My Life Is

Like It's Supposed To Be

International Space Station. March 25, 2009 (NASA)

Here on Earth
Spray Paint Space Painting

This was done with cans of spray paint!

Cosmic Art Show
This guy is good!

It Just Gets Better

I got an email from Jimmy Sakuma that had this link;

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741

It's a video that uses the song, "Stand by me". The members of the, "Band", are people all around the world, that have been filmed while they add their part to the song. It brought tears of joy to my eyes to see and hear a dream come true.

In the 1960's, I imagined going around the world and playing music with people in different countries, in towns and villages, sharing the the common language of music. This video, and the foundation that produced it, takes that simple idea and raises it to a level that reaches even deeper into the heart and soul of the worlds people. Playingforchange.com

I still imagine jamming, "live", with people around the world. Fred Mitchell and I continue to experiment and research ways to accomplish this dream.

Here In America

Photo of high speed train in some other country.

From Scientific American
President Obama outlined his vision today for high-speed rail service in the U.S, identifying 10 corridors in heavily populated regions around the country – from the Pacific northwest to the gulf states – for the laying of hundreds of miles of new tracks.

The stimulus bill that passed in February set aside $8 billion for the initiative. The Federal Railroad Administration will begin awarding grants late this summer after a competitive bidding process amongst rail companies.

Hooray!
We can start catching up to the rest of the world.

Here in Redding

The Sundial Bridge before the tea party. 4/15/09

I made a little video about the Fox News Tea Party.


Friday 4/17/09

Flowering plant at Creekside Gardens. 4/17/09

I went to a local nursery to get an aloe plant for my medicine cabinet. What a delightful place.
Pictures, HERE.

Sandi went with me to the nursery and to OSH, where I got a new, and hopefully, longer lasting, umbrella.

New umbrella from inside sliding screen door. 4/17/09

Time For Breakfast

A healthy, Happy Phil, breakfast, at 4:00PM. 4/17/09

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Lazy Bones -Mills Brothers

Relax-Enjoy God's gifts

The Mystery Of Spring

Easter

It's a beautiful day before Easter here at the Treehouse.

How Did We Get Easter?

The Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos." Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre."

In The Building "A" Lobby

I love this place where I live. It's Easter-ween, 2009.

Confused?

Actually, many people get confused about which customs accompany holidays, and why.
What do Bunnies, Eggs, and Bouquet's have to do with Jesus?
I will be happy to help clear that up for you;

Sleeping Beauty eggshell carving.

Spring is a time of re-birth. The life within the dormant plants springs forth in beautiful displays of color and shapes to attract pollinators. It's time for lifeforms to make more of themselves, the rites of spring are upon us. Everything is making babies like, well,... Rabbits.

But how does this fit with the Jesus story?

Spring is in the air.

This from Wikipedia;

Pope Gregory the Great ordered his missionaries to use old religious sites and festivals, and absorb them into Christian rituals where possible. The Christian celebration of the Resurrection of Christ was ideally suited to be merged with the Pagan feast of Eostre, and many of the traditions were adopted into the Christian festivities.^[5] There are also good grounds for the association between hares (later termed Easter bunnies) and eggs, through folklore confusion between hares' forms (where they raise their young) and plovers' nests.^[6]

Or;

The ancient Persians painted eggs for Nowrooz, their New Year celebration, which falls on the Spring equinox. The Nawrooz tradition has existed for at least 2,500 years. The decorated eggs are one of the core items to be placed on the Haft Seen, the Persian New Year display. The sculptures on the walls of Persepolis show people carrying eggs for Nowrooz to the king.

What About The Ham?

Coming to an Easter dinner near you.

About.com has this;
In the United States, ham is a traditional Easter food. In the early days, meat was slaughtered in the fall. There was no refrigeration, and the fresh pork that wasn't consumed during the winter months before Lent was cured for spring. The curing process took a long time, and the first hams were ready around the time Easter rolled around. Thus, ham was a natural choice for the celebratory Easter dinner.

Taking A Gander

Also popular to eat during the Christmas season.

I haven't found a long standing Easter goose tradition, except for the giving of goose eggs. I did find a recipe that an Australian used for Easter dinner, but it was a first time event. I will ask Lon, tomorrow when I stop by for Easter goose dinner.

About The Flowers

.
Flowers are abundant here at the Treehouse.

See the bee?

Beautiful flowers everywhere I turned. 4/11/09

There were so many photogenic blooms,
I made a slide show video.

Todays Relatively Appropriate Song;
Life Is What You Make It -Happy Phil

Be Thankful-Blame No One

Getting The Picture

How to Blog?
Making Big Pictures Fit
The Happy Phil Way

Poppies by the doctors parking lot. 4/7/09

Put picture on desktop as png file.

