Cosmic Africa

"In a journey that stretched from Namibia to the coastline and steamy jungles of Ghana, across the crocodile-infested lakes and deserts of Northern Kenya, the cliffside dwellings of the Dogon in Mali, and on to the mysterious archaeological sites of the Egyptian Sahara, the recently launched film Cosmic Africa explores Africa's ancient astronomical history.

"Cosmic Africa , a co-production between Cosmos Studios, Aland Pictures and Anne Rogers, is a feature-length documentary film that both explores and sheds new light on traditional African astronomy and, in turn, global understanding of the world's oldest science. Cosmic Africa is directed and filmed by the award-winning duo Craig and Damon Foster.

"In developing the film, the team's celestial quest put them in touch with chiefs, calendar specialists, diviners, healers, storytellers, nomads, shamans, sky lore experts, archaeologists, linguists and anthropologists from six different countries."

I saw Cosmic Africa on November 2003, just before a lunar eclipse, and in the midst of the Harmonic Concordance, so I can't help but recommend it.

Journey of the Shaman

"[The Oracle Gatherings] invite you to join us on our next journey, a three-day, two-night festival in Sultan, Washington [June 3-5]. Navigate your way no matter what your path. Enjoy the beautiful setting by setting up camp near a spring-fed lake and waterfall, green trees, and blue sky -- Gaia! Dance by day or night, participate in educational/artistic workshops, and support community artisans. Find commonalities with others through the language of dance and music. Grow as a community as we explore the inner/outer realms using as a tool the concept of shamanism."

via Sitka

The universe is just a right-click away.

Here are some [just a few] of the astrophotos
that I've amassed over the last four or five years,
along with links to current imagery.

This is another example from the archived files:

The fifth movement of a visual symphony

Click|shape

[click inside the frame for a new pattern]

lfs.nl: too bad of a cold to think of a good name
Follow this link to interact with the full-screen object

Follow this link for another of Ellen's Flash presents...
and another... and yet another.

The roof of the worldas seen from orbit

"This picture wasn't taken from an airliner cruising at 30,000 feet. Instead, it was taken with a 35mm camera and telephoto lens by the Expedition 1 crew aboard the International Space Station -- orbiting 200 nautical miles above the Earth."

To boldly (yet quietly)go where no probehas gone before...

"NASA's intrepid Voyager 1 space probe has begun its journey to the stars and is now exploring the farthest reaches of the Sun's influence where the solar wind strangely interacts with interstellar space, agency officials formally announced on Tuesday.

"Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2 were both launched aboard Titan rockets from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1977 to embark on a 'grand tour' to visit the outer planets. Both are now approaching their 28th birthdays and continue on extended missions to beam data back to Earth as it leaves the solar system headed for interstellar space.

"Officials say Voyager 1 crossed what is known as the termination shock around December 16 of 2004 to enter the heliosheath -- a place unlike any ever visited in the solar system. The boundary crossed in December marks a point where charged particles constantly emitted from the Sun called the solar wind slow down from hundreds of miles per second to subsonic speeds. This is due to pressure from the interstellar wind, or the gas blowing between stars likely resulting from ancient nearby supernovae."

The Lenswork of Evgeniy Shaman

Back to the Retro - Touch & Go, v.1


Mysterons (color version)


Осень (вторая)...
[Autumn (The Second)]

So much to be seen around Saturn

Now with functioning links!













All from the Cassini raw image archive, of course.

NASA engages in radio profiling

"Three simultaneous radio signals of 0.94, 3.6, and 13 centimeter wavelength (Ka-, X-, and S-bands) were sent from Cassini through Saturn's rings to Earth. The observed change of each signal as Cassini moved behind the rings provided a profile of the distribution of ring material as a function of distance from Saturn, or an optical depth profile.

"This simulated image was constructed from the measured optical depth profiles. It depicts the observed ring structure at about 10 kilometers (6 miles) in resolution. Color is used to represent information about ring particle sizes in different regions based on the measured effects of the three radio signals."

Go ahead, look at the Sun.

"Thirteen negatives were combined to create this enhanced image of totality."


"[This shot was] taken in a cornfield at Louvicamp near Forges-Les-Eaux in France, and we were lucky to have clear sky throughout the duration of totality." I should say so, since I was in a similar location on August 11, 1999, and my companions and I got to see the underside of a fat cloud during totality.

Sei-Boh U-Moh

"Here's my story and why I created this website. I was in my 40's and my eyes were tired -- a feeling everyone will eventually know -- and with terrorism and daily events, my view of the world was dim.

