Best wishes for many blessings in 2010!
I will not be governed by the tyranny of immediacy.
~Mary Anne Radmacher
Winter Solstice… today!
“In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.” ~ William Blake
The word Solstice, means in Latin Sun stands still. This is so because, the arc of the sun’s visibility in the sky seems to stabilize for the winter solstice – making the sun rise and set in the place for several days.
So why is the solstice on December 21st and Christmas held on December 25th?
Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied from culture to culture, but most cultures have held a recognition of rebirth, involving holidays, festivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations around that time. And as long as there is a Winter Solstice there is the promise of life renewed.
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IF • Frozen
People tend to focus on the here and now. The problem is that, once global warming is something that most people can feel in the course of their daily lives, it will be too late to prevent much larger, potentially catastrophic changes.
~ Elizabeth Kolbert (American journalist – author)
original painting – private collection – Memphis, TN – USA – “The Dip”
watercolor, wax, rice paper, sewn • 24″H x 24″W • © Lisa Rivas
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All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it’s here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster. BARACK OBAMA, speech, Apr. 3, 2006
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“Red Spot” challenge!
A dynamic modern painting is occurring on Jupiter…
…plus the "Great Red Spot" is being challenged! imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2008.
Jupiter's Great Red Spots,
Credit NASA,
ESA,
M. Wong, I. de Pater (UC Berkeley),
et al.
The Great Red Spot is a great anti-cyclonic (high pressure) storm akin to a hurricane on Earth, but it is enormous (three Earths would fit within its boundaries) and it has persisted for at least the 400 years that humans have observed it through telescopes.
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An upstart storm now (since 2006) rivals the gas giant Big Red Spot as king of storms. A third red spot has appeared alongside the Great Red Spot and Red Spot Jr. in the turbulent Jovian atmosphere.
NASA/ESA/U.C. Berkeley
