[caption id="attachment_515" align="aligncenter" width="553" caption="Capella, alpha star of the constellation Auriga, rises over Mt. Everest in this panoramic view of the top of the world at night. The scene was recorded in late November near Namche Bazar, Nepal, gateway to the Himalayan mountain range. Moonlight illuminates the famous peaks of Everest (8840 meters) and Lhotse (8516 meters) at the far left, and a stupa (a Buddhist religious monument) in the foreground, along the main trail to the Everest Base Camp. The light in the valley is from the Tengboche Monastery, also along the trail at about 4000 meters. From left to right above the moonlit peaks, the stars of Auriga give way to bright giant star Aldebaran eye of the Taurus the Bull, the Pleiades star cluster, alpha Ceti, and finally alpha Phoenicis of the Phoenix. Credit: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN)."]
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From National Geographic:
During the 2009 Leonid meteor shower, you may see anywhere from 30 to 300 shooting stars an hour, depending on whether you’re in the right place to see the showy peak on November 17, experts predict.
With the highest number of meteors streaking across the skies around 4:45 p.m. ET, the Leonids peak will be effectively invisible for viewers in North America and Europe. In those regions, sky-watchers are advised to venture out away from bright city lights between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on the 17th, when they should see 30 to 50 meteors an hour. [source: National Geographic]
Continue reading about 2009 Leonid meteor shower, 30 to 300 shooting stars
From the NYT:
There is water on the Moon, scientists stated unequivocally on Friday, and considerable amounts of it.
An Indian space mission claims to have found water on the moon, raising hopes that a manned base could be established there within the next two decades.
It has been widely believed that the moon was dry, but data from India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission allegedly found clear evidence of water there, apparently concentrated at the poles and possibly formed by the solar wind.
What’s more, water appears to still be forming, advancing the possibility that human life could be sustained there. Scientists hope that astronauts could one day not only drink the water but extract oxygen from it to breathe and hydrogen to use as fuel.
From NASA:
[caption id="attachment_410" align="aligncenter" width="540" caption="In this spectacular image, observations using infrared light and X-ray light see through the obscuring dust and reveal the intense activity near the galactic core. Note that the center of the galaxy is located within the bright white region to the right of and just below the middle of the image. The entire image width covers about one-half a degree, about the same angular width as the full moon. Credit: NASA, ESA, SSC, CXC, and STScI"]
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A never-before-seen view of the turbulent heart of our Milky Way galaxy [was unveiled by] NASA on Nov. 10. This event [commemorated] the 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens in 1609.
In celebration of this International Year of Astronomy, NASA is releasing images of the galactic center region as seen by its Great Observatories to more than 150 planetariums, museums, nature centers, libraries and schools across the country.
Continue reading about Turbulent heart of our Milky Way galaxy
From Universe Today:
A previously undiscovered asteroid came within 14,000 km of Earth last week, and astronomers noticed it only 15 hours before closest approach. On Nov. 6 at around 16:30 EST a 7 meter asteroid, now called 2009 VA, came only about 2 Earth radii from impacting our home planet. This is the third-closest known non-impacting Earth approach on record for a cataloged asteroid.
Early on Nov. 6 the asteroid was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey and was quickly identified by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge MA as an object that would soon pass very close to the Earth. JPL’s Near-Earth Object Program Office also computed an orbit solution for this object, and determined that it was not headed for an impact.
Well, I don’t know about you all, but I’m willing to be taken out if this makes another go-around and lands on the NYS legislature.
Continue reading about Unknown asteroid almost impacted Earth
From the Examiner:
It seems that a SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) experiment happened decades before the Project Ozma occurred in 1960. The historians at the blog Letters of Note have uncovered a telegram sent in 1924 by then Chief of Naval Operations Edward W. Eberle instructing the United States Navy to listen for radio transmissions from the planet Mars.
The telegram read:
“NAVY DESIRES COOPERATE ASTRONOMERS WHO BELIEVE POSSIBLE THAT MARS MAY ATTEMPT COMMUNICATION BY RADIO WAVES WITH THIS PLANET WHILE THEY ARE NEAR TOGETHER THIS END ALL SHORE RADIO STATIONS WILL ESPECIALLY NOTE AND REPORT ANY ELECTRICAL PHENOMENON UNUSUAL CHARACTER AND WILL COVER AS WIDE BAND FREQUENCIES AS POSSIBLE FROM 2400 AUGUST TWENTY FIRST TO 2400 AUGUST TWENTY FOURTH WITHOUT INTERFERRING WITH TRAFFIC”
Continue reading about US Navy Ordered to Listen for Martian Radio Broadcasts in 1924
From The Age (Australia):
It may sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan’s space agency is dead serious: by 2030 it wants to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves.
