Beyond Normal

                      "The Kiss of the Muse"  by Paul Cezanne

Turns out there are nine Greek Muses, daughters of Zeus.  Each involved with a different aspect of inspiration as follows:   http://www.talesbeyondbelief.com/nymphs/muses.htm.  I suspect the muse depicted in the painting may be Calliope or Clio, patrons of epic poetry and writing.

Here they are frolicking about as muses are wont to do.
Sit down, stay quiet and one may visit you. 

The Big House

C

In Jefferson City, Missouri (1836-2004) open now for tours.   Not quite escape proof:  in April  1967 James Earl Ray escaped in a leaving bread truck and went to Canada for a year.
Then in April 1968 made his way to Memphis to shoot and kill Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Caught in London shortly after ( for an escapee he seemed to have adequate traveling cash !)   Back to the Big House.

Turns out that 1/4 of the worlds prisoners are held in US jails, some 2.4 million --  38% black and 34% white.  Of course, blacks are overrepresented compared to their percentage in society.  Through the processes of  "drug wars", "tough on crime",  "three strikes and your out", and tough law directives the cells are filling up, many innocent of the crime or charged with minor drug offenses.  It used to be that rehabilitation was the goal, but  now just basic housing seems to be considered adequate especially with the privatization of  many facilities; with solitary isolation being  used on unruly or gang-suspected prisoners.  Some 25,000 are in isolated  (6ft X 9ft) cells most in super max prisons, many mentally ill.  Cruel and  unusual punishment?   The record for solitary isolation is a fellow in Louisiana (Angola prison) who has been held for some 43 years :  https://medium.com/amnesty-international/solitary-review-albert-s-treatment-should-be-confined-to-history-e01a0d95bf1a  .
  It is hard to even imagine what effect this would have on a person . . .

Seems to me that a progressive society must attend to the needs of all of its citizens ,  even those who have gone wrong in the eyes of the courts. Fair play and dignity must lead ,otherwise it's just another ineffective and uncaring system bound for failure.

Time is in the Way

Exhale •

Going through it
The long duration of dark
The cold winter night
The silent day
When will I know my reason
When can I enter into peaceful solitude
Life is but a blink of the eye
A bat of the lash
If you want to know
I'm chasing the wind
And will soon be mown down
By the sharp blade
Come on spring
Make me new again
I set and wait for both

Anonymous


I wish I could attribute  the source of this 1 and 0 rendering, the magical woods, but no.  So much beauty presented in this vast digital world of possibility. .  But I appreciate the effort of whoever put finger to key for us to enjoy.

Far Away in Time and Space

It takes a little planning: design a spacecraft and attached lander which will travel 4 billion miles in space to a comet 2.5 miles across, 4.5 billlion years old, moving at 40,000 miles per hour. Plan on a 9 year trip to reach the comet from earth launch.

This is the comet orbiting the sun in a large elliptical path.  The Rosetta craft with its lander Philae reached the comet and launched the lander to the comet on November 11, 2014 by the European Space Agency at Darmstadt Germany.

Lander Philae took 7 hours to drop 14 miles to the comet surface.  The 220 pound lander weighed as much as a piece of paper due to the small gravity of the comet. Philae bounced thrice because devices which were to secure it to the surface failed to deploy.  First bounce took two hours to hit the surface again. Upon final bounce, the lander ended up in a partially shaded area which prevented solar panels from charging the battery system..  But it was able to complete about 80% of scientific tests (including finding carbon in the atmosphere) before the batteries ran down.  It may be a wait until spring before the lander is oriented such that the sun will reach the charging panels and re- invigorate Philae.  For sure when it nears our sun there should be sufficient light to recharge and continue testing and research on the comet.

These are the experiments that the lander is equipped with :

Lander Instrumentation

 First photo from the comet's surface.  One lander leg is visible sticking up since Philae landed on the other two legs in a shadowy place.  It was still able to perform experiments and relay the results to Rosetta, then a 30 minute trip to earth with the data.

 Mockup of what lander should have looked like upon landing.

Orbiting Rosetta

The equations for elliptical orbits  are fairly basic, even including the mass of the orbiting objects.  But to "slingshot" that object around earth, mars, and the sun, in order to build up the velocity necessary to reach an object 4 billion miles out in 9 years amazes me.  Bravo . . .