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As we approach the patronal feast day of the United States, it's the perfect time to mention a beautiful devotion to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. The Corona of the Immaculate Conception is a chaplet composed by a Jesuit priest who was one of North America's great explorers: Father Jacques Marquette. Unfortunately, the Corona is not very well known. There's another, better known devotion called the "Chaplet of the Immaculate Conception" written by St. John Berchmanns. But in terms of authorship and historical context, Marquette's Corona has a special significance for Americans and Canadians. Let's set the stage with...

On the same day that House Speaker John Boehner told Republicans to "Get your asses in line" and support his debt ceiling proposal, Sen. John McCain also blasted fellow Republicans. In a Senate floor speech laced with sarcasm and stings, the Arizona Republican aimed especially harsh fire at the tea party Wednesday. McCain said the movement is "foolish" to think a balanced budget amendment could pass before the August 2 deadline. At one point, McCain read from an op-ed in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal. That article referred to activists as "tea party hobbits" – the little people who inhabit Middle-earth...

CORONAL HOLE: A dark croissant-shaped hole has opened up in the sun's atmosphere, and it is spewing a stream of solar wind into space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took this picture of the vast opening during the early hours of Jan. 30th: Researchers call this a "coronal hole." Solar rotation is turning the coronal hole toward Earth. The stream of solar wind pouring from it will swing around and hit our planet in early February, possibly sparking polar magnetic storms. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras between Feb. 2nd and 4th.

A tanker truck overturned and exploded Friday on the eastbound Riverside (91) Freeway near the Corona (71) Expressway, shooting flames 100 feet into the air and resulting freeway closures at the start of the holiday weekend. Freeway at 71 Expressway The crash occurred at about 10:30 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. No injuries were reported. The CHP has closed both sides of the Riverside (91) Freeway. The eastbound side is closed at Green River Road, and the westbound side is closed at the Corona (71) Expressway. The southbound 71 is closed at Euclid Avenue in Chino Hills.

Illegal immigration, especially from Mexico is once again a huge issue in the United States. It is an issue that could provoke violence from both sides and has the potential to cause major social disruption if President Barack Obama presses forward with plans to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants this year. Like most radical social movements in the United States, the "immigrant rights" was initiated (and is maintained) by communist and socialist forces. Communist Party and Democratic Socialists of America member David Bacon is a leading immigration rights activist. He made an interesting admission in an article published...

Two people were injured in a Sunday afternoon shooting that happened outside a Cinco de Mayo celebration. Two groups of juveniles exchanged gunfire in the area of Lake Street and 5th Avenue, according to Minneapolis Police Sgt. Bill Palmer. Authorities say the incident was gang-related. One teen was shot in the chest and taken to Hennepin County Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. Another teen was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries after being shot in the foot and the leg. Police have one person in custody in connection with the incident, which happened near a Cinco de Mayo celebration. They have...

Unbelieveably beautiful.The Big Corona Credit & Copyright: Koen van Gorp

LONDON: Scientists have detected vast turbulent waves in the sun's lower atmosphere that at a time spew the energy equivalent of 10 billion nuclear warheads. Queen's University Belfast (QUB) scientists with researchers from the Universities of Sheffield and California State, have shed some light on why the corona, the region around the sun, has a much higher temperature than its surface - something of a puzzle to scientists. Their discovery has revealed the existence of a new breed of solar waves, called the Alfven wave, known to transport energy into the corona. The surface of the sun, known as the...

HEAT WAVEThe Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope captured this image of an approximately 8,000 kilometer by 8,000 km region on the sun’s surface. Scientists observed Alfvén waves oscillating from the bright spot near the middle of the image, a highly magnetized area.D. JessMagnetic waves theorized to transfer heat from the surface of the sun to its atmosphere have been directly observed for the first time, researchers report in the March 20 Science. Astrophysicists have long puzzled over why the sun’s atmosphere is millions of degrees hotter than the surface of the sun itself. “It’s counterintuitive — when you hold your...

Extremists are threatening an environmental disaster by sparking a series of catastrophic wild fires. We first posted on this last year. Western intelligence agencies fear that Al Qaeda terrorists are planning a “global fireball” in a new departure in its war on the West. Deliberately lighting forest blazes in Europe, the US and Australia would not only stretch emergency services but leave insurance companies facing multi-billion pound damage bills as the credit crunch bites. The fires would also create a pollution disaster, with billions tons of climate change gases escaping into the atmosphere. The so-called “forest jihad” is being championed...

ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2008) — Engineers harnessing the same physical property that drives silent household air purifiers have created a miniaturized device that is now ready for testing as a silent, ultra-thin, low-power and low maintenance cooling system for laptop computers and other electronic devices. The compact, solid-state fan, developed with support from NSF's Small Business Innovation Research program, is the most powerful and energy efficient fan of its size. It produces three times the flow rate of a typical small mechanical fan and is one-fourth the size. Dan Schlitz and Vishal Singhal of Thorrn Micro Technologies, Inc., of Marietta,...

Bodies Fall Out of Sky As Planes Collide 'There Were Bodies Falling Out of the Sky' -- at Least 5 Dead As Planes Collide Over California\ CORONA, Calif. Jan 21, 2008 (AP) The two small Cessnas crashed at 3:35 p.m. Sunday near the small Corona Municipal Airport, just north of the Riverside Freeway, authorities said. Two people were killed from each plane, and a fifth was killed inside a Chevy dealership hit by wreckage, said Wayne Pollack of the National Transportation Safety Board. "There were bodies falling out of the sky," eyewitness Hector Hernandez told KCBS-TV. "One of them crashed...

Two private planes flying about a mile from an airport collided Sunday, killing at least four people and raining debris down on car dealerships below, authorities said. The small Cessnas collided at 3:35 p.m. near the small Corona Municipal airport and a freeway in Riverside County, about 45 miles southeast of Los Angeles, FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said. Three of the dead were from the planes and the fourth was in a car hit by debris on the ground, Kenitzer said. Debris fell on car dealerships, and television pictures showed that the smashed fuselage of one of the planes landed...

I like beer. Do you? Read on...

A judge dismissed an indecent exposure charge against a woman accused of disrobing in front of a 14-year-old boy, saying the law only applies to men. Superior Court Judge Robert W. Armstrong said earlier in the week that the law only mentions someone who "exposes his person." "It's gender specific," Armstrong said. He dismissed a misdemeanor charge against Alexis Luz Garcia, 40, of Corona, who was cited in May after parents of a neighbor boy said she showed him full-frontal nudity as he played basketball. Prosecutor Alison N. Norton said the decision to throw out the case will be appealed...

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said Thursday that the Bush administration is against proposals to build a wall along the United States' entire southern border. "The president is aware of the concerns of critics who would like to build a wall around the United States," Garza told a small group of foreign correspondents. "As the former governor of Texas, he knows that such proposals are both unrealistic and undesirable." Some lawmakers have proposed building a wall from California to the Gulf of Mexico to stop the millions of undocumented workers who sneak over the border with Mexico. Garza said...

Forget about temporary status for undocumented immigrants, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said - let them stay here permanently and legally.While it isn't the first time Bloomberg has urged leniency for about 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, he issued his strongest call yet recently."Give them some kind of permanent green card," he said at a meeting at the Carib News, a Manhattan weekly newspaper serving the Caribbean-American community.In an article in the paper's June 21 edition, Bloomberg told the gathering of community leaders he wouldn't go as far as granting citizenship, but called for illegal immigrants to be granted...

Riverside County sheriff's officials are investigating why deputies failed to find the body of a UC Irvine student near the spot where his car crashed into a ditch outside Norco on Sunday morning. His parents found the body, more than 10 hours after deputies left the scene. "The sheriff is going to conduct a comprehensive review of the entire incident to look at all the actions that were taken," said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Earl Quinata. "We are dealing with the loss of a loved one here, and we want to make sure we do everything to correct for any future...

Mexican Elite Fetes Marriage of U.S. Envoy, Heiress By Noel Randewich MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's rich and famous celebrated the high society marriage of a charismatic U.S. ambassador to a beer baroness with a fortune worth $1.5 billion on Saturday in a lavish but very private party. Bride Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala and groom U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza invited 400 friends to a lakeside resort town for a wedding, billed as Mexico's society event of the year. Guests invited to the glamorous couple's party near Mexico City included U.S. first lady Laura Bush, Texas Governor Rick Perry and Mexican telecommunications...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted on Sat, Feb. 05, 2005 U.S. ambassador, Mexican heiress to wed BY LENNOX SAMUELS The Dallas Morning News MEXICO CITY - (KRT) - It could qualify as the raw material for one of those romantic movies starring J. Lo and one of her leading men, say Ralph Fiennes or Richard Gere or, dare we say, Ben Affleck. A highly eligible American expatriate is smitten with a citizen of the country where he's based, after meeting the glamorous divorcee at a power dinner. Business and diplomacy postpone the onset of romance, because, well, he's the U.S. ambassador and she's...

