Interesting Space Facts: Part 1

Below are some interesting space facts, courtesy of PlanetFacts.net:

If one were to capture and bottle a comet's 10,000 mile vapor trail, the amount of vapor actually present in the bottle would take up less than 1 cubic inch of space.

Members of the Dogon tribe in Mali, Africa, for many centuries worshiped a star known today by astronomers as Sirius B. The Dogon people knew its precise elliptical orbit, knew how long it took to revolve around its parent star, Sirius, and were aware that it was made up of materials not found on Earth—all this centuries before modern astronomers had even discovered that Sirius B existed.
Deimos, one of the moons of mars, rises and sets twice a day.

To an observer standing on Pluto, the sun would appear no brighter than Venus appears in our evening sky.

Saturn's rings are 500,000 miles in circumference but only about a foot thick.

Five times as many meteors can be seen after midnight as can be seen before.

The star Zeta Thauri, a supernova, was so bright when it exploded in 1054 that it could be seen during the day.

When we look at the farthest visible star we are looking 4 billion years into the past—the light from that star traveling at 186,000 miles a second, has taken that many years to reach us.

The telescope on Mount Palomar, California, can see a distance of 7,038,835,200,000,000,000,000 miles.

The sun is 3 million miles closer to the Earth during the winter than the summer.

The diameter of the star Betelgeuse is more than a quarter the size of our entire solar system.

The sun is 330,330 times larger than the Earth.

The Earth moves in its 585-million-mile orbit around the sun approximately eight times faster than a bullet travels.

If It Were Just A Cartoon, It Would Be Funny

The Road Not Taken

Sometimes it's good to reread this.

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Love the Questions

Wise words from Rilke to a young poet:

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves...Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given to you because you will not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

Objective World

Chapter five in Marvin Weisbord's Productive Workplaces opens with a quote from Edgar Schein, taken from The Professional Manager. It is worth sharing.

The essence of [McGregor's] message is that people react not to an objective world, but to a world fashioned out of their own perceptions, assumptions and theories about what the world is like....McGregor wished passionately to release all of us from this trap, by getting us to be aware of how each of our worlds is of our own making. Once we become aware we can choose - and it was the process of free choice that we believe was Doug's ultimate value.

After reading this, I purchased all three of Douglas McGregor's books on leadership. I'm sure I'll have more to share as I go through them.

If I Feel

Beautiful words and a great way to stay connected to the power we have to direct our lives -- from Og Mandino:

If I feel depressed, I will sing. 

If I feel sad, I will laugh. 

If I feel ill, I will double my labor. 

If I feel fear, I will plunge ahead. 

If I feel inferior, I will wear new garments. 

If I feel uncertain, I will raise my voice. 

If I feel poverty, I will think of wealth to come. 

If I feel incompetent, I will think of past success. 

If I feel insignificant, I will remember my goals. 

Today, I will be the master of my emotions.

Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta

Here's a recipe from Vegetarian Times courtesy of my friend Shelly. You can go directly to recipe here. 

Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta

Serves 6

30 minutes or fewer

Talk about a fusion of world cuisines! Cubes of avocado are folded into chimichurri—an Argentinean sauce made of chopped parsley, cilantro, garlic, vinegar, and oil—to create a Latin variation on bruschetta, a classic Italian starter.

• 2 Tbs. lemon juice
• 2 Tbs. red wine vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbs.)
• ¾ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. red pepper flakes
• ½ tsp. dried oregano
• ¼ tsp. ground black pepper
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup chopped cilantro
• ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 avocados, peeled, pitted, and cubed
• 6 ½-inch-thick slices whole-grain or ciabatta bread, toasted

Combine lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, salt, red pepper flakes, oregano, and black pepper in small bowl. Whisk in oil, then stir in cilantro and parsley. Fold in avocado cubes. Spoon avocado mixture onto toast slices, and serve.

For Thea Filitsa

Rest In Peace, Thea

Food Quotes: Part Two

No mean woman can cook well. It calls for a generous spirit,
 a light hand, and a large heart.

