This is now my Archives blog. I have moved on to a new blog, but want to keep this one close to my heart as it posesses writings from the past year. I started posting on homeschoolblogger.com in June 2007, with the guidance and lots of loving patience from my daughter, jenn4him, and have learned so much from the experience of laughing and loving with each of you. I liken this blog to a life journal that I cannot simply delete. So, I will look back on it and relfect, from time to time, to see what happened last year.
Employees at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida are accustomed to seeing a lot of action in the skies overhead. But there was something unusual in the airspace on April 7: a sleek F/A-18 Hornet aircraft, one of the U.S. Navy's famed Blue Angels.
The team was on hand to make preparations for the 2008 Space & Air Show at Kennedy Space Center, which is set for Nov. 8 and 9. Hosted by the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the 2008 show will feature several aerial demonstrations in addition to the Blue Angels, including an astronaut rescue simulation performed by the 920th Rescue Wing based at nearby Patrick Air Force Base. In addition to the action in the air, aircraft and space-related exhibits will be displayed on the ground in the viewing area. Astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs will be available for autographs and photos.
When the red supergiant V838 Monocerotis suddenly brightened for several weeks in early 2002, it showed it was cloaked in a never-before-seen cloud structure. The burst of light reflecting off the clouds, called a light echo, was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Photograph courtesy NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Apr. 9, 2008~ NASA Image of the Day~Jovian Mysteries ~
Jovian Mysteries
Detailed analysis of two continent-sized storms that erupted in Jupiter's atmosphere in March 2007 showed that the planet's internal heat plays a significant role in generating atmospheric disturbances. This visible-light image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was taken on May 11, 2007.
Understanding such phenomena is important for Earth's meteorology where storms are present everywhere and jet streams dominate the atmospheric circulation. Jupiter is a natural laboratory where atmospheric scientists study the nature and interplay of the intense jets and severe atmospheric phenomena.
Isle Royale National Park includes a group of islands and the surrounding waters of Lake Superior. Access to the park is via seaplane or ferry service, and from November through mid-April each year, the park is closed to visitors. This isolation has allowed the park to remain relatively pristine, and it was designated a U.S. Biosphere Reserve in 1980.
The most striking aspects of this image are the deep blue waters of the lake around the main island and the long parallel ridges formed from lava flows some 1.2 billion years ago running the 45-mile length of Isle Royale. They have eroded and weathered in the eons since, and most recently, they were scoured by an ice sheet during the last ice age. A more subtle feature is what remains unseen: the entire park is roadless. Visitors to the park either use the network of hiking trails or travel around in small boats.
The island has populations of moose and wolves and the island's isolation allows field biologists to track predator-prey relationships with fewer potential sources of confusion and to observe the impact of sudden change on the relationship. As recently as 1900, there were no moose on the island at all. On the other hand, lynx, caribou and coyotes, all now absent, were observed by visitors.
The park offers its wilderness experience for visiting humans, with 36 campgrounds and 165 miles of hiking trails connecting them. Nor are park visitors the first humans in the area. Archaeological evidence points to seasonal presence of Native Americans who came and, among other things, mined and smelted copper for trade and tools. Settlers used the area during the 1800s and early 1900s before the park was established in 1940. Lake Superior was and still is a major seaway, and historical lighthouses dot the island where they once warned ships of dangerous shallows.
Maintaining the 3,000-plus cherry trees that blossom each spring in Washington, D.C., is a big job for the National Park Service. Every year, Tree Crew members prune the trees, treat bark wounds, monitor for insects and disease, and replace any trees lost to old age or other problems.
Look what Ryan and I found while taking a nature walk in my front yard! One little Crocus peeking through dead oak leaves and ivy. How wonderful! We also observed daffodils growing in lawns up and down our dead end street. Robins in abundance too! Wow! Spring is really here in Indy.
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes teamed up to expose the chaos that baby stars are creating 1,500 light years away in a cosmic cloud called the Orion nebula. This striking composite indicates that four monstrously massive stars, collectively called the "Trapezium," at the center of the cloud may be the main culprits in the Orion constellation, a familiar sight in the fall and winter night sky in the northern hemisphere. Their community can be identified as the yellow smudge near the center of the image.
