If, when you first click on any graphic video link, your system
asks you if you want to play the movie in your browser answer NO and chose that as your
preferred method from now on. You want the file to actually open the Media player and not
have it play within your browser alone. Trust us when we say, it works much better that
way. The Media Player has more controls and affords image sizes that have far more clarity
of detail and thus are far more enjoyable and instructive. And don't forget a set of good
speakers that will likewise aid in your full enjoyment of the section. If you've reached
this section from the main RYO Magazine site, it has opened in a new window. If your
system can handle having two separate windows engaged simultaneously (most can) you can
return to the main site by simply closing the Multimedia Section window. If not, close the
main site now (located in the task bar of your browser). You can return to the main RYO
Magazine site at any time by clicking here
or entering http://www.ryomagazine.com in your browser's URL address window. Contact information for
this section of RYO Magazine can be found at the main publication site by returning to it
in the manner described above.
This next video is presented to you for your contemplation of
things larger than our petty squabbles over smoking, freedom of expression, how ticked off
we are at the government, and even as an alternative view of perhaps what only can be
described as institutional Dogma. Whether it is religion or health statistics, 
we need
to, on occasion, be aware of the enormity of our Universe, and the very small role we play
in the Grand Scheme, if there is even such a thing. These newest photos from the Hubble
Space Telescope came to me from an acquaintance at NASA and we thought it might be
interesting to show them to you in detail. The HST was pointed at a very dark (ostensibly
empty) part of the sky with an angle of view far less than one could achieve through a
very small soda straw. We segmented the overall picture into twelve sectors in the video
to show you close-ups of what the Hubble was looking at, resolving to a distance of nearly
15 billion light years. (For reference our Galaxy, The Milky Way, has a diameter of about
100,000 light years.) The occasional stars (bright round objects with 4 or more points of
refraction you see - like you see in Sector One of the video - are actually very dim when
seen from earth, even with a good home telescope, and all reside in our own
Galaxy. ALL of the thousands of other objects, no matter how tiny, are
entire GALAXIES (and a few other massive galaxy like objects of one sort
or another) each containing hundreds of billions of stars. Even though this was the least
populated portion of space the Hubble could find, the number of galaxies it resolved (in
about a 30 day exposure) is enormous.
There are 100 billion stars in our own galaxy alone and hundreds
of billions of galaxies (some with far more stars than ours) which we can observe - some
whose light comes from the very beginnings of time. The ramifications of the magnitude of
our Universe should allow one to put in perspective how important it is that the way we
chose to live our lives be of our choosing. We are a mere passing cloud of particles that
enjoy at least our personal definition of a life force and should ultimately answer to no
one but ourselves. We are not responsible for the Universe - we ARE, each one of us,
responsible for how we, in our tiny way, use it.
This contemplative video and all other videos in the MultiMedia
Section can be viewed at 200% magnification which Media Player allows. Simply right click
the video itself once loaded and it will give you size options. 100% is the clearest and
cleanest but 200% will give you a pretty damn good close-up and for those with 1024x768
display settings, this particular video can be viewed extremely well at the
"full screen" setting. You can also pause the video at any point with excellent
visual results. Enjoy this little Journey back in time. The light from the most distant
objects left their source nearly 15 billion years ago, a time well before even the star
whose ultimate demise coalesced into our present solar system existed.
Although anyone may download these multimedia files to their
computers for viewing at a later date, all of the material here is protected under
copyright and must never appear on any other web site or within any other commercial media
without the expressed, written permission of RYO Magazine. The formal disclaimer follows
at bottom, but first we wish to once again welcome you to what we hope will be a most
rewarding experience. Retailers and manufacturers may purchase high quality DVDs
of the videos in the MultiMedia Section. For more information contact RYO Magazine by
clicking here.
Remember, this site is for readers of legal age only. We are not only vigilant in our attempts to discourage underage
smoking, but we frankly feel that young people who do smoke, do so illogically,
unthinkingly, and for all the wrong reasons (mostly peer pressure of varying origins and
degrees). There is an entire lifetime to experience all of the vices and virtues life has
to offer. Tobacco is a substance that is to be enjoyed by those mature enough to
understand the reported inherent risks and who are capable of thoughtfully balancing those
risks with a true understanding of what may constitute reasonable tobacco usage and
enjoyment. There will be many more videos in the future on the subjects addressed by
the links at top left in addition to other video shorts as we find more and more
interesting things and ideas that are best transmitted via multimedia. Enjoy - Doug
