THE GHOST HEAD

Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula
Credit: Mohammad Heydari-Malayeri (Observatoire de Paris) et al., ESA, NASA

Explanation: Halloween's origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an equinox (equal day / equal night) and a solstice (minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere). With our modern calendar, however, the real cross-quarter day will occur next week. Another cross-quarter day is Groundhog's Day. Halloween's modern celebration retains historic roots in dressing to scare away the spirits of the dead. Perhaps a fitting modern tribute to this ancient holiday is the above-pictured Ghost Head Nebula taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Appearing similar to the icon of a fictional ghost, NGC 2080 is actually a star forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The Ghost Head Nebula spans about 50 light-years and is shown in representative colors.

 

As I leaned back in my chair, it was easier to see the image in the picture, but what is stange is, at the 6 o'clock position I can see a figure in a hooded cape, and at the four o'clock position, I can see an insect looking form.  Can anyone else see those, or perhaps something else?  Oh well, it is Halloween.

WRITERS" BLOCK #23

  HEARTS   The sky is bleak, clouds black the sky Turning ashen grey with each lightning flash     Winter has turned  trees into ghastly images, shadows of themselves a mockery of what they once were.   Dead leaves Dead grass even the wind moans dead and cold     Even the house seems white, cold and lifeless as lightning tears the air apart     Sounding hollow sounding empty echos, empty echos     But in one room one small room lovers only hear   The sound of rain and gusty winds mixed with thunder far off.   Nature's music     keeping pace with their hearts beating in unison beating in time     With arms entwined and hearts as one lovers listening to one another breathe.     RULES FOR WRITERS' BLOCK at the very bottom left in blue is The Rules, that is a link back to the Writers' Block page.  Thank you.     1. Every Sunday, a new challenge will be posted. One picture will be featured per challenge; your part is to write about that picture. It can be whatever moves you; a poem, story, caption or a quote. Original works only, please. You may also post a video or song that you feel is relevant.

2. You may alter the pic, as long as you can still see the original clearly.

3. Post your challenge response on your blog, tag it with “writers_block” or something to that effect, along with whatever other tags you use.

4. Come back to Writer’s Block and leave a comment that you are participating, so I know to look for it.

5. I ask that you visit at least a few other writers and leave your comments.. In order to make this easier, please make sure your challenge piece is open to all or at least in a medium network.

6. Sometimes part of the challenge will be to include a quote, so please make sure to look under the picture to see if that is so.

7. You have until the following Saturday night (1 week) to post your challenge response and have it linked with the others. If you are late, you can put the link in the comment section.The Rules

I HAVE HEARD OF BEER AND BUFFALO WINGS BUT THIS IS NEW

All this time I thought the Germans had the market on Beer and Breasts,

but it seems the Aussies have done them one better.  I suggest finding a travel agent now.  Have fun, enjoy the read, enjoy life.--John

 

Barmaid fined for crushing beer cans between breasts.

October 24, 2007 - 7:00PM  The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia

Showing patrons she could crush beer cans between her exposed breasts has cost a West Australian barmaid $1000.

Hanging spoons on the barmaid's nipples also cost one of her co-workers $500, while their bar manager was fined $1000 for failing to stop the pair, police said in a statement.

Luana De Faveri, 31, was fined $1000 in the Mandurah Magistrates Court today after pleading guilty to two breaches of Licence Conditions under the Liquor Control Act.

Police said in June this year, De Faveri twice exposed her breasts to patrons in the Premier Hotel in Pinjarra, 87 kilometres south of Perth.

"She was alleged to have also crushed beer cans between her breasts during one of the offences," police said.

Another bar worker, Tracey Amanda Leslie, 43, was fined $500 after pleading guilty to assisting the commission of a breach of the act by helping hang spoons from De Faveri's nipples.

The pub manager, Roy Williams, 43, was fined $1000 after pleading guilty to a breach of the act by failing to stop the women's behaviour.

