Up At The Ranch And Beyond

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The Observable Universe by Pablo Carlos Budassi





How far can you see? Everything you can see, and everything you could possibly see, right now, assuming your eyes could detect all types of radiations around you -- is the observable universe. In light, the farthest we can see comes from the cosmic microwave background, a time 13.8 billion years ago when the universe was opaque like thick fog.

Some neutrinos and gravitational waves that surround us come from even farther out, but humanity does not yet have the technology to detect them. The featured image illustrates the observable universe on an increasingly compact scale, with the Earth and Sun at the center surrounded by our Solar System, nearby stars, nearby galaxies, distant galaxies, filaments of early matter, and the cosmic microwave background.

Cosmologists typically assume that our observable universe is just the nearby part of a greater entity known as "the universe" where the same physics applies. However, there are several lines of popular but speculative reasoning that assert that even our universe is part of a greater multiverse where either different physical constants occur, different physical laws apply, higher dimensions operate, or slightly different-by-chance versions of our standard universe exist.



(4:19)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CzrY8O9XUgE

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All Saints Days





Bethlehem December 1




Bethlehem December 2023




Bethlehem December 2024

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December 2025





Sky Dome Map - Visible Planets and Night Sky







Short Update Entering December 2025



Pam gives an update as we enter December and move towards the Full SuperMoon in Gemini, also looking beyond to other astrological developments, such as game-changer 3I/ATLAS. Are you feeling “in-between”?

(29:44)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mSesbzjq8Sw

Astronomy Events in December | Supermoon | Geminid Meteor Shower | Winter Solstice



(9:00)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=zcZoKvzriio

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Oops

Russia Accidently Break Their Only Launch Pad To Space Station



The Launch of Soyuz MS-28 was successful, but the launch pad in Baikonur lost a critical piece of hardware which will require a lot of work to replace.

Published 29th November 2025 (16:39)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gv4ClusLU2s

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Macaque Monkeys Have Rhythm And Can Keep The Beat

(with a little help from the Backstreet Boys)





They may not yet be kings of the swingers, but macaque monkeys can keep time to music and move to the beat. Well, at least two adult macaques can, who were trained by researchers to tap along to different kinds of music. Their work challenges the so-called vocal-learning hypothesis, which holds that only species with complex vocal learning, like humans and songbirds, can spontaneously move to the groove. Macaques are not vocal learners.

In a study published in the journal Science, researchers wanted to see if two macaques previously trained to synchronize their tapping to the steady rhythm of a metronome could advance to tapping along to real music. Unlike a metronome, which has a simple, explicit click on the beat, real music is complex, and the beat has to be extracted from the sound.

In the first experimental setup, the monkeys were trained to tap accurately to the beat of three pieces of music. When the study authors shifted the music by half a beat, the monkeys' tapping followed suit, keeping in time, proving they were synchronizing to the musical rhythm.

In the second experiment, the music was scrambled; that is, the researchers cut the songs into fragments and rearranged them, destroying the rhythmic structure. Here, the monkeys only synchronized to the sound when they actually had a beat to follow.

The final phase was free tapping, where the primates were rewarded for maintaining any steady rhythm they chose while listening to "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys at three different speeds. Despite rewards for tapping any steady beat, the macaques followed the song's true tempo.

"Our data reveal that the macaque is capable of beat perception and synchronization to music," commented the researchers in their paper. "This reflects a greater generalization and flexibility in rhythm perception beyond what was previously described in the macaque and what was previously assumed for non–vocal-learning species."

Published 1st December 2025 by Paul Arnold – Phys,org
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-monkey...reet-boys.html

# ザ・モンキーズ／モンキーズのテーマ（年）!!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6M6samPEMpM

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Water-Fueled Car Inventor Poisoned: Stanley Meyer



We examine the unsolved mysteries surrounding Stanley Meyer's invention of a water fuel cell and his untimely death, which some believe was due to free energy suppression.

