We are getting read for our 20th cruise in 18 years. It will be from Ft. Lauderdale to Europe and Africa and back. 42 days. A cruise line is good for wherever it goes when you want it to go. Most of the lines realize that there are folks who want to compare, so they generally don't put out bad food or take you to dangerous ports of call or have dirty cabins. Pick a cruise by where and when, then the price. Another consideration is the demographics of the passengers. I have been on ships from 8 cruise lines and the people who favor one vs. another are different. Jim

Mirroring Casey's pictures as much as possible. From a trip to Block Island at the end of July this year.

Aurora over Icelandic Fault Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado (TWAN, Earth and Stars) Explanation: Admire the beauty but fear the beast. The beauty is the aurora overhead, here taking the form of great green spiral, seen between picturesque clouds with the bright Moon to the side and stars in the background. The beast is the wave of charged particles that creates the aurora but might, one day, impair civilization. Exactly this week in 1859, following notable auroras seen all across the globe, a pulse of charged particles from a coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with a solar flare impacted Earth's magnetosphere so forcefully that they created the Carrington Event. A relatively direct path between the Sun and the Earth might have been cleared by a preceding CME. What is sure is that the Carrington Event compressed the Earth's magnetic field so violently that currents were created in telegraph wires so great that many wires sparked and gave telegraph operators shocks. Were a Carrington-class event to impact the Earth today, speculation holds that damage might occur to global power grids and electronics on a scale never yet experienced. The featured aurora was imaged last week over Thingvallavatn Lake in Iceland, a lake that partly fills a fault that divides Earth's large Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.

sabbath7...my boys a cuddle bug...now...but 3 years ago he was a mess when we got him. He's well loved. We're VERY attached to the big guy! He usually sleeps cuddled in the crook of my arm, smashed up against me. At night, he also gives "face hugs", while purring loudly, putting his paws on either side of my face, starring at me. He steals my heart about 20 times a day! Yes, Jackson Galaxy, Cat From Hell. I watch it on Utube! Good info!