When reciting sonnets while walking briskly, figure fourteen sonnets per mile. . . . You should be able to balance a good conductor’s baton one and one quarter inch up the shaft from the handle. If it balances any further up the shaft than that, you will find yourself holding the baton incorrectly to compensate. Your arm will get tired.
Two highly auspicious astronomical events are occurring right now that everyone should be made aware of. We have a highly unusual green comet from deep space in our midst and a second moon for earth.
Historically comets are thought to portent severe change and are often thought of as the grim reaper. The facts that this comet is green, from unknown origin, orbits the sun counter to all the other planets and has a large atmosphere three times the size of Jupiter are significant. Per astronomers, it may also develop twin tails.
A 10km, (6.2 mile) diameter asteroid suddenly captured by earth as a second moon is quite unusual and auspicious. Expected to be with us for over a year is it really an asteroid or something else? With our current knowledge of torsion field energy we may be seeing influences on our emotions and behavior.
Fortunately Comet Lulin will be making its closest approach to earth during the new moon. (On its return to deep space) An observers group will be driving out to the western bluff of the Belen Mesa on Monday evening, (Feb. 23rd) to experience this once in a lifetime event. We will be using telescopes, binoculars, digital cameras and green lasers. In addition to viewing the comet we will be photographing orbs and viewing the very prevalent UFOs and alien spacecraft activity. I hope that you can join us. Below is a copy of the science press release. Enjoy! Gary 🙂
What might be the best naked-eye comet of the year is approaching the Earth and growing brighter every day. It’s Comet Lulin, named for the Chinese observatory where it was discovered in 2007.
The new comet’s formal name is Comet C/2007 N3. The new comet will be the brightest towards the end of the month. The comet will be a magnitude 5 or 6 in brightness. It is rather large in size with an “atmosphere” of emitted particles (called a coma) three times the diameter of Jupiter. The atmosphere consists of cyanogen (CN) and diatomic carbon (C2), gases that glow green when exposed to the light of the sun.
Comet Lulin currently is in the constellation of Libra, rising about 4 a.m., but as we progress through January and February, the comet will move through the constellations of Virgo and Leo and will rise at the much more reasonable hour of 7 p.m.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Comet Lulin is its unusual orbit around the sun. Although it orbits in nearly the same plane that the Earth does, it does so backwards. Earth and all of the major planets orbit the sun counterclockwise as viewed from above Earth’s North Pole, but Comet Lulin is going against the flow, moving around the sun in a clockwise direction. Because it is moving in the opposite direction that Earth moves, the two will pass each other at the breakneck speed of nearly 40 miles per second, or 140,000 miles per hour.
On the night of closest approach to Earth, Feb. 24, Comet Lulin will be moving at an astounding 5 degrees per day across our line of sight. Its motion against the background stars will be evident through a small telescope or even binoculars.
Another fascinating aspect of Comet Lulin’s orbit is that it is parabolic rather than elliptical. That means that Comet Lulin doesn’t make regular, periodic visits to the inner solar system, but it is in an orbit so large that this might be the very first time it has passed through the inner solar system and felt the warmth of the sun on its solidly frozen ices. Consequently, predicting the behavior of this newcomer is speculative at best. So far, it has been at or slightly ahead of its theoretical brightness curve. If this trend continues, Comet Lulin is expected to reach fourth magnitude at its peak. That’s bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye from dark, rural locations.
A pair of ordinary binoculars always enhances your view of a comet, and on the night of closest approach, Feb. 24, Comet Lulin and the bright planet Saturn will be in the same binocular field of view, providing an unforgettable sight.
For regular updates on Comet Lulin, check out the NASA Web site www.SpaceWeather.com
But comet Lulin isn’t the only visitor from space.
Barely two weeks ago a 10km wide asteroid came within twice the distance to the moon. This asteroid called 20091313, will follow the Earth for at least a year and will then again disappear into space.
So for a short while the Earth has actually two moons, although one is very small. Had this asteroid hit the Earth it would have impacted with the same force as the atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima. To make sure this does not happen astronomers constantly survey the sky for Near Earth Objects (NEOs).
WASHINGTON – February 16 –
HARVEY WASSERMAN
Author of “Harvey Wasserman’s History of the United States,” Wasserman said today: “Washington inherited substantial riches from his wife Martha, the widow of Daniel Custis, a wealthy plantation owner who died when she was 26. She married George soon thereafter. He was (and is) often referred to as “the richest man in America,” but this title is in dispute. He was an aggressive land speculator who, as a British and then an American officer, did not hesitate to personally profit from the conquests of Indian land. Tax records show he owned more than a hundred slaves in his most prosperous years. Though he began to reject the ‘peculiar institution,’ and stopped buying more in his later years, he was also capable of selling off slaves he didn’t like or trust. At least two personal servants, Hercules and Oney Judge, ran away from his household. He freed a number of slaves when he died in 1799, pending Martha’s death. She died in 1802 after burning the personal letters in her possession (though some survived, including one complaining that their marriage lacked ‘fire between the sheets’).”