Published 3rd November 2025 (11:47)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TH01YqFDOlk

Comments are interesting

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The Sky This Week

Wednesday, Dec. 3 - Bright moon crosses the Pleiades (evening)



On Wednesday evening, Dec. 3, skywatchers in North America and Europe can watch the orbital motion (green line) of the bright, nearly full moon carry it through the bright stars of the Pleiades star cluster, which is also known as Messier 45, Subaru, and the Seven Sisters. While the glare of the moon will hide the cluster's stars from your unaided eyes during the night, viewing the encounter during evening twilight, especially through binoculars (orange circle) or a backyard telescope, will allow you to see the moon passing among them.

Thursday, Dec. 4 - Full Cold Supermoon



The December full moon will occur on Thursday, Dec. 4 at 6:14 p.m. EST, 3:14 p.m. PST, or 23:14 GMT. Traditionally known as the Oak Moon, Cold Moon, and Long Nights Moon, it always shines in or near the stars of Taurus and Gemini. The Ojibwe of the Great Lakes region call the December full moon Manidoo Giizisoons, the "Little Spirit Moon". For them, it is a time of purification and of healing of all Creation.

Since full moons are always opposite the sun, they are fully illuminated and rise at sunset and set at sunrise. Full moons during the winter months reach as high in the sky at midnight as the summer noonday sun, and cast similar shadows. This full moon will occur only 12 hours after perigee, producing high tides and making it the third of three consecutive supermoons, appearing about 8% larger and 16% brighter than an average full moon (as shown by the red circle).

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Unbelievable Life of Nomads Surviving –71°C in the Arctic Tundra | Yakutia






Chapters: 0:00 Morning Routine in the Tundra 2:44 Where Do They Get Drinking Water? 4:13 Dressing for –71°C: Reindeer Fur Boots, Coat & Pants 4:48 Building and Heating a Home in Extreme Cold 6:21 Chopping Firewood for Survival 7:05 Cooking Blood Sausage — A Traditional Dish 8:43 Managing Reindeer: Herding, Tracking & Healing 9:48 How They Shower 11:44 Doing Laundry 12:49 How They Have Fun in the Tundra 14:08 Lunch Time 14:35 Crafting Reindeer Fur Boots by Hand 16:00 Butchering Reindeer Meat 17:10 Making Dinner: Fresh Bread & Reindeer Meat (English subtitles)


Published 12th June 2025 (19:31)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qEBlMQiaIh4

This is the real life of one of the last nomadic reindeer herding families in Yakutia. All year round, they roam the Arctic tundra with their reindeer—through unimaginable conditions where temperatures plunge as low as –71°C. They live in tents, far from civilization, surviving in one of the most unforgiving environments on Earth. To stay warm, they rely on a small metal stove, feeding it constantly with firewood to avoid freezing.

This way of life is not only extreme—it's dangerous, raw, and deeply rooted in tradition. Even children, like 11-year-old Saiaan, help with daily tasks and learn the ancient skills needed to survive. Despite the brutal cold, this family carries on a way of life passed down through generations—resilient, proud, and deeply connected to their culture.

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Space Law

When Space Junk Comes Home

Early one February morning in 2025, Adam Borucki discovered something extraordinary behind his warehouse in Poland, a charred metal tank, roughly 1.5 metres across, sitting in his back yard.

It had crashed from space during the night, part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that failed to complete its controlled descent into the Pacific Ocean. The debris damaged some electrical equipment and a concrete block. Nobody was hurt, but the incident raised an uncomfortable question; who pays when a private company's space hardware crashes into your property?




(Image credit: Adam Borucki)

The answer, surprisingly, isn't straightforward. A new analysis by Elisa Leoni examines how the 1972 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects struggles to handle today's commercial space industry. The treaty was written when only governments launched rockets, and it shows.

Under the Convention's rules, states bear international responsibility for damage caused by space objects, even when private companies operate them. If Borucki wanted compensation, Poland would need to file a claim against the United States as the "launching state," since SpaceX launched from California.

This state to state framework creates significant problems in an era dominated by commercial spaceflight. Victims like Borucki have no direct legal recourse under international law. They must hope their government decides to pursue a claim on their behalf, a process that depends entirely on political willingness rather than legal right.