"Remembering the wondrous stars of my youth, I decided I needed a telescope to help my old eyes see the heavens. I enjoy making 3D graphics with my astropictures as backgrounds. So, in a way, my work and passion are the same. Then, I struggled to learn the technology to capture these images. So, here is my knowledge, a sort of gift from me, so that you can see the sky in a more beautiful way."

Three from Saturn

X-Ray Orion

"When our middle-aged Sun was just a few million years old it was thousands of times brighter in x-rays. In fact, it was likely similar to some of the stars found in this false-color X-ray composite of the Orion Nebula region from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The image is centered on bright stars of the nebula's Trapezium star cluster..."

Let the sun shine,let the sun shine in!

"Vitamin D is nicknamed 'the sunshine vitamin' because the skin makes it from ultraviolet rays. Sunscreen blocks its production, but dermatologists and health agencies have long preached that such lotions are needed to prevent skin cancer. Now some scientists are questioning that advice.

"The reason is that vitamin D increasingly seems important for preventing and even treating many types of cancer. In the last three months alone, four separate studies found it helped protect against lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, lung and, ironically, the skin. The strongest evidence is for colon cancer.

"Many people aren't getting enough vitamin D. It's hard to do from food and fortified milk alone, and supplements are problematic. So the thinking is this: Even if too much sun leads to skin cancer, which is rarely deadly, too little sun may be worse.

"No one is suggesting that people fry on a beach. But many scientists believe that 'safe sun' -- [at least] 15 minutes or so a few times a week without sunscreen -- is not only possible but helpful to health."

How is it that we've been led to think otherwise? How could the star that makes life possible on this planet be responsible for destabilizing and producing disease? Think about it: when have you heard about indigenous peoples or those who live in more traditional (less technological and science-saturated) societies developing cancer at the rate that it manifests in this and other Western countries? Why do you think that is? I'd say it's because such people live in a more knowledgable and holistic manner with the environment.

I've long thought that the increased incidence of skin cancer and other disorders is related to the food that we eat. If the things that we put into our bodies aren't nourished and energized by the Sun -- and instead processed by machines and packed into boxes and cans and plastic containers --, then our bodies won't be taking in phytochemicals and other materials that would, in turn, enable us to assimilate and gain vitality from the Sun's energy (or withstand and cleanse ourselves of the pollutants and other materials that our technological society has produced).

And to go back to the first line from the story: Doesn't it seem likely that inhibiting the production of a necessary vitamin by slathering a synthetic lubricant on the skin would do something to degrade one's health?

Revenge of the Cineasts

I came home (to Broadway, as in "My posse's on...") around 4:30 p.m. I checked on some stuff and then headed out to Wallingford around 5:45.

I arrived at William's at 6:40, and he was a bit antsy since we had yet to eat, and he wanted be in line at Cinerama by 8:00 for the 10:45 show. He'd read that lines at the theatre were quite long (and good seats had got to be got).

I wasn't so sure that the line would be that big of a deal (having never been to C-Rama before, and since it _was_ the second full day of screenings). We went to have pho on Aurora. We then made our way to the theatre well ahead of schedule, even after looking for parking. [William used the Westin Hotel garage, which is open from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., and it only costs $4. Something for you locals to remember.]

Parking secured, we then stood on the corner of 5th and Virginia for about two and a half hours. There were already 120-plus people in front of us. The line eventually wound down 5th Avenue, with the occasional driver or passerby asking "What's showing?" This was the first night of the Seattle Film Festival, I should point out, and normally there are special events for it at C-Rama.

William's friends Jeremy and Dorothy met us at about 9:30. The 7-something show let out, and we began to wonder why we'd be out in the street (fortunately no rain, and a clear moon) for 40 more minutes. This ended up not being the case, because the doors were reopened at or before 10 p.m.

Once people were inside, they quite literally scurried into the theatre (which is quite nice; I can understand why it's a preferred venue). We had four seats all next to each other and settled in while people kind of nutted up all around us.

I was thinking of going to the restroom and perhaps getting something to eat while William and Jeremy went off to the loo. Dorothy and I chatted a bit, and then the manager came out and began to talk to the people who were right down the row from us. Apparently they were drunk, they'd cut into the front of the line just after the doors opened, and there'd been complaints about their behavior toward other patrons. Some guy in a Vaderish black tunic and cape was getting all huffy behind the manager, who was handling the situation in a pretty straightforward manner.

"I can't make you leave for being drunk, but I can make you leave for being belligerent. So you'll get a refund, and you all have to stand and come with me right now."

One of the guys in this group (three of them and one woman) was sitting there not saying much, and people's attention in the nearby rows was focused on the to-do [The young women behind us were preparing to jump into their seats as soon as these folks got the heave-ho.]

