Tragically beautiful - where did the water go - underground, outer space? WHO can doubt that we might make 'Mars rise again' as a life sustaining planet ? Its called terraforming. Time to do it, folks. What about a nice atmosphere?.. but bring your under-johns, Mars is further from Sol than we are!

There is no sunspot activity at this time -- if you all need something to worry about here is my candidate -- sunspot activity plays a very important role in earth's weather . The  Little Ice Age (1300 - 1850 ) had a minimum of sunspot activity during the worse of it.

While science is still debating the importance of the Maunder minimum to the little ice age I have read statements that it absolutely DID have an effect and that extreme sunspot activity also occurs during hot spells here on earth--- so , I suspect the sun has a great deal to do with Earth's weather, what about you all ?   --- so would you all rather freeze then burn ? I'm still debating but I think I would rather do neither.

Just because... Leon saw some horror pictures of what happens to people that have motorcycle accidents without protective clothing and he says I am not riding until I get my leathers...
The jacket is on hold -- though with this cool summer we are having I may sew it, anyway.   He is more than likely right so I yielded to his superior wisdom and insight -- actually, I debated a little further but I did not have anything like a reasonable weapon; saying I Just WANT to ride the bike did not exactly sound like a grown-up thing to say.

Its going to rain this weekend... starting tonight... Well, Happy Fourth of July, folks !! I will be doing inside things and absolutely no outside cooking unless NOAA is wrong - Once again!

OH -- for those of you who have clear skies ... look towards the west at sundown on the Fourth ... you will see a very spectacular sight - Saturn, Mars (Regulus) and the Moon are pretty much lined up (alignment)    as pretty as they can be... that's in Leo (Regulus is Leo's brightest star!)  for all you who slept through astronomy class.  Not sure what that might imply for all you astrologers but I tend to love sky watching for its own sake. I will take a peek if NOAA proves to be wrong about the weather. (PLEASE, Oh, God let them be wrong!!!!!!)

As an American Italian,  I thank our founders for my freedom and rights ... Long live the USA, and many blessings on all Americans of all colors and sizes  !!!!!!

Good news if you want science to progress beyond the theory stage. Its like playing with the God's building blocks - either that or the world is flushed away in one big reset button moment - I am believe we will learn a whole lot about how the natural universe works-- explore the cosmos or die pond scum - which do you choose? I choose exploration.

When did science become a dogma? When did it become dogmatic? When did our scientists become political prophets demanding repentance?
Science is about data. Give us the data. Then give us several different interpretations of that data and let us listen to the debate that ensues. That is what science is supposed to be !!!!

This is the real truth behind the global warming scam... science has become politics and religion to a lot of people, Al Gore is wrong. Our temperatures are going down because we are facing a solar dormant period. We will be lucky if we don't go into a 'little ice age', if you ask me !!

Sounds like Art Bell day in Australia, doesn't it? does the expression NO WAY mean anything?

Well, at least we won't have to bring our own salt to our first Martian meal!

Our early solar system was a chaotic place and one of the biggest questions facing science is what makes a planet a life-bearer, because if we that we can look for the same conditions in other solar systems. Here is another piece of the puzzle.

Sometimes the news is GOOD > Asteroid is passing by but does not crash into our party. Good news.

A little too advanced for complete comprehension but very interesting. Retro-viruses are not something I can claim to understand very well, but this article suggests they 'invaded' our genetic code & stayed. Too Weird!

Some good news for people, like myself, that believe that mankind must go to the stars or perish. At least 5 planets orbiting a star rather close by interstellar standards... all we need now is money, will and a ship that can move fast enough!

I am not sure where MATH and me separated company and swore never to talk again.  I  didn't have an attitude about math at the age of 6. I didn't even know what math was. I think I may have known when there were 2 pieces of candy in my hand instead of 3 or 1. I certainly knew the concepts of 'more' or 'less' I know with certainity, though, math has been my enemy and my abuser for many longer years. Its embarrassed me before everyone and God. It has made parts of my life a living hell. We never had formal divorce proceedings but we have a very poor relationship to this day !