MEXICO CITY -- U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza is engaged to marry Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala -- Mexico's richest woman -- an embassy official said Sunday. Garza, a second-generation American whose four grandparents were from Mexico, was appointed ambassador in 2002 by U.S. President George W. Bush.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Seepage through a dam had stopped Saturday but most residents of Corona remained out of their homes in a voluntary, precautionary evacuation. Although a mandatory evacuation was canceled, people were being urged to stay away from homes and a mobile home park until Monday afternoon while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released millions of gallons of water --- snip

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 September 25 The Iron Sun Credit: SOHO - EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA Explanation: The ultraviolet light emitted by eleven times ionized iron at temperatures over 2 million degrees Fahrenheit was used to record the above picture of the Sun on September 22, 2001, the date of that year's autumnal equinox. The image was made by the EIT camera onboard the SOHO spacecraft, a space observatory which can...

The head of a Washington, DC based media watchdog group is asking that advertisers demand to preview a planned CBS mini series on former President Ronald Reagan before sponsoring the program. Media Reasearch Center President L. Brent Bozell Tuesday sent a letter to each of the nations top 100 advertisers urging them to preview the movie before making a sponsorship decision because it is what Bozell called 'a partisan attack against one of Americas most beloved Presidents.'A review of the script by New York Times writer Jim Reutenberg noted the two part mini series, scheduled for later this month, makes...

Text below reproduces what is found on linked site; linked site has featured image of MAJOR sunspot group. Forecasters at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., observed two dynamic areas of the sun, one of which has produced a coronal mass ejection, or CME, Wednesday morning at 3 a.m. EDT that appears to be Earth-directed. The forecasters are predicting a strong geomagnetic storm, G-3 on the NOAA Space Weather Scales, that should reach Earth on Friday, October 24. (Click here to view larger image from the SOHO spacecraft of the intense solar activity on the sun taken Oct....

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 March 18 Coronal Holes on the Sun Credit: SOHO - EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA Explanation: The ominous, dark shapes haunting the left side of the Sun are coronal holes -- low density regions extending above the surface where the solar magnetic field opens freely into interplanetary space. Studied extensively from space since the 1960s in ultraviolet and x-ray light, coronal holes are known to be the source...

This is a pretty serious theft, and yet I haven't seen or heard a thing about it. Happened in Corona, CA. Article here:

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 December 13 The Crown of the SunCredit & Copyright: (C2002) Wendy Carlos & Jonathan Kern (all rights reserved) Explanation: During a total solar eclipse, the Sun's extensive outer atmosphere or corona is an awesome and inspirational sight. Yet the subtle shades and shimmering features of the corona that engage the eye span a brightness range of over 10,000 to 1, making them notoriously difficult to capture in...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 December 6 Zimbabwe Solar Eclipse Credit & Copyright: Murray Alexander Explanation: Normally hiding from view in the glare of the Sun, the shy solar corona came out to play Wednesday as a total solar eclipse graced morning skies over southern Africa. This telescopic image of the Sun's corona or outer atmosphere shimmering around the silhouetted Moon was recorded near the centreline of the total eclipse path, 10...

At the height of the Cold War, U.S. spy satellites were busy looking for those "Kodak instant moments" on a global basis.Now decades later, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) are spring-loaded to soon make available thousands of once secret spysat snapshots. Be it the Severodinsk Shipyard in the USSR, the cities of Hanoi and Beijing, or the Aswan Dam in Egypt - these and other localities were framed repeatedly by U.S. snooping satellites for intelligence-gathering purposes. Images The High-flying Keyhole-7 spacecraft provided the U.S. intelligence...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 March 21 S is for Sun Credit: SOHO - EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA Explanation: Taken yesterday from the SOHO spacecraft, this false-color image shows the active Sun near the March Equinox, the beginning of Fall in the south and Spring in the northern hemisphere. Recorded in a band of extreme ultraviolet light emitted by highly ionized iron atoms, the Sun's upper atmosphere or solar corona shines with...