[article] Just in time for the holidays, the Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a spectacular view of a star-forming region in our Milky Way galaxy that looks like a snow angel in deep space.

This region, called Sharples 2-106 (or S106 for short) is located nearly 2,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation of Cygnus (The Swan). The nebula is found in a relatively isolated part of the Milky Way, researchers said.

The S106 nebula measures several light-years across, and contains vast clouds of gas that resemble outstretched wings amidst an hourglass shape. The light from the glowing gas is colored blue in this image. A video and photo of the "snow angel" based on Hubble's observations reveals a spectacular view of the cosmic sight.

Hubble's view captures furious activity in the nebula, with ridges and ripples of super-hot gas mixing with the cooler interstellar medium. A massive young star, called Infrared Source 4 or IRS 4, is responsible for this turbulence, scientists said.

source: space.com December 15th, 2011

The researcher may have seen this image a thousand times when he was looking over his data and just noticed it in the Rorschach which is the night sky now that Christmas is around.  Not bad when you're looking for a little hope and inspiration.  ;-)

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The new music website is up: http://taylorhayward.org/

I've been getting good traction so far and I hope to keep the momentum going.

To watch it's progress you can Like my public facebook page here.

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The last two songs on the new album are finally done with the editing and mastering process.  It took too long, mostly because of me, but since I prefer quality in the long run it was worth it.

Here's the complete album, a few of the songs are already available on iTunes the remaining two should be up this week and then on to the making of physical versions for fun and profit.

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A few friends thought it would be a good idea to share my thoughts on some things so I'm going to try my hand at videos.  Let me know what you think.

first_try.mp4 Watch on Posterous

Taylor

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The second song on my four song album is complete.

Atropos by Taylor Hayward

Two more to go.

TH

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The first song on my new album, Sitting by the Window, is complete.  It just came out of mastering yesterday.

Ocean Of Night by Taylor Hayward

The album is due out this fall.  I'll post to the blog when new songs are available and the new website is up so the songs can be purchased, or in the case of this song, downloaded for free.

TH

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And when the boat she landed on that cold and rocky shore,
the travelers went into caves and then were seen no more.

Their children’s children learned to live outside beneath the sun,
but when vague legend met their ears behind the rocks they’d run.

Not sure the shadows of their past would meet them in the night,
they built their walls from loose thrown rocks without concern for height.

The height continued up and up the shadows down and down,
until there was no life at all within their little town.

And traveling off from distant lands the girls, their dogs, a thief,
they found the shadows were their home and bid a fast retreat.

Their children’s children crawled from darkness with their mother’s cloak,
and when a stranger passed them by they neither shone nor spoke.

And when they wandered past the walls upon that distant shore,
the men looked down and said “who’s there” their sabers rattled “war”.

Back into shadows the girls did dwell until they fell asleep,
their closeness was their darkness but there never was a peep.

And to the South lay daughters that dwell amongst their kin,
and while they thought their daughters Love abuse had laid within.

Too scared to show their fury of the treatment they received,
they locked away the thoughts that bayed the feelings they conceived.

And while they lived from day to day at dinner table set,
confined to chambers of their thoughts as forgotten chambers slept.

Their faces all consumed them, the way they combed their hair,
for in the blood that left their souls their were no women there.

While to the East the men did pile and brutish strength did grow,
instead of reaching out for help their weakness kept them low.

As hardened necks found kissless days and sure malnourished nights,
their stony hearts mislead their hands and fears soon led to fights.

Their bumping and their turning in a world they couldn’t see,
for what lay beneath what eyes saw not was a boy upon his knees.

As thought was thought as weakness, and dark befell their homes,
their slights became their vision and left they were, alone.

Where in the distant desert children whipped by harshest wind,
they cursed the Gods and call them hate then hunkered deep within.

The children met the heat with fists they met the cold with rage,
they spit at night they laughed at day rebuking every age.

The cold hot flows escaped them, they missed the birds in flight,
the fish they came the fish they left without a net in sight.

Impoverished by their bitterness lamenting in their need,
no one dared to whisper thoughts that gave the Gods their heed.

And back that seaside fortress a boy had turned to see,
the darkness that befell their land had killed but one last tree.

And so the children took the chance and let the shadows in,
the wall came down just low enough to pass their shadow kin.

The girls appeared beneath their cloak to look for hook and trap,
but when they saw the blight within those fallen walls they wept.

The pass was made and light streamed in to grow that fragile tree,
the girls picked plums and shed their cloaks their sisters South to see.

They traveled in a carnival of long and hilly roads,
and when they reached the Southern steps they begged the girls to go.

The captives’ souls’ lay dormant they knew not what to do,
they had to leave these girls behind, head East, for they were few.

This troop of daughter’s left their fears at base of downed stone wall,
so Eastern men of stony gate left them no dread at all.

The girls they softly touched those the boys, the boys they burned with fear,
but as they wept they held the girls until their need appeared.

The daughters they consoled them - the men they let them love,
and then upon that very eve they prayed the Gods above.

And in forgotten memory of God’s great distance past,
they rode so wild into the winds and met that wind whipped caste.

The caste turned rocks from gods towards man to keep the men at bay,
but all they heard was one small voice and in a hymn it sang.

The voice called out to God above and rose and fell in pitch,
the children of this harshest land sat still within its grip.

The melody made them silent, to watch the world around,
and quick as quiet clear appeared and food so soon was found.

The river in a fortnight would become a fisher's dream,
the fields would grow in but a month the herds would soon be seen.

And so they watched their worldly clock and kept it close to learn,
and when the last of wheat was there all to the road they turned.

They piled high their great delight for one last stop they had,
a story of their merriment and soldiers close at hand.

