Jul 20 2009
Total Solar Eclipse
One of the most remarkable naked-eye celestial observances from the Earth is that the Moon and Sun have almost the same apparent size. Depending on its position in orbit and relative distance from the Earth, the Moon can appear either larger or smaller than the Sun, resulting in solar eclipses on Earth occurring in two varieties: total, when the Moon is close enough to appear larger than Sun and completely cover it, and annular, where a more distant Moon fails to completely cover the Sun, resulting in a “ring of fire”.
Relative to any fixed location on Earth, a total eclipse of the sun is a rare event. I remember watching the last one visible from the continental U.S. in 1979 from the sidewalk in the front yard of our Piscatway, NJ home – through a piece of green welder’s lens my Dad handed to me. I had no idea of the significance or rarity of the event at that time as that was his last one & the next one won’t happen for us here until 2017.
The longest solar eclipse our generation will see until 2032 will occur in part of the Western Hemisphere on July 21 and on July 22, 2009 in the Eastern Hemisphere. It will be only a singular occurrence with the difference in dates being caused by our International Date Line. Those of us in the United States will not experience this eclipse first hand, but in this Information Society, live coverage should be scheduled to be broadcast and relayed primarily from China and Japan. I’ve been checking CNN, but haven’t found anything yet.
More information about this eclipse is available at NASA’s Eclipse Web Site.
We learned very early on, in English classes of all places, that Thoughts (ideas) are things. But it is being conscience of the space between them that differentiates us from the other mammals. If you say something negative to me, I can choose to be offended and react violently or I can choose relative indifference and accept your opinion as yours. My decision is “in the gap between the thoughts”, where other animals instinctively react.
If the above example seems to “airy” or “pseudo-scientific” for you, let’s take something solid in our observable surroundings, say a block of lead. We’ll all agree that although it “looks” solid, it is been repeatedly shown through the Scientific Method to be a mass of moving molecules with space between them. 
The Full Moon nearest our Autumn equinox (a “Harvest Moon” - not to be confused with the Neil Young early 1990’s album of the same name) is yellow so that the farmers back in the day would have more light for bringing their last crops before Winter.
They must get a “Planters Moon”.
When you take into consideration that earlier cultures didn’t have the trappings of “progress” (i.e. television, radio, McDonalds, etc) that our “more advanced” cultures have today, it becomes evident why they were more in tune with their surroundings than we are – as a people. I mean, if they went out for fast food, it only meant that they might not catch anything & come back hungry. 
It’s my understanding that according to Mayan knowledge (and the Sacred Round of Katuns), our course of rotation with respect to the stars rather than with respect to the Sun (aka: sidereal space), will bring us to a populated zone with many asteroids and other objects influencing our gravitational field. Considering the cosmic circumstances which we lack active conscious awareness (i.e. the effect of the Moon on the oceans, the Sun switching magnetic poles every 11 years, etc), these celestial bodies could produce oscillations in many levels that could move Earth’s magnetic field again and shift tectonic plates. Their belief of “the end of the world as we know it” is purported to be based more on logic than religion. See also: 
