I have to give props to Iowa and the Raptor Resource Project for this live streaming web cam of nesting bald eagles. Babies due to hatch April 1, 2011! No, that's not an April Fool's joke; that's naturalists' estimation of incubation time for bald eagles. Be amazed!
Live Videos by Ustream
(You will have to suffer through some commercials before the video loads.)
Friday, March 25, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
It must be Spring because...
...it's been raining... Ok, ok, at least it's not snow, but still...I need me some sunshine.
...my tulips and daffodils poked their green shoots out of the ground and grew an inch overnight.
...almost every woman in my office got a new Spring haircut - including me. You probably can't tell much, since I'm using my iPhone for pictures because our camera broke 6 months ago and we haven't gotten around to buying a new one. Now I'm wearing short curly layers in my hair, instead of long straight layers. You know it's Spring when women change their hairstyles en masse.
Hooray, it's officially Spring -- my favorite season!!!
...my tulips and daffodils poked their green shoots out of the ground and grew an inch overnight.
Saturday
Sunday
...almost every woman in my office got a new Spring haircut - including me. You probably can't tell much, since I'm using my iPhone for pictures because our camera broke 6 months ago and we haven't gotten around to buying a new one. Now I'm wearing short curly layers in my hair, instead of long straight layers. You know it's Spring when women change their hairstyles en masse.
Hooray, it's officially Spring -- my favorite season!!!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Do you still twinkle, little stars?
Do you remember the stars?
When was the last time you saw the Milky Way in the night sky? Can you see all the constellations in the sky above your house anymore?
I love seeing the night sky and all the stars and planets. I'm not into astronomy; it's the sheer magnificence and mystery of the night sky that beguiles me.
When I was a dreamy romantically-infused teenager, I used to slip out of our house on summer nights...no, not meet a boyfriend or run off to hang with a gang of other teenagers...to sit atop our picnic table in the back yard and gaze up at the stars. I would pull my long brown hair up off my sticky shoulders and use my hand full of hair to support the back of my head. I was wrapped by a blanket of warm, humid summer air and lulled by the melody of crickets singing in the damp night grass.
I was mesmerized by the stars in the dark sky above…their cool bright twinkling…their sheer numbers. The Milky Way seemed like a tapestry woven of bright diamonds hung across the sky. Yes, I saw a few manmade satellites winking across the sky, but they were from the earth; they didn't hold the same mystique as the stars. The stars were beyond my reach…the universe was beyond my comprehension. As a dreamy teenager, the stars were like my future – out of reach, but bright with possibility. (I was a big fan of the TV series “Star Trek”.)
Fast forward...ummm…quite a few years…to the light pollution which plagues the world now. I can still see stars from the deck of our current house, but I can’t see the Milky Way. Even though we live at the edge of our city limits, the glowing light from the city fills the sky, and the light from the streetlight in front of our house stretches blindingly through the yard to the deck at the back of our house. On warm nights in early August, I still go outside and sit on our deck and scan the sky for meteors from the Perseids meteor shower. I know I am missing all but the brightest meteors because the light from that streetlight is in my face and the sky is awash with light from the city. I am sad; I miss the ethereal beauty of the stars that I remember from night skies past.
An article from CNN’s blog coverage of the action at SXSW in Austin, TX, really hit home with me.
This article was about Ian Cheney the director of the documentary film, "The City Dark," a film shot mostly in the dark of night.
Cheney's documentary poses a simple question: "What do we lose when we lose the night?"
Cheney.....said he grew up in Maine, beneath millions of visible stars. Now that he lives in New York, he can sometimes count the number of stars he sees on two hands.
So what's the problem? The film lays out a few physical concerns, like possible links to cancer and the increasing challenges astronomers have to see "the killer asteroid." The audience cheered when a wayward sea turtle, attracted to the city lights, turned itself around and made it to the ocean. Cheney's film explores humans' spiritual and emotional attachment to darkness, and the natural light from the sky. He argues that darkness is like wilderness, something to be protected, and there are ways to build those protections into cities.
I wish I'd been in Austin to see the film.
I wish I could see the Milky Way again.......
 |
| image from Wikimedia Commons |
When was the last time you saw the Milky Way in the night sky? Can you see all the constellations in the sky above your house anymore?
I love seeing the night sky and all the stars and planets. I'm not into astronomy; it's the sheer magnificence and mystery of the night sky that beguiles me.
When I was a dreamy romantically-infused teenager, I used to slip out of our house on summer nights...no, not meet a boyfriend or run off to hang with a gang of other teenagers...to sit atop our picnic table in the back yard and gaze up at the stars. I would pull my long brown hair up off my sticky shoulders and use my hand full of hair to support the back of my head. I was wrapped by a blanket of warm, humid summer air and lulled by the melody of crickets singing in the damp night grass.
I was mesmerized by the stars in the dark sky above…their cool bright twinkling…their sheer numbers. The Milky Way seemed like a tapestry woven of bright diamonds hung across the sky. Yes, I saw a few manmade satellites winking across the sky, but they were from the earth; they didn't hold the same mystique as the stars. The stars were beyond my reach…the universe was beyond my comprehension. As a dreamy teenager, the stars were like my future – out of reach, but bright with possibility. (I was a big fan of the TV series “Star Trek”.)