I remember Third grade. God, the nun was a  banshee - and my sister was a nun so I should know! Imagine this black clothed woman with a strange head dress  walking up to your hard wooden seat and pointing down to your work... and saying rather rude things about your ability to do the math or calling you up the black board and making you add numbers in front of your entire class - far worse. (well, now everyone will understand I don't understand this stuff!) Or sending notes home, or telling you to write 8X8 = 64 (it is 64, isn't it?) 25 times before tomorrow because you missed it on the test, yesterday. Or telling your mom and dad - one who works as a maid & cook at the convent, the other as the school custodian exactly how poorly you are doing in math. (I won't mention spelling but I will say that the reports of my poor spelling skills are not exaggerated in the very least!)  And no, for the cook's daughter there is no escaping retribution - there is no escaping anything. Justice is certain and certainly swift. All the adults in your life are fine buddies. There is no home life. There is one life and it is HELL on earth. I have no concept, even in adult hood of getting away with things because I never even tried in childhood. Well, it was more than likely in that year (1963?) that math and I began our hate fest.
The problem is that my memory isn't what it should be. I don't know why. I have problems with numbers... keeping them straight, even seeing them straight - is that a 9 or a 6? is that a 1 or 5? I can look down to a piece of paper and I swear the number is 600 - look back down a minute from now & its 900. No wonder I believe in the supernatural !  Its enough to drive a saint nuts and I'm no saint!  My sister, as I said, a teaching nun at that time, thought I might have a learning disability but I had myself tested in college and I don't. I can to this day, reverse numbers. I needed classes in memory technique and no school teaches mnemonics, today, do they ?  We should , I think it would help kids stay in school to understand how to memorize. I think we make a mistake when we don't give kids a background on how to learn and learn well. I certainly needed it. It isn't enough to fling information before them we need to make them good little sponges that know how to soak it all up!
Fast forward to high school. My lifetime obsession with science. Breaking news, everyone : you can't be a scientist if you can't do math. Oh, well.  Why even bother to go to college if you can't be what you wanted to be? I found kitchens and steam tables rather invigorating work, after all. I was good in history but my father wouldn't pay for a historian's education. Somehow, it all worked out for the best, though. I think I grew to hate MATH when I found out I could never quite grasp it by the throat and make it my friend. It was a broken love affair in so many ways.

(OK - here is the honest truth for all the world to see. I am above average intelligence in all word skills. I am normal intelligence in math skills. There is an odd quirk about my memory skills and I am below average in all memory skills. I found this out at the ripe ol' age of 37. I won't but mention my problem with names & faces. )

What brings all this old nonsense up -after all, we have computers, now... we have calculators, heck, my PHONE has  a calculator in it ! I am a housewife, what math is there is my life?
Housewives don't need no stinking math, right ??? WRONG>
There was the tragic event of the living room/dinning room curtains. I bought lovely fabric (on sale!!). Drew out plans... read books to learn how to measure correctly, asked for help from my husband, cut carefully - sewed precisely with French seams and they were, when I hung them up the first time, 15 inches short. I am not entirely sure why the basic data in that enterprise was tragically wrong. You may not be able to see it in the picture but both curtains have added panels up at the top, using Holme's advice that hiding something in plain sight is sometimes very wise,  I added fabric very carefully at the top. You have to look for it and my seams were perfect. Sadly, though my addition was not. Leon enjoyed that event way too much, I think he found it amusing.
 Well, all life is about learning, right?

Of course, there was the recent problem with weighing beef for my dinner. I had 1-7/8ths. oz. of beef. How many calories was it? I knew the calories for 2 oz. but not 1-7/8ths. My husband does the math in his head, that is what really hurts. He also memorizes tunes. I can't do that either. I can't sing worth a... damn.  I won't mention the times lately when I suspect I added my day's calories wrongly.
There are the numerous times when our check book has been off by hundreds of dollars, when I should have added and I subtracted, when I should have typed in a 9 and it was a 6 & when I refused to add the recent sales tickets to the checking account program because I get physically ill every time I look at a number - so, my husband hints- rather, strongly, I must say that perhaps it IS time to do the checking account. 'Oh, come on, honey.. just one week more of blissful ignorance!'
(oh, OK, I'll do it tonight!)
And, of course, there is my passion for all kinds of needlework. The pattern calls for 2000 yards of yarn of a certain brand. You know the yarn size but you can't afford that yarn. Find a similar but cheaper yarn. The original yarn came in balls of 98 yards . The new one comes in skeins of 198 yds.. Now find out how many skeins of the new yarn you must buy to make your sweater. ( I know, I know !!!) You divide 198 into 2000 - the information about the original yarn is a trick. If you want to use a smaller yarn - a sport weight and the pattern calls for a 4 - worsted weight - you get 20 stitches every 4 inches how many stitches do you need to have 50 inches? 
So we don't escape math. He pops up into our lives, doesn't he?  And I do have a problem with him. I have a theory : God gave me my math problem to keep me humble. If that was the plan, its worked, God ! I feel humbled before the lords of math. Thank God, though I have my husband - he can be irriating at times, being a detail-loving, math doing Virgo but he is one great calculator wrapped in a rather pleasing male body.
But : How does he do that thing with songs, though? He can sing songs he hears just ONCE?

Well my honey came home early last night and we cleaned and refurbished my new computer (his old one!) very nice, very fast and OH - DID I TELL YOU I HAVE A 500 GB HD, NOW ????

Sorry , I know screaming isn't polite but I couldn't help myself for a moment.

Today I am going to rebuild my system and download all the programs we all use as well as the games and what ever my system needs to work properly - I think, but I am not sure, that I have all the drivers - well, except the ones for the scanner and printer ! I am considering trying Thunderbird because I am already using Mozilla Firefox. Here is the Mozilla website.

