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Gravlax is a Scandinavian specialty. It's very similar to lox, the deli counter favorite, but gravlax is usually cured with spices and fresh herbs (unlike lox, which is left plain). Gravlax is also never smoked. The process doesn’t take long (15-minute prep, 2-day cure in the fridge) and it is great for a fancy brunch or dinner party. CClick to read Sheryl Julian's recipe

"The devastating consequences of the world’s addiction to palm oil are well-documented. Check your cabinets and you will probably find it in half of the consumable products you own: pizza, margarine, peanut butter, detergent, candles, soaps and lotions, though it’s often disguised benignly as “vegetable oil” on the ingredients list. Between 1995 and 2015, palm oil production quadrupled, and is projected to quadruple yet again by 2050." Read more

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so dusty yet colorful? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes. Fine dust -- illuminated from the front by starlight -- produces blue reflection nebulae. Gaseous clouds whose atoms are excited by ultraviolet starlight produce reddish emission nebulae. Backlit dust clouds block starlight and so appear dark. Antares, a red supergiant and one of the brighter stars in the night sky, lights up the yellow-red clouds on the lower right of the featured image. The Rho Ophiuchi star system lies at the center of the blue reflection nebula on the top left. The distant globular cluster of stars M4 is visible above and to the right of Antares. These star clouds are even more colorful than humans can see, emitting light across the electromagnetic spectrum.

Photo by Mario CogoGalax Lux

"Imagine a personal heating system that works indoors as well as
outdoors, can be taken anywhere, requires little energy, and is
independent of any infrastructure. It exists – and is hundreds of years
old. The hot water bottle could save a great deal of energy and money
without sacrificing thermal comfort."  Read more

Photo credit: Pixabay

I am near you,
here I will be,
longing to see my
true love, thee.

I see these scratching,
all my words to view,
about a lost love,
of friends like you.

Loneliness
is now a
part of my life.
Remembering the time,
wanting to be alone.
Now I am.
This is no longer home.
A room without people,
oh, how it has grown
to a vacant space
unlike a home.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Which direction is this comet heading? Judging by the tail, one might imagine that Comet Leonard is traveling towards the bottom right, but a full 3D analysis shows it traveling almost directly away from the camera. With this perspective, the dust tail is trailed towards the camera and can only be seen as a short yellow-white glow near the head of the comet. The bluish ion tail, however, is made up of escaping ions that are forced directly away from the Sun by the solar wind -- but channeled along the Sun's magnetic field lines. The Sun's magnetic field is quite complex, however, and occasionally solar magnetic reconnection will break the ion tail into knots that are pushed away from the Sun. One such knot is visible in the featured one-hour time-lapse video captured in late December from Thailand. Comet Leonard is now fading as it heads out of our Solar System. Gallery: Notable images submitted to APOD of Comet Leonard in 2021

Video by Matipon TangmatithamNARIT Text: Matipon Tangmatitham

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

By starlight this eerie visage shines in the dark, a crooked profile evoking its popular name, the Witch Head Nebula. In fact, this entrancing telescopic portrait gives the impression that the witch has fixed her gaze on Orion's bright supergiant star Rigel. More formally known as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula spans about 50 light-years and is composed of interstellar dust grains reflecting Rigel's starlight. The blue color of the Witch Head Nebula and of the dust surrounding Rigel 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 Earth's atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. Rigel, the Witch Head Nebula, and gas and dust that surrounds them lie about 800 light-years away.

Photo by José Mtanous

Ray Cummings (1887 - 1957) American author of Science Fiction literature and comic books. He worked for 5 years with Thomas Edison as a personal assistant and technical writer. Cummings is regarded as one of the "founding fathers" of the science fiction genre. He authored the novel "The Girl in the Golden Atom" published in 1919 and a sequel, The People of the Golden Atom, published in 1920.. He also wrote numerous short Science fiction stories among them "The Fire People" and “The Man Who Could Work Miracles"

According to the Quote Investigator, the quote on this post was first seen on Cummins' "The Girl on the Golden Atom" but has been misattributed to Mark Twain, John A. Wheeler and Albert Einstein among others (https://quoteinvestigator.com/...)

Please provide me the wisdom
I've forgotten or lost
to make the right decision
No matter the cost.

I live here alone
in this empty house.
My wife has moved
to a memory care place.
One life ruined, by despair
another life in shambles,
with a sign, Do Not Repair.
This is no longer the life
which I hoped it to be,
for the sadness of loss
has overtaken my reverie.
I am most thankful
for the life we had
but when memories flee,
leaving you, the only one
who recalls all the good,
when we were so young.

Long will they wander,
across the broad land,
humbling in action,
always to demand,
changes to others,
but not for them.
You can be chained,
they will live free.
Love not your neighbor,
spew out the hate.
Seeing misery in others,
which isn't so great.