The government has just picked a group of companies and a team of researchers tasked with turning the ambitious, multi-billion-dollar dream of unlimited clean energy into reality in coming decades.
With few energy resources of its own and heavily reliant on oil imports, Japan has long been a leader in solar and other renewable energies and this year set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.
But Japan’s boldest plan to date is the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), in which arrays of photovoltaic dishes several square kilometres (square miles) in size would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
“Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming,” researchers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the project participants, wrote in a report.
“The sun’s rays abound in space.”
Read the rest of this excellent article here.
Continue reading about Japan eyes solar station in space as new energy source
From Ojibwa at DailyKos:
There has been a lot of media coverage on the misconception that the ancient Maya calendar is somehow predicting the end of the world (worse case scenario) or at least some major catastrophe in 2012. Part of the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of concepts of time which differ from those held by European cultures.
Let’s start with some background. The ancient Maya were a civilization composed of many different autonomous city states in Mesoamerica (this includes present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras). Maya civilization reached its apex during a period that archaeologists call Classic Maya: a period which begins about 200 CE and lasts until 909 CE.
Classic Maya civilization is characterized by cities, pyramids, kings, and elaborate ceremonies. Above all the Maya were obsessed with sophisticated timekeeping systems. Their painted-bark books, or codices, clearly show that their astronomers had the capacity to predict celestial events, such as eclipses, accurately.
A few hundred years before the beginning of Classic Maya, Maya rulers made a fundamental revision to their calendar that would connect the rise of Maya states with their own origin myths. They invented a mountain of a time cycle—the Long Count. This was a brilliant innovation and connected the Maya and their kings all the way back to creation.
Read the rest of this excellent piece here.
Continue reading about Mayan Calendar & the End of the World?
Food for thought (pun intended) — V. S. Ramachandran on the Uniqueness of Human Consciousness:
From Life Positive:
The greatest truths are simplest. Profound insights lurk in everyday occurrences. To discover them we need not trek to mountaintops or explore caves, but just open our ways of seeing by being aware that in the ordinary lies the extraordinary. Like nectar in a flower or oil in the infinitesimal mustard.
I recently came across a simple stone bench in a manicured garden. It rested on bricks that functioned as its support. Its naturalness fascinated me, a stark contrast to the contrived perfection around it. Its utter simplicity and un-self-consciousness seemed intrinsic. Its essence permeated its entire being and the stone seemed aware and alive to the presence within it. The stone celebrated its ordinariness. Something stirred within me. In contrast, unlike the stone I camouflage myself through wearing myriad masks that distance me from my Essence and thereby from others too.
Paradoxically, as we move into a state of awareness and begin to peel away our lifetimes of masking, life becomes simpler and joyful. Benjamin Hoff in The Tao of Pooh writes about the wisdom of learning from ordinary everyday events and occurrences that have hidden messages for our souls – the P’u or the Principle of the Uncarved Block.
From Science Daily:
A new report appearing in The Journal of Leukocyte Biology argues that human missions to Mars, as well as all other long-term space flights might be compromised by microbial hitchhikers, such as bacteria. That’s because long-term space travel packs a one-two punch to astronauts: first it appears to weaken their immune systems; and second, it increases the virulence and growth of microbes.
this is the feast of the dead, the night of the ever-turning year wheel. the gates between the worlds are open this night. the footsteps of my ancestors rustle in the fallen autumn leaves. the winds carry their voices into this world. all those who wish me well are welcome within this sacred circle….life is an unending cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. those who are called to the Otherworld are never lost to us forever. for this i give them honor and love. — wiccan prayer
Continue reading about Happy Samhain/Feliz Dia de Los Muertos
From Guy Adams of the Independent (UK):
[caption id="attachment_231" align="alignright" width="300" caption="FIONA WATSON/SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL Ururu, front left, with the last members of the Akuntsu, in a picture taken before she died this month. Most of the tribe was massacred by loggers in about 1990"]
[/caption]The last surviving members of an ancient Amazonian tribe are a tragic testament to greed and genocide
They are the last survivors: all that’s left of a once-vibrant civilisation which created its own religion and language, and gave special names to everything from the creatures of the rainforest to the stars of the night sky.
Just five people represent the entire remaining population of the Akuntsu, an ancient Amazonian tribe which a generation ago boasted several hundred members, but has been destroyed by a tragic mixture of hostility and neglect.
The indigenous community, which spent thousands of years in uncontacted seclusion, recently took an unwelcome step closer to extinction, with the death of its sixth last member, an elderly woman called Ururú.
Please read this excellent article in its entirety here.