Superintendent David Parkinson of the Peel Police District said: "It sends a clear message to all licensees in Peel that we will not tolerate this type of behaviour in our licensed premises."

Mt. Lassen Area

HOW AMBER BECOMES A DEATH TRAP

How amber becomes a death trap

Jennifer Viegas Discovery News

Tuesday, 9 October 2007

Amber from the Baltic Sea was once tree resin from ancient conifers. Now scientists have worked out how resin traps insects, preserving them for millions of years (Image: iStockphoto)

Tree resin and water don't mix. So, scientists have long questioned why amber, the fossilised version of tree resin, often contains entombed water-dwelling creatures, such as crustaceans, water bugs and amoebae.

The mystery has just been solved.

A paper published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explains how aquatic organisms can become trapped in the gooey resin.

Lead author Dr Alexander Schmidt, a researcher at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, explains how a water bug found in a chunk of Baltic Sea amber might have met its end.

"We are looking back into the amber forest, 40 million years ago," Schmidt says. "Much resin is dropping from ancient conifer trees, and one of the resin flows reaches a small pond and flows into the water."

Water bugs, swimming fast through the water, become stuck at the resin surface and, trying to escape, they struggle deeper and deeper and finally die," he adds.

"The pond then dries out in the summer, and a flood brings sediment to cover the forest floor, so the resin piece becomes well conserved [later turning into amber]."

Schmidt and co-author Professor David Dilcher from the Florida Museum of Natural History also believe such water dwellers may have died as they were covered with resin flows or when they got stuck in a water droplet that wound up in resin. Some amber preserves whole drops of water.

Down at the swamp

For their study, the researchers observed how resin traps aquatic organisms at a forest swamp just east of Gainesville in Florida.

Using a handsaw, they cut bark from five pine trees to create resin flows into the water.

Once the resin made its way to the swamp, they collected it and analysed the contents under high magnification.

Tree resin collected from swamps like this one in Florida preserves life as varied as water beetles, tiny plants, bacteria and fungi (Image: Alexander Schmidt)

The collected resin preserved practically the entire swamp ecosystem, or at least its smallest inhabitants.

Water beetles, mites, small crustaceans called ostracods, parts of aquatic plants, hairy single-celled creatures called ciliates and even bacteria and fungi were identified in the goo.

Bacteria and fungi need water, so they kept growing in the resin until it dried out and solidified.

If left in the swamp, the resin might have turned to amber if the water level fell and allowed the resin to dry.

Given enough protection by layers of sediment, the amber could survive intact for millions of years.

Schmidt says the oldest amber containing any signs of life dates to 220 million years ago, and was found in the Italian Dolomites. The oldest amber containing insects, around 130 million years old, comes from Lebanon.

"Most amber pieces for jewellery, however, come from much younger deposits, which yield more and bigger pieces," Schmidt says. "So if you find aquatic or terrestrial insects or fungi in your jewellery, they are probably between around 15-50 million years old."

Trees in water

The findings confirm discoveries made by Dr Jorge Santiago-Blay, a US National Museum of Natural History researcher who points out that water and trees often shared space millions of years ago.

"Reconstructions of amber forests frequently depict them as contiguous with aquatic environments, such as rivers, estuaries or seas," he says.

While excavating one such forest in Chiapas, Mexico, he found a barnacle, water tubeworms, an oyster and a clam in amber dating to 15-20 million years ago.

In the future, studying the ancient organisms trapped over eons in amber may help scientists recreate prehistoric water ecosystems and understand how they changed over time.