Wasserman recently wrote the piece “Was George Washington a gay pot smoker?” He added: “The evidence is also clear that Washington, like many other American farmers, grew significant quantities of hemp. It was (and is) a profitable and reliable cash crop, easy to grow, with no extraordinary demands for cultivation, watering or fertilizing. As a hardy perennial, it needs no year-after-year replanting, pesticides or herbicides. In one of his meticulous agricultural journals, dated 1765, Washington notes his being late in separating the male hemp plants from the female. There is little reason to do that except to make the females ripe for smoking. As a hard-working farmer, Washington would certainly be stunned to hear that hemp is today illegal in the nation he helped found.
“As an exceedingly complex and contradictory character, the Father of Our Country remains a topic of endless controversy and fascination. The last word on his attitudes toward slavery, his farming techniques and the details of his marriage will certainly be debated for centuries to come.”
More Information
Judy Wallman, a professional genealogy researcher in southern California ,
was doing some personal work on her own family tree. She discovered that
Harry Reid’s great-great uncle, Remus Reid, was hanged for horse stealing
and train robbery in Montana in 1889. Both Judy and Congressman Harry Reid
share this common ancestor.
Congressman Harry Reid
The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows in
Montana territory.
On the back of the picture Judy obtained during her research is this
inscription: ‘Remus Reid, horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison
1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton
detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889.’
So Judy recently e-mailed Congressman Harry Reid for information about
their great-great uncle.
Believe it or not, Harry Reid’s staff sent back the following biographical
sketch for her genealogy research:
‘Remus Reid was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory . His business
empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and
intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he
devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking
leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key
player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective
Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held
in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.’
NOW THAT is how it’s done in politics folks! That’s real SPIN.
Washington Times – There’s a “Phelps backlash” out there. Fans and sympathizers have issued a cheeky call to boycott Kellogg’s, the cereal and snack mega-manufacturer that dropped the Olympic swimmer’s lucrative endorsement contract after his experience with marijuana became public a week ago.
“Kellogg’s has profited for decades on the food tastes of marijuana-using Americans with the munchies. In fact, we believe that most people over the age of 12 would not eat Kellogg’s products were they not wicked high,” reads a multipart petition written by Lee Stranahan, a Los Angeles writer and filmmaker.
Pop-Tarts, Cheez-Its and other junk-food favorites of marijuana users figure prominently in the drive, along with mentions of the “freaky” lifestyle of John Harvey Kellogg, who founded the company in 1906. Mr. Stranahan’s petition was featured Friday at the online Huffington Post and elsewhere.
Kellogg’s said it would not renew a lucrative endorsement contract, which will expire at the end of this month, with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps after a photo was published of the athlete smoking marijuana. . .
Among the sponsors, Kellogg’s stands alone in its harsh judgment so far.
Others commercial backers — including Speedo, Omega and Visa — appear satisfied with Mr. Phelps’ public apology for “regrettable behavior” and “bad judgment,” which was made after a British tabloid published a photo of the record-breaking Olympic athlete smoking marijuana at a college house party in November.
None have canceled their reported million-dollar sponsorships.
Eye Wash Station – After 9/11, the fear of another attack on U.S. soil cleanly supplanted the fear of having one’s penis chopped off by a vengeful lover in the pantheon of irrational American fears. While we’re constantly being told that another attack is imminent and that radical Islamic fundamentalists are two steps away from establishing a caliphate in Branson, Missouri, just how close are they? How do the odds of dying in a terrorist attack stack up against the odds of dying in other unfortunate situations?
The following ratios were compiled using data from 2004 National Safety Council Estimates, a report based on data from The National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, 2003 mortality data from the Center for Disease Control was used.
You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack
You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack
You are six times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack
You are eight times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack
You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane
You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack
You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack
You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack
You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack
You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack
You are nine times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack
You are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist
“White man cuts off end of rug, sews it to other end, thinks rug is longer.”
— an old Native American joke about “daylight savings time”
Here are some youtube teasers, and the set list…
Dancin’ In The Streets>
Uncle John’s Band>
Sugar Magnolia
Eyes of the World
<<VP Joe Biden Speech & Dance>>
The Wheel>
Touch of Grey
Box of Rain
<<President Obama Speech 1st
couple dance to ‘At Last’>>
