Being A Mother Is Hard Work, But Breastfeeding Keeps Babies The Healthiest!

Tracking the Sun’s Cycles

Scientists just announced that our Sun is in a new cycle.

Solar activity has been relatively low over the past few years, and now that scientists have confirmed solar minimum was in December 2019, a new solar cycle is underway — meaning that we expect to see solar activity start to ramp up over the next several years.

The Sun goes through natural cycles, in which the star swings from relatively calm to stormy. At its most active — called solar maximum — the Sun is freckled with sunspots, and its magnetic poles reverse. At solar maximum, the Sun’s magnetic field, which drives solar activity, is taut and tangled. During solar minimum, sunspots are few and far between, and the Sun’s magnetic field is ordered and relaxed.

Understanding the Sun’s behavior is an important part of life in our solar system. The Sun’s violent outbursts can disturb the satellites and communications signals traveling around Earth, or one day, Artemis astronauts exploring distant worlds. Scientists study the solar cycle so we can better predict solar activity.

Measuring the solar cycle

Surveying sunspots is the most basic of ways we study how solar activity rises and falls over time, and it’s the basis of many efforts to track the solar cycle. Around the world, observers conduct daily sunspot censuses. They draw the Sun at the same time each day, using the same tools for consistency. Together, their observations make up the international sunspot number, a complex task run by the World Data Center for the Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations, at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, which tracks sunspots and pinpoints the highs and lows of the solar cycle. Some 80 stations around the world contribute their data.

Credit: USET data/image, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels

Other indicators besides sunspots can signal when the Sun is reaching its low. In previous cycles, scientists have noticed the strength of the Sun’s magnetic field near the poles at solar minimum hints at the intensity of the next maximum. When the poles are weak, the next peak is weak, and vice versa.

Another signal comes from outside the solar system. Cosmic rays are high-energy particle fragments, the rubble from exploded stars in distant galaxies that shoot into our solar system with astounding energy. During solar maximum, the Sun’s strong magnetic field envelops our solar system in a magnetic cocoon that is difficult for cosmic rays to infiltrate. In off-peak years, the number of cosmic rays in the solar system climbs as more and more make it past the quiet Sun. By tracking cosmic rays both in space and on the ground, scientists have yet another measure of the Sun’s cycle.

Since 1989, an international panel of experts—sponsored by NASA and NOAA—meets each decade to make their prediction for the next solar cycle. The prediction includes the sunspot number, a measure of how strong a cycle will be, and the cycle’s expected start and peak. This new solar cycle is forecast to be about the same strength as the solar cycle that just ended — both fairly weak. The new solar cycle is expected to peak in July 2025.

Learn more about the Sun’s cycle and how it affects our solar system at nasa.gov/sunearth.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

soil is a finite resource and it is being destroyed by years of agriculture. Even if you take drought out of the equation, eroded soil struggles to hold water properly.

I recommend planting and growing your own food if you are capable.

Amazing, helps to reduce the energy problem.

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The German Finance Minister referred to renewable electricity sources as “the energy of freedom.” Better later than never when it comes to reducing dependence on Russian fossil fuels. Germany 🇩🇪 aims to get 100% of energy from renewable sources by 2035:

Reuters

Germany aims to get 100% of energy from renewable sources by 2035

Germany aims to fulfil all its electricity needs with supplies from renewable sources by 2035, compared to its previous target to abandon fo

(Source)

Out wandering for a bit today…

2022-05-15

Holding hands with the Moon

I once held hands with the Moon. In the dark of the star riddled sky. His touch smooth and cooling, His skin pale as pearl.

I once held hand with the Moon. Resting upon His crescent, hovering above the sea. His eyes clear as the ocean and as beautiful as the brightest sapphire.

I once held hands with the Moon. Cradled in the softness of His glow. His light kinder than the Sun’s. He knows all my secrets and loves me still.

I once held hands with the Moon. I have fallen in love with Him. Each night His smile graces the skies. And my heart sings at His presence.

I once held hands with the Moon. His gentle caress lulls me to sleep. I mourn when His sister rises. As I miss my celestial prince.

I once held hands with the Moon. I have given my heart away to Him. And every night I await His return, To see my shining prince hanging in the sky once more.

Medieval Irish Nettle Soup

Today, I’ll be taking a look at a staple of Irish medieval cuisine: the humble nettle soup. Late spring and early Summer is the ideal time to make this dish, as the nettle leaves used here won’t have matured fully, and retain a soft, lighter texture than older woodier leaves. Plus they won’t sting your hands as badly as mature nettles. Plenty of Irish families have their own takes on this recipe, and this is influenced by my family’s take on the tradition!

