Independance Day

Happy 4th of July.
I am proud to be an American.
This is a great country we live in.
My wish for Independence Day is that we can become independent from this war that has us mired in a country that will, in all likelihood, never be totally free from the political and social bickering that holds us there. We have done what we can for the Iraqi people and now it is time for them to take what we have given them and move forward. The people of Iraq must be willing to take control of their future. Their hearts and minds are, after all, theirs. We have given them a good start. They must do what is needed to continue on their rocky, but steady, course to liberty and justice, if that is what they truly what.
Bring our boys and girls in uniform back home. We can not really celebrate Independence till we are free of this conflict. It is a bitter irony, to say the least.



Of course, you know how I celebrate my independence.



1969 holds a special place in my heart. It was the good, the bad and the ugly year. Nostalgia runs rampant, these days.




























































































































































































































































There is a denizen of one of the miserable planes of existence, in Buddist teaching, called the Hungry Ghost. Hungry Ghosts have huge stomachs which always burn with hunger, but tiny throats through which food cannot pass. One may be reborn into this state if he has practiced extreme greed or avarice. The Hungry Ghost must endure this hell until their evil karma is exhausted. Just something to think about. I love you all, by the way.

Could Nuclear Weapons Go Off Like Popcorn?

That is exactly the title of an article I just read. It seems through handling or mishandling, there is a chance that nuclear warheads could be made to explode, and if they are in close proximity to other warheads, could cause them to go off, initiating a "popcorn" effect. What a wicked thought that. I would have thought that nuclear explosions in and of themselves, could not cause other nuclear devices to go off. Don't you need some sort of controlled, precisely shaped explosive charge to get the plutonium to fuse properly? Well, what was all that Manhattan Project about? The most chilling part of this article, for me, was this statement:
"Stefan Michalowski, a senior scientist at the OECD in Paris, France, who researched warhead safety at Stanford University in California in the 1990s, is concerned about the risks of an extreme event such as a firefight with direct gunshots. "The explosion of a boatload of missiles in a port would be an unimaginable catastrophe," he says. "It's a very, very scary thought."
If you can set off a nuclear bomb with a grenade or bullet, what are they doing in ships and planes? Can't we just stick with land based ballistic missiles?
We are children playing with toys.

An example of nuclear ordinance carried by bombers and navel vessels.

Oh, well. What are you gonna do? The military is not going to scape these babies, nor do I think they are going to spend the money to redesign them. We are stuck with these weapons of mass destruction. We just have to hope everyone involved with the care and handling of these toys remembers all the safety precautions. Yeah, right.

Now, how about some missiles that we like to see going off?















































































































































































































Today, I am chanting: "World, hold on."

Twilight

I am so into this read. I guess I am the last person on the planet to get turned on to this book series, but I find it very enjoyable and you should too. Even though it is what some call young adult reading, the story is compelling and well written. If you like Anne Rice and are a Buffy fan, you will get a kick out of this. And it is part of a series. I can't wait to read them all. Check out Stephenie Meyer. You won't be disappointed.

















































































































































































Today, I am taking a few minutes out of my day to clear my mind. Try and think of absolutely nothing. Be here, now, so to speak.

Watch It Grow

Once again, the International Space Station has gotten bigger. With the completion of the last Shuttle mission, the I.S.S. has become a bit more symmetrical with the addition of some new solar panels, along with some other hardware. This photo also shows the Japanese module that was recently added. It is really starting to look like a real space station, now. I hope you don't mind that I am so into this stuff, but I am such a nerd when it comes to space. Remember the space station in the movie, "2001-A Space Odyssey"?






Now, that's a space station. Be sure to click your mouse on both pictures to get the full effect.





















































































































































































































Today, my mantra is: "I am strong and I am healthy."

Mystery

The Homunculus Nebula. What a strange and mysterious name.

This is a Hubble composite photo.

Around 165 years ago, the star, Eta Carinae, began exploding. The resulting ejection of mass and material from this unfathomable explosion formed, and is forming, the Homunculus Nebula. Be sure to click on this picture to really check it out. Stunning.
What a work of art man is. Who said that, was it Shakespeare? Was it in the Bible? Doesn't matter. The sentiment is clear, regardless of who said it. Yes, and I suppose that goes for the ladies, as well, since when we say Man, like that, we also mean Woman. Yeah, let's not get too far off the point. What I mean is, we, as humans, get to feeling that we are pretty important, as far as creations go, and that we are unique as a species. That may be so, all things being what they are in this great Universe, but I wonder if we are that special. You have seen some of the things I have posted, UFO stuff and all, so you know I believe in some form of extraterrestrial life out there. But even if we are the only intelligent life in all the Universe, we are hardly special in comparison to the awesome and magnificent cosmic splendor that surrounds us. Great displays of unimaginable power and size are unfolding daily and over millions of years, around us and barely calculable distances away. I find it amazing that we are here at all. Just one supernova in our vicinity, the unforeseen explosion of one of our gas giant neighbors, or an arrant mass coronal ejection with accompanying gamma ray burst from our Sun, aimed in our direction, and life on Earth would cease to exist in mere minutes.
This is the sort of thing I think about, sometimes. The sort of thing that sends me outside on a cloudless night with my telescope. I don't look at the heavens and pray for our safe passage through the great cosmos. Prayer can have little effect on such things. I do, however, pray for peace on the fragile planet. Pray that we can learn to live with all those other special humans that share this Earth. Pray we can heal this place. Pray that Love with overpower Hate.
When I look up at the sky on a starry night, I see a few million stars of our galaxy of billions of galaxies in this great and expanding Universe. If there was a being that could see all of this wondrous Universe, we, on this one small planet, would surely be undetectable to his eyes.


























































































































































































































































My mantra for today: Be Love...Be Love...Be Love...Be Love...Be Love.........

The Circles Are Evolving

Those crop circles are once again appearing in Great Britain and, boy, are they doozies. As this chart shows, the first one seems to reference the number Pi. Now, tell me some bored prankster- playing human is responsible for this. What is next, I wonder.

Click to enlarge.

Will this be the year, I wonder, when our leaders finally fess up to the fact they know all about alien visitors, but have no idea what to do about them?

An interesting bit of manscaping, but I love it. Let there be hair.

Lars Burmeister

Lars is a model and the current face of Hugo Boss. I can't believe I didn't recognize him when I posted the other picture of him, on my post before last.

My blog is a labor of Love and I hope that shows in the pictures I post.