Ants are in our every day lives, there are billions and billions of ants throughout the world. But what you may not have known is that there are also various different types of ants. Whether you love them or hate them ants can become very bothersome, especially when they are in your kitchen and your bedroom.

Some ants may be easy to eliminate depending on there type. We will now take a close look at the various different types of these creatures.

Ants can very much range in size from a tiny 2 millimetres to a massive 25 millimetres. There colours usually vary from black, red and brown. The most advanced ant would be the Army ants which can mostly be found in South America. These ants do not need or have permanent nesting grounds; they can reproduce in an instant by two unique methods which are fission and nuptial flights.

Next we have the leafcutter ants which only can live within there colony, as they need to survive and feed on fungus. These ants if removed from there colonies will end up slowly dying. There are also ants that create there nests in trees by pulling leaves together and getting the team of workers to press the silk off of the leaves to create a sticky larvae, these ants are know as weaver ants and are very efficient.

The great and tasty honey pot ants are a unique delicacy in some countries, they survive in hot, warm and dry places such as Northern America, Turkey and Asia.

Previously mentioning the friendly ants, we will now take a look at some very dangerous forms of these creatures, although ants are small, the fact is that they can be deadly to both humans and animals. The most lethal ant in my opinion would be the fire ants; these ants are very dangerous and have a sac of poison that is filled with piperidine alkaloids. When stung the venom causes stinging and swells to cause a lump, which can potentially become very infected.

The queen fire ants is the largest individual in the colony and she may survive for up to 7 years and produce around 1,500 eggs each and every day, which equals to 38,325,00 eggs in a lifetime. As you can see they have tremendous growth.

Finally you should take every precaution to prevent ants from getting in your home. As you may think they are harmless small and innocent creatures, but without having a close and careful look, you will not know which specie you have let nest in the warmth of your house.

The Proposed Legislation, Senate Bill S. 852, in Washington, D.C., is under-funded, unfair, unworkable and unconstitutional.

While legislation proposed in Washington, D.C., by Pennsylvania Senator, Arlen Specter, on its face seems to allay many issues regarding litigation over asbestos-related disease, the Asbestos Bill actually raises impossible hurdles for victims and bails out politically well-connected corporations.

Senator Specter acknowledges that he can’t pass a ‘perfect’ bill, but offers little solace to the mesothelioma victims who’ll die before they see any help from the fundamentally flawed asbestos bailout bill approved by the Judiciary Committee.

Every major asbestos victims’ organization opposes this bill, while being supported by the corporate defendants who knowingly poisoned their workers and the public with asbestos and would receive billions of dollars in liability relief.

A few of the fundamental problems with the fund include:

Our Milky Way Galaxy is only one of billions of other galaxies in the Universe. Nevertheless, it is very precious to us because it is our planet’s home–and when we stare up at the night sky, far away from the lights of a city, we can observe it as a starlit smile from horizon to horizon, telling us that we are a small, but special, part of something immense, majestic, and mighty. Long before our Sun and its retinue of planets, moons, and smaller objects were born, our Galaxy had to form in the mysterious primordial swath of Space that emerged in the wild exponential inflation of the Big Bang almost 14 billion years ago. But, how did our Milky Way form, long before our Sun was here, before our Earth was here, and before observers were around to witness this magnificent beginning? In March 2017, astronomers announced that by observing the early stages of Milky Way-like galaxies inhabiting the distant, ancient Universe, they were able to peer back in Time, to discover how our Galaxy formed long, long ago.

For decades, astronomers have discovered remote galaxies in the ancient Universe by spotting the characteristic way their gas absorbs light traveling out from a bright background quasar. However, efforts to detect the light emitted by these same ancient galaxies have mostly met with failure. Now, a team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, has observed emissions from a duo of distant galaxies first discovered by their quasar absorption signatures–and the results were not what they had expected.

First, the emissions caused by star-birth within the distant galaxies were separated by a surprisingly great distance from the dense gas revealed by the background, tattle-tale quasar absorption. This indicated that the ancient galaxies are embedded in an extended halo of hydrogen gas. The estimated stellar birth rates were also surprisingly high.

“We had expected we would see faint emissions right on top of the quasar, and instead we saw bright galaxies at large separations from the quasar,” explained Dr. J. Xavier Prochaska in a March 23, 2017 University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) Press Release. Dr. Prochaska is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC, and coauthor of a paper describing the new findings published in the March 24, 2017 issue of the journal Science.

Quasars are exceptionally bright active galactic nuclei (AGN) that are the swirling accretion disks surrounding supermassive black holes in the early Universe. As unfortunate material–shredded stars, perhaps, or clouds of doomed gas–tumble down into the waiting maw of the supermassive beast, destined to become its dinner–the material becomes hotter, and hotter, and hotter, as well as brighter, and brighter, and brighter. Supermassive black holes dwell in the secretive hearts of perhaps every large galaxy in the Universe–including our own Milky Way–and they sport masses of millions to billions of suns. In our Galaxy’s early youth, it’s resident supermassive black hole may have been surrounded by a brilliantly glaring quasar, hurling its powerful and intense light out into the space between galaxies.

A Starlit Spiral In Space

Our Milky Way Galaxy hosts about two hundred billion stars, as well as an untold number of other objects. When observed with binoculars on a clear, dark night, it is a breathtaking sight, with literally thousands of stars doing a sparkling and mesmerizing dance in Space in each field of view.

Our Galaxy has been studied extensively by astronomers, and currently our ideas about its nature are built upon a more solid foundation than when our ancient ancestors created lovely myths and stories to explain this celestial starlit band’s existence.

Before our Milky Way formed, the Cosmos was brimming with mostly hydrogen gas–as well as smaller amounts of helium. The gas was ultimately converted into blazing stars, their retinues of planets, and conscious beings, such as ourselves, on Earth–and probably elsewhere. However, before all of this could happen, the Galaxy had to exist.

The Milky Way Galaxy in which we currently dwell is a very different place than the frigid gas from which it emerged billions of years ago. In its early days, our Galaxy was a spherical mass of hydrogen. However, today astronomers using radio telescopes have been able to determine that our Milky Way is a spiral galaxy–just one of countless others. Nevertheless, because we are inside our Galaxy, astronomers cannot observe it as a whole. The good news is that we can peer out into space and observe galaxies which we believe may be similar to our own.

Disk galaxies, which also include galaxies with magnificent, beautiful starlit spiral arms, like our Milky Way, as well as those with somewhat less well-defined characteristics (lenticular galaxies)–are all defined by their possession of pancake-shaped domains of dust and gas that separate them from their elliptical gallactic kin.

According to galaxy classification, spiral galaxies, like our own, are composed of rotating, flat disks populated by stars, gas, and dust, as well as a central collection of stars called a bulge. These are surrounded by a much more faint halo of stars, a number of which are denizens of globular clusters. Spirals are named for their possession of spiral arms that reach out from the center into the disk. In contrast, elliptical galaxies possess an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless brightness profile. Ellipticals, in contrast to their highly structured and well-organized spiral kin, are more three-dimensional, and have little in the way of structure. Indeed, the stellar denizens of ellipticals bob around in, more or less, random orbits surrounding their centers. Lenticulars are intermediate between spirals and ellipticals, and they share kinematic attributes with both galaxy types. Lenticulars are frequently referred to as “armless spiral galaxies.” This is because they possess a bulge–but no spiral arms.

According to the bottom-up theory of galaxy formation, large galaxies eventually attained their gigantic and majestic sizes as a result of collisions and mergers between relatively small protogalaxies bouncing around in the baby Universe. The most ancient galaxies furiously produced blazing, brilliant newborn stars.