The group wasn't budging, the guy in the Vader tunic was getting more testy, the manager was relating all that he'd heard ("We've gotten 15 complaints about you in five minutes!") and I decided that I wanted to get away from this pre-screening drama. And so off to the loo I went.

Apparently, it was a few moments later that the punching started.

As William described it --when I returned some 15 minutes later, unware of what had gone down -- the manager had reasserted that this group had to leave. The one guy stood up without saying anything, and then he turned around and had at one of the people in the row behind him (one who'd complained earlier, I guess).

"People surged forward from the rows around them," William said, which I took at the time to mean that this guy got bumrushed. He actually meant that people were getting the hell out of the way, although it sounded like a few did jump into the brief fray. After the film ended and I brought up this mini-melee again, William and Jeremy joked about how this guy was about to get a beatdown from a theatre full of Star Wars geeks, and he'd have _that_ story to tell the rest of his life.

Anyway, the funnier bit was that William turned to get my reaction about the beginning of the fracas, thinking I was still sitting there, and when the bantha poodoo hit the fan, he turned to find an empty seat.

When got up, I had said "I'm outta here" because of the gawkerific scene that was developing, and because I wanted to get myself situated before the previews began.

As William continued to express his surprise about my disappearance, I simply said "I had a bad feeling about it," which got a laugh and seemed to have surpassed my earlier, seemingly random response to Dorothy's offer a chocolate chip cookie: "Are those _Chips Ahoy_?!"

Helianthus annus

"Indian farmer Bhaan Singh tends to his crop of sunflowers in a field on the outskirts of Amritsar."

Nightlights

The coronal mass ejection mentioned in this post from 13 May interacted with Earth's atmosphere on 15 May. And if you don't know by now, energized protons in the night sky = pretty colors.













"Auroras in Nebraska? California? Arizona? Believe it. On Saturday night, May 14th-15th, northern lights rippled across the United States during an intense geomagnetic storm. The display was triggered by a solar coronal mass ejection that struck Earth's magnetic field. So much for the quiet Sun."

And now, a bit of cultural history

"There are some 15,000 museums in the United States, and now, for the first time, there is a museum devoted to the Arab-American experience. The Arab-American National Museum opened its doors on May 5th in Dearborn, Michigan."

"The museum documents, preserves, celebrates, and informs the public on the history, life, culture, and contributions of Arab Americans. It serves as a resource to enhance the knowledge and understanding about Arab Americans and their presence in the United States."

Life's end need not bring an endto what you lived for, or whatenriched your experience of living.

When Death Means the Loss of an Archive
By Daniel J. Wakin
The New York Times

"In an artist's haven like New York, scholars and archivists say it is not at all uncommon for caches of cultural artifacts to go on the block alongside the used clothing, furniture and family photos of other people who die without wills.

"'We run into this all the time in the archive business,' said Vicky Risner, who is in charge of acquisitions for the music division of the Library of Congress. 'People deny they're going to die.'

"Joe Nash's vast archive on black dance in America made him a leading figure in the dance world. It also may have helped kill him.

"Last Thanksgiving, Mr. Nash stumbled over a pile of materials in his packed apartment in a West Harlem housing project. As he fell, he clutched at a stack of books, which tumbled down on him, according to Rashidah Ismaili AbuBakr, a friend who took care of him. Mr. Nash, a lecturer and essayist whose flowing African robes made him a familiar figure at dance events in New York, lay on the floor for five days, until friends heard his cry for help, she said.

"'Every single room was storage -- his bathroom, his bedroom,' Ms. AbuBakr said. 'He just had enough space to lay down.'

"Mr. Nash never recovered from the fall, friends said; he died on April 13 at 85 of cardiovascular problems. Now, because Mr. Nash had no heirs -- and apparently left no will -- the city has changed the locks on his apartment door and seized his property, in preparation for auctioning it off. Archivists, dance lovers and Mr. Nash's friends are appalled by the possibility that the collection could be scattered to the winds.

"'This is our heritage,' said Charles Reinhart, the director of the American Dance Festival in Durham, N.C. 'We need to treat it that way.'"
...
"'I think it's very good to encourage anyone, an artist or anyone else, to take care of their final arrangements,' said Ethel J. Griffin, the Manhattan public administrator. But many do not. Ms. Griffin's office receives 1,600 to 1,800 cases a year.

"There are at least two other caches at the Manhattan public administrator's warehouse on Church Street of potential interest to scholars: the estates of the modern dancer and choreographer Erick Hawkins, who died in 1994, and Gloria Foster, a well-known actress, who died in 2001.

