Hebrews 11:3

"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."

Job 9:5-10

5 "He moves mountains without their knowing it
and overturns them in his anger.

6 He shakes the earth from its place
and makes its pillars tremble.

7 He speaks to the sun and it does not shine;
he seals off the light of the stars.

8 He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads on the waves of the sea.

9 He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

10 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted."

Indian Story

There is a story told by the American Indians that the Great Spirit decided to divide the worlds of animal and man so he gathered all the living beings on a great plain and drew a line in the dirt. On one side of the line stood man --- on the other side stood all of the animals. And that line began to open up into a great crevasse - and at the last moment before it became unreachable, dog leapt over and stood by man. ~~Unknown

Wolves versus Dogs

I saw a most interesting show on National Geographic channel the other day. They said that dogs have 'slippery' genes, hence the variety of sizes etc. Apparently they're the only animal with it. Also, they showed a group of people somewhere in Eastern Europe who are doing research on domestic dogs and wolves. They raised a group of domestics and a group of wolves from puppyhood. Then they tested them. For example, 2 pots were placed at a distance with a human standing between them. A dog (or wolf) was then placed ~ 8' from the pots + person. The person pointed to the pot with actual meat in it. The dog watched the person and went to the pot with the meat. The wolf did not. In a second test they tied a piece of meat to a rag in such a way that the dog (or wolf) could not get to it. The wolf continued to try, becoming very frustrated. The dog tried, then stopped and looked at the human for assistance. It was really fascinating. BTW, my dog thinks she's a wolf. Big time squirrel hunter!

Hanny's Voorwerp

Explanation: What is that green thing? A volunteer sky enthusiast surfing through online Galaxy Zoo images has discovered something really strange. The mystery object is unusually green, not of any clear galaxy type, and situated below relatively normal looking spiral galaxy IC 2497. Dutch schoolteacher Hanny van Arkel, discovered the strange green "voorwerp" (Dutch for "object") last year. The Galaxy Zoo project encourages sky enthusiasts to browse through SDSS images and classify galaxy types. Now known popularly as Hanny's Voorwerp, subsequent observations have shown that the mysterious green blob has the same distance as neighboring galaxy IC 2497. Research is ongoing, but one leading hypothesis holds that Hanny's Voorwerp is a small galaxy that acts like a large reflection nebula, showing the reflected light of a bright quasar event that was visible in the center of IC 2497 about 100,000 years ago. Pictured above, Hanny's Voorwerp was imaged recently by the 4.2-meter William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands by Matt Jarvis, Kevin Schawinski, and William Keel.

nosheepleshere.blogspot.com

Here's an interesting blogger from Havanna: Nosheepleshere

Orchid Light

These watering stakes are really handy! You can use any bottle (this one is from Cranberry Juice)to supply water to a plant via a ceramic stake. It really works terrific in hot climates! You can find them here: OrchidLight.com

Whittacker Chambers

"Witness" by Whittacker Chambers is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. He joined the communist party in America and became a spy for the Soviets in the 30's. After Stalin hooked up with Hitler, he was turned off communism and eventually went to the FBI with info on all the spies in the US government, including Alger Hiss. A huge trial proceeded and Hiss was found guilty. Whittacker Chamber was a great American hero, and his book is fascinating.

I was looking through some old books today, rearranging things, when I decided to look inside an old "Bambi" hard cover to see when it was published. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it was published in 1929 and translated by Whittacker Chambers!!! I remember reading that he was fluent in German and worked as a translator. How cool is that?

Lifespan explained...

This is pretty cute (hat tip mom)
On the first day, God created the dog and said:

'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.'

The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?'

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:

'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.'

The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?'

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:

'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.'

The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?'

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said:

'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years.'

But man said: 'Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten
the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?'

'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

DVR

I have to tell you, DVR (Digital Video Recording) is one of the coolest things I've discovered (besides my IPOD). If you have a desire to learn about anything, you can surf the channels and then record everything on the subject. So.... for example... I wanted to spruce up the house. I watched all these cool shows on remodeling. It was so interesting!

My latest "craze" is cooking. I'm watching the food channel and recording all my favorites! Tonight we're eating homemade pizza! PLUS, you can watch, pause, catch-up, etc... It's really like having a chef teaching you how to cook... really amazing.... so much fun!

Fire Rainbow

Credit & Copyright: Paul Gitto (Arcturus Observatory)
Explanation: What is that inverted rainbow in the sky? Sometimes known as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a circumhorizon arc is created by ice, not fire. For a circumhorizon arc to be visible, the Sun must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky where cirrus clouds are present. Furthermore, the numerous, flat, hexagonal ice-crystals that compose the cirrus cloud must be aligned horizontally to properly refract sunlight like a single gigantic prism. Therefore, circumhorizon arcs are quite unusual to see. Pictured above, however, a rare fire rainbow was captured above trees in Whiting, New Jersey, USA in late May.

Spitzer's Milky Way

Credit: GLIMPSE, MIPSGAL, NASA, JPL-Caltech, Univ. Wisconsin
Explanation: The Spitzer Space Telescope's encompasing infrared view of the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy is hard to appreciate in just one picture. In fact, more than 800,000 frames of data from Spitzer's cameras have now been pieced together in an enormous mosaic of the galactic plane - the most detailed infrared picture of our galaxy ever made. The small portion seen here spans nearly 8 degrees, roughly the apparent width of your fist held at arms length, across the galaxy's center. The full mosaic is 120 degrees wide. Highlighted in the false-color presentation are curving green filaments of light from complex molecules - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - that on Earth are the common, sooty products of incomplete combustion. The PAHs are found in star forming regions, along with reddish emission from graphite dust particles. Blue specks throughout the picture are individual Milky Way stars.

My IPOD

Whew, I have spent the last 3 days uploading our entire CD collection onto my new IPOD. I was having these weird panic attacks (I'm claustrophobic) when we were on vacation, so I thought maybe if I could take along some music next time it would help distract me. I was able to save 3200 songs on this little thing and I still have 62 GB for movies and such. Technology is incredible.

The Dark River to Antares

Credit & Copyright: Máximo Ruiz
Explanation: Connecting the Pipe Nebula to the bright star Antares is a flowing dark cloud nicknamed the Dark River. The murkiness of the Dark River is caused by absorption of background starlight by dust, although the nebula contains mostly hydrogen and molecular gas. Antares, the bright star that appears yellow just below the center of the frame, is embedded in the colorful Rho Ophiuchi nebula clouds. The Dark River, pictured above across the upper left, spans over 20 times the angular diameter of the Moon and lies about 500 light years distant. Other types of nebulas visible here include red emission nebula and the blue reflection nebula.

Icestone

I saw this on TV today. They manufacture countertops out of recycled glass and concrete. How cool looking! Icestone

Niagra Falls in 1911

I thought this was an interesting picture (hat tip mom:>D).