From the Space Science Desk: Solar Dynamics Observatory Observes Dynamic Sun

from

Editorial
View of the Sun

Published: April 27, 2010

A new satellite is producing extraordinarily high-quality images of the Sun, revealing what an intense, disturbing thing of beauty it is.


To view the video, click here

[T]here has never really been anything like the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Launched in mid-February, it is shipping a torrent of data our way from its orbit above the Sun. ... The quality of these images is extraordinary, 10 times the resolution of high-definition television, according to NASA.

We have seen the surface of the Sun before, but never with this clarity. Every 10 seconds, the satellite photographs the solar disk in eight different wavelengths, and what emerges — even in these earliest images — is both stirring and disorienting. The Sun is the most constant object in our lives, but what we see in these videos is a livid, roiling star, mottled and seething on every wavelength. It is a thing of intense, disturbing beauty.

To view the full article, including video, click the following Permalink:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/opinion/27tue4.html

Congratulations, America: Healthcare Reform is Law

House Approves Health Overhaul, Sending Landmark Bill to Obama
By ROBERT PEAR and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: March 21, 2010

Congress gave final approval to legislation that would provide medical coverage to tens of millions of Americans and remake the U.S. health care system along the lines proposed by President Obama.

“This is the Civil Rights Act of the 21st century,” said Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 Democrat in the House.

Mr. Obama celebrated the House action in remarks at the White House. “We pushed back on the undue influence of special interests,” Mr. Obama said. “We didn’t give in to mistrust or to cynicism or to fear. Instead, we proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things.”

For the full story, see the full N.Y. Times article (available forever, courtesy of Permalink):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/health/policy/22health.html

Footprints At The River's Edge: 01/17/10: Sylvester McCurry Jr., Superior, WI

Rutabaga Harvesters are interested in what appears to be a possible pattern of missing men, including a significant number in the upper midwest, where our Home Office is located. For years there has been rumor (or else an alarming string of coincidences) of a serial killer who may pass through the area, leaving behind a wake of missing persons cases with eerily similar signatures, in which a young adult male, often but not exclusively having partaken in alcoholic activities, suddenly disappears, and traces of the victim are found in or near local waters, which have included the Mississippi River, the Baraboo River, and Lake Superior. Below is a link to "Footprints at the River's Edge," a blog that both traces cases old and new which share the common elements of missing young men and local waters.

Footprints At The River's Edge: 01/17/10: Sylvester McCurry Jr., Superior, WI

If you share the Harvest's interest, we hope you will make an effort to study the cases, and perhaps even volunteer to post fliers, by going to the website and following directions for volunteering efforts. Perhaps one of our readers may hold the clue to solve a case or, even better, find one of the missing. In any case, we can all help to keep the collective memories alive.

--RHLJ