Yes, the “great Mars hoax” email is back. Since 2003, the email seems to make rounds at least once a year, claiming Mars will appear as large as the full moon in late August.
Sorry to say, that’s not going to happen.
The email got started in 2003. In August of that year, Mars came within 56 million km of Earth, the closest approach in 60,000 years. It was an impressive event. But even then, when the planet was a breathtaking magnitude -2.9, Mars measured about 25 arc-seconds across. That’s about 75x smaller than the full moon.
As it turns out, the original email about the close approach of Mars correctly mentioned this fact. It said:
“The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles (55,763,108 km) of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.”
This was true… in a telescope at 75x, Mars would subtend an angle of about 1/2 degree, the same as the full moon.
I suspect when the email was forwarded, eventually the words “At a modest 75-power magnification…” were left out. That’s when the confusion began. And on some versions of the email, the year in which the event took place was left out, which is why the email seems to get most traffic just before August.
To be fair, I think the email going around today isn’t really a hoax, but a misunderstanding. But if it appears in your inbox, remember, its claims are completely bogus, although they was founded in fact back in 2003.
Right now, Mars is about 250 million kilometers away and appears almost 5x smaller than it was in August 2003. At a puny 6 arc-seconds across, it’s putting on a middling show in the early morning sky. You can see it between Venus and the Pleiades, right above Orion.
Because Mars is so far away, you won’t see much surface detail on its surface, even in a powerful telescope.
The best planet for viewing this month is Jupiter, visible in the southeast sky after 10 p.m. local time. It’s the brightest object in that part of the sky (except for the moon).
source....
Friday, July 31, 2009
Antares
Antares, the "heart" of Scorpius, the scorpion, is the bright orange star just to the right of the Moon this evening. The star is so large that if it took the Sun's place in our solar system, it would swallow the four innermost planets, including Earth.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Thursday, July 30, 2009
JUPITER'S IMPACT CLOUD EXPANDS
Jupiter's impact cloud is expanding. On July 19th, when it was discovered by amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley, the dark mark near Jupiter's south pole was barely visible in backyard telescopes. Five days later Wesley photographed the impact cloud again and found that it had approximately tripled in size.
High-resolution images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal what's happening: turbulence and jet streams in Jupiter's atmosphere are causing the cloud to spread out. The vast impact site is now tens of thousands of times wider than the 100m-class comet or asteroid that created it.
The expansion of the cloud makes it easier than ever to see through a backyard telescope. The cloud is located near Jupiter's System II longitude 210°. For the predicted times when it will cross the planet's central meridian, add 2 hours and 6 minutes to Sky and Telescope's predicted transit times for Jupiter's Great Red Spot.
source....
High-resolution images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal what's happening: turbulence and jet streams in Jupiter's atmosphere are causing the cloud to spread out. The vast impact site is now tens of thousands of times wider than the 100m-class comet or asteroid that created it.
The expansion of the cloud makes it easier than ever to see through a backyard telescope. The cloud is located near Jupiter's System II longitude 210°. For the predicted times when it will cross the planet's central meridian, add 2 hours and 6 minutes to Sky and Telescope's predicted transit times for Jupiter's Great Red Spot.
source....
M4
What may be the closest globular cluster to Earth appears in the south on summer nights, but you need binoculars to see it. M4 contains several hundred thousand stars. It is probably about 6,000 light years away. It is visible through binoculars to the right of the orange star Antares, which is low in the south as darkness falls.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
SPLIT SPACESHIPS
Yesterday, space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station in preparation for a July 31st return to Earth. The split means there are now two bright spacecraft orbiting Earth.
source....
source....
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Black River State Forest Conditions as of Monday, July 27, 2009
All-terrain Vehicle (ATV) Trails
Work has begun on upgrading the wetland crossings on a 1.1-mile section of trail from Wildcat Road heading west (see map [PDF, 568KB]). For this week this section of trail will be open while we haul material in. Please drive cautiously on this section of trail. Starting August 3 this section of trail will be closed during the week for construction. The trail will open by 4 p.m. Friday, August 7, for weekend riding. We expect this work to take 2 to 3 weeks.
An example of a recently upgraded section of trail can be found North of the Highway 54 parking lot to Bartos road. These projects will protect the long term sustainability of the trail system and lessen the frequency of trail closings due to large rainfalls. Over the course of the next two years we hope to upgrade all wetland crossings on the property.
source....
Work has begun on upgrading the wetland crossings on a 1.1-mile section of trail from Wildcat Road heading west (see map [PDF, 568KB]). For this week this section of trail will be open while we haul material in. Please drive cautiously on this section of trail. Starting August 3 this section of trail will be closed during the week for construction. The trail will open by 4 p.m. Friday, August 7, for weekend riding. We expect this work to take 2 to 3 weeks.
An example of a recently upgraded section of trail can be found North of the Highway 54 parking lot to Bartos road. These projects will protect the long term sustainability of the trail system and lessen the frequency of trail closings due to large rainfalls. Over the course of the next two years we hope to upgrade all wetland crossings on the property.
source....
Hot or Cold? Solar “Silence”, CO2 Emisions, and Climate Change
In stark contrast to our modern concern over global warming, the April 28 1975 edition of Newsweek featured an analysis regarding the threat of global cooling:
The central fact is that after three quarters of a century of extraordinarily mild conditions, the earth’s climate seems to be cooling down. Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend, as well as over its specific impact on local weather conditions. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. If the climatic change is as profound as some of the pessimists fear, the resulting famines could be catastrophic. “A major climatic change would force economic and social adjustments on a worldwide scale,” warns a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences, “because the global patterns of food production and population that have evolved are implicitly dependent on the climate of the present century.”
Evidence used to support this survey included research by Dr. Murray Mitchell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which indicated
• A drop of half a degree in average ground temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere between 1945 and 1968
• Satellite photos indicating a sudden, large increase in Northern Hemisphere snow cover in the winter of 1971-72 (observed by George Kukla of Columbia University)
• And a study released in March of 1975 by NOAA scientists, which noted that “the amount of sunshine reaching the ground in the continental U.S. diminished by 1.3% between 1964 and 1972”
As ridiculous as many would assert claims of “global cooling” are in the world of today, there are nonetheless proponents of this, as well as those who think that factors outside of industrial emissions of CO2 gasses might be to blame for climate change on Earth; namely our sun.
On July 20, the New York Times reported “Among some global warming skeptics, there is speculation that the Sun may be on the verge of falling into an extended slumber similar to the so-called Maunder Minimum, several sunspot-scarce decades during the 17th and 18th centuries that coincided with an extended chilly period.” In fact, many skeptics say it’s no coincidence that increases in sunspot activity and global temperatures on Earth are happening in accordance with one another. Some even warn that regulation of carbon emissions may have negative ramifications for our economy and energy infrastructure if proven wrong years from now, once dollars are poured into stopping a non-existent threat.
“Many climate scientists agree that sunspots and solar wind could be playing a role in climate change, but the vast majority view it as very minimal and attribute Earth’s warming primarily to emissions from industrial activity,” editors with E Magazine recently told The Christian Science Monitor. “And they have thousands of peer-reviewed studies to back up that claim.”
For instance, solar astronomer Peter Foukal has tracked sunspot activity dating back four centuries, and also concludes that such solar disturbances have little or no impact on global warming. “Nevertheless,” he adds, “most up-to-date climate models incorporate the effects of the sun’s variable degree of brightness into their overall calculations.” But does this indicate conclusively that the sun isn’t playing a key role in temperature changes? After all, NASA has observed an almost frighteningly “quiet” solar surface beginning in early 2009, which continues at present.
Though conclusive evidence that removes the sun from question regarding global warming has yet to be produced, elsewhere, other sources for potential warming have been examined. Such research may indicate that even if the sun isn’t the culprit, CO2 emissions may not be the key factor in climate change either, with fingers pointing at things like soot instead. Science reported earlier this month that satellite data shows the assumed cooling effect of aerosols in the atmosphere to be significantly less than previously estimated. “Unfortunately, the assumed greater cooling has been used in climate models for years. In such models, the global-mean warming is determined by the balance of the radiative forcings—warming by greenhouse gases balanced against cooling by aerosols. Since a greater cooling effect has been used in climate models, the result has been to credit CO2 with a larger warming effect than it really has,” Doug Hoffman writes at the website The Resilient Earth.
Whether or not CO2 is the culprit, we can’t ignore that fact that global climate changes of the same magnitude we are presently witnessing have occurred in the past. Nicholas Asheshov wrote in his article “Opportunity Knocks, Again, in the Andes” about a recent study titled Putting the Rise of the Inca within a Climatic and Land Management Context by Alex Chepstow-Lusty, an English paleo-biologist working for the French Institute of Andean Studies, in Lima. Chepstow-Lusty found evidence in core samples from glaciers and from the mud beneath lakes in the Andes, the Amazon and elsewhere, which “have built up a history of the world’s climate and the message is crystal clear. It is that changes have taken place in the past, during the six or seven thousand years of our agriculture-based civilizations, that are just as big as the ones we are facing from today’s CO2 warming.” Interestingly enough, he cites these global changes as conducive to the rise of the Inca Empire, whose rise to power in the region coincided with the temperature increases.
If one cares to look, it appears that a wealth of information exists which seems to indicate that global warming—and cooling—have occurred in Earth’s past. But does that mean that current preoccupation with CO2 emissions, greenhouse gases, and other causes for climate change are the result of too much bias in research, or even worse, the product of negligence? Could it even be that “powers that be” influence what research takes place in order to fuel political conspiracies, regardless as to what kinds of evidence more balanced studies might provide?
“There doesn’t necessarily need to be a conspiracy,” writes Joanne Nova in her article “Climate Money”. “It doesn’t require any centrally coordinated deceit or covert instructions to operate. Instead it’s the lack of funding for the alternatives that leaves a vacuum and creates a systemic failure. The force of monopolistic funding works like a ratchet mechanism on science. Results can move in both directions, but the funding means that only results from one side of the equation get traction.“ Perhaps the evidence is out there, but rather than being purposely ignored, we haven’t gotten a clear view of it due to such disproportional allocation of available funds.
What if proponents of climate change, as we presently understand it, are wrong? If this were the case, will we be able to reconcile our present faults in understanding years on down the road… and perhaps more importantly, will we be able to afford to do so after pumping billions into research today; research that many in the scientific community still question?
For further reading, the link below provides a wealth of information that both support and challenge the debate over climate change:
Climate Debate Daily
source....
The central fact is that after three quarters of a century of extraordinarily mild conditions, the earth’s climate seems to be cooling down. Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend, as well as over its specific impact on local weather conditions. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. If the climatic change is as profound as some of the pessimists fear, the resulting famines could be catastrophic. “A major climatic change would force economic and social adjustments on a worldwide scale,” warns a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences, “because the global patterns of food production and population that have evolved are implicitly dependent on the climate of the present century.”
Evidence used to support this survey included research by Dr. Murray Mitchell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which indicated
• A drop of half a degree in average ground temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere between 1945 and 1968
• Satellite photos indicating a sudden, large increase in Northern Hemisphere snow cover in the winter of 1971-72 (observed by George Kukla of Columbia University)
• And a study released in March of 1975 by NOAA scientists, which noted that “the amount of sunshine reaching the ground in the continental U.S. diminished by 1.3% between 1964 and 1972”
As ridiculous as many would assert claims of “global cooling” are in the world of today, there are nonetheless proponents of this, as well as those who think that factors outside of industrial emissions of CO2 gasses might be to blame for climate change on Earth; namely our sun.
On July 20, the New York Times reported “Among some global warming skeptics, there is speculation that the Sun may be on the verge of falling into an extended slumber similar to the so-called Maunder Minimum, several sunspot-scarce decades during the 17th and 18th centuries that coincided with an extended chilly period.” In fact, many skeptics say it’s no coincidence that increases in sunspot activity and global temperatures on Earth are happening in accordance with one another. Some even warn that regulation of carbon emissions may have negative ramifications for our economy and energy infrastructure if proven wrong years from now, once dollars are poured into stopping a non-existent threat.
“Many climate scientists agree that sunspots and solar wind could be playing a role in climate change, but the vast majority view it as very minimal and attribute Earth’s warming primarily to emissions from industrial activity,” editors with E Magazine recently told The Christian Science Monitor. “And they have thousands of peer-reviewed studies to back up that claim.”
For instance, solar astronomer Peter Foukal has tracked sunspot activity dating back four centuries, and also concludes that such solar disturbances have little or no impact on global warming. “Nevertheless,” he adds, “most up-to-date climate models incorporate the effects of the sun’s variable degree of brightness into their overall calculations.” But does this indicate conclusively that the sun isn’t playing a key role in temperature changes? After all, NASA has observed an almost frighteningly “quiet” solar surface beginning in early 2009, which continues at present.
Though conclusive evidence that removes the sun from question regarding global warming has yet to be produced, elsewhere, other sources for potential warming have been examined. Such research may indicate that even if the sun isn’t the culprit, CO2 emissions may not be the key factor in climate change either, with fingers pointing at things like soot instead. Science reported earlier this month that satellite data shows the assumed cooling effect of aerosols in the atmosphere to be significantly less than previously estimated. “Unfortunately, the assumed greater cooling has been used in climate models for years. In such models, the global-mean warming is determined by the balance of the radiative forcings—warming by greenhouse gases balanced against cooling by aerosols. Since a greater cooling effect has been used in climate models, the result has been to credit CO2 with a larger warming effect than it really has,” Doug Hoffman writes at the website The Resilient Earth.
Whether or not CO2 is the culprit, we can’t ignore that fact that global climate changes of the same magnitude we are presently witnessing have occurred in the past. Nicholas Asheshov wrote in his article “Opportunity Knocks, Again, in the Andes” about a recent study titled Putting the Rise of the Inca within a Climatic and Land Management Context by Alex Chepstow-Lusty, an English paleo-biologist working for the French Institute of Andean Studies, in Lima. Chepstow-Lusty found evidence in core samples from glaciers and from the mud beneath lakes in the Andes, the Amazon and elsewhere, which “have built up a history of the world’s climate and the message is crystal clear. It is that changes have taken place in the past, during the six or seven thousand years of our agriculture-based civilizations, that are just as big as the ones we are facing from today’s CO2 warming.” Interestingly enough, he cites these global changes as conducive to the rise of the Inca Empire, whose rise to power in the region coincided with the temperature increases.
If one cares to look, it appears that a wealth of information exists which seems to indicate that global warming—and cooling—have occurred in Earth’s past. But does that mean that current preoccupation with CO2 emissions, greenhouse gases, and other causes for climate change are the result of too much bias in research, or even worse, the product of negligence? Could it even be that “powers that be” influence what research takes place in order to fuel political conspiracies, regardless as to what kinds of evidence more balanced studies might provide?
“There doesn’t necessarily need to be a conspiracy,” writes Joanne Nova in her article “Climate Money”. “It doesn’t require any centrally coordinated deceit or covert instructions to operate. Instead it’s the lack of funding for the alternatives that leaves a vacuum and creates a systemic failure. The force of monopolistic funding works like a ratchet mechanism on science. Results can move in both directions, but the funding means that only results from one side of the equation get traction.“ Perhaps the evidence is out there, but rather than being purposely ignored, we haven’t gotten a clear view of it due to such disproportional allocation of available funds.