The daughters to the South that lay with enemies so near,
the men marched in with love in tow to help them from their fear.

The cowards groveled in the dust to hand their prisoners’ clean,
and in those eyes a thousand tales of all that they had seen.

Their sisters they restored them as all marched out to shore,
the boys climbed down into themselves girls’ women as before.

How does it end nobody knows but this forever true,
wherever safe as Love may be Love soon will come to you.

By Taylor Hayward

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In the story The Picture of Dorian Gray the main character, Dorian, has a picture painted of him by a great artist.  In the painting he’s fair and young but as Dorian begins to realize that the painting has the magical ability to relieve him of his decrepitude regardless of what he does, he begins to slip into debauchery.  He remains unmarked by his behavior while the painting continues to age.  As a reader of the story it’s not hard to imagine a person looking more run down, shifty, and so on the more they diminish the quality of their lives and those around them.

While most people reach equilibrium in their lives, not erring too much on the side of indulgence or denial, there is something to be said for improving your condition by improving your self-worth.

Over the past ten or so years I’ve been looking into the human condition and what makes for a happy life.  There are many things that contribute to it, and like the car analogy, all the parts are required for it to go.  Health, relationships with others, some could argue spirituality as well as carnality, and so on.  Worth is one of these things.  The best definition I can come up with for it is: contributing to the health and happiness of humanity and doing so with character (not lying, cheating, stealing, etc.)  The theory goes, if I improve things for myself and others, rather than sinking into decrepitude, quite the opposite will happen, and that has been my experience.

About a year ago I became very interested in finding an organization to help support that would continually show a “return” for any investment I made in it.  Some of my internal debate was shrewd where I considered how helping one region could potentially lead to a greater population, and potentially a bigger problem down the road.  Another perspective was more idealistic where I was primarily concerned with the numbers of people who could escape dire circumstances – such as Haiti, The Favelas of Brazil, and so on regardless of the future outcome.

In the end I decided to locate an organization that was reputable, had a positive long term and short term impact, but more importantly didn’t create a byproduct of problems as it continued to grow.

Education is a universally loved concept both in Washington and in people’s hometowns.  It’s rare to find someone who doesn’t support it and many are willing to go into great debt to continue learning at a university level and earn a degree.  The reason is, it’s hard to see a downside.  From lower birthrates in agrarian communities to lower crime rates in industrial ones, better employment opportunities for semi-industrial areas, and better land management in subsistence areas.  It helps to inform a population and consequently lowers corruption, and it helps people figure out problems in their day-to-day lives.

It’s an investment you get to watch improve things for years to come.

The organization I ended up helping is called Generation Rwanda.  They are an organization that receive around 1,500 applications a year from exceptionally talented and motivated Rwandan students but who have no parents or come from a vulnerable background.  From that group only a few dozen are chosen to have their tuition paid for at the local universities, The National University of Rwanda and The Kigali Institute of Science and Technology.  Without this aid these kids would be lost talent working in jobs with little impact on their region.

In Part 2 of this blog post I’ll talk more about Rwanda as a country, why I consider Generation Rwanda an ideal investment in the future, and where I see things going for them.

This is not a shakedown for money.  Many people have a lot of obligations that make it really hard to donate money.  The whole, and only, point of this post is to suggest this particular organization if you’re thinking about donating money anywhere.  It’s a highly reputable organization where you’ll be able to see solid positive results now, and in the future as their works unfold.

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Today I received an email from Congressman Michael Capuano’s office entitled, “Special E-Newsletter on Tax Proposal” where he asked his constituents our opinion on, “President Obama’s ‘deal’ on taxes and unemployment insurance.” Below is my response. 

---

Congressman Capuano,

You asked in a broadcast email today my opinion on the compromise between Obama and congress regarding tax cuts and extending unemployment insurance.  Here's my opinion.

The reason the unemployment rate is stubbornly high is several fold.  One, there is anxiety in the marketplace due to political instability in the world (most notably in the Middle East and now North Korea) but more so because of the fragility of the world economic systems in the form of high government debt levels, financial companies that still have remnants of high liability contracts on their balance sheets, and constant news about government bailouts in the EU.  This has put companies in the position where they don't want to have to lay people off like they did two years ago so they're hording cash and freezing hiring.  Until the anxiety in the marketplace is addressed there will be no significant increases in hiring.

The second reason the unemployment rate is stubbornly high is that people don't want to take jobs that are "beneath" them if they can continue to collect unemployment.  Add to that the fact that there is no clear end date for collecting unemployment and because of this people are banking on the hope that they can continue to collect unemployment checks indefinitely, or until the economy picks up and they get their old jobs back.  This high level of unemployment has been affecting State budgets because they're not collecting as much income tax.  This only compounds the problem of businesses not feeling comfortable outlaying money because news keeps coming in about states' financial difficulties, along with other world news.

It's a loop.  And the only way to stop a loop is to take one piece out of the loop.  My recommendation would be give people who've been receiving unemployment checks past the terms laid out in their policy two months lead time before cutting off their unemployment checks entirely.  This should be enough time for people to make financial, housing, and employment arrangements so they can downsize and move back into the work force.

Regarding the tax cuts.  The country is in bad shape financially and it should be our top priority to improve the stability of our Federal and State budgets by lowering their debt levels.  If another significant economic event should occur like the one that did two years ago I don't feel confident every state can meet its financial obligations.  Not only that, the Federal Government will be somewhat hamstrung to help as it too is dealing with a debt level that's high.