In any case, let’s now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above!

Ingredients 2-3 cups nettle leaves 1 onion, minced 2-3 cloves garlic (or two bulbs of wild garlic, minced) chives (for decoration) butter ½ cup milk/double cream 500ml water or stock salt pepper

Method

1 - Chop and cook the Garlic and Onion

To begin with, we need to peel and chop a whole onion, before tossing this into a pot with some melted butter. You can of course use oil, but dairy products was (and still is) a major part of Irish culinary traditions - so try and use Irish butter here if you can.

In any case, let your onion sauté away for a couple of minutes until it turns translucent and fragrant. When it hits this point, toss in a couple of cloves of crushed garlic - or some wild garlic if you have any!

2 - Deal with the Nettles Next, ball up some nettles and chop it roughly with a knife. Be careful, as the leaves and stems of this plant has stinging fibres (which will get denatured and broken down when it’s cooking).

Nettles act like spinach when you’re cooking them, so have about 2-3 times more than what you think you’ll need on hand. Add your chopped nettles into the pot, and let them cook down before adding the rest!

3 - Cook Soup When all of your nettle leaves have cooked down, pour in 500ml of soup stock (or water) into the pot. Then, toss in about a half a cup of whole milk, or double cream if you have it. Mix this together gently, before putting this onto a high heat. Bring it to a rolling boil, before turning it down to low until it simmers. Let the whole thing simmer away for about an hour.

Serve up hot in a small bowl, garnish with some chives or seasonal herbs, and dig in!

The finished soup is very light and flavourful, but quite filling for what it is! It’s another variation on a medieval pottage, with ingredients that could have been easily foraged in the spring and summer. As it can be made with only a few ingredients, it could have formed the basis of more complex dishes - such as the addition of more vegetables, or meat products.

Given how little the dish has changed from antiquity to modernity, it’s likely that the basics of this soup go back to pre-historic Irish culinary traditions.

Urban density is harmful for our Earth.. go back to natural living..

Quick reminder that American * need to shut the fuck up.

Lord stop making every conflict about you

Y’all are so divorced from reality you act as if every single thing affect y’all first

Ukrainiens are dying and all you can do is wonder about your ass.

I’m just …. Tired of American always being in the narrative. Hearing them talk you’d think that they stopped WWII by them self. Dude, the resistance wouldn’t have stopped if y’all had failed. You wouldn’t have been able to step foot on France if not for the French resistance helping you. And you didn’t even enter the conflict till it cause you trouble.

The soldiers from the colonies where fucking braver than any of you, cause they where fighting for a country that fuck them over.

Just stop

It’s not about you

It’s about them

It’s not even about us European. ( I’m talking about the coalition things plus England there)

It’s about Ukraine and it’s innocent, terrified people.

It’s about the innocent Russian civilians protesting against their corrupt government

Both of them are braver than any US marine.

It’s not about you

So shut the fuck up.

* I’m talking about the American without any tie to ukraine

Beautiful post.

I love the natural feeling and the sense of accomplishment felt when we as humans spread/plant life and give back to nature as was intended.

probably the thing I’ve done that’s closest to guerrilla gardening is planting a bunch of shit in my backyard and refusing to consult my landlord

I’m making it better. When I moved in it was nothing but a patch of hot dirt (rocky clay, to be precise) with three sad 4′x4′x6″ raised beds. After almost two years of gardening and “letting the weeds grow” the difference is astonishing.

At first my “weeds” really were weeds: nonnative and invasive plants. But it is the nature of these plants to grow on disturbed ground, so I let them, and as time passed, my “weeds” became unfamiliar to me. These had to be the native plants, I thought. I have yet to get confirmation on that but increased biodiversity is always a good thing. Plants want to grow and the fact that I let them, that I have allowed this, brings me endless joy.

I planted a tree and didn’t tell my landlord. The local electric company subsidizes trees because it’s in their interest to shade the city. (They don’t nearly have as many native trees as I would like but it’s something at least.) Presently my tree is but 5 ft tall. I will not benefit from its shade, but I planted it for the future. It will save electricity in the future, after I have likely moved away. When it is larger, birds will flit among its branches. Hummingbirds and bugs will sip at its flowers, they already do. Give me flowers now, and my tree has done so.

There are so many more birds in my back yard, and bugs too. Foliage increases the humidity, it is not as hot and dry as it once was. Of course, there is always so much further to go in my vision of a lush desert garden but I can sit at the bench I built and watch birds visit my feeder or the flowers and know I have made something that provides for myself and the world around me.