What if proponents of climate change, as we presently understand it, are wrong? If this were the case, will we be able to reconcile our present faults in understanding years on down the road… and perhaps more importantly, will we be able to afford to do so after pumping billions into research today; research that many in the scientific community still question?
For further reading, the link below provides a wealth of information that both support and challenge the debate over climate change:
Climate Debate Daily
source....
Monday, July 27, 2009
News From The Observatory - A "Feel Good" Weekend!
Ahhhh. Another great, relaxing weekend! Fun, fun, fun. That's what it's all about. No complaining, no whining, no worrying about money or spending, just simple inexpensive fun.
Surprise, surprise! Not only did we do our usual Sunday fishing, but we went on Saturday too! McGinnis Lake on Saturday and Patrick's Lake on Sunday:
On Saturday night, the clouds cleared and it was absolutely beautiful stargazing weather! There wasn't much dew, there were no mosquitoes, it was really dark, and everything worked perfectly. I had to pinch myself. I'm not sure where the mosquitoes went, maybe the stuff the crop duster put on the field killed them, that's ok with me. I started to image the Butterfly Cluster, M6. I take a few test shots first to frame the subject how I want it and make adjustments as needed. My first test shot showed not only the Butterfly, but there was also another larger cluster in the same frame! What's this? M7. Looked good to me, a two-for-one cluster picture:
While my Canon Powershot SX100 is taking multiple exposures of a target, I either look through my ETX80 if the camera isn't mounted to it, look through my little 7x35 binoculars, or just sit back and take in the view. There were so many shooting stars Saturday night! All different colors, sizes, speeds, I was awestruck! And there, in Sagittarius, was the Teapot shining brightly, tipped just a little with clouds of steam coming out of the spout, as if it was time for tea. I couldn't resist, and turned the camera on it when the Butterfly was done:
You can sure tell it's EAA time at Oshkosh! The number of small planes in the air this weekend was amazing. Some of them were rather unusual:
Planes weren't the only things flying around:
The flowers are blooming and the garden growing. We've been harvesting our winter onions since spring, and lately cucumbers. Soon we will have tomatoes. The tomatoes don't seem like any big deal, but we never plant tomato plants. We always plant seeds. We have less problems with disease that way, even if other people harvest tomatoes earlier than we do. Considering we grow them from seed, it's pretty good to be getting tomatoes ready to harvest now! The sweetcorn is tasseled and forming nice ears now too. Won't be long for that. Got some nice pumpkins on their way for the fall harvest also:
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Surprise, surprise! Not only did we do our usual Sunday fishing, but we went on Saturday too! McGinnis Lake on Saturday and Patrick's Lake on Sunday:
On Saturday night, the clouds cleared and it was absolutely beautiful stargazing weather! There wasn't much dew, there were no mosquitoes, it was really dark, and everything worked perfectly. I had to pinch myself. I'm not sure where the mosquitoes went, maybe the stuff the crop duster put on the field killed them, that's ok with me. I started to image the Butterfly Cluster, M6. I take a few test shots first to frame the subject how I want it and make adjustments as needed. My first test shot showed not only the Butterfly, but there was also another larger cluster in the same frame! What's this? M7. Looked good to me, a two-for-one cluster picture:
While my Canon Powershot SX100 is taking multiple exposures of a target, I either look through my ETX80 if the camera isn't mounted to it, look through my little 7x35 binoculars, or just sit back and take in the view. There were so many shooting stars Saturday night! All different colors, sizes, speeds, I was awestruck! And there, in Sagittarius, was the Teapot shining brightly, tipped just a little with clouds of steam coming out of the spout, as if it was time for tea. I couldn't resist, and turned the camera on it when the Butterfly was done:
You can sure tell it's EAA time at Oshkosh! The number of small planes in the air this weekend was amazing. Some of them were rather unusual:
Planes weren't the only things flying around:
The flowers are blooming and the garden growing. We've been harvesting our winter onions since spring, and lately cucumbers. Soon we will have tomatoes. The tomatoes don't seem like any big deal, but we never plant tomato plants. We always plant seeds. We have less problems with disease that way, even if other people harvest tomatoes earlier than we do. Considering we grow them from seed, it's pretty good to be getting tomatoes ready to harvest now! The sweetcorn is tasseled and forming nice ears now too. Won't be long for that. Got some nice pumpkins on their way for the fall harvest also:
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Home Burials Offer an Intimate Alternative
Webmaster's note: This is a topic that is very important to me. See my previous editorial. - quads
PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — When Nathaniel Roe, 92, died at his 18th-century farmhouse here the morning of June 6, his family did not call a funeral home to handle the arrangements.
Instead, Mr. Roe’s children, like a growing number of people nationwide, decided to care for their father in death as they had in the last months of his life. They washed Mr. Roe’s body, dressed him in his favorite Harrods tweed jacket and red Brooks Brothers tie and laid him on a bed so family members could privately say their last goodbyes.
The next day, Mr. Roe was placed in a pine coffin made by his son, along with a tuft of wool from the sheep he once kept. He was buried on his farm in a grove off a walking path he traversed each day.
“It just seemed like the natural, loving way to do things,” said Jennifer Roe-Ward, Mr. Roe’s granddaughter. “It let him have his dignity.”
Advocates say the number of home funerals, where everything from caring for the dead to the visiting hours to the building of the coffin is done at home, has soared in the last five years, putting the funerals “where home births were 30 years ago,” according to Chuck Lakin, a home funeral proponent and coffin builder in Waterville, Me.
The cost savings can be substantial, all the more important in an economic downturn. The average American funeral costs about $6,000 for the services of a funeral home, in addition to the costs of cremation or burial. A home funeral can be as inexpensive as the cost of pine for a coffin (for a backyard burial) or a few hundred dollars for cremation or several hundred dollars for cemetery costs.
The Roes spent $250.
More people are inquiring about the lower-cost options, said Joshua Slocum, director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit watchdog group. “Home funerals aren’t for everybody, but if there’s not enough money to pay the mortgage, there certainly isn’t enough money to pay for a funeral,” Mr. Slocum said.
Baby boomers who are handling arrangements for the first time are particularly looking for a more intimate experience.
“It’s organic and informal, and it’s on our terms,” said Nancy Manahan of Minneapolis, who helped care for her sister-in-law, Diane Manahan, after she died of cancer in 2001, and was a co-author of a book, “Living Consciously, Dying Gracefully,” about the experience. “It’s not having strangers intruding into the privacy of the family. It’s not outsourcing the dying process to professionals.”
While only a tiny portion of the nation’s dead are cared for at home, the number is growing. There are at least 45 organizations or individuals nationwide that help families with the process, compared with only two in 2002, Mr. Slocum said.
The cost of a death midwife, as some of the coaches call themselves, varies from about $200 for an initial consultation to $3,000 if the midwife needs to travel.
In Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska and New York, laws require that a funeral director handle human remains at some point in the process. In the 44 other states and the District of Columbia, loved ones can be responsible for the body themselves.
Families are typically required to obtain the death certificate and a burial transit permit so the body can be moved from a hospital to a cemetery, or, more typically, a crematory.
But even in states where a funeral director is required, home funerals are far less expensive.
“I think with our economy being the way that it currently is, and it’s getting worse, that many people who may not have chosen to do these types of things may be forced to because of the finances,” said Verlene McLemore, of Detroit, who held a home funeral for her son, Dean, in 2007. She spent about $1,300 for a funeral director’s services.
Some families, like the Roes, choose burial on private land, with a town permit. In most states, those rules are an issue of local control. “Can Grandma be buried in the backyard? Yes, for the most part if the backyard is rural or semirural,” said Mr. Slocum.
(Some members of Michael Jackson’s family have spoken of making Neverland Ranch near Santa Barbara the singer’s final resting place, but officials say no one has submitted an application to the California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, which would have to approve the home burial.)
Recently, some states, with the backing of the funeral industry, have considered restricting the practice of home funerals. Oregon legislators last month passed a bill that would require death midwives to be licensed, something no state currently does.
Many death midwives are like Jerrigrace Lyons, who was asked to participate in the home funeral of a close friend, a 54-year-old woman who died unexpectedly in 1994. Ms. Lyons was initially frightened at the prospect of handling the body, but she participated anyway.
The experience was life changing, she said, and inspired her to help others plan home funerals. She opened Final Passages in Sebastopol, Calif., in 1995 and said she had helped more than 300 families with funerals. Weekend workshops for those interested in home funerals have a waiting list.
Ms. Lyons educates the bereaved about the realities of after-death care: placing dry ice underneath the body to keep it cool, tying the jaw shut so it does not open.
Mr. Lakin, a woodworker, makes coffins specifically for home funerals. Ranging in price from $480 to $1,200, they double as bookcases, entertainment centers and coffee tables until they need to be used.
He became interested in home funerals after his father died 30 years ago and he felt there was a “disconnect” during the funeral process. Mr. Lakin is now a resource for funeral directors in central Maine and a local hospice.
His coffins are sold to people like Ginny Landry, 77, who wants a home funeral one day but is content to use her coffin to showcase the quilts she makes. It once stood in her bedroom, but her husband, Rudolph, made her move it to a guest room because he pictured her in the coffin every time he laid eyes on it.
“It’s very comforting to me, knowing I have it there so my children won’t have to make a decision as to where I’m going to go,” Ms. Landry said.
During her battle with cancer, Diane Manahan also requested a home funeral, and the family did not know then how much it would help them with their grief.
source....
PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — When Nathaniel Roe, 92, died at his 18th-century farmhouse here the morning of June 6, his family did not call a funeral home to handle the arrangements.
Instead, Mr. Roe’s children, like a growing number of people nationwide, decided to care for their father in death as they had in the last months of his life. They washed Mr. Roe’s body, dressed him in his favorite Harrods tweed jacket and red Brooks Brothers tie and laid him on a bed so family members could privately say their last goodbyes.
The next day, Mr. Roe was placed in a pine coffin made by his son, along with a tuft of wool from the sheep he once kept. He was buried on his farm in a grove off a walking path he traversed each day.
“It just seemed like the natural, loving way to do things,” said Jennifer Roe-Ward, Mr. Roe’s granddaughter. “It let him have his dignity.”
Advocates say the number of home funerals, where everything from caring for the dead to the visiting hours to the building of the coffin is done at home, has soared in the last five years, putting the funerals “where home births were 30 years ago,” according to Chuck Lakin, a home funeral proponent and coffin builder in Waterville, Me.
The cost savings can be substantial, all the more important in an economic downturn. The average American funeral costs about $6,000 for the services of a funeral home, in addition to the costs of cremation or burial. A home funeral can be as inexpensive as the cost of pine for a coffin (for a backyard burial) or a few hundred dollars for cremation or several hundred dollars for cemetery costs.
The Roes spent $250.
More people are inquiring about the lower-cost options, said Joshua Slocum, director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit watchdog group. “Home funerals aren’t for everybody, but if there’s not enough money to pay the mortgage, there certainly isn’t enough money to pay for a funeral,” Mr. Slocum said.
Baby boomers who are handling arrangements for the first time are particularly looking for a more intimate experience.
“It’s organic and informal, and it’s on our terms,” said Nancy Manahan of Minneapolis, who helped care for her sister-in-law, Diane Manahan, after she died of cancer in 2001, and was a co-author of a book, “Living Consciously, Dying Gracefully,” about the experience. “It’s not having strangers intruding into the privacy of the family. It’s not outsourcing the dying process to professionals.”
While only a tiny portion of the nation’s dead are cared for at home, the number is growing. There are at least 45 organizations or individuals nationwide that help families with the process, compared with only two in 2002, Mr. Slocum said.
The cost of a death midwife, as some of the coaches call themselves, varies from about $200 for an initial consultation to $3,000 if the midwife needs to travel.
In Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska and New York, laws require that a funeral director handle human remains at some point in the process. In the 44 other states and the District of Columbia, loved ones can be responsible for the body themselves.
Families are typically required to obtain the death certificate and a burial transit permit so the body can be moved from a hospital to a cemetery, or, more typically, a crematory.
But even in states where a funeral director is required, home funerals are far less expensive.
“I think with our economy being the way that it currently is, and it’s getting worse, that many people who may not have chosen to do these types of things may be forced to because of the finances,” said Verlene McLemore, of Detroit, who held a home funeral for her son, Dean, in 2007. She spent about $1,300 for a funeral director’s services.
Some families, like the Roes, choose burial on private land, with a town permit. In most states, those rules are an issue of local control. “Can Grandma be buried in the backyard? Yes, for the most part if the backyard is rural or semirural,” said Mr. Slocum.
(Some members of Michael Jackson’s family have spoken of making Neverland Ranch near Santa Barbara the singer’s final resting place, but officials say no one has submitted an application to the California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, which would have to approve the home burial.)
Recently, some states, with the backing of the funeral industry, have considered restricting the practice of home funerals. Oregon legislators last month passed a bill that would require death midwives to be licensed, something no state currently does.
Many death midwives are like Jerrigrace Lyons, who was asked to participate in the home funeral of a close friend, a 54-year-old woman who died unexpectedly in 1994. Ms. Lyons was initially frightened at the prospect of handling the body, but she participated anyway.
The experience was life changing, she said, and inspired her to help others plan home funerals. She opened Final Passages in Sebastopol, Calif., in 1995 and said she had helped more than 300 families with funerals. Weekend workshops for those interested in home funerals have a waiting list.
Ms. Lyons educates the bereaved about the realities of after-death care: placing dry ice underneath the body to keep it cool, tying the jaw shut so it does not open.
Mr. Lakin, a woodworker, makes coffins specifically for home funerals. Ranging in price from $480 to $1,200, they double as bookcases, entertainment centers and coffee tables until they need to be used.
He became interested in home funerals after his father died 30 years ago and he felt there was a “disconnect” during the funeral process. Mr. Lakin is now a resource for funeral directors in central Maine and a local hospice.
His coffins are sold to people like Ginny Landry, 77, who wants a home funeral one day but is content to use her coffin to showcase the quilts she makes. It once stood in her bedroom, but her husband, Rudolph, made her move it to a guest room because he pictured her in the coffin every time he laid eyes on it.
“It’s very comforting to me, knowing I have it there so my children won’t have to make a decision as to where I’m going to go,” Ms. Landry said.
During her battle with cancer, Diane Manahan also requested a home funeral, and the family did not know then how much it would help them with their grief.
source....
The scorpion
The scorpion is low in the south as night falls this evening. Its leading light is Antares. It forms the scorpion's bright orange heart. The head is to the upper right of Antares, while the body and tail curl to its lower left.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The Delta Aquarid meteor shower
The Delta Aquarid meteor shower is building toward its peak, which should come around Tuesday night. The Moon will set early enough to leave several hours of good meteor watching. The meteors can appear in any direction in the sky.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wood Stoves -- A Viable Home Heat Source?