Swirls of green in Hubble's ultraviolet and visible-light view reveal hydrogen and sulfur gas that have been heated and ionized by intense ultraviolet radiation from the Trapezium's stars. Meanwhile, Spitzer's infrared view exposes carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the cloud. These organic molecules have been illuminated by the Trapezium's stars, and are shown in the composite as wisps of red and orange. On Earth, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found on burnt toast and in automobile exhaust.
Stellar winds from clusters of newborn stars scattered throughout the cloud etched all of the well-defined ridges and cavities in Orion. The large cavity near the right of the image was most likely carved by winds from the Trapezium's stars. Located 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the Orion nebula is the brightest spot in the sword of the Orion, or the "Hunter" constellation. The cosmic cloud is also our closest massive star-formation factory, and astronomers believe it contains more than 1,000 young stars.
We live close to both Chicago and Cincinnati, OH. Sort of in the middle as far as distance. I imagine the climate is warm enough in Cinn. to have these beautiful daffodils blooming everywhere. I am also pretty sure that, with the advent of recent snow showers, there are very few daffodils growing in Chicago. Here I sit, in Indy, watching and awaiting these beautiful harbingers of Spring. Maybe next week?
Steely-vented Hummingbird Photograph by Luis A. Mazariegos
Vivid as the flowers that fuel their hovering flight, hummingbirds, such as this species in Colombia, do more than dazzle the eye. Beneath the pretty plumage these tiny dynamos are marvels of micro-engineering.
Newborn stars peek out from beneath their natal blanket of dust in this dynamic image of the Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Called "Rho Oph" by astronomers, it's one of the closest star-forming regions to our own solar system. Located near the constellations Scorpius and Ophiuchus, the nebula is about 407 light years away from Earth.
Rho Oph is made up of a large main cloud of molecular hydrogen, a key molecule allowing new stars to form from cold cosmic gas, with two long streamers trailing off in different directions. Recent studies reveal more than 300 young stellar objects within the large central cloud. Their median age is only 300,000 years, very young compared to some of the universe's oldest stars, which are more than 12 billion years old.
The colors in this image reflect the relative temperatures and evolutionary states of the various stars. The youngest stars are surrounded by dusty disks of gas from which they, and their potential planetary systems, are forming. These young disk systems show up as red in this image. Some of these young stellar objects are surrounded by their own compact nebulae. More evolved stars, which have shed their natal material, are blue.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
Mar. 25, 2008~ Blue Hole, Lighthouse Reef, Belize, 2002 ~
Approximately 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Belize City, the almost perfectly circular Blue Hole is more than 1,000 feet (305 meters) across and some 400 feet (123 meters) deep.
The hole is the opening to what was a dry cave system during the Ice Age. When the ice melted and the sea level rose, the caves were flooded, creating what is now a magnet for intrepid divers. Today the Blue Hole is famed for its sponges, barracuda, corals, angelfish—and a school of sharks often seen patrolling the hole’s edge.
(Photograph published in "A Celebration of Reefs," August 2003, National Geographic magazine)
We have sold hot cross buns to our bakery customers during Lent for years and years. The hot cross bun is a traditional food eaten after Fat Tuesday and also on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We make a sweet fondant icing and then pipe a Cross onto each and every hot cross bun. The Cross symbolizes the crucifixion of Jesus. I know from personal experience that piping the Cross on dozens and dozens of buns gives one time to reflect on the journey that Christ made in our names.
The hot cross bun's recorded history dates back to the early 1700's when town criers in Christian Europe would sing the song "Hot Cross Buns" hours before sunup during Lent to remind townspeople to feed their children a good meal, as they practiced fasting during daylight hours. A hot cross bun was considered a good source of food as it contained fruit, nuts, and the goodness of whole grains. Below is the song "Hot Cross Buns":
Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
one ha' penny,
two ha' penny,
hot cross buns.
If you have no daughters,
give them to your sons,
one ha' penny,
two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns
As a child, I used to jump rope to this song without knowing it's meaning. I found this song on Wikipedia. If you would like to see its version in entireity or read more about hot cross buns please click on the highlighted link
This is my Archives blog. I have moved to another blog, but will keep this one for it's sweet memories...in the form of posts.
"O God, send forth Your light and Your truth to my life. Let them guide me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell." (Ps 43:3) .
I found this song on 