This weekend I am going to try to salvage anything I can from my old hard drive. I had been neglecting back-up procedures for a long time and have paid the usual price for not listening to my unconscious - Of course, the big problem is the defunct Windows XP Operating system on the old hard drive - how exactly will this computer react when its slave hard drive has XP, too - I suggested gutting that program immediately upon turning the computer back on - just going for the throat and deleting all the files - remember, it won't be only my registry list - only my C drive copy is there. My honey is not sure that is going to work.

One of the great problems is, that, as computers get more and more complex more and more can go wrong. We will never know for sure what went wrong on my old Beastie - Leon thinks it was on the motherboard, but exactly why it would suddenly fail, die, crash we do not know - we have few thunder storms here in the northwest and had nothing that could be mistaken for a power surge that day.

I would love you all to really read that short article about Newton that is the subject of my comment, above. I have had mystical experiences my entire life, since very young childhood and have always accepted what I can only call the transcendent realms but I have also loved nature and the study of nature (science) since that very same period of my life - as a very little girl (1st. grade). I had a passion for astronomy and drove my poor parents crazy when I asked for a telescope, later other disciplines have attracted my attention and there are few aspects of science that I ignore, entirely. Both love of God and love of nature are natural for me and I see no conflict between a universe that has invisible, translucent realms of consciousness & subtle energies that can not be measured by existing sensors, and, also, the physical, material realms of solid matter that are easily measured, observed and studied with both our own senses and modern technologies. I see the universe as a complex set of relationships and connections - made of pure energy and consciousness in which energies of varying degrees of power and subtly flow through the ALL. Matter and consciousness are related - in fact, they are united.

"The ALL is ONE the ONE is All !"

For those of you who want to limit the universe either to the 6000 years of the Bible, Koran or even the books of Moses or solely to a godless universe of the Physical matter and natural laws ---- well, all I can say, is that you underestimating the complete strangeness and wonder of the ALL ! I stand between the two extremes of the religious who want to limit the universe and the Godless who want to limit the universe, and, I say, with all honesty, you are both very, very wrong and wrong minded. ( I actually pity you some because your imagination has failed you.)

Men like Giordano Bruno and Issac Newton knew that you did not need to leave God & your soul behind as you explored the realms of physical matter - the physical matter universe was another way to KNOW GOD (it reflected God as a mirror reflects or a painting reflects the mind of the painter ) . They did not faint before the mystery of the ONE and the ALL ... this is very important and it has been lost by both the churches and modern intellectuals : the physical universe, made by God in his mind and heart at the beginning of time, shouted out in the explosion of the big bang as a word spoken, reflects to us a view of the face of God - The TAO - the ALL is the both matter and spirit - balanced forever and reveals in all its patterns, forms, radiations, energies, laws, history and shapes - the ONE who gave it life - the entire universe is made up of God's energy, his love, power, life - He is both the ONE and He is ALL there is = yet, he also transcends his universe & all universes and is both timeless and transcendent. At His level of consciousness you stand beyond time and all other limits - there is no time, for Him, or those who are lucky enough to experience His presence.
Think about that a moment. God isn't a guy on a white cloud with a long beard - He is both force and person (intellect, awareness, personality, even things like sense of humor!) but so far beyond anything that those words mean to us humans that we can not, even when we strive to do so, understand exactly how his consciousness works - He isn't a Jove or a Odin or a super human. He is aware - a person, so to speak - but he is also a force, an energy - life force itself - and time, space, death have no real meaning for him/her - they are illusions created by matter and matter's limits.

God (who is pure consciousness, awareness, love..) is the great artist - the hands (again, not literal hands! ) behind all the natural laws, the elements, patterns and energies of the universe. He is the life force/TAO, balance, love that makes the universe possible. In seeing His creation (and a note: God is beyond gender - He is actually He/She - having within his consciousness aspects that we describe as female/ feminine and aspects that we describe as male/masculine. ) we see a little of his hand - and understand a little better his/her real nature - and what I feel for God is both Love and Awe and yes, constant surprise.
Lastly, I would add that God - the real God - is difficult, perhaps impossible for our minds to grasp - our words and imaginations fail to grasp the incredible reality that Is God/ universe/the All/ TAO and it is natural to want a simple, comprehensible, graspable universe - either the universe of the religious or the universe of the atheists & materialists but I will not settle for either; infinity and eternity are not too big for me. I accept the complexity of it all and admire and love it for its great beauty.

Sorry, I couldn't resist ! Actually, I thought I would mention the role of short stories in Science Fiction. Some shorts are still, after decades, real favorites and I will pull the books out just to read them once again. One of the reasons short stories play such a role in the genre is that role that magazine publications such as "Astounding Science Fiction", a small format magazine that later evolved into the Analog Magazine of today have played in the history of the genre.. Here is their website.
Another magazine is Asimov's science Fiction magazine. Look here : They offer some articles on line.
The history of the magazines is long and honorable and many are still being published. I suggest doing research on line about it. There are likely to be many magazines I don't even know about!

