Happy Fat Tuesday!

John Hinderaker at PowerLine found more evidence of science tampering with the numbers in order to get the results that support their political position. One of the issues is Global Warming.

This is a good read: Power Line: A Bad Mix

Carnival (a farewell to meat) is defined as a communal celebration, especially the religious celebration in Catholic countries that takes place just before Lent. Since early times carnivals have been accompanied by parades, masquerades, pageants, and other forms of revelry that had their origins in pre-Christian pagan rites, particularly fertility rites that were connected with the coming of spring and the rebirth of vegetation.

One of the first recorded instances of an annual spring festival is the festival of Osiris in Egypt; it commemorated the renewal of life brought about by the yearly flooding of the Nile. In Athens, during the 6th century B.C., a yearly celebration in honor of the god Dionysus was the first recorded instance of the use of a float. It was during the Roman Empire that carnivals reached an unparalleled peak of civil disorder and licentiousness. The major Roman carnivals were the Bacchanalia, the Saturnalia, and the Lupercalia.

Image: a peacock-feathered Carnival mask - credit: Damsel

In Europe the tradition of spring fertility celebrations persisted well into Christian times, where carnivals reached their peak during the 14th and 15th cent. Because carnivals are deeply rooted in pagan superstitions and the folklore of Europe, the Roman Catholic Church was unable to stamp them out and finally accepted many of them as part of church activity. The immediate consequence of church influence may be seen in the medieval Feast of Fools, which included a mock Mass and a blasphemous impersonation of church officials. Eventually, however, the power of the church made itself felt, and the carnival was stripped of its most offending elements. The church succeeded in dominating the activities of the carnivals, and eventually they became directly related to the coming of Lent. The major celebrations are generally on Shrove Tuesday or “Fat” Tuesday (Mardi Gras).

When disaster strikes, our support goes to the Salvation Army. Actually, we support them even when there’s not an emergency. Local citadels do a lot of good in our communities for adult rehabilitation and other community services.

After September 11, 2001, and in the wake of the terrible 2005 Hurricanes, the American Red Cross seems to have missed their charter, and entertain “perks” and other nonsense. We’re turned off from them for the time being.

This is a part of an article that Captain Ed posted today:

Red Cross Donations Go To Celebrity Parties

When people donate to the Red Cross, as I have in the past, they expect their money to go to disaster relief or to supporting blood drives, not to get their executives high-paying speaking gigs or to allow them to rub elbows with Hollywood celebrities. This amounts to an abuse and deception on the part of the Red Cross, gaining donations — especially in the wake of 9/11 and recently with Hurricane Katrina — by using the pain and suffering of victims in order to support a glamorous work environment. As Harvard lecturer Peter Dobkin Hall notes, the Red Cross doesn’t need to spend money to raise awareness of the organization, as people “throw money” at them whenever disaster strikes.

. . . as of last night, that was the “official population” of our planet. And they say it will keep growing and growing.

From LiveScience.com:

Planet’s Population to Hit 6.5 Billion Saturday

A population milestone is about to be set on this jam-packed planet.

On Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the population here on this good Earth is projected to hit 6.5 billion people.

Along with this forecast, an analysis by the International Programs Center at the U.S. Census Bureau points to another factoid, Robert Bernstein of the Bureau’s Public Information Center advised LiveScience. Mark this on your calendar: Some six years from now, on Oct. 18, 2012 at 4:36 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the Earth will be home to 7 billion folks.

[ . . . ]

Remarkably, despite the many new developments over the past 50 years, one fact looks very much the same, explained Kent and Haub: Populations are growing most rapidly where such growth can be afforded the least—an observation that has changed little over time, they said.

That last thought is the most frightening. This means that the most backwards places on the planet will continue to produce, indoctrinate, and deliver more and more American hating people into the population.

Or, “Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez” as they say in the French Quarter when Mardi Gras is in progress. When we hosted our wedding reception, the Cap’n and I used this lovely Harlequin doll and a number of other Mardi Gras props and used that theme for the party. It was wonderful. So, we wish you and revelers everywhere a happy Fat Tuesday!

I have more Mardi Gras props and decorations, so I promise to get some more pictures up soon.

Lily von Stupf from “Blazing Saddles” said that. Whatever . . .

However, this is a very nice picture I took of one of a half-dozen red rosebuds I got today.