Insert image in Google Docs.

Now you have the picture in the document editor, where it can be moved around, sized, and used to illustrate text.

The Video


I made this video for George Bleich, explaining how I reduce 10 mega pixal pictures from my photo library so they will fit on a blog or web page. His mail server cant handle a 17MB file, so I put it here for all to see. I hope it's helpful.

Good Stuff To Eat

I really enjoy Natures Path cereals.

I am not real big on granolas, but this is different. It's good by itself, or when mixed with another cereal. I feel good about the cereal that I get from Natures Path, especially after I went to their website. I have written about them before. You can find those previous posts with the search blog box. Type "cereal", or "granola", or "Natures Path", and it will find the articles I have written that have that word in them. It's actually much easier than the labels. The labels are getting top heavy. I may change that feature.

Dog In A Teacup

Chihuahua-Jack Russel mix. 1 month old.

I remember when you could buy a dog that fit in a tea cup. Just send $4.95 and the coupon from the back of the comic book. You could also get "Sea Monkeys" for $1.49.

That's A Cute Baby

Infant Francois Langur. Toranga Zoo Wildlife Hospital.

When people show me their babies, "cute", is not the word that comes to my mind. But, this little monkey is the very esscence of cute, in my humble opinion.

Albino Bottlenose Dolfin

Albino dolphin in Louisiana's Lake Calcasieu,(inland estuary).

Meanwhile In Space

Dust lanes backlit by millions of stars in NGC 7049 halo.

The Hubble and ESA telescope images never fail to fascinate me.

Nanotubes Strengthen Plastic

Electron microscopic view of nano composite strength test.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A research group from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel has discovered that adding carbon nanotubes to a widely used commercial plastic can greatly strengthen it. Their work is one example of how incorporating carbon nanotubes into plastics and other materials can yield composites with much improved properties.

Happy Phil Podcaster

Still experimenting with the new microphone. 4/7/09

I have tried the new 1" diaphragm condenser mic, singing a song, and speaking a voice over. It sounds great. Another experiment will be with my friend, Fred, down in Mississippi. He wants to do a radio show/podcast, and is finding the places on the internet where we can do it. It should be fun. Fred and I were in radio, years ago.

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Radio -Van Morrison

It might rain tonight

Once Again

Repeating History

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." Thomas Jefferson


"...corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed." Abraham Lincoln


Speaking Of History...

"I taught I taw a puddy tat, but I can't find my glasses."

My sister sent me this picture, reminding me that, "Tweety", is 60 years old.
Thank you Sue.

Stellarium

The illustrated view from my balcony. 3/26/09 6:02 AM

I got a great program to assist me with stargazing. It's called, Stellarium. The download is free. You can set it for the sky anywhere, on, and off the earth.

I enter Redding, and my zip code and I get a picture of what I look at from the balcony.

Planets and stars, I am not seeing, yesterday afternoon.

I found Stellarium, while reading Toms Astronomy Blog . Thanks Tom.
Get Stellarium.

$2.8 Billion a Year

My laptop turns off automatically, thank you.

The other day, I was at a friends house and I asked him why he didn't turn his computer off when he wasn't using it. It was just the way he had been taught when he had a PC. I got to thinking that even PC's probably should be turned off when not in use. A little more research and I found that especially with windows, it's important to turn them off when not in use. It will help you avoid having to reboot each day because your cache gets clogged. (Or something like that.)

Anyway, if we all turned our computers off while we are not using them, we can save $2.8 billion in electricity costs each year. I think that the leaving it on goes back to UNIVAC and warming up the vacuum tubes until they were at a stable temperature.

So now you know. It's good to turn your computer off when you are not using it.

Killer Flapjacks?

They look good to me.

The killer pancake e-mail is back.

I got one from Garie, this evening. It must have had more than 100 email addresses that it had gone to.

Here is what I wrote back to Garie;

Hi Garie,

I knew I had seen that e-mail before. The last time I got it was in 2008. It began circulating in 2006. According to snopes, there was a dear Abby letter with the story, but they couldn't verify that it was a true story.

However, in 2001, 2 pathologists in Charleston, reported a case of a 19 year old who died from a mold allergy after eating pancakes made from a box that had sat open in a kitchen cabinet for 2 years. His friends didn't finish their pancakes because they tasted bad. They didn't get sick.

Snopes advises that if you have a mold allergy, don't eat pancakes from an open box that has been sitting out for 2 years.

I wonder why people write e-mail like that?

Phil

I Saved $20

Redbox rentals cost $1.00

You may have noticed these DVD rental machines at your local supermarket. They have a couple of them at the local Raley's, where I shop. I have used the machine to rent 2 or 3 movies like, Wall-E, (Loved this movie.), and something else not as memorable. But how did I save $20?

