For more than 400 years, astronomers have studied the sun from afar. Now NASA has decided to go there.

“We are going to visit a living, breathing star for the first time,” says program scientist Lika Guhathakurta of NASA Headquarters. “This is an unexplored region of the solar system and the possibilities for discovery are off the charts.”

The name of the mission is Solar Probe+ (pronounced “Solar Probe plus”). It’s a heat-resistant spacecraft designed to plunge deep into the sun’s atmosphere where it can sample solar wind and magnetism first hand. Launch could happen as early as 2015. By the time the mission ends 7 years later, planners believe Solar Probe+ will solve two great mysteries of astrophysics and make many new discoveries along the way.

The two mysteries prompting this mission are the high temperature of the sun’s corona and the puzzling acceleration of the solar wind:

The corona: If you stuck a thermometer in the surface of the sun, it would read about 6000o C. Intuition says the temperature should drop as you back away; instead, it rises. The sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, registers more than a million degrees Celsius, hundreds of times hotter than the star below. This high temperature remains a mystery more than 60 years after it was first measured. The solar wind: The sun spews a hot, million mph wind of charged particles throughout the solar system. Planets, comets, asteroids—they all feel it. Curiously, there is no organized wind close to the sun’s surface, yet out among the planets there blows a veritable gale. Somewhere in between, some unknown agent gives the solar wind its great velocity. The question is, what? “To solve these mysteries, Solar Probe+ will actually enter the corona,” says Guhathakurta. “That’s where the action is.”

Source: ccnmag.com

To celebrate Peace Day, I will be making a donation to an organization that can take my gift further than I can, an organization than can use my money to buy immunizations or education or food or clothing for someone in need.

See what other people are doing to celebrate and promote peace at Peace One Day.

1-800-SUICIDE website
Postsecret website

Phew… this blog just jumps all over the place, doesn’t it? Last time we had a short essay on reality, now I’m ranting about post-its… If only I could upload that video of that physics lecture……

I have to admit, I always took post-its for granted until I went to college. At least twice, when I asked her to remind me to do something, my roommate would cover the room in post-its with the reminder written on it. Once she did this while I was sleeping, and I woke up very confused. When she got home, she gleefully took pictures of her work:

And I always remembered to do whatever I had been reminded to do, because if I didn’t I would have to look at those damned post-its all day (and I wouldn’t be able to wear that jacket hanging on my bed). Excellent!

The other day I was cleaning out our kitchen and I discovered an unopened package of Super Sticky Post-its that my boyfriend had apparently bought/ been given and forgot about. There are five blocks in the package- blue, purple, pink, yellow, and two green.

I absolutely love these things!

Maybe it’s just me (since my boyfriend finds it annoying) but I like to write my to-do list and my shopping list on the same sheet of paper. It’s just easier for me to see everything in one place. When Fiende goes shopping without me, he rips the paper in half and takes the shopping list with him… which of course prompts me to re-write the entire thing as soon as I think of something we need to buy next time.

When I saw these post-its, however, I knew instantly how to solve this problem. I divided a regular sheet of printer paper into four sections and labeled the top two “To Do” and “Shopping List.” I left the bottom two blank to fill whenever I thought of something I needed to put there. These post-its are large and take up nearly a quarter of a sheet of paper. They are also lined, which I absolutely love. Now I write the shopping list and to-do list on these giant post-its (each list on a different color) and stick them underneath their labels on the sheet of paper (which we hung on the fridge). This way we can take the post-it with us when we go shopping instead of tearing the paper and ultimately re-writing the whole thing. I never thought I’d be this crazy about post-its.

One of the remaining sections was later labeled “Money Owed,” to keep track of how much I owe Fiende for groceries and laundry. The other remains unlabeled but is currently being used to keep track of when some of our more useful coupons expire, so that we don’t forget and miss out on using them. That one may stay, too. It seems pretty useful.

Reality is anything we make it. It is, as don Juan said, a description of the world. That is all. Like a computer program, it is a description or code which we use to create, depict, and understand the world. When viewed thsi way, it is easy to understand why many different views of reality exist all over the world, and throughout the ages. Each different description is as real to its “participants” or “believers” as any other reality is to its own participants. Like religion, no one description is necessarily correct. In truth, to limit ourselves to only one specific description of reality may be to limit our own experiences and capabilities as human beings. We may be unwittingly restricting ourselves to a limited existance, which, were we to experience multiple realities, could very likely prove to be a simple, boring, and miserable one. Thus, we resign ourselves to live as slaves toa singular reality, keeping our potential locked away in those other realities, preferring instead to crush those which we can or ignore those we cannot. Even those who dare to expand their definition of reality are only scratching the surface of the potential of the human experience. We pride ourselves on our technological advancements; we think we have come so far, but the truth is, we have barely begun.

Artist: Andross
Via: sexyjack

Happy Mother’s Day to any mothers who might be reading this!

I am in the midst of a series right now called The 10 Best Things I Have Ever Done. I’am posting them individually, so I have more time and room to think about and explore each one. Naturally the stories that accompany them are stories of my life, but I hope you’ll find them inspiring and the concepts interesting enough to consider applying some of them to your own life.

3. I got a job

Dear GOD was I terrified when I first went job hunting. I cried my eyes out all day. But my parents went about it entirely the wrong way. When I was growing up, my parents never understood that I needed to grow at my own pace. I was old enough to do something as soon as I reached the age where one of them had first done it. So as soon as I was old enough to work, I was forced into getting a job. My father even threatened to submit an application to McDonald’s on my behalf if I didn’t get a job within a certain time frame- “and they will hire you,” he promised. I was scared. I got a job as a cashier at Saladworks. I think I worked a 2-3 hour shift 2-3 times a week. No, that was not one of the best things I have ever done.