Before the first stars ignited, lighting up the vast swath of darkness that was the primordial Universe, opaque clouds of primarily hydrogen gas collected along the heavy filaments of the Cosmic Web. The filaments of the massive Cosmic Web are generally thought to be composed of dark matter–an unidentified substance that is not the atomic matter that we are used to in our familiar world. Atomic matter accounts for literally all of the elements listed in the Periodic Table, but this so-called “ordinary” form of matter is extraordinary because it is the stuff of stars, planets, moons, and people. “Ordinary” atomic (baryonic) matter accounts for a relatively small 4.6% of the Cosmos, while the mysterious dark matter is much more abundant at about 24% of it. The lion’s share of the Cosmos is composed of the weird dark energy, that is even more mysterious than the dark matter. Dark energy accounts for about 71.4% of the Universe, and it is commonly thought to be a property of Space itself–and it is just as important as it is mysterious, because it is causing our Universe to accelerate in its expansion.

In the very ancient Universe, dense areas composed of dark matter grabbed at floating clouds of pristine gas with a relentless and powerful gravitational grasp. Dark matter does not interact with “ordinary” atomic matter or electromagnetic radiation except through the force of gravity. However, because it does dance with baryonic matter by way of its gravity, and it warps and bends the path that light takes as it wanders through the Cosmos (gravitational lensing), it gives away its phantom-like presence–despite its haunting, eerie transparency. Gravitational lensing is a phenomenon proposed by Albert Einstein when he realized that his calculations indicated that gravity could warp the path that light takes through the Universe, and thus have lens-like effects.

Transparent and invisible, the ghostly dark matter clutched at clouds of pristine gas. These clouds of primeval gases evolved into the nurseries of the first fiery newborn stars to scream out their victorious birth cries, as they hurled their fierce light and the possibility of life out into what had previously been a barren blackness. The massive filaments composed of the dark matter spun the Cosmic Web throughout Spacetime–and this web tugged and tugged on its atomic prey until the clouds of newly formed gas tumbled down to nest within the invisible halos of the mysterious dark matter. The gas clouds floated down into the very hearts of these ghostly, transparent halos composed of the transparent non-atomic material.

Gradually, majestically, the writhing sea of primeval gases and the ghostly dark matter, flowed throughout the ancient Cosmos. The two forms of matter performed an ancient dance together, ultimately combining to create the distinct and familiar large-scale structures that can be observed today. The regions of greater-than-average density within the filaments of dark matter, weaving the magnificent Cosmic Web, traveled throughout the newborn Cosmos and became the “seeds” from which the galaxies were born and grew. The relentless gravitational tugs of those ancient “seeds” gradually pulled the pristine gases into ever more tightly bound blobs. Many astronomers propose that these blobs of gas began to collect together, and that the resulting protogalaxies, both large and small, danced a wild dance creating ever larger and larger galactic building blocks. The protogalaxies did their bewitching dance, moving ever closer and closer together because of their mutual gravitational attraction, merging to create ever larger and larger structures destined to grow into the enormous, majestic galaxies inhabiting the Universe today. Like tiny chunks of wet sand, being mashed together in the small hands of a playful child sitting in a sandbox, the protogalaxies bumped into one another and stuck together to create a cosmic sand castle.

The early Universe was much smaller than what we are used to today–and, as a result, it was very crowded. Therefore, the protogalaxies frequently bumped into one another in this relatively small and crowded environment–sticking together to create larger and larger galactic castles in Space and Time.

Learning About Our Baby Milky Way From Galaxies Far, Far Away

The team of astronomers, using ALMA, observed that the neutral hydrogen gas– revealed by its absorption of quasar light–is probably a portion of a large halo or extended disk of gas surrounding the distant galaxy, explained first author of the new study, Dr. Marcel Neeleman, in the March 23, 2017 UCSC Press Release.

“It’s not where the star formation is, and to see so much gas that far from the star-forming region means there is a large amount of neutral hydrogen around the galaxy. We don’t know if it’s a large, extended disk of gas that’s falling in, or if it’s just a really dense halo of gas around the galaxy,” Dr. Neeleman continued to explain.

One of the observed distant galaxies shows an emission spectrum that indicates the presence of a rotating disk, according to Dr. Prochaska. “These galaxies appear to be massive, dusty, and rapidly star-forming systems, with large, extended layers of gas. These observations give us terrific insight into how galaxies like our Milky Way looked 13 billion years ago,” Dr. Prochaska added in the March 23, 2017 UCSC Press Release.

Dr. Prochaska noted that the new research paper represents the victorious conclusion of a long quest that he first embarked on back in 2003, with his doctoral thesis advisor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), the late Dr. Arthur M. Wolfe (also a coauthor on the current paper). Dr. Wolfe (1939-2014) pioneered the use of quasar spectra to study concentrations of neutral hydrogen gas in the remote Universe, termed the damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems. This is because those particular systems showed characteristic absorption features that the hydrogen gas imprints on the traveling light emanating from the background quasar. Dr. Wolfe also understood the potential for ALMA to spot emissions from these systems long before the radio observatory’s completion in 2011.

“We’ve been wanting to do this for 14 years. The ‘holy grail’ has been to identify and study the galaxies that host the hydrogen gas we see in quasar spectra, and it took a facility with ALMA’s capability to do it,” Dr. Prochaska noted in the March 23, 2017 UCSC Press Release.

The team of astronomers used ALMA to hunt for far-infrared emission signatures originating from the galaxies that they already knew could be distinguished from the bright light of the quasars. Ionized carbon emits a bright spectral line at a characteristic wavelength in the infrared (158 microns), which astronomers can use as a tracer of galactic structure in the ancient, distant Universe.

In astronomy, long ago and far away are synonymous. The more distant an object is in Space, the more ancient it is in Time. This is because the speed of light sets something of a universal speed limit–no known signal can travel faster than light in a vacuum, and the more distant a celestial object is, the longer it has taken for its light to travel to where it can be detected by observers on Earth. This results from the expansion of Spacetime.

The ALMA astronomers also observed emissions from dust in the far infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This enabled them to estimate the rate of star-birth.

ALMA’s configurable array of radio antennas helped the astronomers focus their search for galaxy emissions in the region around each of a duo of DLAs, situated at a distance of approximately 13 billion light-years. From that very remote distance, the traveling light now finally reaching telescopes gives astronomers a precious peek into an early stage of galaxy formation, that occurred about 1 billion years after the Big Bang.

“This is the epoch when galaxies were really starting to take off in terms of star formation–sort of an adolescent growth spurt before reaching the peak of star formation about 2 billion years later,” Dr. Prochaska explained in the March 23, 2017 UCSC Press Release.

The observations strongly suggest that both galaxies are giving birth to baby stars at moderately high rates, with a star-formation rate greater than 100 suns per year for one galaxy, and about 25 suns per year for the other. The separation from the quasar is about 137,000 light-years for one galaxy and about 59,000 light-years for the other.

According to Dr. Neeleman, astronomers have assumed that spotting light emanating from galaxies that host DLAs is difficult because it is well-hidden in the powerful light coming from brilliant background quasars. However, when taking into consideration the large separation of these galaxies from their tattle-tale quasars, it may be that they are instead shrouded by an obscuring veil of dust. With ALMA, the astronomers were able to detect the starlight absorbed and then reradiated at longer electromagnetic wavelengths by the blanket of dust.

Dr. Prochaska is looking forward to obtaining similar observations of a much larger sample of galaxies over the next few years.