 

 

Links to Amber Inclusions:

 

http://www.amberworldmuseum.com/

 

http://www.3dotstudio.com/amberhome.html

 

http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~i18m/amber.html

 

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/amber/varieties.html

TOP TEN REASONS TO STAY ON BOARD THE TITANIC

 

TOP TEN REASONS TO STAY ON BOARD THE TITANIC
1) They say it is unsinkable.  (Just who is 'they'?)
2) It's really big!
3) The furniture is nice.
4) The service was okay. (until 'they' got in a lifeboat)
5) Hitting the ice berg was all planned to make the ship     bigger and better in the future.
6) Everything is okay, it was designed to take on water.
7) Leaving the ship in mid-atlantic makes room  at the     pier for the bigger and better one they are building in      the future.  (There is 'they' again!!)
8) Because 'they' say everything will be okay. (We must find out who 'they' is!!)
9) If we go down with the ship, they guarantee us room on the bigger and better one, of course built by the same 'theys' who built the first one!
10)  The ice berg is soooo pretty in the starlight the closer the deck gets to water level.

AGINCOURT - ST. CRISPIAN'S DAY -- OCT. 25, 1415

ST. CRISPIN'S DAY -- AGINCOURT Oct. 25, 1415

 

"The Battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415 : in progress"
48" x 84" Oil on Paper on Panel
© 2005 Donato Giancola

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One of the great speeches of the English language. Although fictional and written by William Shakespeare almost two hundred years after the battle, I would like to believe Shakespeare captured some oral tradition of what King Henry V said on that day.

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St. Crispin's Day Oct. 25, 1415

Agincourt, France

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This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

William Shakespeare --HENRY V, 1599

Pre-Battle Speech of Agincourt delivered by Kenneth Branaugh

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'Thousands of slain, thousands of wounded, writhing with anguish, and groaning with agony and despair... It would be well for kings, politicians and generals, if, while they talk of victories and exultation, and of defeats with philosophical indifference, they would allow their fancies to wander to the theatre of war, and field of carnage.'

(Moyle Sherer after surveying the field, after the battle of Albuera. 1811)

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Crispin and Crispian were once the Catholic patron saints of cobblers, tanners, and leather workers. Born to a noble Roman family in the 3rd century AD, Saints Crispin and Crispinian, twin brothers, fled persecution for their faith, winding up in Soissons, where they preached Christianity to the Gauls and made shoes by night.--Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia

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SOME LINKS TO AGINCOURT and KING HENRY V INFORMATION

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http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/M/monarchy/battles/agincourt.html

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http://home.eckerd.edu/~oberhot/agincourt.htm

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http://www.answers.com/topic/henry-v-king-of-england

Writer's Block #22

MNEMOSYNE

<>

The Hallway is dark

cobwebs and dust

Pictures hung askew on the walls

Pictures and portraits from my past

<>

Deeds I have done on the walls

Things I have said written in the dust

Doors half hinged

Rooms filled with shadowy things half remembered

<>

But there is one door I cannot pass

A room I will not enter

where the memories are too painful.

<>

<>

Please look over Writers' Block, a fun weekly challenge!

NEANDERTHALS AND THE POWER OF SPEECH

"Pardon me, my mammoth is a bit bland, do you , by chance happen to have any grey Poupon?"

We keep going further and further away from the long held belief that Neanderthal was a brute, incapable of speech, or art. How vain we are in our veneer of civilization. Neanderthal buried his dead with care, with a thought to an afterlife, Mother Goddess/fertility statues have been found, part of a bone flute like instrument has been recovered, and forensic work has shown they took care of their wounded, hurt, and elderly. Could we do as well if our society, or civilization suddenly was taken from us. I tend to think they would do better at adapting coming into our world, than we going into theirs.--John

Neanderthals Had Key Speech Gene, Researchers Say

But did they have much to say?

By Lucy Sherriff

The REGISTER, UK

Published Friday 19th October 2007 10:22 GMT

Neanderthals may have a reputation in popular culture as a lumbering, grunting people, but researchers have discovered that they did have a gene thought to play a key role in speech.

Samples of DNA were retrieved from two Neanderthal fossils found in a cave in northern Spain. Careful examination revealed that the pair both had the FOXP2 gene. The human version of this gene is different from the chimp version in two places, leading scientists to speculate that these changes are responsible for our ability to speak. The Neanderthals both had the human version.