On the 24Th, Apple began offering HD movie downloads. They claim to be better than HDDVD's and nearly as detailed as BluRay. I am intrigued by the amazing quality of HDTV broadcasts, so I thought I would get a movie to enjoy on the great equipment I have. They have a few movies offered at this time, but I haven't seen any of them. They charge $19.95 per movie.

I like James Bond movies, or at least I thought I did. I liked the Sean Connery, and Roger Moore, "Bond", movies that I have seen, and I noticed a bond movie in the HD selections. It is called, "Quantum of Solace", and features some, "new guy", as Bond.

What I like about Bond movies, and thought would look good in High Definition, are the sweeping vistas and exotic location shots. I like the humor and the clever dialogue, the puns and double entendres. The tounge in cheek performance as, "Bond....James Bond". I was thinking about investing $20 in this movie, but wondered how I might be able to see it first. REDBOX! If the movie was good, I would consider downloading the $20 HD version, to savor in striking color and detail.

Thank you Redbox, I saved $20. It would have been awful to sit through that movie in a theater. I'm glad I watched it at home, where I could move around, eat dinner, read the news, fix cake and ice cream, go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, edit photographs, take my meds, and clip my fingernails while I waited for Quantum of Solace, to end.

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Live and Let Die -Wings

Shaken, Not Stirred

Sound As A Bell...

Got A Nice Ring To It

Saturn's rings from the Cassini spacecraft.

The Cassini spacecraft peers through Saturn's delicate, translucent inner C ring to see the diffuse blue limb of Saturn's atmosphere. Bigger Picture

For the really adventurous, there is an amazing 3-D tour of the Cassini mission. Tour

Dione seen behind, "edge-on", view of Saturn's rings.

Saturn's rings from Cassini Spacecraft ...3/8/09

Special Features

Watching movies on a rainy day......3/15/09

I was watching movies I found on the internet, today, and I wondered if there was a channel just for "Special Features".

.
I see the light.
One of my favorite parts of movies on DVD, are the special features. The making of the movie, out-takes, location, special effects, and other items of interest relative to the movie. Sometimes the special features are as good, or better than the movie. Netflix recently announced that it planned to leave the special features off it's rental movies.

I was watching movies from HULU, today and thought it would have been nice to see the special features, too. I then thought, "How about a 'Special Features' website that just had special features without the movies"? A few people have posted special features on You Tube, but not many. I envision a site that is nothing but, "Special Features". (You would have to find the movies elsewhere.)

Lift Off

U.S. space shuttle Discovery launched successfully.

Fully Differential Amplifier

New design can operate in extreme temperatures.

Yesterday, I was looking at the individual components of the Cassini spacecraft, and came across a warm box, (heating unit). One of its purposes was to keep things warm enough to operate in that extreme cold of space.

Today, I read in Science Daily , that researchers at the university of Arkansas have have designed and successfully tested an electronic micro amplifier that can operate directly in the space environment without protection from a warm box.

Alien Invasion
Russia Mussels In

Thumbnail size Quagga's taking over American lakes.

They showed up in Lake Michigan, where the effects on the food chain are just now showing in our food supply. Their small size and low caloric content make them a poor food choice, in case you were thinking we could control Quagga's by eating them.

Quagga mussels are now spreading well beyond the Great Lakes, hitching rides with commercial and recreational boats as they are ridden or moved into new water systems. They recently muscled into Nevada's Lake Mead, where they breed faster thanks to the area's warmer waters. Quagga mussels have been found clogging pipes in Hoover Dam, and it could cost millions of dollars and huge amounts of manpower to keep systems there mussel-free.

What A Difference A Day Made
Music-LMP Trio
Scenery-God

It was a gloriously, stormy day.
The wind blew, the rain poured, and as the storm dissipated, it was rainbow photo time.

Heaven

Near Hits and Misses

Debris

Russian escape pod.

It was interesting to read that this is not the first time the space station crew had to take cover in the Russian escape pod. It reminds me that there was no escape pod, until the Russians sent one up. The American escape pod is still not ready to go. The original space station plan was to get an American escape pod up there by 2015! Call me overly cautious, but I would put the escape pod up in space first.

Self Healing Paint

Just park in the sun and scratch heals in 1 hour.

"We have developed a new macromolecule," said Marek Urban, who, along with Biswajit Ghosh, wrote the paper. "When the polymer is damaged and exposed to sunlight, it is capable of repairing itself, and could be applied to many systems." The Whole Story

Only Thinking Of Themselves

A sunny day in Bejing.

For the past 20 years, scientists and researchers have been studying changes in plants, insects, and the animals that eat them, in the areas of the planet that are affected by global dimming. Life forms have shown changes in growth, flowering, and reproductive behavior. Because there is less light, plants flower and go to seed at a different time than the insects and birds that pollinate and propagate them. This has been cause for alarm among researchers for nearly 10 years, but it is just now getting attention. This is because it is affecting industrial output. To hell with the birds and bee's, this could cost money!