Billions of starlit galaxies wander through intergalactic space, and our own large, spiral Milky Way is just like others of its kind. When we look up at a clear night sky, we see a seemingly endless background of blackness, sparkling with the distant furious fires of myriad stars – and if we are lucky enough to be far from the glare of city lights, we can observe our Galaxy as a starry band, stretching across the sky, telling us that we are a small part of something vast and mysterious. Stars are sparkling tattle-tales, providing important clues about their ages, compositions, and even where they were born. The stellar inhabitants that dwell in the ancient heart of our Galaxy, its central bulge, offer a treasure trove of information about how our starlit-pinwheel-shaped Milky Way formed – as the island-in-space home of a multitude of stars- -that whisper tantalizing clues about how they evolved over the course of billions of years. On January 11, 2018, at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society, held in National Harbor, Maryland, a team of astronomers announced their new findings that the Galactic bulge is a dynamic environment, hosting stars of various ages. These stars fly around at different speeds in our Galaxy's secretive heart.

For a long time, astronomers thought that our Milky Way's bulge was the quiet, peaceful abode of elderly stars. These old stars were the first of their stellar kind to populate our young Galaxy. However, the new study of about 10,000 normal Sun-like stars inhabiting the bulge, reveals that our Galaxy's heart is really the abode of frantic stars in a state of chaos. This more recent proposal is based on nine years worth of archival data derived from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The swifter stars of the younger generation may have arrived at the Galactic heart as a result of our Milky Way's terrible feast upon smaller, unfortunate galaxies. However, the younger stars dance around with the older, slower stars. At this time, only HST has sufficiently sharp resolution to simultaneously measure the movements of thousands of Sun-like stars mingling together at the bulge's distance from our planet.

Because the secretive heart of our Galaxy is so crowded, it has always presented a challenge to curious astronomers. This is because it is extremely difficult to disentangle the chaos of stellar movement in order to investigate the bulge in detail. However, the HST study of our Galaxy's wild, complicated, and chaotic heart, may provide important new clues about how our Milky Way evolved, according to the study's authors.

The Parts Of A Galaxy

Our Milky Way Galaxy hosts approximately two hundred billion stars, as well as an extremely large number of other objects. When observed with binoculars on a dark night, far away from a city, it is a majestic sight. Literally thousands of stars can be observed performing their blazing, mesmerizing dance in Space in every field of view.

Currently, our ideas about our Galaxy's nature are built upon a more solid foundation than when our ancient ancestors created lovely fairytale myths and stories to explain this celestial starlit band's existence. The Milky Way has been studied extensively by astronomers, turning their scientific instruments on the dazzling fireworks display in the sky.

Long before our Galaxy formed, the Universe was filled with mostly hydrogen gas – as well as with smaller amounts of helium. The gas eventually experienced a sea-change into fiery stars, their accompanying retinues of planets, and conscious beings, such as ourselves on Earth – and likely elsewhere. However, before this important metamorphosis could occur, our Galaxy had to come into existence.

Our Milky Way, in which we dwell, is now a very different domain than the frigid gas from which it emerged billions of years ago. In its beginning years, our Galaxy was a spherical cloud of hydrogen. However, currently astronomers using radio telescopes have been able to determine that our Milky Way is a large spiral galaxy – a starlit pinwheel whirling in Space – just one of a multitude of others. Nevertheless, astronomers are at a disadvantage. This is because we are inside our Galaxy, which makes it impossible for astronomers to observe it as a whole. There is a bright side to all this – astronomers can stare out into intergalactic space and study distant galaxies which are similar to ours.

Disk galaxies include galaxies with starlit spiral arms, like our own – as well as those with less well defined characteristics (lenticular galaxies) . All disk galaxies are defined by their possession of pancake-shaped regions composed of gas and dust that separate them from their elliptical galaxy cousins. Elliptical galaxies are football-shaped structures, in which a population of mostly elderly red stars bob around chaotically – in sharp contrast to the well-organized behavior of the stars inhabiting disk galaxies, that host stars of all ages.

According to galaxy classification, spirals , like our Milky Way, are made up of flat, rotating disks , populated by stars, gas, and dust – as well as its central bulge. The bulge is surrounded by a much fainter halo of stars, some of which are denizens of globular clusters. Spirals are named for their spiral arms that extend out from the bulge to the disk. In contrast, ellipticals sport an ellipsoidal shape and an almost featureless, smooth brightness profile. Ellipticals display little in the way of structure. Indeed, the stars that dwell within ellipticals jitterbug around in, more or less, random orbits around their centers. Lenticulars are intermediate between spirals and ellipticals , and they share kinematic characteristics with both of these two galaxy types. Lenticulars are frequently referred to as "armless spiral galaxies" because they host a bulge –but no spiral arms.

According to the favored theory of galactic formation – the bottom-up model – large galaxies only eventually grew to their majestic sizes as a result of collisions and mergers between relatively small protogalaxies inhabiting the early Universe. The most ancient galaxies rapidly produced fiery, brilliant stars in blazing bursts of starbirth.

Spiral galaxies contain stars, gas and dust, and display five primary parts:

– Bulge : The large round structure that hosts primarily elderly stars, gas and dust.

– Disk: The flattened region that encircles the bulge in a spiral galaxy. The disk is shaped like a pancake.

– Spiral Arms: The spiral arms of a galaxy are curved extensions that begin at the bulge and of a spiral galaxy , bestowing upon it a "pinwheel" appearance.

– Halo: The halo primarily harbors individual elderly stars and clusters of elderly stars (globular clusters) . The halo also contains dark matter , which is thought to be composed of exotic, non-atomic particles that do not interact with light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation – which makes it invisible. It is also the most abundant form of matter in the Universe – far more abundant than the atomic matter that accounts for every element listed in the familiar Periodic Table.

– Stars, Gas and Dust: Stars come a rich variety of types: old, newborn, middle-aged, youthful. Stars have differing temperatures, and they come in different sizes – massive, small, dwarf, and stellar "failure". Stars differ from one another in respect to their stage of evolution, as well as their metallicity. Metallicity refers to the amount of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium a star contains. The most ancient stars in the Universe contained no elements heavier than helium, while the youngest generation of stars – of which our Sun is a member – contain the highest metal content. The stars of the generation between the oldest and the youngest – the stellar "sandwich generation" – have only small quantities of metals . However, this is somewhat misleading, since all stars, regardless of their generation, are composed mostly of hydrogen.

Stellar Secrets Revealed In Our Galaxy's Heart

The new HST study will provide valuable clues about how our Galaxy evolved, according to the researchers. The research team, led by Dr. Will Clarkson of the University of Michigan-Dearborn, discovered that the movements of stars inhabiting the bulge are not all the same –and the difference depends primarily on a star's chemical composition. Stars richer in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium – the metals, in the jargon of astronomers – have less disordered motions. However, these richly endowed stars are orbiting around the Galactic center faster than older, less well-endowed stars, that are deficient in these heavy metals.

"There are many theories describing the formation of our Galaxy and central bulge . Some say the bulge formed when the Galaxy first formed about 13 billion years ago. In this case, all bulge stars would be old and share a similar motion. the bulge formed later in the Galaxy's lifetime, slowly evolving after the first generations of stars were born.In this scenario, some of the stars in the bulge might be younger, with their chemical composition enriched in heavier elements expelled from the death of previous generations of stars, and they should show a different motion compared to the older stars. The stars in our study are showing characteristics of both models. Therefore, this analysis can help us in understanding the bulge's origin, "explained Dr. Annalisa Calamida in a January 11, 2018 Hubblesite Press Release. Dr. Calamida is of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI) in Baltimore, Maryland, and a member of the HST research team.

The astronomers then went on to divide the stars according to their chemical compositions, and from there compared to the motions of each observed group. They determined the stars' chemical content by observing their colors, and then separated them into two main groups according to their heavy-element (iron) abundance. The astronomers found that the chemically enriched stars are traveling twice as fast as the other stellar population.

