Wednesday, November 29

Hey Google! I’m still active…

Haven't been here in quite some time but would not like my posts to "disappear". May even take to posting again if anyone still reads these things.

Monday, May 11

The Gnome in the Hot Tub



I lost THE GAME...did you?

Posted on behalf of my darling daughter, Jessica.

If you don't know to what this refers, please excuse the post. Those who understand will undoubtedly find a way to extract their revenge...

Tuesday, April 7

Monday, April 6

Reaching for the Light



From SPACE.com staff:

"Tiny and dying but still-powerful stars called pulsars spin like crazy and light up their surroundings, often with ghostly glows. So it is with PSR B1509-58, which long ago collapsed into a sphere just 12 miles in diameter after running out of fuel.

And what a strange scene this one has created.

In a new image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, high-energy X-rays emanating from the nebula around PSR B1509-58 have been colored to reveal a structure resembling a hand reaching for some eternal red cosmic light. In this picture, red represents low-energy X-rays, the medium range is green, and the most energetic ones are colored blue.

The star now spins around at the dizzying pace of seven times every second -- as pulsars do -- spewing energy into space that creates the scene."

Strong magnetic fields, 15 trillion times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, are thought to be involved, too. The combination drives an energetic wind of electrons and ions away from the dying star. As the electrons move through the magnetized nebula, they radiate away their energy as X-rays.

The red light actually a neighboring gas cloud, RCW 89, energized into glowing by the fingers of the PSR B1509-58 nebula, astronomers believe.

The scene, which spans 150 light-years, is about 17,000 light years away, so what we see now is how it actually looked 17,000 years ago, and that light is just arriving here.

Wednesday, March 25

Draw Me a Picture; I Don't Understand!

Miz Minka got me again! This is now the third "Brain Scan" I've completed (although I must admit, the ever-harder-to-spot draggingfly dragged me into the other two).

I must admit, these things offer a wonderful, though temporary, refuge from the serious stuff of everyday life. Thanks for the break, ladies!

Your Brain Usage Profile:

Auditory : 43%
Visual : 56%
Left : 44%
Right : 55%

felipe, you possess an interesting balance of hemispheric and sensory characteristics, with a slight right-brain dominance and a slight preference for visual processing.

Since neither of these is completely centered, you lack the indecision and second-guessing associated with other patterns. You have a distinct preference for creativity and intuition with seemingly sufficient verbal skills to be able to translate in any meaningful way to yourself and others.

You tend to see things in "wholes" without surrendering the ability to attend to details. You can give them sufficient notice to be able to utitlize and incorporate them as part of an overall pattern.

In the same way, while you are active and process information simultaneously, you demonstrate a capacity for sequencing as well as reflection which allows for some "inner dialogue."

All in all, you are likely to be quite content with yourself and your style although at times it will not necessarily be appreciated by others. You have sufficient confidence to not second-guess yourself, but rather to use your critical faculties in a way that enhances, rather than limits, your creativity.

You can learn in either mode although far more efficiently within the visual mode. It is likely that in listening to conversations or lecture materials you simultaneously translate into pictures which enhance and elaborate on the meaning.

It is most likely that you will gravitate towards those endeavors which are predominantly visual but include some logic or structuring. You may either work particularly hard at cultivating your auditory skills or risk "missing out" on being able to efficiently process what you learn. Your own intuitive skills will at times interfere with your capacity to listen to others, which is something else you may need to take into account.


Sudden thought: Wouldn't it be fun to construct one of these puppies that returns humorous insults rather than the saccharine platitudes that fill the results of most online quizzes?

Sunday, February 8

What a Wonderful World

For Catsinger and Miz Minka, who both seem to be having a tough time of it recently despite being exemplary cat people. Hope this lifts your collective spirits, if only a wee bit.

Friday, January 9

John the Baptist



Johnny's Mother looked out the window and noticed him 'playing church' with their cat. He had the cat sitting quietly and he was preaching to it. She smiled and went about her work.

A while later she heard loud meowing and hissing and ran back to the open window to see Johnny baptizing the cat in a tub of water. She called out, 'Johnny, stop that! The cat is afraid of water!'

Johnny looked up at her and said, 'He should have thought about that before he joined my church.'




A tip o' the hat to our neighborhood zoologist!