Every
now and again I see a picture, or experience a moment of such beauty and
tranquility that all else is forgotten. Just one thing exists….peace in my
soul. I become the moment. Perhaps it does you too, I hope so.
This
too creates that kind of moment. There is so much beauty in this world and it
is all magic.
And
if it can’t be experienced directly it can be found in the writings of those
who have felt it, loved it and recorded it.
Sometimes
with words so eloquent and profound that they bring tears to my eyes and a
special love in my heart. Thank you mom for being a reader and in your gentle,
unobtrusive way of introducing me to the magic of books.
And
within it (the magic) endless opportunities to be astounded if we just take a
minute to “stop the world” as Don Juan suggested to Carlos Castaneda.
Three hearts, two rectangular eyes,
one transparent body: It's the glass octopus, one of the many "aliens of
the deep" that Solvin Zankl Wildlife
Photography captured in the depths of
our oceans: bit.ly/2mC3yNi
And
if we peer into the vastness of The Great Mystery we see wonders beyond
imagination.
The
number of stars now known to be in the universe is:
2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
More than there are grains of sand on the earth. Odds are pretty
good earthlings aren’t the only life forms in the universe.
Attaching is a Hubble photo of “The Pillars of Creation”, a 40-trillion mile tall
cloud of gas and dust forming into new stars. The nebula had lived its
moment and been destroyed over 1000 years by the time the light for this photo
reached Hubble in 1995. In our constantly regenerating universe.
And
thanks to The Hubble Telescope many of the wonders have been disclosed to
us....thank you all that brought that wonderful instrument into our lives.
This
is a Hubble Space Telescope image of a concentration of stars within the
globular cluster NGC 6752.
Hidden among the stars is an image of a
background galaxy that is much farther away. The diminutive galaxy, named by
its discoverers as Bedin 1, measures only around 3,000 light-years at its
greatest extent — a fraction of the size of the Milky Way. Not only is it tiny,
but it is also incredibly
faint. These properties led astronomers to classify it as a dwarf spheroidal
galaxy that is as old as the universe.
It allowed us to spot auroras on Saturn and planets orbiting distant suns. It permitted astronomers to see galaxies in the early stages of formation, and look back to some of the earliest periods in the Universe. It also measured the distances to Cepheid variable stars more accurately than ever before, which helped astrophysicists constrain how fast the Universe is expanding (the Hubble Constant).
It did all of this and more, which is why no space telescope is as recognized and revered as the Hubble Space Telescope. And while it’s mission is currently scheduled to end in 2021, Hubble is still breaking new ground. Thanks to the efforts of a research team from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Hubble recently obtained the deepest images of the Universe ever taken from space.
Back to earth:
Isn’t
this majestic creature just too beautiful for words?
African
Kudu
And
the birds, oh my the birds, once dinosaurs, now ain’t that a hoot! Also
absolute rulers of the terrestrial world (I don’t mean in the aggressive sense
but in that they were so diverse that they were able to occupy almost every
niche in the biosphere) for 150 million years, now rulers of the skies....mind bending!
American
Bald Eagle
Taiwan
Blue Magpie (Urocissa caerulea)
Don’t
know the name of this one but if you think it faked, google “colorful bird
images” and be enchanted. Latest estimated number of bird species in the world –
18,000.
Now
here’s something to consider and exercise one’s imagination. Imagine traipsing through a forest, growing thirsty,
and stumbling on a small pool of water in the knot of a log. How would you
drink it? If you had a straw, you might use that. A dipper cup would be handy.
Or perhaps a sponge?
Faced with this situation, wild chimpanzees employ a
technique called leaf-sponging: they scrunch a ball of leaves in one hand, dip
it in the water, and wring it out into their mouth. But a recent paper in
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences shows that chimpanzees
in Uganda have developed a new technique of sponging — and are passing it along
via social learning.
Some
people honor all this with their art, “good on ya, artisans”!
This artwork is created by Jeffro Uitto. Please credit the artist. https://www.facebook.com/.../les.../2350429158324326/
http://www.jeffrouitto.com/
http://www.jeffrouitto.com/
A tribute to two people who
deserve to be remembered.
Clara Belle Williams was the first
African-American graduate of New Mexico State University.
Williams was born Clara Belle Drisdale in Plum, Texas in October
1885. She pursued her education at the Prairie View Normal and Independent
College, graduating as valedictorian in 1908. She married Jasper Williams
in 1917; their three sons became physicians.[1]
While teaching at Booker T. Washington School in Las Cruces, Williams in 1928 began to enroll for summer classes at New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1937. She was the first African-American to graduate. Williams took graduate classes into the 1950s.[1]
In 1961 New Mexico State University named a street on its campus after Williams; in 2005 the building of the English department was renamed Clara Belle Williams Hall.[2] In 1980 Williams was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws degree by New Mexico State University, which also apologized for the treatment Williams was subjected to as a student.[3]
Vivien
Thomas, African-American surgical technician who developed the procedures used
to treat blue baby syndrome in the 1940s. Thomas was also offered the position
of Chief of Surgery at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins in 1941.
So
many contributions. And check this out, no wonder, eh?
Just
a couple more nods to the pursuit of knowledge.
High-performance golf clubs and airplane wings are
made out of titanium, which is as strong as steel but about twice as light.
These properties depend on the way a metal's atoms are stacked, but random
defects that arise in the manufacturing process mean that these materials are only
a fraction as strong as they could theoretically be. An architect, working on
the scale of individual atoms, could design and build new materials that have
even better strength-to-weight ratios.
In a new study published in Nature Scientific Reports,
researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and
Applied Science, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the
University of Cambridge have done just that. They have built a sheet of nickel
with nanoscale pores that make it as strong as titanium but four to five times
lighter.
A
little archeology
DUNEDIN,
NEW ZEALAND—Katherine Hall of the University of Otago suggests that Alexander
the Great may have died of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological
condition, according to a Live
Science report.
Hundreds
of years after his death, historians wrote that the king of Macedonia had died
at the age of 32 in June of 323 B.C. in Babylon, after a brief illness
characterized by fever and paralysis. Many believed he had been poisoned. The
historic record also suggests that Alexander's body did not decay for seven
days after he was declared dead. Hall suggests these symptoms could be
explained by Guillain-Barré syndrome, which is an autoimmune disorder that
causes gradual paralysis and could have put Alexander into a deep coma
resembling death. In addition, while the syndrome is generally extremely rare,
it occurs more often in the region where Alexander died, particularly in the
spring and summer. For more, go to “In Search of History's
Greatest Rulers: Alexander the Great, King of Macedon.”
A
pencil drawing by a 16 year old Irish girl has won a National Art Competition.
Shania McDonagh is tipped as a future top artist. The man she drew is a
Fisherman and Seaweed Harvester named Coleman Coyne. There's a story in every
line.
It’s
what I grew up taught that showed character, experience and yes, a story in
every line. May The Great Mystery journey with you all.