The stress of rising natural gas prices is leading many consumers to rethink how they heat their homes. For some this means moving towards modern alternative energy options, while others have been turning to a more traditional method for a solution to these rising costs. In Canada and the United States, wood burning stoves have been reevaluated as a potentially viable option for home heating.
The case for modern woodstoves has developed with the improvement of the products on the market, as wood heating technology has substantially advanced in recent years. With the advanced secondary combustion systems on Environmental Protection Agency certified woodstoves, they are now 95% more efficient than their predecessors.
Dr. Paul Grogan, a plant and ecosystem ecologist and Canadian Research Chair (II) at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario conducted a case study on the benefits of woodstoves with the help of final-year undergraduate and first year graduate students. He determined that adding a woodstove to the home can help both consumers heating costs as well as the environment. The results were published in the latest edition of the Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education.
The environmental sustainability of woodstove use is dependent upon the consumption of wood from sustainably managed woodlots, as the carbon released is reused as the next generation of trees grows. Annual gross CO2 emissions did in fact increase from 12,610 kg (i.e., ~2.5 metric tons CO2/person per year) to 17,330 kg after the installation of the wood stove. But while this gross amount did increase, the net carbon released by the combustion is negligible, the only surplus coming from the harvest and transport. Based on an average growing time of 130 years before harvest for local Ontario tree species, a woodlot or forest 3.5 hectares in size would provide an indefinite supply of wood heat for a household without a net increase in carbon emissions.
In the case study, adding a woodstove to the ground floor of a 3200ft2 home reduced the mean annual gas cost by 60%; from $2260 to $880. The annual cost of the wood fuel for the woodstove amounted to $1330 for 5 full cords (a cord is 8 feet long by 4 feet high by 4 feet wide - 128ft3 ). This was a yearly savings of $50 at market fossil fuel prices of 2005-2007 without taking into account rising fossil fuel prices or the impending carbon tax. Should these variables come into play Dr. Grogan estimated that the domestic heating costs would be reduced by 25%. This translates into a potential savings of $920 in the first 3 years.
source....
The case for modern woodstoves has developed with the improvement of the products on the market, as wood heating technology has substantially advanced in recent years. With the advanced secondary combustion systems on Environmental Protection Agency certified woodstoves, they are now 95% more efficient than their predecessors.
Dr. Paul Grogan, a plant and ecosystem ecologist and Canadian Research Chair (II) at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario conducted a case study on the benefits of woodstoves with the help of final-year undergraduate and first year graduate students. He determined that adding a woodstove to the home can help both consumers heating costs as well as the environment. The results were published in the latest edition of the Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education.
The environmental sustainability of woodstove use is dependent upon the consumption of wood from sustainably managed woodlots, as the carbon released is reused as the next generation of trees grows. Annual gross CO2 emissions did in fact increase from 12,610 kg (i.e., ~2.5 metric tons CO2/person per year) to 17,330 kg after the installation of the wood stove. But while this gross amount did increase, the net carbon released by the combustion is negligible, the only surplus coming from the harvest and transport. Based on an average growing time of 130 years before harvest for local Ontario tree species, a woodlot or forest 3.5 hectares in size would provide an indefinite supply of wood heat for a household without a net increase in carbon emissions.
In the case study, adding a woodstove to the ground floor of a 3200ft2 home reduced the mean annual gas cost by 60%; from $2260 to $880. The annual cost of the wood fuel for the woodstove amounted to $1330 for 5 full cords (a cord is 8 feet long by 4 feet high by 4 feet wide - 128ft3 ). This was a yearly savings of $50 at market fossil fuel prices of 2005-2007 without taking into account rising fossil fuel prices or the impending carbon tax. Should these variables come into play Dr. Grogan estimated that the domestic heating costs would be reduced by 25%. This translates into a potential savings of $920 in the first 3 years.
source....
The crescent Moon and the planet Saturn
The crescent Moon and the planet Saturn put on a nice display this evening. Saturn looks like a bright star to the Moon's right or upper right at nightfall.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Friday, July 24, 2009
Black River State Forest Conditions
Conditions as of Friday, July 24, 2009:
All-terrain Vehicle (ATV) Trails
The section of trail from Campground Road to the Clay School Parking Lot has been re-opened. It had been closed for several weeks after heavy rainfall resulted in sections of the trail being completely water-covered. This section of trail was groomed this week along with a few other select areas of the trail. Within the past three weeks all sections of the trail have been groomed. Conditions are fair to good but of course very dusty. Ride with headlights on at all times.
Checkout the recently upgraded 2.2-mile section of the trail from Highway 54 to Bartos road. This project will protect the long term sustainability of the trail system and lessen the frequency of trail closings due to large rainfalls. Over the course of the next two years we hope to upgrade all wetland crossings on the property.
source....
All-terrain Vehicle (ATV) Trails
The section of trail from Campground Road to the Clay School Parking Lot has been re-opened. It had been closed for several weeks after heavy rainfall resulted in sections of the trail being completely water-covered. This section of trail was groomed this week along with a few other select areas of the trail. Within the past three weeks all sections of the trail have been groomed. Conditions are fair to good but of course very dusty. Ride with headlights on at all times.
Checkout the recently upgraded 2.2-mile section of the trail from Highway 54 to Bartos road. This project will protect the long term sustainability of the trail system and lessen the frequency of trail closings due to large rainfalls. Over the course of the next two years we hope to upgrade all wetland crossings on the property.
source....
Minimum Wage Raise Takes Effect
Workers earning minimum wage are getting a raise today.
Both Wisconsin and the federal minimum wage are now at $7.25 an hour. The minimum wage in the state had been $5.90 an hour. The minimum wage for tipped employees goes up 20 cents from $2.13 to $2.33 an hour.
Backers of the increase say it's long overdue for millions of the nation's working poor, but some economists say the increase could prolong the recession by forcing small businesses to lay off the same workers that the pay hike was meant to help.
Minimum-wage advocates counter the wage bump will keep more working poor afloat, and say more increases are needed to help stimulate consumer spending and strengthen businesses in the long run.
source....
Both Wisconsin and the federal minimum wage are now at $7.25 an hour. The minimum wage in the state had been $5.90 an hour. The minimum wage for tipped employees goes up 20 cents from $2.13 to $2.33 an hour.
Backers of the increase say it's long overdue for millions of the nation's working poor, but some economists say the increase could prolong the recession by forcing small businesses to lay off the same workers that the pay hike was meant to help.
Minimum-wage advocates counter the wage bump will keep more working poor afloat, and say more increases are needed to help stimulate consumer spending and strengthen businesses in the long run.
source....
Columbia County Fair
We had a great time Wednesday night at the Columbia County Fair. It's free admission, always. There isn't even a fence around the fairgrounds. And when it gets dark, they have a super fireworks show! All for free and better than any fireworks around here.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Dedication of a New Grill at the Lions Park Vine Street Shelter in Mauston
The Mauston City Council held a special meeting Tuesday night, July 21st. Councilman Dennis Nielsen announced the dedication of a new grill at the Lions Park Vine Street Shelter next Friday, July 31st, at 6pm. Through the generosity of Mauston businessman, Gary Tovsen, and the Mauston Lions a new grill/cooker and a roofed shelter has been constructed near the Vine Street Shelter at Lions Park. Tovsen will dedicate the equipment to the City in memory of his wife, Rita, who passed away earlier this year. The public can enjoy a hot-dog with chips and a soda as part of the celebration. The City will also had a bicycle give-away for the youth next Friday evening. If anyone has had a bicycle stolen in the City within the past several years...they are asked to call the Mauston Police Department at 847-6363.
source....
source....
Mastodon tooth found in trout stream
A Grant County trout stream has given up the tooth of a mastodon, an enormous, elephant-like mammal that roamed southwestern and southeastern Wisconsin during the Ice Age.
The 8.5 inch long tooth was discovered earlier this month by a Department of Natural Resources heavy equipment operator working on a trout habitat improvement project. The DNR stopped work upon the discovery, but resumed late last week after being cleared to do so by a state archeologist.
Cale Severson was working on repairing a stream bank washed away by recent flooding and found himself in a "river" of rock scattered around the valley floor. “I noticed something really odd in that pile -- seeing just two of the five cusps (of the tooth) -- and realized it probably was not a rock at that time,” he says. “I grabbed it, and out came the 8.5 inch long molar.”
“It was truly an amazing find and a once in a lifetime opportunity,” says Severson, a longtime member of DNR’s South Central Region’s trout habitat crew.
Severson called regional fishery supervisor Scot Stewart, who stopped work on the project. Work resumed late last week after Wisconsin Historical Society archeologist Sherman Banker examined the site and tooth.
Banker concluded that the find was not significant. No other bones or other artifacts were found near the tooth that might have shed more information on the animal.
“We don’t know where it came from,” says Banker, part of the society’s Division of Historic Preservation. “It got washed out of wherever its primary context was and came to rest on a pile of eroded rock. There is nothing to be learned from it other than it came from a juvenile mastodon.”
However, Banker says, mastodon finds are extremely rare in Wisconsin. “These things usually come to light every 15 to 20 years,” he says. “They have to have died in conditions conducive to being buried so scavengers don’t tear the carcasses a part.”
The remains of a large mastodon found by two children near Boaz in 1897 represent a well known Wisconsin find. The subsequent discovery in 1962 by a UW-Platteville geology professor of two spear points that may have been recovered with the Boaz mastodon created the first substantial evidence in Wisconsin that linked the Paleo-Indians with the hunting of mastodons, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society Web site.
The Boaz Mastodon is on display at the UW-Geology Museum and there is a road marker near where the boys made their discovery.
During the glacial period, mastodons were believed to have roamed over much of North America, from the Gulf of Mexico to New York and northwest to Alaska. Mastodons were smaller than mammoths and similar in size to modern-day elephants, with a height of 7 feet for females or 10 feet for males and a weight of up to six tons, according to the San Diego Natural History museum Web site.
Adult mastodons had molars that featured distinctive, cone-like cusps and gave the animal its name. The word mastodon is derived from the Greek ("mastos" for breast and odon(t) for tooth, according to the Web site.
Mastodons became extinct some time after the last North American ice sheet, and archaeologists do not know whether huge climatic changes around 8,000 years ago doomed the mastodons, or whether, as some have theorized, they were hunted to extinction, Banker says.
source....
ISS Tonight
24 Jul -3.2 21:05:56 WNW 73
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Return of the Mars Hoax
Just when you thought it was safe to check your email...
For the sixth year in a row, a message about the Red Planet is popping up in email boxes around the world. It instructs readers to go outside after dark on August 27th and behold the sky. "Mars will look as large as the full moon," it says. "No one alive today will ever see this again."
Don't believe it.
Here's what will really happen if you go outside after dark on August 27th. Nothing. Mars won't be there. On that date, the red planet will be nearly 250 million km away from Earth and completely absent from the evening sky.
The Mars Hoax got its start in 2003 when Earth and Mars really did have a close encounter. On Aug. 27th of that year, Mars was only 56 million km away, a 60,000-year record for martian close approaches to Earth. Someone sent an email alerting friends to the event. The message contained some misunderstandings and omissions—but what email doesn't? A piece of advanced technology called the "forward button" did the rest.
Tolerant readers may say that the Mars Hoax is not really a hoax, because it is not an intentional trick. The composer probably believed everything he or she wrote in the message. If that's true, a better name might be the "Mars Misunderstanding" or maybe the "Confusing-Email-About-Mars-You-Should-Delete-and-Not-Forward-to-Anyone-Except-Your-In-Laws."
Another aspect of the Mars Hoax: It says Mars will look as large as the full Moon if you magnify it 75x using a backyard telescope. The italicized text is usually omitted from verbal and written summaries of the Hoax. (For example, see the beginning of this story.) Does this fine print make the Mars Hoax true? After all, if you magnify the tiny disk of Mars 75x, it does subtend an angle about the same as the Moon.
No. Even with magnification, Mars does not look the same as a full Moon.
This has more to do with the mysterious inner workings of the human brain than cold, hard physics. Looking at Mars magnified 75x through a slender black tube (the eyepiece of a telescope) and looking at the full Moon shining unfettered in the open sky are two very different experiences.
A good reference is the Moon Illusion. Moons on the horizon look huge; Moons directly overhead look smaller. In both cases, it is the same Moon, but the human mind perceives the size of the Moon differently depending on its surroundings.
Likewise, your perception of Mars is affected by the planet's surroundings. Locate the planet at the end of a little dark tunnel, and it is going to look tiny regardless of magnification.
Bummer!
To see Mars as big as a full Moon, you'll need a rocketship, and that may take some time. Meanwhile, beware the Mars Hoax.
Addendum: If you simply must see a planet this Aug. 27th, go outside after dark and look south. Jupiter may be found shining brightly in the constellation Capricorn. Also note the quarter moon. It is having a pretty close encounter with the red, 1st-magnitude star Antares, a name which means "rival of Mars."
source....
For the sixth year in a row, a message about the Red Planet is popping up in email boxes around the world. It instructs readers to go outside after dark on August 27th and behold the sky. "Mars will look as large as the full moon," it says. "No one alive today will ever see this again."
Don't believe it.
Here's what will really happen if you go outside after dark on August 27th. Nothing. Mars won't be there. On that date, the red planet will be nearly 250 million km away from Earth and completely absent from the evening sky.
The Mars Hoax got its start in 2003 when Earth and Mars really did have a close encounter. On Aug. 27th of that year, Mars was only 56 million km away, a 60,000-year record for martian close approaches to Earth. Someone sent an email alerting friends to the event. The message contained some misunderstandings and omissions—but what email doesn't? A piece of advanced technology called the "forward button" did the rest.
Tolerant readers may say that the Mars Hoax is not really a hoax, because it is not an intentional trick. The composer probably believed everything he or she wrote in the message. If that's true, a better name might be the "Mars Misunderstanding" or maybe the "Confusing-Email-About-Mars-You-Should-Delete-and-Not-Forward-to-Anyone-Except-Your-In-Laws."
Another aspect of the Mars Hoax: It says Mars will look as large as the full Moon if you magnify it 75x using a backyard telescope. The italicized text is usually omitted from verbal and written summaries of the Hoax. (For example, see the beginning of this story.) Does this fine print make the Mars Hoax true? After all, if you magnify the tiny disk of Mars 75x, it does subtend an angle about the same as the Moon.
No. Even with magnification, Mars does not look the same as a full Moon.
This has more to do with the mysterious inner workings of the human brain than cold, hard physics. Looking at Mars magnified 75x through a slender black tube (the eyepiece of a telescope) and looking at the full Moon shining unfettered in the open sky are two very different experiences.
A good reference is the Moon Illusion. Moons on the horizon look huge; Moons directly overhead look smaller. In both cases, it is the same Moon, but the human mind perceives the size of the Moon differently depending on its surroundings.
Likewise, your perception of Mars is affected by the planet's surroundings. Locate the planet at the end of a little dark tunnel, and it is going to look tiny regardless of magnification.
Bummer!
To see Mars as big as a full Moon, you'll need a rocketship, and that may take some time. Meanwhile, beware the Mars Hoax.