What President Obama is concerned about, as best as I can tell, is a situation like the one that occurred in Japan in 1998 when their economy was in recession.   Taxes were down so the prime minister at the time decided to try to decrease the government's revenue shortfall by increasing the consumption tax.  Bad move, people just stopped buying.  And Japan is a country that thrives on trade.  Needless to say the country descended into an even deeper recession from which it has never fully recovered.

The mistake a lot of people make is to lump consumption taxes in with income taxes.  People don't stop working because of an increased income tax, they just start sending you guys in Washington nasty letters.  ;-)

In my opinion, in order to calm world markets, countries have to start making significant progress in balancing their budgets or else corporate leaders will continue to think what most people think - the way governments are being run is unsustainable.  And they would be right.

If it were me I would not extend the Bush tax cuts in any part and explain to my constituents that in order to lower worry in the market place we're going to have to solid up our government by lowering debt.  This will have a positive affect on world markets in the long run, and that combined with a working plan to calm troubles overseas (The Middle East, and, easier said than done), we will start to see a loosening of business investment and increased hiring.  The additional good news with this plan is, even if the U.S. doesn't have a completely balanced budget down the road many investors in the world will come to to the U.S. with their money if we're more stable than other nations.  A distinct possibility if we focus on raising taxes and cutting government programs in equal measure in the hopes of lowering our national debt and balancing our budget.

Taylor Hayward

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When warmth turns to color layered upon the night’s horizon, so thin in proportion, dark on darker still.  Water waves from light confetti to a mirror determined to capture beauty – lost in the surf down below the sphere of moments, moving in rotation a clock of extra-terrestrial precision.  Boom, a light is gone.

No two men see the same goodbye when our daylight rolls away, and in our minds we neither see nor feel the peak of distance turn into our hours approaching lightfall from a new direction.

And within the eyes that rise and bow upon our worldly wheel a prayer that somehow sunsets will not be lost in worry, the peace of night will rest upon us, and that our sunrise will be our story while we play beneath the light of day.

~Taylor

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After a friend of mine emailed me a video that talks about what would happen if you put your hand in the large hadron collider I wrote a response that I think was interesting enough to share.  It's more about one of the statements ("when the universe was created") in the video than about the broader universe discussion.   Here's my response.

Email from Taylor Hayward 9/25/2010:

I have to say it still bothers me that people bring up "when the universe was created".  It's the "what happened before that" argument that is really more to appease the way the human mind thinks than to understand the way the universe is.

If I showed someone an empty box and ask them when the nothing inside it was created they would think I was mad, or more likely, ponder the question and then be content enough with the "I don't know I don't think it matters" and be able to walk away.  But when you put a stuffed animal in the box and ask when the stuffed animal was created people wouldn't be happy with the answer "it's always been in existence."  That wouldn't make sense to them and they would ponder for longer the questions about its origins.  What does it look like? What's it made of?  Who put it there?  And so forth until they either stopped caring about the answer or came up with some satisfactory answer and then walk away.

The question of when the universe was created isn't a question about the creation of the universe so much as it's a question about why people aren't content with the concept "it's always been here" and that any "beginning" time you assign to its state at a certain time would be more of a punctuation in the way people look at it than anything else.

The stuffed animal is the same as the nothing in the box.  The stuffed animal happens to be made of matter and the nothing isn't but the parts that make up the stuffed animal used to be part of a star which was part of a bigger star which was part of some object traveling through space traveling towards other ones in the middle (or whatever) and so on.  They both have always existed but only their forms have change. And these forms are changed by the fluidity of time, or any other part of the universe you want to talk about.

It took civilized man thousands of years to come up with the representation of 0.  Nothing (zero) existed before that but people just couldn't get their mind around the idea that nothing was something as well.  Even today we don't teach children that clear is a color, that nothing is an object, and so on.  The only reason people needed the representation of nothing in mathematics is to take care of money, or more specifically debt.  We haven't needed to teach kids about clear as a color because there has been no compelling reason to do so.  This goes for teaching about nothing, and so on.

This is an illustration more about human beings need to have the universe fit into how their brain works than anything.  There are some things in the universe that are never going to be easy for people to model in their minds or accept based on how we evolved here on this planet, or what experiences we've had in our own lives.  But if we're able to accept the basic concept of "the universe has always been here" perhaps some amount of obsessiveness can be left behind as we appreciate the universe for what it is while we better understand it through the end of a telescope or the results of the large hadron collider.

Taylor

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On the white steppe salt blew across the land forming swirling patterns on dry bare rock.  Alone in this landscape walked a man named Essenus bleached by the sun with only a staff in his hand and a cloth around his waist.  He was haggard and thin but not old.  His skin still bared pink beneath a thin blond collection of hairs across his arms, and as he walked across the rock shelf he realized he was not moving through the land, he was surveying it.

Across the valley at the base of the farthest cliff there was a man named Xuanwei who worked in a mine digging coal since he was young. He worked with his six brothers and sisters every day, and at night when he got home he would walk by a mirror in the house where they all lived noticing that he could scarcely recognize himself from his siblings in all the soot that was continually on him.  In the soot and in the silence all the brothers and sisters all seemed alike, for they never said a word.

On a day when the sun comes out on the land a river runs between them.

When Essenus was a boy his mother thought the world of him.  He never had a brother or sister and he didn’t have many friends.  His mother was so worried about him getting hurt or leaving her she kept him from playing games with the other children or from becoming “wild” like the boys she remembered in school.  Over time, Essenus went from teacher to teacher and book to book but never felt comfortable playing in the yard with other children.  As the days passed his mother’s fears became his own and he became an unwitting reflection of all the worries his mother carried with her.