"In the case of Ms. Foster, who played the Oracle in the first two Matrix movies, a Surrogate's Court judge finally ruled in February that three nephews and a niece should receive the estate. But her belongings, including costumes, remain in the warehouse.

"According to the Library of Congress, materials that belonged to Hawkins, who was married to Martha Graham and was the first male dancer in her company, are part of the estate of his widow, Lucia Dlugoszewski, a composer and onetime director of the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. She died in 2000, and the estate remains in limbo, with no heirs yet designated...

"'Artists don't realize the significance, in some instances, or importance to other people of their craft,' said Ms. Griffin, a modern-dance fan who has lent a sympathetic ear to Mr. Nash's supporters. Her office generally auctions off effects of value, in lots or individually, to pay any claims, and the leftover money is kept in case an heir or will ever does emerge...

"Ms. Risner of the Library of Congress said that she and Ms. AbuBakr had been close to completing arrangements for the transfer of some materials when Mr. Nash died. 'We would love to have the collection,' she said. But she acknowledged that she had nothing in writing from Mr. Nash.

"'He wanted people to be able to study his materials,' said Madeleine Nichols, the curator of the dance division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Ms. Griffin, the public administrator, said that what her office needed was some sort of documentation demonstrating that he had wished to donate to an institution, or had already done so.

"'Personally I think you should preserve as much information as you can,' she said. She emphasized that it was too early to rule out the presence of a will somewhere, although Ms. AbuBakr said none existed."

Mount Rainier, the third most dangerous[though quiet] volcano in the United States

That makes for interesting reading the day before the 25th anniversary of St. Helens' eruption. Just yesterday, I thought of my sister and niece flying in from OH, and explaining that Tahoma is a volcano that's just sleepin'.


"The U.S. Geological Survey ranks Mount Rainier as the third most dangerous volcano in the nation after Kilauea, on the Big Island of Hawai'i, and Mount St. Helens. Both are currently active [though the USGS' own info says the same about Rainier* --Ed.].

"Other studies call Rainier the most dangerous volcano in the world — not just for its explosive potential, but because of the 3 million people who live in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area. At least 100,000 people live on top of Rainier mudflows that have solidified [see USGS excerpt below].

"Mudflow poses a serious threat for Orting (pop. 4400). Two rivers drain off the mountain, hug the town and converge just beyond it, putting Orting squarely in the mountain's strike zone. The town, in fact, was built atop a 500-year-old mudflow that buried the valley 30 feet deep.

"Construction crews working on new housing developments for Orting's growing population have dug up massive tree stumps — remnants of a forest buried there the last time Mount Rainier rumbled [in the mid-19th century]."


From the Cascades Volcano Observatory:
"Mount Rainier is an active volcano [or is it?* --Ed.] that first erupted about half a million years ago. Because of Rainier's great height [14,410 ft./4,393 m] and northerly location, glaciers have cut deeply into its lavas, making it appear deceptively older than it actually is. Mount Rainier is known to have erupted as recently as in the 1840s, and large eruptions took place as recently as about 1,000 and 2,300 years ago.

"Mount Rainier and other similar volcanoes in the Cascade Range, such as Mount Adams and Mount Baker, erupt much less frequently than the more familiar Hawai'ian volcanoes. But the eruptions [from Cascade volcanoes can be] vastly more destructive. Hot lava and rock debris from Rainier's eruptions have melted enough snow and glacier ice to trigger debris flows (mudflows) that have swept down all [five] of the river valleys that head on the volcano. Debris flows have also been generated by collapse of unstable parts of the volcano without accompanying eruptions. Some debris flows have traveled as far as the present margin of Puget Sound, and much of the lowland to the east of Tacoma and to the south of Seattle is formed of prehistoric debris from Mount Rainier.



Before landforms were claimed and renamed by colonists:
"Northwest native peoples knew the mountain [named Rainier] long before European explorers reached the waters of the Pacific Ocean. For generations, they knew the mountain as Takhoma, Tahoma, Ta-co-bet and several other names. Many of the names mean "big mountain" or "snowy peak" or "place where the waters begin." Little Tahoma is the name of prominent rock outcrop on the east side of Mount Rainier.

"Native peoples living both east and west of Tahoma traveled to the high mountain valleys each summer and fall to gather berries and hunt deer, goats, elk, and bear. They often camped near berry fields at altitudes between 3,000 feet and 5,000 feet. The forests and meadows around the mountain were important summer hunting and gathering sites for the Nisqually, Puyallup, Upper Cowlitz, Muckleshoot, and Yakama people."


