The Home Country

My sister recently sent me some photo's of our homeland in Sicily. She visited there about 2 decades ago but has kept in touch with the Ricca family there. These are two pictures of the area near Santa Margharita di Belice.

It looks mountainous and beautiful!

The Inside of an Ant's Nest

Nature always astounds and here is a short 3 minute video about what the inside of an ant nest in Africa looks like: http://www.dump.com/2011/08/30/worlds-biggest-ant-hill-video/.

I hope you find this interesting.

It's Hot In Death Valley

Death Valley in California is known for its heat during the summer but this year has been excruciatingly hot. On July 11 it registered a high of 128 degrees F, only 6 degrees off its all time high of 134 degrees F. Later that morning, the low temperature was 107 degrees F.

Read all about it here: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2153

Clever Birthday Greetings

I am just about to start a private tour of the Colorado Rockies with Jack Share from Boston. On a previous trip, we stopped to take a picture of me at the Wayne County line on State Highway 95 south of Hanksville. Using Photoshop, he was able to clearly change the word county to Ranney. Here is the result!

How Hot It Is In NYC Right Now

The True Cost of War

Our country is mired in conflicts around the world while segments of our own society languish and suffer. War is the true reason that we do not have the financial resources to address our many problems. Our leaders tell us that there are threats looming everywhere but their own policies often incite these threats.

Stop the madness! Check out this web site to see just how much of our Federal discretionary spending goes to the Department of Defense, nuclear weapons and Veteran Affairs: http://www.oneminuteforpeace.org/budget. A counter at the top right on this web site shows how much we spend each second to create wars. The rate is astounding.

America can be great again but we will never be great if we continue to foment unrest around the world. Our citizens are not inherently hostile to other people, yet our policies and certain special interests have co-opted the system to make us the largest war-mongers on the planet.

The Celestial Art of Tyler Nordgren

Those blog readers who saw my post on the recent Southwestern eclipse, will have noted the artwork that preceded the piece. These artworks are done by physicist and astronomer Tyler Nordgren of University of Redlands . Tyler was the Keynote Speaker at the festivities at Glen Canyon NRA over the past weekend and is the author of the book Earth Below, Stars Above.

I thought I would share with you his artwork completed for the eclipse from the various National Parks in its path. They are something to behold! I have also included two of his pieces at the end of these that show the Milky Way in Canyonlands and Grand Canyon National Parks.

Tyler's website is here.