(The Pleiades, visible to the naked-eye [just 430 light years away], are a 100 million year old open star cluster. They contain well over a thousand stars; the "spikes" of light surrounding the bright stars are due to the diffraction of light at the secondary mirror supports. Click on image to enlarge.)
Every Thursday, I post a very large photograph of some corner of space captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and available online from the picture album at HubbleSite.
The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, the time is going by, and I sleep alone. ~~Fragment #52 by Sappho.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
HUBBLE THURSDAY
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
ANOTHER WORD NOW RENDERED MEANINGLESS
Overheard in Buenos Aires: "Yess, yess, he vass my SSSOULMATE!"
For more reading, check out Jill's post at Brilliant at Breakfast. What she said. Plus, I'm so glad Republican Christianist heterosexuals are preserving the sanctity of marriage for all of civilization, aren't you?
[Cross-posted at Group News Blog.]
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
LOLCATS WEEKLY ROUND-UP, 30 JUNE 2009
Here's the weekly best of what I've gleaned from I Can Has Cheezburger efforts. There are some really creative folks out there. As usual, those from little gator lead the pack.
Kitteh Does The Laser Dance
Monday, June 29, 2009
TIME-LAPSE MONDAY
Here's your weekly time-lapse video showing a fascinating natural event. Hat-tip to WordWeaverLynn for the original link, and Wired Science for the article which brought them all to our attention.
JAXA/KAGUYA Earth-Rise and Earth-Set image over the moon, created for YouTube by NnoxS3, who states:
HDTV movie here.
pic: Earth-Rise /set from about 380,000 km away Moon by Kaguya HDTV Cam on November 7, 2007(JST)
The EarthRise image Wide Shot taken from near the North Pole, and the Arabian Peninsula and Indian Ocean can be observed on the Earth.
The Earthset image Tele Shot taken from near the South Pole, and we can see the Australian Continent (center left) and the Asian Continent (lower right) on the Earth. (C) JAXA/NHK
Friday, June 26, 2009
R.I.P. (updated)
No, not Michael or Farrah: Habeas corpus (1215-2009).
The idea that we are citizens instead of subjects. The rule of law instead of Presidential whim.
ProPublica reports that the White House is considering an "executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate suspected terrorists indefinitely".
Citing "three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations", the ProPublica article states Obama's administration has turned away from the option of creating a national security court "to supervise the incarceration of detainees deemed too dangerous to release but who cannot be charged or tried". The reason give for this decision is that "legislation establishing a special court would be both difficult to pass and likely to fracture Obama's own party."
No shit, Sherlock.
If you have legitimate grounds to detain someone in prison, you have enough grounds to charge and try them. At least, that used to be the way things worked, under habeas corpus. Even in 1215, they grasped the justice of this principle.
I hope this article is wrong, utterly wrong. I hope it's the work of Washington Post reporters who are in the pocket of the Religious Right, who would LOVE to see the gains insured by the Magna Carta rolled back to further their chances of restoring theocracy. I hope Obama and his power-hungry, manipulative terriers are not even considering such a step. But I'm starting my mourning now, because it looks bleak.
At least I was born into freedom.
UPDATE: Digby at Hullaballoo has two posts today I recommend reading. The first is Transparent Obscurity, where she speaks of seeing clearly through the "haze of hopenchange" to understand "The irony, of course, is that the man who ran on transparency is actually turning out to be less transparent than the president he excoriated on the campaign trail for his secrecy."
This is a follow-up to her post Legacy, where she directs us to The Nation's article reporting on and validating the ProPublica/Washington Post report I quoted above, Obama Courts Disaster With New Detention Plan.
In each post, Digby refers us to Glenn Greenwald, first to his fact-bearing report Overwhelming majority oppose preventive detention without charges. The second link is to his updated and definitive Obama contemplates Executive Order for detention without charges. Read 'em and do WHATEVER YOU CAN to stop this man's continuation of The Worst of Bush.
[Cross-posted at Group News Blog.]
Thursday, June 25, 2009
HUBBLE THURSDAY
(Interacting Galaxies in Group Arp 194. Click on image to enlarge.)
Every Thursday, I post a very large photograph of some corner of space captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and available online from the picture album at HubbleSite.
Like a ship in the harbor
Like a mother and child
Like a light in the darkness
I'll hold you a while
We'll rock on the water
I'll cradle you deep
And hold you while angels
Sing you to sleep
~~"Lullabye" by Cris Williamson
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
MISCHIEF MANAGED
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs have announced an updated version of their Marauder's Map, including portions of the Appalachian Trail as it extends into the 2-mile coastal road of Argentina.
[Cross-posted at Group News Blog.]
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