The Convention offers no provisions for individuals or companies to seek compensation directly, leaving private citizens oddly vulnerable in the age of private space exploration.

The timing couldn't be more critical. Launch costs have plummeted over the past decade, triggering an explosion in orbital activity. Thousands of satellites now circle Earth, with companies like SpaceX deploying massive constellations. More launches mean more potential for debris to survive atmospheric reentry, yet the liability framework remains anchored to Cold War era assumptions about who operates in space and why.

Published 12th November 2025 by Mark Thompson – Universe Today
https://www.universetoday.com/articl...unk-comes-home

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EU Space Act

Space may seem distant, but #space technologies, data and services shape our daily lives — from navigation on smartphones and cars to monitoring climate change and coordinating disaster response. The EU Space Act aims to create a single market for space, harmonising rules across Europe and fostering technological innovation, job creation, and economic competitiveness, while always prioritising citizens’ and societal benefit. With over 11,000 satellites already orbiting Earth — a number expected to increase fivefold in the coming years — the European Commission is proposing new rules for safety, security and sustainability in all EU space activities.

This report comes from the European Commission, the EU's main executive body.

Published 7th November 2025 (2:14)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=a-Z35Uw38Cw

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Orbital Traffic Jam



Planned orbital observatories would see satellites cross nearly all of their images




On Wednesday, three NASA astronomers released an analysis showing that several planned orbital telescopes would see their images criss-crossed by planned satellite constellations, such as a fully expanded Starlink and its competitors. While the impact of these constellations on ground-based has been widely considered, orbital hardware was thought to be relatively immune from their interference. But the planned expansion of constellations, coupled with some of the features of upcoming missions, will mean that at least one proposed observatory will see an average of nearly 100 satellite tracks in every exposure.

Making matters worse, some of the planned measures meant to minimize the impact on ground-based telescopes will make things worse for those in orbit.




Simulated image of a what a typical ARRAKIHS exposure could look like if satellite constellations expand as planned

Satellite constellations are a relatively new threat to astronomy; prior to the drop in launch costs driven by SpaceX’s reusable rockets, the largest constellations in orbit consisted of a few dozen satellites. But the rapid growth of the Starlink system caused problems for ground-based astronomy that are not easy to solve.

Unfortunately, even if we had an infinite budget, we couldn’t just solve this by increasing our reliance on space-based hardware. While orbital satellites may be above some of the problem-causing constellations, enough of the new hardware is orbiting at altitudes where they can interfere with observations. A check of the image archive of the Hubble Space Telescope, for example, shows that over four percent of recent images contain a satellite track, a significant increase from earlier in the century.

And the problem will only get worse, according to three astronomers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California (Alejandro Borlaff, Pamela Marcum, and Steve Howell). Based on filings made with the Federal Communications Commission, they found that the current total of satellites represents only 3 percent of what will be in orbit a decade from now if everybody’s planned launches take place.

Published 3rd December 2025 by John Timmer – Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025...ng-telescopes/

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How The Sun Grounded 6000 Planes Over Thanksgiving





Thanksgiving travelers were surprised last week when Airbus grounded roughly six thousand A320-family jets for an urgent software rollback. The cause of the delay? Fears of radiation from cosmic rays and solar storms.

The problem came to light on Oct. 30th, when a JetBlue Airways A320 flying from Cancun to New Jersey suddenly dropped in altitude. At least 15 passengers were injured. When investigators dug into the flight-control data, they found that the aircraft’s software was vulnerable to "single-event upsets" --  bit-flips caused when a high-energy particle randomly changes a 1 to a 0 (or vice versa), corrupting critical data.

Dyer and colleagues analyzed the storm and found that bit-flips in computer memory could have occurred at a rate of ~60 errors per hour per gigabyte. No flight anomalies were reported, he notes, but "I can only believe that the Nov. 11th event focused minds on this problem."

