Thursday, July 27

Cooling Off


 

Writing Poetry

There are 9 different types of poetry.
 
1.  Haiku - haikus consist of just three lines (tercet); the first and third lines have five syllables, whereas the second has seven. 
2.  Free Verse - free verse is a popular style of modern poetry, and as its name suggests there is a fair amount of freedom when it comes to writing a poem like this. Free verse can rhyme or not.
3.  Sonnet - sonnets are made up of 14 lines and usually deal with love. As a rule, Petrarchan (Italian) sonnets follow an ABBA ABBA CDE CDE rhyme scheme. 
4.  Acrostic - this type of poetry spells out a name, word, phrase or message with the first letter of each line of the poem. It can rhyme or not.
5.  Villanelle - it is made up of 19 lines; five stanzas of three lines (tercet) each and a final stanza of four lines (quatrain). As you can see from the rhyme scheme; ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA, this type of poem only has two rhyming sounds. Plus, there is a lot of repetition throughout the villanelle. Line one will be repeated in lines six, 12 and 18; and line three will be repeated in lines nine, 15 and 19.
6.  Limerick - they have a set rhyme scheme of AABBA, with lines one, two and five all being longer in length than lines three and four. The last line is often the punchline. 
7.  Ode - an ode is typically written to praise a person, event or thing and they are usually quite short in length.
8.  Elegy - an elegy doesn’t have rules like some of the other forms of poetry, but it does have a set subject: death. 
9.  Ballad - ballads do have a set form; they are typically four lines (quatrain) and have a rhyme scheme of ABAB or ABCB. 


I have been writing poetry since 1972 or for 50 years which to those of you who are in your early adult years may seem like a lot of time.  For someone like myself who is 75, it is a long period of time.  It is sometimes difficult for me to understand not just how long but the fact that I continued to write all those years and have no plans to stop.

My main style of poetry is FREE VERSE, followed by HAIKU, then Acrostic...  I would say that free verse comprises 98% of my poetry with Haiku about 1.5% and Acrostic about .5%.

I did not learn how to write poetry in school nor have I taken any lessons in how to write poetry.  I just started writing.


Song lyrics are usually ballads with a definite rhyme pattern throughout the song.

I am not interested in rhymes but am interested in getting a message across.

To date, I have written over 40,000 poems which is about 8,000 each year or about 600 each month or about 20 each day.  This is based on a mathematical breakdown but does not really reflect how I write.  

When I was working, I would spend about an hour at McDonalds drinking coffee and intentionally writing before work.  I would not write anymore that day.  I would also go to McDonalds on the weekends and holidays, including my days off for vacation.  On those days, I would write about 8-10 maybe more.  Now that I am retired, I am writing about 1-2 each day.

I don't think about publishing just writing.  However, I started a blog to publish my poetry in the event that others might enjoy reading some of them.  This is the link to that blog:     



The OWL


 

Don't Call Them UFOs


Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray speaks in front of a video display of a UAP during a hearing on Capitol Hill of the House Intelligence, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee hearing on "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena." ((Alex Brandon / Associated Press)) © Provided by LA Times




If the truth is out there, Congress would like to know.

The House and Senate are taking significant steps to increase the federal government’s ability to monitor and identify UFOs and to force the military to release more information to the general public.

Three former military officers who claim they’ve had encounters with unidentified flying objects will testify to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. In the Senate, lawmakers have added a bipartisan amendment to a must-pass defense bill that would compel the military to gather and declassify UFO-related information.

The parallel efforts are part of a growing bipartisan push to investigate the phenomenon. True believers and skeptics agree that they want to know what these objects are — and whether they pose a national security risk.

Congress held its first public UFO-related hearing in decades last year, hosting Pentagon officials. But Wednesday’s hearing will feature the first public, unclassified testimony from servicemembers whose interest is in exposing what they believe they witnessed.  READ MORE...

