Everyday Beauty~

Thank you Cindy! Sometimes slowing down and paying attention to the exquisite beauty all around us is more amazing than anything. I’ve never seen creatures like that blue anemone in Tampa Bay. I wonder what similar to it lives here? It must be awesome to see such magical creatures while wandering the shore!

Cindy Knoke

Before I started taking photos a couple of years ago, I didn’t appreciate or understand the close up beauty of the common living plants and animals we see everyday. This little guy looks just like Beatrice Potter’s Squirrel Nutkin

Beatrice was clearly looking very closely at the garden and the animals around her since she was a very young girl. She was wise.
Nutkin is about as tame as a cat and likes to eat the wild bird seed.

The White Crowned Sparrows lined up to take rain water baths after the first Holler rain following prolonged drought. I keep the bird baths full year round with hose water but you should have seen the difference with the first rain. It was cold. The birds were waiting to take rainwater baths. They know what rain water is, water from heaven!
Shot this cutey through the window. He seems a tad…

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January 2, 2015
by ohnwentsya Leave a comment

New Year’s surprise: a comet you can see with the naked eye – CSMonitor.com

New Year’s surprise: a comet you can see with the naked eye

Skywatchers are getting an unexpected treat: Comet Lovejoy, which was discovered in August, has brightened, making it visible without a telescope. By Jan. 7, the comet, which is rising in the northern sky, will be appearing to the right of the bottom half of Orion’s bow.

By Pete Spotts, Staff writer / December 30, 2014

Comet Lovejoy, C/2014 Q2, is framed like a cosmic Christmas tree with starry decorations in this colorful telescopic portrait, snapped on December 16th. Its lovely coma is tinted green by diatomic C2 gas fluorescing in sunlight. Discovered in August of this year, this Comet Lovejoy (not to be confused with past Comet Lovejoys) is currently sweeping north through the constellation Columba, heading for Lepus south of Orion and bright enough to offer good binocular views. Not its first time through the inner Solar System, this Comet Lovejoy will pass closest to planet Earth on January 7 and then closest to the sun on January 30. A long period comet, this Comet Lovejoy should return again … in about 8,000 years.

Damian Peach/SEN/NASA

(Please click the link below to read the rest of this article on Christian Science Monitor’s site-

http://m.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/1230/New-Year-s-surprise-a-comet-you-can-see-with-the-naked-eye?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Science_final&utm_campaign=4_Newsletter%3AScience_Sailthru&cmpid=ema%3Anws%3AScience%2520Weekly%2520%2801%2F01%2F2015%29 )

January 2, 2015
by ohnwentsya Leave a comment

Truthout Daily Digest Thursday, 1 January 2015

William Rivers Pitt | Planting a Seed for 2015

William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: “This is the time for New Year’s resolutions, and I have a request of you: plant the seeds of goodness wherever you find fertile soil. Be that better person. Help to gentle the cold brutality of this hard world within reach of your arm.”

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Democracy and Its Discontents

Thomas J. Scott, Truthout: Globalization and rising inequality are contributing to the growing lack of confidence in democratic institutions in the United States and other Western democracies.

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California: Waking Up Is Hard to Do

Craig Collins PhD, Truthout: Today, California is part of a profit-driven global system that must plunder and pollute the planet on an ever-grander scale to survive. Major sectors of the economy like agribusiness, tourism and construction depend on cheap labor drawn from outside the state.

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Ten Ways Human Rights and Democracy Won in 2014

Sarah van Gelder, YES! Magazine: In 2014, we saw a lot of brutality. It was a violent year, but no worse than other years. What was different was the emergence of new movements of resistance – and with them new possibilities for change.

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A View on Cuba’s Opening From the De Facto US Colony of Puerto Rico

Ed Morales, North American Congress on Latin America: If Cuba were to take a deep breath and look at what’s happened to an island it has shared such a deep history with, and if Cuba were to see Puerto Rico as the beginning of the free-trade economic era we’re living in now, it would have to ask itself, is it the end game?

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Renaming Afghan War, Renaming Murder

David Swanson, War Is a Crime: The US-led NATO war on Afghanistan has lasted so long they’ve decided to rename it, declare the old war over, and announce a brand new war they’re just sure you’re going to love.

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The Democrats’ Last Defense: Obama’s Pen

Kevin Mathews, Care2: With a Republican majority taking over the Senate in addition to the House this January, right-wing ideology is sure to dominate Congressional votes for the next two years. Nevertheless, hope is not entirely lost for the left.

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What’s Luck Got to Do With It? Everything, if You Are a Banking Whistleblower

Kate Kenny, The Conversation: Think whistleblowing is a matter of telling the truth? Think again. “Successful” whistleblowing, where the protagonist actually manages to make themselves heard in the media and get the support of the public, is a matter of luck.

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Paul Krugman | Vladimir Putin’s Unraveling Russia

Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: It’s impressive just how quickly and convincingly the wheels have come off the Russian economy. Obviously the plunge in oil prices is the big driver, but the ruble has actually fallen more than Brent crude – oil is down 40 percent since the start of the year, but the ruble is down by half.

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