A Meandering Morning...

I watched the most fascinating video on YouTube this morning. It was a shuttle launch from the astronaut's point of view. You got to experience the launch in the cockpit of the shuttle. It has got to be so exhilarating for the crew.


Groceries Ho!
Maggie and I very forlornly ate the very last of my bacon and eggs this morning. We were both starving after a fitful and restful night's sleep. It is grocery time indeed. I called Papa and told him to call me when he is ready to go grocery shopping this afternoon. He doesn't feel like he will get "caught" at the Piggly Wiggly which is beneficial for me.

"You can bring my Cokes and smokes before we shop," I told my father, hopefully saving him a trip to my house.

I just about can't take going grocery shopping at 9 PM at night. Hell, Maggie and I have been going to bed around 8 to 9 PM these days.

It was almost ten in the morning and he was just waking. I have been up since before sunup. He sounded like the walking dead.

2.5 Billion Year-Old Fossils Found -World's Oldest

At 2.1 billion years old, a new fossil could be the earliest known multicellular life form.The earliest life to display multicellularity is a hotly debated subject, mainly because of questions of definition. Until now, the 1.9 billion year old Grypania fossils, found in Michigan, were widely seen as the first clusters of organized and communicating cells. But new fossils (pictured left), from Gabon, West Africa, may take the prize.

2.5 Billion Year-Old Fossils Found -World's Oldest

Moon Over Sunrise…

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A Tiny Sliver of a Moon…

Life on Mars...

I mistakenly read the other day that they had found microbes on Mars -- a source for the methane in the atmosphere.  It was just an overzealous reporter muddling the words in the report.  I was elated for a moment there, though.  Life on an alien world would challenge many conventions and beliefs held here on earth.  The holy grail of evolution.  Would they have DNA and RNA?  Would they be carbon based or silicon?  It opened up so many questions.

I went to my first AA meeting in weeks last night.  My sponsor had grown very insistent.  The floor was opened up for people to generally just share about what ails them.  It came my turn to talk.  We went around the room as it was a shy group.

"I am struggling with my use of prescription drugs and whether it is harming my sobriety," I blurted out at my turn. "I have become dependent on certain pills to make it through the day."

Nobody said anything about it in the meeting except to, "keep coming back and it works if you work it."

My sponsor talked to me afterwards about when he was first getting sober they didn't have such pills and had persevere on through.

"But I have a mental illness!" I interjected.

"You've used that before to explain your drinking as if your mental illness would be worse without the beer," he told me.

He was right and he knows me well.  I am still not ready to give up the Klonopin, but have gladly given up the Benedryl.  I am at a crossroads.  It feels good to actually have a choice, though.  I never had a choice when drinking I like to lament.  It was beer or misery, or so I thought.   I have a choice to stay sober today and i am.  

A Pleasanter Moment with Mi Familia...

My father kindly brought me a plate of Helen's home cooking during our medication ritual last night.  Three fried fish fillets, lemon wedges, hushpuppies, cole slaw, and potato wedges.  We sat at my kitchen table as I ate and took my pills.

"You seem good today," dad said genuinely interested.

"I feel great!" I replied very exuberantly.  "I treasure nights like tonight."

I told him of watching the shuttle lift off earlier in the evening and how emotional it still makes me.

"Remember Challenger?" dad asked solemnly. 

"I was home from school after getting my tonsils out eating strawberry ice cream.  You were home from work.  We watched it on TV stunned."

Dad left after hugging me and kissing me on my cheek.  That's something that doesn't happen often.  I curled up in the bed with Maggie as I listened to Coast to Coast AM and watched Tru TV on mute.  I wasn't long before I was sound asleep to vivid dreams.  Dreams of past lives when I was still married.  I awoke to feel as if Rachel was in the bed with me.  I almost reached out for her to find only Maggie. 

Particle Accelerator Rap! Word UP!

CERN Rap from Will Barras on Vimeo.

Mars Phoenix....

The first images from Phoenix are starting to pour in. Phoenix landed near the polar region of Mars to look for organic molecules. I just love this stuff and get so excited. I know there are some happy scientists this morning when the images came in. They are breathtaking.




Click here for more images from the Mars Phoenix website.

Don't Forget!

We have a mission to Mars landing today. The Mars' Phoenix lander is set to hurl through the upper atmosphere within the next hour or so. I bet the scientists are all pins and needles waiting for word from the craft.

Mars Phoenix Website

The Aliens Haven't Landed...

I listen to a lot of Coast to Coast AM. One of their favorite topics is UFO's and extra terrestrials. I have always been a staunch skeptic. Phil Plaitt wrote this on his blog today, Bad Astronomy. It is a very valid point.

To his list, I’ll add my #1 reason of all time: why don’t amateur astronomers report them in record numbers? After all, who spends more time looking at the sky? The fact that few if any amateurs report them is a pretty clear case that the vast majority, at least, of all UFO reports are misunderstood mundane objects like airplanes, satellites, reflections, meteors, and Venus. Sometimes even the Moon, amazingly.