Xuanwei came from a large family that valued work and having children.  In order for things to stay at ease everybody had to find their place.  There was regularly food but sometimes only just enough. Occasionally there was yelling and screaming as everyone tried to adjust to some new situation the world would present, but in the end Xuanwei learned that instead of yelling, being quite was often the safest way to be.  He spoke, but he rarely mentioned anything about who he was, and no one seemed to care.

On a day when clouds settle across the homes they’ve built an echo is their only sound.

When Essenus became an adult he moved off into the world by himself. He began in a place that had rich forests and fields filled with crops, but as much as he wanted to be part of this world, people were too complacent here for him to bear.  It was a place where people grew up, had families, and passed away; they didn’t think about other things very often.  To Essenus it seemed like the people never cared to be better than they were.  They were not interested in building fences to keep out wolves or to harden themselves with austere living in preparation for the coldness life can become.  The reality was Essenus didn’t really know how to let go of worry as they did.  All he knew was that desire was something to be controlled and conquered or else its wildness would get him into trouble.  So after a year of staying put in this place he moved on to ever more desolate locations until finally he came across a dry white desert that was predictable in its lack of life.  Only the salt that blew on the surface of the ground ever changed and Essenus waited patiently for that too to disappear.

Since Xuanwei was old enough to carry a bucket he had been working in the coal mine with his family.  As he grew up he would show a talent now and then that no one else in the family possessed.  Quickly his sisters called him a showoff and his brothers would push him around to show him who was boss.  After not so very long he hid what he could do as he trudged to the mine every morning and then back home every night.  As Xuanwei became sadder about not being able express how he felt and who he was he withdrew deeper into the mine day by day until he pushed himself into the farthest tunnel.  It was so tight he could barely move.  He was all alone and after a while he just wanted to forget that other people existed and that anything in the world mattered at all.

On a day when animals move together the sun will begin to rise.

As the last few thin clouds of dust started to blow across the desert ground and off into the horizon Essenus sat watching the distance where the sun was falling nearest.  Then he noticed another person was there, standing like a statue.  His eyes focused and he could make out that it was a woman in a thin white dress that was blowing in the wind.  She stood perfectly still looking towards him.  Essenus was transfixed by her as the white fabric of her dress seemed to be getting thinner by the moment.  He lost track of time and as he watched he noticed sweat forming on the back of his neck and dripping onto the ground below.  As the sweat evaporated on the dry stone only the smallest bit of salt remained replacing the salt that had blown away.  He tried to hide the vision of her from his eyes but she remained in his mind.  He walked over to touch her and when he did she responded by touching him.  Soon they were in embrace with sweat running to the ground in a near stream, all of it turning to salt and blowing across the desert floor.

In the mine’s farthest tunnel with barely any room to move Xuanwei started to drift into the coal dust darkness that was all around him. He sat and pondered old stories from his youth remembering one about a great city where people were happy and no one was ever alone.  He remembered stories about it being close by but he had very few ideas in what direction it might be in.  He thought perhaps the correct passage might be found somewhere near the end of the mine.  When he got their, he started to dig directly in front of himself and then after a while to his right. But every time he dug in just one direction he would only get so far until he nearly strained his arm reaching down a narrow hole trying to dig just a few inches deeper.  Eventually he realized this wouldn’t work so he started to dig in all directions.  A space started to form around him and the progress he made in each direction doubled and then tripled until finally the roof above him started caving in.  He had become very quick and strong with his hours and hours of digging and he was able to avoid the few falling rocks coming from the ceiling.  As the rocks fell the sunlight from above came streaming in to reveal he had not just been digging coal and rock, but also hundreds of tiny bits of gold which had fallen to the floor.

On a day when water finds the sea our memories are carried near to the horizon.

Once Essenus stepped away from the woman whom he'd embraced, he realized that in walking to be near her he could see a forest ever so far off in the distance.  It seemed so long ago since he walked amongst the trees and brushed gnats away from his vision.  He looked at the woman again and realized that even if he stayed with her here in the desert the rock floor would always drift with the salt of their creation.  She spoke kindly to him and he felt safe as they walked together into the valley below, into the forest, and into the trees where they would live, fight, love, and have children, together and for all time.

Xuanwei looked wondrously at all the small pieces of gold on the floor that had fallen their because of his digging.  He picked them up and climbed out of the hole in the ceiling and into the sunlight.  Off in the distance, across a narrow stretch of land, there was a city on the top of a hill.  A building in the middle had a dome on it covered in gold gleaming in the sunlight.  As he walked towards the city he saw a woman across a chasm on another road who was also traveling there. They stood and stared at each other and then continued to walk until they met at a large stone gate.  They pushed the doors open together and entered the city.  They walked up to the top of the tallest building and placed the gold they had found next to all the rest. It shined out into the sky and across the seas.  They then walked back down the stairs and found a home amongst their neighbors. They lived with one another until they passed on - always with a welcome mat in front of their tiny home.

--

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness,
how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything,
except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they
put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In
the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your
good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

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I created some limericks for some friends a few weeks ago, and people seem to be enjoying them.  Here's the complete collection...

There once was a neutrino from space
Who's vacuum allowed it to race
If it hit Niels Bohr's head
He'd be quite far from dead
But he'd not know its speed and its place

Freud was a funky old dude
Who's studies were considered quite lewd
But for those with hysteria
He would surly take care-ya
And turn you to harlot from prude

Some people try merging to one
While others show worship with guns
But the look on man's face
When he see's that his fate
Was time lost not to love or to fun

Some called Sally Snee loose with fire
Full with ruby red lips and desire
When the men came to call
She would murder them all
And light Lucky's at night by the pyre

There's an older and a newer Orleans
They've both found it tough keeping clean
From the whores to the johns
And the French kissing blonds
And the girls with two T's rated teen

From the smoke clouded breath of the fall
To the summer clogged seats on the wall
We would spend half our days
Working wages for Shay’s
If the morning never dropped in at all

~Taylor

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Over the past few months I’ve had problems with field mice coming into my kitchen and creating all sorts of noise at night while eating and spoiling my food.  I did a lot of different tests with different types of foods, traps, and other commercially available pest control devices and after a lot of trial and error I have finally come up with a working solution that has kept the mice away for over two weeks with no signs of them returning.

