Watching the Eclipse in Forest Hills

Well, that was a lot of fun! Forest Hills transformed into dozens of mini block parties on Monday as Forest Hills residents and workers stopped whatever they were doing and walked out of their apartments or offices to witness today's historic solar eclipse.

I was surprised to see so many people standing right in front of their apartment buildings to catch a glimpse of it, and clusters of people on every street corner. I figured people would congregate in MacDonald Park or somewhere like that locally, but there was barely any eclipse-viewing action at the Park. Nope, it was going on, well, everywhere!

(By the way, I took the photos of the eclipse by reversing the camera on my iPhone, thus the reflections in the photos from the glare. Better than nothing, and it actually worked better than I expected!)

Worrying...

Mystery Malady Kills More Bees, Heightening Worry on Farms

A mysterious ailment appears to have expanded drastically in the past year, wiping out as many as half of the hives needed to pollinate much of America’s produce.

Meteor Hits Russia

At least 1,000 people were injured. NASA was tracking a large asteroid passing by the earth today. But they say the two are unrelated. Weird. On the second video the explosion occurs around 1:12 into it.

President Obama Calls Mars Rover Team

And here's a color view of the surface of Mars taken from Curiosity. Click on the pic for a very cool larger view.

Welcome to Mars!

Staying up late to watch the Mars landing.... It helps that I took the day off tomorrow :)

Here's the link if you're interested: NASA Live TV

1:49 a.m. Update: WOW! Was that awesome! What an amazing country we are that we can accomplish things like this. If you couldn't watch this live tonight, try to catch the replay on YouTube or on the NASA.gov site. To watch those first two pictures from the surface of Mars come in just minutes after Curiosity touched down was just amazing.

Mission to Mars

Looking forward to Curiosity touching down on the surface of Mars around 1:30 a.m. Monday. I love it when NASA has these big events during the summer.

Moon Over Forest Hills

Did anyone manage to catch a glimpse of the Super Moon Saturday night? When I was out, it was too cloudy to see anything. Luckily, Friday night was clear and I managed to snap these shots - not quite as good as it would have been Saturday, but still pretty cool...

Prepare for Lunacy in May

Manhattanhenge Tonight

If you're in Manhattan Wednesday evening try to remember to glance down one of the cross streets, like 14th St. for example, just as the sun is setting. If you haven't seen the phenomenon known as "Manhattanhenge" you will be in for a treat. It happens twice a year when Manhattan's building grid aligns perfectly with the setting sun...

Here's more info about it:

GET READY FOR 'MANHATTANHENGE' ON JULY 13

What Enterotype Are You?

Just another thing to ask you doctor, and I guess the millions of bacteria living in your gut:

Science
Gut Bacteria Divide People Into 3 Types, Scientists Say
By CARL ZIMMER
Published: April 20, 2011
Scientists report that the three “enterotypes,” which are unrelated to ethnicity, sex, weight or age, may have discrete effects on people’s health.