There is a lot of pleasure to be had in these old stories. Yep, sometimes you will find yourself amused because we have already reached the moon or weep because we haven't colonized the moon, yet, (as we do in so many of the stories of that time.) Or shake your head at an early attempt to describe a T.V. or a monitor, but mostly, you will have a great deal of fun. There is quality and sense of wonder in most of these early stories that our era seems to have entirely lost. You will also be surprised from time to time when an author gets "it " right and is nearly a prophet of the future. Arthur C. Clarke is like that - because he is also a scientist he is very well informed and often throughout his career has had success in his forecasts.

Because short stories are a perfect format for the small magazines and gave many of the golden age writers a chance to write and eat we have an incredible and wonderful treasure trove of fine old stories. In my personal past I have to admit I never became accustomed to buying the magazines. I think it was just ignorance, or, perhaps even when I did notice them at the drug store on the corner or I hesitated buying them because they were slightly more expensive and their covers were often rather, ah, lavish. My parents were apprehensive enough about my comic book habit and I did everything I could to convince them I was studying no matter how many comic books I read!
One of my favorites is the collection was published in 1967 or so... it is called "Past Through Tomorrow" and is a extensive collection of all of Robert Heinlein's future history stories. I suggest you treat yourself to it. Believe it or not it is still available!
It is a collection of short stories and novellas that cover more or less our era and beyond. My very dusty and yellowed copy is a favorite of ours. It is a mostly serious attempt to look into the future and is very well written. The one story that has stayed with me through all the years was "The Man who sold the Moon" it concerns D.D Harriman, the first private investor in space travel and his final journey to the moon. Now that some private investors are actually building ships it seems that, once again, history and fiction are colliding.
Another great short story writer is, of course, Ray Bradbury. He is not my favorite because sometimes his language is hard to deal with - I read a page of his prose, shake my head, turn the page and realize I didn't cull any meaning from the dancing words on the page I just read! But when he is good he is very good. I suggest "The Martian Chronicles" its first story borders on horror and the last story, is a favorite that is the most haunting of the bunch. It is poetry in prose. The collection is the story of the human exploration of mars, our discovery of the Martians, and some of the episodes in the history of man living on the planet. Other stories to look for are "There will come soft Rains". "The Illustrated Man"is the introductory story of another collection, in which "The Veldt" , another excellent short is in the same collection and will haunt you for decades. "The Sound of Thunder" was recently made into the movie and is a really odd time travel story with more than one twist. I would caution you of two things, though, 1.) Ray Bradbury's collections tend to be annoying in the sense that you have to buy a new book for 3 new stories and half of a dozen you already own. I would cautiously buy his short story collections if I had a limited budget. 2.) many of his short stories are actually horror and have almost nothing to do with science.

Arthur C. Clarke is another favorite short story writer. "The Haunted Space Suit" "Nine Billion Names of God", "The Star" are all favorite stories. a very good page listing all his short fiction.
If Mr. Clarke has any defect and he hardly ever has any, it is that he absolutely awful describing human nature and particularly, female human nature - women are not his strong point, for some reason. I would quip that if you want great character development read Heinlein because even when his characters get creepy they are well drawn believable creepy human beings but if you want believable technology and solid science in your fiction, read Mr. Clarke and don't bother to get involved with his characters because they are expendable most of the time. He paints in very board brush strokes. If you don't understand, watch the first hour of the movie "2001" a movie which is his words made into pictures. Some of his stories have stayed with me for decades, though, so enjoy!

There is so very much I am leaving out! For example, Fredric Brown wrote both mystery and science fiction and his short story "Arena" is the basis for one of the best of the classic Star Trek episodes "the Arena". He is an old favorite of mine and I must admit I haven't read anything of his in years. Look for Murray Leinster's "First Contact" a short story that is nearly a sub-genre itself, being the first contact between humans and an alien race and explains what we have in common !
There is of course, Issac Asimov, a fine and prolific author who wrote the "I, Robot" series of novels and short stories and at least 100 other titles on every possible subject. I suggest you also look up one of my favorites of his, a longish short story called "Nightfall" - it was made into a bad movie in 1988 and it is better read. What happens when an event takes place only once in a million or so years? How do we warn ourselves that it will occur again? When does history become myth, become religion and dogma and why exactly should we listen to our scriptures if they warn of an event that could end our race ?
Generally you can not go wrong if you look up these names and the term "Golden Age of Science Fiction" at your library. Also, keep an eye out at used book stores for the original magazines and for collections that are no longer in print, you are bound to find a gem or two in very issue and certainly much more in every collection. Do remember that I was, in my youth, more than 40 years closer to the golden age (the late 1930's- mid 1950s) and so you may have a harder time finding the classics than I did. I was a teenager in the 1960's and many of the stories I have mentioned were written less than 20 (+ or -) years previously. You are not so lucky. Keep your eyes open and Just search and enjoy the adventure.

