Magazine Posts

I visited my wife,
yesterday afternoon.
She was in bed,
asleep.

It's confusing.
I'm saddened,
to see her like this.
A picture of what's to come.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Tracking along a narrow path, the shadow of a new moon will race across North, Central, and South America, on October 14. When viewed from the shadow path the apparent size of the lunar disk will not quite completely cover the Sun though. Instead, the moon in silhouette will appear during the minutes of totality surrounded by a fiery ring, an annular solar eclipse more dramatically known as a ring of fire eclipse. This striking time lapse sequence from May of 2012 illustrates the stages of a ring of fire eclipse. From before eclipse start until sunset, they are seen over the iconic buttes of planet Earth's Monument Valley. Remarkably, the October 14 ring of fire eclipse will also be visible over Monument Valley, beginning after sunrise in the eastern sky.

Photo by Tunc Tezel

A long time ago,
in a place far away,
I traveled there
to relax and play.

A wonderous location,
the climate was right.
Entertainment outstanding,
both day and night.

I was relaxing,
no longer in gloom,
when a vision, of loveliness
entered the room.

She was beautiful,
it was plain to see.
I sensed an attraction,
perhaps it was me.

I stopped to talk,
an introduction for me,
she replied, "Move on,
I have no interest in thee."

I love using words,
which comes to my mind.
Thank you, God,
for being this kind.

There may be a proverb,
stuck in my head.
It's best to keep living
and avoid being dead.

When reality comes
to your bed,
as you search for words,
which you have read.

There will be time,
when danger is near,
and your memories,
will disappear.

Talk to me about tomorrow.
Talk to me about today.
Talk to me, about when,
my beloved goes away.

Spare me the platitudes,
those I don't need,
just share in my sorrow,
and provide my soul with feed.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Does this nebula look like the head of a witch? The nebula is known popularly as the Witch Head Nebula because, it is said, the nebula's shape resembles a Halloween-style caricature of a witch's head. Exactly how, though, can be a topic of imaginative speculation. What is clear is that IC 2118 is about 50 light-years across and made of gas and dust that points to -- because it has been partly eroded by -- the nearby star Rigel. One of the brighter stars in the constellation Orion, Rigel lies below the bottom of the featured image. The blue color of the Witch Head Nebula and is caused not only by Rigel's intense blue starlight but because the dust grains scatter blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes Earth's daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers in planet Earth's atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen.

Photo by Abdullah Alharbi

The national debt is composed of distinct types of debt, similar to an individual whose debt may consist of a mortgage, car loan, and credit cards. The different types of debt include non-marketable or marketable securities and whether it is debt held by the public or debt held by the government itself (known as intragovernmental). The U.S. has carried debt since its inception. Debts incurred during the American Revolutionary War amounted to $75 million, primarily borrowed from domestic investors and the French Government for war materials. More at the US Department of the Treasury ➜ 

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Do you see the hourglass shape -- or does it see you? If you can picture it, the rings of MyCn 18 trace the outline of an hourglass -- although one with an unusual eye in its center. Either way, the sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a Sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf. In 1995, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to make a series of images of planetary nebulae, including the one featured here. Pictured, delicate rings of colorful glowing gas (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the hourglass. The unprecedented sharpness of the Hubble images has revealed surprising details of the nebula ejection process that are helping to resolve the outstanding mysteries of the complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulas like MyCn 18.

Photo by NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing & Copyright: Harshwardhan Pathak