Continue reading about Decline of Amazonian tribe; dwindles to just 5 members
In 2004, Micheal Moore went on record:
I don’t agree with the copyright laws and I don’t have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people as long as they’re not trying to make a profit off my labour. I would oppose that. I do well enough already and I made this film because I want the world, to change. The more people who see it the better, so I’m happy this is happening. Is it wrong for someone who’s bought a film on DVD to let a friend watch it for free? Of course it’s not. It never has been and never will be. I think information, art and ideas should be shared.
I have yet to see Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. The fact that Moore did not release his latest documentary under a Creative Commons License, in my view, undermines his credibility, motivation, intention, and message. It’s not like we have the technology to disseminate and distribute films to a wide audience for free.
My view is, if you’re going to criticize an economic system and advocate for a different, more justiciable economic system, then it behooves you as an activist, journalist, and filmmaker to operate within the structures of the more justiciable economic system — especially when those alternative structures already exist. Lead by example. Walk the walk. Get it? What was it that Mahatma Ghandi said, something about “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
What gives Moore? Why isn’t your latest film released on the internet under a CC license? If you honestly oppose the oppressive structures of capitalism, then why do you continue to prop up those structures?
Continue reading about Michael Moore: pirate my film, please
From Renaissance Universal:
A look at how social ecologists picture the ideal society.
by Kenn Kassman
Social Ecologist theory maintains that only through the creation of a just and participatory society can a healthy and benign relationship to the natural world be developed. Presupposing that the domination of humans by humans preceded the domination of nature by humans, the Social Ecologist future is structured to eliminate all hierarchy and delegitimate all forms of discrimination. Every person is viewed as valuable to the community and worthy of community respect and mutual support. Social Ecologists argue that harmony can then be applied to ecological relationships.
From the AP:
Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.
A significant time period for the Mayas does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years.
But most archaeologists, astronomers and Maya say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, Internet doomsday rumors and TV specials such as one on the History Channel which mixes “predictions” from Nostradamus and the Mayas and asks: “Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope?”
It may sound all too much like other doomsday scenarios of recent decades — the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, the Jupiter Effect or “Planet X.” But this one has some grains of archaeological basis.
One of them is Monument Six.
Found at an obscure ruin in southern Mexico during highway construction in the 1960s, the stone tablet almost didn’t survive; the site was largely paved over and parts of the tablet were looted.
It’s unique in that the remaining parts contain the equivalent of the date 2012. The inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation.
However — shades of Indiana Jones — erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible.
Archaeologist Guillermo Bernal of Mexico’s National Autonomous University interprets the last eroded glyphs as maybe saying, “He will descend from the sky.”
Spooky, perhaps, but Bernal notes there are other inscriptions at Mayan sites for dates far beyond 2012 — including one that roughly translates into the year 4772.
And anyway, Mayas in the drought-stricken Yucatan peninsula have bigger worries than 2012.
“If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn’t have any idea,” said Jose Huchim, a Yucatan Mayan archaeologist. “That the world is going to end? They wouldn’t believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain.”
Anishinaabekwe wrote a beautiful piece earlier this year that I recently came across:
What is beauty? Is beauty defined by a mainstream magazine cover where the models are airbrushed, who eat diets of 800 calories a day, wear toxic makeup and use toxic products to wash and style their hair? To some this is beauty. To me this is a definition of self hate, internalized oppression and empowerment that only reigns on the surface.
In my life I have defined beauty as natural, honoring Mother Earth, honoring the Native tradition of beauty and not falling into the trap of consumerism. The trick of mainstream beauty is consumerism, not honoring Mother Earth and economic poverty for women. This is all related and it distracts women from cultivating inner beauty and true empowerment.
Please read the rest of this beautiful piece here.
Continue reading about Beauty, Consumerism, and Environmentalism
Taking back our power is one of the most crucial tasks that confront us on our way to selfhood. How can we ensure that no one can pull our strings and that we retain our right to self-determination?
A message from elder Floyd Red Crow Westerman.
Continue reading about Indigenous Native American Elders Speak
In light of the fact that ancient poet Rumi turns 802 this week, a poem from Rumi:
What is justice?
Giving water to trees.
What is injustice?
To give water to thorns.
Justice consists in bestowing
bounty in its proper place,
not on every root that will
absorb water.
Sistah Robinswing of Black Kos has a beautifully written, inspiring diary up and running this morning, hitting on a very fundamental, essential, foundational theme about innate power and personhood. She takes the time to remind us all that, no matter what, we must persevere with a smile, never give our innate power away, [...]
Ardi, shown here in an artist’s sketch, is a recently discovered ancestor of humans which lived 4.4 million years ago in African woodland.
An artist’s rendition of what the multiverse looks like:
HuffPo has some stunning photos of an unprecedented dust storm:
Continue reading about Stunning Yet Ominous Photos from Sydney Dust Storm