I thought I would lighten up some and talk about something more amusing than thoughtful. I have been a Science Fiction fan since oh... 1962 - 1963. We were passing through the Chicago train station and had to wait several hours to board the next train. I was terribly restless, as any preteen might be when there is a lot of time to do absolutely nothing and my mom encouraged me to go a local store to buy something to read. Hence, I discovered Science Fiction. I had been prepared for the genre by comic books. I remember this first novel very well because I still own it. It was "Battle for the Stars" by Edmund Hamilton and is still a very readable book though nearly 45 years have pasted. I was 'hooked' as they say, today. The novel is set in the far future. There is a starship captain, his alien wife (she's from Vega.), a cat and the fate of the earth that hangs on a mammoth space battle. What fun! And, yes, the cat becomes a pet of the alien lady.
Over the years my favorite novels have been the well written - and not so well written - novels of the golden age of Science Fiction and if you don't know about the classic novels :Edmund Hamilton, Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, E.E. Smith, John Taine (a.k.a. Eric Temple Bell), Andre Norton & Joseph Campbell are some of the names you might want to look up. I suggest you do some real investigating - there is a lot to read which will give you many hours of pleasure, some of which will remind you of Star Trek and Star Wars, This is a Wikopedia article & is a pretty good intro.
There are some great authors who lived earlier and therefore their works are not necessarily from the 'Golden Age' : H.G.Wells, Hugo Gernsback, H. Rider Haggard, Jules Verne & Edgar Rice Burroughs (the father of Tarzan, a collection of 23 novels that had science fiction and fantasy elements.) , are examples of this earlier group. H.G. Wells is the best known - "The Invisible Man", "the War of the Worlds", "The Time Machine" ares still very popular and have been made into movies, some better than others & are always in Print. H.Rider Haggard is less known but a great deal of fun at his best, "She", is the only one of his works that is well known by modern readers. Verne is sometimes called the Grandfather of Science Fiction and his works are true classics. I suggest "Mysterious Island", a personal favorite. Of course, "20000 leagues under the Sea" should be read first. I can't say for sure that I have read anything by Hugo Gernsback though his work may be found in some modern collections. There are many collections of science fiction short stories. I suggest the library to explore them. A Britannica article concerning the history of Sci-Fi.

It is quite intellectual but will give you a worthy hint of the general history. There is, of course, a lot that I am missing. Shelley's Frankenstein being an example of early science fiction that few people realize is true science fiction even though it is also a fine horror novel.
What are my favorites ? I love Eric Temple Bell's "Time Stream" and return to it every few years to reread, once Again. His "Purple Sapphire" and "The Greatest Adventure" are also fine novels or perhaps, novellas. He was a mathematician and philosopher. A short biographical article including a list of his novels.
I found his name in an unusual place this week; a history of the Great San Francisco Earthquake, it seems he was there at the time and had invested in the local telephone company. In "The Time Stream" his time travelers spend some of their time in San Francisco just before the earthquake. I would add, also, that some of his work is rather dated but that said, I will stand by my affection of his works.
I hope if you haven't ever read these great classics you will know how to find them & the will to explore them. Some of them are slightly dated, after all, we know how we got to the moon, we know you can't breathe on the moon, we know we used rockets and not a gun to go there.

I think what I love about science fiction is that it enlarges my imagination. 31 years ago when my husband came home one day and announced that computers were becoming accessible to the hobbyist, my first comment was that 'yes, of course, but in the future!' (as in the next century!) and I mentioned Ray Bradbury's great short story, "There will come soft rains." and Issac Asimov's "Caves of Steel" as examples of what I expected for the future, and of course, Hal 9000, the nasty computer of the movie, "2001".
He said, no, it was NOW and he described a near future in which computers would be home based machines for the hobbyist and I was hooked, hooked forever, I would add. I saw my first S-100 bus at a local computer store. It was running a primitive hangman program. Oh, my excitement! A real computer. We didn't have a lot of money at the time and had to find a job that actually paid us so our first home computer was delayed a few years. By 1978-79 we had moved here, were making a decent living, and, at last, bought our first home computer - an Apple 2, before we bought, I would mention, our House ! (So you can sense our priorities at the time.) I could not resist the entire adventure of the computer age but they were not really very accessible to me for awhile, I was terrified of breaking IT. The word 'format' tormented me for a decade before we bought the our first Amiga, the first computer that seemed user friendly.

I love the Microsoft Windows interface, which has given me a feeling of freedom and confidence I do not think I could have ever had with the first computers.
As I said, Science fiction opens the mind up for possibilities and potential of the future, encouraging both innovation and adventure. Many of my best female friends are not friendly with their computers. They may use them but have no real passion for the machines. I think if they had read some Sci- Fi, when young, they would have been as thrilled as I was when the computer age fell upon us!