Addendum: If you simply must see a planet this Aug. 27th, go outside after dark and look south. Jupiter may be found shining brightly in the constellation Capricorn. Also note the quarter moon. It is having a pretty close encounter with the red, 1st-magnitude star Antares, a name which means "rival of Mars."
source....
Draco, the dragon
Draco, the dragon, stands high in the north this evening, wrapping around the Little Dipper. None of its stars are bright, but some of them are interesting because astronomers have found planets orbiting at least one and possibly two of them.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Polaris Industries Launches New Neighborhood Vehicle
Polaris Industries Inc. announced the introduction of a low emission electric powered Neighborhood Vehicle, the Polaris Breeze, which is the first new product to be launched by the recently announced On-Road Vehicle Division.
This unique, low emission vehicle combines industry leading functionality, with the fun and freedom that consumers have come to expect from Polaris and represents the Company’s initial product entry into the electric vehicle market. The Polaris Breeze is designed for multiple consumer uses such as golfing, comfortably transporting up to four passengers, or easily carrying light cargo loads. The vehicle is targeted for consumers living in master planned communities, and will be available in limited quantities for test ride and purchase at Polaris Neighborhood Vehicle dealerships in select markets starting in September 2009.
“Innovation has always been a driving force behind the success of Polaris, and our new low emission Polaris Breeze is a perfect example of that ongoing tradition,” said Scott Wine, CEO, Polaris Industries. “Our ability to leverage Polaris’ rich history of designing and manufacturing industry leading products, combined with the creativity of our designers and engineers, is a hallmark of our company and a major component for our success. This vehicle is the latest innovation from Polaris and the first of what we expect will be a series of successful ventures into the on-road vehicle category over the coming years.”
With its entirely electric operating system, the Polaris Breeze is a lower emission vehicle than comparable gas-powered offerings and is a fuel-saving alternative to automobiles for consumers making numerous short trips within their master planned community. The new Polaris Neighborhood Vehicle is fun to ride, and is an economically and environmentally responsible means of transportation.
“Polaris is constantly looking for new opportunities to deliver consumers innovative vehicles that make transportation easier, less expensive and more fun,” said Mike Jonikas, Vice President of Polaris’ On-Road Vehicle Division. “Developing the Polaris Breeze accomplishes all three of these objectives, and is the first step in an exciting new market opportunity for Polaris.”
Over the past 55 years, Polaris has earned the reputation of manufacturing innovative and well-built products, and the Polaris Breeze is the latest in this long line of exceptional vehicles. The vehicle brings industry leading comfort and ride quality, and is engineered and designed by a company famous for creating top-in-class suspensions for off-road vehicles and snowmobiles.
source....
This unique, low emission vehicle combines industry leading functionality, with the fun and freedom that consumers have come to expect from Polaris and represents the Company’s initial product entry into the electric vehicle market. The Polaris Breeze is designed for multiple consumer uses such as golfing, comfortably transporting up to four passengers, or easily carrying light cargo loads. The vehicle is targeted for consumers living in master planned communities, and will be available in limited quantities for test ride and purchase at Polaris Neighborhood Vehicle dealerships in select markets starting in September 2009.
“Innovation has always been a driving force behind the success of Polaris, and our new low emission Polaris Breeze is a perfect example of that ongoing tradition,” said Scott Wine, CEO, Polaris Industries. “Our ability to leverage Polaris’ rich history of designing and manufacturing industry leading products, combined with the creativity of our designers and engineers, is a hallmark of our company and a major component for our success. This vehicle is the latest innovation from Polaris and the first of what we expect will be a series of successful ventures into the on-road vehicle category over the coming years.”
With its entirely electric operating system, the Polaris Breeze is a lower emission vehicle than comparable gas-powered offerings and is a fuel-saving alternative to automobiles for consumers making numerous short trips within their master planned community. The new Polaris Neighborhood Vehicle is fun to ride, and is an economically and environmentally responsible means of transportation.
“Polaris is constantly looking for new opportunities to deliver consumers innovative vehicles that make transportation easier, less expensive and more fun,” said Mike Jonikas, Vice President of Polaris’ On-Road Vehicle Division. “Developing the Polaris Breeze accomplishes all three of these objectives, and is the first step in an exciting new market opportunity for Polaris.”
Over the past 55 years, Polaris has earned the reputation of manufacturing innovative and well-built products, and the Polaris Breeze is the latest in this long line of exceptional vehicles. The vehicle brings industry leading comfort and ride quality, and is engineered and designed by a company famous for creating top-in-class suspensions for off-road vehicles and snowmobiles.
source....
ISS Tonight
23 Jul -2.4 20:41:59 NW 42
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
ISS Tonight
22 Jul -3.4 21:52:58 WNW 75
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Hundreds of galaxies
The constellation Virgo stands in the southwest this evening. Its brightest star is blue-white Spica. Hundreds of galaxies stand above and to the right of Spica. Binoculars reveal a few of them, while telescopes show even more.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
News From The Observatory - M39
I fought dew, clouds, fog, mosquitoes, and what seems like perpetual twilight. It all finally beat me, but I managed to salvage a few good exposures! I give you M39:
I headed down to the barn to milk the cows this morning and the sky was beautifully clear! I could spend another night on M39, double the number of exposures, and make it even better, but there are so many other things that I want to image yet this Summer. Like apples on the tree, so many to pick!
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
I headed down to the barn to milk the cows this morning and the sky was beautifully clear! I could spend another night on M39, double the number of exposures, and make it even better, but there are so many other things that I want to image yet this Summer. Like apples on the tree, so many to pick!
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Search Continues For Elusive Giant Earthworms
Scientists and researchers are scouring the Palouse region from eastern Washington into the Idaho panhandle in hopes of finding more of the dwindling giant Palouse earthworms, The Associated Press reported.
The almost elusive worm is said to secrete a lily-like smell when handled, spit at predators, and live in burrows 15 feet deep. There have been only a handful of sightings.
Even though there has been little research done on the Palouse worm, conservationists are asking the Obama administration to protect it as an endangered species.
Jodi Johnson-Maynard, a University of Idaho professor who is leading the search for the worm, presented a glass tube containing the preserved remains of a fat, milky-white worm that one of her graduate students found in 2005—the only confirmed example of the species.
Documented collections of the species, known locally as GPE, have occurred only in 1978, 1988, 1990 and 2005. The specimen found by Johnson-Maynard’s team is only about 6 inches long, well short of the 3 feet that early observers of the worms described in the late 1890s.
Johnson-Maynard’s researchers are working at a university research farm this summer using three different methods to try and find a living worm.
The simplest method involves just digging a hole and sifting the soil through a strainer, looking for any worms that can be studied, while the other methods are a little more involved.
One employs old-fashioned chemical warfare, pouring a liquid solution of vinegar and mustard onto the ground, irritating worms until they come to the surface. But the newest and latest method uses electricity to shock worms to the surface.
Joanna Blaszczak, a student at Cornell who is spending her summer working to find the worm alongside Shan Xu, a graduate student from Chengdu, China, and support scientist Karl Umiker, said the electro shocker is pretty cool.
The 3-foot-long metal rods are driven into the ground in small circles and then connected to batteries. They deliver up to 480 volts, meaning it could potentially fry a specimen and is dangerous to touch.
"I'm kind of bummed we haven't seen anything yet," Umiker said.
An 1897 article in The American Naturalist by Frank Smith said the GPE was described as common in the Palouse during that era. But massive agricultural development soon consumed nearly all of the unique Palouse Prairie and appeared to deal a fatal blow to the worm.
Before Idaho graduate student Yaniria Sanchez-de Leon stuck a shovel into the ground in 2005 to collect a soil sample and found the worm that now is in the tube in Johnson-Maynard's office, the mythical earth-dwellers were mostly considered extinct.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was asked to protect the worm as an endangered species, citing as proof the lack of sightings. But the agency said there simply was not enough scientific information to merit a listing.
A second request filed with the Obama administration claims to have more information on the worm and would make the GPE the only worm protected as an endangered species.
However, the agency isn't ready to comment on the petition, according to Doug Zimmer of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Seattle.
Zimmer said it was always good to see new information and good science on any species, but farmers are keeping a watchful eye on the research programs.
Dan Wood of the Washington State Farm Bureau said many farmers are concerned whether a listing is going to end up curtailing farming activities.
"I don't know if people plan to stop all farming for the possibility of a worm being somewhere," he said.
The giant Palouse earthworm is one of the few native species to North America, and has become quite popular with the public.
Johnson-Maynard said she has received calls from tourists who want to come to her office and be photographed with the specimen.
"A lot of people are curious about it," she said.
source....
The almost elusive worm is said to secrete a lily-like smell when handled, spit at predators, and live in burrows 15 feet deep. There have been only a handful of sightings.
Even though there has been little research done on the Palouse worm, conservationists are asking the Obama administration to protect it as an endangered species.
Jodi Johnson-Maynard, a University of Idaho professor who is leading the search for the worm, presented a glass tube containing the preserved remains of a fat, milky-white worm that one of her graduate students found in 2005—the only confirmed example of the species.
Documented collections of the species, known locally as GPE, have occurred only in 1978, 1988, 1990 and 2005. The specimen found by Johnson-Maynard’s team is only about 6 inches long, well short of the 3 feet that early observers of the worms described in the late 1890s.
Johnson-Maynard’s researchers are working at a university research farm this summer using three different methods to try and find a living worm.
The simplest method involves just digging a hole and sifting the soil through a strainer, looking for any worms that can be studied, while the other methods are a little more involved.
One employs old-fashioned chemical warfare, pouring a liquid solution of vinegar and mustard onto the ground, irritating worms until they come to the surface. But the newest and latest method uses electricity to shock worms to the surface.
Joanna Blaszczak, a student at Cornell who is spending her summer working to find the worm alongside Shan Xu, a graduate student from Chengdu, China, and support scientist Karl Umiker, said the electro shocker is pretty cool.
The 3-foot-long metal rods are driven into the ground in small circles and then connected to batteries. They deliver up to 480 volts, meaning it could potentially fry a specimen and is dangerous to touch.
"I'm kind of bummed we haven't seen anything yet," Umiker said.
An 1897 article in The American Naturalist by Frank Smith said the GPE was described as common in the Palouse during that era. But massive agricultural development soon consumed nearly all of the unique Palouse Prairie and appeared to deal a fatal blow to the worm.
Before Idaho graduate student Yaniria Sanchez-de Leon stuck a shovel into the ground in 2005 to collect a soil sample and found the worm that now is in the tube in Johnson-Maynard's office, the mythical earth-dwellers were mostly considered extinct.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was asked to protect the worm as an endangered species, citing as proof the lack of sightings. But the agency said there simply was not enough scientific information to merit a listing.
A second request filed with the Obama administration claims to have more information on the worm and would make the GPE the only worm protected as an endangered species.
However, the agency isn't ready to comment on the petition, according to Doug Zimmer of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Seattle.
Zimmer said it was always good to see new information and good science on any species, but farmers are keeping a watchful eye on the research programs.
Dan Wood of the Washington State Farm Bureau said many farmers are concerned whether a listing is going to end up curtailing farming activities.
"I don't know if people plan to stop all farming for the possibility of a worm being somewhere," he said.
The giant Palouse earthworm is one of the few native species to North America, and has become quite popular with the public.
Johnson-Maynard said she has received calls from tourists who want to come to her office and be photographed with the specimen.
"A lot of people are curious about it," she said.
source....
ISS Tonight
21 Jul -2.3 21:28:43 NW 41
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Monday, July 20, 2009
ISS Tonight
20 Jul -3.4 22:39:32 WNW 77
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing
This month marks the 40th anniversary of humankind's first steps on the moon. Auspiciously timed is Craig Nelson's new book, Rocket Men--one of the most detailed accounts of the period leading up to the first manned moon mission. Here, we have ten little-known Apollo 11 facts unearthed by Nelson during his research.
1. The Apollo’s Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles, and NASA couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might explode on takeoff. NASA seated its VIP spectators three and a half miles from the launchpad.
2. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone.
3. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11’s hydrogen-gas filters didn’t work, making every drink bubbly. Urinating and defecating in zero gravity, meanwhile, had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it.
4. When Apollo 11’s lunar lander, the Eagle, separated from the orbiter, the cabin wasn’t fully depressurized, resulting in a burst of gas equivalent to popping a champagne cork. It threw the module’s landing four miles off-target.
5. Pilot Neil Armstrong nearly ran out of fuel landing the Eagle, and many at mission control worried he might crash. Apollo engineer Milton Silveira, however, was relieved: His tests had shown that there was a small chance the exhaust could shoot back into the rocket as it landed and ignite the remaining propellant.
6. The "one small step for man" wasn’t actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn’t compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle’s ladder to the surface.
7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because there was no outer handle.
8. The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA’s studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over.
9. The flag was made by Sears, but NASA refused to acknowledge this because they didn’t want "another Tang."
10. The inner bladder of the space suits—the airtight liner that keeps the astronaut’s body under Earth-like pressure—and the ship’s computer’s ROM chips were handmade by teams of “little old ladies.”
source....
1. The Apollo’s Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles, and NASA couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might explode on takeoff. NASA seated its VIP spectators three and a half miles from the launchpad.
2. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone.
3. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11’s hydrogen-gas filters didn’t work, making every drink bubbly. Urinating and defecating in zero gravity, meanwhile, had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it.
4. When Apollo 11’s lunar lander, the Eagle, separated from the orbiter, the cabin wasn’t fully depressurized, resulting in a burst of gas equivalent to popping a champagne cork. It threw the module’s landing four miles off-target.
5. Pilot Neil Armstrong nearly ran out of fuel landing the Eagle, and many at mission control worried he might crash. Apollo engineer Milton Silveira, however, was relieved: His tests had shown that there was a small chance the exhaust could shoot back into the rocket as it landed and ignite the remaining propellant.
6. The "one small step for man" wasn’t actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn’t compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle’s ladder to the surface.
7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because there was no outer handle.
8. The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA’s studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over.
9. The flag was made by Sears, but NASA refused to acknowledge this because they didn’t want "another Tang."
10. The inner bladder of the space suits—the airtight liner that keeps the astronaut’s body under Earth-like pressure—and the ship’s computer’s ROM chips were handmade by teams of “little old ladies.”
source....
Sunday, July 19, 2009
I met another telescope owner!
My wife and I had a great time last night at Universe in the Park, an astronomy program presented by the University of Wisconsin. Unfortunately, there were only 6 people in attendance and it was cloudy. None of the other people were from around here. I don't even know any other local that owns, or is vaguely interested in telescopes and I've lived here all my life. The other people that were at the presentation were campers in the park.
Even though it was cloudy, the young man putting on the presentation set up a telescope for us to look at. It looked like a nice one, and much bigger than my little ETX80. Too bad the sky was completely overcast.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Even though it was cloudy, the young man putting on the presentation set up a telescope for us to look at. It looked like a nice one, and much bigger than my little ETX80. Too bad the sky was completely overcast.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
ISS Tonight
19 Jul -2.3 22:15:19 NW 40
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
How to ensure lost wallets are returned
Lost wallets which contain a snapshot of a baby are more likely to be returned to their owners, scientists have discovered.