And because the A in Aries stands for Adventure:
Skiing the Cascade Volcanoes: Mount Rainier
A moment with Mike Gauthier, Mount Rainier park's lead climbing ranger


* Volcano Hazards from Mount Rainier, 1998 says the volcano is dormant, while Mount Rainier: Learning to Live with Volcanic Risk and Living With A Volcano In Your Backyard: Volcanic Hazards at Mount Rainier both indicate active volcanism.

Twilight on Mars

"Here is the Martian twilight sky at Gusev crater, as imaged by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit around 6:20 in the evening on April 23, 2005."

Two views of the fourth planet

"The dark streaks [seen in this image from the middle of Gusev Crater] are places where wind has either scoured off the brighter Martian dust, or has covered it up with sand [Why don't I believe that? --Ed]. Note the interesting lobes of material evident along the right side of the image, just below the large crater. These may have formed because of the emplacement of water-rich sediments or possibly lava flows. It is hoped that the Spirit rover and all of its instruments will help us to understand the rich geologic history that is on display in this image."


"Although well to the northeast of the hematite-bearing unit in Meridiani Planum (the landing site of the Opportunity rover), this THEMIS visible image offers a stunning landscape, and clues regarding the possible history of water in this area [on Mars]."

The night sky above Hawai'i

"Our goal at the Canada-France-Hawai'i Telescope is not only to show the wonders of the sky as seen from Mauna Ke'a, a dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawai'i, but also to share the science revealed through these images."

Hot time in the heliosphere

"Sunspot 759 unleashed a strong, M8-class solar flare on May 13th. The blast produced a coronal mass ejection, which appears to be heading directly toward Earth."

No need to worry; this just means folks up north will see aurorae.

Info and images from the SolarSoft solar events page and Spaceweather

See also: Surfing on sunquakes

Hail, Osiris*

"Visible to the unaided eye, the Great Orion Nebula appears as a small fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion. Long exposure, digitally sharpened images like this one, however, show the Orion Nebula to be a busy neighborhood of young stars, hot gas, and dark dust. The power behind much of the Orion Nebula is the Trapezium -- four of the brightest stars in the nebula. Many of the filamentary structures visible are actually shock waves - fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas."

Like the last post, this one came from the APOD archive.

* "...Osiris in his stellar form is the constellation of Orion."

A supernova from October '04

1604, that is.


"Light from the stellar explosion that created this energized cosmic cloud was first seen on planet Earth in October 1604. The supernova produced a bright new star in early 17th century skies within the constellation Ophiuchus...

"Early 21st century astronomers continue to explore the expanding debris cloud, but can now use orbiting space telescopes to survey the supernova remnant across the [electromagnetic] spectrum. In this tantalizing composite image, X-rays, visible light, and infrared radiation recorded by NASA's astrophysical observatories -- the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes -- are combined to give a more comprehensive view of the still enigmatic supernova remnant.

"About 13,000 light years away, Johannes Kepler's supernova represents the most recent stellar explosion seen to occur within our Milky Way galaxy."

By way of the AstroPicofTheDay archive

Attack of the clones in the produce section

"Learn the ways of the Farm."

A post about flying snakes

"Jake Socha of the University of Chicago has been studying snakes' ability to act like birds for eight years. Today he revealed just how good they are at winging it."

[It's not until almost the end of the article that one reads that this flying ability is exhibited in only a few species of rainforest snakes. Don't panic.]

"'First of all, they flatten their bodies out all the way from their head to tail,' Socha told LiveScience. 'Snakes are part body and part tail, and they have ribs up until the tail. They flatten their ribs and make themselves Frisbee-like in form.'

"'As [the snake] starts falling, it starts sending large S-shaped waves through its body mostly by moving its head from side to side,' Socha explained. 'It also keeps its body parallel to the ground.'

"Since they don’t have wings, snakes control their flight patterns by sort of slithering through the air. By undulating their bodies in an exaggerated S-shaped pattern, they maintain in-flight stability. It’s sort of like how a tightrope walker shifts weight from side to side to keep balance."

Mount St. Helens, 25 years after the eruption

"When Charile Crisafulli first ventured onto the moonscape left behind by Mount St. Helens' May 18, 1980, eruption, Spirit Lake was lifeless. His discovery of a single lupine growing near its shores two years later was cause for wonder.

"Now, as the U.S. Forest Service ecologist begins his 25th season on the volcano's flanks, thickets of trees shelter a growing number of animals and the lake supports abundant frog, salamander and fish populations... The riotous return of life to the mountain upsets conventional notions about the way nature heals its wounds and offers blueprints for repairing damage done by humans."