I have been paying attention to environmental subjects since I was a teenager. I've known about global issues since the 1967 or so, therefore. Suddenly, everyone is talking about it. There are at least 10 environmental magazines at the local bookstore. The politicians are threating all of us with draconian measures to ease US Co2 emissions. Also, kids are coming home crying about the end times for the human race and the death of the polar bears. They will be as traumatized as my generation was about the possibility of nuclear war. This saddens me because I remember the nightmares I had for many years of a Russian Nuke attack. This generation will suffer from fears instilled by Al Gore's film and this social phenomenon event for many years, even into adulthood.
As I grew into a mature woman I bought a home with my husband and could make decisions for my home that would effect our own little postage stamp sized piece of earth. I think I make wise decisions: recycling, turning lights off, washing clothes during the late evening, rejecting vacation travel... the list is rather long.
I am also a republican, an individualist and a conservative.
I am surprised by the furor of the last few weeks. I didn't expect it to get this crazy and hysterical...The Media, the politicians and the Internet are all in a uproar that surprises me. Human nature is such that when everyone starts screaming the same words there is usually a riot - either figuratively or literally. But I am surprised that people are getting so emotional, is it just an freak event? It is the kind of emotional passion that breeds irrationality, panic and violence --- and its not healthy!
It reminds me of the emotionalism and hysteria I have read about during the Black Plague. It is the kind of religious fervor that terror causes.
-And, if any of their claims are true - we need rationality more NOW than ever before. We must find ways to keep our technological civilization and keep our climate under control and that is going to take a lot of little sacrifices and some big ones, but, which are which and which will actually have the intended effects? Which will harm or even kill our fellow human beings?
We need to have a long and very rational conversation about these subjects!

What has worried me is that some of the people speaking out (in the media, particularly) seem to mistaken science and rationality ( IE thinking about how to solve a set of problems )... with religion : the irrational belief in what can not be felt or measured. Panic and hysteria are the predominate emotions of the Media, right now.

Science is no replacement for religion and religion should not be a replacement for science. You can not believe in scientists and science. You must try to comprehend or understand the underlying facts and measurements (and their descriptions of their findings) so you can make wise decisions in your life but science will not give your life meaning.

In human society science is for the facts and the details, explaining the physical realms so we can control and enhance natural, physical events. Everything we take for granted today in technology is because of the observations of scientists in the last 400 years.
Religion gives us meaning and understanding. It gives us something to love and care for, something to live for. It is by its very nature, beyond facts and rationality.

The reasons I am not going nuts right now : (as so many are doing)
1. This isn't a big surprise and I am totally convinced that It is just the price we pay for a technological civilization. I refuse to go back to the Middle Ages! So I will just live with global warming.
2. I am keeping my emotions at bay and asking questions.
3. I know how to solve problems and how to change my habits when I need to so I am not afraid of the future.
4. I trust the human race. We will change, invent new technologies, find ways to live with the changes.
5. I think this is just another warm phase (called an optimum) before things go towards the next ice age. After reading a lot about the climate I still believe the sun's activity has a lot more to do with our weather than anything we do.
So this is my challenge to you : examine the facts. If you are convinced that we are facing some sort of tragic event really change your habits in every possible way. Don't get emotional or scared. Move towards changing things for the better.

I have now and then admitted to others my personal belief in reincarnation. Sometimes, the results are very good, other times, well, not so good. Christians (not all!) tell me I cannot be a Christian and believe in reincarnation. They quote church fathers, declarations 1500 years old and the bible to prove to me I can not Love Christ and be a Christian. Sometimes, I argue, but lately --- it doesn't seem worth the effort. I sometimes end up telling them to mind their own sorry business and allow me to Love whom I love in the way I LOVE Him! And, no, that doesn't make me the most popular person among my fellow Christians. Most of the time I just don't tell, which gives a new twist to the phrase "don't ask, don't tell" doesn't it ?? But they totally miss the point of why I am a Christian... for me, Christianity isn't about me, at all - being saved isn't even important to me, at least, saved, in their sense of the word. For me all of life is a search for understanding and meaning. Why do the good die end while the evil ones prosper? Why do the powerful ones always seem to have the last laugh over my decaying bones? Why is it so very hard to understand the universe and its laws? Why am I here? What is the meaning of life - is a punishment, a reward or something more? If there is a God - a source of being - does he love us or hate us? I could not rest without the answers. I was seeking the meaning of life not salvation. Ironically,I think I found both in Christ's kingdom of Love.

