My Virtual Reading Room

All are from Astronomy's Picture of the Day:

Northern Lights, West Virginia


Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Over the Lincoln Memorial


Aurora Timelapse Over Italian Alps


Colorful Aurora over New Zealand

Unfocus your eyes:

mrsdelle.tumblr.com/post/129696075503/searedscallops-fabulousandwich


And a somewhat similar idea:

The Moona Lisa:

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240914.html


I believe the following two links came from dine and/or conuly --many thanks!

Southern grasshopper mouse: The tiny super-predator that howls at the moon before it kills, from LiveScience


Woodpecker Tongues Are Weird But Surprisingly Useful

A teacher promised his 1978 class an eclipse party. He just hosted it., from The Washington Post

The Best Total Solar Eclipse Photos, from Wired

Source: photo by NASA, April 8, 2024, via Dmitry Chernyshev's FB

Please donate your undamaged eclipse glasses 🙂

This organization will ship them to schools in Latin America, where they'll have an annular eclipse in 2024.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eclipse Give Back

We are often asked what to do with used eclipse glasses after an eclipse. Eclipse Glasses USA works with other organizations to donate used but undamaged eclipse glasses to other countries with upcoming eclipse events.

We only accept US-made paperboard glasses that have the manufacturer's address and contact info and that bear the ISO logo. All others will be discarded due to liability and quality issues.

All shipments will be opened and inspected before being repackaged for outbound shipment. Damaged or unusable glasses will be discarded.

Glasses can be shipped via USPS First-Class Mail (super inexpensive) in an envelope. For larger quantities, please consult your local post office for the most cost effective ways to ship.

We do not provide prepaid labels.

You can mail them to:

Eclipse Glasses USA, LLC
PO BOX 50571
Provo, UT 84605

Watch the total solar eclipse from your home with these live streams online, from The Smithsonian

(via minoanmiss --many thanks!)

Texas man is preparing to watch his 13th solar eclipse. He’s 105.

LaVerne Biser has traveled the world to take photos and witness total eclipses of the sun. He’s also made his own telescopes.

(from The Washington Post)

The extremely rare Betelgeuse occultation by asteroid (319) Leona: online event – 12 Dec. 2023

Oliver Burkeman: New Year’s resolutions worth making, from The Guardian, Jan. 2015

Antidotes to Fear of Death: Astronomer and Poet Rebecca Elson’s Stunning Cosmic Salve for Our Creaturely Tremblings of Heart, from The Marginalian, April 2020

Trial, Triumph, and the Art of the Possible: The Remarkable Story Behind Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, from The Marginalian, May 2022

How a Single Drop of Olive Oil Led to a Great Leap Forward in Physics, from Popular Mechanics, April 2020

Scientists Unveil World-First Experimental Cocaine Addiction Vaccine, from Science Alert, October 2023

Grab your binoculars: 5 planets are lined up nicely for you to see at dawn this month

Paul M Smith Photography (@paulmsmithphotography on FB)

Probably the best sprite of 2018 for me.
A beautiful big jellyfish sprite over Kaw Lake, Oklahoma. They are the largest, fastest and most intricate of the sprites. So quick in fact only one of the three cameras caught it.
Amazing just how much goes unseen out there unless we have a camera pointed at it
Feel free to share

In case you wanted something to read over the weekend ;) I'd been collecting these over the last few weeks, from various sources.
~~

"At least it' isn't cancer", from Complex Child, March 2016

A rare spotted zebra recently found in Kenya, from The National Geographic

How do people learn to cook a poisonous plant safely? from BBC News

The Dignity of Disabled Lives, from the New York Times

My doctor said I wouldn't walk. I can. by John Altman, from the New York Times

I dance because I can, by Alice Sheppard, from the New York Times

The crushing culture of parental expectaions, from Grown and Flown

Harry Potter recreated as a group chat

Oatmeal is still the world's best performance breakfast

The instant pot understands the history of women's labor in the kitchen--a very interesting historical exploration from Bustle.com

Is sunscreen really good for you? Newer studies and evidence

Question everything you knew about fitness, from Tim Ferriss

Meet the caterpillars that build chrome homes, from Earth Touch News

"Ice eggs" cover Finland beach in a rare weather event, from BBC News

A once-in-a-lifetime halo display over Ontario

(thanks to minoanmiss  for the last two links)

Anne Rides on a Nautilus Shell ~ The Enchanted Forest ~ 1921
Art by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

(from Once Upon A Time Classic Illustration FB page)



Mermaid with merbaby--1911 Collier's Magazine cover( three more: )

Planetarium, by Adrienne Rich

Photos:

High above Jupiter's Clouds, a photo from NASA

A Kamchatka photo, by Denis Budkov

Astronomy and Philosophy:

Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan, from Brain Pickings

Medicine and Applied Psychology:

Things to say to a friend with a serious illness

(instead of, "Everything will be OK", "Stay strong", and "Everything happens for a reason"...)

"Showing up", another article on the proper way to provide support, from the Option B website

Option B website, on how to build resilience, and help others, with personal stories

What depression is really like, from Brain Pickings

[psych] Attitude: an excellent analysis of the importance of attitude and the truth behind the Law of Attraction, from siderea

Two dying memoirists wrote bestsellers about their final days. Then their spouses fell in love.

(about John Duberstein and Lucy Kalanithi, from The Washington Post)

How Blue Eyes Get Their Color, from Science Alert (and how other eye colors are generated, as well)

Poetry:

Tennyson's Sea Fairies and Other Poems, a scan of the beautifully illustrated 1890 edition

Much-Loved Poems: An Anthology of some of the English-Speaking World's Favorite Poetry

Gene therapy could help people overcome meth addiction (promising research)

Those Signs of Liquid Water on Mars May Not Be Water After All (rather disappointing)

10 Things We Didn't Know Last Week (science, medical research, technology, etc.)

What Ever Happened to the Russian Revolution?, from The Smithsonian Magazine

(an excellent article for the recent centennial)

With all delighted gratitude to purlewe!

"Some of our favorite postcards from our journeys at Saturn, now available in a free, downloadable e-book: https://go.nasa.gov/2y7Lc90 "

Several formats including Kindle, Apple, and straight up PDF

(reposted from browngirl--many thanks!)

Further details have been posted on the Astronomers Without Borders website.

The address has not changed; you can send your glasses to:

AWB Eclipse Glasses Donation Program
Explore Scientific
1010 S. 48th Street
Springdale, AR 72762

Further details can be found over here at their website

And it's for a good cause--for the schoolchildren in Asia and South America to see the 2019 eclipse there!

I'll definitely be sending along the three pairs the public library kindly gave us (I had bought a few more beforehand, but alas, they weren't officially certified :( )

“This is an opportunity for schools to have a first-hand science experience that they might not otherwise have” Astronomers Without Borders President Mike Simmons told Gizmodo. “Many schools in developing countries don’t have resources for science education and this is a rare opportunity that inspires students and teachers and shows them that science is something they can do. It can be a ray of hope for young people who don’t otherwise see a path to a career like this.”

More details in the article, including the address if you want to send them right away, or if you wait, they'll have another address--so you can hold on to your eclipse glasses in the meantime:

You Can Actually Do Something Good With Those Eclipse Glasses

Please do hang on to your certified eclipse glasses and please spread the word to all your friends and acquaintances!

(tagging egg_shell and browngirl :) )