December 2011
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Sleepless, Night Traveling, and Tejas in the Tamas →
listening to “Marconi Union – Sleepless” – Second night in a row. What’s up with that? tmblr.co/ZzKIUyE1yhAV— Richard Hudak (@drwh0) December 31, 2011
Tonight, for the second night in a…
Winter Circle up by early evening in late December →
Early this evening, look for the exceptionally brilliant and huge Winter Circle to fill up the eastern portion of sky. This famous sky pattern isn’t a constellation. It’s an asterism: a…
Dec. 31, 2011: The Writer's Almanac →
Saturday’s Poem: “53” by E.E. Cummings, from 100 Selected Poems. Saturday’s Literary Notes: Today is New Year’s Eve, in which the old year is ushered out, and the new one welcomed in, with parties,…
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listening to "Marconi Union - Sleepless" →
Second night in a row. What’s up with that?
“Be earth now, and evensong.” -Rilke => Existential, or Seasonal, Angst? - http://wp.me/p1liiv-bT - Last night I was feeling a little bit of existential, or was it seasonal, angst. Something about
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“The newly regenerated Doctor escapes with his companions back to the TARDIS....”
– BBC - Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide - Castrovalva - Details
This was the episode that heralded the Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davidson, of whom the Sixth Doctor, played by Colin Baker, would say had a “feckless charm.” It’s long been my theory that an initially vulnerable...
Dec. 29, 2011: The Writer's Almanac →
Thursday’s Poem: “The Second Life of Christmas Trees” by Mark Perlberg, from The Impossible Toystore. Thursday’s Literary Notes: The first American Young Men’s Christian Association opened in Boston,…
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“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where...”
– John Muir (via journalofanobody)
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America becoming a nation of renters →
How very Dickensian of us. Occupy your home!
With U.S. unemployment at a lofty 8.6 percent, home foreclosures rising and property prices under pressure, more and more Americans have given up the dream of owning, opting instead to rent, a shift that is remaking the face of the U.S. housing industry.
The percentage of Americans who own their home dropped from a peak of 69.2 percent in late 2004...
On December 27, look for the moon above Venus →
Be sure to head out after sunset to catch a close pairing of bright Venus and a thin waxing crescent moon in the western skies. The moon is waxing, or getting wider, from when it was new on…
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Wild Weather Potential for Tuesday Night
Secure the garden gnomes!Via Andover Patch Subject: Wild Weather Potential for Tuesday Night Date: December 27, 2011 2:00:00 PM EST Andover may see some wild weather Tuesday night.The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather advisory for much of eastern New England Tuesday night, including Andover.Heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected, as well as periods of strong and...
Dec. 27, 2011: The Writer's Almanac →
Tuesday’s Poem: “Nocturne of the Poet Who Loved the Moon” by Mark Strand, from Almost Invisible. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: Today is the birthday of German astronomer Johannes Kepler, born in Weil der…
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Ultima Thule - Musica Atmospherica - Ambient Music... →
Episode 896 is great grading music.
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Yellowstone benefitting from return of wolves,... →
When rangers killed two gray wolf pups near Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone National Park – in the year 1926 – it was the last official kill of wolves in Yellowstone, and the species (Canis…
EarthSky 22: Our shared cosmology →
Host: Jorge Salazar Lead Producer: Mike Brennan
ES 22 Producers: Deborah Byrd, Ryan Britton, Emily Howard
This week:
Our Shared Cosmology. Jorge Salazar speaks with…
perfectionism minefield →
How wonderful to read this acknowledgement from Brenée Brown, social work researcher, who a few months ago was a darling in Anusara circles, her TED talks on vulnerability making the rounds…
Dec. 25, 2011: The Writer's Almanac →
Sunday’s Poem: “My Earliest Memory” by Ray Gonzalez, from The Hawk Temple at Tierra Grande. Sunday’s Literary Notes: Today is Christmas Day. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote: “I heard the bells, on…
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Who’s going to see a white Christmas in 2011? →
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,
just like the ones I used to know.
Where the treetops glisten and children listen
to hear sleigh bells in the snow.
The holidays are here, which…
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“It was on this day in 1914 that the last known Christmas truce occurred along...”
– The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor 12/24/11
John McCutcheon’s song: “Christmas in the Trenches.”
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Brian Arredondo, R.I.P.
I wrote about my feelings about this earlier in the week. Here’s what Cindy Sheehan said.
via UJP
“He Suffered So Much”
May 10, 1987 to December 19, 2011 by Cindy Sheehan
Brian Arredondo was 17 when his 20 year-old brother, Alex, a U.S. Marine, was killed in Iraq on 25 August, 2004. He was 24 this past Monday, 19 December, when he took his own life.
Carlos Arredondo, the...
I am enjoying the juvenescence of the solar year.
Images of Comet Lovejoy, now visible from Southern... →
Comet Lovejoy surprised a lot of people when it survived a very close encounter with the sun on December 16, 2011. It skimmed through the solar corona where temperatures reach up to two…
Bright Solstice Blessings! →
Since I was a Boy Scout staring at the night sky, I have been interested in things astronomical. I have been listening to EarthSky for many years, initially on WUMB-FM, but now on podcast. I…
Dec. 22, 2011: The Writer's Almanac →
Thursday’s Poem: “December” by Gary Johnson. Thursday’s Literary Notes: Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and the astronomical…
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Frankincense production doomed, warn ecologists →
Trees that produce frankincense – used in incense and perfumes across the world and a key part of the Christmas story – are declining so dramatically that production of the fragrant resin…
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Dec. 21, 2011: The Writer's Almanac →
Wednesday’s Poem: “Crow” by Mary Oliver, from Owls and Other Fantasies. Wednesday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of novelist and journalist Rebecca West, who was born Cicely Isabel Fairfield in…
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Robert Reich: Why the Republican Crackup is Bad... →
Amen, brother.
robertreich:
Two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, the Republican crackup threatens the future of the Grand Old Party more profoundly than at any time since the GOP’s eclipse in 1932. That’s bad for America.
The crackup isn’t just Romney the smooth versus Gingrich the bomb-thrower.
Not just House Republicans…
listening to "Bruce Cockburn - Messenger Wind... →
“The wind that blows through everything / Sweeps out the halls of my heart when I sing to you… Here is bigger than you can imagine / Now is forever”
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Hilarious Holiday episode of The Moth
Simon...
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The War's Not Over
I’ve just received the sad news that the second son of a Gold Star Family for Peace has taken his life. A Gold Star Family is one who has lost a family member in the line of duty and those identifying themselves as “for peace” are explicitly anti-war. The older son was killed in Iraq early in the war. The younger did enlist as well, but accounts are that his unprocessed grief...
Dec. 20, 2011: The Writer's Almanac →
Tuesday’s Poem: “Human Beauty” by Albert Goldbarth, from The Kitchen Sink. Tuesday’s Literary Notes: Today is the birthday of American physicist Robert Van de Graaff (1901), born in Tuscaloosa,…
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Use the Night theme in iBooks 1.5 for easy reading...
I wonder how this works on a plane.Subject: Use the Night theme in iBooks 1.5 for easy reading in low light. Date: December 19, 2011 4:27:17 PM EST iBooks 1.5 includes new fonts and ways to customize your reading experience, including a night theme which switches the display to white text on a black background. Besides providing you with excellent readability in low light, it also...
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“It’s going to be a magnificent Oratorio. People will want to hear it over...”
– Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (PHC) 