As previously mentioned in this virtual space, there will be a number of events to commemorate the eruption of Mount St. Helens. May 18 will be a free day at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. No fees will be charged on the Volcanic Monument, including the visitor centers on State Route 504.

X-ray analysis of a stellar bubble

"An XMM-Newton EPIC image (above) and an optical image with X-ray imagery superimposed (below) of the northwest quadrant of the Wolf-Rayet bubble S308. Color correspondence: red, Hydrogen-alpha; green, Oxygen[III]; blue: X-rays."

"S308 is a circumstellar bubble blown by the star HD 50896. It is one of only two single-star bubbles that show detectable diffuse X-ray emission. The diffuse X-ray emission shows a limb-brightened morphology, with a clear gap extending from the outer edge of the diffuse X-ray emission to the outer rim of the nebular shell."

See also:
"Massive stars live fast, blow hard and die young," a document in which you will find the full-frame image of the circumstellar bubble featured above.

The energetic, scalable fabric of the universe

"Clusters of galaxies, the largest known gravitationally-bound objects, are the knots in the cosmic web of structure that permeates the Universe. Theoretical models make predictions about the number, distribution and properties of these clusters.

"Scientists can test and improve models of the Universe by comparing these predictions with observations. The most powerful way of doing this is to measure the masses of galaxy clusters, particularly those in the distant Universe. However, weighing galaxy clusters is extremely difficult [because where would you find a scale that big?].

"One relatively easy way to weigh a galaxy cluster is to use simple laws ('scaling relations') to estimate its weight from properties that are easy to observe, like its luminosity (brightness) or temperature. This is like estimating someone's weight from their height if you didn't have any scales.

"A team of researchers has observed 11 distant galaxy clusters with ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The X-ray data allowed the scientists to measure the temperatures and luminosities of the gas in the clusters. They were then able to infer their total masses, which varied between 200 and 1,100 times the mass of our Milky Way galaxy.

"These measurements were then used to test whether galaxy clusters of different sizes and located at different distances from us are simply scaled versions of each other -- a condition known as being 'self-similar.' This is an important characteristic for astronomers to identify if they hope to get the true weights of galaxy clusters."

"I shall name it Mini-Moon."

The international Cassini spacecraft has spied a tiny new moon hidden in a gap in Saturn's outer ring, scientists said.

"The moon was spotted earlier this month in the center of the Keeler gap, making waves in the gap edges as it orbits. Tentatively called S/2005 S1, the moon measures four miles across and is about 85,000 miles from the center of Saturn."

Let's be real about Real ID.

"[Today the US Senate voted {100-0!}] on the implementation of a national ID card system [a measure that was a rider to the military spending bill for US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan]. The Real ID Act is nothing less than a National ID Act. The only thing left to the individual states is to decide which pretty picture they will choose to put on the card: everything else will be controlled by [the federal government]...*

"In order to make [Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI] happy, the Senate leadership let him write the bill and then slipped it into the military spending bill... Supporting our troops means making sure they come home to a free nation, not a surveillance state."

The opening statement of UnRealID.com, where you can (must!) contact your senators.

* "[Real ID would] likely take the place of your driver’s license and store at the very minimum your name, birthdate, sex, ID number, a digital photograph and address, with the possibility of additional data such as a fingerprint or retinal scan... Homeland Security hasn’t decided what machine-readable technology they’ll use, but they’re leaning heavily towards RFID, since the chips are [what DHS wants to embed] in passports."


For more, refer to:

R U ready for Real ID?

How Real ID will affect you.

What's so scary about a national ID?

National ID cards won't stop terrorism or illegal immigration.

Berkano/Birch/Birth

The runestone featured at the top of the image is Berkano.

"This rune is related to the Great Mother, the Earth Goddess, and is symbolically represented as the breasts of the mother of life from which all are granted nourishment... Berkano is the mother of manifestation and of birth and rebirth. The birch tree is her symbol and was often planted before a home to protect it in Scandinavian countries, and the custom continued to be observed in America when settlers built new homes. The birch continues to this day to be a source of a natural form of aspirin (salicyn), just as birch teas have long been valued for the comfort and ease they can provide."

Another rune-inspired image by Svetlana Bakushina is featured here.

Surfing on sunquakes

"Using an H-alpha filter tuned to the red glow of solar hydrogen, Sylvain Weiller of France made this [time-lapse] movie of sunspot 758 unleashing a C9-class flare on May 6th, 2005. A cloud [of solar particles] hurled into space by the lengthy explosion might have contributed to the auroral display [seen] below."


By way of Spaceweather

Meanwhile, on Mars...