Researchers left 240 wallets on the streets of Edinburgh last year to see how many were returned to their owners. Some of the wallets contained one of four photographs – the baby, a cute puppy, a family and a portrait of an elderly couple.
Other wallets contained a card suggesting the owner had recently made a charity donation, while a control batch contained no additional items.
Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist who supervised the experiment, said 42 per cent of the wallets were posted back in total.
Those containing the picture of the infant were most likely to trigger an honest reaction from the finder, with 88 per cent being returned, followed by those containing pictures of the puppy at 53 per cent.
Of those featuring the family snapshot, 48 per cent were sent to the return address and only 28 per cent of those with the picture of the elderly couple.
Wallets containing the charity cards and the control sample were least likely to be returned, with rates of 20 and 15 per cent respectively.
Prof Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire, said: "The baby kicked off a caring feeling in people, which is not surprising from an evolutionary perspective.
"We were amazed by the high percentage of wallets that came back."
The wallets were planted at random about a quarter of a mile apart. Snapshots were inserted into a clear plastic window inside the wallets, none of which contained money.
source....
Researchers left 240 wallets on the streets of Edinburgh last year to see how many were returned to their owners. Some of the wallets contained one of four photographs – the baby, a cute puppy, a family and a portrait of an elderly couple.
Other wallets contained a card suggesting the owner had recently made a charity donation, while a control batch contained no additional items.
Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist who supervised the experiment, said 42 per cent of the wallets were posted back in total.
Those containing the picture of the infant were most likely to trigger an honest reaction from the finder, with 88 per cent being returned, followed by those containing pictures of the puppy at 53 per cent.
Of those featuring the family snapshot, 48 per cent were sent to the return address and only 28 per cent of those with the picture of the elderly couple.
Wallets containing the charity cards and the control sample were least likely to be returned, with rates of 20 and 15 per cent respectively.
Prof Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire, said: "The baby kicked off a caring feeling in people, which is not surprising from an evolutionary perspective.
"We were amazed by the high percentage of wallets that came back."
The wallets were planted at random about a quarter of a mile apart. Snapshots were inserted into a clear plastic window inside the wallets, none of which contained money.
source....
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Air Show
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Massive Squid Washes Up on Beach in Quake Aftermath
Jumbo Humboldt squid wash up minutes after 4.0 earthquake hit off the coast of La Jolla
It was an odd start to the morning in La Jolla. First residents were jolted out of bed at 7.34 a.m. by a 4.0 magnitude earthquake that was centered 19 miles out to sea.
“I was having coffee up on the balcony and I felt it shaking,” Kate Lutkemeier said.
She wasn’t the only one.
“I heard my doors and windows rattling, thinking that somebody was trying to get in my front door actually,” La Jolla resident Mary Skeen said.
The quake was felt all over the county, which isn’t uncommon in San Diego -- but what happened just minutes later was a little fishy.
“We just got here about 15 minutes ago and Lilly, what did you see on the beach?” John Feher asked his little daughter. “Squid, squid, squid, squid, squid.” she replied.
Dozens of dazed Humboldt squid that were about three to four feet long and weighed close to 40 pounds were flapping around on La Jolla Shores beach.
“It’s like their equilibrium is all messed up and they don’t know what they’re doing and they can’t back out there,” Bill Baumann said. “It was like they got -- I don’t know -- all shook up.”
It didn’t take long for the seagulls to swoop in and start feeding on the squid, so beachgoers ran to the rescue and tried frantically to save them by throwing them back in the water. That proved to be a difficult task for several reasons -- they were extremely heavy, very slippery, and when the good Samaritans did manage to get them back them in water, the squid didn’t know where to go and kept washing back up.
“Some people were saying it was the earthquake this morning that caused them to get disoriented but who knows? Feher said.
He wasn’t the only person to mention that theory.
“A state guy was out and said the earthquake caused (it),” Baumann said.
Lifeguard Sgt. David Rains said that is one of several possibilities -- there are a lot of fishing boats in the area so there is a lot of fish activity and those kind of creatures always follow the food supply. He also said there have been a lot of water inversions and the water has turned from warm to cold -- but he doesn’t know for sure.
“Why are they here? Why are the squid here? I can’t honestly tell you,” Sgt. Rains said. “I don’t if it’s tied or not to the earthquake.”
According to the lifeguard, swimmers should be wary of the creatures and keep their distance.
“The Humboldt squid can be very big and very powerful and they may be dangerous,” Sgt. Rains said. “It’s just something I wouldn’t mess with until you’re sure that it’s dead. They’ve got a lot of suckers and claws and a parrot like beak and they can inflict some damage.”
A spokesman for Scripps Institution of Oceanography said at this point they do not see a connection between the squid and the earthquake, but plan to look into it. Dozens of squid washing up at the same time is unusual but it has happened before, according to Sgt. Rains. But Mary Skeen said it is a first for her.
“I have never seen squid in the 42 years that I’ve lived here on the shores in La Jolla,” she said.
“I was having coffee up on the balcony and I felt it shaking,” Kate Lutkemeier said.
She wasn’t the only one.
“I heard my doors and windows rattling, thinking that somebody was trying to get in my front door actually,” La Jolla resident Mary Skeen said.
The quake was felt all over the county, which isn’t uncommon in San Diego -- but what happened just minutes later was a little fishy.
“We just got here about 15 minutes ago and Lilly, what did you see on the beach?” John Feher asked his little daughter. “Squid, squid, squid, squid, squid.” she replied.
Dozens of dazed Humboldt squid that were about three to four feet long and weighed close to 40 pounds were flapping around on La Jolla Shores beach.
“It’s like their equilibrium is all messed up and they don’t know what they’re doing and they can’t back out there,” Bill Baumann said. “It was like they got -- I don’t know -- all shook up.”
It didn’t take long for the seagulls to swoop in and start feeding on the squid, so beachgoers ran to the rescue and tried frantically to save them by throwing them back in the water. That proved to be a difficult task for several reasons -- they were extremely heavy, very slippery, and when the good Samaritans did manage to get them back them in water, the squid didn’t know where to go and kept washing back up.
“Some people were saying it was the earthquake this morning that caused them to get disoriented but who knows? Feher said.
He wasn’t the only person to mention that theory.
“A state guy was out and said the earthquake caused (it),” Baumann said.
Lifeguard Sgt. David Rains said that is one of several possibilities -- there are a lot of fishing boats in the area so there is a lot of fish activity and those kind of creatures always follow the food supply. He also said there have been a lot of water inversions and the water has turned from warm to cold -- but he doesn’t know for sure.
“Why are they here? Why are the squid here? I can’t honestly tell you,” Sgt. Rains said. “I don’t if it’s tied or not to the earthquake.”
According to the lifeguard, swimmers should be wary of the creatures and keep their distance.
“The Humboldt squid can be very big and very powerful and they may be dangerous,” Sgt. Rains said. “It’s just something I wouldn’t mess with until you’re sure that it’s dead. They’ve got a lot of suckers and claws and a parrot like beak and they can inflict some damage.”
A spokesman for Scripps Institution of Oceanography said at this point they do not see a connection between the squid and the earthquake, but plan to look into it. Dozens of squid washing up at the same time is unusual but it has happened before, according to Sgt. Rains. But Mary Skeen said it is a first for her.
“I have never seen squid in the 42 years that I’ve lived here on the shores in La Jolla,” she said.
source....
It was an odd start to the morning in La Jolla. First residents were jolted out of bed at 7.34 a.m. by a 4.0 magnitude earthquake that was centered 19 miles out to sea.
“I was having coffee up on the balcony and I felt it shaking,” Kate Lutkemeier said.
She wasn’t the only one.
“I heard my doors and windows rattling, thinking that somebody was trying to get in my front door actually,” La Jolla resident Mary Skeen said.
The quake was felt all over the county, which isn’t uncommon in San Diego -- but what happened just minutes later was a little fishy.
“We just got here about 15 minutes ago and Lilly, what did you see on the beach?” John Feher asked his little daughter. “Squid, squid, squid, squid, squid.” she replied.
Dozens of dazed Humboldt squid that were about three to four feet long and weighed close to 40 pounds were flapping around on La Jolla Shores beach.
“It’s like their equilibrium is all messed up and they don’t know what they’re doing and they can’t back out there,” Bill Baumann said. “It was like they got -- I don’t know -- all shook up.”
It didn’t take long for the seagulls to swoop in and start feeding on the squid, so beachgoers ran to the rescue and tried frantically to save them by throwing them back in the water. That proved to be a difficult task for several reasons -- they were extremely heavy, very slippery, and when the good Samaritans did manage to get them back them in water, the squid didn’t know where to go and kept washing back up.
“Some people were saying it was the earthquake this morning that caused them to get disoriented but who knows? Feher said.
He wasn’t the only person to mention that theory.
“A state guy was out and said the earthquake caused (it),” Baumann said.
Lifeguard Sgt. David Rains said that is one of several possibilities -- there are a lot of fishing boats in the area so there is a lot of fish activity and those kind of creatures always follow the food supply. He also said there have been a lot of water inversions and the water has turned from warm to cold -- but he doesn’t know for sure.
“Why are they here? Why are the squid here? I can’t honestly tell you,” Sgt. Rains said. “I don’t if it’s tied or not to the earthquake.”
According to the lifeguard, swimmers should be wary of the creatures and keep their distance.
“The Humboldt squid can be very big and very powerful and they may be dangerous,” Sgt. Rains said. “It’s just something I wouldn’t mess with until you’re sure that it’s dead. They’ve got a lot of suckers and claws and a parrot like beak and they can inflict some damage.”
A spokesman for Scripps Institution of Oceanography said at this point they do not see a connection between the squid and the earthquake, but plan to look into it. Dozens of squid washing up at the same time is unusual but it has happened before, according to Sgt. Rains. But Mary Skeen said it is a first for her.
“I have never seen squid in the 42 years that I’ve lived here on the shores in La Jolla,” she said.
“I was having coffee up on the balcony and I felt it shaking,” Kate Lutkemeier said.
She wasn’t the only one.
“I heard my doors and windows rattling, thinking that somebody was trying to get in my front door actually,” La Jolla resident Mary Skeen said.
The quake was felt all over the county, which isn’t uncommon in San Diego -- but what happened just minutes later was a little fishy.
“We just got here about 15 minutes ago and Lilly, what did you see on the beach?” John Feher asked his little daughter. “Squid, squid, squid, squid, squid.” she replied.
Dozens of dazed Humboldt squid that were about three to four feet long and weighed close to 40 pounds were flapping around on La Jolla Shores beach.
“It’s like their equilibrium is all messed up and they don’t know what they’re doing and they can’t back out there,” Bill Baumann said. “It was like they got -- I don’t know -- all shook up.”
It didn’t take long for the seagulls to swoop in and start feeding on the squid, so beachgoers ran to the rescue and tried frantically to save them by throwing them back in the water. That proved to be a difficult task for several reasons -- they were extremely heavy, very slippery, and when the good Samaritans did manage to get them back them in water, the squid didn’t know where to go and kept washing back up.
“Some people were saying it was the earthquake this morning that caused them to get disoriented but who knows? Feher said.
He wasn’t the only person to mention that theory.
“A state guy was out and said the earthquake caused (it),” Baumann said.
Lifeguard Sgt. David Rains said that is one of several possibilities -- there are a lot of fishing boats in the area so there is a lot of fish activity and those kind of creatures always follow the food supply. He also said there have been a lot of water inversions and the water has turned from warm to cold -- but he doesn’t know for sure.
“Why are they here? Why are the squid here? I can’t honestly tell you,” Sgt. Rains said. “I don’t if it’s tied or not to the earthquake.”
According to the lifeguard, swimmers should be wary of the creatures and keep their distance.
“The Humboldt squid can be very big and very powerful and they may be dangerous,” Sgt. Rains said. “It’s just something I wouldn’t mess with until you’re sure that it’s dead. They’ve got a lot of suckers and claws and a parrot like beak and they can inflict some damage.”
A spokesman for Scripps Institution of Oceanography said at this point they do not see a connection between the squid and the earthquake, but plan to look into it. Dozens of squid washing up at the same time is unusual but it has happened before, according to Sgt. Rains. But Mary Skeen said it is a first for her.
“I have never seen squid in the 42 years that I’ve lived here on the shores in La Jolla,” she said.
source....
ISS Tonight
18 Jul -1.8 23:26:07 WNW 34
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Friday, July 17, 2009
Fire in the Stove Tonight!
We were out fishing all afternoon and evening, in the wind, record cold, clouds, and light sprinkles. It barely made it to 60°F today. When we got home a few minutes ago, I lit a small fire in the stove, just to drive the chill out. This is the first time I ever remember having a fire in the stove in July, including when I was a kid!
Lawrence Lake again
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
ISS Tonight
17 Jul -2.2 23:01:51 NW 39
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Britain’s biggest UFO mystery revealed by Air Force base chief
For years, Britain’s biggest UFO mystery had been kept under wraps, but now an Air Force official has admitted that an “extra-terrestrial” craft did visit the air base at Rendlesham Forest in 1980.
Former Deputy Base Commander Col Charles Halt claimed that even though the incident was later covered up, “extra-terrestrials” had been the cause of the close encounter in Suffolk.
Halt had led a group of airmen who reported seeing a triangular UFO taking off into the air, leaving traces of radiation behind.
“The UFOs I saw were structured machines moving under intelligent control and operating beyond the realm of anything I have ever seen before or since,” the Daily Star quoted Col Halt, now retired, as telling investigator Gary Heseltine.
“I believe the objects that I saw at close quarters were extra-terrestrial in origin,” he said.
He added that the Air Force later issued “dis-information” to throw the public off the scent.
His comments were hailed as “sensational” by former Ministry of Defence UFO investigator Nick Pope.
“This may help us to finally solve Britain’s biggest UFO mystery,” Pope said.
“It blows the MoD’s line that these events had ‘no defence significance’ out of the water,” he added.
source....
Former Deputy Base Commander Col Charles Halt claimed that even though the incident was later covered up, “extra-terrestrials” had been the cause of the close encounter in Suffolk.
Halt had led a group of airmen who reported seeing a triangular UFO taking off into the air, leaving traces of radiation behind.
“The UFOs I saw were structured machines moving under intelligent control and operating beyond the realm of anything I have ever seen before or since,” the Daily Star quoted Col Halt, now retired, as telling investigator Gary Heseltine.
“I believe the objects that I saw at close quarters were extra-terrestrial in origin,” he said.
He added that the Air Force later issued “dis-information” to throw the public off the scent.
His comments were hailed as “sensational” by former Ministry of Defence UFO investigator Nick Pope.
“This may help us to finally solve Britain’s biggest UFO mystery,” Pope said.
“It blows the MoD’s line that these events had ‘no defence significance’ out of the water,” he added.
source....
Thursday, July 16, 2009
News From The Observatory - Jupiter and the Poison Airplane
Finally got out under the stars again last night. It was super clear and the Milky Way was already showing up even before the sky was completely dark! Then the clouds rolled in. It wasn't supposed to be cloudy. Waited around, and managed to get a few shots of Jupiter just above the horizon between the clouds. Finally decided to pack up and head home. Just as we got home, the clouds cleared and it was beautiful! Oh well. There will be other nights.
