Magazine Posts

Winter winds blow,
icey cold.
Leave are flying,
most gold.

Here am I,
now alone,
no one to visit,
or phone.

When the Sun,
at last,
daylights going,
was fast.

It is when,
I contemplate,
about getting old.
Too late.

When few becomes many,
in this crazy land, ours,
while sadness runs rampant,
like fallen stars.

So many residents,
here, in this place,
of memory care issues,
a lot or a trace.

Varied reactions, unique
to individuals, of whom we speak.
Everyone is different, what I see,
the way Nature intended
and the way it will be.

Quote from Maggie Tokuda-Hall from her article giving her perspective on Gaza as a Jewish, Japanese American. (November  2023) Click below to read her essay at Densho or to read a related article by Naomi Ishisaka at The Seattle Times. 
Maggie Tokuda-Hall at Densho ➜        Naomi Ishisaka at The Seattle Times ➜

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The surface of our Sun is constantly changing. Some years it is quiet, showing relatively few sunspots and active regions. Other years it is churning, showing many sunspots and throwing frequent Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and flares. Reacting to magnetism, our Sun's surface goes through periods of relative calm, called Solar Minimum and relative unrest, called Solar Maximum, every 11 years. The featured video shows on the left a month in late 2019 when the Sun was near Solar Minimum, while on the right a month in 2014 when near Solar Maximum. The video was taken by NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory in far ultraviolet light. Our Sun is progressing again toward Solar Maximum in 2025, but displaying even now a surface with a surprisingly high amount of activity. Night Sky Network webinar: APOD editor to review coolest space images of 2023

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

When did you first learn to identify this group of stars? Although they are familiar to many people around the world, different cultures have associated this asterism with different icons and folklore. Known in the USA as the Big Dipper, the stars are part of a constellation designated by the International Astronomical Union in 1922 as the Great Bear (Ursa Major). The recognized star names of these stars are (left to right) Alkaid, Mizar/Alcor, Alioth, Megrez, Phecda, Merak, and Dubhe. Of course, stars in any given constellation are unlikely to be physically related. But surprisingly, most of the Big Dipper stars do seem to be headed in the same direction as they plough through space, a property they share with other stars spread out over an even larger area across the sky. Their measured common motion suggests that they all belong to a loose, nearby star cluster, thought to be on average only about 75 light-years away and up to 30 light-years across. The cluster is more properly known as the Ursa Major Moving Group. The featured image captured the iconic stars in 2017 above Pyramid Mountain in Alberta, Canada. Night Sky Network webinar: APOD editor to review coolest space images of 2023

Photo by Steve Cullen

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 - To Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 - To Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Aleksey Yekimov
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023 - To Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 - To Jon FosseThe Nobel Peace Prize 2023 - To Narges Mohammadi
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - To Claudia Goldin

More at The Nobel Organization ➜

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Near dawn on November 19 the Pleiades stood in still dark skies over the French Pyrenees. But just before sunrise a serendipitous moment was captured in this single 3 second exposure; a bright meteor streak appeared to pierce the heart of the galactic star cluster. From the camera's perspective, star cluster and meteor were poised directly above the mountain top observatory on the Pic du Midi de Bigorre. And though astronomers might consider the Pleiades to be relatively close by, the grain of dust vaporizing as it plowed through planet Earth's upper atmosphere actually missed the cluster's tight grouping of young stars by about 400 light-years. While recording a night sky timelapse series, the camera and telephoto lens were fixed to a tripod on the Tour-de-France-cycled slopes of the Col du Tourmalet about 5 kilometers from the Pic du Midi.

Photo by Jean-Francois Graffand

"An investigation found criminal gangs using sham bank accounts and secret online marketplaces to steal from almost anyone – and little being done to combat the fraud"  More at The Conversation ➜

Some days, your best
laid plans, go awry.
Don't delay,
change your journey.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

On December 4, periodic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks shared this telescopic field of view with Vega, alpha star of the northern constellation Lyra. Fifth brightest star in planet Earth's night, Vega is some 25 light-years distant while the much fainter comet was about 21 light-minutes away. In recent months, outbursts have caused dramatic increases in brightness for Pons-Brooks though. Nicknamed the Devil Comet for its hornlike appearance, fans of interstellar spaceflight have also suggested the distorted shape of this comet's large coma looks like the Millenium Falcon. A Halley-type comet, 12P/Pons-Brooks last visited the inner Solar System in 1954. Its next perihelion passage or closest approach to the Sun will be April 21, 2024. That's just two weeks after the April 8 total solar eclipse path crosses North America. But, highly inclined to the Solar System's ecliptic plane, the orbit of periodic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks will never cross the orbit of planet Earth.

Photo by Dan Bartlett

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

On December 5, 2022, a camera on board the uncrewed Orion spacecraft captured this view as Orion approached its return powered flyby of the Moon. Beyond one of Orion's extended solar arrays lies dark, smooth, terrain along the western edge of the Oceanus Procellarum. Prominent on the lunar nearside Oceanus Procellarum, the Ocean of Storms, is the largest of the Moon's lava-flooded maria. The lunar terminator, shadow line between lunar night and day, runs along the left of this frame. The 41 kilometer diameter crater Marius is top center, with ray crater Kepler peeking in at the edge, just right of the solar array wing. Kepler's bright rays extend to the north and west, reaching the dark-floored Marius. By December 11, 2022 the Orion spacecraft had reached its home world. The historic Artemis 1 mission ended with Orion's successful splashdown in planet Earth's water-flooded Pacific Ocean.