By all measures, 2015 will be remembered as a banner year for LGBT rights in the United States
The Supreme Court gave gays and lesbians the right to wed.
Popular culture and public opinion continued to increasingly accept transgender identities and same-sex relationships. Corporate advocacy beat back state religious-freedom laws that would have provided a defense for discrimination. And there are more than 450 openly gay elected officials currently serving across the country.
But backers don’t expect the good news to continue, at least in the short term.
Getting our marriage license!!
This is how our day began, early morning, 2 years ago!
Yet our story began 38 years ago when we met in college!
We met and it was as if we’d known each other forever. Life got in the way and each went along different life paths. Yet, life brought us together again in 1996. Together, inseparable since. Two years ago, our union was legalized! ‘Til death do us part’ .. are the words that rule our lives. Happy anniversary, my love!!
Carrie Fisher had had enough of the debate over General Leia’s physical appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Carrie Fisher Fires Back at ‘Star Wars’ Age-Shamers
‘My Body Hasn’t Aged as Well as I Have’
The 59-year-old (at the time) actress’ looks have been the topic of much scrutiny in the wake of the latest installment in the legendary space saga, because the world is an ugly place and most Internet trolls would rather harass her for getting older than question why Harrison Ford continues to wear a single stud earring well into his seventies.
“My BODY hasn’t aged as well as I have,” Fisher added in her tweet. “Blow us.”
The winter solstice will fall in the early morning hours of Dec. 21-22, marking the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
The astronomical event also means it’ll be the longest day of the year for those who live south of the equator.
The solstice starts at 4:48 a.m. UTC on Dec. 22 (which is 11:48 p.m. ET on Dec. 21), the moment when the Northern Hemisphere is pointed at its farthest distance from the sun.
What is it?
The 23.5 degree tilt in Earth’s axis of rotation creates a rise and fall appearance of the sun over the course of a year. During the winter solstice, the Northern Hemisphere is pointed at its furthest distance from the sun, bringing less light and colder temperatures. The winter solstice occurs at a specific time, not just day. This year, at 12:11 p.m. EST on Saturday, Dec. 21, the sun shone directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, the farthest south the sun reaches. In the Southern Hemisphere, it was the longest day of the year.
So then what happens? After the solstice occurs, days grow longer for north of the equator, as the sun appears farther above the horizon. This movement culminates in the longest day of the year on June 21.
Is it related to Christmas?
Sort of. There’s no date in the Bible specifically pointing to Dec. 25 as the birth of Jesus Christ, so some experts believe the Christian church selected the date several centuries later, tying it to the Roman holiday Dies Natalis Solis Invictus, or the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun. The winter solstice serves a turning point in many cultures, which is why it was tied to the Mayan apocalypse scare that marked the end of the calendar and to some believers, the end of the world.
Just how short is the day?
North America will only see nine hours and 32 minutes of daylight during the solstice, and 14 hours and 28 minutes of nighttime. But the winter solstice doesn’t always happen at the same time. Next year northern dwellers can brace for the solstice at 11:03 p.m. In 2015 it will occur on Dec. 22.
What are other important dates for the sun?
The summer solstice occurs on June 21, the longest day of the year in the north. On March 21 and Sept. 21, Earth’s equator passes the center of the sun, which are known as “equinoxes.” These two dates mark the point at which hours of day and night are nearly equal.
Black Friday used to be a one-day shopping event for many retailers, but over time, with Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday coming into the mix, it’s become a big weekend-long shopping event.
With so much buzz around this shopping extravaganza, it’s not hard to buy into the circus of it all. You’ll make impulse purchases and fall into every retailers’ trap to get you to spend your small fortune in their stores. They’ll pull out all the stops to get you in their stores and then, well, I’m sure you know the rest.
Don’t be tempted by all the bold colors in the ads that draw you in and especially the low prices that get your attention. During this year’s biggest shopping event, be a smarter shopper by following some of these rules:
Each year, Americans are spending billions in a matter of days: Black Friday weekend. And while the discounts can be pretty great — how much money are shoppers ultimately saving at the end of the day?
