Cafe au lait and beignets via mickey mb.

Boy did I need a few days to recharge. It’s a travel day for me today. But I wanted to give you all a few things to think about:

– This picture from NASA rocks my world. And the Kepler spacecraft has begun it’s search for other "Earth-like" worlds.

– Researchers have isolated a fungus that may have something to do with colony collapse disorder and honeybees.

This is a problem for beekeepers. As they share combs among hives and use the same equipment to clean multiple hives they can inadvertently spread the spores, infecting other colonies.

According to the USDA, one in three mouthfuls of the American diet directly or indirectly benefits from honeybee pollination. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion in added crop value, particularly for specialty crops.

Science is just fascinating, isn’t it?

– The Ocean Futures website, home ot the Cousteau Institute, has some fascinating stuff on it worth perusing.

– Caribbean coral reefs are experiencing increasing declines of fish populations. California waters are also experiencing sharp declines of some species while others are still struggling.

– Polar ice? Still melting too rapidly.

What’s been catching your eye — or imagination — lately? Pull up a chair…

N-90 star-forming region.

Maybe my family is the only one that likes to look at Hubble space images.  But The Peanut and I have whiled away hours and hours of time just marveling at Hubble’s window into the cosmos and the beauty of the images it shares with the rest of us.

Marvelous stuff.

The space shuttle Atlantis launched on a final mission for Hubble updates and repairs yesterday — the plan is to dock with the telescope tomorrow to accomplish this. New telescopes are in the wings, and will no doubt provide countless more hours of awed viewing for us.

But I can still recall picking up that first National Geographic issue with Hubble pictures.  And feeling like we had somehow found a way to touch the face of God.

To all of you science nerds out there involved in Hubble and beyond, thank you.  Inspiring, amazing work.  

Don’t believe me?  Take a peek, and feed your soul.