A Panorama of Mars!

Mars Gigapixel Panorama - Curiosity rover: Martian solar days 136-149 in The World

This is mind blowing! A panorama of MARS. A crystal clear picture from another freaking planet! My head just exploded. (Hint: definitely go to full screen)

Today is World Water Day

PHOTO BY ALBERT GONZALEZ FARRAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

"A precious drink: A mother offers water to her child at the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced persons in El-Fasher, Sudan. Water at the camp is scarce, forcing refugees to walk miles to collect it and haul it back."

Today is World Water Day. Water is a basic human right. Every day, 800 million people around the world live without access to safe, clean drinking water. It particularly effects women and children (watch Why Water). Visit charity:water to learn more and see how you can help. It's only right.

First Day of Spring, Portland Style

It was a typical Portland first-day-of-spring. This means we had all four seasons in one day. It was cold, it was warm, it rained, was sunny, the wind blew and we had periods of hail - all today. You can tell it's spring in Portland because the weather gets all schizophrenic. As I came out of a store this afternoon, I turned around to see this gorgeous rainbow; beautiful bright colors that arced across the whole sky. By the time I got my phone out to take the picture, it was already starting to diminish. Another minute later it was almost gone. It made me happy that I was able to catch it in all its glory. As you can see in the picture, it was sunny where I was. Pulling out of the parking lot, it started to rain... again. Ah, it's spring in Portland!

Kakenya Ntaiya: A girl who demanded school

 In honor of International Women's Day, a TED talk that moved me to tears.

Phone Pole Philosophy

Random note stapled to random phone pole, inner SE Portland. Well, it made me smile.

Today's Laugh?

A Portlandia Moment

Walking into the park this morning, I see across the field that Portland City workers are putting up some playground equipment. They've got their trucks there and the three guys are busy setting up a new slide. One of the trucks has the door open and the radio is on so they can listen to some music while they work. The sound is wafting over the park. Nothing unusual about that, right? Here's the Portlandia Moment: what are they listening to? Classical!

And that's why we live here.

Today's Reality Check

"Sitting in the dirt, slum children attend class under an overpass in New Delhi. The free school is run by teachers Rajesh Kumar Sharma (left) and Laxmi Chandra (center)."
Photo: Altaf Qadri, Associated Press / SF

Today's Wisdom

Oregon Tough!

Out walking the dog this morning, I came across this in the local park. These are seven-year-olds playing their weekly soccer game. What you can't see in this arguably way blurry phone photo is that it's raining pretty hard. The kids don't seem to mind. I guess if you want to play any little league sport in Oregon most any time but summer, you have to be rough and tough enough to play in the rain!

Today's Laugh: Kid Poetry

When out walking the dog in the morning, I often pass a local (SE Portland) elementary/middle school. They have what is known as a poetry post on one corner - there may be more, but this is the one I see. A poetry post is a, um, post with a box on it like the type realtors might use to allow you to take a flyer or the box may just be flat with a space to, um, post something in it. They are all over; people have them in front of their houses with a favorite poem or poetry of their own.
This morning as I passed the school, I saw this wonderful kid poem. Enjoy!

(I really love the "I want my life back" line!)

Today's Laugh