Mice are interested in your house for two reasons.  One, shelter.  Two, food.  Mice don’t need to move around your living space just to find shelter typically.  Usually they only venture out of the walls when they are looking for food.  Once you deny a troop of mice their food supply they will eventually go away.

At first I tried simple bait traps (figure 1), but because of the quantity of mice and the fact that a group of females have roughly five litters of mice a year, at around six per litter, you’re fighting an uphill battle by trying to eliminate them one at a time.  All it takes is a few successful ventures for them to get food and they will continue to breed in your walls and produce more mice.  I also tried using Decon and other poisons but they were largely untouched as long as the mice had known food sources they were used to eating.

figure 1 - things that didn't work

Mice live roughly half a year.  They prefer warm weather and tall grass, but in the city they will live anywhere that’s free of predators and has a food and water source, as well as warmth in the winter.  Cats are an effective way to get rid of mice but they cost a lot more money and hassle than the solution I came up with.  With a combination of clamp lid storage jars and ultrasound emitters, for about $40 I had a complete solution to keep away the mice permanently.

There is a picture of the kind of mice I was dealing with in figure 2 along with what they eat, and the names and prices of the items I ended up using to get rid of them.

figure 2 - mouse details with effective devices

Figuring out how best to place the emitters takes a little bit of thought. The first mistake I made was to use the devices to eliminate the paths a mouse will travel to move around the apartment.  As it turns out, the mice were unaffected by the noise if they only had to run by it (see figure 3), so putting an emitter in their path would not keep them from using that path again. The emitters are only effective at keeping the mice from stopping in a particular area.

figure 3 - failing to stop mouse movement

Range and “line of sight” is also an important consideration when you’re placing ultrasound emitters.  The effective range of an emitter is around 6 feet. If an object such as a refrigerator or the edge of a cupboard is in the way it will significantly reduce the repellent’s effectiveness in those areas.  The good news is most containers such as trash cans and boxes of food still allow enough sound inside them to keep mice away.

In figures 4 and 5 I have illustrated the differences between poor emitter placement and effective emitter placement.   To do it right, place the emitters within 6 feet of any food source and make sure there is a "line of sight" between the food containers and the device.  For food that is not easily put in the range of the emitters, and it’s food a mouse would eat (refer to figure 1) put it in a jar or in your refrigerator.

figure 4 - poor ultrasound placement

figure 5 - effective ultrasound placement

So, in short, I’m happy with the work I put into understanding how to control mice.  I saved a ton of money over continually buying traps or in buying a cat that needs to be fed and taken care of.  I hope this helps with any future mouse problems you may have.  Let me know if you discover anything in your trials that I can add.

Taylor

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I’ve been having a problem coordinating times with people using just straight email text. It seems like I’m often giving people days and times I’m free but not in a format people find easy to read – especially if there are multiple people trying to coordinate. I tried using Gmail’s public calendar but its format often makes things more confusing to people reading it and the open slots are often not open at all, I just haven’t put what I might be doing in there.

So I created this web app to help me to communicate when I’m available so people can easily pick what time they want to meet up. I would just paste these URLs into an email and the person who receives it would be able to easily pick a time.

Here’s an example. Times I’m available to see a movie next week.
http://taylorhayward.org/timesimfree/i.php?view=4bbca4b751888

Or, times I can talk on the phone.
http://taylorhayward.org/timesimfree/i.php?view=4bbcb1b7213e2

The calendar is always three weeks out and has the current day highlighted. You can reuse the same calendar as much as you like, or create a new one for each event.

Let me know what you think!

Enjoy,
Taylor

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I just created a world map made up of the characters in people’s local languages.  It’s a very large file (3532x1756) composed of over twenty-five fonts, and more than 10,000 characters.  It took about a hundred hours to complete.  I have the intention of upgrading it so it’s a higher grade, screening it on hand made paper, and trying to get in into an art gallery as a print.  Wish me luck.

Here’s the image in gif, and pdf format.

I hope you like it.  It’s a labor of love.

Taylor

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I am very pleased to announce the creation of the very first picture for a young adults book (title pending) I'm working on with a friend, and wonderful illustrator, Jeff Chenette.  The first chapter is already written.  If you've been following this blog, you've already read it.  You can find it here.

It's slated to be a 200 - 300 page book (but things change) about 12 children who are trying to find a life together in difficult, and wonderful, times.

Here's a link to Jeff's portfolio.  I'm really happy to be working with him.

The first illustration is of one of the three main (adult) characters in the first chapter...

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Battle of Heros by John Williams

Han Solo, Chewbacca, and the three mercenaries head to the center of town on foot.  While they walk, Dess, the mercenary they first met, and who is the speaker for the band of hired guns, asks the details of what they’re trying to find.  Han says it’s a large laser, like the one that was used in the old Death Star that was destroyed years ago.  Dess asks why they’re trying to find it, and Han explains that it’s going to blow the planet up.  Suyo, the thin gray female mercenary looks up and says, “So this could be a real short trip.”  Han says, "Yes".  Jenj tells Han that a lot of money has been coming out of some areas near the garbage dump - more than usual.  Jenj, says, no reason for that unless people have started to throw away imperial jewels.  Han stops and asked, “Where is that?”  Jenj says, over by the incinerator.  Han then asks Chewbacca if the incinerator is hot enough to hide a 200 foot running laser.  Chewbacca roars, and the two take off.  Han yells back at the rest of the party, and tells them to hurry up.  They all speed up, as the silent hooded mercenary darts through the shadows ahead.

