CPT Twit - Some Fairy Tales will never go away - Princess Diana - 58 years since birth - 22 years since death - Born July 1, 1961 - Died August 31, 1997

[CPT Twit for those bored with Tweets]

This is the video Elton John made honoring his dear friend Diana.

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Videos of Ringling Brothers Greatest Show on Earth and Final Performance

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We are pleased to provide you with a series of videos documenting the history of The Greatest Show on Earth as well as a full showing of the last performance of this exceptional piece of Americana history.  For full screen double click the video - then hit Escape key to return to menu.

Final Show Ending Speech

Last Arrival of Ringling Train

Last Train from Florida

We'll see you down the road

Final Staff Dance

Ringling Brothers History

History of Greatest Show on Earth

Fox Farewell to Ringling

CBS Farewell to Ringling

YouTube Full Broadcast last show

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CPT Twit - Another Piece of Americana Bites the Dust - Ringling Brothers Circus closes today after 146 years

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Leaving the life: The final days of the Ringling Bros. Circus

Performers hugging

Ringmaster Kristen Michelle Wilson, right, hugs a member of the crew after the red unit’s final performance, Sunday, May 7, 2017, in Providence, R.I. For the performers who travel with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, its demise means the end of a unique way of life for hundreds of performers and crew members. (Photo: Julie Jacobson/AP)

An elephant stretches its trunk through a window to soothe a sick child. A woman gives birth and three months later is back performing on the high wire. A handler of big cats weeps as the beasts lope out of the ring for the last time.

These stories could come only from circus performers, and in particular one famous circus, the one immortalized as “The Greatest Show on Earth”: the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which is hanging its hat for the last time this weekend.

One of Ringling’s two traveling circuses is scheduled to perform its final show Sunday in New York. The other closed this month in Providence, and with it, the end to a way of life few others have experienced.

The final shows are May 7 at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, R.I., and May 21 at the Nassau Veterans Memorial.

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Another Warning - How Vulnerable are we to Solar Disruption?

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A massive solar storm could wipe out almost all of our modern technology without warning

·                                  Rafi Letzter

Manhattanhenge is coming. On May 30, the sun's rays will stream dramatically down the avenues of New York City's central borough. For New Yorkers used to sunsets hidden behind brick and steel canyons, it will be an awesome reminder of the sun's beauty and power.

When the sun puts its power on display, we often can't see it all or predict it in advance. But the effects can be world-changing.

The last truly massive display of Sol's power happened in 1859, when an invisible wave crashed into the Earth.

Electrons, swept up like so much detritus in the magnetic current, coursed along telegraph wires. When they met an obstacle, like the hand of a telegraph operator, they crashed through it — delivering a sharp shock.

Papers in telegraph offices caught fire. Operators found that even if telegraphs weren't connected to power, the giddy subatomic stream could carry messages over vast distances. Lights danced in the sky.

It was the largest solar storm ever recorded. If it happened today, it would jeopardize global telecommunications, knock out orbiting satellites, and threaten to kill astronauts.

We'd have some warning, as instruments all over the world and in space now monitor the sun every second of the day. But even at the speed of light, a massive solar flare's telltale flash of radiation would leave humanity between just a few minutes and — if we were very lucky — a day to prepare for the wave of charged particles surging toward us through space.

Amazingly, in 1859, before all that monitoring equipment was put in place, an astronomer spotted the flare before the storm reached Earth.

Carrington's observation. The figures labeled A and B represent the flare. 

At 11:18 a.m. on September 1, the English astronomer Richard Carrington stood in his private observatory recording sunspots on an image of the sun projected through his telescope onto a small screen.

"Two patches of intensely bright and white light broke out," he wrote in his report, "Description of a Singular Appearance seen in the Sun," for the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"My first impression was that by some chance a ray of light had penetrated a hole in the screen attached to the object-glass, by which the general image is thrown into shade, for the brilliancy was fully equal to that of direct sunlight," he wrote.

The next morning before sunrise, "skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight," according to NASA. "Indeed, stunning auroras pulsated even at near tropical latitudes over Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Hawaii."

Spacewalking astronauts might have only minutes after the first flash of light to find shelter. ... Their spacecraft would probably have adequate shielding; the key would be getting inside in time.

In the (mostly) preelectric world of 1859, most of humanity experienced the storm as little more than a strange light show — if they were even awake to see it. And aside from a few smarting fingers, it doesn't seem to have harmed anyone in the long term.

As our world has become more reliant on electronics in the last century and a half, we've had few glimpses of the potential dangers of solar storms to our new infrastructure. Since 1972, NASA has recorded three instances of solar storms significantly disrupting daily life.

