24
Jun

2009 Moon Cycle 6: new Moon in Cancer, full Moon in Capricorn

Here are the Moon charts for June/July:

This is the sixth Moon cycle of year 2009.

At this time we find the Sun and new Moon at 1° Cancer and the full Moon balanced against the Sun on the Cancer/Capricorn axis at about 15° Capricorn. This new Moon occurs at the time of the summer solstice. On July 7th, at the time of the full moon, there will be a penumbral eclipse at 9:40 AM GMT.

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24
May

2009 Moon Cycle 5: new Moon in Gemini, full Moon in Sagittarius

Here are the Moon charts for May/June:

This is the fifth Moon cycle of year 2009.

At this time we find the Sun and new Moon at 3° Gemini and the full Moon balanced against the Sun on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis at about 17° Sagittarius.

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19
May

The very late May calendar

I just realized that the May calendar wasn't posted. So here it is; and I hope you still have some use for it. My apologies for the lateness. It's interesting that just as Saturn turned direct my computer speakers died. Alan Leo, an astrologer, says that Saturn governs the sense of hearing.
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3
May

Being me on less than 1.5 percent

A recent article in TIME magazine ("Evolving Darwin," by Carl Zimmer, February 23, 2009, issue) about Darwin's theories and scientists' more recent findings using DNA had some rare gems in it that I'd like to share. The basis of the article is a book -- Why Evolution is True -- by Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary biologist a the University of Chicago.

Note that Darwin's theories were first published in his book On the Origin of Species on 24 November 1859. In it he recognized that

variation and heredity were the twin engines that made evolution possible, [but] he didn't know what made them possible. It would take almost a century after the publication of On the Origin of Species for biologists to determine that the answer was DNA.

DNA is like a genetic cookbook, using four molecular "letters" to spell out recipes for everything from hormones to heart valves...

Time and again, biologists are finding that Darwin had it right: evolution is the best way to explain the patterns of nature.

Here's a compendium of nuggets from the article:

  • Besides studying fossils, biologists can discover the genealogy of species by looking at their DNA. The fossil record points to hippos and other hoofed mammals as being the closest living relatives of whales. So does their DNA. Our own DNA contains clues to the bonds we share with the rest of life — it turns out, for instance, that we are closer kin to mushrooms than to sunflowers.
  • In fact, a lot of mutations that all humans carry neither helped nor harmed our ancestors. They spread just by chance. And a lot of our genome is not made up of protein-coding genes. In fact, 98.8% of it is not. Some of that 98.8% consists of "pseudogenes" — genes that once encoded proteins but no longer can because of a crippling mutation. They are the molecular equivalent of a vestigial tail, allowing us to see evolution's track.
  • [Referring to Darwin's metaphor for evolution, the tree of life] ... there's more to the history of life than the branching of a tree. Viruses ferry genes from one host to another. Bacteria swap genes inside our bodies, evolving resistance to antibiotics in our own gut. Some 2 billion years ago, one of our single-celled ancestors took in an oxygen-consuming bacterium. That microbe became the thousands of tiny sacs found in each of our cells today, known as mitochondria, that let us breathe oxygen. When genes move this way, it's as if two brances of the tree of life are being grafted together.
  • There are 10,000 species of bacteria in a spoonful of dirt, twice as many species as all the mammals in the world.

This article also contains a table comparing Darwin's theory to current findings, here quoted:

Darwin   Today [in DNA]
Species share a common ancestry, like branches on a tree   Genetic studies confirm that different species have evolved from common ancestors. But DNA has also jumped from one species to another — turning parts of the tree of life into a web
Humans evolved from apes in Africa   Evidence from DNA indicates that chimpanzees and bonobos are the closest living relative to humans. Fossils document the course of human evolution in Africa from apelike ancestors over the past 7 million years
Natural selection is a powerful force driving evolution   Natural selection's fingerprints can be detected in the human genome. But many mutations have spread thanks to pure chance (a process know as genetic drift)
Complex traits like eyes can evolve through a series of intermediate steps   Fossils have documented some of those steps in structures such as limbs and ears. Studies on DNA have shown how genes for building old organs have been "borrowed" to help build new ones
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26
Apr

2009 Moon Cycle 4: new Moon in Taurus, full Moon in Scorpio

Here are the Moon charts for April/May:

This fourth Moon cycle contains the Buddha Moon — the full Moon in May, also called the Wesak Moon. In honor of this celebration of the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha, I carry forward this lecture, titled "Sun-faced Buddha, Moon-faced Buddha", by Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi and reprinted from the April 2000 Berkeley Zen Center Newsletter. I think you'll find it interesting.

At this time we find the Sun and new Moon at 5° Taurus and the full Moon balanced against the Sun on the Taurus/Scorpio axis at about 19° Scorpio.

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