Jupiter is overexposed so I could also capture it's dimmer moons.
I wouldn't want this job. The stuff he sprays smells a little like old railroad ties and makes my eyes water.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Origami city: model crafted entirely from paper
An origami artist from Japan, Wataru Ito, has spent four years crafting an incredible model city from paper - but now plans to burn it down.
Mr Ito, 25, started building his 'Castle on the Ocean' when he became bored during his university entrance exams.
Using just a knife and glue, the art student built up an entire cityscape over four years by cutting and folding hundreds of pages of craft paper.
The finished piece is now being displayed for the first time at an exhibition on the artificial island of Umihotaru, near Tokyo.
But incredibly, Wataru, a second year student at Tokyo University of the Arts, plans to set his work on fire when the show is over.
He said: "I'm very happy to display my work at a place where people who don't have an interest in arts can come and see it.
"Looking back now I sometimes ask myself 'did I really manage to create this?'
"I am devoted while I am working on my projects but I quickly lose interest when I complete them.
"When the exhibition is over I will burn the castle. I thought I could see it rising up from the ashes if I took a video and played it backwards."
Wataru, who lives in Tokyo but is originally from Saitama, Japan, started working on the castle while he was studying to become an art student.
After failing a university entrance exam three times he focused on this project, which became so large he had to sleep under a table in his tiny flat.
The city's centrepiece is a castle which is loosely based upon El Temple de la Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, Spain, .
The central tower is surrounded by a cathedral, school, theme park, factory and airport and comes complete with electrical lights and a moving train.
Incredibly, the entire piece - which measures 2.4m by 1.8m and is 1m high - has been crafted using only paper, which Wataru stuck together using craft glue, an art knife and holepuncher.
source....
Mr Ito, 25, started building his 'Castle on the Ocean' when he became bored during his university entrance exams.
Using just a knife and glue, the art student built up an entire cityscape over four years by cutting and folding hundreds of pages of craft paper.
The finished piece is now being displayed for the first time at an exhibition on the artificial island of Umihotaru, near Tokyo.
But incredibly, Wataru, a second year student at Tokyo University of the Arts, plans to set his work on fire when the show is over.
He said: "I'm very happy to display my work at a place where people who don't have an interest in arts can come and see it.
"Looking back now I sometimes ask myself 'did I really manage to create this?'
"I am devoted while I am working on my projects but I quickly lose interest when I complete them.
"When the exhibition is over I will burn the castle. I thought I could see it rising up from the ashes if I took a video and played it backwards."
Wataru, who lives in Tokyo but is originally from Saitama, Japan, started working on the castle while he was studying to become an art student.
After failing a university entrance exam three times he focused on this project, which became so large he had to sleep under a table in his tiny flat.
The city's centrepiece is a castle which is loosely based upon El Temple de la Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, Spain, .
The central tower is surrounded by a cathedral, school, theme park, factory and airport and comes complete with electrical lights and a moving train.
Incredibly, the entire piece - which measures 2.4m by 1.8m and is 1m high - has been crafted using only paper, which Wataru stuck together using craft glue, an art knife and holepuncher.
source....
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Universe in the Park at Roche-A-Cri State Park
An Outreach Program of the Department of Astronomy University of Wisconsin-Madison
Program Director: Prof. Eric M. Wilcots
Roche-A-Cri State Park, Friendship, (608) 565-2789 - Universe In The Park. Come learn about the planets, stars, and comets. Astronomers will present a slide show and talk about the night sky. Then go outside and look through a telescope to check out the summer night sky! Meet at the kiosk shelter, Saturday July 18th 2009, 8 p.m.
"Universe in the Park", established in 1996, is an extremely popular outreach program of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. "UitP" is predicated on a very simple idea, that the best environment in which to introduce the general public to astronomy is outside under dark skies. For the past five years we have taken "UitP" to state parks throughout Wisconsin during the summer camping season, giving talks and slide shows, answering questions, and letting the general public view astronomical objects through one of the UitP telescopes. A typical "UitP" session begins just after sunset with a 20-30 minute talk and slide show about astronomy. While the particular topic is left up to the speaker, we usually present a broad overview of astronomy or recent astronomical news such as the discovery of new solar systems and the latest results from the Hubble Space Telescope. At the conclusion of the talk (if the sky is clear) we set up one of the two moderate aperture (8"-10") telescopes and provide park visitors the opportunity to view whatever astronomical objects are available. Most of the question and answer period takes place around the telescope. "UitP" sessions run as long as there are people interested in looking through the telescope, and the parks typically close before the interest has been sated.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Program Director: Prof. Eric M. Wilcots
Roche-A-Cri State Park, Friendship, (608) 565-2789 - Universe In The Park. Come learn about the planets, stars, and comets. Astronomers will present a slide show and talk about the night sky. Then go outside and look through a telescope to check out the summer night sky! Meet at the kiosk shelter, Saturday July 18th 2009, 8 p.m.
"Universe in the Park", established in 1996, is an extremely popular outreach program of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. "UitP" is predicated on a very simple idea, that the best environment in which to introduce the general public to astronomy is outside under dark skies. For the past five years we have taken "UitP" to state parks throughout Wisconsin during the summer camping season, giving talks and slide shows, answering questions, and letting the general public view astronomical objects through one of the UitP telescopes. A typical "UitP" session begins just after sunset with a 20-30 minute talk and slide show about astronomy. While the particular topic is left up to the speaker, we usually present a broad overview of astronomy or recent astronomical news such as the discovery of new solar systems and the latest results from the Hubble Space Telescope. At the conclusion of the talk (if the sky is clear) we set up one of the two moderate aperture (8"-10") telescopes and provide park visitors the opportunity to view whatever astronomical objects are available. Most of the question and answer period takes place around the telescope. "UitP" sessions run as long as there are people interested in looking through the telescope, and the parks typically close before the interest has been sated.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
ISS Tonight
15 Jul -1.5 23:47:59 NW 33
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Russians order Flight Changes, after Massive Magnetic Shift downs Airliners...
Reports circulating in the Kremlin today are saying that Russian Air Force Commanders have issued warnings to all of their aircraft to exercise “extreme caution” during flights “in and around” an area defined as Latitude 17 North [North Atlantic Ocean] Latitude 3 South [South Atlantic Ocean] to Latitude 8 North [Indian Ocean] Latitude 19 South [Indian Ocean] between the Longitudes of 46 West, 33 West, 46 East and 33 East, and which covers the greater part of the African Tectonic Plate.
The reason for this unprecedented warning, these reports state, are the rapid formations of “geomagnetic storms” emanating from the boundaries of the African Tectonic Plate that due to their intensity have caused the loss of two major passenger aircraft during the past month leaving nearly 300 men, women and children dead.
The first aircraft to be downed by this phenomenon was Air France passenger flight 447, and which these reports say that upon encountering one of these geomagnetic storms, on June 1st, near the western boundary of the African Tectonic Plate close to Brazil’s Fernando de Noronha Islands, was “completely annihilated” causing the deaths of 216 passengers and 12 crew members as their plane plunged in pieces into the Atlantic Ocean.
The second aircraft to be downed occurred on the eastern boundary of the African Tectonic Plate when another of these geomagnetic storms slammed from the sky a Yemeni Airways flight to the Island Nation of Comoros in the Indian Ocean of which of the 153 passengers and crew aboard, only 1 “miracle child” has been rescued, so far.
To the catastrophic events occurring within the African Tectonic Plate it has been known for over a year with the reporting of a “new ocean” forming in Ethiopia, and as we can read as reported by Nature News Service:
“Although the birth of an ocean is an extremely rare phenomenon on the largest of historical scales, the geophysics is currently experiencing such an event. Even more dazzling, this occurs in one of the Earth's most inhospitable and arid regions, the Afar Depression in Ethiopia.
The African continent is literally unstitching itself apart just like the sleeve of an old shirt, along the area known as the East African Rift, which traverses it beginning with the southern end of the Red Sea, going through Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. The molten lava beneath the Earth's surface makes it thin by constantly pushing against it, and eventually breaks it and tears it apart.”
Though Western scientist assert that the formation of this new ocean is not likely to be finished for millions of years, Russian scientists state, unequivocally, that due to the Suns current unprecedented Deep Solar Minimum, our Earth is in danger of being, literally, “ripped apart”, at the worst, or nearing a “total pole reversal” due to an as yet unexplained, but extremely powerful, gravitational force emanating from the outer reaches of our Solar System that some researchers state is the mysterious Planet X, and which many believe to be a large brown dwarf and known to the ancient peoples of Earth as Nibiru, and called by the name of Wormwood in the Christian Bible.
Russian scientists further warn that the West’s “obsession” with manmade Global Warming is a deliberately designed propaganda effort to shield their peoples from the fact that not only our Earth, but all of the planets in our Solar System are currently undergoing rapid warming, and as proved, beyond all doubt, by Doctor Scientist Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, when in 2007 he released his findings that for the previous 3 years the ice caps of Mars have been melting at an unprecedented rate.
And, as reported by one, of many, dissident Western news sites, “Photographs of the merging of two red spots on Jupiter, evidence of warming on Neptune's largest moon Triton, warming on Pluto that is "puzzling scientists" and, of course, the already documented warming trend on Mars all add up to convincing evidence for increased solar activity across the entire solar system.”
To the most chilling parts of these reports on the current instability of the African Tectonic Plate are those Russian scientists who assert, that, should a powerful enough gravitational force be exerted upon this region [such as that which would occur in our Earth’s presence with a Planet X type body], it would cause this plate to be subsumed with the Atlantic and Indian Oceans completely covering what is now known as the African Continent, and further cause a corresponding rise of what were known to the ancient peoples as the Continents of Atlantis in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and Lemuria in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Interesting to note about these current events is that the most documented psychic of 20th century America, Edgar Cayce, predicted that both Atlantis and Lemuria would arise again during the ending of our Earth’s present age, and which many in the World currently believe will be in 2012 as predicted by the Mayan Calendar.
source....
The reason for this unprecedented warning, these reports state, are the rapid formations of “geomagnetic storms” emanating from the boundaries of the African Tectonic Plate that due to their intensity have caused the loss of two major passenger aircraft during the past month leaving nearly 300 men, women and children dead.
The first aircraft to be downed by this phenomenon was Air France passenger flight 447, and which these reports say that upon encountering one of these geomagnetic storms, on June 1st, near the western boundary of the African Tectonic Plate close to Brazil’s Fernando de Noronha Islands, was “completely annihilated” causing the deaths of 216 passengers and 12 crew members as their plane plunged in pieces into the Atlantic Ocean.
The second aircraft to be downed occurred on the eastern boundary of the African Tectonic Plate when another of these geomagnetic storms slammed from the sky a Yemeni Airways flight to the Island Nation of Comoros in the Indian Ocean of which of the 153 passengers and crew aboard, only 1 “miracle child” has been rescued, so far.
To the catastrophic events occurring within the African Tectonic Plate it has been known for over a year with the reporting of a “new ocean” forming in Ethiopia, and as we can read as reported by Nature News Service:
“Although the birth of an ocean is an extremely rare phenomenon on the largest of historical scales, the geophysics is currently experiencing such an event. Even more dazzling, this occurs in one of the Earth's most inhospitable and arid regions, the Afar Depression in Ethiopia.
The African continent is literally unstitching itself apart just like the sleeve of an old shirt, along the area known as the East African Rift, which traverses it beginning with the southern end of the Red Sea, going through Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. The molten lava beneath the Earth's surface makes it thin by constantly pushing against it, and eventually breaks it and tears it apart.”
Though Western scientist assert that the formation of this new ocean is not likely to be finished for millions of years, Russian scientists state, unequivocally, that due to the Suns current unprecedented Deep Solar Minimum, our Earth is in danger of being, literally, “ripped apart”, at the worst, or nearing a “total pole reversal” due to an as yet unexplained, but extremely powerful, gravitational force emanating from the outer reaches of our Solar System that some researchers state is the mysterious Planet X, and which many believe to be a large brown dwarf and known to the ancient peoples of Earth as Nibiru, and called by the name of Wormwood in the Christian Bible.
Russian scientists further warn that the West’s “obsession” with manmade Global Warming is a deliberately designed propaganda effort to shield their peoples from the fact that not only our Earth, but all of the planets in our Solar System are currently undergoing rapid warming, and as proved, beyond all doubt, by Doctor Scientist Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, when in 2007 he released his findings that for the previous 3 years the ice caps of Mars have been melting at an unprecedented rate.
And, as reported by one, of many, dissident Western news sites, “Photographs of the merging of two red spots on Jupiter, evidence of warming on Neptune's largest moon Triton, warming on Pluto that is "puzzling scientists" and, of course, the already documented warming trend on Mars all add up to convincing evidence for increased solar activity across the entire solar system.”
To the most chilling parts of these reports on the current instability of the African Tectonic Plate are those Russian scientists who assert, that, should a powerful enough gravitational force be exerted upon this region [such as that which would occur in our Earth’s presence with a Planet X type body], it would cause this plate to be subsumed with the Atlantic and Indian Oceans completely covering what is now known as the African Continent, and further cause a corresponding rise of what were known to the ancient peoples as the Continents of Atlantis in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and Lemuria in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Interesting to note about these current events is that the most documented psychic of 20th century America, Edgar Cayce, predicted that both Atlantis and Lemuria would arise again during the ending of our Earth’s present age, and which many in the World currently believe will be in 2012 as predicted by the Mayan Calendar.
source....
The Milky Way
The next few evenings are a great time to watch the Milky Way -- the faint band of light that outlines the disk of our home galaxy. The Moon rises late, so it won't spoil the view. But you need to get away from city lights to see the Milky Way.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Tax credit may pay for wood stoves
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a tax credit of up to $1,500 is available to those who purchase a high-efficiency biomass-burning stove to heat their home.
"That's a pretty big credit because it reduces the tax you pay dollar for dollar so it's better than a 'tax deduction'," said Rita DeLong, who along with her husband Stan, have owned DeLong's Heritage Heating for 30 years.
"My big concern is that people whose only heat source for their home is a wood burning stove may not realize this credit is available for wood and pellet stoves because it's summer and every one is thinking about more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to keep their home cool, not warm."
Stoves manufactured prior to 1991 do not meet the efficiency requirements for this tax credit, which can be up to 30 percent of the cost of the stove. Newer biomass-burning stoves — wood, pellet or multi-fuel stoves — must meet certain EPA as well as IRS standards and come with a manufacturer's certification the stove meets or exceeds the standards required for the credit.
"This is a great incentive for home owners to replace their old gross-polluter stoves. All of the newer stoves have systems which burn not only the fuel being used but also the gases generated from that burning so they put less pollution — fewer particulates — in the air and produce more heat more efficiently," said DeLong.
"I'm glad they are encouraging people to use these affordable, environmentally friendly stoves so they can do their part in 'greening' the environment."
In addition to the cost of the new stove, the cost of labor for installation and chimney upgrades also qualify for the tax credit. And not all the credit has to be used toward the purchase of just one energy-efficient product.
