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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Spooky shapes seem to haunt this dusty expanse, drifting through the night in the royal constellation Cepheus. Of course, the shapes are cosmic dust clouds visible in dimly reflected starlight. Far from your own neighborhood, they lurk above the plane of the Milky Way at the edge of the Cepheus Flare molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away. Over 2 light-years across and brighter than most of the other ghostly apparitions, vdB 141 or Sh2-136 is also known as the Ghost Nebula, seen at the right of the starry field of view. Inside the nebula are the telltale signs of dense cores collapsing in the early stages of star formation. With the eerie hue of dust reflecting bluish light from hot young stars of NGC 7023, the Iris Nebula stands out against the dark just left of center. In the broad telescopic frame, these fertile interstellar dust fields stretch almost seven full moons across the sky.

Photo by Leo Shatz

There was a time
when I believed my Soul
was being held hostage.
Don't ask me to explain,
for I'm not sure I can;
it is the sub-conscience
of an old, old man.

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Gregory Fabiano is a Professor of Psychttps://theconversation.com/what-causes-adhd-and-can-it-be-cured-170179?hology, Florida International University

"Caitlin Wells Salerno knew that some mammals — like the golden-mantled ground squirrels she studies in the Rocky Mountains — invest an insane amount of resources in their young. That didn’t prepare her for the resources the conservation biologist would owe after the birth of her second son." Read more 

What words roll off
this tongue of mine?
Hoping they're well meaning
and not at all unkind.
We speak, sometimes
the brain is not engaged.
Not a good trait to have,
but it does happen
and when it does,
fess up your apologies,
refresh your cause,
keep on with your life,
do not stop and pause.

The words are wrong,
they are from a song,
I remember, from long ago.
"Someday, when you're feeling low
and there is no place to go,
I'll be thinking of you
and the way you look tonight."
Apparently these words
which came back to my mind,
written by another.
A beautiful song,
now stuck in my head,
the melody lingers on,
along with the words,
of this most beautiful song.
The Way You Look Tonight
by Dorothy Fields
and Jerome Kern

He fell to the Earth,
centuries ago.
Trying to fly,
as a bird can.
He was Icarus,
who made artificial wings,
using wax, feathers
and many other things.
The story was told,
but so hard to track.
He came too close
to the Sun
and melted the wax.
Falling to Earth,
like fluttering down,
to be immortalized forever
as an inventor renown.

On board our ship
in my casual uniform,
we were at Sea,
heading into a storm.
A Typhoon was forming,
South of Japan.
We were well South
of the course of the storm.
We entered white water;
the ship began to bounce.
The bow rose in the air,
and crashed back down,
for we were steering the course,
heading into the fray.
Standing at the bottom
of the ladder or stair,
you hung on to the rail;
up the ladder, in one bound,
as the bow rose.
A thrill at that time,
for all, I suppose.

dexmac

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

As far as ghosts go, Mirach's Ghost isn't really that scary. Mirach's Ghost is just a faint, fuzzy galaxy, well known to astronomers, that happens to be seen nearly along the line-of-sight to Mirach, a bright star. Centered in this star field, Mirach is also called Beta Andromedae. About 200 light-years distant, Mirach is a red giant star, cooler than the Sun but much larger and so intrinsically much brighter than our parent star. In most telescopic views, glare and diffraction spikes tend to hide things that lie near Mirach and make the faint, fuzzy galaxy look like a ghostly internal reflection of the almost overwhelming starlight. Still, appearing in this sharp image just above and to the right of Mirach, Mirach's Ghost is cataloged as galaxy NGC 404 and is estimated to be some 10 million light-years away.

Photo by John Chumack

This show tells the story behind each of the artworks by 18 artists.

Matzke Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture Park
2345 Blanche Way
Camano Island, WA 98282

Open every weekend Friday - Saturday - Sunday 11-5 Weekdays by Appt.
360-387-2759 - visit: www.matzkefineart.com for directions (1 hour north of Seattle)

Yellow split pea soup with Indian curry spices. Bright, flavorful, and filling! Vegetarian and gluten-free. As winter soups go, split pea is definitely in the stick-to-your-ribs category. Click the Image below to see Sheryl Julian's recipe at "Simply Recipes"