"By analyzing nine years' worth of data in the archive and improving our analysis techniques, we have made a clear, robust detection of the differences in the motion for chemically deficient and chemically enriched Sun-like stars. We hope to continue our analysis, which will allow us to make a three-dimensional chart of the rich chemical and dynamical complexity of the populations in the bulge, "Dr. Clarkson explained in the January 11, 2018 Hubblesite Press Release.

The team of astronomers based their analysis on Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 data derived from two HST surveys: the Wide Field Camera 3 Galactic Bulge Treasury Program and the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search. Sets of spectra derived from the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile were used in order to calculate an estimation of the chemical compositions of stars.

At this time, only HST has resolution that is sufficiently sharp to simultaneously measure the motions of thousands of sparkling Sun-like stars at the Galactic bulge's distance from our planet. The heart of our Galaxy is about 26,000 light-years away. "Before this analysis, the motions of these stars was not known. You need a long time baseline to accurately measure the positions and the motions of these faint stars," noted study team member Dr. Kailash Sahu in the Hubblesite Press Release. Dr. Sahu is of the STSI.

The team of astronomers studied Sun-like stars because they are both easily within HST's reach, and are also very plentiful. Earlier observations peered at older, brighter red giant stars , that are not as abundant. This is because red giants represent only a brief shining moment in the "life" of a star. When stars that are similar to our Sun finally have depleted their necessary supply of hydrogen fuel, their looks change. The former Sun-like star swells to monstrous proportions and turns red. When our Star finally comes to the end of the stellar road, in approximately five billion years, it will also become bloated and red, and its fierce fires will engulf the inner planets Mercury and Venus – and possibly our Earth, as well.

" Hubble gave us a narrow, pencil-beam view of the Galaxy's core, but we are seeing thousands more stars than those spotted in earlier studies," Calamida noted in the January 11, 2018 Hubblesite Press Release. Our Galaxy's bulge is roughly one-tenth the diameter of our pancake-shaped Galaxy. "We next plan to extend our analysis to do additional observations along different sight-lines, which will allow us to make a three-dimensional probe of the rich complexity of the populations in the bulge," Dr. Clarkson added in the same Hubblesite Press Release.

The astronomers said that their research is also an important pathfinder for NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to probe the archeology of our Milky Way. Webb is scheduled for launch in 2019, and is expected to probe deeply into the stellar populations sparkling their way within the Galactic bulge.

Our Moon is the largest object in Earth’s night sky, brightly gleaming as it reflects the light of our Star. But how did Earth’s lovely and bewitching Moon come to be? The most widely accepted theory of lunar formation proposes that our Moon was born when a Mars-sized primordial protoplanet, named Theia, crashed into our ancient planet billions of years ago–and was pulverized. This catastrophic collision shot debris screeching into orbit around our young planet. The debris, composed of both material from the doomed Theia and our badly battered ancient Earth, eventually coagulated to create a single body–Earth’s Moon. In January 2019, a team of astronomers reported their new findings that the bulk of Earth’s essential life-forming elements–including most of the carbon and nitrogen in our bodies–most likely came from another planet, the doomed primordial protoplanet that was the Moon-birthing Theia. The paper describing this new study is published in the January 23, 2019 issue of the journal Science Advances.

According to the new study, conducted by Rice University (Houston, Texas) petrologists, the collision occurred about 4.4 billion years ago, when our 4.56 billion year old Solar System was young.

“From the study of primitive meteorites, scientists have long known that Earth and other rocky planets in the inner Solar System are volatile-depleted. But the timing and mechanism of volatile delivery has been hotly debated. Ours is the first scenario that can explain the timing and delivery in a way that is consistent with all of the geochemical evidence,” study co-author Dr. Rajdeep Dasgupta commented in a January 23, 2019 Rice University Press Release.

Earth’s Moon has long been the source of imaginative and magical myths and legends. It has also been the stuff of poetry, as well as an ancient symbol for that which is feminine. Indeed, Earth’s companion world has inspired wonderful tales of both romantic love and madness–the word “lunatic” is derived from the word lunar. There are fascinating tales and delightful childrens’ stories that speak of a “Man In The Moon” and a “Moon Rabbit” that appear to be etched on the lunar surface. Lovely myths and tales aside, Earth’s Moon is a real object in space, and it has been with our planet almost from the very beginning. It is the only world beyond Earth that human beings have walked upon, leaving footprints in the Moon-dust.

The Lunatic, The Lover, And The Poet

There are over 100 moons in orbit around the eight major planets of our Sun’s family. Most of our Solar System’s many moons are icy, relatively small objects, that contain small quantities of rocky material, and circle the quartet of giant gaseous planets in the colder outer region of our Solar System. The giant planets– Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune–are enshrouded by layers and layers of gas, and are orbited by myriad moons and sparkling icy moonlets. In dramatic contrast the solid quartet of small inner Solar System planets–Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars–are almost entirely barren of moons. Mercury and Venus have none, and Mars is orbited by a duo of small, shapeless little moons named Phobos and Deimos, that are likely asteroids that escaped from the Main Asteroid Belt situated between Mars and Jupiter. The wandering potato-shaped duo, during their long journey through interplanetaary space, traveled too close to the gravitational pull of Mars, and thus experienced a sea-change from migrating asteroids to the moons of a major planet.

In the warm and well-lit inner region of our Solar System, only Earth is orbited by a large Moon–and it is the fifth largest moon in our Sun’s family.

A moon is a natural satellite circling another body that itself is in orbit around its Star. A moon is kept in its place both by its host’s gravitational pull, as well as by its own gravity. Some planets have moons; some do not. Several asteroids are now known to be orbited by tiny moons of their own, and some dwarf planets–such as Pluto–are also circled by moons. One of Pluto’s five moons, Charon, is approximately 50% the size of Pluto. It has been proposed that Charon may really be a large chunk of Pluto itself that was ripped off as the result of a violent collision with another migrating object long ago. Because Charon is about half the size of Pluto, the two small worlds are sometimes classified as a double planet.

Several theories have been proposed over the years that attempt to explain how Earth’s Moon was born. One theory suggests that our Moon was once actually part of Earth, and that it budded off about 4.5 billion years ago. According to this scenario, the Pacific Ocean basin is the most likely place for Moon-birth to have occurred. A second theory proposes that the Earth and Moon were both born at about the same time from the original protoplanetary accretion disk, made up of gas and dust, from which our Sun and its family of familiar objects emerged. The third model suggests that Earth’s Moon was born elsewhere in our Solar System, and was ultimately snared by Earth’s gravitational embrace when it passed too close to our ancient planet. The fourth theory states that the interactions of Earth-orbiting and Sun-orbiting planetesimals (ancient planetary building blocks) in the early days of our Solar System caused them to fragment. According to this theory, Earth’s Moon eventually coalesced out of the pulverized debris of the shattered ancient planetesimals.

However, the Giant Impact Theory is considered to be the most probable explanation for the birth of Earth’s large Moon. When the tragedy that was the Mars-sized Theia crashed into Earth billions of years ago, the blast resulted in part of the ancient Earth’s crust to be launched into into space. This primeval catastrophe hurled myriad tiny moonlets screaming into the sky above our ancient planet. Some of this material was ultimately captured into Earth-orbit approximately 4.5 billion years ago–where it was finally pulled together by gravity to evolve into a single large Moon–Earth’s Moon.

