition,” as well as a softer red-shaded lilac called “Elixir.” “Forever Young” is a pink orange that expresses youthful vitality, while “Jeanealogy” blue connects to the jeans culture. “I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat” is a saturated yellow that is both bright and energetic and, at the same time, soft and childlike.


The color “Jungle Passion,” is a deep crimson red produced from natural pigments derived from plants., “Barefoot in the Park,” a relaxing, organic green.
  
(Text colors limited by my imagination and/or bloggers text colors.)

ban bans

I read today that Arkansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas ban Atheists from serving in government.  Apparently that includes serving on a jury, or any public service.

This is allegedly current despite a Supreme Court ruling from 1961 that it is illegal to do so.  Not that something being illegal ever stopped anyone.

Tolerance, acceptance, detachment...I guess it's a learning process.  How would I know?

brook zen

allusion

memories of summer days

thoughts of hope arise

without times' hazy glaze

as from a child's eyes

time so wondrous it will raise
a brow crinkled with surprise
i turn to share amazed

and find love is in disguise

(poem edit 04.23.07)

a hint of Spring

60 degrees, in town - 46 at the beach

ice - an incredible blue

swans

like the tree shadow

Now

Everything led up to this point.
There really didn't seem to be a plan,
one thing just led to another.
Or, when the plans were followed,
the desired results ended up being not so desirable.

Or the plan changed when real life happened.
Change is good to prevent boredom,
but can be upsetting to the comfort of routine,
even when the routines are not exactly comfortable.

What calls now?
The sea, desert, mountains, forests?
A tent, trailer, cottage, or a high-rise?
The Brothers Grimm, The Grim Reaper?
Death as a companion is a good teacher, a master.
How should matter and energy behave, indeed.

under

liquid memories
frozen blue in reflection

breath vaporized

Advice from a Tree

Advice from a Tree

By Ilan Shamir

Dear Friend,

Stand Tall and Proud
Sink your roots deeply into the Earth
Reflect the light of a greater source
Think long term
Go out on a limb
Remember your place among all living beings
Embrace with joy the changing seasons
For each yields its own abundance
The Energy and Birth of Spring
The Growth and Contentment of Summer
The Wisdom to let go of leaves in the Fall
The Rest and Quiet Renewal of Winter

Feel the wind and the sun
And delight in their presence
Look up at the moon that shines down upon you
And the mystery of the stars at night.
Seek nourishment from the good things in life
Simple pleasures
Earth, fresh air, light

Be content with your natural beauty
Drink plenty of water
Let your limbs sway and dance in the breezes
Be flexible
Remember your roots

Enjoy the view!

Alfred Lord Tennyson

JCD at http://nightdeposits.blogspot.com/ made me wonder where the phrase "so many men/women/books/etc., so little time" originated.  This was not an easy search, but I think I may have found it, as well as some others by Tennyson.  

So many worlds, so much to do,
So little done, such things to be,
How know I what had need of thee,
For thou wert strong as thou wert true? 
 
Don't walk behind me; I may not lead.
Don't walk in front of me;
I may not follow.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.

I hold it true, whatever befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

Men may rise on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things.

There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.

I am a part of all that I have met.

No rock so hard but that a little wave may beat admission in a thousand years.

Shape your heart to front the hour, but dream not that the hours will last.

Theirs is not to make reply: 
Theirs is not to reason why: 
Theirs is but to do and die.

My strength has the strength of ten because my heart is pure.

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

free rice

it is tired of being held captive

http://www.freerice.com/

such an easy, fun way to make a small difference

skepticism

Quotes from an interview with B. Allan Wallace on finding connections between Buddhism and science.


What is it about the brain -- this mass of chemicals and electromagnetic fields -- that enables it to generate any state of subjective experience?

In Buddhism, the very root of suffering and all our mental distress -- what Buddhists call mental afflictions -- is ignorance. The path to liberation, or enlightenment, is knowledge. It's knowing reality as it is. So despite many differences in methodology, both science and Buddhism are after knowledge of the natural world. But what defines the natural world? In modern science, the natural world is often equated with the physical world, and mental phenomena and subjective experiences are regarded as emergent phenomena or simply functions of the brain. But there are many other domains of reality that the physical instruments of science have not yet been able to detect.

According to quantum field theory, string theory and quantum cosmology -- cutting-edge fields of 21st century physics -- matter itself is not reducible to matter. And Richard Feynman, the great Nobel laureate in physics, commented very emphatically, "We don't know what energy is." He said it's not stuff out there that has a specific location. It's more like a mathematical abstraction. So matter has been reduced to formations of space. Energy is configurations of space. Space itself is rather mysterious.

http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/11/27/wallace/index.html

Movie Waking Life: http://www.dharmaflix.com/wiki/Waking_Life

facades

gravity always works as far as I know
yet when anything falls it's always a surprise

so are sun and clouds

blue skies and grey

and motorboats biding time

in white and shadow

nostalgia

What foods are selling well in America?
Big Macs,
Campbell’s soup,
Hershey’s chocolate
and



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