The findings push back the emergence of a particular gene in the human family tree by some 300,000 years, to the time when the Neanderthal and modern human populations diverged. Previously, the gene was thought to have swept through the modern human population just 50,000 years ago.

But their being capable of speech doesn't prove that we would have been able to sit down with the "cavemen" and have a natter over a cup of tea (proving that our evolutionary cousins could speak is pretty much impossible, given the absence of contemporary sound recording equipment).

Communication is so important to survival

However, Svante Paabo, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who extracted the critical parts of the gene, told the New York Times: "There is no reason to think Neanderthals couldn't speak like humans with respect to FOXP2, but obviously there are many other genes involved in language and speech."

To work out exactly what changes might be wrought in a brain with the human version of FOXP2, the researchers have turned to mice.

Dr Paabo has grown a batch of lab mice whose FOXP2 genes have been replaced with the human version, and says that although their behaviour is unchanged "there seems to be a change in vocalisation. They squeak in a different way". The mice also have extra connections in their brains.

Critics of the work have suggested it could have been contaminated by human DNA, and while Paabo acknowledges this as a possibility, he says he does everything he can to minimise that chance.

You can read more about Dr Paabo's work here. ®

PICTURE PERFECT FRIDAY -- UNUSUAL

LADYBUG I and TUFFY

Not much stranger than seeing these two buddies together. LadyBug was Dad's first Beagle, and Tuffy was in between a long line of cats. Dad and Mom had retired when this picture was taken in the early 80's. They traveled all over this great and beautiful country in a fifth wheel trailer, and Mom drove the VW Camper Van for their short trips from where they parked the trailer and truck.

Tuffy would ride with Mom in the VW, and LadyBug would wrap herself between Dad's neck and the neck rest. When they pulled over, these two could not wait to campare notes! Tuffy was trained to a walking harness, and when Dad got LadyBug ready for her walks, Tuffy would more often than not be right there wanting to go with them. Which meant Mom had to go along to walk Tuffy. LadyBug loved the Tuffy, but was a bit put off if Dad handled her leash too.

The looks LadyBug recieved from fellow travelers who saw her as their cars went by were worth their weight in gold, but the looks the two of them got playing together, or walking together, or napping together were priceless.

Friends who can nap together, a few things better, but not many. Hope you enjoy the pic, sure brought back some fond memories.

LUCKY DOG BLUES BY KEVIN CLARK,

ANNACHIE GORDON -- LORENNA McKENNITT

I found this treasure of a song when seaching for Lorenna McKennitt. I had not heard it before, might be a fairly new release, or perhaps an old one. (update: Markus, a fellow 360er, informed me this is from one of her early albums, thanks Markus) It reminds me so much of the haunting ANNABELL LEE by Poe. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.--John

ANNACHIE GORDON

Traditional song

arranged and sang by Loreena McKennitt

Harking is bonny and there lives my love
My heart lies on him and cannot remove
It cannot remove for all that I have done
And I never will forget my love Annachie

For Annachie Gordon he's bonny and he's bright
He'd entice any woman that e'er he saw
He'd entice any woman and so he has done me
And I never will forget my love Annachie.

Down came her father and he's standing at the door
Saying Jeannie you are trying the tricks of a whore
You care nothing for a man who cares so much for thee
You must marry Lord Sultan and leave Annachie

For Annachie Gordon is barely but a man
Although he may be pretty but where are his lands
The Sultan's lands are broad and his towers they run high
You must marry Lord Sultan and leave Annachie.

With Annachie Gordon I beg for my bread
And before I marry Sultan his gold to my head
With gold to my head and straight down to my knees
And I'll die if I don't get my love Annachie

And you who are my parents to church you may me bring
But unto Lord Sultan I'll never bear a son
To a son or a daughter I'll never bow my knee
And I'll die if I don't get my love Annachie.

Jeannie was married and from church was brought home
When she and her maidens so merry should have been
When she and her maidens so merry should have been
She goes into her chamber and cries all alone.