Recipe

 

Wednesday, July 26

Tennessee's Davy Crockett

David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the Texas Revolution.

Crockett grew up in East Tennessee, where he gained a reputation for hunting and storytelling. He was made a colonel in the militia of Lawrence County, Tennessee and was elected to the Tennessee state legislature in 1821. In 1827, he was elected to the U.S. Congress where he vehemently opposed many of the policies of President Andrew Jackson, especially the Indian Removal Act

Crockett's opposition to Jackson's policies led to his defeat in the 1831 elections. He was re-elected in 1833, then narrowly lost in 1835, prompting his angry departure to Texas (then the Mexican state of Tejas) shortly thereafter. In early 1836, he took part in the Texas Revolution and died at the Battle of the Alamo, either in battle or was executed after being captured by the Mexican Army.

Crockett became famous during his lifetime for larger-than-life exploits popularized by stage plays and almanacs. After his death, he continued to be credited with acts of mythical proportion. These led in the 20th century to television and film portrayals, and he became one of the best-known American folk heroes.  SOURCE:  Wikipedia


Fiction or Non-Fiction

THE HUNTER BIDEN STORY 


The evidence is very compelling against Hunter.  Two whistleblowers and his business partner have provided evidence that Hunter received money from Burisma, the utility company in the Ukraine in the hopes that his father, Joe Biden, then Vice President would use his influence to halt an investigation.  The investigation was subsequently halted and Joe Biden became President.  Hunter, left his laptop at a repair shop and forgot all about it, until the owner of the repair shop turned the laptop into the FBI.  The FBI sat on the story because Joe Biden was running for President against Donald Trump and they did not want the laptop being used against Joe Biden.  Over 50 national security advisors signed a document saying the laptop was a Russian Hoax perpetrated by Donald Trump...  knowing that they were either lying or had been misled.  President Joe Biden DENIED discussing any business dealings with his son, which has now been proven to be a LIE.


WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH???


Is Joe Biden a corrupt President who is about to be caught?

Is Hunter Biden the middle man in an influencing peddling scheme that involves his President father?

Did the FBI and DOJ collude with Joe Biden and the Democratic Party to keep this story hidden from the public by blaming everything on Trump?

Will Joe Biden recognized his illegitimate grandson?

Will Hunter Biden agree to financially support his illegitimate son and not by giving his mother worthless paintings?


What you may or may not think of Donald Trump, Joe Biden is going to be proven guilty of bribery and influence peddling and removing classified documents about Ukraine when he was Vice President.  That action is against the law as a VP.

To add insult to injury, the mainstream media is also covering up the Hunter Biden story by not reporting on it like FOX News is reporting on it.  Why?

Do yourself a favor and ask your local media provider what the real truth about the Hunter Biden story is and if they are helping the Democrats cover it all up?

Or, are you afraid that you will learn the REAL TRUTH?




Somewhat Political



 

Oppenheimer in 1965

 

Cracked Metal Heals Itself


File this under 'That's not supposed to happen!': Scientists observed a metal healing itself, something never seen before. If this process can be fully understood and controlled, we could be at the start of a whole new era of engineering.

A team from Sandia National Laboratories and Texas A&M University was testing the resilience of the metal, using a specialized transmission electron microscope technique to pull the ends of the metal 200 times every second. They then observed the self-healing at ultra-small scales in a 40-nanometer-thick piece of platinum suspended in a vacuum.

Cracks caused by the kind of strain described above are known as fatigue damage: repeated stress and motion that causes microscopic breaks, eventually causing machines or structures to break. Amazingly, after about 40 minutes of observation, the crack in the platinum started to fuse back together and mend itself before starting again in a different direction.

"This was absolutely stunning to watch first-hand," says materials scientist Brad Boyce from Sandia National Laboratories. "We certainly weren't looking for it."

"What we have confirmed is that metals have their own intrinsic, natural ability to heal themselves, at least in the case of fatigue damage at the nanoscale."