It's a problem worth focusing on. On Feb. 23, 1956, the largest GLE of the Space Age boosted aviation radiation levels more than 100×. Tree rings and ice cores show that "Miyake Events" (GLEs thousands of times more intense) have struck Earth in the past few millennia. Modern society simply hasn’t experienced one yet.



https://www.spaceweather.com/

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Beautiful American city lights stretching across the horizon and our Great Lakes with an aurora.

– Jonny Kim

(0:36)

https://x.com/JonnyKimUSA/status/1995806697026101319

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The Origins of Human Beings According to Ancient Sumerian Texts





Sumer, or the ‘land of civilized kings’, flourished in Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, around 4500 BC. Sumerians created an advanced civilization with its own system of elaborate language and writing, architecture and arts, astronomy and mathematics. Their religious system was a complex one comprised of hundreds of gods. According to the ancient texts, each Sumerian city was guarded by its own god; and while humans and gods used to live together, the humans were servants to the gods.

The Tablet of Nippur: Discovering the Ancient Sumerian Texts

As one of the earliest known written creation stories, the Sumerian creation legend holds significant importance offering valuable insights into the religious, political, and cultural aspects of ancient Mesopotamia.

The Sumerian creation myth can be found on a tablet in Nippur, an ancient Mesopotamian city founded in approximately 5000 BC. The creation of Earth (Enuma Elish) according to the Sumerian tablets begins like this:

When in the height heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,
And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both
Their waters were mingled together,
And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;
When of the gods none had been called into being,
And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained;
Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven,
Lahmu and Lahamu were called into being ...

The texts mention that at some point the gods mutinied against their labor.

When the gods like men
Bore the work and suffered the toll
The toil of the gods was great,
The work was heavy, the distress was much.





The Unity of God and Man: How the First Human Came into Existence

Anu, the god of gods, agreed that their labour was too great. His son Enki, or Ea, proposed to create man to bear the labour, and so, with the help of his half-sister Ninki, he did. A god was put to death, and his body and blood was mixed with clay. From that material the first human being was created, in likeness to the gods.

You have slaughtered a god together
With his personality
I have removed your heavy work
I have imposed your toil on man.
…
In the clay, god and man
Shall be bound,
To a unity brought together;
So that to the end of days
The Flesh and the Soul
Which in a god have ripened –
That soul in a blood-kinship be bound ...

This first man was created in Eden, a Sumerian word which means ‘flat terrain’. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Eden is mentioned as the garden of the gods and is located somewhere in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.





Initially human beings were unable to reproduce on their own, but were later modified with the help of Enki and Ninki. Thus, Adapa was created as a fully functional and independent human being. This ‘modification’ was done without the approval of Enki’s brother, Enlil, and a conflict between the gods began. Enlil became the adversary of man, and the Sumerian tablet mentions that men served gods and went through much hardship and suffering.

Adapa, with the help of Enki, ascended to Anu where he failed to answer a question about the bread and water of life.

Opinions vary on the similarities between this creation story and the biblical story of Adam and Eve in Eden.  While Adapa was granted great wisdom and knowledge by Enki, he unknowingly rejected the gift of immortality when offered the "bread and water of life". Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden and instructed not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, they were tempted by the serpent and ate the "forbidden fruit", leading to their expulsion from paradise.

Overall, the Sumerian creation myth holds significant importance as one of the earliest known written creation stories, offering valuable insights into the religious, political, and cultural aspects of ancient Mesopotamia.

Published 7th August 2023 by John Black – Ancient Origins
https://www.ancient-origins.net/huma...ian-texts-0065

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Garden of the Hesperides – Ancient Greece

Hesperides | Eden

The Greeks remembered the original paradise as the Garden of the Hesperides, always depicting it with a serpent-entwined apple tree. The Book of Genesis doesn’t say what kind of fruit was in the Garden of Eden; It’s from the Greek tradition we get the idea that Eve ate an apple.







Both the ancient commentator Apollodorus and the Greek playwright Euripides describe Zeus and Hera as the original occupants of the Garden of the Hesperides. To the Greeks, they were the first couple, a match for the Adam and Eve of Genesis.





