Gone...

Cleaning their Clock

Barry, pay attention now!

"Teach us to number our days."

The Wolf Moon: Going out tonight?

Biggest and Brightest Full Moon of 2010 Tonight

Tonight's full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features on the moon.

This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name.

But why will this moon be bigger than others? Here's how the moon works:

The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. The moon's orbit around Earth – which causes it to go through all its phases once every 29.5 days – is not a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse.

One side of the orbit is 31,070 miles (50,000 km) closer than the other.

So in each orbit, the moon reaches this closest point to us, called perigee. Once or twice a year, perigee coincides with a full moon, as it will tonight, making the moon bigger and brighter than any other full moons during the year.

Tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year, according to Spaceweather.com.

As a bonus, Mars will be just to the left of the moon tonight. Look for the reddish, star-like object.

Full moon craziness

Many people think full moons cause strange behavior among animals and even humans. In fact several studies over the years have tried to tie lunar phases to births, heart attacks, deaths, suicides, violence, psychiatric hospital admissions and epileptic seizures, and more. Connections have been inclusive or nonexistent.

The moon does have some odd effects on our planet, and there are oodles of other amazing moon facts and misconceptions:

A full moon at perigee also brings higher ocean tides. This tug of the moon on Earth also creates tides in the planet's crust, not just in the oceans.

Beaches are more polluted during full moon, owing to the higher tides.

In reality, there's no such thing as a full moon. The full moon occurs when the sun, Earth and the moon are all lined up, almost. If they're perfectly aligned, Earth casts a shadow on the moon and there's a total lunar eclipse. So during what we call a full moon, the moon's face is actually slightly less than 100 percent illuminated.

The moon is moving away as you read this, by about 1.6 inches (4 cm) a year.

The moon illusion

Finally, be sure to get out and see the full moon as it rises, right around sunset. Along the horizon, the moon tends to seem even bigger. This is just an illusion.

You can prove to yourself that this is an illusion. Taking a small object such as a pencil eraser, hold it at arm's length, and compare its size to that of the moon just as it rises. Then repeat the experiment later in the night and you'll see that the moon compares the same in both cases.

Alternately, snap two photos of the moon, with a digital camera or your cell phone, when the moon is near the horizon and later when it's higher in the sky. Pull both photos up on your computer screen and make a side-by-side comparison.

Astronomers and psychologists agree the moon illusion is just that, but they don't agree on how to explain it.

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So now you know all about the moon, right.? And you're going to go roust about all the loonies, right?

Best you should be in Washington, DC, and have your cameras at the ready!

There are all sorts of surprises THERE!

Last Night's Treat: Pizza from Scratch!

The crust:

1 tsp. dry yeast dissolved in 1/4 C. warm water (add 1/4 tsp honey--it helps the yeast). Let that sit until it begins to froth a little.

In a bowl, combine:

1 1/2 C. unbleached flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt
a generous sprinkling of dried oregano, dried basil, and dried crushed red pepper

Add the yeast and approximately 1/2 C more warm water (you've got to have a 'feel' for how much is needed). You can also add a T. or so of olive oil at this point.

Mix thoroughly and turn out on a floured surface. Knead for several minutes, then place in a bowl which has been rubbed with olive oil. Cover the bowl and set in a warm place.

At this point, you can chop garlic, slice mushrooms and grate mozzarella cheese.

When the dough has risen by half, turn it out into a pizza pan which has been rubbed generously with olive oil. Nudge the dough carefully to the edges of the pan.

My favorite ingredient here is pesto sauce, which I usually thin with a bit of olive oil. This pizza required 3 T. of pesto; then I loaded it with garlic, Crimini mushrooms, fire-roasted red peppers and a generous sprinkling of grated Romano cheese.
Here's how it looked, ready for the oven!

I slid it into a pre-heated 425 degree oven for about 14 minutes, then added the grated mozzarella and let it bake until the cheese got bubbly (about 6 minutes more).

And then, it was done! A nice crisp-but-chewy, flavorful crust with very healthful toppings!

I then sat and watched "Abraham Lincoln" (1930, with Walter Huston) on IMDb, before hitting Fox Live for the SOTU.

My pizza was much more spectacular than the speechifying, thank you!

Dissing the SCOTUS? What a schlub!

Justice Mouths 'Not True' as Obama Slams Court

Screen capture, found on YouTube, showing Justice Samuel Alito at left

WASHINGTON -- The man in the House chamber openly disagreeing with President Barack Obama as he spoke to Congress wasn't an over-the-top Republican or a seething Democrat. He was a Supreme Court justice, Samuel Alito.

Obama had taken the unusual step of scolding the high court in his State of the Union address Wednesday. "With all due deference to the separation of powers," he began, the court last week "reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections."

Alito made a dismissive face, shook his head repeatedly and appeared to mouth the words "not true" or possibly "simply not true."

A reliable conservative appointed to the court by Republican President George W. Bush, Alito was in the majority in the 5-4 ruling.

Senate Democratic leaders sitting immediately behind Alito and other members of the high court rose and clapped loudly in their direction, with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., leaning slightly forward with the most enthusiastic applause.

The rest is here.

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"With all due deference to the separation of powers..."--an interesting line, isn't it? Even more interesting was the underlying snide tone of the president's voice.

The impression given is that the president would like to 'do away with' the separation of powers. He, who knows very little American history, seems to continue to think that the Office of President of the United States automatically grants him dictatorial rights over the citizens of this great nation!

Obama seems to not understand the words of a former President, Abraham Lincoln:

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."

CBS Lies!

These shots ARE worth another thousand words. Compare, and see for yourself.

The caption reads:

Tokyo

A shopper watches flat panel TV screens showing live broadcast of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address from Washington at Yamada Denki discount store in Tokyo, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010.

But, where are Nancy and Joe? And the RED tie?

This caption reads:

Glenview, Ill.

Kiran Gyawali, a salesperson with an electronic store, watches President Barack Obama deliver his State of the Union address in Glenview, Ill., Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010.

Even my own poor vision can tell the difference.

Does CBS, like the president, think we are stupid?

Ooooh! Aaaah! ARGH!!

Chicago cancels July 3 fireworks show

That rumble you just heard was the old man, rolling over in his grave!

They said he was soooo SMART?

That was then...

...this is now.

Some things just never change, do they?