SLIM CHANCE OF FLARES: Sunspot AR1635 is crackling with low-level C-class solar flares. There is a slim chance of stronger flares: NOAA forecasters put the odds of an M-class eruption on Dec. 27th at 5%. Overall, solar activity is very low and is likely to remain so for the rest of the week. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

VAN GOGH CLOUDS: On Christmas morning, Gene Hart of Jonesport, Maine, woke up early to enjoy the sunrise before opening presents. What he saw may have been the best gift of all. "There was a cloud formation showing a remarkable series of wave shapes," says Hart. "They were backlit by the rising sun over Moosabec Reach." He snapped this picture of the harbor using a 14-megapixel digital camera:

"I also took some 28x zoom images of the wave structure," says Hart. The close-ups are a must-see.

This bird often comes to eat with me (a local dove… it is NOT a pigeon and it does not SPEAK ‘Pidgin’). I bring walnuts (the favorite of the doves) and break them up to feed them. And now they are eating off my finger, most of the time. When I am in the midst of doing this, it is all that matters. At that moment. In that moment.

I often speak with them, and tell them how sweet they are and how much I appreciate them. Many of them have differently formed feet (club feet). And this particular dove has a thread of some kind that’s wrapped around both legs. Yet he/she still walks, and flies, and eats walnuts. One day I’ll figure out how to clip off that thread that’s restricting its movement.

Today I felt I HAD to come down here to Java. I had a release ceremony that I felt MUST be done today. Water from Anahola Bay (Kauai), where an important part of the 9-9-12 mission was perform, was released into the ocean in the vortex here at Kailua Bay.