Jupiter and tonight's Full Moon

Space Weather News for May 31, 2007


BLUE MOON & JUPITER: According to folklore, tonight's Full Moon over North America is a "Blue Moon" because it is the second full Moon in a calendar month. If you go outside to look at the Blue Moon, you'll see it has a companion: Jupiter. All night long, the giant planet will be located right beside the Moon. You can see the bright pair with the naked eye, or for a real treat, scan them with a backyard telescope. The moons of Jupiter, lunar mountains and craters, and the Great Red Spot are surprisingly easy to see.

A REAL BLUE MOON! Blue Moons are supposed to be absurd, but on May 21st, the Moon over Hungary really did turn blue. Onlookers describe it as a "unique and unforgettable" experience.

Visit SpaceWeather.com to view photos of the display and to learn what caused it.

Blue Moon? Au contraire, says NPR and Kelley Beatty, editor of Night Sky magazine, and executive editor of Sky and Telescope.

NPR has the scoop on why this isn't really a Blue Moon and what one really is--and how the mistake has been passed down since 1946.

Still it should be a lovely sight--jolly guru Jupiter hanging out with the Full Moon!

And here's my own Full Moon May 31: an ape riding a wolf post at Jude's Threshold which you may wish to check out.

scandal: the love nest of J. Steven Griles

This photo is from the WaPo article of Feb 14, 2007 linked above concerning the now-brewing scandal which may--should--impact the Bush administration all the way to Cheney and his nibs himself.

It concerns Sue Ellen Woodridge, former top "environmental prosecutor" in the US Justice Dept--who resigned in January, and J.Steven Griles, a man who has been mysteriously protected from harm even as the questions mounted about his conflict of interests in "regulating" the industry he had worked for.

As David Hirsch, director of Friends of the Earth, says of Griles, "he spent four years working for his former clients at the Dept. of Interior. It didn't seem to matter how many problems came out, he just kept going. He's the Energizer Bunny of conflict of interest."

So who knew of the purchase of this vacation home on Kiowah Island, SC? Who facilitated and protected Griles through the years?

And who thought he and his girlfriend Sue Ellen Wooldridge could purchase a $980,000 home in partnership with Donald Duncan, VP of Conoco-Phillips--America's 3rd largest oil company--and that no one would notice the champaign bottles in the morning trash?

Was it a love nest meant for three? Eeeu-u-uwwww.


You may remember that Griles resigned from the Bush administration in Jan 2005 and is supposedly still under investigation for his part in casino shenanigans in the Jack Abramoff affair.

Yes, he's being investigated by the same Justice Dept in which Sue Ellen, his lady love, worked as mentioned above...until Jan 2007. And she's the culprit who signed off on Conoco-Phillips' we'd-rather-not desires concerning the SUPERFUND fines levied against them for cleaning up 9 of their spewing oil refineries...she signed just before she resigned!

Conoco's reluctance is odd, and may I say, anti-social, given that oil companies have been enjoying such obscene profits of late, isn't it?


J. Steven Griles:

Two of the more interesting midpoints in Steven Griles' natal chart (Dec 13, 1947, Clover, VA) have to be these (birth time not needed to appreciate, nor the correct Clover, for there are two):

Jupiter/Pluto = Neptune (of oil and deception fame!): omitting key facts; tendency toward deception; adjusting the data; working a situation into one's own format; cheating.

Mercury/Pluto = Nep: cunning; falsehood; slander; defamation; libel; calumny; the pursuit of peculiar plans; overdoing issues drains energy and wears out one's welcome.

The italics are mine for Mr. Oil Lobbyist.

And anyone who knew anything knew from the time Griles was brought into this administration that it'd be naive to suggest that this man's sway over his Washington turf could have turned out otherwise than scandal and thievery a la Dick Cheney.

Plus, you'd think Sue Ellen could've done better in her search for romance and perhaps the soup she's now swimming in may lead her to the same conclusion.

We'll see if Bush and Cheney , the oil twins, can continue protecting these--pardon my French--criminals...just two more examples of the illusory Bush administration's "integrity."

For more info, check out Steve Curwood's interview with Prof Jonathan Turley...you'll find the transcript at:

Living On Earth and you may also listen to the interview if you missed it on NPR today. Got iPod? Then you're good to go.