Scientific, rational and atheist types tell me I am mad to think there is anything more than what I perceive with my senses. I tell them that they live in a very limited universe within encasing walls of stone made of their own thoughts. In a lot of ways, they are just as bad as the Christians who think I am going to hell because of what I believe. We all know the types I am talking about. What is funny is some of them are very poorly educated, actually. Not scientists, at all, but just young men and women who think they have all the answers. The last time I thought I knew everything was at the age of 16! (I didn't!) I truly pity them because they don't have the imagination to see that the universe is both a lot stranger and a lot bigger than what they can sense and weight. Science is not a religion to believe, it is a way to explore the universe of matter & energy.
I think scientific components will be discovered in much of what we mystical types testify to in some future time and place, there are aspects of consciousness that may be understood better in the future. Scientists and believers in science, today, are almost as arrogant as the priests who told Bruno,and, later, Galileo that the earth could not orbit the sun because in the Bible it says the sun orbits the earth. I find myself wishing that we would discover Atlantis, Bigfoot or Aliens just so scientists would need to say "We're sorry, we thought we knew everything - we don't!" I think a great many people forget that science isn't as much about what you know already but what there is left to be discovered! Science is about theories and measuring and weighing until you prove those theories. The Beloved theory of today can end up in the trashcan, tomorrow, if new facts or measurements come into focus. Science was created by man so he could better understand the nature of the physical universe - not so he could limit himself, in new way, even worse than the limits religion imposed on us at the end of the Renaissance!

I will debate with others if they seem up to effort but I do not want to convert others to my point of view... I want others to take what I say seriously but then to work on their own world view and philosophy, even their spirituality. Only the weak and insecure must convert others, the wise ones know better. Present what you know and believe and then forget about its effect on others.

It is wiser to say "I don't know yet, but I respect your point of view!" than "What I know is all there can be in the universe!" For me first hand experience within myself is proof enough. I base my life on my inner truth because that is all I can ever really know for sure. I do not trust experts of the religious kind or the scientific kind to tell me what to believe or what not to believe. I will consult them, but my philosophy and world view are my own creations, not the creation of some philosophy teacher, theologian or scientist.

Only children and puppy dogs worry about others think of them. A mature person, and, yes, it takes a lot of maturity, does what she or he thinks is right and necessary to be a good person and damns the consequences and the good opinion of others. This is one of the major lessons of my life and lives. I would rather be hated and thought a fool and be true to myself and my soul than loved by everyone and a betrayer of my True Self & Jesus Christ. When I get frustrated with the current concerns over what the world thinks of us, I mutter something to the effect that "I rise every morning and pray I can offend one other person before I dress!" If you want to think further about such independence of mind I suggest you read or watch the play "Cyrano De Bergerac" by Edmund Rostand.

There is a suggestion in many books that there are groups of souls - almost families that all reincarnate together time after time. Some think it is about time, itself, and time, when we enter it, takes us to the people and places we knew before, as perhaps, a river flowing. Others say it is just how karma works. This should be almost obvious, shouldn't it? ... who best to teach you not to murder than the person you murdered, or, on the positive side who should you marry but the beloved friend of many lives? These groups may have a joint karma of some sort, also, and time after time we meet, live and die ... serving, loving, hating, working, striving with one another as a group -oh, I want to clarify - these groups are bigger than just families.

One image that really helps me think about my past lives is a vision I had a long time ago. I saw a rug, handwoven, it was a tapestry of all my past lives and at the end, still on the loom, was this life as Kathy ... there were patterns in the rug, some lives were made with brilliant colors, some, less, but there were patterns kept repeating themselves, time after time. There were also gold and silver threads woven in times when I was working particularly hard to serve the race or I suffered for what I believed. Will there be a time when the rug is finished and I tie the ends and carry it to my Father in heaven and present it to Him as a gift? Maybe, don't know that one for sure, yet. I find that there are many mysteries and much, still to learn. Christ helps me weave my life, he throws the shuttle sometimes, and, sometimes, I throw it... still, it is my rug.

Believing in reincarnation makes me very appreciative of the time I have on earth, of the people around me, my mind, creativity... of all the chances I have this life to evolve a bit more fully. I know things are never quite the same from life to life and the beauty and challenges of life are the spice that makes the hard work of evolving bearable. I started this life asking is life a punishment or a reward, both or neither. It can be both but our decisions and choices can make it a pleasure and a reward of the first order. We make our own heaven and our own hell here on earth. We carry our hell inside of us like old Marley carried his chains. We carry our heaven like wings upon the back of an angel. We sow, we reap... and the cycles continue. We are literally our choices... So choose the light !

I have learned that appreciation and gratitude are two very big lessons that we must all learn to be happy - happiness comes when you learn to practice both, even the hard times should be appreciated (another chance to learn a lesson and get past the darn thing!) and gratitude that we are given endless chances to change, grow and mature into conscious souls of worth and beauty. Christ is always there, for us, when the lessons are painful, but, the choices are always ours. And, yes, sometimes we are own worse enemies!

Pain is part of the class room. Pain teaches us a lot. It is necessary. Learn to bear pain and understand it. Don't run away from it. Sometimes the only way past pain to go through it.

