The Battle of Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes
on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves"
inside us all..

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed,
arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority,
and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,
kindness, benevolence,empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grand son thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
"Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

3D Barringer Meteorite Crater

Hi All, Sorry I've been "out of the picture".. All is well. I've just been really busy with something.... I'll fill ya'all in later. God bless America!

Credit & Copyright: Stefan Seip (Astro Meeting)
Explanation: Barringer Meteorite Crater, near Winslow, Arizona, is one of the best known impact craters on planet Earth. View this color stereo anaglyph with red/blue glasses to get a dramatic sense of the crater's dimensions -- one mile wide, and up to 570 feet deep. (A cross-eyed stereo pair is available here.) Historically, this crater is the first recognized to be caused by an impact rather than a volcanic eruption. Modern research indicates that the impactor responsible, a 300,000 ton nickel-iron meteor, struck some 50,000 years ago. Estimates suggest that it was about 130 feet across and was traveling over 26,000 miles per hour. For comparison, the asteroid or comet impactor that created the Chicxulub crater 65 million years ago, and is thought to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, was 6 to 12 miles across.

IC 4603: Reflection Nebula in Ophiuchius

Credit & Copyright: Takayuki Yoshida
Explanation: Why does this starfield photograph resemble an impressionistic painting? The effect is created not by digital trickery but by large amounts of interstellar dust. Dust, minute globs rich in carbon and similar in size to cigarette smoke, frequently starts in the outer atmospheres of large, cool, young stars. The dust is dispersed as the star dies and grows as things stick to it in the interstellar medium. Dense dust clouds are opaque to visible light and can completely hide background stars. For less dense clouds, the capacity of dust to preferentially reflect blue starlight becomes important, effectively blooming the stars blue light out and marking the surrounding dust. Nebular gas emissions, typically brightest in red light, can combine to form areas seemingly created on an artist's canvas. Photographed above is roughly four square degrees of the nebula IC 4603 near the bright star Antares toward the constellation of Ophiuchus.

Markarian's Eyes

Credit & Copyright: Ken Crawford (Rancho Del Sol Observatory)
Explanation: Across the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster lies a string of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain. Prominent in Markarian's Chain are these two interacting galaxies, NGC 4438 (left) and NGC 4435 - also known as The Eyes. About 50 million light-years away, the two galaxies appear to be about 100,000 light-years apart in this sharp close-up, but have likely approached to within an estimated 16,000 light-years of each other in their cosmic past. Gravitational tides from the close encounter have ripped away at their stars, gas, and dust. The more massive NGC 4438 managed to hold on to much of the material torn out in the collision, while material from the smaller NGC 4435 was more easily lost. The remarkably deep image of this crowded region of the universe also includes many more distant background galaxies.

Happy Anniversary Jerusalem

It's been 40 years!

"On 7 June heavy fighting ensued. Gur's paratroopers entered the Old City of Jerusalem via the Lion's Gate, and captured the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. The Jerusalem brigade then reinforced them, and continued to the south, capturing Judea, Gush Etzion and Hebron. The Harel brigade proceeded eastward, descending to the Jordan River. In the West Bank, one of Peled's brigades seized Nablus; then it joined one of Central Command's armored brigades to fight the Jordanian forces which held the advantage of superior equipment and were equal in numbers to the Israelis." ~ Wikipedia

That guy in the center is cute!

When are the sons of allah going to leave this tiny country alone? Good grief, they are a mere 6 million people amongst 200 million SOAs....

Dust Sculptures in the Rosette Nebula

Credit & Copyright: Ignacio de la Cueva Torregrosa
Explanation: What creates the cosmic dust sculptures in the Rosette Nebula? Noted for the common beauty of its overall shape, parts of the Rosette Nebula, also known as NGC 2244, show beauty even when viewed up close. Visible above are globules of dark dust and gas that are slowly being eroded away by the energetic light and winds by nearby massive stars. Left alone long enough, the molecular-cloud globules would likely form stars and planets. The above image was taken in very specific colors of Sulfur (shaded red), Hydrogen (green), and Oxygen (blue). The Rosette Nebula spans about 50 light-years across, lies about 4,500 light-years away, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros).

Chavez

I think its fascinating watching a country chose socialism, and then self-destruct under the yoke of the inevitable dictator. It's hard to believe that in the 21st Century, people would actually chose this form of national suicide after it's been demonstrated over and over and over and over to be such a failed political system. The government will never do things as well as people in a competitive environment. I guess people never really grow up, and think ‘good government’ is like a big daddy who will take care of them.

Did you hear the wife of TB David say 'I just think it's horrible that the government didn't stop us from taking that flight.' How about a little personal responsibility?

Messier 65

Credit & Copyright: Volker Wendel
Explanation: M65 is a big, beautiful spiral galaxy, the sixty-fifth object in the famous astronomical catalog compiled by 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier. It's also a member of a picturesque trio of large spiral galaxies known as the Leo Triplet, about 35 million light-years away. This sharp view of M65 shows off the galaxy in remarkable detail, with tightly wound spiral arms and dust lanes stretching into a core dominated by the yellowish light from an older population of stars. In fact, M65 seems to be the least disturbed of the Leo Trio, though it is close enough to be interacting gravitationally with the other two galaxies (not seen here). Very nearly edge-on to our line-of-sight, M65 is about 100,000 light-years across, similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy.