RenoVous

  Painting by Giuseppe Bertini On this day in 1609, Galileo began observing the moon with his telescope. Dutch eyeglass makers had invented the telescope in 1608, but Galileo improved upon it greatly.  He ground and polished his own lenses for greater magnification. He found that the surface of the Moon was not smooth, but full of mountains and valleys like Earth.  He was the first to publish a detailed report of his findings in 1610, called Starry Messenger (Sidereus Nuncias). Galileo's drawing: Of course, the Roman Catholic Church had adopted Aristotle's beliefs that the heavenly bodies were perfect and the Earth was at the center, which is why Galileo was forced to recant in 1633 and remained on house arrest until his death in 1642. You may recall I previously shared a photo of Galileo's lens, on display in Florence. It is adorned with a frame commissioned by the Medici in 1677, designed by Vittorio Crosten. The Galilean telescope used a convergent objective lens and a...

  From Mexico down to Argentina, jaguars are the only big cat to live in South America.  Their size varies though, with those in Central America being smaller than those in the Amazon.   Jaguars are currently listed as "near threatened," per WWF.  They are experiencing habitat destruction and fragmentation, shrinking their range and isolating populations from one another.  They have gone extinct in El Salvador and Uruguay. These cats play an important role in maintaining the structure and function of the ecosystems they reside in.  As top predators, they help keep a balance in the food chain, and they will eat just about anything in their path.  Deer, peccaries, tapirs, iguanas, capybaras, armadillos, and monkeys are among their favorites. Their teeth and bite are strong enough to pierce through crocodile hides and turtle shells.  In 2020, WWF launched its Regional Jaguar Strategy, with a goal to stabilize and increase the populations, prey b...

  Following Black Friday's consumerism and even Small Business Saturday, followed by Cyber Monday deals, Tuesday seeks donations. "Every act of generosity counts and everyone has something to give." While organizations are looking for monetary donations, it can also mean material donations to local resources, such as Family Soup Mutual Aid.  Not only do they host dinners, but they collect and distribute clothing, hygiene products, harm reduction tools, and provide other forms of outreach. We also have a series of Karma Boxes around town.  Someone recently shared some nice reminders for donating to food banks or pantries: I have some clothes and some protein bars that I need to drop off.  I actually have an appt downtown this afternoon, so I'm making a mental note to grab those things when I go. You can also donate your time, helping a neighbor, making someone smile.  :-)

  Fantasia Barrino Hunter Schafer Ashley Park Shefali Shah Andie McDowell From the RENAISSANCE premiere: Normani Andra Day Kelly Rowland Michelle Williams And apparently, this is Beyoncé. It is a great dress.

  Thursday - Thanksgiving The Myths and Lasting Damage Friday - Native American Heritage Day Proclamation Saturday - We'll hit some record stores for Pa, and for the remaining Record Store Day deals. Special Releases Sunday - Relax, drive, dog run.  We'll see. Enjoy your weekend!!

  Grand Prize Winner Tibor Litauszki, Hungary Newt, "Between the Stars." First Place: Birds Grzegorz Dlugosz, Poland A penduline tit, "Busy Builder." First Place: Climate Raphael Alves, Brazil "Stranded," in the rising rivers of Anama. Honorable Mention: Adra Pallón, Spain "Fire and Ashes" First Place: Freshwater Jeanny Tang, Hong Kong "Dry Fish Pond" Third Place: Rubens Rebouças, Brazil A flock of herons, "O Pé De Garças." First Place: Insects & Arachnids Benjamin Salb, United States "Wolf Spider Mama" First Place: Lands Alessandro Carboni, Italy "Sound and Vision" First Place: Mammals Siddhartha Ghosh, India "Wolf Trinity" First Place: Plants & Fungi Jose Pereyra Lucena, Argentina "Seres Lunático" First Place: Reptiles & Amphibians Irina Petrova Adamatzky, United Kingdom Corn snake, "Alien Portrait." First Place: Underwater Russell Laman, United States Pacific sea...

  Ncuti Gatwa Rachel Zegler Lily Gladstone Paz Vega Colman Domingo Hunter Schafer Sheila Atim J Lo Meghan Markle Selena Gomez

  Iceland is no stranger to volcanic and seismic activity, but recently a crack started to spread through the town of Grindavik.  It sits on the Reykjanes Peninsula, where the Fagradalsfjalls volcano is gearing up for an eruption. The cracking was caused by what's called a dike, a vertical sheet of magma within the crust.  Vincent Drouin, with the Icelandic Meteorological Office, says the dike has stopped propagating, but at the time was moving more than 2km an hour. As the magma cracks through and advances under the surface, it creates earthquakes.  Scientists had some idea of what would happen as they noticed some deformations and then a cluster of seismic activity in a repeated pattern. Researchers at the Global Seismographic Network (BORG) in Reykjavik have transformed seismic frequencies into audible pitches.  These recordings are from early November.

I came across an article this morning about a song. Yo-Yo Ma, Quinn Christopherson, and Pattie Gonia want you to remember Exit Glacier. I pulled the photo from Wikipedia, which was taken in 2004.  "And now it's nothing," says Gonia.  "Now it's the rocks underneath." Christopherson is an Indigenous Alaskan of Iñupiaq and Ahtna descent. "We're not going to give up on nature.  We're not going to give up on each other." From NPR: "Ma's cello in the song even evokes the weeping glacier." Nate Sloan, University of Southern California musicologist: "He's playing these ethereal harmonies which are beautiful and also a little haunting.  And that tension to me captures something about the subject of this song, which is preserving this beautiful planet we live on while acknowledging how delicate and fragile it is and how quickly it's being threatened." NPR

  We hit up "Fleas the Season" this weekend so I wanted to share some vendors we met. Bodacious Bugs Sunsnatchers McForry's F(art)works Live music too! RPRFM