The latest example was in 2005, when X-rays from a solar flare disrupted satellite-to-ground communication and the GPS system for about 10 minutes — threatening satellite-guided air, sea, and land travel.

But none of those storms come close to the scale of the 1859 monster, known as the Carrington Event.

If a Carrington Event happened today, the world likely would have to deal with the simultaneous loss of GPS, cellphone reception, and much of the power grid. The global aircraft fleet might have to coordinate an unprecedented mass grounding without satellite guidance. Unguarded electronic infrastructure could fail outright.

We'd all have to wait — at least in the short term — for tomorrow's newspaper to come out to learn details of the aftermath.

"Humans in space would be in peril, too," NASA wrote. "Spacewalking astronauts might have only minutes after the first flash of light to find shelter from energetic solar particles following close on the heels of those initial photons. Their spacecraft would probably have adequate shielding; the key would be getting inside in time."

The best available estimates suggest a modern Carrington Event would cost humanity $1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year and take another four to 10 years to achieve full recovery. A 2007 NASA estimate found that the damage to the satellite fleet would cost between $30 billion and $70 billion.

Fortunately, Carrington Event-level storms seem pretty rare, occurring perhaps once in 500 years. But we have no reliable way of predicting when the next one could happen. So this Manhattanhenge, enjoy the sunset — but remember its deadly power.

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Arizona Women's Softball Team seeks 9th National Championship - A Proud Alumni

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When you have something good to talk about, then talk about it.  My college, the University of Arizona in Tucson, gives one many reasons for having a little pride not the least of which is the amazing accomplishments of the Women's Softball team.

Arizona has won eight NCAA national championships, second only to fellow conference member UCLA. Speaking of conference, the PAC 12 continues to be the dominate conference with an incredible five teams in the top 11 tournament rankings.

Besides Arizona as the number two national seed, other PAC 12 seeds include Oregon No. 3, UCLA No. 5, Washington No.6, and Utah No. 11.  All are hosts teams for the first rounds.  Arizona won the conference championship against the best competition in the nation.

In the trivia column the Wildcats will be playing in their 31st consecutive NCAA championship, more than any other school in history.  Arizona coach Mike Candrea, the most successful softball coach in Arizona history, was a graduate of Arizona's bitter instate rival the ASU Sub Devils.

Two Arizona players out of ten nationwide are nominated for the most prestigious award in women's softball, the NCAA Player of the Year.

Katiyana Mauga broke the career home run record for the Wildcats.

Danielle O'Toole, star pitcher led the nation in wins the past two seasons.

Add to that freshman Jessie Harper winning other honors and you have one celebrated bunch.

Here is what SB Nation had to say about the Cats.

    

NCAA Softball Tournament bracket: Arizona hosts New Mexico State, St. Francis (PA), and South Carolina

The road to OKC goes through Tucson

by Jason Bartel  May 14, 2017, 7:35pm PDT

For the 31st consecutive season, the Arizona Wildcats are in the NCAA Softball Tournament.
This wasn’t a question heading into Sunday night since Arizona had clinched an auto-bid with its first Pac-12 title since 2007, but the question really was would they be a national seed and be guaranteed to stay in Tucson the first two weekends?

Well, they are a national seed — No. 2 to be exact — and will have the opportunity to host a Super Regional for the first time since 2011 assuming they can get through the first weekend.
The No. 2 national seed is the highest Arizona is ranked in the tournament since 2007, which happens to be the same year as the program’s most recent National Championship.

The Wildcats, who have a 48-7 overall record this year (18-6 Pac-12), will welcome New Mexico State, St. Francis (PA), and South Carolina to Tucson this coming weekend.

Tucson Regional:
South Carolina vs. Saint Francis (PA)
New Mexico State vs. Arizona

10:28 PM - 14 May 2017

The Regional round is a four-team, double elimination pool. Arizona will play NMSU first, and then progress from there throughout the weekend. The first game for U of A will begin at approximately 6:30 PM PT and will be broadcast on ESPNU.

The Super Regional round is still a best-of-three format, but will take place over three days instead of the customary two days in the softball tournament.

If Arizona does indeed win its regional, they would play the winner of the Waco Regional, which includes Baylor, Kent State, Oregon State, and James Madison.