Feral Cat Facts
Cats have lived alongside humans for more than 10,000 years. They are part of the natural landscape. Feral cats are the same species as pet cats. Feral cats, also called community or outdoor cats, live in groups called colonies and can thrive in every landscape. They are just as healthy as pet cats, but they are not socialized to humans and are therefore un-adoptable.
Trap-Neuter-Return — a humane approach to managing and caring for community cats— is the only effective method of stabilizing cat colonies. In the last decade, the number of local governments with official policies endorsing TNR has increased tenfold, with hundreds of cities and towns successfully carrying out TNR programs.
However, in the majority of cities, cats are still caught and brought to animal pounds and shelters where they are killed. The shelter system is the number one cause of death for cats in the United States. About 70% of cats who enter shelters are killed there, including virtually 100% of feral cats. That’s why it’s so important for people like you to join us for National Feral Cat Day®, and every day, to help change society and create compassionate communities for cats.
Mayagüez will be the American Capital of Culture 2015
*IT’S OFFICIAL*
This is very important to me.
Even though I was born in the San Juan are, I spent the last twenty years of my life and worked in Mayagüez before moving to the mainland.
This is an incredible honor and an awesome opportunity to expose the goodness, environmental treasures, cultural riches and incredible qualities of Puerto Rico.
La Sultana del Oeste is also American Capital of Culture, a recognition that all shared with Puerto Rico.
“With so many negative news, the country stands with the great news that the world recognizes us as Cultural Capital of the Americas,” said the mayor of Mayaguez, José Guillermo Rodriguez to be informed of the appointment.
The selection was announced by Rodriguez and Secretary of State David Bernier, once the president of the International Bureau of Cultural Capitals (IBOCC), Xavier Tudela, inform them of the decision from Barcelona (Spain). A week ago in Mayagüez Tudela met to evaluate in situ the candidacy of the city.
The IBOCC is an organization based in Barcelona for the first time has decided that this designation is shared by a city and its “country” in this case Puerto Rico.
“With this appointment it is proposed that not only celebrates the cultural capital Mayagüez, but the remaining 77 municipalities of Puerto Rico to adopt the project and integrate the management of disclosure and promotion of cultural and historical heritage of this Caribbean island” IBOCC explained in a statement.
According Tudela, from now Mayagüez and Puerto Rico will receive an outstanding international promotion during 2015, which will hold the title of American Capital of Culture through media such as Antena channel 3 International of Spain and Discovery Networks Latin America/US Hispanic, both official television project.
The American Capital of Culture, created in 1998, aims to promote inter-American integration from the cultural field and contribute to a better understanding between the peoples of the Americas, respecting their national and regional diversity and highlighting heritage while common cultural similarities.
See you in September
See you when the summer’s through
Here we are (bye, baby, goodbye)
Saying goodbye at the station (bye, baby, goodbye)
Summer vacation (bye, baby bye, baby)
Is taking you away (bye, baby, goodbye)
Have a good time but remember
There is danger in the summer moon above
Will I see you in September
Or lose you to a summer love
(counting the days ’til I’ll be with you)
(counting the hours and the minutes, too)
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”’
There’s a full moon happening in tonight, but not just any full moon. This “supermoon” is happening Saturday night.
It’s an event that happens a few times every year and is a good chance for photographers to nab a picture of the moon when it appears at its biggest and brightest.
The definition of a supermoon is when a full moon closely lines up with its perigee, or its closest point to Earth, in its orbit. The moon has a slightly eliptical orbit around Earth with one side of the orbit closer to Earth than the other. The side closest to the Earth is called the perigee and the side farthest from the Earth is known as the apogee.
Full Moon Names and Their Meanings
Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon.
Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior.
European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year. Here is the Farmers Almanac’s list of the full Moon names.
~Full Sturgeon Moon~
August
The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.
It Is What It Is 