The Invasion

http://www.downloadfreebackgrounds.net

If I paint an apple to look like a peach

Underneath is still an apple

A box of crayons has many colors

If the box is empty, are the colors gone?

Do they no longer exist?

Were they imagined all along?

Are we the only lifeform?

Simply because we see no others

Are we wise or are we fools?

To think there are no others

Why is this such an impossibility?

When did we become so arrogant

We walk the edge of lunacy

The answers are all around us

We only need to seek

Close our eyes and look within

Shut out all noise to begin

Open up the inner eye

Think of a special place

Walk on another planet

Envision another race

Lifeforms much like ours

Different skin but same face

You extend a hand in greeting

But are met with wrath

This person screams and begins to run

Shocked, you turn to look back

Expecting to see something there

All you see is your shadow

Puzzled you look forward again

But there is no sign of that man

Everything grows quiet

An eerie feeling abounds

Goosebumps are scared and even run off

Nothing is hanging around

It was then I heard the thunder

A storm must be approaching

Everyone must have run for cover

I felt something encroaching

It was then to my amazement

I knew what was the trouble

These beings are afraid of me

I need to hide, on the double

They fear I do not come in peace

They fear I brought others

It was then that I realized

We’re all sisters and brothers

In fact, we are no different

No green, bugged-eyed monsters

They share the same fear as us

 What if an alien invasion occurs?

And also like Earthlings

They jumped to conclusions

Choosing to hunt me down

Believing I am an invasion

At this point I came to realize

My mind had begun to wander

For I was safe within my own bed

Not running for my life instead

I glimpse out of my window

To gaze up at the stars

Knowing that life is out there

Not much different from ours

If I paint an apple to look like a peach

Underneath is still an apple

Are we the only lifeform?

Simply because we see no others

Are we wise or are we fools?

To think there are no others

Renee Robinson

http://www.scenicreflections.com

Strawberry Moon, Juniper Kisses

http://www.reuters.com/article/slideshow/idUSBRE85312X20120606#a=1   Clink this link to see wonder pictures.

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Wed Jun 6, 2012 3:14am EDT

(Reuters) – The planet Venus made a slow transit across the face of the sun on Tuesday, the last such passing that will be visible from Earth for 105 years.

Transits of Venus happen in pairs, eight years apart, with more than a century between cycles. During Tuesday’s pass, Venus took the form of a small black dot slowly shifting across the northern hemisphere of the sun.

Armchair astronomers watched the six-hour and 40-minute transit on the Internet, with dozens of websites offering live video from around the world.

Closeup views from the Prescott Observatory in Arizona, fed into Slooh.com’s webcast, showed a small solar flaring in the making just beneath Venus’ sphere.

Tuesday’s transit, completing a 2004-2012 pair, began at 6:09 p.m. EDT (2209 GMT).

Skywatchers on seven continents, including Antarctica, were able to see all or part of the transit. Even astronauts aboard the International Space Station joined in the spectacle.

“I’ve been planning this for a while,” space station flight engineer Don Pettit said in a NASA interview. “I knew the transit of Venus would occur during my rotation, so I brought a solar filter with me.”

It’s not all about pretty pictures. Several science experiments were planned, including studies that could help in the search for habitable planets beyond Earth.

Telescopes, such as NASA’s Kepler space telescope, are being used to find so-called extrasolar planets that pass in front of their parent stars, much like Venus passing by the sun.

During the transit of Venus, astronomers planned to measure the planet’s thick atmosphere in the hope of developing techniques to measure atmospheres around other planets.

Studies of the atmosphere of Venus could also shed light on why Earth and Venus, which are almost exactly the same size and orbit approximately the same distance from the sun, are so different.

Venus has a chokingly dense atmosphere, 100 times thicker than Earth’s, that is mostly carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Its surface temperature is a lead-melting 900 degrees Fahrenheit (480 degrees Celsius) and towering clouds of sulfuric acid jet around the planet at 220 miles per hour dousing it with acid rain.

“Venus is known as the goddess of love, but it’s not the type of relationship you’d want,” an astronomer said on the Slooh.com webcast. “This is a look-but-don’t-touch kind of relationship.”

Scientists are interested in learning more about Venus’ climate in hopes of understanding changes in Earth’s atmosphere.

During previous transits of Venus, scientists were able to figure out the size of the solar system and the distance between the sun and the planets.

Tuesday’s transit is only the eighth since the invention of the telescope, and the last until December 10-11, 2117. It also is the first to take place with a spacecraft at Venus.

Observations from Europe’s Venus Express probe will be compared with those made by several ground and space-based telescopes, including NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, the joint U.S.-European Solar and Heliospheric Observatory and Japan’s Hinode spacecraft.

(Editing By Cynthia Johnston and David Brunnstrom)

Vibes

http://district.dearbornschools.org

Something deep inside

Trying to get out

Trying to say something

I can hear it shout

In a whisper barely audible

A resounding vibration

Nagging my ears

Demanding attention

Trying to listen

To what it says

Difficult to do

For it does not speak

I am damned if I do

Damned if I

Don’t

Lightening

Strikes only

Once

Renee Robinson