In other Pac-12 news, Oregon is the No. 3 national seed, while UCLA is the No. 5 seed. Washington is the No. 6 seed and Utah is the No. 11 seed, making it five different Pac-12 host sites. ASU will travel to the Oxford Regional to potentially face Ole Miss. Former Wildcat Taryne Mowatt is on the Rebels’ coaching staff. Cal will travel to Auburn.
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Fatima mystery blends visions, miracles and supernatural

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NICOLE WINFIELD and BARRY HATTON,Associated Press Wed, May 10 3:28 AM PDT 

VATICAN CITY (AP) — When Pope Francis travels to the Portuguese town of Fatima this weekend, he will be lending his blessing to a religious phenomenon that has captivated Catholics for a century: It involves visions of the Virgin Mary, supernatural meteorological events and apocalyptic prophesies of hell, Soviet communism and the death of a pope.

For doubters, the Fatima story is a trumped-up tale built around hallucinations. For believers, Fatima's message of peace, prayer and conversion from sin is as relevant today as it was 100 years ago, when three illiterate shepherd children first reported seeing visions of the Madonna.

The pope will canonize two of those children on Saturday and is likely to make his own Fatima message of peace and conversion as a weapon against secularism and the persecution of Christians today.

Here are details about Francis' Friday-Saturday trip to Fatima.

WHAT HAPPENED AT FATIMA?

The three shepherd children, siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto and their cousin Lucia aged between 7 and 10 at the time, said the Virgin Mary appeared to them six times in 1917 and confided to them three secrets. The first two described an apocalyptic image of hell, foretold the end of World War I and the start of World War II, and the rise and fall of Soviet communism.

In 2000, the Vatican disclosed the long-awaited third secret, describing it as foretelling the May 13, 1981, assassination attempt against St. John Paul II in St. Peter's Square.

John Paul credited the Virgin Mary with saving his life. One of the bullets fired at him rests in the crown of the statue of the Virgin at the shrine.

Portuguese church officials initially doubted the veracity of the apparitions. Many doubters, though, became believers after the so-called "Miracle of the Sun" on Oct. 13, 1917. According to legend, the Fatima "seers" had predicted that the Virgin would perform a miracle that day, and tens of thousands of people flocked to Fatima and saw what witnesses reported was a vision of the sun "spinning" in the sky and zigzagging toward Earth.

The Portuguese church declared the visions authentic in 1930.

WHAT WAS GOING ON AT THE TIME?

At the time of the apparitions, Europe was still in the grip of World War I and Portugal's Catholic Church was facing a crisis after Portugal became a republic in 1910.

The republican government introduced a host of anti-clerical laws, including prohibiting religious teaching at schools. Priests and bishops were exiled.

In that context, the visions helped reinvigorate a persecuted church, giving it "a strong eruption of the supernatural in that difficult moment," said Monsignor Carlos Azevedo, who headed the commission that compiled 15 volumes of Fatima documentation.

Church officials point to the reported secrets about a Second World War, the dangers of Soviet communism and the persecution of the pope and Christians in general, as evidence of Fatima's prophetic message.

WHAT DO PEOPLE DO IN FATIMA?

Like the shrine at Lourdes, France, Fatima draws millions of pilgrims from around the world — about 6 million annually — to give thanks to Our Lady of Fatima, or to pray for help.

Many walk to the town, which is 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Lisbon. Some complete the last few hundred meters (yards) on their knees. Others toss wax limbs into a fire beside the Chapel of the Apparitions as they recite prayers for healing.

The shrine also contains dozens of shops where trinkets are sold alongside rosaries, bibles and assorted images of the Virgin Mary, including one that changes color with the weather.

WHY IS THE POPE GOING NOW?

Initially, Francis had planned to travel to Fatima merely to mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions. Francis added a bonus event to his visit by announcing in March that he had approved the miracle needed to make saints of Francisco and Jacinta Marto — who died of influenza within two years of the initial apparitions.

He will be the fourth pontiff to visit Fatima, after Pope Paul VI marked the 50th anniversary in 1967, John Paul came three times and Benedict XVI visited once, in 2010.

After becoming a nun, Lucia became the main raconteur of the Fatima secrets. She died in 2005. In February of this year, Portuguese church officials completed the first phase of her beatification cause by sending more than 15,000 pages of testimony and documentation to the Vatican for review.

WHAT WILL THE POPE DO IN FATIMA?

Francis arrives on Friday afternoon and meets privately with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

After a spin in his popemobile at Fatima, he'll pray at the chapel dedicated to the apparitions and send a greeting out to the crowd, which is expected to number up to 1 million people.

On Saturday, Francis meets with Prime Minister Antonio Costa and visits the basilica built on the site where the children reported the first apparition. He'll celebrate the canonization Mass in the main square, lunch with his bishops, and return to Rome in the evening.

Barry Hatton reported from Fatima, Portugal.

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