These are exact conditions, and we don't know yet exactly how this is happening or how we can use it. However, if you think about the costs and effort required for repairing everything from bridges to engines to phones, there's no telling how much difference self-healing metals could make.

And while the observation is unprecedented, it's not wholly unexpected. In 2013, Texas A&M University materials scientist Michael Demkowicz worked on a study predicting that this kind of nanocrack healing could happen, driven by the tiny crystalline grains inside metals essentially shifting their boundaries in response to stressREAD MORE...

Rain


 

Multiple Dimensions

According to what we think we know, there are four dimensions:  length, width (depth), height...  just like a box or a cube with the fourth dimension being time...  time has a past, present, and a future.


Some scientists believe that there are multiple dimension because of string theory...  Click here for a simple explanation of the ten dimensions.  If you decide to read about these other dimensions, let me warn you that once you get to the fourth dimension, you may have to read the explanation several times.


If this super string theory concept proves to be true, then, we are also possibly looking at multiple universes or what some refer to as parallel universes.  But, are these additional universes really parallel?


Say for instance you decide to go to Myrtle Beach, SC and you are driving down the beach road which is parallel to beach and this beach is also parallel to the ocean.  So, there are three items that are parallel to each other...  which means this is how additional universes might appear...


While this concept has some plausibility, each of these universes would lack depth.  They would only have width and length.


A better concept might be three 18 wheelers positioned side by side without the cab in front.  Now, each of these trailers has width, length, and height.    However, there is space between each trailer which would not be there because each of the universes would be touching.  This touching would be such that one could not distinguish one universe from another.


If these universes did overlap, then it might be possible for someone to cross over from one universe to another...  in order for this to happen, one would have to be able to see the other universe which according to what we know or believe to be true is not available in our current universe.


So, how would this be possible?


The most likely reason for this can be found in the concept of super string theory that postulates that these strings of energy are vibrating.  If they were to vibrate at different frequencies then that could be the basis for different dimensions being available at different frequencies.



Helping Out


 

Dark Energy


Universe Dark Energy-1 Expanding Universe
This diagram reveals changes in the rate of expansion since the universe's birth 15 billion years ago. The more shallow the curve, the faster the rate of expansion. The curve changes noticeably about 7.5 billion years ago, when objects in the universe began flying apart as a faster rate. Astronomers theorize that the faster expansion rate is due to a mysterious, dark force that is pulling galaxies apart.  Credit: NASA/STSci/Ann Feild







One explanation for dark energy is that it is a property of space. Albert Einstein was the first person to realize that empty space is not nothing. Space has amazing properties, many of which are just beginning to be understood. The first property that Einstein discovered is that it is possible for more space to come into existence. 

Then one version of Einstein's gravity theory, the version that contains a cosmological constant, makes a second prediction: "empty space" can possess its own energy. Because this energy is a property of space itself, it would not be diluted as space expands. As more space comes into existence, more of this energy-of-space would appear. 

As a result, this form of energy would cause the universe to expand faster and faster. Unfortunately, no one understands why the cosmological constant should even be there, much less why it would have exactly the right value to cause the observed acceleration of the universe.


Another explanation for how space acquires energy comes from the quantum theory of matter. In this theory, "empty space" is actually full of temporary ("virtual") particles that continually form and then disappear. 

But when physicists tried to calculate how much energy this would give empty space, the answer came out wrong - wrong by a lot. The number came out 10120 times too big. That's a 1 with 120 zeros after it. It's hard to get an answer that bad. So the mystery continues.

Another explanation for dark energy is that it is a new kind of dynamical energy fluid or field, something that fills all of space but something whose effect on the expansion of the universe is the opposite of that of matter and normal energy. 

Some theorists have named this "quintessence," after the fifth element of the Greek philosophers. But, if quintessence is the answer, we still don't know what it is like, what it interacts with, or why it exists. So the mystery continues.  READ MORE...

My Cousin Vinny