"We do the installation necessary for the stove to operate safely in a home. And, if some one purchases a $700 stove their credit for it would be about $200, leaving them a $1,300 credit to used else where," she said.
This tax credit could be a boon for homeowners with no or older wood stoves, especially those living in the Chico urban area where the Butte County Air Quality Management District is considering mandatory "no burn" days on poor air quality days during cold winter months.
"In the past, we've had incentive funding for homeowners for wood stove replacement, but that district-level funding is no longer available. This federal tax credit through the Recovery Act will help replace that," said Bob McLaughlin, assistant air pollution control officer.
McLaughlin said the district is always looking for ways to help homeowners fund wood stove replacements. In fact, he said, it's one of the "top priorities" especially in Chico where air quality becomes a "significant issue" during the winter months.
Currently Butte County does not meet the federal air quality standards. While the problem centers in the Chico urban area it could have widespread impact on the entire county.
"We're trying to be proactive to solve the problem by limiting burn days, offering the incentives when we had the funds but unless we come into compliance and reduce the levels of fine particulate matter in the air in Chico the effects, like no burn days, could extend to areas beyond Chico," said McLaughlin.
The DeLong's, who have lived in Oroville since 1975 and owned their heating business since 1979 hope it doesn't come to that.
"No matter what your politics are or how you feel about the Recovery Act, I'm hoping that people throughout the county will take advantage of this tax credit so we aren't forced to have no burn days. That's a real hardship for people whose only source of heat is their stove," said DeLong. "Wood stoves are less expensive than furnaces for heating a home and these new ones are environmentally friendly."
source....
"That's a pretty big credit because it reduces the tax you pay dollar for dollar so it's better than a 'tax deduction'," said Rita DeLong, who along with her husband Stan, have owned DeLong's Heritage Heating for 30 years.
"My big concern is that people whose only heat source for their home is a wood burning stove may not realize this credit is available for wood and pellet stoves because it's summer and every one is thinking about more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to keep their home cool, not warm."
Stoves manufactured prior to 1991 do not meet the efficiency requirements for this tax credit, which can be up to 30 percent of the cost of the stove. Newer biomass-burning stoves — wood, pellet or multi-fuel stoves — must meet certain EPA as well as IRS standards and come with a manufacturer's certification the stove meets or exceeds the standards required for the credit.
"This is a great incentive for home owners to replace their old gross-polluter stoves. All of the newer stoves have systems which burn not only the fuel being used but also the gases generated from that burning so they put less pollution — fewer particulates — in the air and produce more heat more efficiently," said DeLong.
"I'm glad they are encouraging people to use these affordable, environmentally friendly stoves so they can do their part in 'greening' the environment."
In addition to the cost of the new stove, the cost of labor for installation and chimney upgrades also qualify for the tax credit. And not all the credit has to be used toward the purchase of just one energy-efficient product.
"We do the installation necessary for the stove to operate safely in a home. And, if some one purchases a $700 stove their credit for it would be about $200, leaving them a $1,300 credit to used else where," she said.
This tax credit could be a boon for homeowners with no or older wood stoves, especially those living in the Chico urban area where the Butte County Air Quality Management District is considering mandatory "no burn" days on poor air quality days during cold winter months.
"In the past, we've had incentive funding for homeowners for wood stove replacement, but that district-level funding is no longer available. This federal tax credit through the Recovery Act will help replace that," said Bob McLaughlin, assistant air pollution control officer.
McLaughlin said the district is always looking for ways to help homeowners fund wood stove replacements. In fact, he said, it's one of the "top priorities" especially in Chico where air quality becomes a "significant issue" during the winter months.
Currently Butte County does not meet the federal air quality standards. While the problem centers in the Chico urban area it could have widespread impact on the entire county.
"We're trying to be proactive to solve the problem by limiting burn days, offering the incentives when we had the funds but unless we come into compliance and reduce the levels of fine particulate matter in the air in Chico the effects, like no burn days, could extend to areas beyond Chico," said McLaughlin.
The DeLong's, who have lived in Oroville since 1975 and owned their heating business since 1979 hope it doesn't come to that.
"No matter what your politics are or how you feel about the Recovery Act, I'm hoping that people throughout the county will take advantage of this tax credit so we aren't forced to have no burn days. That's a real hardship for people whose only source of heat is their stove," said DeLong. "Wood stoves are less expensive than furnaces for heating a home and these new ones are environmentally friendly."
source....
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Pictures of Castle Rock Family ATV Club Picnic
New pictures have been uploaded to the picture page!
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Waterproof Camera Group Test
Test winner: Canon Powershot D10
The winner should come as no surprise to you at all. The D10 produced the sharpest, most detailed images of all the cameras in this group test at low ISO settings, both in and out of the water. This, combined with responsive performance and a straightforward user interface that has been proven on other cameras in the PowerShot series, means that if you were shopping for a waterproof camera mainly to use in the water, then you can stop reading right now and go order the D10.
When you take the D10 into the water, the camera just makes so much sense. The big buttons, the placement of the controls, and large text in the menu system all contribute to improving the camera's usability. The interchangeable covers and the connector carrying system are both nice touches, as is the fact that the camera can go as deep as 10m / 33ft meaning that you can actually use it go snorkeling.
source....
The winner should come as no surprise to you at all. The D10 produced the sharpest, most detailed images of all the cameras in this group test at low ISO settings, both in and out of the water. This, combined with responsive performance and a straightforward user interface that has been proven on other cameras in the PowerShot series, means that if you were shopping for a waterproof camera mainly to use in the water, then you can stop reading right now and go order the D10.
When you take the D10 into the water, the camera just makes so much sense. The big buttons, the placement of the controls, and large text in the menu system all contribute to improving the camera's usability. The interchangeable covers and the connector carrying system are both nice touches, as is the fact that the camera can go as deep as 10m / 33ft meaning that you can actually use it go snorkeling.
source....
ISS Tonight
12 Jul -2.0 20:58:35 WSW 46
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Ant mega-colony takes over world
A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.
The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society.
Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another.
The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.
What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together.
Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.
These introduced Argentine ants are renowned for forming large colonies, and for becoming a significant pest, attacking native animals and crops.
In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 6,000km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the "Californian large", extends over 900km (560 miles) along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan.
While ants are usually highly territorial, those living within each super-colony are tolerant of one another, even if they live tens or hundreds of kilometres apart. Each super-colony, however, was thought to be quite distinct.
But it now appears that billions of Argentine ants around the world all actually belong to one single global mega-colony.
Researchers in Japan and Spain led by Eiriki Sunamura of the University of Tokyo found that Argentine ants living in Europe, Japan and California shared a strikingly similar chemical profile of hydrocarbons on their cuticles.
But further experiments revealed the true extent of the insects' global ambition.
The team selected wild ants from the main European super-colony, from another smaller one called the Catalonian super-colony which lives on the Iberian coast, the Californian super-colony and from the super-colony in west Japan, as well as another in Kobe, Japan.
They then matched up the ants in a series of one-on-one tests to see how aggressive individuals from different colonies would be to one another.
Ants from the smaller super-colonies were always aggressive to one another. So ants from the west coast of Japan fought their rivals from Kobe, while ants from the European super-colony didn't get on with those from the Iberian colony.
One big family
But whenever ants from the main European and Californian super-colonies and those from the largest colony in Japan came into contact, they acted as if they were old friends.
These ants rubbed antennae with one another and never became aggressive or tried to avoid one another.
In short, they acted as if they all belonged to the same colony, despite living on different continents separated by vast oceans.
The most plausible explanation is that ants from these three super-colonies are indeed family, and are all genetically related, say the researchers. When they come into contact, they recognise each other by the chemical composition of their cuticles.
"The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society," the researchers write in the journal Insect Sociaux, in which they report their findings.
However, the irony is that it is us who likely created the ant mega-colony by initially transporting the insects around the world, and by continually introducing ants from the three continents to each other, ensuring the mega-colony continues to mingle.
"Humans created this great non-aggressive ant population," the researchers write.
source....
The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society.
Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another.
The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.
What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together.
Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.
These introduced Argentine ants are renowned for forming large colonies, and for becoming a significant pest, attacking native animals and crops.
In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 6,000km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the "Californian large", extends over 900km (560 miles) along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan.
While ants are usually highly territorial, those living within each super-colony are tolerant of one another, even if they live tens or hundreds of kilometres apart. Each super-colony, however, was thought to be quite distinct.
But it now appears that billions of Argentine ants around the world all actually belong to one single global mega-colony.
Researchers in Japan and Spain led by Eiriki Sunamura of the University of Tokyo found that Argentine ants living in Europe, Japan and California shared a strikingly similar chemical profile of hydrocarbons on their cuticles.
But further experiments revealed the true extent of the insects' global ambition.
The team selected wild ants from the main European super-colony, from another smaller one called the Catalonian super-colony which lives on the Iberian coast, the Californian super-colony and from the super-colony in west Japan, as well as another in Kobe, Japan.
They then matched up the ants in a series of one-on-one tests to see how aggressive individuals from different colonies would be to one another.
Ants from the smaller super-colonies were always aggressive to one another. So ants from the west coast of Japan fought their rivals from Kobe, while ants from the European super-colony didn't get on with those from the Iberian colony.
One big family
But whenever ants from the main European and Californian super-colonies and those from the largest colony in Japan came into contact, they acted as if they were old friends.
These ants rubbed antennae with one another and never became aggressive or tried to avoid one another.
In short, they acted as if they all belonged to the same colony, despite living on different continents separated by vast oceans.
The most plausible explanation is that ants from these three super-colonies are indeed family, and are all genetically related, say the researchers. When they come into contact, they recognise each other by the chemical composition of their cuticles.
"The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society," the researchers write in the journal Insect Sociaux, in which they report their findings.
However, the irony is that it is us who likely created the ant mega-colony by initially transporting the insects around the world, and by continually introducing ants from the three continents to each other, ensuring the mega-colony continues to mingle.
"Humans created this great non-aggressive ant population," the researchers write.
source....
Friday, July 10, 2009
Mile wide UFO seen by British pilots
One of the largest UFOs ever seen has been observed by the crew and passengers of an airliner over the Channel Islands.
An official air-miss report on the incident several weeks ago appears in Pilot magazine.
Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, flying close to Alderney first spotted the object, described as "a cigar-shaped brilliant white light".
Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, described what he thought to be a UFO as 'a cigar-shaped brilliant white light', similar to the image supplied by Dennis Plunket of the British Flying Saucer bureau
As the plane got closer the captain viewed it through binoculars and said: "It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area.
"It was 2,000ft up and stationary. I thought it was about 10 miles away, although I later realised it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a [Boeing] 737.
"But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide."
Continuing his approach to Guernsey, Bowyer then spied a "second identical object further to the west".
He said: "It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey. I can't explain it. This was clearly visual for about nine minutes.
"I'm certainly not saying that it was something of another world. All I'm saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying."
The sightings were confirmed by passengers Kate and John Russell. John, 74, said: "I saw an orange light. It was like an elongated oval."
The sightings were also confirmed by an unnamed pilot with the Blue Islands airline.
The Civil Aviation Authority safety notice states that a Tri-Lander aircraft flying close to Alderney spotted the object.
"Certain parts of the report have not been published. I cannot say why," said a senior CAA source.
The UK MOD has opened its UFO files to the public, but which files is another question.
source....
An official air-miss report on the incident several weeks ago appears in Pilot magazine.
Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, flying close to Alderney first spotted the object, described as "a cigar-shaped brilliant white light".
Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, described what he thought to be a UFO as 'a cigar-shaped brilliant white light', similar to the image supplied by Dennis Plunket of the British Flying Saucer bureau
As the plane got closer the captain viewed it through binoculars and said: "It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area.
"It was 2,000ft up and stationary. I thought it was about 10 miles away, although I later realised it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a [Boeing] 737.
"But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide."
Continuing his approach to Guernsey, Bowyer then spied a "second identical object further to the west".
He said: "It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey. I can't explain it. This was clearly visual for about nine minutes.
"I'm certainly not saying that it was something of another world. All I'm saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying."
The sightings were confirmed by passengers Kate and John Russell. John, 74, said: "I saw an orange light. It was like an elongated oval."
The sightings were also confirmed by an unnamed pilot with the Blue Islands airline.
The Civil Aviation Authority safety notice states that a Tri-Lander aircraft flying close to Alderney spotted the object.
"Certain parts of the report have not been published. I cannot say why," said a senior CAA source.
The UK MOD has opened its UFO files to the public, but which files is another question.
source....
ISS Tonight
10 Jul -2.2 21:44:39 WSW 47
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Thursday, July 9, 2009
supersonic flyby
source....
our galactic home
The Milky Way arcs across the east this evening. You need to get away from city lights to see it. The Moon rises in late evening, overpowering the faint glow. But it rises later each night after this, providing extra time for viewing our galactic home.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
ISS Tomorrow Morning
10 Jul -1.7 02:07:21 NW 35
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
ISS Tonight
9 Jul -3.3 21:19:53 SW 61
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Cedarburg student wins 2010 Wisconsin State Park admission sticker contest
A design featuring kids playing on a beach by Margaret Willden, a junior at Cedarburg High School, has been selected as the 2010 Wisconsin State Park admission sticker. It was selected from more than 340 entries.
The winning design will be printed on state park and forest annual vehicle admission stickers and displayed on more than 150,000 vehicles.
“We had some really excellent entries for our design contest this year, so selecting a winner was difficult,” said Dan Schuller, director of Wisconsin State Parks.
John Springer, a senior from Iowa-Grant High School took second place in the contest for his design featuring fly fishing. Sam La Barre from Cedarburg High School took third place with a design featuring snowshoeing.
The winning and honorable mention entry designs are available on the Department of Natural Resources Web site, along with past winning entries.
As winner, Willden receives an engraved plaque and a state trail pass, and will receive a 2010 annual vehicle admission sticker featuring her design when they become available this December. The design contest, sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, is open to all high school age students attending public, private, or parochial schools in Wisconsin.
Annual stickers are $25 for a Wisconsin resident, $10 for a Wisconsin resident 65 years of age and older, and $35 for a nonresident. Residency is determined by the license plate of the vehicle.
source....
The winning design will be printed on state park and forest annual vehicle admission stickers and displayed on more than 150,000 vehicles.
“We had some really excellent entries for our design contest this year, so selecting a winner was difficult,” said Dan Schuller, director of Wisconsin State Parks.
John Springer, a senior from Iowa-Grant High School took second place in the contest for his design featuring fly fishing. Sam La Barre from Cedarburg High School took third place with a design featuring snowshoeing.
The winning and honorable mention entry designs are available on the Department of Natural Resources Web site, along with past winning entries.
As winner, Willden receives an engraved plaque and a state trail pass, and will receive a 2010 annual vehicle admission sticker featuring her design when they become available this December. The design contest, sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, is open to all high school age students attending public, private, or parochial schools in Wisconsin.
