Magazine Posts

Smokey blossoms,
pinkish hue,
seeing this tree,
thinking of you.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

In this Hubble Space Telescope image the bright, spiky stars lie in the foreground toward the heroic northern constellation Perseus and well within our own Milky Way galaxy. In sharp focus beyond is UGC 2885, a giant spiral galaxy about 232 million light-years distant. Some 800,000 light-years across compared to the Milky Way's diameter of 100,000 light-years or so, it has around 1 trillion stars. That's about 10 times as many stars as the Milky Way. Part of an investigation to understand how galaxies can grow to such enormous sizes, UGC 2885 was also part of An Interesting Voyage and astronomer Vera Rubin's pioneering study of the rotation of spiral galaxies. Her work was the first to convincingly demonstrate the dominating presence of dark matter in our universe.

"Maybe you’re not like me — and geez, I hope you’re not — but I’m at that juncture in life where reminiscing is a better pastime than daydreaming about the future. I know, I know, Be Here Now, practice Mindfulness, yeah, yeah, but I’m 72 years old and there’s a lot more in the rearview than what’s up ahead and okay, I realize I need to keep my eye on the road for what’s coming up. Nevertheless"… Read more

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The largest volcano in our Solar System is on Mars. Although three times higher than Earth's Mount Everest, Olympus Mons will not be difficult for humans to climb because of the volcano's shallow slopes and Mars' low gravity. Covering an area greater than the entire Hawaiian volcano chain, the slopes of Olympus Mons typically rise only a few degrees at a time. Olympus Mons is an immense shield volcano, built long ago by fluid lava. A relatively static surface crust allowed it to build up over time. Its last eruption is thought to have been about 25 million years ago. The featured image was taken by the European Space Agency's robotic Mars Express spacecraft currently orbiting the Red Planet. Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (post 1995)

The unusual clanging,
of the Chapel bell.
Ringing out the message
about the path of living well.

Long were the years, before,
well over 6 decades.
of a beautiful life,
in a penny arcade.

We lived well, for those years,
Two children, yes, we did.
Granddaughters, two,
twenty-two skidoo. Oh, you kid.

If life has beaten you down,
if all the breaks, go against you,
you must stand up, once more.
Be assertive, would be what to do.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What causes this unusual curving structure near the center of our Galaxy? The long parallel rays slanting across the top of the featured radio image are known collectively as the Galactic Center Radio Arc and point out from the Galactic plane. The Radio Arc is connected to the Galactic Center by strange curving filaments known as the Arches. The bright radio structure at the bottom right surrounds a black hole at the Galactic Center and is known as Sagittarius A*. One origin hypothesis holds that the Radio Arc and the Arches have their geometry because they contain hot plasma flowing along lines of a constant magnetic field. Images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory appear to show this plasma colliding with a nearby cloud of cold gas.

Should I leave?
Should I go?
At this moment
I do not know.

No name exists,
it isn't so,
for me to leave,
when she says no.

Do you care,
one little bit?
Are you now,
the biggest Twit?

She will not change,
so you must.
Ridding your mind,
of her and you.

I can't, I say,
but I must pursue,
a single life,
of one not two.

What games we play
in Life's charade.
Acting lessons were
for the daily parade.

Acts we play,
characters we use,
to fool others
as we peruse.

those actions we
every day, choose,
to be the life actor,
we wish to use.

Is it a sham,
playing this game
of interaction with
others we can name.

Running hard,
through the trees.
A graveled path,
plunging down
the hill,
towards the lake,
with waters, still.

Games we played,
when we were young.
We played hard,
while running free,
no video games,
no TV.

Remembering, my first,
County Fair.
Music was playing,
loud, everywhere.
The aromas of food cooking,
a scent filled air.
Pronto Pups,
Elephant Ears,
Onions grilling,
Corn on the cob
steaming, lathered
in butter.
Great memories,
stimulate the senses.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

It was noticed hundreds of years ago by stargazers who could not understand its unusual shape. It looked like a ring on the sky. Except for the rings of Saturn, the Ring Nebula (M57) may be the most famous celestial circle. We now know what it is, and that its iconic shape is due to our lucky perspective. The recent mapping of the expanding nebula's 3-D structure, based in part on this clear Hubble image,indicates that the nebula is a relatively dense, donut-like ring wrapped around the middle of an (American) football-shaped cloud of glowing gas. Our view from planet Earth looks down the long axis of the football, face-on to the ring. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from the dying, once sun-like star, now a tiny pinprick of light seen at the nebula's center. Intense ultraviolet light from the hot central star ionizes atoms in the gas. The Ring Nebula is about one light-year across and 2,500 light-years away.