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Most bright stars in our Milky Way Galaxy reside in a disk. Since our Sun also resides in this disk, these stars appear to us as a diffuse band that circles the sky. The above panorama of a northern band of the Milky Way's disk covers 90 degrees and is a digitally created mosaic of several independent exposures. Scrolling right will display the rest of this spectacular picture. Visible are many bright stars, dark dust lanes, red emission nebulae, blue reflection nebulae, and clusters of stars. In addition to all this matter that we can see, astronomers suspect there exists even more dark matter that we cannot see.

This photo is even more beautiful than the usual fare from APOD — you don't want to miss it! Click on the picture for a larger view.

Kidney story

Today's San Diego Union-Tribune has a heart-warming story about a 74 year old mother receiving a kidney from her 44 year old son:

Three months later, his mother needed a kidney. While on a trip to Oshkosh, Wis., she noticed her ankles were swollen. Within a few months, her kidneys failed. She began going to dialysis treatments three times a week. The procedures exhausted her. Her health deteriorated quickly. She had a stroke and needed surgery to remove her diseased kidneys before a transplant could be considered.

The average wait for a kidney from the transplant donation list in San Diego County is two to five years, said Landes' transplant surgeon, Dr. Evan Vapnek.

Mary Lou Landes, 74, received her son's kidney May 19, 2004. The next day, he said, "she looked like she had 10 years ago. I hadn't realized how ashen she had become, and now her eye had a sparkle in it again.""Younger, healthier people can stand dialysis for many, many years, but older people don't do well," Vapnek said. "She would not have been able to wait long enough to get a kidney off the list."

A donation from a living family member wouldn't necessarily save her. She was older than the typical recipient and her health was poor. During a family dinner at an Italian restaurant in Fallbrook, Landes and his brother and sister all said they were willing to give their mother a kidney. They decided, though, that because of his job flexibility, Landes would be the best choice.

That's quite a gift mom got!

Azerbaijanis for freedom

Via Gateway Pundit, an article and photos about Azerbaijanis demonstrating for freedom:

Thousands of opposition protesters chanted "Freedom!" and carried pictures of President Bush as they marched across Azerbaijan's capital Saturday, urging the government of this U.S. ally to step down and allow free parliamentary elections this year.

The massive rally in Baku was the largest opposition demonstration in the former Soviet republic since October 2003, when one person died and nearly 200 were injured in clashes between police and demonstrators protesting vote-rigging in the presidential election.

Tensions have been building steadily in this oil-rich Caspian Sea nation in the run-up to parliamentary elections set for November, leading some observers to predict that Azerbaijan could see a massive uprising similar to those that toppled unpopular regimes in other ex-Soviet nations of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan during the past 18 months.

The Anchoress and I have the same reaction: isn't it just interesting as all get out that the protesters are holding up pictures of George W. Bush on their posters?

Think about it: in the context of today, if you're living under the bootheel of a repressive government and you work up the courage to openly demonstrate, who's your message going to be aimed at? You only have one agenda — you want help in freeing the people of your country (along with yourself, of course). So you aim your message at the one person or country that you believe will be most effective in helping you. The people of Azerbaijan apparently understand that that means George W. Bush and the United States. Not Putin and Russia, but also not...Chirac and France, Schroeder and Germany, and so on. No, you don't look to their ilk for help in freeing yourself. You look to the United States and its leader.

These pictures are good evidence that the people who really matter have figured out how the world really works. Despite the best efforts of the MSM to "educate" them.

Quote for the day

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.

   Henri Poincaré