When a flying saucer lands on the White House lawn, someone call me.

UFOh Noes!

Moon Amid a Cornflower Sky...

Cassini Space Probe Pictures of Jupiter...

Extremely high resolution image of Jupiter taken from the Cassini space probe. Click to enlarge for more detail.

As seen from the southern pole looking up.

Images courtesy of NASA.

Perspectives...

Earth as seen from 4 billion miles away, photographed by Voyager 1 on June 6, 1990.

Of the "pale blue dot," astronomer Carl Sagan said, "That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Amazing Images of Comet McNaught...

Images courtesy of space.com.

Balls of Ice and Dust…

Did you know there is a comet gracing our twilight skies for the next few days? It is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye. It is very close to the sun so just after the sunset is the best time to view it on the horizon. Phil Plait of badastronomy.com speaks of viewing the comet last night in this video with a webcam image of the comet. Enjoy!

Amazing Spitzer Space Telescope Images

This page contains high-resolution images from the Spitzer Space Telescope which you can interactively zoom into and pan around. JavaScript and a current installation of Flash are required for this page to work correctly.

Amazing photos of such deep sky objects like the Large Magellanic Cloud, Orion Nebula, Andromeda, etc. courtesy of NASA. You can zoom in on Andromeda and see the individual stars in the galaxy!

Spitzer Space Telescope Images

A NJ house hit by a meteorite?

On Tuesday night, an apparent meteor fell through the roof of a house in a small town in New Jersey. There is also a video of a news report of this occurrence although it is filled with the usual crap such news stories bring. Meteorite? Government conspiracy? Sigh.

Another apparent meteorite called the Hodge’s meteorite crashed through the roof of an Alabama home on November 30, 1954 in Sylacauga. Annie Hodges (the only person ever to be known to be hit by a falling meteorite) was sleeping on her couch when an eight pound stony meteorite crashed through her roof. It bounced off her console radio and hit her on her arm and leg, leaving her heavily bruised. The meteorite is on display at the Museum of Natural History at The University of Alabama.

Bright, Full Moon Tonight

I realize the old wife’s tale of the full moon drawing out the crazies is hogwash. I have felt better today than I have since before Christmas. But then again – if you see me wandering the streets tonight naked and babbling incoherently, please put a warm blanket around me and drive me home! I don’t want to go back into the loony bin that is the hospital down the interstate. I value my freedom much too much these days and the hospital is never fun.

Full Moon as seen from my backyard a moment ago.

PS – Fiwa, my father freaks out when I talk about working. The last time I took a part time job (which is allowable by Social Security) they immediately reviewed my case and files. My father swears this is why that happened. Pipe, Latibug, thanks for the comments. I think I will go the volunteer route. I believe the local hospital allows volunteers as I see a lot of senior people down there doing that very same thing. I did look online at VolunteerMatch.com, but all their positions were too far to drive to. I couldn’t afford the gas down to our next largest town everyday to volunteer for the positions with the Red Cross. I will know more tomorrow. I am excited about this. I need to be of service to others like Pipe wrote about on his journal. It will, in turn, help me as well to be a better person.

The Top Ten Astronomy Images of 2006...

Phil Plait, the author and webmaster of Bad Astronomy, takes a look at the top ten astronomy images of 2006. The one with the shuttle undocking from the international space station against the backdrop of the sun as seen from earth is just stunning to me. You also just have to see Saturn and Earth as seen from the Cassini space probe which was one billion miles from us at the time!

I have always been fascinated with astronomy from an early age. The heavens above us could always put things into perspective for me and make our egalitarian endeavors on earth seem so more important and significant. We live on one tiny mote of dust in a vast universe that we have to share until we are able to branch out and move to other locations in our solar system and systems beyond. So we must carefully take care of this tiny rock we reside upon. It is of paramount importance for the future and wellbeing of Mankind.

The Top Ten Astronomy Images of 2006

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Something Shimmering and Bright...

Furthering the astronomy tangent, blogger, writer, and actor, Wil Wheaton, wrote up a blog post on a similar vein about his excitement over backyard astronomy and the offering of a new and free ebook offered online in PDF format that is easily printed.

If you like the weekly “What’s Up this Week” column in Universe Today, you’ll love this. The entire viewing schedule for 2007 is available as a free, 410+ page downloadable ebook. You can download the whole book, turn to the page for tonight’s suggestions - print off the page and head outside.

Check out Wil's latest blog post on his blog WWdN: In Exile for more info and a link to download that ebook.

Aurora Borealis from Space

"This amazing image of the Aurora Borealis was photographed by an STS-116 crew member aboard Space Shuttle Discovery last week. City lights and stars are also visible in this image from space because of the long camera exposure."

Found via digg.com...