On the Millennium Falcon Leia is landing the craft on a large landing pad floating in space on the fringe of the Coruscant star system.  Hundreds of rag tag rebel ships are on or floating above the pad.  In the middle of the landing pad is a large control building that has a flight tower coming out of its top.  Just as the Millennium Falcon lands, thirteen Imperial fighter ships come out of hyperspace over the platform and start firing on the docked ships.  Leia’s landing gear opens and she starts to get out of the craft and run across the landing dock just as the blasts begin.  Across the landing area, Lando Calrissian running toward her.  She asks him what he’s doing there, and he says, shouldn’t we wait until the Empire stops for a lunch break.  They both run inside the Millennium Falcon and they prepare for takeoff.  As they do, Empire vessels shoot on their own ships as they skim the top of the landing area.  Their hit ships skid across the landing strip and take out ten or twenty ships each.  The rest of the Empire vessels scatter so they don’t suffer the same fate.  Just then the bulk of the Empire ships jump back into hyperspace and head towards the new Death Star.  The Millennium Falcon and hundreds of other small vessels jump to hyperspace after them, as the capital rebel ships lag behind.

Darth Vader continues to walk through the lab where he became half mechanized looking at the rooms remembering his earlier life.  He then looks down at his left glove, takes it off, and looks at his robotic hand, blackened by time.  He then stares at a glass wall and takes off his helmet as he looks at his own reflection.  He finds it hard to breath and then he goes down on one knee and starts to slowly take off his left boot.

Just then Luke comes into the doorway.  Vader is startled, raises his right arm up towards Luke, and pins him to the hallway wall using the force.  Vader asks what Luke is doing there.  Luke struggles to speak and Vader, still on one knee, lets Luke down.  Luke puts his hand to his now free neck and says he came to find his father, and it looks like he has.  Vader slowly gets up and walks to a corner of the room.  He then tells Luke that the difficulty was not in him becoming his father again, the difficulty was in carrying the burden of all he had done.  He goes on to says that, while he had his robe, his helmet, his gloves on, there was no burden – that he was a machine that never found rest.  He was neither living nor dead.  But with his mask off, the burden of debt weighs heavy upon him, and he’s not sure he will be able to continue.  Luke goes to put his hand on Vader’s shoulder, and Vader lowers his head, and then extends his right hand and uses the force to throw Luke across the room again.  Vader then uses his left hand to open the door in the back of the room.  The door opens, and Vader swiftly goes through, slightly limping and missing half of his armor.  Luke chases after him, but by the time he gets to the door, it’s already closed and locked.

Back on the new Death Star, Emperor Palpatine is talking to his guards when outside his observation windows, off in the distance, there is a large blip of activity.  He asks to be left alone as he brings up his large display screen.  Just then another group of ships blips in from the right.  A large group of Empire ships depart the Death Star to meet them while the Emperor starts giving orders on how to engage.

More ships comes, and a host of fights ensue across the expanse of space.  Both sides are taking heavy losses, while the Emperor continues to dictate orders from his large observation deck, he then turns to an imperial guard and orders him to initiate the firing sequence for the Fail Safe Laser on Coruscant.  The guard bows, and then leaves the room.

Han Solo, Chewbacca, and the three mercenaries arrive near the edge of a large landing area next to the incinerator complex.  Han asks Jenj where his weapons are, and he says, “weapons are too expensive” as he smiles and them puts his hands out in front of him.  Off in the distance, right by the entrance to the incinerator building, Vader’s transport ship starts to move up and to the right of the building as Jenj continues to focus his concentration on it.  Han exclaims, “You’re a Jedi!”, and the female mercenary, Suyo, takes out two red dagger-length light sabers, lights them up, and says, “We all are.”

Across the city, Vader gets into his speeder and starts heading back to the incinerator.  Just as he gets into the speeder, the ground begins to shake.  Vader is quickly looks around and then takes off.  Luke comes out of the lab just as Vader flies off, he runs into the cockpit of his shuttle and chases after his father.

On the outskirts of the battle raging on everywhere in the space surrounding the Death Star, Leah, Lando, C3P0, and R2D2 are planning their attack in the Millennium Falcon.  Just as they are about to engage their plan, a message comes though the comm screen.  General Janson of the Third Rebel Fleet, asks her if she will escort a group of droid ships to the middle of the battle, near the Death Stars main hanger.  She asks what they’ll be used for, they’ve never been reliable.  The General says that it appears that the Emperor himself is giving orders to the fleets, and that it's his thinking that an overwhelming set of random flight patterns may overwhelm his primary command structure.  Leah says, “That’s risky” and Lando says, “It beats shooting womp rats on Tatooine.”  Leah smiles, “Sounds good.”

Lando rushes to the main control room, while Leah runs to the closest laser turret.  R2D2 wheels right after Lando in excitement, while C3P0 voices his disapproval of how droids are always cleaning up after other people’s messes.

Just then a large rebel hanger ship moves up next to the Millennium Falcon and the Falcon moves into position to intercept any ships that come near it.  The hanger ship moves closer and closer to the Death Star as the Millennium Falcon dodges and weaves through hundreds of ships engaged in combat around it.  Leah is firing her guns at an attack ship, when all of a sudden her turret is hit.  Lando asks if she’s alright, and she yells back "fine", but her gun is down and she’ll need to use his.  Lando says, “But you’ll have to be right next to my chair.” and she says, “I’m going to sit in your lap. --- And if you even so much as look at me, I'll put R2 in command and throw you out the space port.”  Lando nervously says, “Agreed.”

