Magazine Posts

...The risk of hitting deer on rural roads and highways is rising, especially around dusk and during a full moon. Deer cause over 1 million motor vehicle accidents in the U.S. each year, resulting in more than US$1 billion in property damage. Read full article

Photo courtesy of Calob Photography

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

When does the line between night and day become vertical? Today. Today is an equinox on planet Earth, a time of year when day and night are most nearly equal. At an equinox, the Earth's terminator -- the dividing line between day and night -- becomes vertical and connects the north and south poles. The featured time-lapse video demonstrates this by displaying an entire year on planet Earth in twelve seconds. From geosynchronous orbit, the Meteosat 9 satellite recorded these infrared images of the Earth every day at the same local time. The video started at the September 2010 equinox with the terminator line being vertical. As the Earth revolved around the Sun, the terminator was seen to tilt in a way that provides less daily sunlight to the northern hemisphere, causing winter in the north. As the year progressed, the March 2011 equinox arrived halfway through the video, followed by the terminator tilting the other way, causing winter in the southern hemisphere -- and summer in the north. The captured year ends again with the September equinox, concluding another of billions of trips the Earth has taken -- and will take -- around the Sun.

"Some people try to make every hour of leisure perfect, while others hate taking time off altogether. Have we forgotten how to enjoy free time?" Read more

I feel as if my soul,
inside this shell of a man,
is being pulled from my being
and will be my life's end.

One,
is a number,
also a sound,
which ends with
the final countdown.

Two,
also a number
of one plus one,
which totals two
when you are done.

Three,
also a number,
important to me.
The month
of your birth,
in our history.

Four,
a number,
broad in scope,
remember now,
don't be a dope.

Five ,
is a number.
Cinco to you.
A fifth
when a quart
won't do.

Six,
a number
of a five and a one.
A half a dozen,
isn't this fun?

Seven,
a number,
total days in
a week.
A lucky number
is what we want.

Eight,
a number,
a doubling of four,
eighter from Decatur,
I'll say no more.

Nine,
also a number,
which will shine,
an upside down
six, most of the time.

Ten,
is a number,
the top
of the chain.
An end
to this
writing.
Say you're
a Ten,
then walk away.

A recollection
from a long ago time,
living in Riverton Heights.
Riding our bicycles,
on Hiway 99
to Angle Lake,
for an afternoon swim.
Pedaling past Bow Lake,
more of a pond,
there wasn't an
airport, not on that day.
If you go to the Hilton,
go to the back,
Bow Lake is there
and that is a fact.

I've travelled the World over,
always hoping to be,
locked in your arms,
and alone with thee.

The music was loud,
so obnoxious here.
What did you say?
It's noisy and I can't hear.

Colette Maze, now 107, began playing the piano at age 5 and defied the social conventions of her day to embrace it as a profession rather than as a pastime. Her son first arranged for her performances to be recorded when she was in her 90s. She has just released her sixth album. Read full article

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Is this giant orange ball about to roll down that tree-lined hill? No, because the giant orange ball is actually the Sun. Our Solar System's central star was captured rising beyond a hill on Earth twelve days ago complete with a delightfully detailed foreground. The Sun's disk showed five sunspots, quite a lot considering that during the solar minimum in solar activity of the past few years, most days showed no spots. A close look at the hill -- Sierra del Cid in Perter, Spain -- reveals not only silhouetted pine trees, but silhouetted people -- by coincidence three brothers of the photographer. The trees and brothers were about 3.5-kilometers away during the morning of the well-planned, single-exposure image. A dark filter muted the usually brilliant Sun and brought up great detail on the lower sunspots. Within a few minutes, the Sun rose far above the hill, while within a week, the sunspots rotated around the Sun, out of view. The captured scene, however, is now frozen in time for all to enjoy.

Photo by Jordi Coy

https://vladimirkostka.com/

Gosh, my writing,
looks sort of weird.
Is that a sanity issue
or a rumor I've heard?