Until Galileo Galilei discovered the four Galilean moons of Jupiter in 1610, it was thought that Earth’s large Moon was the Moon, because it was the only one known to exist. The discovery of the quartet of Galilean moons—Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto put the matter into its proper perspective. Earth’s Moon is not alone in our Solar System. In addition, there is also evidence that exomoons orbit some of the exoplanets that circle stars beyond our own Sun.

However, Earth’s Moon is the largest moon in our Solar System relative to the size of its host planet. For this reason, Earth and its Moon are sometimes considered to be a double planet–in a way similar to Pluto and its largest moon Charon. Earth’s Moon is also one of the densest natural satellites in our Sun’s family–second only to Jupiter’s innermost Galilean moon, Io.

As the fifth largest moon in our Solar System, only Ganymede (Jupiter), Titan (Saturn), Callisto (Jupiter) and Io (Jupiter) are bigger than Earth’s lunar companion.

Even though Theia came to a violent end, it did not die in vain. It’s been recognized for years that the doomed Theia made the emergence of life possible on our planet. This is because it is responsible for creating a comfortable abode for living creatures. The Moon–born from the wreckage of Theia–moderates Earth’s wobble on its axis, thus creating a stable climate. Earth’s Moon is also the source of ocean tides which form a rhythm that has guided human beings since ancient times.

Theia Did Not Die In Vain

The team of Rice University petrologists compiled their evidence from a combination of high-temperature and high-pressure experiments conducted in Dr. Dasgupta’s lab, which specializes in studying geochemical reactions that occur under the conditions of extreme heat and pressure that take place deep within a planet.

In a series of experiments, study lead author and graduate student Damanveer Grewal collected data to test a theory that Earth’s volatiles were delivered to our ancient planet as the result of a primordial smash-up with an embryonic protoplanet that possessed a sulfur-rich core. The sulfur contained in the donor planet’s core is important.This is because it would explain the mysterious array of experimental evidence concerning the nitrogen, carbon and sulfur that exist in all parts of our planet–except for its core.

“The core doesn’t interact with the rest of Earth, but everything above it, the mantle, the crust, the hydrosphere and atmosphere, are all connected. Material cycles between them,” Grewal explained in the January 23, 2019 Rice University Press Release.

One model explaining how Earth received its volatiles is called the “late veneer” theory. According to this model, volatile-rich relic fragments of primordial material from the outer Solar System arrived after Earth’s core had already formed. While the isotopic signatures of our planet’s volatiles match these ancient primitive objects–known as carbonaceous chrondrites–the elemental ratio of carbon to nitrogen does not. Earth’s iron core, which geologists refer to as the bulk silicate Earth, is approximately 40 parts carbon to each part nitrogen. This amounts to about twice the 20 to one ration seen in carbonaceous chondrites.

Simulations of the high-pressures and temperatures occurring during core formation, as modeled in Greval’s experiments, tested the theory that a sulfur-rich planetary core might exclude carbon or nitrogen–or both. This scenario would leave much greater percentages of those elements in the bulk silicate as compared to Earth. In a series of tests at a range of temperatures and pressures, Grewal studied the amount of carbon and nitrogen that may have made it into Earth’s core in a trio of scenarios: no sulfur, 10 percent sulfur and 25 percent sulfur.

“Nitrogen was largely unaffected. It remained soluble in the alloys relative to silicates, and only began to be excluded from the core under the highest sulfur concentration,” Grewal explained in the January 23, 2019 Rice University Press Release.

In contrast, carbon was considerably less soluble in alloys with intermediate sulfur concentrations, and sulfur-rich alloys took up approximately 10 times less carbon by weight than sulfur-free alloys.

Using this information, in combination with the known ratios and concentrations of elements both on our planet and in non-terrestrial bodies, Dasgupta, Grewal and Rice University postdoctoral researcher Chenguang Sun created a supercomputer simulation to discover the most probable scenario that produced our planet’s volatiles. Discovering the answer to this question involved varying the beginning conditions, running about 1 billion scenarios and comparing them against the known conditions in our Solar System today.

“What we found is that all the evidence–isotopic signatures, the carbon-nitrogen ratio and the overall amounts of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur in the bulk silicate Earth–are consistent with a Moon-forming impact involving a volatile-bearing, Mars-sized planet with a sulfur-rich core,” Grewal commented in the January 23, 2019 Rice University Press Release.

Dasgupta is the principal investigator on a NASA-funded project dubbed CLEVER Planets. This project is studying how life-essential elements could combine on distant rocky alien worlds. Dasgupta explained in the same Rice University Press Release that an improved understanding of the origin of our planet’s life-essential elements has important implications beyond our own Solar System.

“This study suggests that a rocky, Earth-like planet gets more chances to acquire life-essential elements if it forms and grows from giant impacts with planets that have sampled different building blocks, perhaps from different parts of a protoplanetary disk,” Dasgupta added.

“This removes some boundary conditions. It shows that life-essential volatiles can arrive at the surface layers of a planet, even if they were produced on planetary bodies that underwent core formation under very different conditions,” Dasgupta continued to explain.

Dasgupta further noted that it does not appear our own planet’s bulk silicate, on its own, could have attained the life-essential volatile budgets that formed Earth’s atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere.

“That means we can broaden our search for pathways that lead to volatile elements coming together on a planet to support life as we know it,” he continued to comment.

CLEVER Planets is part of the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, or NExSS, a NASA astrobiology research coordination network studying planetary habitability.

The two Magellanic Clouds are small, amorphous, starlit satellite galaxies in orbit around our own large spiral Milky Way. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is about 163,000 light-years from us, and it is the second- or third-closest galaxy to our own, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal and the unconfirmed dwarf irregular galaxy named the Canis Major Overdensity. Classified as a Magellanic spiral , the LMC displays a stellar bar that is geometrically off-center, indicating that it was once a barred dwarf spiral galaxy before its spiral arms were violently disrupted by a probable tidal interaction with its Small Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) . Indeed, interactions, mergers, and catastrophic collisions are common among galaxies, and a new study shows that our own Milky Way Galaxy is on a tragic collision course with the LMC that will occur in about two billion years. If this potentially fatal collision occurs, it could hurl our entire Solar System screaming into space.

This horrific collision would take place much sooner than the predicted smash-up between our Milky Way and another perhaps galactic member of the Local Group, the large spiral named Andromeda . Astronomers predict the collision between our Galaxy and Andromeda will occur in approximately eight billion years. The Local Group of galaxies hosts about 54 known members, of which the Milky Way and Andromeda are its largest constituents.

The fatal smash-up between our Galaxy and the LMC could awaken the sleeping beast that haunts the center of our Milky Way – a dormant supermassive black hole, which would then emerge from its long slumber and begin to voraciously devour ambient gas. As a result, this gravitational beast would balloon up to ten times its current already enormous size. As our Galaxy's resident black hole dines greedily on its surroundings, it would hurl out high-energy radiation.

Supermassive black holes probably reside in the dark hearts of almost every large galaxy in the observable Universe, and they weigh-in at millions to billions of times solar-mass. Our Galaxy's own supermassive dark heart is a relative light-weight, weighing in at millions – as opposed to billions – of times solar-mass. It is named Sagittarius A * – Sgr A *, for short (pronounced saj-a-star) – and it is a peaceful elderly black hole now, dozing quitely in its old age. Sgr A * currently wakes up only now and then when a luckless star or floating cloud of gas travels too close to its waiting gravitational maw. At that dreadful point of no return, Sgr A * wakes up and dines greedily– just like it did long ago when both it and our Galaxy were young inhabitants of the ancient Universe. But this latter-day blaze of glory will only last for one brief shining moment.

The good news is that this cosmic fire-storm – predicted to occur when the LMC crashes into our Milky Way – is unlikely to influence life on Earth. In fact, researchers believe there is really only a small chance that the initial smash-up could launch our Solar System into space.