On the edge of the incinerator's landing area, Dess continues to move the imperial shuttle out of the way while Han, Chewbacca, Suyo, and the gray cloaked mercenary, Poth Gohajanier, watch on.  Just as Dess clears the main doorway of the ship, two imperial guards come running out the main entrance.  As soon as Suyo sees the imperial guards her eyes light up says, “You didn’t say we were going to be fighting imperial guards.” And before Han Solo can respond she and Poth run directly at the guards.  As he runs, two pale blue light-sabers extent from his hands.  Jenj turns to Han and says, “ Suyo lost the man she left to become a Jedi to the Empire, Poth lost his family.  He doesn’t talk a lot, but I think you’ll like his work.” Han says, “Great.”  And then he and Chewbacca take out their blasters and start firing.

Suyo speeds across the landing pad and jumps four stories up onto the closest outside wall of the building.  Poth races up to the two waiting guards, stops, and waits for them to come closer.  The guards inch closer as they deflect Han and Chewbacca’s laser fire with their staffs.  Just when the guards are close enough, Poth engages them both in battle.

Behind them Suyo is sliding down the outside of the building with her light-daggers embedded in the metal sheeting, slowing her fall.  Once she gets within two floors of the guards she jumps towards one of them and rolls behind him.  She slices the back of his leg and he gets distracted, but still manages to avoid Poth's blows.  Just then the other guard lunges at Suyo, but Poth gets in his way taking a horrible blow to the shoulder.  The guard Suyo injured then tries to lunge at Poth, but Suyo stops him in a headlock and drives one of her light-daggers into his side.  Poth then hits the other guard in the neck just as the guard jams his staff through Poth's gut.  Three of them collapse and Suyo rushes to Poth aid.

Off in the distance Vader and Luke’s ships fly behind the incinerator complex.  Vader gets out of his ship and rushes into the building right next to a large pit with a huge laser suspended above it as it fires a huge beam directly into a hole in the planet.  Vader looks over the guardrail and then turns around to see Luke racing towards him.  Vader looks back at the hole and then jumps up into the bowels of the lasers ducts and tubes.  Luke yells, “Wait!” but it’s too late.  Luke follows around the edge of the pit looking up into the laser’s housing, watching Vader take out his light-saber and hacking at every support and tube.  Slowly the laser begins to creek and shift weight.  Vader keeps slicing at the support beams while Luke watches on, dodging sparks and falling parts.  Finally the laser starts to fall from the high ceiling and into the pit with Vader continuing to hack at it.  Luke dodges away from a large beam just as the laser goes into the pit.  Luke runs to the side to watch the laser burst apart as it continues to fall, as Vader clings to the side of the pit, badly wounded.  Vader then looks up at Luke as Luke looks down, and Vader then takes his still lit light-saber, plants it into the side of the hole, and raises his hand to his son to say goodbye.  Just then, more debris falls onto of Vader, he struggles to hang on, but then lets go as he falls into the hole with the exploding laser.  Luke can’t watch, and then falls to the floor as the blast erupts throughout the top of the complex.

Back on the Millennium Falcon, Lando continues to fly the ship while Leah, sitting on his lap, continues to fire at enemy ships.  In the Death Star, Emperor Palpatine is barking orders as large sections of his Death Star explode.  Just then, a imperial general comes into the badly shaking room and informs Palpatine that the Fail Safe Laser has fallen into the center of Coruscant, and that the planet has not been destroyed.  Palpatine whipers, “Nooo.” and then quickly gets back to barking orders to the attacks ships by the Death Star with even greater fervor.

Back on the Millennium Falcon, Leah says, “They’re about to release the droids.”  Just then the large ship to their right opens its main hanger doors and thousands of make shift droid ships burst out into space.  R2D2 is watching and goes, “Oooooo.”

The droid ships bump into each other, and many are immediately destroyed.  The ones that are left fly in all directions.  Some head to the Death Star, and to the window of Palpatine’s command deck.  Palpatine watches as droids smash their hulls into his windows.  Some get embedded into the side of the Death Star and try to clime out.  Palpatine is barking so many orders Empire ships start to collide into each other.  The rebels seize the opportunity, and start to fight back.  After several minutes of battle, the Death Star starts to break apart in large chucks.  As they drift out into space, they start to blink, and then become totally dark.  The Emperor is compelled to leave, but upon his entrance to the main escape hanger, hundreds of droid ships start to overwhelm the deck personnel.  The Emperor tries to keep them at bay, but eventually a droid shoots up into a fuel tank, and everybody is destroyed.

As the Death Star falls to darkness, breaking apart in space, Leah, Lando, 3CP0, and R2D2 start to cheer.  The rebels have won.

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Star Wars – Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Act 4

Han and Chewbacca enter a cantina in a dark, run down part of Coruscant’s capital city.  The cantina is gray, and there are few people at the tables, and at the bar.  Han walks up to the closest man sitting at the bar and asks him if he knows of any people stupid enough to fight the Empire.  The patron laughs and tells Han to mind his own business.  Han nods to Chewbacca, and Chewbacca steps outside the front door and watches the street.  Han turns back to the patron and says Chewbacca just lost his sister, and since Chewbacca is an old prison buddy, it’s kind of like he also lost a sister.  He goes on to say that his Galactic Standard is pretty good, but Chewbacca’s isn’t so great, and that it would be horrible if he misunderstood what you and I’ve been talking about.  The patron leans back and looks at Chewbacca, and then looks at Han and says to go down to the Dark March section of town.  There you’ll find people too good at beating the system to die, and who’ve lost too much to care.  Han thanks him, drinks the rest of his beer, pats him on the back, and leaves.

