Geminid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

If you're blessed with a clear sky tonight, step outside some time between 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM and look up. There's nothing like a shower of falling stars to bring a little wonder into your life.

* P.S. December 16: I missed the peak night due to cloud cover, but I saw a great meteor this morning around 5:15 AM. It lasted so long - almost three seconds - and had such a long tail I wasn't sure at first what it was. Best. Sighting. Ever.

It's nice to know you're all star gazers too.

P.P.S :Ed, they're good luck! Remember the old Perry Como song? "Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, never let it fade away... " (Man. I am so frickin' old.)

Burning the Clocks

THE DEATH OF TIME...

"As the solstice comes, time slows down and stops. This is the ebb time, the limbo between years and worlds. In this slack tide of the hourglass the impossible happens. The pendulum stops and we need all our energy to start it moving again.

"A stately cavalcade leads us and our lanterns to the beach. A mourning party plays deep dark drums as they beat out the ending of time. The lanterns are loaded and taken to the great pyre.

"Once we burn our hopes and fears the heat of the fire brings up the new sun, the pendulum starts, the clocks tick and all is saved. The silence is broken by the cheers and music of the new solar year." -- Same Sky



This, my friends, is Solstice done right. It's Burning the Clocks, a new tradition in Brighton, UK. The event is a fabulous brew of theater, art, music, myth, and magic sponsored by the community arts group Same Sky.

Participants create personal clock lanterns of paper and willow, each imbued with the hopes and dreams of its maker. They range from simple pyramids to elaborate sculptures of great size and ethereal beauty.

On Solstice night, the lanterns are lit and carried to the sea in a festival procession through the streets. Costumed dancers, music and drums accompany the journey from the dark streets to the waiting pyre. There, the lanterns are all given to the fire in one mighty blaze that celebrates the return of the light.

Here is the website link: Burning the Clocks. I highly recommend exploring the gallery, the videos, and the 2005 "Vocal Explosion" Soundtrack.

Here's another video that really shows off the lanterns and performers. Sadly, it has been stripped of its audio, but it's still wonderful to watch: Burning of the Clocks Part 2.

I wonder if we could pull this off in Indiana...

Bad Cows. Bad.

There's a guy out there tonight who is in trouble with the law because his cows are licking the neighbor's house. Yep. Licking a house. Licked off a window and a gutter, and probably left a lot of icky cow spit on the siding.

You just never know what the day will bring, do ya?

Shadow Shots: Moon Shadows

Tuesday's full moon inspired my first effort at photography using only moonlight. It was a glowing night, filled with strange, pale light and long, deep shadows. It was a perfectly magical experience but, like magic, it was impossible to capture.


For more shadowy shots, stop by at Harriet's place:

That Pesky Time Warp Thing

This is actually old news, but it's so cool I had to share, just in case you missed it.

You know the new Large Hadron Collider, the one that some thought might create a black hole that would eat the planet? Well, things have gotten even stranger.

A pair of well-respected physicists recently published papers suggesting that the machine may be sabotaged by (buckle up, kids) its own future.

I won't even pretend to understand this well enough to explain it, but it has to do with the quest for the Higgs Boson, A.K.A. "The God Particle" and the possibility that it may not want to be found. Which would be a real bummer, since that's the purpose of the whole thing.

For the details, click this link to The Telegraph article.

Stuff like this just makes my day.

Monochrome Weekly: The Gate

If you like black and white photography, you'll love this meme: The Monochrome Weekly.

Shadow Shot Sunday: Sunspot

For more shadowy shots, click here:

PhotoHunt: Technology

Vast, voluptuous vats of vino shimmer under fluorescent light at Tabor Hill Winery in Michigan.

You were expecting, maybe, dusty oak barrels? Buxom, barefoot peasant women standing up to their knees in tubs of grapes? You are so cute.

Nearly all wine is made in factories these days, but it's still mighty tasty.

Explore technology this week at: Photo Hunt.

P.S. I asked about those tennis-ball-sized dimples in the vats. I was told they have to do with controlling the temperature of the silos.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's wishing everyone a day filled with family, friends, great food, and hearty laughter. May you all be blessed.

The Great Pumpkin Panic

Have you heard the news? If you haven't already hooked up with a source for Libby's canned pumpkin, you may be out of luck for that holiday pie.

The company hasn't been able to get its equipment into the fields to harvest pumpkins because of heavy rains and soggy ground. What's out there is rotting on the vine. So what they've already packed this year is all there will be until the 2010 crop. That familiar tan can is already getting scarce.

Now, at our house there are only three absolute must-haves for Thanksgiving: turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. And the only acceptable pumpkin for said pie is Libby's. So when I read Friday night about impending shortages, I knew I had to act fast.

I hit Walmart Saturday morning before dawn and made straight for the precious pumpkin. I scooped up four single cans: two for Thanksgiving, one for Christmas, and one for next fall, just in case. There was plenty left for everybody else, and I began to wonder if this wasn't a clever ploy by Libby's marketing department. I set off to round up the rest of the stuff for the big feast, feeling relieved but silly.

By the time I got back to the baking isle, though, there was only one big can of pumpkin left. I tossed a box of Rice Chex over my stash and made for the checkout.

A better woman probably would have put a can or two back on the shelf. On the other hand, a more cynical woman would have bought it all and sold it on eBay.