The Magellanic Clouds

Both the LMC and SMC were named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) who mistakenly believed they were clouds. While the LMC is only approximately 163,000 light years from us, the SMC is not much farther at about 199,000 light-years. In order to envision this, our entire Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 light-years across, and it is approximately 3,000,000 light-years away from the approaching Andromeda Galaxy (M31) .

Over twenty small satellite galaxies circle our own, but only the duo of Magellanic Clouds are bright enough to be viewed from Earth with the unaided human eye. Both the LMC and SMC are brimming with gas, in dramatic contrast to our Milky Way's other orbiting galactic satellites, and gas is the stuff that stars are made of. For this reason, both Magellanic Clouds are sufficiently rich in gas to create brilliant new fiery baby stars.

The people of several ancient cultures knew of the existence of the Magellanic Clouds. The most ancient continuous extant references to the pair of "clouds" were likely conducted by ancient sky-watchers from the Khoisan culture located in Southern Africa. The ancestors of these people are thought to have lived in isolation from other living human cultures for thousands of years.

Another substantially long history of cultural association may have re-emerged with the migration of ancient humans south from their region of origin in the Middle East. These migrating people are thought to have reached Australia approximately 50 to 60 thousand years ago, and they were the ancient forebears of modern Aborigines, whose several cultures have created a variety of interesting and colorful myths, legends, and folktales centered around this mesmerizing duo of starlit satellite galaxies.

The ancient people of Polynesia were also aware of the existence of this bewitching pair of "clouds", and they used them as navigation markers. Taking both "clouds" together, the duo were also known to the Maori of New Zealand as Nga Patori-Kaihau or as Te Reporepo. The ancient Maori used the pair of "clouds" as predictors of winds.

Even though both "clouds" have been readily visible to the prying eyes of southern nighttime sky-watchers well back into prehistoric times, the first known written reference to the LMC was made by the Persian astronomer 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi Shirazi ( 303 AD-986 AD) – later known in Europe as "Azophi" – in his Book of Fixed Stars (~ 964 AD).

The second recorded observation of the Magellanic Clouds was made in 1503-4 by the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci ((1454-1512) in his letter describing his third voyage. In this letter, Vespucci mentions "three Canope [sic] , two bright and one obscure ";" bright "here refers to the LMC and SMC, while" obscure "refers to the Coalsack Nebula, a cloud composed of gas and dust, that is the most prominent dark nebula in the skies.

Measurements conducted with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) , that were announced back in 2006, indicate that both Magellanic Clouds are actually traveling too fast to be orbiting our Milky Way. For some time, many astronomers proposed that both Magellanic Clouds had been in orbit around our Milky Way at approximately their current distances for eons. However, more recent observations indicate that it is rare for the duo to be located as close to our Galaxy as they are now. Both theory and observation indicate that the "clouds" have both been greatly distorted by tidal interactions with our own considerably larger Galaxy as they travel ever closer and closer to it.

The distance to the LMC has been determined by astronomers using several different methods that depend on " standard candles" , with Cepheid variables being one of the most favored "candles". "Standard candles" are astrophysical objects such as supernovae or variable stars, which have known luminosity because of some characteristic quality possessed by its entire class of objects. Cepheids are intrinsic variable stars that pulsate in a predictable way, and have long been known to display a relationship between their absolute luminosity and the period over which their brightness changes. However, Cepheids are often considered to be inadequate because they suffer from a "metallicity effect". This means that Cepheids of differing metallcities show different period-luminosity relations. Alas, the Cepheids that flicker brightly in our Milky Way, that are usually used to calibrate the period-luminosity relation, are more rich in metals than those found dwelling within the LMC.

In astronomy, the term metal differs from the same term as it is used by chemists. The Big Bang birth of the Universe, thought to have occurred about 14 billion years ago, produced only the lightest of atomic elements: hydrogen, helium, and trace amounts of lithium. All of the atomic elements heavier than helium are called metals by astronomers. Metals , in the terminology used by astronomers, originate in the hot nuclear-fusing cores of the Universe's myriad stars – or, alternatively, in the case of the heaviest atomic elements (such as gold and uranium), in the supernovae explosions that mark the end of a massive star's life on the hydrogen-burning main-sequence of the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram of Stellar Evolution.

Currently used 8-meter-class telescopes have found eclipsing binaries throughout the entire Local Group , and these systems have proven useful for distance measurements. This is because the parameters of such systems – composed of two eclipsing stars – can be determined without mass or compositional assumptions. Also, the light echoes emanating from supernova 1987A provide useful geometric measurements, without any stellar models or assumptions.

By cross-correlating differing methods of measurement, an astronomer can determine distance; the residual errors are now less than the estimated size parameters of the LMC. The results of a study using late-type eclipsing binaries, to calculate the distance more accurately, was published in the March 2013 edition of the journal Nature. This method was used to determine that the LMC's distance is about 163,000 light-years with an accuracy of 2.2%.

The LMC is classified as an irregular galaxy and, like others of its kind, it is richly endowed with star-birthing gas and dust. For this reason, the LMC is currently in the midst of vigorous star-forming activity. It also plays host to the Tarantula Nebula , which is the most active star-birthing regions in the entire Local Group.

The LMC houses a vast range of galactic objects and phenomena that have made it famous for being an "astronomical treasure-house, a great celestial laboratory for the study of the growth and evolution of the stars," as described by the American astronomer Robert Burnham Jr. (1931–1993) .

A Terrible Beauty Is Born

The LMC wandered into our Milky Way's neighborhood approximately 1.5 billion years ago, and now it circles our Galaxy beautifully – and ominously. Until recently, astronomers thought that the LMC would either orbit our Galaxy for many billions of years, or, because it is zipping along at such a great speed, tear itself from our Milky Way's gravitational ties that bind, and escape from its powerful and relentless pull.

However, more recent measurements suggest an entirely different fate, both for our Galaxy and the LMC! The new calculations indicate that the LMC possesses almost 50% more dark matter that previously thought. Dark matter is a much more abundant form of matter than the "ordinary" atomic matter that we are most familiar with, and it is believed to be composed of exotic non-atomic particles that do not dance with light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation . For this reason, the mysterious dark stuff is transparent – and it haunts the Cosmos like an invisible ghost, revealing its secretive presence only by way of its gravitational influence on objects that can be seen, such as starlit galaxies.

The team of astronomers propose that since it possesses a greater than predicted mass, the LMC is quickly losing energy and is doomed to blast into our Milky Way – which may have fatal consequences for our Solar System.

Lead scientist Dr. Marius Cautun, a postdoctoral fellow in Durham University's (UK) Institute for Computational Cosmology, explained in a January 4, 2019 Durham University Press Release that "There is a small chance that we might not escape unscathed from the collision between the two galaxies, which could knock us out of the Milky Way and into space. "

As as a meteor traveling through the Universe, I don't really know what to say. I just received consciousness about 30 seconds ago and I guess my first thoughts are simple and oddly profound. What am I doing here? I know a hand full of facts. The first is that there is a God that gave me the ability to think for myself. What I don't know, is why I can even think for myself. The second thing I know is what I'm traveling to. I am going to hit this planet called earth. The third thing I know is that earth is filled with about 7 billion things called humans. I don't really know what it is like to be a human and why I have to destroy all 7 billion humans at once. I'm sure no human knows what it is like to be a meteor either.

