Contributor Posts

Half-truths, Half-lies,
Does not a whole make.
Telling the truth, all of the time,
is good for all our sake.

Latent dreams,
drifting past.
So many dreams,
will never last.

Dreams, stuck
in your head,
looking forward,
but dreams are dead.

When dreams,
shared by two,
now one is gone.
What must I do?

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

A broad expanse of glowing gas and dust presents a bird-like visage to astronomers from planet Earth, suggesting its popular moniker: the Seagull Nebula. This portrait of the cosmic bird covers a 2.5-degree wide swath across the plane of the Milky Way, near the direction of Sirius, alpha star of the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major). Of course, the region includes objects with other catalog designations: notably NGC 2327, a compact, dusty emission and reflection nebula with an embedded massive star that forms the bird's head. Likely part of a larger shell structure swept up by successive supernova explosions, the broad Seagull Nebula is cataloged as Sh2-296 and IC 2177. The prominent bluish arc below and right of center is a bow shock from runaway star FN Canis Majoris. Dominated by the reddish glow of atomic hydrogen, this complex of gas and dust clouds with other stars of the Canis Majoris OB1 association spans over 200 light-years at the Seagull Nebula's estimated 3,800 light-year distance. Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator

Photo by Gianni Lacroce

Josep Borrell remarks at the United Nations, N.Y: 

“But this is a humanitarian crisis, which is not a natural disaster. It’s not a flood. It’s not an earthquake. It’s man-made. And when we look for alternative ways of providing support, by sea or by air, we have to remind that we have to do it because the natural way of providing support, through roads, is being closed, artificially closed, and starvation is being used as a war arm. And when we condemn this happening in Ukraine, we have to use the same words for what’s happening in Gaza.”

"We are now facing a population fighting for their own survival,"  

A Spanish ship has left Cyprus for Gaza carrying urgently needed food supplies but the UN says this cannot replace the delivery of aid by land.

There is nothing, in this world,
about being bad or being good,
unless it's taken for granted,
simply misunderstood.

The dreams we had,
have mostly gone away.
Enjoy your life in the moment.
Stop! Make time for play.

My Soul, is shredded,
my heart took a break,
for all you have given me,
my heart is not awake.

My heart flutters,
when I hear my name,
your voice calling me,
yet here I remain.

Alone, in a crowd,
a new life to start,
as I try to find,
what's left in my heart.

A most difficult time,
in this old life of mine,
as I move forward,
encouraged by a glass of wine.

Recovery is slow,
as I have been told,
but emotions are there,
with memories of old.

Gazing out the window,
Looking out the door.
Waiting for you to appear,
you aren't here anymore.

What will my life be,
if I no longer, have you?
I'm lost at this moment,
what do I do?

The growth of Data Centers is taxing our power systems. Now we are learning that they are also using our scared water resources. More at Noema ➜

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's that over the horizon? What may look like a strangely nearby galaxy is actually a normal rocket's exhaust plume -- but unusually backlit. Although the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA, its burned propellant was visible over a much wider area, with the featured photograph being taken from Akureyri, Iceland. The huge spaceship was lifted off a week ago, and the resulting spectacle was captured soon afterward with a single 10-second smartphone exposure, before it quickly dissipated. Like noctilucent clouds, the plume's brightness is caused by the Twilight Effect, where an object is high enough to be illuminated by the twilight Sun, even when the observer on the ground experiences the darkness of night. The spiral shape is likely caused by high winds pushing the expelled gas into the shape of a corkscrew, which, when seen along the trajectory, looks like a spiral. Stars and faint green and red aurora appear in the background of this extraordinary image.

Photo by Seung Hye Yang

"In early 2015, the 10,000-entry Oxford children’s dictionary dropped around fifty words related to nature — words like fern, willow, and starling — in favor of terms like broadband and cut and paste, some of the world’s most prominent authors composed an open letter of protest and alarm at this impoverishment of children’s vocabulary and its consequent diminishment of children’s belonging to and with the natural world. Among them was one of the great nature writers of our time: Robert Macfarlane....Troubled by this loss of vital and vitalizing language, MacFarlane teamed up with illustrator and children’s book author Jackie Morris, who had reached out to him to write an introduction for a sort of “wild dictionary” she wanted to create as a counterpoint to Oxford’s erasure. Instead, Macfarlane envisioned something greater. The Lost Words: A Spell Book (public library) was born" . Read more at the Marginalian