My next job, however, was. I made enough money to add to my savings account while still having money to buy things I wanted. It helped me learn to spend my money wisely; the first time you really make your own money, things start getting put in perspective right away. “I can buy a new mp3 player, but I will have to work another two weeks to make that money back.” This is something adults take for granted, and often they do not remember what it’s like to think any other way about money as children do.

But in all honesty, the money wasn’t the most important part of getting that job. The confidence I gained in that environment, surrounded by people who cared about me but didn’t judge me, doing work that I could do well and enjoyed doing, was immense. I changed so much in the year I worked there because of that.

So a word to the wise: when it’s time for your children to get a job, be careful and learn to recognize the difference between a child who simply does not feel like working and a child who is legitimately afraid and not ready to get one. In the meantime, teach them confidence and independence. Let them help around the house and encourage them to do odd jobs for you, neighbors, and family so they can get excited about earning money at a young age.

I am in the midst of a series right now called The 10 Best Things I Have Ever Done. I’am posting them individually, so I have more time and room to think about and explore each one. Naturally the stories that accompany them are stories of my life, but I hope you’ll find them inspiring and the concepts interesting enough to consider applying some of them to your own life.

2. I went to therapy

A few weeks before I left for college, I experienced something resembling a breakdown. I was depressed. I had been depressed for four years. I was frustrated by my depression, and I was frustrated by my mother’s refusal to accept and take responsibility for my depression.

Before you go attacking me on this, let me explain that my mother believed my depression had gone away two years ago, when I told my doctor that I was doing “better.” I was better, but I was certainly not all the way better. The previous year my doctor had strongly recommended that I see a therapist for my depression. My mother agreed, then did a complete 180 the minute we left the building. She told me that I had better get over my depression by myself because there was no way she was paying for me to see a psychiatrist. My mother is the kind of person who will not go to a doctor unless it is absolutely necessary. I firmly believe that if she had taken responsibility for her child’s well being at that time, it would have saved me two years of total misery.

She did not, however, and in the midst of this “breakdown,” it was Fiende who found and showed me the website for mental health services here at school. I could not have been more relieved. At first, I was nervous as all hell. I put it off for a month before making my first appointment, and for several months afterwards I remained nervous about going there and talking to Debbie. Once I got over that, though, the real changes slowly started happening. I was on antidepressants for a month, then off again because I was afraid of how they made me feel, and now I am back again on a lower dose.

Believe me, though- it’s not just the medication that helped me. While I have friends who listen to my problems and try and help me, when you discuss problems with your friends, 9 times out of 10 it is a dialogue. They are always interjecting examples from their own life to make a point. When you see a therapist, it’s 100% about you. It’s about seeing things you never saw before.

Because I grew up on my mother’s aversion to medication, I was wary about taking antidepressants. My mother warned me that they would not make the depression go away. But I knew that. That’s not why I took them. I took them in hopes of getting a breath of fresh air, so to speak- banishing the depression for a while whilst I worked on my depression from the inside. Without the antidepressants, I couldn’t get to the inside in the first place. I decided to do whatever it took to loosen the depression’s grip as much as possible.

The result of that decision? The combination of medication and therapy has helped me immensely. Just a few weeks ago, I was finally able to say, if only to myself, that I am happy with the way I am. I may be weird and socially awkward at times, but the characteristics that cause me to be that way are ones that I am proud of and they are part of who I am. I told Debbie that as long as one person understands me- as long as Fiende understands me- I am ok. I don’t need anyone else’s approval. If he loves me for who I am, then so do I.

If you are having trouble dealing with yourself, or with life, I highly recommend therapy. It can be frightening, but taking that first step is so important and so rewarding. Even if you don’t find the answers you are looking for, you will find something that has an equally powerful impact on your life.
If you are unsure as to whether or not therapy is right for you, you may want to take this quiz. Please remember that it is not meant to be used as any sort of diagnostic tool, and that a result suggesting that you might benefit from therapy does not necessarily mean that there is something wrong with you.

I want to do a series of posts right now that I’m calling The 10 Best Things I Have Ever Done, as I’m sure you can see from the title of this post. I’ll do them individually, so I have more time and room to think about and explore each one. Naturally the stories that accompany them are stories of my life, but I hope you’ll find them inspiring and the concepts interesting enough to consider applying some of them to your own life.

1. I listened to my instincts

My parents, for obvious reasons, were against my relationship with Fiende from the start, even when it was just a friendship. Any protective parent would be worried about their 16 year old being friends with a 26 year old, and forget about dating him.

There were many, many times when I, too, questioned what I was doing, but no matter what he did or what my parents said, the idea of abandoning the relationship always felt absolutely wrong. It’s like the feeling you get when you do something and immediately regret it. It feels like you’re clinging to the moment before you made the decision, hanging by your fingernails, straining to do anything in you power to turn around and make a different decision. That’s how I felt every time I thought about ending things with Fiende. I knew that, even if I ended up getting hurt, I had lessons to learn in this relationship. Not sticking with him would have been a mistake. So even when he did hurt me (before we were officially together), I let my instincts guide my reactions.

The result of that decision? We have been together for a year and we are happier than ever. We have both changed immensely, for the better, during that time, largely thanks to each other’s influence. We almost never argue, and 99% of the arguments we do have are resolved within an hour.
Listen to your instincts! They are trying to tell you something, and they are very often right!