I did not forget John Lennon.
30 years ago this morning was when I found out he was murdered...something no one could ever imagine.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
ON: Black Holes in Space
From APOD:
Too Close to a Black Hole
What would you see if you went right up to a black hole?
Above is a computer generated image highlighting how strange things would look.
The black hole has such strong gravity that light is noticeably bent towards it - causing some very unusual visual distortions.
Every star in the normal frame has at least two bright images - one on each side of the black hole.
Near the black hole, you can see the whole sky - light from every direction is bent around and comes back to you.
The original background map was taken from the 2MASS infrared sky survey, with stars from the Henry Draper catalog superposed.
Black holes are thought to be the densest state of matter, and there is indirect evidence for their presence in stellar binary systems and the centers of globular clusters, galaxies, and quasars.
Then, there's MY version:
The Light-bender
Too Close to a Black Hole
What would you see if you went right up to a black hole?
Above is a computer generated image highlighting how strange things would look.
The black hole has such strong gravity that light is noticeably bent towards it - causing some very unusual visual distortions.
Every star in the normal frame has at least two bright images - one on each side of the black hole.
Near the black hole, you can see the whole sky - light from every direction is bent around and comes back to you.
The original background map was taken from the 2MASS infrared sky survey, with stars from the Henry Draper catalog superposed.
Black holes are thought to be the densest state of matter, and there is indirect evidence for their presence in stellar binary systems and the centers of globular clusters, galaxies, and quasars.
Then, there's MY version:
The Light-bender
An Early Gift for All!
From a woman who goes by the moniker 'Hesperos Rising' comes this beauty.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Why bake, when Maurice Lenell does it for you?
They're back!
Maurice Lenell cookies!
And they taste better than ever!
Thank you sooo much, Bach brothers!
Maurice Lenell cookies!
And they taste better than ever!
Thank you sooo much, Bach brothers!
Purchased yesterday at my local Dominick's (owned by Safeway)
Jeff and Russell Bach with a customerBrothers bring back city classic -- Maurice Lenell
From the crumbling of the famed Maurice Lenell Cooky Co. comes a new Chicago store to peddle the sweets.
A pair of Chicago brothers have opened a spot to sell the cookies, the first retail store dedicated to the brand since the company's 2008 shuttering of operations in Norridge.
Since Russell and Jeff Bach opened The Cookie Store and More, 3829 N. Harlem, on Nov. 28, they have heard stories of childhood trips to the old cookie factory.
The store carries the full line of nine flavors of Maurice Lenell cookies, along with sweets from other manufacturers.
While a couple of varieties are available at area Dominick's and Jewel stores, many people are unaware that the cookies are still being sold, said Russell Bach, 43, a Maurice Lenell distributor.
"I see the demand and how much it affects the people in the Chicago area as far as the history behind it; the customer loyalty," he said. "People in Chicago don't even realize that Maurice Lenell is still available."
The Bachs' store is five blocks south from the original factory and outlet store. The cookies are made by Ohio-based Consolidated baking Co., using the same recipes.
"We're trying to bring back the good old days," said Jeff Bach, 45, a restaurateur. "It's almost like customers are going to the Fountain of Youth or something."
The pair can count on Don Slovin, 84, to buy the cookies.
As a Prudential Insurance Co. salesman -- the company's top agent in two years of his four-decade career -- Slovin gave holiday gifts of boxes of cookies to 400-500 customers each year.
He has continued the practice, even after retiring in 1980s.
He also gives the cookies as gifts to nurses who care for his disabled wife; a local gas station employee, and others. And boxes are set out during the appreciation luncheon he and his wife chair for their Galena homeowners association.
"Everybody knows me as the cookie man," Slovin said.
"I used to say the greatest sales tool I have is giving Maurice Lenell cookies away to my customers."
My Christmas Memo to Obama: Even John Milton Knew!
John Milton, Poet
(9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674)
"No man who know aught can be so stupid to deny
that all men naturally were born free."
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
From my Window: The Frost for the Trees?
I am certain this is not the only frost I will photograph on my windows this winter, but it is the first!