Annual stickers are $25 for a Wisconsin resident, $10 for a Wisconsin resident 65 years of age and older, and $35 for a nonresident. Residency is determined by the license plate of the vehicle.
source....
a crazy carnival attraction
Like a crazy carnival attraction, Earth is spinning, circling, and racing through space. It rotates on its axis once every 24 hours and orbits the Sun at a speed of 65,000 mph. Earth and the rest of the solar system orbit the center of the Milky Way galaxy at 600,000 mph, so it takes about 200 million years to complete one circuit.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
ISS Tonight
8 Jul -2.3 22:30:40 WSW 49
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
ISS Tomorrow Morning
9 Jul -3.4 03:17:45 WNW 83
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Paying My Respects
The funeral of Michael Jackson is a perfect example of this. The average person's funeral, though on a much smaller scale, is no different. This is a repost of an earlier editorial:
Those words are from the funeral home brochure.
Fact of the matter is, the funeral homes started this morbid tradition. The absolute cheapest "deal" on a funeral is $5000! That's a lot of money, two or three times a week or more for even the smallest funeral parlors! As long as they can keep packing people in and around coffins, and "the respects" crowd keeps coming, they keep making money. In order to keep making money, they'll keep leading you to believe that you are "paying your respects" for the family, even though it makes the families' grief all that much more to endure.
Did it ever make you feel better about your loved one's death to stand next to their body in the coffin while other people parade by? No. You do it so that the visitors can "pay their respects". It makes you feel worse than a quiet, private burial, followed by letters and cards of support from the ones that would have otherwise made you endure "their respects". Above all else, putting your deceased loved one in their final resting place should be as inexpensive as possible to ease the financial burden on your family. With the modern tradition of providing the body for everyone to see and pay their respects, an inexpensive burial is impossible.
For many people expressing their grief and pain, the benefit is less for the victim's family than themselves. Emotions of this sort hardly count as feelings at all; they're a form of participation. They're like screams at a pop concert, which don't signify love or even admiration but just exuberance at being part of the show.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Those words are from the funeral home brochure.
Fact of the matter is, the funeral homes started this morbid tradition. The absolute cheapest "deal" on a funeral is $5000! That's a lot of money, two or three times a week or more for even the smallest funeral parlors! As long as they can keep packing people in and around coffins, and "the respects" crowd keeps coming, they keep making money. In order to keep making money, they'll keep leading you to believe that you are "paying your respects" for the family, even though it makes the families' grief all that much more to endure.
Did it ever make you feel better about your loved one's death to stand next to their body in the coffin while other people parade by? No. You do it so that the visitors can "pay their respects". It makes you feel worse than a quiet, private burial, followed by letters and cards of support from the ones that would have otherwise made you endure "their respects". Above all else, putting your deceased loved one in their final resting place should be as inexpensive as possible to ease the financial burden on your family. With the modern tradition of providing the body for everyone to see and pay their respects, an inexpensive burial is impossible.
For many people expressing their grief and pain, the benefit is less for the victim's family than themselves. Emotions of this sort hardly count as feelings at all; they're a form of participation. They're like screams at a pop concert, which don't signify love or even admiration but just exuberance at being part of the show.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
ISS Tonight
7 Jul -3.4 22:06:10 SW 58
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
John Alexander's Letter About Taser
Last week's guest with George Knapp, John Alexander, an expert in non-lethal weapons, claimed that no one has ever been killed by a Taser. George received a number of emails to the contrary. In this letter, Alexander responds:
There is no doubt that people die after the use of Taser. People die after reading newspapers, watching TV, or just breathing, but that does not infer a causal relationship. A few coroners have listed Taser as a possible contributing cause, but most of those have lost out in court.
Bottom line, despite the claims of Amnesty International (AI), there is zero probability that Taser has caused any death, and exceedingly small probability that Taser was a contributory cause of death in any case. AI simply lists every case in which death follows the use of Taser. At times, those deaths have been days later...
The common factor in all deaths following the use of a Taser was the behavior of the suspect that led them to interact with police. The two leading issues are drug use and exertion from fighting with police. Excited delirium is an established cause of death and there are a few people who are unaware that they have potential heart problems.
There is also the oft repeated figure of "50,000 volts" shot through their bodies. This number is specious and totally irrelevant. Volts don't kill, amps do. See how many stories report the amperage, or in Taser's case, milliamps. The amps are 0.0026. That is far less than what one would receive from a Christmas Tree light bulb, which runs about one amp...
We do have a control group that can be measured. Now over 750,000 people have been exposed to Taser voluntarily, and when they were not involved in illegal or aberrant activities, there have been ZERO (0) deaths in that group. IF Taser were even a contributory cause of death, there would be some small number of death anticipated. BTW: contrary to opponents comments, all of these volunteers were not medically screened healthy young males.
To date, Taser has been held "partially responsible" as a cause of death in one of the about 80 cases that has gone to court. That bizarre finding held that Taser was 15 percent responsible, and that the victim's voluntary use of illegal drugs was 85 percent responsible. In 41 states, Taser could not have been held responsible when the irrational behavior of an individual was the primary cause. That California case is not over yet, but the jury's award for punitive damages were thrown out...
Tasers save lives!
John Alexander
FTR: I have no relationship to Taser International
source....
There is no doubt that people die after the use of Taser. People die after reading newspapers, watching TV, or just breathing, but that does not infer a causal relationship. A few coroners have listed Taser as a possible contributing cause, but most of those have lost out in court.
Bottom line, despite the claims of Amnesty International (AI), there is zero probability that Taser has caused any death, and exceedingly small probability that Taser was a contributory cause of death in any case. AI simply lists every case in which death follows the use of Taser. At times, those deaths have been days later...
The common factor in all deaths following the use of a Taser was the behavior of the suspect that led them to interact with police. The two leading issues are drug use and exertion from fighting with police. Excited delirium is an established cause of death and there are a few people who are unaware that they have potential heart problems.
There is also the oft repeated figure of "50,000 volts" shot through their bodies. This number is specious and totally irrelevant. Volts don't kill, amps do. See how many stories report the amperage, or in Taser's case, milliamps. The amps are 0.0026. That is far less than what one would receive from a Christmas Tree light bulb, which runs about one amp...
We do have a control group that can be measured. Now over 750,000 people have been exposed to Taser voluntarily, and when they were not involved in illegal or aberrant activities, there have been ZERO (0) deaths in that group. IF Taser were even a contributory cause of death, there would be some small number of death anticipated. BTW: contrary to opponents comments, all of these volunteers were not medically screened healthy young males.
To date, Taser has been held "partially responsible" as a cause of death in one of the about 80 cases that has gone to court. That bizarre finding held that Taser was 15 percent responsible, and that the victim's voluntary use of illegal drugs was 85 percent responsible. In 41 states, Taser could not have been held responsible when the irrational behavior of an individual was the primary cause. That California case is not over yet, but the jury's award for punitive damages were thrown out...
Tasers save lives!
John Alexander
FTR: I have no relationship to Taser International
source....
ISS Tomorrow Morning
8 Jul -1.5 02:53:24 NW 34
&
8 Jul -2.6 04:28:39 WNW 32
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
&
8 Jul -2.6 04:28:39 WNW 32
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Monday, July 6, 2009
ISS Tomorrow Morning
7 Jul -3.3 04:04:00 WNW 80
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Hay Moon
The full Moon rolls low across the south tonight. July's full Moon is known as the Hay Moon or Thunder Moon. Since this is the month in which humans first landed on the Moon, it's appropriate to add "Apollo Moon" to the list.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Couderay couple find hidden treasure on Tuscobia State Trail
Following an intensive three county search on ATVs and sometimes by foot an elusive hidden treasure was found last week. Jan & Frank Holmes of Couderay found a golden spike that is part of a Tuscobia State trail promotion by the Department of Natural Resources.
“It was all in good fun,” said Kathy Oginski, the trail’s manager, “and the Holmes along with others enjoyed many rides on the trail in search of the spike.”
The Couderay couple found the spike on June 12 at the base of an historic milestone marker just west of the Sawyer/Price County line. In their search they were aided by clues put in local newspapers since the kick off of the event on May 15.
As part of the trails promotion anyone who found the spike also won a "Trailside Camping" package consisting of a 4-person tent, his and hers fishing poles, one night of camping at Ojibwa Park, a slim line cooler, water bottle & thermos and a Tuscobia State Trail tee-shirt. All the prizes were donated by local businesses, private individuals and Friends of the Tuscobia State Trail.
The trail is a 74-mile former railroad grade that runs from Park Falls in the east to Rice Lake in the west. Sixty five miles of the trail is open to ATV use- from Park Falls to Birchwood. There are a number of spur trails which allows for a seamless ride across northern Wisconsin. The communities along the trail provide food, lodging, gas & camping.
source....
“It was all in good fun,” said Kathy Oginski, the trail’s manager, “and the Holmes along with others enjoyed many rides on the trail in search of the spike.”
The Couderay couple found the spike on June 12 at the base of an historic milestone marker just west of the Sawyer/Price County line. In their search they were aided by clues put in local newspapers since the kick off of the event on May 15.
As part of the trails promotion anyone who found the spike also won a "Trailside Camping" package consisting of a 4-person tent, his and hers fishing poles, one night of camping at Ojibwa Park, a slim line cooler, water bottle & thermos and a Tuscobia State Trail tee-shirt. All the prizes were donated by local businesses, private individuals and Friends of the Tuscobia State Trail.
The trail is a 74-mile former railroad grade that runs from Park Falls in the east to Rice Lake in the west. Sixty five miles of the trail is open to ATV use- from Park Falls to Birchwood. There are a number of spur trails which allows for a seamless ride across northern Wisconsin. The communities along the trail provide food, lodging, gas & camping.
source....
ISS Tonight
6 Jul -2.5 23:16:57 WSW 51 NNW
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Happy Day After Independence Day!
These new pictures, and many more, on the picture page! My stupid slow dialup connection makes it necessary to downsize and compress them. It doesn't do justice to the original full size fireworks pictures. But you'll get the feel of them!
Waiting for the Sun to go down. Come on, start the fireworks!
Oooo, oooo, it's almost time!
Yay, they're starting! Very pretty under an almost full Moon peaking in and out of the clouds. All those lights on the lake? They're all boats!
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Giant Solar Plane Will Stay Aloft for Five Years Straight
Odysseus, an autonomous surveillance-plane concept, will fly for years on end, powered by nothing but the sun
Nine days: That's the longest any airplane has stayed in the air. Burt and Dick Rutan's Voyager set the record in 1986 by flying 24,986 miles around the world without refueling. But nine days of uninterrupted flight won't cut it for Darpa, the Pentagon's advanced-research organization. It's challenged the aviation industry to come up with an unmanned surveillance and communications plane that can circle targets for half a decade — and do so on nothing but solar power.
The aircraft, Odysseus, was the first entry in the Vulture program, the competition Darpa created to make its extreme-endurance dreams come true. If the plane's designers at Aurora Flight Sciences beat rival entries by Boeing and Lockheed — Darpa could pick a winner as early as this year — it will have the opportunity to make this concept into the real thing: a 492-foot-wide folding aircraft that can cruise at 140 mph at 70,000 feet for five years straight, powered by the solar panels that cover the top of the plane.
In fact, Odysseus is three planes in one, a collection of 164-foot-long wing-shaped constituent aircraft that take off separately and dock in the stratosphere, where the air is calmer and less stressful on the massive structure. (Aurora CEO John Langford says the company hasn't chosen a docking mechanism yet but that it's considering something based on the system that connected NASA's Apollo command and lunar modules.) Each piece is interchangeable and can be swapped out in midair for repairs or upgrades. The three-piece construction allows Odysseus to autonomously change shape throughout the day to trap as much solar energy as it can. It could pleat like an accordion into a "Z" to absorb sunlight at low angles — at dusk, for example — and flatten into a more aerodynamically efficient traditional wing at night.
Catching as much sun as possible is essential, because energy — specifically, energy storage — is one of the biggest obstacles to solar flight, particularly solar flight that must continue without fail for years on end. Langford says Aurora is exploring storage methods, including flywheels, fuel cells and an array of batteries embedded throughout the airframe. The plane also needs to be light, so Aurora's design relies on featherweight carbon composites. The huge craft could weigh in at under 7,000 pounds — approximately 2,000 pounds less than a fully fueled Voyager, which was less than a quarter of Odysseus's size.
Although it's designed to be a surveillance platform, the lanky Odysseus would probably appear to the naked eye as a starlike glint, so it could be used for less-covert missions, such as patrolling a border or watching over suspected nuclear-reactor sites. And it could have civilian applications: Langford imagines it as an atmospheric buoy, monitoring storm development, climate change or the health of the ozone layer. Either way, he says, it would demonstrate the potential of solar power and serve as a testbed for green aircraft technology. "If we can build an airplane that can stay up for five years with nothing but sunlight," he says, "what else can we do?"
source....
Nine days: That's the longest any airplane has stayed in the air. Burt and Dick Rutan's Voyager set the record in 1986 by flying 24,986 miles around the world without refueling. But nine days of uninterrupted flight won't cut it for Darpa, the Pentagon's advanced-research organization. It's challenged the aviation industry to come up with an unmanned surveillance and communications plane that can circle targets for half a decade — and do so on nothing but solar power.
The aircraft, Odysseus, was the first entry in the Vulture program, the competition Darpa created to make its extreme-endurance dreams come true. If the plane's designers at Aurora Flight Sciences beat rival entries by Boeing and Lockheed — Darpa could pick a winner as early as this year — it will have the opportunity to make this concept into the real thing: a 492-foot-wide folding aircraft that can cruise at 140 mph at 70,000 feet for five years straight, powered by the solar panels that cover the top of the plane.
In fact, Odysseus is three planes in one, a collection of 164-foot-long wing-shaped constituent aircraft that take off separately and dock in the stratosphere, where the air is calmer and less stressful on the massive structure. (Aurora CEO John Langford says the company hasn't chosen a docking mechanism yet but that it's considering something based on the system that connected NASA's Apollo command and lunar modules.) Each piece is interchangeable and can be swapped out in midair for repairs or upgrades. The three-piece construction allows Odysseus to autonomously change shape throughout the day to trap as much solar energy as it can. It could pleat like an accordion into a "Z" to absorb sunlight at low angles — at dusk, for example — and flatten into a more aerodynamically efficient traditional wing at night.
Catching as much sun as possible is essential, because energy — specifically, energy storage — is one of the biggest obstacles to solar flight, particularly solar flight that must continue without fail for years on end. Langford says Aurora is exploring storage methods, including flywheels, fuel cells and an array of batteries embedded throughout the airframe. The plane also needs to be light, so Aurora's design relies on featherweight carbon composites. The huge craft could weigh in at under 7,000 pounds — approximately 2,000 pounds less than a fully fueled Voyager, which was less than a quarter of Odysseus's size.
Although it's designed to be a surveillance platform, the lanky Odysseus would probably appear to the naked eye as a starlike glint, so it could be used for less-covert missions, such as patrolling a border or watching over suspected nuclear-reactor sites. And it could have civilian applications: Langford imagines it as an atmospheric buoy, monitoring storm development, climate change or the health of the ozone layer. Either way, he says, it would demonstrate the potential of solar power and serve as a testbed for green aircraft technology. "If we can build an airplane that can stay up for five years with nothing but sunlight," he says, "what else can we do?"
source....
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