bARTknows

I once commented on the phenomenon of the super-galaxy. And how I believe it is the force of Creation. How eventually we will expand into our own gravitational cluster of children broken off far from the parent-galaxy, but not far enough away to avoid reconstituting within Itself, becoming One again in order to give birth to a whole new offspring universe. That pattern is assembled in micro-cosmic context within this text as observed by NASA.

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Though they are the largest and most widely scattered objects in the universe, galaxies do go bump in the night. The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed many pairs of galaxies colliding. Like snowflakes, no two examples look exactly alike. This is one of the most arresting galaxy smash-up images to date.

At first glance, it looks as if a smaller galaxy has been caught in a tug-of-war between a Sumo-wrestler pair of elliptical galaxies. The hapless, mangled galaxy may have once looked more like our Milky Way, a pinwheel-shaped galaxy. Now that it's caught in a cosmic blender, its dust lanes are being stretched and warped by the tug of gravity. Unlike the elliptical galaxies, the spiral is rich in dust and gas for the formation of new stars. It is the fate of the spiral galaxy to be pulled like taffy and then swallowed by the pair of elliptical galaxies, which will trigger a firestorm of new stellar creation.

If there are astronomers on any planets in this galaxy group, they will have a ringside seat to seeing a flurry of star birth unfolding over many millions of years to come. Eventually, the elliptical galaxies should merge, creating one single super-galaxy many times larger than our Milky Way. This trio is part of a tight cluster of 16 galaxies, many of them being dwarf galaxies. This particular galaxy cluster is called the Hickson Compact Group 90 and lies about 100 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Sharples (University of Durham)

In four months, all the beaches in the Gulf that I grew up playing on, white sands like snow in Ft. Walton, to R.C.'s < Vero, Satellite, Cocoa Beach, New Smyrna, Bethune, Flagler Ave, Mayport Poles, Jekyll, Folly Beach, Hatteras....

.... will be covered in tar and sludge thanks to the deepwater Gulf current, the Gulf Stream, and one 5000 foot long drinking straw we lost spewing all the sweet amniotic fluid of mass-extinctions past all over our memories of the one we're facing now.

http://ggs.ly/cNPrj5

Brilliant. How can I help?

I hear that the oil gusher in the Gulf is still gushing, and that the crude is caught in the Gulf Loop Current. Obviously this is going to happen. Obviously this gives people something new to complain about while they continue to pay $400 power bills, driving to work every day, and happily being oblivious consumers.

As for the oil when it washes up on the beaches, folks in Florida can harvest it from the beaches and power their ridiculously large homes, summer condos, and dinosaur Bush-era SUVs.

But seriously, we're still drinking from plastic water bottles, driving oil guzzling cars (hybrids not exempt), buying plastic toys for our kids, plastic forks, cups, nick-nacks, bags... etc.

Sunkiss made the point that it's convenient to complain and continue creating the old paradigm victim-superhero pattern where "One day a person will show up and wash away our Sins and all that we've done to destroy our home Planet will be undone." Potentially more interesting are the minds that think "This is all normal, this happens throughout history in patterns that Nature/God/Universe created. Everything is fine."

Everything was fine during all the other mass-extinctions too. Business as usual, some say.

I tend to agree with her that is old news and it really has to stop. SO knock it off, people. Myself included.

This is just oil, but where I live and surf, there's TONs of plastic rice washing up on our beaches along with dead birds, animals, where once were starfish and clear waters....

I hear a lot of complaining on the internet, but with all due respect to humanity... What the hell is anyone doing about their need for oil derived consumption?

* * Solutions * *
I've an idea to virtualize the need for a commuter employment economy by supporting reverse telework schedules. People should only go to work in an office for 2 days a week at most.

Get involved with people like George Orbelian and Project Kaisei (http://projectkaisei.com), the Adopt-A-Stream Foundation. Call your state legislators and give them an idea of what is important to you, your children, their children, and the many generations to come.

DEMAND THAT PLASTIC BAGS BECOME ILLEGAL TO USE. PERIOD. Go buy a canvas bag, carry stuff in it. Even better, make them out of old designer clothing.

Cut your plastic intake to inelastic goods (appliances, furniture, vehicles). STOP BUYING BOTTLED WATER. STOP BUYING PLASTIC TOYS FOR YOUR KIDS FROM DOLLAR STORES. You will not die from polluted water in this day and age if you you live in a marginally developed country. Your kids could do better than feed their attention spans with plastic bullets shaped like army men. Get over it.

And again, for everyone's sake, please STOP USING PLASTIC BAGS.