I found it interesting, in the article, that parts of Europe, that have had controls on using sulfur in coal, have shown brightening in their skies.

The Story

Floating School Closed
Due To Hungry Crocodiles

What caught my eye in the story was the floating school.
How cool would that be?
"Sorry I was late, but a crocodile ate my homework."
Fox Crocodile Story

Protected By Dark Matter

Dwarf Galaxies and dark matter. (photo-Hubble)

Over time, most galaxies get torn apart by gravitational forces, but these old dwarf galaxies have been protected by a shield of dark matter.
Story Here

Friday the 13th

Let the day begin...3/13/09

The patron saint of, "Sleeping In", seems to have taken the day off, today. Either that, or there was a special at the wood chipper rental place, "1/2 off if returned by noon".

I gave sleeping through it, an attempt or two, but I guess my heart wasn't in it, so I got my camera and went to see where the noise was coming from.

Wood Chipper Serenade

New neighbors and chipper.........3/13/09

Video

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Good Morning

Serenity

Happy To Be A Musician

Sounds Good

"Studio Musician". Oil on Canvas... Robert Schefman

In a study in the latest issue of European Journal of Neuroscience, an interdisciplinary Northwestern research team for the first time provides biological evidence that musical training enhances an individual's ability to recognize emotion in sound.

"Quickly and accurately identifying emotion in sound is a skill that translates across all arenas, whether in the predator-infested jungle or in the classroom, boardroom or bedroom," says Dana Strait, primary author of the study.

In essence, musicians more economically and more quickly focus their neural resources on the important -- in this case emotional -- aspect of sound. "That their brains respond more quickly and accurately than the brains of non-musicians is something we'd expect to translate into the perception of emotion in other settings," Strait says.

Roadwork

President Obama signed the release of money to the states for roads. This could result in the immediate employment of 400,000 people.

To keep the state governments from dragging their feet, they must begin using the money on road projects within 4 months, or they will lose it.

Another reason to get that money into the system quickly; To prevent more layoffs.
The tax credits in the stimulus package will help those who still have jobs.
There is even some money in there to help people like me, on social security.


Darwins piano playing wife
gets credit for theories.

Music inspired the theories of Darwin.

Charles Darwin was so captivated by his musician wife Emma's daily piano playing that her music influenced at least two key evolution theories formulated by the British naturalist, according to a new paper.

"The long-term marital dance of Emma and Charles Darwin was set to the routine beat of an almost daily piano recital," according to Julian Derry, who told Discovery News that "music was central to home life and a panacea after a hard day's work, or often when not feeling well."

Charles Darwin, music lover.

In "The Descent of Man," Darwin wrote, "I conclude that musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex."

Rewriting History
As It Happens

George Bush and puppeteer Karl Rove

George Who?
What 8 Years?
It's no accident that Rush Limbaugh is all over your TV screens, sweating and spewing anti-government slogans. This is a carefully orchestrated effort by Karl Rove, to draw attention away from the real cause of our current crisis; 8 years of republican rule. While keeping the illiterate, ignorant followers of Rush Limbaugh, focused on bringing down Obama, he is quietly sweeping the responsibility for the failed policies of the Bush years under the rug.

Granted, the economic stimulus wont do much for millionaires like Limbaugh, Rove, and Bush, but to attack it with so much hate and venom, is suspect.

Question; 95% of Americans will be helped by this economic recovery package, why are these guys making so much noise?

Answer; To keep people from remembering it was these greedy jerks that got us into this mess.

Dawn Get's Mars Close-up

Mars from 341 miles away. (photo credit-Dawn spacecraft)

The Dawn spacecraft did it's Mars flyby and is on it's way to explore Vesta and Ceres. It uses Ion propulsion, but saved even more fuel by being slung around Mars to achieve even greater velocity. At first this picture didn't seem to look all that great, but the longer I looked at it, the more detail seemed to appear, (Like the rim of the crater).

Electric Roadster

The Tesla Roadster

If you have the,"Green", you can buy an environmentally friendly, race car from Tesla. I am content to visit their website and pick out the color I want by just moving my cursor over the color choices. TRY IT , it's fun.

East Coast Snow

Picture of Eastern States after snowstorm.

This picture from space was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

The Weatherman Said Sunny

Sky from my balcony....3/4/09

It's "ARMY DAY".
..March 4th...
...wait for it...
..march forth, ha, ha, ha.

Thank You

Thank you for reading, "Phil's Place".

I made a little thank you video,
I hope appears here...

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Strange Magic -ELO

Tranquility