-- Paul Gauguin

What does cookery mean? It means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe,
 and of Calypso, and Sheba. It means knowledge of all herbs, and fruits, and
 balms and spices... It means the economy of your great-grandmother and the
 science of modern chemistry, and French art, and Arabian hospitality. It
 means, in fine, that you are to see imperatively that everyone has something 
nice to eat.


-- John Ruskin 

In cooking, as in the arts, simplicity is a sign of perfection.


-- Curnonsky

Watch a French housewife as she makes her way slowly along the 
loaded stalls… searching for the peak of ripeness and flavor…
What you are seeing is a true artist at work, patiently assembling
 all the materials of her craft, just as the painter squeezes oil colors
 onto his palette ready to create a masterpiece.


-- Keith Floyd

 If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite
 things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them
 with ceremony.


-- Fernand Point

Food Quotes: Part One

A recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play 
each time with a variation.


-- Madame Benoit

The whole Mediterranean, the sculpture, the palms, the gold beads, the bearded heroes, the wine, the ideas, the ships, the moonlight, the
 winged gorgons, the bronze men, the philosophers - all of it seems to 
rise in the sour, pungent taste of these black olives between the teeth.
 A taste older than meat, older than wine. A taste as old as cold water.


-- Lawrence Durrell

We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking

for something to eat and drink,

for dining alone is leading the life 
of a lion or wolf.


-- Epicurus

Let the progress of the meal be slow,

for dinner is the last business of the day;

and let the guests conduct themselves 
like travelers

due to reach their destination together.

-- Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

If the soup had been as warm as the wine;

if the wine had been as old as the turkey;


and if the turkey had had a breast like the maid,


it would have been a swell dinner.


-- Duncan Hines

Five Things on a Sunday

Five things that have my attention today:

1. Great list of things to do this fall from WSJ can be found here. Images caught my eye.
2. A new site of good-for-me recipes at this location. I found it looking for a quinoa burger recipe.
3. I was thinking about Psalms this morning and did a quick search. Found this and started with 123.
4. The catch, the drive, the finish, and the recovery. Muscles used here. I'm talking about rowing.
5. Japan by Billy Collins. Lovely. Found here.

Hope it's a great day.

Be Willing to Change

From page 171 of The Magic of Conflict:

The Aiki Approach

Be Willing to Change

• The most dependable quality in the universe is that of change.
• A willingness to change eliminates the word failure from our vocabulary.
• To change our perspective in a conflict is to move from a point of view to a viewing point.
• Embracing change is consciously choosing our future.
• Flexibility allows us to stretch rather than shrink in life.

An Hour

An Hour
by Czeslaw Milosz

Leaves glowing in the sun, zealous hum of bumblebees,
From afar, from somewhere beyond the river, echoes of lingering voices
And the unhurried sounds of a hammer gave joy not only to me.
Before the five senses were opened, and earlier than any beginning
They waited, ready, for all those who would call themselves mortals,
So that they might praise, as I do, life, that is, happiness. 

Sermon to the Birds

The words of Saint Francis of Assisi:

My little sisters, the birds, much bounden are ye unto God, your Creator, and always in every place ought ye to praise Him, for that He hath given you liberty to fly about everywhere, and hath also given you double and triple rainment; moreover He preserved your seed in the ark of Noah, that your race might not perish out of the world; still more are ye beholden to Him for the element of the air which He hath appointed for you; beyond all this, ye sow not, neither do you reap; and God feedeth you, and giveth you the streams and fountains for your drink; the mountains and valleys for your refuge and the high trees whereon to make your nests; and because ye know not how to spin or sow, God clotheth you, you and your children; wherefore your Creator loveth you much, seeing that He hath bestowed on you so many benefits; and therefore, my little sisters, beware of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to give praises unto God.

Nietzche: A Parable

From Nietzche:

The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. A parable.

More Music

I stumbled upon the following block prints by Stephen Alcorn. These are just a sample of the Modern Music Masters series he produced. Take a look at the entire collection here.

Volume 5 of April 1st Comes to a Close on September 1

The final pages of volume 5: