This morning I woke up thinking of my old friend Huw Davies, who took his own life in early 1994.

Huw Davies: via PhotoAccess, Canberra

Huw was a talented art photographer and ‘life artist’.

His friends adored him for his kindness, his compassion, his amazing energy and above all for a wonderful sense of humour.

About a year before his death, I had an intense debate with Huw about prospects for humanity. I took the optimist side, arguing we’re not only part of creation, but a special and significant part – for all our faults and weaknesses.

Huw – in blacker mood than I’d  seen him before – countered that humans are more like a lethal virus. I clearly remember him saying that if humans ever truly escape from the bounds of this planet, we’ll screw up the rest of the universe too.

I still can’t agree with Huw about that. Yet 15 years on, it’s hard to adduce much evidence he was wrong. I don’t think Huw believed all humans as intrinsically evil. His point was about the powerful (those most likely to head for the stars).

Perhaps our outward progress is stalled until we develop the wisdom to coexist and co-evolve?

I wish Huw was still around to continue the discussion.

In the last years of his life, Huw Davies developed a style for retouching photos by fingerpainting. The similarity with the painting style of Vincent Van Gogh was obvious. Somewhat later, he became intensely depressed and took his own life, like Vincent before him.

One great thing about the 21st century: humanity can appreciate the cosmos like never before.

Along with increasingly affordable high-powered telescopes, a new artistic field has come into being: astrophotography.

Connecticut-based Robert Gendler is one of the best atsrophotographers in the world; his work has been featured 63 times on NASA’s Astronomy Photo of the Day website.

Gendler’s latest APOD contribution is this succulent image of the Triffid Nebula. Cosmic eye-candy. Enjoy!

The Triffid Nebula; photo by Robert Gendler

Last November I blogged about a jaw-dropping image of the Milky Way by the American photographer Wally Pacholka – see Amazing. He’s developed a stunning way of photographing the night sky that gives a sense of three dimensionality.

According to his website, NASA has now published 34 of Mr Pacholka’s photographs in its Astronomy Picture of the Day series – more than any other photographer.

Today’s APOD – The Milky Way Over Devil’s Tower – is the latest. Devil’s Tower in Wyoming will be familiar to movie goers; it was the scenic backdrop for Stephen Speilberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The Milky Way Over Devil's Tower by Wally Pacholka

The western mass media’s coverage of Iran just gets worse and worse.

Don’t the Hollywood clowns even know how to lie anymore?

The L.A Times, June 16th 2009: Why is the President waving at 'anti-Government protestors'?

Hat-tip to Whatreallyhappened Com

UPDATE: June 22nd

The BBC gets some feisty responses from viewers to its explanation about using a similar photo – see What really happened on the BBC Editors Blog.

I especially liked this comment (links and emphasis added):

malleestump wrote:

Very gracious of the BBC no doubt, thank God for the internet and sites like ‘whatreallyhappened.com‘ being a site I peruse daily.

Now people, have a look at Mike Rudin‘s story and the comments (esp from abour 3,000 on)in the editor’s blog called “Caught up in a conspiracy” and see how the BBC is refusing to update The Rudin ‘Conspiracy File‘ programs on 9/11.

For example, the BBC will not report on the recent paper of 4th April 2009 by Niels Harrit and 8 other scientists on the confirmation of ther finding of nano-thermitic residue in the twin towers dust. Why not BBC? the Danes have put Niels Harrit on TV to explain the findings of the militarised explosives.Why should the Danes be more informed than the British in relation to the mass murders on 9/11?

According to folklore:

“Agate is believed to discern truth, accept circumstances, and is a powerful emotional healer. Legend says that Agate improves memory and concentration, increases stamina and encourages honesty.”

Agate is therefore the perfect gift for all journalists.

Here’s exquisite Brazilian Agate, embedded in quartz:

Quartz Agate from Brazil

A beetle needs to own six boots
Or go barefoot instead
Some beetles gnaw away at roots
While others munch on bread.

Lophostemon grandifloris: a local beneficial beetle (Source: Ken Walker, Museum Victoria)

Though beetles ride on lizards’ backs
If given half the chance
They do resent surprise attacks
Preferring sweet romance.

In many ways, you’ll find your life
Is like the life of beetle
So if you ever take a wife
Don’t lose her in the treacle.

A thousand parsecs hence, within our own galaxy and appearing in the constellation of Gemini, a spectacular event is in progress.

The Eskimo Nebula

If mainstream astonomical theory is correct, when we look at the Eskimo Nebula we’re witnessing a late stage in the evolution of a star similar to our own sun. As it turns into a superdense white dwarf, the star ejects large amounts of gaseous matter into the surrounding space. The afterglow fades slowly.

This nebula was first catalogued in the late 18th century by the brilliant musician and astronomer William Herschel. Now, with photos from the Hubble telescope, we can observe it’s ghostly magnificence better than ever before.

Greedy, bellicose idiots, scrapping to snatch unfair portions of the spoils of mortal existence, would do well to bookmark NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website and visit often.

We need to turn swords into ploughshares, missile-launchers into telescopes.

A happy puggle

“In the most ancient layers of Greek mythology, Echidna… was called the ‘Mother of All Monsters‘”
(Source: Wikipedia)

_________

Because they wear a spikey coat
And rarely show their face
Echidnas have a monstrous name
(A source of some disgrace).

Not fair, because these monotremes
Cause neither strife nor tears.
The juniors, once they have hatched
Have quite delightful ears.

A wary puggle

When little, they’re called puggles
(That’s when they’re not too prickly).
The males have most unusual tools
Which make their wives feel tickly!

You’ll seldom find another beast
So pleasing, yet so spiny
Forget about the fearsome name
It’s cute and fun and tiny!

A century of feminism takes its toll

1903: Mohave Woman Carrying Water (Sustainable Living)

1. Looks relaxed
2. Brings kid along
3. Feet on the ground
4. Walks to work
5. Well balanced
6. Nice curves
7. Nice face

2008:  Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper on Spacewalk (?)

1. Monitored for stress
2. Kid in childcare
3. Not grounded
4. Car-dependent
5. Will need chiropracter
6. Clumsy, angular appearance
7. Face obscured by large metal box

The smaller of the two moons of Mars

This photo of Deimos was featured recently on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website, which says: “Deimos is one of the smallest known moons in the Solar System measuring only about 15 kilometers across. The diminutive Martian moon was discovered in 1877″.

AbsoluteAstronomy.com explains: “In Greek mythology, Deimos was the personification of dread. He was the son of Ares and Aphrodite. He, his brother Phobos and the goddess Enyo accompanied Ares into battle, as well as his father’s attendants, Trembling, Fear, Dread and Panic. His Roman equivalent was Formido or Metus. Asaph Hall (a 19th century American astronomer), who discovered the moons of Mars, named one Deimos, and the other Phobos.”

A recent entry in the Planetary Society website has more:

Deimos is relatively poorly studied because all modern Mars spacecraft orbit at altitudes much lower than Deimos’ 20,000 kilometers. Since Deimos, like nearly every moon in the solar system (including our own), is tidally locked to its planet, that means that all orbiters see only one face of the moon, the “sub-Mars hemisphere,” and that at a great distance. Phobos orbits much closer to Mars (at 9,400 kilometers), which is still above the altitude of the circular, polar orbiters like Mars Global Surveyor, Odyssey, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, but it’s below the apoapsis of Mars Express, and is now being well mapped from all sides.