JULY HEAT...

There are some cool images coming from Cassini as it enters its Saturn orbit- click on the image at left or go to the raw images at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw.

One NASA official was heard to exclaim:
"Look at all the cars!"


Mind and intelligence are woven into the fabric of our universe in a way that altogether surpasses our understanding.- Freeman Dyson

Some folks didn't catch the great last item on my May page, so it is repeated- just for the fun of it:

And now, a much-needed joke, an outlet for all of your pent-up stuff...
HOWEVER, you are forewarned that it is sexual in nature so do not click on the picture of the outlet (at left) if you think you might be offended- Thank You!!


"Some things are better than sex, and some things are worse, but there's nothing exactly like it."- W. C. Fields

Father's Day came and went without a comment from me- oops. I sent my dad a large photo book on race cars, a catalogue for a company that carries old-time kinds of things and a magazine with a subscription (Invention & Technology).

My dad likes cars, and he likes to piddle around- fixing this and that, planting gardens, trees and plants, putting out salt licks for the deer that come into his yard, feeding the birds, and figuring out just about anything. I am a piddler too. In 2001 he put on some goofy glasses I brought with me and posed for a picture. He is a quiet and patient man who has influenced me more than I had ever imagined.

"My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."- Clarence Budinton Kelland

Click on each of the images for more fun- check out the "two week archive".

- Cartoons by Callahan



"The world of the happy is quite different from that of the unhappy."- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)

I am like a broken record these days- have been fighting illness three weeks now, and whining to prove it! My cold got better but the congestion hung on long enough to now erupt/morph into sinus and ear infections- and the antibiotic makes me feel yucky...

See? Like I said, I am getting more and more skilled at whining.

"There are really only two ways to approach life--as victim or as gallant fighter--and you must decide if you want to act or react, deal your own cards or play with a stacked deck. And if you don't decide which way to play with life, it always plays with you."- Merle Shain

I am feeling a bit better, the antibiotic is starting to work...

Setting: Dementia Unit
On Stage: Three Older Women, Seated for Lunch
Sound: Fire Alarm

Lady #1: "What are they doing that for?"
Staff Person: "They are testing the alarm."
Lady #1: "Well they should stop- it's working. They are going to have to send all of us to the doctor's office to check our hearing!"
Staff Person: "They want to make very sure it is working fine."
[Alarm sounds again]
Lady #1: "Well, I'm very fussy- and I would stop!"
Social Worker: "That can be helpful, to be particular about things."
Lady #1: [Looking reflective] "I don't know, it isn't always." [She smooths her napkin]
[Alarm sounds again]
Lady #1: "They're going to have to send us to the doctor's..."
Social Worker: [Interrupting] "What?"
Lady #1: "They're going to have to send us to the doctor's to..."
Social Worker: [Interrupting] "What?"
Lady #1: "They're going to have to send us to the doctor's to get our..."
Social Worker: [Interrupting and touching her ear, pushing it forward as if to help her hear] "What?"
Lady #1: "to get our hearing" [Stops talking, looks up at Social Worker and laughs] "Oh you!"
Lady #2 and Lady #3: Seated at table, laugh along, the startled look on their faces combined with a pleased look, as if surprised and pleased that someone would not only make a joke for their benefit, but think that they could "get" it.

Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness.- Margaret Miller

Click on the rabbit cartoon- courtesy of Mr. Will

I have been reading an interesting book I picked up at the library that was a quick read: "The Girl Watchers Club: Lessons from the Battlefields of Life" by Harry Stein. It is nonfiction and recounts conversations that the author had the pleasure of listening in on as his father-in-law met with male friends that have been getting together regularly for the last several decades for lunch and to talk about life. The men are now in their 80s, having lived through the depression, WWII, and everything thereafter. A couple of quotes from the book follow, and both pictures here link to reviews.


"Hey, I've got a joke for you,"
"So this old guy goes to the doctor, and the doctor tells him, 'I've got some really bad news. You've got cancer and you've got Alzheimers.'
" 'Well,' says the old guy. 'Thank God I don't have cancer!'"- Moe Turner [cheering up the daughter of one of his best friends who is dying of Alzheimer's]

"Were you ever scared?"
"Actually, it was kind of exhilarating. To know you were doing the right thing, and for the moment that truly being all that mattered. I'd say that's the great secret to happiness in life- feeling you're living a life with real and solid meaning."- Earl Godfrey [Regarding battle during WWII]


Being human is being always directed, and pointing to, something or someone other than oneself: to a meaning to fulfil or another human being to encounter, a cause to serve or a person to love.(p.35) Self-transcendence often makes use of the power of imagination and optimism. Self-transcendence is essential for finding happiness, which is not the end, but the by-product of trying to forget oneself. Only to the extent to which man fulfils a meaning out there in the world, does he fulfil himself.(p.38)- Viktor E. Frankl, 1978

The amusing MRI picture at left is from the same site as the cartoon above- interesting image site. HOWEVER, if you click on this MRI/Phone picture it takes you to a Harvard Magazine article about the finding that EP-MRSI seems to improve mood for people who are depressed. It is an exciting development in that it confirms that mood disorders do have a physical basis and if it pans out it will be a wonderful alternative not only to using medications but to using electro-convulsant, or ECT, treatments for intractable depression.

"The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory."- Paul Fix

"In the century now dawning, spirituality, visionary consciousness, and the ability to build and mend human relationships will be more important for the fate and safety of this nation than our capacity to forcefully subdue an enemy. Creating the world we want is a much more subtle but more powerful mode of operation than destroying the one we don't want."- Marianne Williamson

Ran across what I thought was a very interesting article in Scientific American. It is about recent discoveries that brain cells called glial cells do much more than had previously been thought, in fact they may be critical to thinking and learning. These cells had been virtually ignored by scientists who have focused on neurons, but now, using calcium uptake imaging, they have demonstrated the glial cell role in information movement. The article also talks about studies of Einstein's brain: "One of the respected scientists who examined sections of the prized brain was Marian C. Diamond of the University of California at Berkeley. She found nothing unusual about the number or size of its neurons (nerve cells). But in the association cortex, responsible for high-level cognition, she did discover a surprisingly large number of nonneuronal cells known as glia--a much greater concentration than that found in the average Albert's head...." Hmmm. They talk about glial cells wrapped around the central nervous system- brain and spinal cord- and possible implications for neurological disorders, including MS, and paralysis. Exciting and way cool.

The picture on the left links to cool glia cell pictures and the picture on the right links to a video of glia cell calcium uptake... enjoy.


"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters to what lies within us."- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jay and I had a fun weekend. We went down to Seattle Friday night and saw the Indigo Girls in concert on the waterfront, stayed the night in a very nice hotel and went to the Van Gogh to Mondrian exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum on Saturday. The hotel is on 45th and is an unusual building design, with the rooms around the perimeter and all rooms with a corner view- we were on the 12th floor with a view of Lake Washington and the Cascades.

So, a weekend of good music, great art and fun in Seattle- good to get home, too.


"Live every day as if it were your last, because one of these days, it will be."- Jeremy Schwartz

I don't remember where I got these "Redneck" pictures, if I got them from a site or from an e-mail. At any rate, they link to a Redneck video game sent to me by my cousin Diane. See what you think...

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."- Albert Einstein

I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty.
Sen. John Kerry declared to cheering delegates at the start of his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

The picture links to the AP released text of the speech, in part:
I don't want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side.



"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."- Albert Einstein

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Music: Click on the Lips Featuring: Pearl jam "I am Mine" Page Created July 2004

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