Things Worthy Of Cogitation

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Man is an intelligence in servitude to his organs.

--Aldous Huxley

When I was a child, I spake as a child,

I understood as a child,

I thought as a child:

but when I became a man,

I put away childish things.

--King James Bible

1 Corinthians 13:11

One of the most childish things I can think of is harboring belief in The Bible as being the absolute and unquestionable Holy Word of God. Even more childish is my effort to convince Christians that they are childish.

Will I never learn?

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TRIVIA

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, September 26 in 1996, U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid returned to Earth in the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis following six months in orbit aboard the Russian space station Mir.

On March 23, 1996, Lucid transferred to Mir from the same space shuttle for a planned five-month stay. A biochemist, Lucid shared Mir with Russian cosmonauts Yuri Onufriyenko and Yuri Usachev and conducted scientific experiments during her stay.

Beginning in August, her scheduled return to Earth was delayed by more than six weeks because of last-minute repairs to the booster rockets of Atlantis and then by a hurricane.

She was the first American woman to live in a space station.

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WORD FOR TODAY

factotum  [fak-to'-tuhm]
noun
A factotum is a general servant or a person having many diverse activities or responsibilities.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Olivia Newton-John

(born 26 September 1948)

Olivia Newton-John is an English-born Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles (including two platinum) and 14 of her albums (including two platinum and four double platinum) have been certified gold by the RIAA. Her music has been successful in multiple genres including pop, country and adult contemporary and has sold an estimated over 100 million records worldwide. She co-starred with John Travolta in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Grease, which featured one of the most successful film soundtracks in Hollywood history.

Linda Carroll Hamilton

(born September 26, 1956)

Linda Hamilton is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in The Terminator and its sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Catherine Chandler in the 1987-1990 television series Beauty and the Beast, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy. Hamilton had a recurring role as Mary Elizabeth Bartowski on NBC's Chuck.

Donna Douglas

(born September 26, 1933)

Donna Douglas is an American actress best known for her role as Elly May Clampett in the CBS television series, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971).

Serena Jameka Williams

(born September 26, 1981)

Serena Williams is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked No. 1 in women's singles tennis. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her World No. 1 in singles on six separate occasions. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002, and regained this ranking for the sixth time on February 18, 2013, becoming the oldest world no. 1 player in WTA's history. She is the only female player to have won over $50 million in prize money. Williams is the reigning French Open, US Open, WTA Tour Championships and Olympic ladies singles champion.

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America faces a fundamental choice: either the blessings of liberty or the servitude of liberalism.
--Nancy Pearcey

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

National Aeronautics & Space Administration

    

Since my house burned down
I now own a better view
of the rising moon.

--Mizuta Masahide

 

Tucson Weather Today

 

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I subscribe to the NASA newsletter and thereby receive as many as five emailed pieces per day about space exploration and new technology updates. I have to admit, though, that some of the startling revelations described by NASA seem to be closer to scientific guesses instead of actual newly discovered facts.

For example: NASA astronomers claim to have discovered  and identified a goodly number of black holes, all of them situated many, many light years distant from the Earth. Since they are all so far from out solar system the images catalogued from here are necessarily images of things that existed once upon a time in the Earth's far past. And perhaps exist no longer. Who knows what could have become of them and their neighboring stars over a period of thousands and thousands of our solar years?

Also, the growing list of stars with orbiting planets, as identified by the 'wobbling' effect of the star brought about by the planetary  orbit, seems to me to be a great leap of faith rather then rock solid proof of the planet's existence. I can imagine too many variables, both known and unknown, to accept as fact the present method of locating planets in extremely distant star systems.

I seem to remember reading that not all astrophysicists and cosmologists agree that black holes, as such, even exist, at least in the form now recognized by contemporary science.

Oh well . . . space/time will tell, I suppose.


The latest NASA newsletter I received (yesterday) began with this:

"After an extensive year-and-a-half search, NASA has a new group of potential astronauts who will help the agency push the boundaries of exploration and travel to new destinations in the solar system, including an asteroid and Mars. Eight candidates have been selected to be NASA's newest astronaut trainees, hoping to be among those who are the first to launch from U.S. soil on commercial American spacecraft since the retirement of the space shuttle."

That's interesting. There is a list of these new astronaut trainees with introductions and pictures:

LINK

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TRIVIA

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 18 in 1983, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the space shuttle Challenger was launched into space on its second mission. Aboard the shuttle was Dr. Sally Ride, who as a mission specialist became the first American woman to travel into space.

During the six-day mission, Ride, an astrophysicist from Stanford University, operated the shuttle's robot arm, which she had helped design.

Sally Ride

 

Her historic journey was preceded almost 20 years to the day by cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova of the Soviet Union, who on June 16, 1963, became the first woman ever to travel into space.

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WORD FOR TODAY

trepanning
verb
Using a tool for cutting shallow holes to remove a core, as from a skull.

Trepanning, also known as trephination, trephining or making a burr hole, is a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases. It may also refer to any "burr" hole created through other body surfaces, including nail beds. It is often used to relieve pressure beneath a surface. A trephine is an instrument used for cutting out a round piece of skull bone.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

James Paul McCartney
(born June 18, 1942)

Paul McCartney is an English musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer. With John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and his collaboration with Lennon is one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. After the band's break-up, he pursued a solo career, later forming Wings with his first wife, Linda, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine.

Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini
(born 18 June 1952)

 Isabella Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.

Roger Joseph Ebert
(June 18, 1942 - April 4, 2013)

Roger Ebert was an American film critic, journalist and screenwriter. He was a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he was the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. As of 2010, his reviews were syndicated to more than 200 newspapers in the United States and abroad. Ebert also published more than 20 books and dozens of collections of reviews.

Richard Allen Boone
(June 18, 1917 - Jan. 10, 1981)

 Richard Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun - Will Travel.

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Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.
--Ezra Pound