"This [April 12, 2005] picture is a composite of the Mars Global Surveyor daily global images acquired at [solar longitude] 193° during a previous Mars year. This month Mars looks similar, as solar longitude 193° occurs in mid-April 2005."


"This false color image, produced by the Mars Odyssey Thermal Imaging System, is located in the region where Ares Vallis enters Iani Chaos."


"This false-color rendering shows the scene acquired by NASA's Spirit rover on Martian day, or sol, 454 (April 13, 2005)."


"In December 1999, NASA's Mars Polar Lander was supposed to touch down near the red planet's south pole. But shortly after it entered the Martian atmosphere, the spacecraft disappeared without a trace. Only now, five and a half years later, do scientists think they may have finally located the lander's wreckage and confirmed what went wrong with the mission."

What's all this about military spies looking for the missing Mars lander?

Quintessential Saturn

"W00006738.jpg was taken on May 05, 2005, and received on Earth on May 06, 2005. The camera was pointing toward SATURN at approximately 1,257,438 kilometers away."

The Illustrations of Tarosuke

Tree

By way of Cipango

Heal thyself.

Because I'm interested in medicine that actually heals people, I offer up a page that I found during my search for links: Countering the Side Effects of Modern Medical Therapies with Chinese Herbs.

Additionally: "What if everything you knew about AIDS was wrong?" Read the book by Christine Maggiore.

These are the footnotes from a post about AIDS drug testing on children in the US.

See also:
Who knows and can treat your body better than you?

"If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This especially includes your health care."

In this, the time of the sign of the Bull...

...comes a new image (in a developing series) from Svetlana Bakushina.

The runestone at the bottom is Uruz.

"Traditionally, Uruz symbolized the aurochs, a wild bison once common in northern Europe but now extinct. Our male Teutonic ancestors were not considered men until they had participated in a successful hunt and kill of an aurochs, a primitive rite of passage...

"Uruz can also indicate male energy and the positive aspects of Mars-energy, willpower and determination. In health questions, Uruz indicates strength, stamina, and resistance. In many readings, the appearance of Uruz means that improvement is coming but only through the querent's own willpower, self-determination, and resilience."

Another rune-inspired image can be found here.

Asparagus as high art

"Anyone can put meat and a starch on a plate. It's vegetarian cooking that is a real challenge for a chef."

This article plays up the high-priced, multi-course vegetarian meals that are offered by certain restaurants in metro DC, Chicago and elsewhere. Vegetarian cuisine need not [and does not] cost so much, and the benefits are manifold.

Sketching the Sun

Via Charlie Ridgway's Astronomical Observations... from New York City

As seen [somewhere] on this site...

...the latest index of nmazca images on google.

Rediscovering Mati Klarwein

I was on the bus, coming home from downtown yesterday afternoon, when I saw several enlarged images from the album 'Bitches Brew' in the windows of a record store on Pine Street. I was briefly captivated by that choice of imagery, and then I went about the rest of the day...

About half an hour ago, I clicked over to Magpie to see what was what. There I found an image of Mati Klarwein's New Aleph Sanctuary, which will be exhibited at the Tate Gallery in Liverpool as part of "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era."

I clicked the pic, I went to the main page, and then I said, "Oh, hell's bells, this is the artist who did 'Bitches Brew.'"


Time, 1965


Astral Body Asleep, 1968


Astral Body Awake, 1969


Live, 1971


Evil, 1972


Clone (unfinished), 2002


Which one of your paintings do you consider to be the best?

"The one I'm working on now."

What is the message behind all this imagery?

"What you see is what you get."


"Matias Klarwein was born on the 9th of April 1932 in Hamburg, Germany. He died in his sleep at home on the morning of the 7th of March, 2002.

"Mati Klarwein's best known paintings are 'Annunciation', which was chosen for the cover of Santana's album 'Abraxas', and the painting used by Miles Davis for his cover 'Bitches Brew' - also reproduced for Absolut Vodka's ad campaign. His artwork has been widely shown in galleries in New York, Paris, and all over Spain.

"Mati's most unique installation was the Aleph Sanctuary, a cubic room comprised of 68 paintings including the 'Tree of Life' requiring a guard at its entrance in the Museum of Art in Santa Barbara, California. During his last years, he had major retrospective shows in Madrid, Barcelona, Palma and Cadiz.

"At the present time, Mati is known to have painted at least 600 pieces, including 280 landscapes/mindscapes, 270 portraits, and 120 improved paintings.

The most famous unknown artist, indeed.