I just passed Pluto. This makes me wonder why I am not destroying Pluto. Pluto has exactly 0 billion people that live there. I don't know much about these humans but they must be pretty bad if I know I have to destroy them. Maybe humans are a little like me. They just woke up one day and could all of a sudden think for themselves. I wonder if they also know that their ultimate goal is to destroy something. Maybe that is why I and Humans are destined to meet. We both destroy. Maybe destroyers are naturally drawn to each other. Is there anything that can think of this Universe that doesn't destroy? That is something I know. All I know that exists in the Universe are billions of humans and one meteor that can think for itself.

Another thing I know is that humanity was created at the same time I was created. However, by the time I get to Earth, it will be very old and worthless. I guess this raises another question. If the earth is already worthless, why do I need to destroy it? Why can't they destroy themselves?

I just passed Jupiter. Another planet with exactly 0 billion people on it. The longer I travel through this solar system, the less I ask myself why I have to destroy the earth. I still don't know why they need to be destroyed, but I know I have to be the entity that destroys them. I have a singular purpose. Another thing that I know is that humans struggle to find their purpose. My purpose is to do exactly what my creator has asked me to do. I can only assume that humans have tried to stray away from their purpose. I don't know why they would ever do that. Since consciousness, I knew what I was meant for. Never questioned it. I only questioned the limited amount of information I had. Maybe humanity has more information about creation than I do. Maybe the more information they learned, the more they could question that information. I have so little to question. Maybe that makes my lifespan easier. I don't question that one day I won't be here. I don't question that there was time before me and there will be time after me. Maybe the 7 billion humans rebel against their own destruction. Maybe that's why I need to destroy them.

I just passed mars and there are exactly 0 billion humans that exist on that planet as well. I don't know if the humans on earth even know I am coming. Maybe they are so focused on themselves that they have forgotten to see the world around them. I wonder if these humans know how small they really are? I wish they could see how big everything is around them. Maybe if they knew how little they are they would not question things as much.

As I round closer to earth, the planet with 7 billion humans, I don't question my lifespan. I don't question my worth. I don't question where my consciousness will be after my journey. I don't question my creator. I don't question the creation around me. I think humans question all those things. But most of all, I don't question what I am doing here and that is why I have to destroy them.

POW.

And in the time it takes to snap one's fingers, all of human history ended.

When most people think about accommodating people with disabilities in their business they get a scared feeling in their gut and their mind scrambles to search for that all-important date when the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect. It doesn’t have to be that way! When business owners open their eyes and start to realize that there are literally billions of dollars to be made in the accessible travel market, I believe we will start to remove the fear associated with the ADA.

There are currently more than 50 million people with disabilities in the United States and 180 million worldwide, representing the single largest untapped tourist market in the world. According to a recent Harris Poll conducted in conjunction with the Open Doors Organization and the Travel Industry Association of America, the 50 million people with disabilities in our country have a combined income of more than $175 billion. In 2002, these people took 32 million trips and spent more than $13.6 billion on travel ($4.2 billion on hotels, $3.3 billion on airfare, $2.7 billion on food and beverage, and $3.4 billion on retail, transportation, and other activities). This study suggested that these travelers would double their spending if some minor amenities were made available. Meet and greet programs at airports, preferred seating on airplanes, hotel rooms closer to amenities, and employees who go out of their way to accommodate guests with disabilities topped the list.

The current trends in adaptive travel show most of these travelers taking advantage of destinations that they know are already accessible such as cruise ships, Florida, and Las Vegas. The visitors bureaus and businesses at these destinations that have gone to great lengths to ensure their visitors that there will not be any accessibility issues during their stay. From personal experience and years of traveling in a wheelchair, I can guarantee that these locations have built and will continue to build strong relationships with travelers with disabilities. This group is a very loyal one, who will often return to the same city, hotel, or activity provider year after year if they have a good experience. If everyone were to catch on to this we would see growth in the tourism industry like we have never seen!

With this in mind, it is a wonder that more business owners have not taken steps to make their accommodations more accessible and even start marketing to these travelers. If the staggering numbers listed above aren’t proof enough, the U.S. Census Bureau recently stated that nearly 16.5% of all people with disabilities in the U.S. leave their home two days per week or less. That constitutes nearly 11 million people that are not traveling at all. Also keep in mind that there are millions of people in their golden years that are looking for accessible travel accommodations. Many of these people use canes or walkers, travel with oxygen tanks, or have other mobility impairments, and are not included in disability statistics.

With millions of people in need of accessible travel options, and with our Baby Boomers (almost 25% of our population) starting to reach retirement age as well now is the time to start thinking about improving marketing efforts to include people with disabilities and about better overall accessibility in general. By educating business owners on the benefits of marketing to people with disabilities and educating travel agents who are fighting a losing battle with the internet, we can begin to focus on this new target market.

If you want to take advantage of the rapidly growing adaptive travel market, get started now! I recommend hiring an expert to get your business rated and start removing barriers to access as soon as possible. Think about accessibility anytime you’re planning a remodel or addition. These improvements will benefit everyone, not just people with disabilities. For those of you who have already taken steps to improve accessibility, start bragging about it.

Craig Kennedy is a published adaptive travel author, accessibility consultant, and motivational speaker with almost ten years of adaptive travel experience and more than 15 years of tourism and service industry expertise. He specializes in resort business growth and customer attraction through better overall accessibility, education, and marketing, and works with businesses who wish to become leaders in accessible travel and accommodation.

Craig P. Kennedy, Steamboat Springs, Colorado,

CK Consulting: Setting Standards for Accessibility

www.CKConsultingonline.com.

* Please visit our Web site to take a FREE accessibility quiz to find out if you are on the right track.

When sitting in your car in the drive-through lane, waiting for your order to come out the window, have you ever stopped to think exactly how many people eat fast food? How many restaurants do you pass on your way home? With the variety and convenience, restaurant franchising is a guaranteed and lucrative investment.

Did you know that in 2007 McDonald’s had 390,000 employees? They also made over 22 million dollars that year. With 31,000 restaurants in almost 120 countries, no wonder they say “Billions served”!

Franchising is a nearly 125 billion dollar a year industry. While requiring a lot of hard work, the payoff can be outstanding. This is because of exactly how many people eat on the run.

So, how many people eat fast food? Over 50,000,000 people daily in the U.S. alone. That’s a lot of burgers and fries! When you have to manage work, school, and soccer practice, eating out is more convenient than cooking at home. It’s also an inexpensive way to feed the whole family. Plus, the choices are mind blowing!

KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN- For the chicken lovers in the family

MCDONALD’S, BURGER KING- For those who prefer burgers and fries

PIZZA HUT- For the Italian side

TACO BELL- When you’re feeling a little south of the border

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is a fast food restaurant for just about any taste, so even the pickiest eaters can find somewhere even they can enjoy a fast, convenient meal. Americans will spend over 110 billion dollars this year on fast food, that’s over a quarter of all Americans. Most of them have even worked in FF industry at some point in their lives.

Some people dispute the benefits of eating at FF-franchises, they say it is unhealthy, high calorie, and fat filled. But there are some good points to eating out as well. If you’re looking for a more healthy place to grab dinner, there are some restaurants that serve low-fat and sugar-free meals. Don’t be put off by claims made by nay-sayers. You can find everything you’re looking for in one easy, convenient, and inexpensive restaurant. And with so many to choose from, you’re guaranteed to find what you want, close to home.

A person looking to invest in a business opportunity should really consider restaurant franchising. With more and more people dining in restaurants, and restaurant franchises popping up all over the world, this is an industry that shows no signs of slowing down.

With food for every taste and budget the speed, convenience, and options of meal planning are as simple as a short drive to your favorite restaurant. Based on how many people eat out, franchising is one of the most lucrative business ventures available. Remember, franchising is the best kept secret of the 21st Century!

