Category Archives: Quotes
The Elegance of Wonder
“I’d rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.” Gerry Spence
Light Echoes from V838 Mon
What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon’s outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the entire Milky Way Galaxy in January 2002. Then, just as suddenly, it faded. A stellar flash like this had never been seen before — supernovas and novas expel matter out into space. Although the V838 Mon flash appears to expel material into space, what is seen in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope is actually an outwardly moving light echo of the bright flash.
Image and text from Nasa Images of the Day.
Click here to enjoy other spectacular photos.
On Making What I See In My Mind Become Reality
The white picket fence I’ve always wanted is up, the deck I envisioned in my mind is built, the four cubic yards of gravel that make the patio and parking court is dispersed and the first 30 plants are in the ground, the results, at least according to Blackberry, are spectacular!
And me? Well I am pooped but pumped.
13 years we have lived in our house and to see what I have always imagined come to life is exciting and well, it reminds me in this “I want it and I want it now” world that when we plan and prioritize and then apply a blend of effort and patience we really can have it all, in time…
“And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes,
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of toast and tea.”T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Charlotte’s Incommunicado
The western world, my dear McGee, is being turned into one vast cruise ship, and there is a shortage of cruise directors.”
Meyer from a Deadly Shade of Gold by John D. MacDonald
Sometimes it just does my soul good to put aside my cellphone, shut down the computer and just enjoy the world around me. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last three days and I have enjoyed it so much I’m going to keep doing it for a few more.
But before I go again, I thought I would share with you one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs, for as Jimmy so often does, he just has this way of capturing my mood in a song.
May you all have a great start to your week! 
All Are But Parts Of One Stupendous Whole
“He, who through vast immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
Observe how system into system runs,
What other planets circle other suns,
What varied Being peoples every star,
May tell why Heaven has made us as we are.”
Alexander Pope, An Essay On Man, 1734
* * *
“The photograph, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, captures a small region within M17, a hotbed of star formation. M17, also known as the Omega or Swan Nebula, is located about 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.
The wave-like patterns of gas have been sculpted and illuminated by a torrent of ultraviolet radiation from young, massive stars, which lie outside the picture to the upper left. The glow of these patterns accentuates the three-dimensional structure of the gases. The ultraviolet radiation is carving and heating the surfaces of cold hydrogen gas clouds. The warmed surfaces glow orange and red in this photograph. The intense heat and pressure cause some material to stream away from those surfaces, creating the glowing veil of even hotter greenish gas that masks background structures. The pressure on the tips of the waves may trigger new star formation within them.
The image, roughly 3 light-years across, was taken May 29-30, 1999, with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The colors in the image represent various gases. Red represents sulfur; green, hydrogen; and blue, oxygen.”
Image and text from Hubblesite.org