The Judeo-Christian tradition considers Adam as the father of all humanity. The term “father Zeus” is a description of the king of the gods that appears over 100 times in the ancient writings of Homer. According to the ancient poet Hesiod, Zeus is “the father of gods and men” – the gods being deified ancestors.

Genesis 3:20 describes Eve as “the mother of all the living.” In a hymn of invocation, the 6th-century BC lyric poet, Alcaeus, refers to Hera as “mother of all.” As the first wife, the Greeks worshipped Hera as the goddess of marriage; as the first mother, the Greeks worshipped her as the goddess of childbirth.


The Hesperides





Chrysothemis moves toward the tree to pluck an apple. Asterope leans pleasantly against her with both arms. To the left of them, Hygeia (Health) sits on a hillock and holds a long scepter, a symbol of rule, as she looks back towards the tree. To the right of the apple tree, Lipara (Shining Skin) holds apples in the fold of her garment, and raises her veil off her shoulder.

The names of the Hesperides describe what the garden is like. It is a land of soft starlight, gold for the taking, perfect health, and wondrous beauty.





The Hesperides, the nymphs who tend to the ancient garden, its tree, its apples, and its serpent, get their name from Hespere in Greek, which means evening, signifying the West where the sun sets.

This matches the Genesis account which describes civilization developing to the east of Eden. A return to Eden would mean traveling west. The Greeks put the Garden of the Hesperides in the Far West.

https://www.ancient-origins.net/huma...perides-021562

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Giant Sunspot On Par With The Carrington Event Appears On The Sun

— and it's pointed right at Earth





A gigantic cluster of sunspots — collectively around the same size as the one that birthed the largest solar storm in recorded history — has just emerged on the sun's Earth-facing side, and is now pointed directly at our planet. While auroras and some technological disturbances are possible over the coming week, the new sunspot complex seems unlikely to unleash a second Carrington Event, according to NASA and others.

The complex, dubbed AR 4294-4296, is made up of two different sunspot groups, AR 4294, and AR 4296, that are magnetically intertwined. It first became visible on Nov. 28, when it rotated onto the sun's Earth-facing side on our home star's western limb. However, the dark patches were first spotted around a week earlier by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, which was spying on the sun's far side relative to Earth.

AR 4294-4296 is around the same size as a giant sunspot observed by British astronomer Richard Carrington in September 1859, which subsequently birthed the "Carrington Event" — the biggest solar storm ever seen by humans. The image above, first shared by Spaceweather.com on Dec. 2, shows the sunspot complex alongside Carrington's sketch of the giant 19th-century behemoth.

Published 5th December 2025 by Harry Baker – Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/space/th...right-at-earth

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Winter in the Wild | Smithsonian Photo Contest




Icelandic Horses – Holly Fischer (Iceland)




Evergreen Cardinal – Mark Archibald (Ohio)




White Ermine Alert – Tim Auer (Wyoming)




Reindeer Run – Kris Cheng (Alaska)




Wrestling Match – Thomas Chadwick (Alaska)




Three Golden Monkeys – Minqiang Lu (China)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/

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The Men Who Own The Moon



Space Nations — The Men Selling The Moon

These include Dennis Hope’s Galactic Government, James Thomas Mangan’s Nation of Celestial Space, and King Frederick the Great of Prussia. It has been reported that several ex-astronauts and three ex-presidents are among a distinguished list of buyers.

Published 17th March 2017 (5:24)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gAEsoc1XDmY

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Space News This Week | Space Bites w/ Fraser Cain



Early Signs of Dark Matter Detection // Search for Exomoons // No Liquid Water for Mars

Has dark matter been found? A galaxy made of the first stars, China’s reusable rocket reaches orbit but doesn’t stick the landing, a possible explanation for the matter/antimatter asymmetry, and in Q&A+, Gaia helps pin down a supernova that hit the Earth 10 million years ago. No AI, no ads.

Published 5th December 2025 (21:15)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8jlLE-TzOp4

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Group of Bikers Prove: Never Judge A Book By Its Cover



When these kids opened a lemonade stand, it resulted in a beautiful moment for the whole neighborhood.

(3:06)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=SLT95W7W264