Gordon's blog

Here is a celestial event for all to see... You don't need a telescope or any astronomical equipment for that matter... Just look up and there it is. 17P/Holmes is without a doubt a bizarre comet whose behavior is baffling astronomers around the world. It pass us by as a dim glob of ice and suddenly on October 22, exploded into a btight yellowish ball of fuzz easily visible to the naked eye. Holmes was discovered a little over a century ago and oddly enough was in the process of another flareup at that time as well. Stranger yet is the fact that it has no visible tail and thus does not resemble anything like the comets we've seen in the past. The folks at Space.com have information on the comet which you'll find here . Spaceweather.com also has some info on it along with a sky map to aid in your search for it. So here is the bottom line..... I stepped out into the backyard and using the directions from Spaceweather.com easily found the comet despite the fact that it was fairly low in the sky and directly over the city of Newport and it's bright lights. It hangs in the northeast sky in the constellation Perseus and looks like a tiny ball of smoke. Low power binoculars will make it easier to get a good look at it's head. This comet should be visible for the next few weeks and I'll be checking on it often. Now it's your turn.... enjoy the show.

Wired Magazine posted this offering which Duncan sent to me. Boy, this is deja-vu all over again....This is the stuff that we've been working with for nearly a decade and finally some "legitimate" science is being done. We've dealt with the connection between sound and plants for years and have some interesting results logged. It's a difficult area to work in since so many outside influences determine the level of cooperation one can expect from a plant during the experiment process. Every now and then there is a "eureka moment" when everything seems to fall into place and we are able to duplicate some of the results obtained by other researchers in the field. It's nice to see that some well funded work may now get under way and you can rest assured that we will be watching the results with great interest.

So slide on up to the Wired site and read this fine article being sure to follow the links as well.

If someone asked me to relate the things which most impacted my life in 1969, I'd have to submit two offerings: first, I had hair, and second Apollo 11 and the first Lunar landing by human beings. I sat in front of an old black and white teevee and watched spellbound along with the rest of the world as the event unfolded. The world would never be the same. America would go on to make five more landings ending with Apollo 17 in December of 1972. Now, three and a half decades later, my hair is gone and no further manned Lunar exploration has taken place. We had made our point and beaten the Soviets to the moon by a very narrow margin. Now it seems as if nearly everyone is interested in getting back on the Lunar bandwagon. Check this site for more information. Who will plant the next flag and perhaps lay claim to our neighbor and it's riches?

I think our late friend and partner in crime, John Norseen would be proud of me for digging up these tidbits of social paranoia. Truth is, they are beginning to scare the hell out of me. I guess I can take a little comfort knowing that we here in the US are not alone when it comes to snooping on the public . Norseen may yet have the last laugh!

Why would a culture create art which no earthbound human would ever be able to see and appreciate? Peru's Nazca lines fall into this category as their precisely crafted graphic images are visible only from high altitude or perhaps even space. This article on viewzone.com gives new insight into these images and describes newly discovered ones. This is well worth a read.