Keep faith with God & Karma. The universe isn't random atoms flying about - it has patterns and an ultimate fate. Don't be afraid. Be Courageous. Be Strong. Don't worry.
Right now , everyone has suddenly discovered global warming. The universe will teach us what we need to learn and so will the Earth. I have hope that we will learn in good time how to maintain an advanced civilization and care for the Earth. There may be hard knocks ahead but don't be afraid. I think global warming may be just another natural cycle unfolding itself, but I still live and have been living for a very long time trying to love and respect the Earth. I want her to be here for all my lives to come. I love the Earth. God is my Father/mother of my soul but the earth is the mother of my flesh. One will exist for all eternity, the other is a temporary but beloved, home. For me, loving the earth isn't about politics. It is an extension of What Christ said we must do ...' love ourselves, love God and love each other... In this is all the laws and prophets.'
So do what you feel you need to do for the earth, yes, but don't force others to do it (its not loving to do so!) . Do all you do because you LOVE.
Reincarnation should also teach you never to be afraid of death. Death is just another doorway. It isn't that your mind and flesh won't be terrorized when that last breath is taken, the flesh fears death, must fear it because it is the end for IT .. but your deepest self should not. The soul just sighs at the end of a life. "Well, another life done!" The soul fears not death - nor life. They are one and the same. Learn, therefore, to listen to the soul's wisdom. Be ready to work hard and play hard. Enjoy it all.

Saturday was the 406th anniversary of the execution by fire of Giordano Bruno, the Italian poet,philosopher and mystic of the late Renaissance. I seem to have a personal affinity for this dear man and find in his philosophy a great deal of my own world view & philosophy. Reading his work is not easy - it is damnably hard work, but he is well worth the effort. He will sometimes be obscene, often funny and very often, sublime. His words, at their best, soar to the gates of heaven. He is for those who do not want to reject the existence of the Divine while desiring to explore, think and examine all of nature, mankind and greater cosmos. Many of the sciences we today acknowledge as separate disciplines were speculated upon in his dialogs - bits and pieces of the future are strewed in his prose. In his philosophy you can be both mystic and scientist - something, many today,believe is an impossibility.
Born in 1548, of a poor southern Italian family, he choose priesthood as a Dominican monk instead of the sea,the soil or the sword. He was a wonderful mixture of contraries: Mystic and scientist, arguing troublemaker and moralist, believer and profound doubter, religious and spiritual, spy and wanderer belonging to no one land; he had one leg in the religion of his ancestors, one hand in the future and age of discovery, the other leg in the 20 century, the last hand in mystical, arcane and magical world of alchemy and hermetic magic. I believe he would have been at home in our own times if he didn't get too restless by its dogmatic rigidity(in every field of intellectual endeavor, including science.) - he was a scientist born too early, a science fiction writer whose imagination was quite profound before there was any call for one, a mystic who said many of the same things that got others sainthood and one very curious individual in every possible way. His life was a painful one and I doubt he ever knew much happiness or real peace. He was torn between his lady love (wisdom, science, Truth) and the Roman Catholic church that had nurtured him as a youth. He wanted intellectual freedom but he also appreciated the need for structure and traditions; attempting to return to the church several times. He believed that you could be free and be Christian. I would suggest he was a Gnostic Christian with other influences and I suspect that he would have been attracted to Buddhism if it had been more available in the Europe of his time.He appreciated the yin and loved the yang, th0ugh he did not call the Balance of universe by those names. Some experts believed he was an atheist but I do not believe it - He could hold in his deepest soul many contraries (opposites), understanding that you do not need to have certainty and can not have it as long as you are mortal. He wanted the TRUTH and he was willing to do anything to seek it. He saw no need to stay in one place for very long - this was as true intellectually as it was physically. Ultimately, his desire for the Truth above all other things was his undoing as was his inability to prevaricate.
His end was as a human candle, a fire that consumed his soul as well as his body taking both away to eternity. I think he appreciated the poetic nature of his death, which he did not fear because he knew his soul to be immortal. BUT sadly, in the end, he felt betrayed by God and Christ, for as the fires grew closer, he turned away from the cross. Death is never sad in its self, only defeat in death is sorrowful and in the end, the church had that one victory, it drove him away from Jesus Christ. We, who look on from this century can not fault him and what he must have suffered in the jails of the Inquisition, we can only guess; My suggestion is that they brain-washed him and beat him into something like acquiescence, damaging his soul. He, in short, believed their lies in the end. I must explain that I am not saying that he agreed with them about their dogma, his last statement shows he did not, but he agreed that you could not love the Divine ONE and Lady Wisdom (science, philosophy, Truth). That of course, is a lie. I can only pray in his future lives his soul will awaken again and with new eyes and a new age see the lie for what it is.
Note: The above picture is from the net, I fear I have no record of where I found it or who originally took it. It is of a statue erected on the site of his execution, the Campo de Fiori in Rome.