Cayenne pepper is one of the most powerful and beneficial herbs known to mankind, but unfortunately very few know of its efficacy. Cayenne pepper and heart health should be synonymous for anyone with heart disease or cardiovascular issues but it is not. Due to the power and might of Big Pharma and their unholy alliance with the United States government, many Americans are simply unaware of natural herbs that can dramatically improve their heart health.

“If this is true, then why haven’t the masses heard of it?” you may ask. A fair question. In a word, money. Literally billions of dollars have been spent on heart disease care and research, not to mention the billions on pharmaceutical drugs fighting cholesterol.

In fact, the number-one-selling drug in the US is Lipitor — ostensibly sold to reduce cholesterol and by extension heart disease. Cayenne could eliminate all that and that is why the medical establishment doesn’t want people to know about it.

Before discussing the benefits of cayenne pepper and heart health however, let’s consider the result of the billions that have been “invested” in the name of curing heart disease for if there is one fundamental criterion by which government and medical institutional spending should be judged, it should be by the results.

According to a May 25th, 2006 report by the BBC, heart disease is the biggest killer in the United Kingdom. Across the pond in the United States, the National Heart Foundation says, “Coronary heart disease is the single greatest cause of death for both men and women in the US, eclipsing all other causes, including cancer and lung diseases. Every year more than 479,000 Americans die of coronary heart disease.”

Clearly, the current allopathic (traditional Western medicine) approach is lacking.

The unholy collusion between government, pharmaceutical interests and institutional medicine, with its powerful financial influence, pervades nearly every facet of society. Homeopathic medicine is not only derided but persecuted and even criminalized while allopathic medicine is deified as the only way to health.

In reality, the joining of the best of allopathic and homeopathic interventions would be ideal, but for that to happen, results would have to be the final arbiter as to an intervention’s effectiveness, not corporate and governmental interests.

Background Info

So, what is cayenne? You probably recognize its name as a potent condiment often used in cooking, but its value lies well beyond its culinary uses. It is an herb that is nothing short of amazing.

It is a multi-talented herb that is also known, although obliquely so, as African red pepper, American red pepper, Spanish pepper, capsicum, and bird pepper. Cayenne is derived from two related plants. Specifically, the American variety (Capsicum minimum) is distinguished from its African counterpart the African birdseye cayenne (Capsicum fastigiatum) although both are highly beneficial to man. The African birdseye cayenne is the most pungent with small, yellowish red pods while the American variety is distinguished with its herb-sized plants and larger fruit or pods.

The food value of cayenne is known, of course, but its real value is as a medicinal and nutritional herb. Its medical uses include using it for wounds, heart disease, heart attacks, heart problems at large, ulcers, congestion, colds, chills, bleeding of the lungs, neuralgia, lumbago, hemorrhage, hemorrhoids, high and low blood pressure, indigestion, and kidney and related problems. (This is by no means a comprehensive list as to the herb’s effectiveness.)

Cayenne is a stimulant and as such is an activator, carrier, and accentuator to other herbs as well. Still, it can and should be used by itself. Let’s discuss now some of those ancillary uses before we talk in depth about capsicum and heart health.

Cayenne pepper anti-fungal properties are tangible although this is not its primary health benefit. It has been shown in some studies to be active against collectotrichum and phomopsis, both of which are fungal pathogens. These important fungal pathogens affect strawberries and other fruits and are not directly related to humans per se.

However, cayenne immune system benefits are of interest to researchers. Currently, it is being studied by many nutritional supplement companies for its therapeutic and nutritional benefits. If you desire a natural anti-fungal aid, garlic is preferred over cayenne for garlic has long been known for its anti-fungal properties. (In Russia, it has long been called “the Russian penicillin.”)

Health Benefits of Cayenne Pepper

Capsicum increases metabolism by immediately influencing the venous structure. It is remarkable with its immediate effects on the circulatory system as it feeds the vital elements into the cell structure of capillaries, veins, arteries and helps adjust blood pressure to normal levels. Yes, cayenne pepper for high blood pressure is certainly one of its core uses, but it cleans the arteries as well.

It also stimulates the peristaltic motion of the intestines and aids in assimilation and elimination. When taken internally, it warms the body and has even been used by some herbalist doctors to help severe frostbite as cayenne not only facilitates the healing of the flesh but it helps rebuild tissue as well.

Notwithstanding its hot taste, it is superb for rebuilding the tissue in the stomach for it actually facilitates rapid healing with stomach and intestinal ulcers. Capsicum for ulcers is not something most would have considered due to its native calidity but the author can testify to this aspect of this wonder herb.

Its Dramatic Effects

Dr. John Christopher, the famed natural herbalist, was persecuted relentlessly by the government while assisting patients in curing cancer, heart disease, pleurisy, tuberculosis, infertility, rheumatism, leukemia, and other maladies. One of his greatest stories in his long career was how he could instantly stop a heart attack if he could get the patient to drink a glass of warm cayenne water. In his writings, he said, “A teaspoon of cayenne should bring the patient out of the heart attack.”

(While this is not directly related to heart health, with internal hemorrhaging, if the patient can drink a glass of extra warm water with cayenne, Dr. Christopher wrote, “…by the count of ten the bleeding will stop. Instead of all the pressure being centralized, it is equalized and the clotting becomes more rapid.”)

Perhaps now you can see why cayenne is regarded as a “miracle herb.” With over 700,000 Americans experiencing a stroke each year and almost half a million dying of heart disease, the cure to a healthy heart is as close as your local grocery store. The cayenne detoxification drink, when taken religiously, will dramatically improve your heart health as well as your venous structure.

Side Effects of Cayenne Pepper

What are the side effects of cayenne pepper? What are its bad points? Well, it is certainly hot to the taste. Drinking what the author calls the cayenne detoxification drink is not for the faint of heart (on second thought perhaps it is!). When starting to drink the cayenne pepper detoxification drink, it tends to come out of the body’s orifices with a burning sensation.

Not to worry, though. It is very beneficial. In fact, capsicum will help clear up hemorrhoids if taken regularly — especially if the hemorrhoid sufferer changes their diet to one more rich in fiber.

To mitigate its heat, the author suggests starting with just a half a teaspoon of cayenne in a glass of eight ounces of lukewarm water (or even less if desired). Have another glass of just water nearby as drinking cold water after the cayenne drink will help mitigate the calidity of the drink’s after effects. Yes, you can take it in capsule form but its effects won’t be immediate the way it would be by direct application.

There are also some who suggest combining lemon water and cayenne for fast metabolism. (There are also some who think that a combination of cayenne lemon fat burn facilitates adipose loss. That is debatable, but drinking a concoction of lemon water and cayenne for fast metabolism is certainly more palatable.)

Drinking the capsicum detoxification drink daily will produce noticeable benefits, and the body will acclimate very quickly to its native heat. Within a month or two, you will be able to drink a tablespoon of capsicum without too much discomfort.

Yes, you could go on a cayenne fruit diet, but drinking it is easier and more convenient. One last comment: no significant side effects have been reported. Of course, taking too much of anything is not healthy, a problem never really attributed to cayenne due to its heat. In terms of health side effects, there are none. As with all things, though, use with discretion and wisdom.

Conclusion

If you are concerned about your heart health, or if you are suffering from heart ailments, cayenne should be a daily staple in your diet. This incredible herb is a wonder and can tremendously affect your health. Cayenne is one of the greatest health secrets in the world.

Cayenne certainly is a great condiment, used with panache by great cooks and chefs, but its true value lies in its medicinal qualities. Slowly and surely, its remarkable benefits are gaining awareness by a public becoming increasingly disenchanted by traditional medicine’s non-causal approach. Perhaps now you can see why cayenne is a prince among herbs.