Coal tornado in McDowell county wv

yikes!   The air dust ratio can be come explosive!

Tír na nÓg

The Gaelic name for Ireland that translates into English as the Land of the Eternal Youth or the Land of the Ever-Young.


Irish eyes are smiling.

some facts about sleep

British Ministry of Defence researchers have been able to reset soldiers' body clocks so they can go without sleep for up to 36 hrs. Tiny optical fibres embedded in special spectacles project a ring of bright white light (with a spectrum identical to a sunrise) around the edge of soldiers' retinas, fooling them into thinking they have just woken up. The system was first used on US pilots during the bombing of Kosovo.

The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role.

To drop off we must cool off; body temperature and the brain's sleep-wake cycle are closely linked. That's why hot summer nights can cause a restless sleep. The blood flow mechanism that transfers core body heat to the skin works best between 18 and 30 degrees. But later in life, the comfort zone shrinks to between 23 and 25 degrees - one reason why older people have more sleep disorders.

Thought for the day

"Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."

Benjamin Franklin

A warm notion

"Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing."


Mother Teresa

Irish Pessimism

"There’s nothing so bad that it couldn’t be worse."

Tornado facts

In the USA, April has the most tornados with over a thousand events. July is the month in the year with the least and averages only 70 plus events

caves in appalachian mountains

Such caverns are now very much a part of present day geologic exploration
A sample of geolgy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGoO0MWxCOo


“Seven years in the land (underground) of the Sidhe—the fairies—is one year in ‘human’ land.” Irish saying.

From Bonnie

Like to share something by ANAIS NIN

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possible not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

We wait in joy

For your word,
we wait with joy.

For your presence,
we wait with joy.

In our conscious,
we wait with joy.

You are joy.

Amen!


jpR

Famous comments on the irish

"We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English."
- Winston Churchill

To live longer?

A poll of the most senior citizens showed that diet and exercise was not common to long life, i.e. health. The dominate theme of long living was the continuation of enjoying the things of youth.

This is a very simple goal. It also permits no time for worry.

Medical use of alcoholic beverages

Good Brandy has always been looked upon as a most valuable medicine and restorative in cases of illness and exhaustion.

Whisky is a powerful stimulant to the heart and arteries and the general nervous forces, and counteracts malaria, hardens the tissues of the lungs, counteracts tuberculosis, or consumption. Taken properly it diffuses a warmth all over the body, acting on the brain forces so as to make a person feel hopeful, buoyant and ambitious. Many lives have been saved with it from low forms of fever.

FLEUR-DE-LIS

Called Lily of France, it was first an adaptation of the Gaulish lily representing the Virgin Juno. Among goddess worshippers, it apparently had several meanings, including the Triple Goddess (The Maiden, Mother and witch). It appeared in Arthurian legends as well as on the French (and other national) "coat-of-arms" and royal or military emblems. It has also been an emblem for the Boy Scouts.

a famous dream

Paul McCartney Finds "Yesterday" In a Dream

Paul McCartney is one of the most famous singer/ songwriters of all time. According to the Guinness Book of Records, his Beatles song "Yesterday" (1965) has the most cover versions of any song ever written and, according to record label BMI, was performed over seven million times in the 20th century.

The tune for "Yesterday" came to Paul McCartney in a dream...

Modern Celtic Regions

1. Brittany…..France's northwest corner
2. Cornwall.... wrongly termed as a county of England, it is actually a Duchy.
3. Galicia…..north west Spain comprising the provinces of La Coruna, Lugo, Orense, and Pontevedra.
4. Ireland
5. Isle of Man
6. Scotland
7. Wales

"The Book of Cells"

In the 1920’s in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin a diary was kept for the last words of condemned Irish republican prisoners

The words of Liam Mellows, written Dec. 8, 1922, the day Mellows was executed by firing squad with three others: "God bless you boys and may he give you courage, fortitude and wisdom to suffer and endure all for Ireland's sake."
Patrick Hennessey wrote on Sept. 1, 1923: " ... I am leaving my cigarettes to be divided among the Clare section ... a cigarette to each one will go a long way. I forgive my enemies ... from the bottom of my heart. ..."

Chingachgook.....RUSSELL MEANS

"Great Spirit, Maker of All Life. A warrior goes to you swift and straight as an arrow shot into the sun. Welcome him and let him take his place at the council fire of my people. He is Uncas, my son. Tell them to be patient and ask death for speed; for they are all there but one - I, Chingachgook "- Last of the Mohicans. 

consolation

O but there is wisdom
In what the sages said;
But stretch that body for a while
And lay down that head
Till I have told the sages
Where man is comforted.

How could passion run so deep
Had I never thought
That the crime of being born
Blackens all our lot?
But where the crime's committed
The crime can be forgot. 

William Butler Yeats

the basses gets away

"The fish, when he's exposed to air, 

Displays no trace of savoir faire,
But in the sea regains his balance
And exploits all his manly talent.
The chastest of the vertebrates,
He never even sees his mates,
But when they've finished, he appears
And O.K.'s all their bright ideas."

jpr: we saws 'em, we cast to'em, but they slipped off our hooks????

one of the oldest known tombs

Archaeologists in northern Israel say they have discovered the world's oldest known grave of a shaman. The 12,000-year-old grave holds an elderly female of the mysterious Natufian culture, animal parts, and a human foot.

The 1.5-meter-tall (nearly 5-foot-tall), 45-year-old woman was relatively old for her time. After her death, she was placed in a mud-plastered and rock-lined pit in a cave and was buried beneath a large stone slab.Her grave contained 50 arranged turtle shells and parts of wild pigs, eagles, cows, leopards, martens, and a human foot, among other artifacts.

tree house

jpr: I get the sunlight thing...let's talk about water/sanitation services!

DNA mugshot

the creation of facial image from dna is here...expensive and less than precise but proving useful when ancestral DNA has no match.

Caroline Shaw

the winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music

jpr: have a listen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTnwdQbN3vY

Ancient Rome....music

Some where the great music of modern day Italian began

outrageous chocolate

Chocolate comes from the cacao plant, and cacao is extraordinarily rich in flavanols, a type of flavonoid phytochemical...good for the health!

“What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate.” 
― Katharine Hepburn

fly swatting

The flight range of house flies is ~ 7 km with a life expectancy of 1-2 weeks.

ole reliable

jpr: these days when i walk my dog in the fields I carry one of the above to swat (gently) flies off "my boy's" back!

Bad picnic

Song of the Open Road

I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree
Indeed, unless the billboards fall
I'll never see a tree at all. 

Ogden Nash

The real meaning of July 4

rothko paintings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVYDbeljUww

jpr: It took 40+ years to develop his style. Considered among the greats such as
Rembrandt.

Simon Michael Schama, CBE

The son of Jewish parents with roots in Lithuania, Romania, and Turkey, Schama was born in London. In the mid-1940's, the family moved to Southend-on-Sea in Essex.

The year 2000 Schama was commissioned by the BBC to produce a series of television documentary programs on British history as part of their Millennium celebrations, under the title A History of Britain. Also he has the Story of the Jews documentary series on BBC television.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRHafOdvSJI


jpr: Simon is a proud Britain and a proud Jew. One wonders if this is altogether the easiest of mix. 

Pluto has moon? Go figure!

Pluto has at least five known moons by latest discovery. There will be more as The space satellite "new horizons" reaches Pluto this July .