Some of the biggest misconceptions about the stimulus plan involve rebate checks, home-buyer credits, and COBRA coverage.
Also:
Five years have passed; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur. Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,
Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves
'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see
These hedgerows, hardly hedgerows, little lines
Of sportive wood run wild; these pastoral farms,
Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke
Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!
With some uncertain notice, as might seem
Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,
Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire
The Hermit sits alone.
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye;
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind
With tranquil restoration—feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure; such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,
To them I may have owed another gift,
Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,
In which the burthen of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world,
Is lightened—that serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on—
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul;
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.
If this
Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft—
In darkness and amid the many shapes
Of joyless daylight; when the fretful stir
Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,
Have hung upon the beatings of my heart—
How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,
O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer through the woods,
How often has my spirit turned to thee!
And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,
With many recognitions dim and faint,
And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
The picture of the mind revives again;
While here I stand, not only with the sense
Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years. And so I dare to hope,
Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first
I came among these hills; when like a roe
I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides
Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,
Wherever nature led—more like a man
Flying from something that he dreads than one
Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then
(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days
And their glad animal movements all gone by)
To me was all in all.—I cannot paint
What then I was. The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colors and their forms, were then to me
An appetite; a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, not any interest
Unborrowed from the eye.—That time is past,
And all its aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this
Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts
Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant recompense. For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear—both what they half create,
And what perceive; well pleased to recognize
In nature and the language of the sense
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.
Nor perchance,
If I were not thus taught, should I the more
Suffer my genial spirits to decay:
For thou art with me here upon the banks
Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,
My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch
The language of my former heart, and read
My former pleasures in the shooting lights
Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while
May I behold in thee what I was once,
My dear, dear Sister! and this prayer I make,
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy: for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
And let the misty mountain winds be free
To blow against thee: and, in after years,
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
Thy memory be as a dwelling place
For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then,
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,
Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts
Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,
And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance—
If I should be where I no more can hear
Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams
Of past existence—wilt thou then forget
That on the banks of this delightful stream
We stood together; and that I, so long
A worshipper of Nature, hither came
Unwearied in that service; rather say
With warmer love—oh! with far deeper zeal
Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,
That after many wanderings, many years
Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!
*****
William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
Hold on to your hats, or in this case, your helmets: Scientists have finally pinpointed the so-called edge of space — the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.
With data from a new instrument developed by scientists at the University of Calgary, scientists confirmed that space begins 73 miles above Earth's surface.
Read the rest here.
The United States is vying for the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 and must showcase possible venues to host games.
Of course, America would have to get the tournament before Charlotte could be considered as a possible venue, but the committee is currently trying to get an idea of which cities would be interested.
“We’ll tell them a lot more in the weeks to come, but this early stage, what we’ve done is ask them to indicate their basic level of interest of hosting the World Cup,” U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said.
Restaurants have seen the impact the World Cup has made, filling up with fans hoping to grab a glimpse of their team.
Youth soccer is another sign of the sport’s popularity in the region. The Charlotte Regional Sports Commission said the impact the tournament could make on the area is tremendous.
But there are things to consider before jumping in.
“You have to look at scheduling, financial commitments, the fan base and what kind of tickets you expect to sell,” Bill McMillan, of the Charlotte Regional Sports Commission, said.
The Mayor’s Office said it has been notified of the committee’s intentions and it is exploring the idea of becoming a bid city.
April 17 is the deadline for venues to notify the bid committee.
A team of scientists from N.C. State University agrees with its counterpart from Colorado State University.
This will be a "normal" hurricane season in the Atlantic basin and the Gulf of Mexico, the N.C. State researchers said today.
It's the same forecast issued earlier this week by Colorado State's William Gray and Philip Klotzbach.
The N.C. State team -- Dr. Lian Xie, Dr. Montserrat Fuentes and Danny Modlin -- said they expect 11 to 14 named storms forming this year in the Atlantic basin, which includes the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. They said six to eight storms will grow strong enough to become hurricanes, and they predicted a 45 percent chance that one hurricane will make landfall on the Southeast U.S. coast.
Xie, a professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences, also said he predicts three to five named storms affecting the Gulf, with one to three becoming hurricanes.
"The data show that the number of storms this year will not vary significantly from those of the past 20 years," Xie said. "In fact, 2009's numbers are slightly lower than last year's prediction of 13 to 15 named storms."
Xie's methodology evaluates data from the last 100 years' worth of Atlantic storm positions and intensity, along with variables including weather patterns and sea surface temperatures.
The Colorado State team said Tuesday that they expect 12 named storms this year, with six becoming hurricanes and two growing into intense hurricanes of Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
The Atlantic basin hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.
The National Hurricane Center will make its first prediction of the season next month.
*****
I am all aflutter from the ecstasy from knowing this - how about you?
A U.S. destroyer is keeping watch on a drifting lifeboat where Somali pirates are holding Capt. Richard Phillips.
Also:
The worrisome worm that's had us in a tizzy is now on the move, but its plans are still mysterious.
A Florida man facing six felony charges, including possession of a firearm with altered serial numbers, admitted to making crack cocaine in a microwave.
Authorities jailed a teenager who they said would not give up on his goal to roll a joint.
Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed in a felony hit-and-run car accident in Fullerton, California early this morning -- hours after he pitched in a game last night.
Ultra-short laser pulses can curve through the air, leaving plasma arcs in their wake – these could be used to guide lightning to the ground.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The only problem with the latter part of that statement is the fact lightning goes from the ground UP to the sky - I guess the author forgot their elementary physics classes.)
Physicists claim there is evidence alien life forms will have at least the same fundamental building blocks as living things here on Earth, and perhaps the same genetic code.
An instrument that amplifies and sequences DNA could launch to Mars in the next decade – it would test whether Earth and Mars ever exchanged life.
 The research could help prevent people dying |
New research by a Bangor university student has found that the diet of poisonous snakes affects its venom strength.
Axel Barlow's discovery means that anti-venom can be developed specific to a certain snake's location or diet.
His studies into saw-scaled vipers, which have evolved to eat scorpions, found that they also had venom which was more lethal to scorpions.
Researchers hope the information will lead to fewer snake bite deaths.
Read more here.