Come to my bed my Jeannie my honey and my sweet
To stile you my mistress it would be so sweet
Be it mistress or Jeanne it's all the same to me
But in your bed Lord Sultan I never will lie

And down came her father and he's spoken with reknown
Saying you who are her maidens
Go loosen up her gowns

And she fell down to the floor
And straight down to his knee saying
Father look I'm dying for my love Annachie.

The day that Jeanne married was the day that Jeannie died
And the day that young Annachie came home on the tide
And down came her maidens all wringing of their hands

Saying oh it's been so long, you've been so long on the sands
So long on the sands, so long on the flood
They have married your Jeannie and now she lies dead.

You who are her maidens come take me by the hand
And lead me to the chamber where my love she lies in
And he kissed her cold lips till his heart it turned to stone
And he died in the chamber where his love she lies in.

DO NOT TOUCH MY INTESTINES -- CHOCOLATE

I had my doubts about this article at first. But it just might prove there are actual aliens living with us. There are 'people' walking among us with strange bacteria in their internals, and most convincing of all THEY DO NOT LIKE CHOCOLATE!!!! Aliens? Or something else? You decide, but leave my chocolate alone!!--John

Chocolate Cravings Tied to Bacteria

By Seth Borenstein -- October 12, 2007

Researchers compared the blood and urine of 11 men who were indifferent to chocolate to 11 similar men who ate chocolate daily. They were all healthy and were fed the same food for five days. The researchers examined the byproducts of metabolism in their blood and urine and found that a dozen substances were different between the groups

If that craving for chocolate sometimes feels like it is coming from deep in your gut, that's because maybe it is.

A small study links the type of bacteria living in people's digestive system to a desire for chocolate. Everyone has a vast community of microbes in their guts. But people who crave daily chocolate show signs of having different colonies of bacteria than people who are immune to chocolate's allure.

That may be the case for other foods, too. The idea could eventually lead to treating some types of obesity by changing the composition of the trillions of bacteria occupying the intestines and stomach, said Sunil Kochhar, co-author of the study. It appears Friday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Proteome Research.

Kochhar is in charge of metabolism research at the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. The food conglomerate Nestle SA paid for the study. But this isn't part of an effort to convert a few to the dark side (or even milk) side of cocoa, Kocchar said.

In fact, the study was delayed because it took a year for the researchers to find 11 men who don't eat chocolate.

Kochhar compared the blood and urine of those 11 men, who he jokingly called "weird" for their indifference to chocolate, to 11 similar men who ate chocolate daily. They were all healthy, not obese, and were fed the same food for five days.

The researchers examined the byproducts of metabolism in their blood and urine and found that a dozen substances were significantly different between the two groups. For example, the amino acid glycine was higher in chocolate lovers, while taurine (an active ingredient in energy drinks) was higher in people who didn't eat chocolate. Also chocolate lovers had lower levels of the bad cholesterol, LDL.

The levels of several of the specific substances that were different in the two groups are known to be linked to different types of bacteria, Kochhar said.

Still to be determined is if the bacteria cause the craving, or if early in life people's diets changed the bacteria, which then reinforced food choices.

How gut bacteria affect people is a hot field of scientific research.

Past studies have shown that intestinal bacteria change when people lose weight, said Dr. Sam Klein, an obesity expert and professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.

Since bacteria interact with what you eat, it is logical to think that there is a connection between those microbes and desires for certain foods, said Klein, who wasn't part of Kochhar's study.

Kochhar's research makes so much sense that people should have thought of it earlier, said J. Bruce German, professor of food chemistry at the University of California Davis. While five outside scientists thought the study was intriguing, Dr. Richard Bergman at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, had concerns about the accuracy of the initial division of the men into groups that wanted chocolate or were indifferent to it.

What matters to Kochhar is where the research could lead.

Kochhar said the relationship between food, people and what grows in their gut is important for the future: "If we understand the relationship, then we can find ways to nudge it in the right direction."

© 2007 Associated Press/AP Online. © 2007 Sci-Tech Today.