Once Han and Chewbacca arrive at the Dark March, they quickly realize it’s a retirement outpost for old soldiers.  Han walks up to a slightly overweight man at a table on the side of the street drinking and counting coins on a string around his neck with his feet up.  Han walks up to him and asks how the exchange rate is now-in-days.  “He says, I get paid in gold, she gets paid blood.” He points to a thin, gray skinned woman across the alley.  Then the man points behind himself and says, “He just likes to get out of the house.”  The man he’s pointing to is sitting in a chair staring at the ground with a long dusty hooded robe on.  The thin gray woman the man was pointing earlier comes out from the allay across the street and walks just next to Han.  The hooded man in back doesn’t move.  Han asks if their services are for hire.  The mercenary asks if Han has any particular problem with the methods they may choose to use, and Han says since it’s the Empire he’s dealing with, he would prefer it if they didn’t get the Storm Troopers uniforms dirty.  They all laugh, and the mercenary says, “2,000 credits, now how can I help you.”

Back on the Millennium Falcon, Leia, C3P0, and R2D2 are still waiting on a landing dock for Han and Chewbacca to get back.  While Leia waits, she gets a distress call from the Rebel Alliance telling her they need every ship they can get, and that rebel ships are already taking damage as they head to the new Death Star.  Leia says she’s on Coruscant waiting for Han and Chewbacca to get back from their mission.  The Rebel Leader says they can handle themselves and that she and her crew need to get to Outpost 1 on the fringe of the Coruscant solar system and wait for reinforcements there.  Leia sends a message to Han saying she’s got to go and fight.  Han says, “I love you.”  Leia says, “I know.”

Darth Vader arrives at the front door of a large building near the Imperial senate.  Over the front door of the building on a small sign it says, Kultarus Labs.  Vader gets out of the speeder, puts out his hand in front of him, and the door opens.  He walks in and the door closes behind him.  Once inside he finds the lab where he was outfitted with his robotics, his helmet, and his cloak.  The lab appears abandoned.  Vader walks across the room to a desk in the corner and picks up a small photo of Padme, his wife who died in childbirth years ago.  He looks back at the lab and reflects on what he has become.

In the Dagobah star system Luke gets in his ship and takes off from the planet.  As he launches from the planet’s surface he gets a message that was left for him by Leia saying they are on Coruscant working on a mission for the Rebel Alliance.  Luke sets his course to Coruscant and arrives in the atmosphere above the planet.  As he descends to the surface he gets a feeling that his father is there.  Luke slows his decent and then changes course to the Senate building.  He lands on a landing pad on the fringe of the Senate tower and walks to the rear of the building Vader is in.

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Star Wars – Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Act 3

In the Dagobah star system, Luke is sitting with Yoda and discussing the rest of Luke’s training.   Yoda says, you have learned how to kill, but you have not learned when to kill.  He brings up Luke’s temptation to kill Jaba the Hutt in his sleep even though it would not have helped his mission at that time.

He goes on to say, what you do in the dark of night, for yourself, there is no life in that.  Do not let desire sway your reason.  In good times rely on your heart, in dark times, rely on your laws.  Vader did not know this, and while he though he was helping your mother, he was only creating death.

Luke looks to the ground and thinks about what he has learned.  Yoda then says, it’s time to go.  Luke looks up, and Yoda walks into his bedroom, puts down his cane, and falls asleep.  A few moments later he is gone.

Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, C3P0, and R2D2 are on the Millennium Falcon heading to rendezvous with a leader of the Rebel Alliance who would like to have Leia accompany him to a speech for the rebels.  While on route, they receive a message from the Rebel Leader saying there is a rebel attack eminent on a new super fortress The Empire is constructing in an outlying region of the Coruscant star system.   He then goes on to say, there is a link to a fail safe device the Empire may detonate somewhere on the surface of the capitol planet, Coruscant, if their super fortress is attacked.  Leia asks what kind of fortress is being made, and the rebel general said that it’s unclear, but, they have obtained some very old plans for the fail safe device Han and Leia need to find, and that they are going to transmit them to the Millennium Falcon immediately.

The Millennium Falcon receives the transmission, and then heads to Coruscant.

Once at Coruscant, the Millennium Falcon starts descending to a platform near the heart of the capitol city.  On the way down, they run a scan for anything that might resemble the Fail Safe Laser.  After R2D2 gets a closer look at the old designs, he realizes it’s very similar to the laser used in the Death Star that was destroyed by the Rebels years ago. They quickly realize what they’re up against, and they make a hurried plan to get off the ship and find some help.  Han Solo asks a protocol droid on the landing platform where the closest cantina is, the droid tells him several options, then Chewbacca and Han head out.  Leia is left behind with the droids, still annoyed about Han’s jealousy towards Lando Calrissian.

On the far side of the Capitol City, Vader and two Imperial Guards land on Coruscant behind a large building next to a trash depot.  The shuttle extends its landing gear, then Vader and the two guards get out.  They cross the landing pad, and enter the building.  Once inside the building, Vader orders the men to secure the area.  Vader then walks through the central hallway by himself, and ends up in a large hanger at the back of the facility. By the hanger door, there is a land speeder with a driver waiting for him.  The top is up and the windows are dark.  Vader gets in and tells the driver to head to the old Kultarus Labs.  The hanger door raises, and the speeder takes off across the city.

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