If you step out this evening or or tomorrow evening, you might catch a glimpse of the seldom-seen planet - Mercury. Known as the Incredible Shrinking Planet, Mercury is about to slip back out of sight as it disappears behind the Sun until it emerges later this year.

Right: Mercury over the Rockies as seen from Denver - Credit: Jeffrey Beall.

Meanwhile, a little known NASA mission - MESSENGER - got a boost from it’s thrusters to place it on trajectory for another gravity-assisted sling around planet Venus toward it’s ultimate goal of orbiting the closest planet to the sun.

New Scientist has some information about NASA’s MESSENGER mission:

Messenger probe nudged towards Venus flyby

NASA’s first mission to Mercury in more than 30 years completed its final trajectory correction manoeuvre on Wednesday before a flyby of Venus in October 2006.

Messenger – short for Mercury, Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging – is on a 7.9 billion kilometre path to becoming the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.

Note: words in the New Scientist article are spelled correctly - at least in the UK where the magazine is based.

And his terrorist buddies singing cumbayah . . . oh! And death to Israel too.

Thanks Cox & Forkum

This is a nice wide shot of the entire island of Catalina. The island is about 22 miles from end to end, and that entire span is visible in this view. This shot was made from a vantage point on the Palos Verdes Peninsula at elevation 800 feet above sea level. It was so clear that day, we could see Santa Barbara Island at a distance of 40 or so miles to the west. The view of Catalina was so clear that we could discern the famous Casino at the far east (left) end of the island with the naked eye from the mainland. You can see it as a white speck in the inset from another photo taken without a telephoto lens.

Retired Geezer at Blog Idaho put out this article on a traffic circle being proposed for Nampa County; the Geezer says:

Blog Idaho: Roundabouts: Good or Bad?

A Roundabout is a traffic circle that replaces an intersection. They are popular in Europe, which should be enough to make me question their value.

I don’t remember hearing anything positive about them from friends who had them installed in their neighborhoods. I think their complaint was that when trucks got in the middle, they had trouble getting out safely. Here in I-Dee-Ho, we have trucks pulling 2 and 3 trailers.
Not to mention ungainly farm equipment.

How about all you Big-City-Folks telling us what you think.

Don’t do it! you might wind up with a circle-jerk like this one in Long Beach, California:

Damsel and I just HATE to drive through that mess, and avoid it if we can. We hated driving in Washington, D.C. for the same reason.

Caving into the almighty quest for capital, a famous London company will shut down a popular planetarium & science exhibit in favor of shows featuring celebrities. In essence, celestial stars are out, superficial stars are in.

From Sky and Telescope: London Planetarium to Close

February 22, 2006 The stars at one of central London’s well-known tourist attractions will go dark for good this July. Madame Tussauds waxworks, the owner of the London Planetarium, has decided to close the facility as the company shifts its focus from science education to entertainment. The planetarium (renamed the Auditorium) will soon replace its shows with programs about celebrities.

Built in the 1950s, the London Planetarium seats around 330 under its green 18-meter (60-foot) dome. Although Madame Tussauds had cut the screenings of its shows to just one 10-minute program called “Journey to Infinity,” the planetarium has remained very popular with local schoolchildren and their teachers.

“The London Planetarium has inspired generations of schoolchildren,” notes Robin Scagell, vice president of Britain’s Society for Popular Astronomy. “Many parents can still remember their first visit to it when they were young. To lose the planetarium now would be a tragedy.”

The Royal Observatory’s new, state-of-the-art 120-seat planetarium in Greenwich Park, about 30 minutes from downtown London by boat or rail, is currently under construction and won’t be completed until early 2007. “The only other planetarium of any size within striking distance of London,” says Scagell, “is the South Downs Planetarium near Chichester on the South Coast, about 60 miles from the capital, which is certainly not readily accessible unless you happen to be in the area.”

“I don’t think the Madame Tussauds management wants to sell or lease out the London Planetarium,” he adds. “It’s a valuable bit of real estate in a very expensive part of the world, and I’m sure they want to hang on to it. The dome itself is not a listed building, that is, not protected as being of historic or architectural value, but I doubt that they would want to pull it down just yet.”

It’s a shame to trade science for sensationalism. Most celestial stars are in their main sequence and will glow for billions of years to come. Terrestrial stars might be compared to final sequence giant stars, which have only a short time left before they collapse into the dwarfs they are all destined to become.