RenoVous

And here we are on the internets, engaging with one another, learning from one another.  Social media may have negative components, but for me, it's largely positive. I joined a message board in high school and got my first taste of communicating with people all over the world.  It was Metallica that brought us all together, but we found so much more to share with each other.  I still keep in contact with some of those folks through Facebook, and if I ever make it to Europe, I have some long overdue meetups to make happen. I signed up for Disqus in 2013 but that was because a local news site used their commenting platform.  It wasn't until 2015 that I found the channels, and a new way to connect with people from all over. I enjoyed that so much that we ended up here, with my own blog.  I never would have expected this, and I appreciate every upvote, every recommend, every comment. From me in Reno, to you, wherever you are - I am happy to kno...

I saw this image and was so taken by it - I found the photographer to be Ren Hang, who passed away in 2017.  He was 29. From incorporating animals to messing with perspective. And a couple purses. RH Vogue

This is the sky we would see if we had X-ray vision. Over the course of 182 days, eROSITA compiled this image, showing more than one million objects, which is nearly double the amount of X-ray sources previously known to scientists. eROSITA is the extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array.  Its target in this mission was finding supermassive black holes gorging on gas, and many of the new sources found are active galactic nuclei which mark the growth of black holes over cosmic time.  These galaxy clusters will be tracked by astronomers to gain more understanding of the growth of cosmic structures. One of the most prominent structures in the X-ray sky is this supernova remnant, named Vela. Our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, was the first image produced by eROSITA in October 2019.   The telescope was launched in July 2019.  It was developed by a group of German institutions led by the Max Pla...

Global Beatles Day - Celebrating harmony and peace. On this date in 1967, The Beatles participated in Our World, a BBC event that aired in 30 countries. The most successful Beatles song spent 19 weeks on the charts in the US - 9 weeks at number one. The Beatles were one of my dad's favorite bands.  On his Fandalism page, it asked which album he would take on a deserted island - he chose The White Album, which happens to include my favorite Beatles song. This day was started in 2009 by a fan who wrote a thank you letter to the band, not just for their music, but for "the values they professed and believed in."  They've always promoted living in a peaceful world built on love. This is most clearly presented in John Lennon's "Imagine" but I wanted to share a cover instead. This is speaking from 2004, but much of the imagery still applies. My aunt said this version is more depressing than John's, that it see...

There's a waterfall down the rock on the right side. Here's a screenshot from a video I took because trying to zoom in for a photo was just not working out.

We're going to skip fashion today for the Summer Solstice, which was Saturday. English Heritage shared a live stream to watch the sunrise at Stonehenge, but as we should expect with 2020, it was too cloudy for a good view. When the sun appears over the horizon on the solstice, it lines up perfectly with the structure, leading many to believe that it played an important role in Druid celebrations. Many cultures throughout history have paid close attention to the Sun, largely for its importance in agriculture and in understanding the change of seasons. Pagans, for example, would celebrate Midsommar with bonfires to boost the Sun's energy for the growing season. The Bighorn Medicine Wheel, built by Plains Indians, is also believed to be aligned with the summer solstice, and is thought to be the site of their ceremonial sun dance. Archeoastronomer Jack Eddy suggests the wheel was used to predict positions of the sun and other bright stars around...

Welcome to the Larvacean Snot Palace! These tiny sea creatures secrete mucus which creates homes that work like filtration devices, allowing edible particles of seawater to pass through. The mucus house cradles the larvacean as the tail pumps the seawater through.  The outer house is believed the protect the creature from stings.  The inner house contains the channels used for filtering. The team used a DeepPIV imaging system, which is able to views these "frail, flimsy animals" and opens the door more research into jelly-like creatures and others. Science News Wikipedia

"Feeding the birdbrains of Virginia!" At their website, they share Rare Bird Alerts as well as other highlights from the feed. https://www.birdlibrary.org/ They were inspired by a couple from Norway who had created a coffee bar for birds.

The ticket booth still stands, the concessions building is falling apart, and only one screen remains.

From the headlines of Ru Paul's Drag Race  comes The Birth of Venus, "but BLACK." Shea Couleé is a competitor on the show, but this photo includes members of her house: Kenzie Couleé, Bambi Banks-Couleé, Baby Couleé (the pupper), and Khloe Couleé. With this, I thought we'd take a dive into some drag fashion with Shea. Nubia "Black Queens Matter" was the tag line for their show, which ran briefly in March. Vogue Nubia Instagram Google Images