Titan and the orange greenhouse effect

"This natural color image shows Titan's upper atmosphere -- an active place where methane molecules are being broken apart by solar ultraviolet light, and the byproducts combine to form compounds like ethane and acetylene. The haze preferentially scatters blue and ultraviolet wavelengths of light, making its complex layered structure more easily visible at the shorter wavelengths used in this image [which I previously posted "in the raw"].

"A movie sequence of images, taken around the same time as this color view, shows movement of the haze layers over the course of a few hours (see Titan's Shifting Hazes).


"Lower down in Titan's atmosphere, the haze turns into a globe-enshrouding smog of complex organic molecules. This thick, orange-colored haze absorbs visible sunlight, allowing only perhaps 10 percent of the light to reach the surface. The thick haze is also inefficient at holding in and then re-radiating infrared (thermal) energy back down to the surface. Thus, despite the fact that Titan has a thicker atmosphere than Earth, the thick global haze causes the greenhouse effect there to be somewhat weaker than the greenhouse effect here on Earth.

Four new views of Saturn's rings

Each image is from the Cassini probe site.

Stop the pixel presses!We've got a planetary problem.

"In a wild turn of cosmic events, a group of astronomers is trying to reclaim the role of having made the first photograph of a planet around another star.

"[On April 30], an ESO team announced new observations of 2M1207b that convincingly show, they say, that their target is indeed a planet. If so, it could be remembered as the first picture of an exoplanet, since the team had already released the initial image last fall.

However... "earlier [in April], Ralph Neuhaeuser of the Astrophysical Institute & University Observatory said his team had made the first confirmed picture of a planet around another star called GQ Lupi, some 400 light-years away. In this case, also first reported by SPACE.com, the object was observed to be clearly bound to the star.

"The planet is thought to be one to two times as massive as Jupiter, according to the scientists who imaged it. It orbits a star similar to a young version of our Sun.

"GQ Lupi has been observed by a team of European astronomers since 1999. They have made three images using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. The Hubble Space Telescope and the Japanese Subaru Telescope each contributed an image, too.

"While observations suggest the planet orbiting GQ Lupi is about twice as massive as Jupiter, there is a slight chance it is 42 times the mass of Jupiter -- so heavy that it would be considered a brown dwarf. The outlying models, however, are very unlikely to apply to the system, some astronomers said.

"'Based on what we know, that image is an image of an object much like Jupiter at an extremely young age,' said Ben Oppenheimer of the American Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in either study...

"The whole issue [of who saw a planet first] is further clouded by the fact that 2M1207b orbits a brown dwarf rather than a regular star. Brown dwarfs stars do not have enough mass to trigger the thermonuclear fusion that powers a regular star. So a planetary-mass object around them exists in an unusual system that is unlikely to have any chance of harboring life as we know it. It also may have had a different formation history.

"'Given the rather unusual properties of the 2M1207 system, the giant planet most probably did not form like the planets in our solar system," Gael Chauvin [lead researcher of the "brown-dwarf orbiter" team] said. 'Instead it must have formed the same way our Sun formed, by a one-step gravitational collapse of a cloud of gas and dust.'

"Alan Boss, a planet formation theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said both findings represent 'great stuff,' but he's not ready to draw firm conclusions about who wins.

"'This object [2M1207b] should be termed a sub-brown-dwarf (star), in order to convey this suspicion about its formation mechanism,' Boss said in an e-mail interview. 'A number of sub-brown dwarfs have been observed as single objects in regions of recent star formation, but 2M1207 would seem to be the first one in orbit around a brown dwarf (star). All in all, it is an excellent discovery of a new class of object, but it is unclear if this object should be termed a planet.'

Now here's the capper:

"There is no agreement among astronomers on the definition of the term 'planet.' A spirited debate dates back five years in regard to attempts to define [what is and what is not a planet].

"'I consider it as a planet, regardless whether it formed differently than Jupiter -- and regardless [of the fact that] it's orbiting a failed star instead of solar-type star," says Christophe Dumas, a colleague of Chauvin. 'Actually, this discovery is even more interesting due to the fact that the brown dwarf and the giant planet are not forming a "traditional" system as we know it from looking at our own solar system. We did not expect to find a giant planet in orbit around a brown dwarf and it's there.'

"For now, the International Astronomical Union lists 2M1207b as a 'possible planetary-mass companion to a brown dwarf.' The IAU catalogues the GQ Lupi discovery as 'a possible planetary-mass companion to a young star.'

Extra! Extra!Extrasolar planet observed!

"New images taken of an object with five times the mass of Jupiter confirm that it is a giant planet closely orbiting a distant star, an international team of astronomers reported. The team of European and American astronomers said this is the first time a pla