There will be FIFTEEN HOURS of full moon tonight. Beware of extra-lunaticular activities.
From SpaceWeather.com:
LONG NIGHTS MOON:
According to folklore, tonight’s full moon is called the Long Nights Moon. The reason is obvious: December nights are long (in the northern hemisphere).
Tonight’s moon also happens to be the highest-soaring full moon in 18 years. As seen from most parts of the USA and Europe, it will be above the horizon for more than 15 hours–a long night indeed.
Bookmark this link if you’re interested in NORAD‘s radar tracking of Santa’s Christmas Eve flight. NORAD Tracks Santa 2005
Today, we drove to San Pedro and visited the site of the Korean Bell of Friendship and Bell Pavilion.
This massive and intricately-decorated bell and pavilion was donated in 1976 to the people of Los Angeles by the people of the Republic of Korea to celebrate the bicentennial of the U.S. independence, honor veterans of the Korean War, and to consolidate traditional friendship between the two countries. The bell is patterned after the Bronze Bell of King Songdok, which was cast in 771 A.D. and is still on view in South Korea today.
Putting Thanksgiving in perspective, I present an excerpt from an email I got today from a soldier in Mosul, Iraq.
As I sit here and write this on Thanksgiving, although I have a lot to be thankful for this year, I thought I would share a little with you about what I am thankful for today. I am thankful for my family, they have been there for me, and without their guidance, I would be completely lost. I am thankful for God, that he has seen fit to protect me this last year, that he helps my battalion make it safely back home, that he continues to protect the troops that will still be here, and that he has taken into heaven with open arms, the men and women who have given their lives in this war, who he just couldn’t live without in heaven. I am thankful that I was born in America, and not a country like Iraq. As strange as it may seem, I am thankful that Americans still have the right to voice their opinions about this war (whether I agree with them or not), if America still has the right to voice it’s opinion, that means we’re doing our job over here, and doing it well! Most of all, I am thankful for my fiancé, who has braved one of the most ultimate in hardships this last year, and stuck with me throughout it all. For certain, true love does exist. Finally, I am thankful that there are people back home who understand what we are fighting for, and proud of us.
God Bless!
Sincerely,
Sgt. Furman
Mosul, Iraq
And now you know why I’m so proud of these guys; let’s support them any way we can.
Inset photo credit Army Combat Training Centers
Damsel asked what I am thankful for on this day. Here’s a few things, although the list is certainly bigger than this.
Out of the cornucopia just in time for Thanksgiving . . .
Maize: Gift from America’s First Peoples
Columbus did not realize that the gift of maize was far more valuable than the spices or gold he hoped to find. He had no way of knowing that the history of maize traced back some 8,000 years or that it represented the most remarkable plant breeding accomplishment of all time. He might have been embarrassed if he had understood that then, as now, this plant developed by peoples he judged poor and uncivilized far outstripped in productivity any of the cereals bred by Old World farmers –wheat, rice, sorghum, barley, and rye. Were he alive today, he would certainly be astonished to see the extent to which the advent of maize has affected land use, food production, cuisine, and population growth around the world.
Walton Galinat, 1992, “Chilliesto Chocolate”
Source: Iowa State University Maize Page