Fast forward...ummm…quite a few years…to the light pollution which plagues the world now. I can still see stars from the deck of our current house, but I can’t see the Milky Way. Even though we live at the edge of our city limits, the glowing light from the city fills the sky, and the light from the streetlight in front of our house stretches blindingly through the yard to the deck at the back of our house. On warm nights in early August, I still go outside and sit on our deck and scan the sky for meteors from the Perseids meteor shower. I know I am missing all but the brightest meteors because the light from that streetlight is in my face and the sky is awash with light from the city. I am sad; I miss the ethereal beauty of the stars that I remember from night skies past.
An article from CNN’s blog coverage of the action at SXSW in Austin, TX, really hit home with me.
This article was about Ian Cheney the director of the documentary film, "The City Dark," a film shot mostly in the dark of night.
Cheney's documentary poses a simple question: "What do we lose when we lose the night?"
Cheney.....said he grew up in Maine, beneath millions of visible stars. Now that he lives in New York, he can sometimes count the number of stars he sees on two hands.
So what's the problem? The film lays out a few physical concerns, like possible links to cancer and the increasing challenges astronomers have to see "the killer asteroid." The audience cheered when a wayward sea turtle, attracted to the city lights, turned itself around and made it to the ocean. Cheney's film explores humans' spiritual and emotional attachment to darkness, and the natural light from the sky. He argues that darkness is like wilderness, something to be protected, and there are ways to build those protections into cities.
I wish I'd been in Austin to see the film.
I wish I could see the Milky Way again.......
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Facebook Status Update
Nah, not really. I don't even have a Facebook page. Partly because I can barely keep up regular blog posting - obviously. How could I add the job of Facebook updating? And don't get me started on watching my co-workers spend all day at work frolicking in the absurd circus that FB can be. "Farmville"? I don't need to play "Farmville" -- I live in Iowa, with goats and geese on one side of our housing division, corn and bean fields on the other. Not to mention I don't need my employer to know that I have a blog where I complain about my job.
I don't have much that I care about posting on a Facebook page, if i had one. But I stumbled on this article about a Facebook status update that has gone viral for posting as one's FB status.
It started with a Facebook status update. Upset at the media's coverage of Charlie Sheen, someone took up for American soldiers dying in Afghanistan.
"Charlie Sheen is all over the news because he's a celebrity drug addict," it said, "while Andrew Wilfahrt 31, Brian Tabada 21, Rudolph Hizon 22, Chauncy Mays 25, are soldiers who gave their lives this week with no media mention. Please honor them by posting this as your status for a little while."
I hadn't found time for a blog post this week, even though the rest of the blogosphere is engaging in a "Charlie Sheen blog carnival". Charlie Sheen will burn out before I ever have time to write about him, not that he's even worthy of mentioning. This suggestion was worthy of my making time for a quick post before I go to bed. Consider this my "Facebook status update". Hope this suggestion is worthy of a status update on your Facebook page, too, if you have one.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/index.html
I don't have much that I care about posting on a Facebook page, if i had one. But I stumbled on this article about a Facebook status update that has gone viral for posting as one's FB status.
It started with a Facebook status update. Upset at the media's coverage of Charlie Sheen, someone took up for American soldiers dying in Afghanistan.
"Charlie Sheen is all over the news because he's a celebrity drug addict," it said, "while Andrew Wilfahrt 31, Brian Tabada 21, Rudolph Hizon 22, Chauncy Mays 25, are soldiers who gave their lives this week with no media mention. Please honor them by posting this as your status for a little while."
I hadn't found time for a blog post this week, even though the rest of the blogosphere is engaging in a "Charlie Sheen blog carnival". Charlie Sheen will burn out before I ever have time to write about him, not that he's even worthy of mentioning. This suggestion was worthy of my making time for a quick post before I go to bed. Consider this my "Facebook status update". Hope this suggestion is worthy of a status update on your Facebook page, too, if you have one.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/index.html
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Shopping for a new car just got more complicated
We have enough to worry about already when we buy a new car - crash test ratings, mileage, reliability, resale value - now we have to worry about whether the car is attractive to spiders?
The latest automobile news story: Spiders Lead to Mazda Recall
I can only laugh because I don't own a Mazda6. Seriously - eewww. I.do.not.like.spiders. Our favorite local car salesman, Kirk, will be rolling his eyeballs, and so will Meester...the next time we look at cars because I will be asking "Never mind the gas mileage - what is the spider attraction rating?"
The latest automobile news story: Spiders Lead to Mazda Recall
Mazda is recalling about 52,000 Mazda6 sedans in the U.S., because yellow sac spiders like to build their nests in part of the fuel system.
"A certain type of spider may weave a web in the evaporative canister vent line and this may cause a restriction of the line," Mazda said in a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
There have been 20 reported cases of spider infestation in the Mazda6 -- all have been in cars with 4-cylinder engines, none with V6's..... It's unclear why this particular spider -- the yellow sac spider -- seems to prefer the model year 2009 and 2010 Mazda6, company spokesman Jeremy Barnes said. "Maybe they just like cars that go 'Zoom-Zoom'," he said.
I can only laugh because I don't own a Mazda6. Seriously - eewww. I.do.not.like.spiders. Our favorite local car salesman, Kirk, will be rolling his eyeballs, and so will Meester...the next time we look at cars because I will be asking "Never mind the gas mileage - what is the spider attraction rating?"
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