Kind of a nice abstraction, isn't it?
Even MORE 'Tis the Season...almost!
The following are examples of more Christmas decor I created...and donated today, not to a nursing home, but to a local social service organization for women. I hope you and THEY enjoy them!
Oh, and BTW, here's a window sign I did back around Christmas of 2005--UPDATED, of course. Why?
Because I am so totally disgusted with our pResident, who claims to be a Christian, who insists on calling this "Winter Holiday"! It is the time designated as "Christmas", and no one will be hearing "Happy Holidays" from me--and I really don't care if any of you get offended!
Years ago, we spoke of 'putting Christ back into Christmas', but these days, talk of Christ can get your throat slit.
I was talking with my fave CPD officer today, who was at a shopping center, sitting in his squad and watching people, while also looking down occasionally to read--the BIBLE!
His words were: "Well, I'm a sinner. And I belive in Jesus Christ. So when I can, I read the Bible."
No girlie mags, no internet porn, no garbage for my friend...how refreshing!
Please, remember Christmas IS about Christ, the Jesus, and please try to shop locally for any gifts you may give in His name.
Thank you, and Merry Christmas to all!
Oh, and BTW, here's a window sign I did back around Christmas of 2005--UPDATED, of course. Why?
Because I am so totally disgusted with our pResident, who claims to be a Christian, who insists on calling this "Winter Holiday"! It is the time designated as "Christmas", and no one will be hearing "Happy Holidays" from me--and I really don't care if any of you get offended!Years ago, we spoke of 'putting Christ back into Christmas', but these days, talk of Christ can get your throat slit.
I was talking with my fave CPD officer today, who was at a shopping center, sitting in his squad and watching people, while also looking down occasionally to read--the BIBLE!
His words were: "Well, I'm a sinner. And I belive in Jesus Christ. So when I can, I read the Bible."
No girlie mags, no internet porn, no garbage for my friend...how refreshing!
Please, remember Christmas IS about Christ, the Jesus, and please try to shop locally for any gifts you may give in His name.
Thank you, and Merry Christmas to all!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
"A date which will live in infamy"--FDR, Dec. 8, 1941
December 7, 1941
The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history.
A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion.
America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.
Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression.
The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials.
Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued.
In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan.
From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.
By late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials (and they were well-informed, they believed, through an ability to read Japan's diplomatic codes) fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines.
Completely unanticipated was the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well.
The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans.
Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December.
Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged.
Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead.
Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.
These great Japanese successes, achieved without prior diplomatic formalities, shocked and enraged the previously divided American people into a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since.
For the next five months, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, Japan's far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition.
American and Allied morale suffered accordingly. Under normal political circumstances, an accomodation might have been considered.
However, the memory of the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor fueled a determination to fight on.
Once the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 had eliminated much of Japan's striking power, that same memory stoked a relentless war to reverse her conquests and remove her, and her German and Italian allies, as future threats to World peace.
More at Solar Navigator...
*********
Please take a moment today to remember those thousands who died during this heinous attack.
And study HISTORY...that you may learn from your mistakes as so many of us have!
The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history.
A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion.
America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.
Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression.
The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials.
Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued.
In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan.
From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.
By late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials (and they were well-informed, they believed, through an ability to read Japan's diplomatic codes) fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines.
Completely unanticipated was the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well.
The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans.
Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December.
Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged.
Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead.
Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.
These great Japanese successes, achieved without prior diplomatic formalities, shocked and enraged the previously divided American people into a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since.
For the next five months, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, Japan's far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition.
American and Allied morale suffered accordingly. Under normal political circumstances, an accomodation might have been considered.
However, the memory of the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor fueled a determination to fight on.
Once the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 had eliminated much of Japan's striking power, that same memory stoked a relentless war to reverse her conquests and remove her, and her German and Italian allies, as future threats to World peace.
More at Solar Navigator...
*********
Please take a moment today to remember those thousands who died during this heinous attack.
And study HISTORY...that you may learn from your mistakes as so many of us have!
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