Contributor Posts

Easy Salmon Salad! - Poached salmon is gently tossed with celery, red onions, capers, and dill and is perfect for a brunch or light lunch. Click the image below to read Elise Bauer's recipe  at Simply Recipes

The words which I write on paper for you,
can come easy. On other days hard to do.
My mind runs in circles and colors of blue,
Red, Brown, Green and Yellow to name a few..
When I write, I have no thought in mind,
for I write the words; words which will rhyme.
I wish I could tell you my feelings today,
but the words fall to paper; that's where they lay.

Why do we demean a pig,
when we call someone a swine?
Is it because they're so messy
or if they squeal or whine,
or when they care not for others,
who detest how they dine?
I'll have some crackers and cheese
with my fresh glass of red whine.

I must get away soon,
to the Ocean, I go
and smell the salty air,
taking in a new show.
To feel the sand under
my feet, then I'll know,
when I bask in the Sun
and feel the wind blow.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Just after sunset on March 7, a faint band of light still reaches above the western horizon in this serene, rural Illinois, night skyscape. Taken from an old farmstead, the luminous glow is zodiacal light, prominent in the west after sunset during planet Earth's northern hemisphere spring. On that clear evening the band of zodiacal light seems to engulf bright yellowish Mars and the Pleiades star cluster. Their close conjunction is in the starry sky above the old barn's roof. Zodiacal light is sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust particles that lie near the Solar System's ecliptic plane. Of course all the Solar System's planets orbit near the plane of the ecliptic, within the band of zodiacal light. But zodiacal light and Mars may have a deeper connection. A recent analysis of serendipitous detections of interplanetary dust by the Juno spacecraft during its Earth to Jupiter voyage suggest Mars is the likely source of the dust that produces zodiacal light.

Photo by Joshua Rhoades

I feel the dampness as I kneel
down on the grass.
My knees are exposed. When
I work in the flower garden,
I wear jean shorts.
Roots from a large Maple tree,
mar the dark soil.
As I work, planting bulbs
in a hostile piece of dirt,
full of roots and rocks.
Dig down to the level you need
to plant the bulbs, usually 6 inches.
Do not forget to place
the chicken wire, screen
or you will find some bulbs
planted by your squirrel in
other parts of the yard, next Spring.

I reflect on this old life, I've led.
When most of my friends, are now gone,
away from life; to the land of the dead.
This lifetime of mine, has so quickly fled.
Running from my youth; messing with my head.
Go from this land and be very brave,
for your next resting spot, will be in the grave.

To write down the words,
which come to my mind,
in a verse of free prose,
with no sound of rhyme.
For the words which I see
bring forth the pleasure,
here in my mind
of the satisfaction of writing,
time after time.

It is strange
to see my words
on this page.
I write them down
and set the stage,
for my old reflections,
on how I must age.

When the last cold
breath of Winter
passes by, it will bring
the freshness of an
Eternal Spring.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Could Queen Calafia's mythical island exist in space? Perhaps not, but by chance the outline of this molecular space cloud echoes the outline of the state of California, USA. Our Sun has its home within the Milky Way's Orion Arm, only about 1,000 light-years from the California Nebula. Also known as NGC 1499, the classic emission nebula is around 100 light-years long. On the featured image, the most prominent glow of the California Nebula is the red light characteristic of hydrogen atoms recombining with long lost electrons, stripped away (ionized) by energetic starlight. The star most likely providing the energetic starlight that ionizes much of the nebular gas is the bright, hot, bluish Xi Persei just to the right of the nebula. A regular target for astrophotographers, the California Nebula can be spotted with a wide-field telescope under a dark sky toward the constellation of Perseus, not far from the Pleiades. New: APOD now available in Arabic from Syria

Photo by Yannick Akar

Most of us entered the Internet Age with high hopes and expectations of what it could bring to us. Now, we find an online world dominated by corporations in pursuit of increased revenues, profit, and higher valuations. A world, where we, the users of the services are the product, where disinformation reigns, radicalization is rampant, rage is out in the open and where every day our privacy slips away.  Read the Atlantic article "How to Put Out Democracy’s Dumpster Fire"