The Dotted Dunes of Mars





Explanation: What causes the black dots on dunes on Mars? As spring dawns on the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, dunes of sand near the poles begin to defrost. Thinner regions of ice typically thaw first revealing sand whose darkness soaks in sunlight and accelerates the thaw. By summer, the spots will have expanded to encompass the entire dunes that will then be completely thawed and dark. The carbon dioxide and water ice actually sublime in the thin atmosphere directly to gas. Taken in mid-July, the above image shows a field of spotted polar dunes spanning about 3 kilometers near the Martian North Pole. Meanwhile, in the Southern Hemisphere of Mars, the Earth-sent robot Martian rovers will try to survive through Martian winter, which peaks in mid-September.




Astronomy Picture of the Day

How to Jump from a Building into a Dumpster

An education isn't how much you have committed to memory,
or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate
between what you do know and what you don't.
-- Anatole France

In a consumer society there are inevitably
two kinds of slaves:
the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.

-Ivan Illich, priest
(1926-2002)

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more
meaning than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the!
sky or at the top of the list, but when we waken
in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do
we speak UP and why are the officers UP for
election and why is it UP to the secretary
to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends And we use it to
brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver,
we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP
the kitchen. We lock UP the house and
some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets,
work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing:

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We openUP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We see m to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable of the proper uses of UP,
look UP the word in the dictionary.
In a desk size dictionary, takes UP almost 1/4th
the page and definitions add UP to about thirty.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the
many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time,
but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a
hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.

The word "UP" has soooooo many meanings

When it rains, it wets UP the earth.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP,
for now my time is UP, so............. now
I'll shut UP

civildefensemuseum

I was driving the other day and came up on a VW Beetle
with a license plate reading 'BOBS MG'.
I was able to pull up beside the car at the next light,
so I said to the driver, "Hey, that's not an MG."
The driver looked over at me and said, "I'm not Bob."

If a small one kiloton nuke went off in Newark,N.J.

Swinburne University of Technology's center for micro-photonics
have constructed a model of the Sydney Opera House, seen in this
undated photo, that is about half the diameter of a human hair.
With dimensions of 64 x 38 x 41 micrometers, or more than a
million times smaller than the real Sydney structure, the model
was built from a hybrid material of glass and polymer by firing
intense laser light into the matter in a liquid state to create what
to the human eye appears as an almost imperceptible dot,
but under an electron microscope it contains the detail and the
beauty of the iconic Sydney harbour side structure.
(AP Photo/Swinburne University, ho)

China has shaken off the humiliation it has suffered
in the past at the hands of the Western imperialist
powers and is becoming a nation once more to be
reckoned with.

The Democrats keep loudly proclaiming that Republicans
represent only extremely white rich people,
while the Democrats represent all Americans.

(Bar bet: Among the four major candidates for president and vice president this year, who has the smallest net worth? Answer: George Bush.)

The blue moon rises, shining an eerie light onto the lake,
What magic does this moon hold?
Why does it affect us so?
Two full moons in one month seems to me, not so special,
Yet hundreds of songs are sung to it,
Hundreds of poems written for it,
I sit here now writing about this blue moon?
Why?
Because something that happens only occaisionally thrills us,
Takes us out of the routine dullness of our lives,
Makes us think that today can be special,
different,
Unique,
"Blue moon
Now I'm no longer alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own."
The blue moon signifiers loneliness,
Madness,
or as I see it, Hope.
That things as rare as once in a blue blue moon really can happen,
And often!
Blue moons are not really that rare
As the blue moon sets,
A new day begins,
One with so many posibilities,
Dreams can come true
,
Once the moons been blue.

again?

The Rarest Coffee in The World (And the Most Expensive

Kopi Luwak
The Rarest Coffee in The World (And the Most Expensive)


Coffee grows in several countries in the world and some particular varieties
are noted for their excellence or their fine reputation. Often, this is based
on rarity and incredibly fine flavor. Several coffees including
Jamaican Blue Mountain, Kona, and Tanzanian Peaberry,
command a premium price due
to quality and availability.
These are all exceptional coffees.

However, there is one coffee that beats them all in uniqueness of flavor,
rarity and strangeness of processing. This coffee, known as Kopi Luwak,
is so rare that there is perhaps only as little as 500 Lbs of it available per year.
The Uniqueness is reflected in the price and no other coffee even comes close.
Kopi Luwak sells for $75 per quarter pound. This seems an unimaginably
high price for a quarter pound of coffee but it’s the special "Processing"
that makes it so incredibly rare.

Kopi Luwak comes from the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi which
are part of the Indonesian Archipelago’s island chain. On these Indonesian
islands, there's a small marsupial called the Paradoxurus.

This marsupial is a tree-dwelling animal belonging to the Sibet family.
Once regarded by the Indonesians as pests because they climb into the
coffee trees and eat only the ripest, reddest coffee cherries. What these
animals eat they must also digest and eventually excrete.

Some brazen local gathered the beans, which come through the
digestion process fairly intact, still wrapped in layers of the cherries'
mucilage. The enzymes in the animals' stomachs, though, appear to
add something unique to the coffee's flavor through fermentation.
Yes the most expensive…the rarest coffee in the world is partially
pre-digested and excreted by the Paradoxurus.

What began as, presumably, a way for the natives to get coffee
without climbing the trees has evolved into the world's priciest
specialty coffee. How does it taste? It's really good, heavy with a
caramel taste, heavy body. It smells musty and jungle-like green,
but it roasts up real nice. It's a most complex coffee with unusual
flavor due to the natural fermentation the coffee beans undergo
in the paradoxurus' digestive system. The stomach acids and
enzymes are very different from fermenting beans in water.
The flavor is earthy with a musty tone that’s heavy bodied.
It's almost syrupy with a unique aroma. It's an unbelievable
taste in your mouth: richness, body, earthiness, smooth.
Is Kopi Luwak worth it’s price?
Those who have been fortunate enough to try it at a cupping are
delighted with it’s intriguing chocolaty, syrupy taste and would
enjoy it whenever it is available. By the cup, it costs no more than
a fancy latte at
around $5.00 per cup, when you can find it. Well worth a try…
even if only for the novelty…until your taste buds tell you how
delightful it truly is.