More space

Yeah, I'm fixated.



The Rosette Nebula

The Rosette Nebula. Hot, bright stars recently formed from the surrounding clouds of gas and dust are radiating huge amounts of ultraviolet radiation (as well as visible light, seen here), which is absorbed by the surrounding hydrogen and helium gas, heating it from 100 Kelvins to 10000 Kelvins. This increases the pressure of the gas by more then a hundred times, and it pushes outwards against the surrounding clouds of gas, eating away at them, and simultaneously compressing them. The small, dark compact regions that are produced in this way will become the next generation of stars. (MegaPrime Camera, Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, apod030429)

One picture is worth...

Here is a link to all sorts of images. You have to love the 'Internets'.

100 (Legal) Sources for Free Stock Images

By Laura Milligan

If you’ve ever tried to design a website or blog, you’ve probably felt the need to add images to your creation. It can be easy to see the Internet as a free-for-all, but images belong to the people who created them. Staying legal means you’ll have to either create your own images or buy them from stock sites. Fortunately, there are a number of sources for free images, and we’ve collected them here. So read on for 100 sources where you can find free stock images: and don’t worry — they’re all legal!

Most Popular

These resources are some of the most popular free stock image sites on the Web and with good reason. If you’re looking for some mainstream images, these are the first place to try.
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Our place in things

This site, at least in my case, creates a sense of humility. I entered my zip code and saw a clear picture of our isolation. That said, I realize there are zip codes from western states which would be alone is you hit the 'zoom'.

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Getting spacy

Stories like this are delightful in that they expand the possibilities of our imaginations.

Local Color: Plants under Alien Suns Could Come in a Variety of Hues

Assessing how photosynthesis works on Earth helps scientists predict black plants and other exotic flora on alien worlds

Plants do not have to be green. To be sure, the vast majority of vascular plants on Earth are green because during photosynthesis (the conversion of photons of light into stored chemical energy) they absorb more of the red and blue wavelength light emitted by the sun. But in the murky depths of Earth's waters lurk photosynthetic bacteria that appear purple to the human eye, employing light in the infrared spectrum to store energy; more archaic plants—such as lichens and moss—utilize more of the blue spectrum in visible light. There are even red, shade-dwelling vascular plants. "We did a broad survey of organisms that perform photosynthesis in order to understand how light selects for photosynthesis pigments given different types of environments," says biometeorologist Nancy Kiang of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University. "The photon flux spectrum peaks in the red, which is where chlorophyll has peak absorption."
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A fun quiz

I like getting challenged, especially in unexpected ways.

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* Truth in Surfing Statement: I ran across this while searching for the source of a video clip I saw on another site.

A peek at another world

I am fighting to hold my head above the rising cyber waters and I know at the same time others are snorkeling or playing water pool or lap swimming. This is a look at that 'deep end' of the pool.

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More than words

This comes from one of my word sources, just stumbling across it as I cleaned out the old year to make room for the new. You have to love the message.

the gift of time (n.)

Whenever I have to tell my daughter I'm too busy to play, she runs to her room and whips out her drawing paper and crayons. A few minutes later she has a gift ready for me. It reads:

Gift Certifikit
No Work. A whole day of play with me.

If I begin redeeming my gift certificates, I wouldn't need to work for the next week and a half. But that shows the best gifts often don't cost a thing, except time.

kith \KITH\ noun

: familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives

* I have heard 'kith' used before but only in the context of 'kith and kin', which seems to beg for classification as a redundancy.

afflatus \uh-FLAY-tus\ noun

: a divine imparting of knowledge or power : inspiration