This may be a once in a lifetime celestial event for Earthlings to witness. A sun-grazing comet, McNaught, is visible to the naked eye in broad daylight! If you have clear skies, you should step outside today and try to observe the comet.
SOHO also “sees” the comet, but it’s so bright in the sky it badly blooms the image.
Image: SOHO LASCO C3 view of McNaught.
Read more about how to observe this spectacle from SpaceWeather.com:
Unusually cold overnight temperatures didn’t seem to phase the geraniums growing in the south flowerbed where sunlight is available most of the short winter days. The little buds seen here will emerge in this almost-indecent shade of red within the next few days.
UPDATE: As of February 2007, castle doctrine lives in California. From the California Department of Justice:
No license or permit shall be required to possess keep, or carry a handgun openly or concealed in one’s home or place of business, including temporary residences and campsites.
You now can defend yourself using a firearm in your own home, at work or while encamped; there will be NO charges brought for using a weapon, as long as it’s registered. However, you better have a good lawyer because the perp’s family will likely sue you.
For historical purposes, the original article appears below.
“A man’s home is his castle,” is a metaphor often used to describe the way people feel about their domiciles. Whether you are the owner or are renting, you should be able to feel safe, comfortable and secure in your own space. You should also expect to assume the responsibilities to keep it that way. For example, you should be prepared to deal with any number of breaches to comfort and security — if the roof leaks or something breaks, you should be prepared for that — or — if there is an intrusion into your space by forced entry, you should be prepared to defend your property as well as your life.
In California, we can have hammers, drills, saws and wrenches to maintain our comfort by fixing most problems around the house. All you have to do is go the the home improvement center and purchase what you need. In California, it’s a completely different story when it comes to protecting your home with a pistol or shotgun. Our anti-gun legislature and left-leaning elected officials will not allow the honest law-abiding homeowner to go to the firearms dealer and get a weapon to maintain the security of the castle unless he or she endures a myriad of abusive procedures, delays, rules and restrictions. Moreover, even if we go through all the painful process to get a firearm, we aren’t protected from frivolous litigation if we use it to protect our home – which is NOT a castle in California.
Sadly, the left-coast demographic here will probably not vote the anti-gun politicians out of office. Because of that, the likelihood of a “Castle Doctrine” in California is virtually nil.
Fortunately, for many other states, Castle Doctrine progress is being made.
The local flower emporium offered these nice tulips last weekend. They’re looking very pretty on our coffee table. I plan to get other colors for floral accents as this winter season goes on.
The Cap’n has been scrambling at work to get successful certification of one of the products, so he asked me to post one of the nice photos we took last weekend. This is a view of the Point Vicente Lighthouse on the grounds of the Coast Guard Station there. With Catalina Island visible in the background, this is one of the many very photogenic lighthouses in California.
An old, trite expression, “Sly as a Fox” was put to the test by a group of scientists and students in the Pacific Northwest several years ago. They baited and set humane traps in a forested area known to be a Kitt Fox habitat. When a fox was trapped, it was tagged and released.
The group ran their experiment for several weeks during a time when foxes were known to forage for their winter stores. When the results were compiled they discovered that not only were individual foxes trapped multiple times, but most of the repeats were trapped in the same traps as their prior entrapment. What aren’t they learning one might ask? These foxes didn’t quite live up to the “sly” parameter — or did they?
If you look at it from the perspective of having been trapped, fed, tagged (a non-invasive process), and then released again and again, it seems like a good deal for the fox. The fox knows that he gets fed and released each time so why not take the bait? Seems like a “sly” way to deal with the system.
That brings us to regard how Illegal Alien Criminals in America are working the catch and release system; the process is described in the article below. Read also how only a handful of agencies get 70 percent of Federal Funds for Immigration Enforcement and read how some of those actually offer sanctuary to illegals:
From the Washington Times — Criminal aliens set free on the streets of America:
Update III: Not as bad as thought. See RECAP Below.
Update II: Looks like the count is 8 homes destroyed, 5 damaged and no injuries reported.
Update: Live TV Feed.
Breaking news: A wildfire threatens many celebrity homes in the Malibu Colony area.
Photo: A Structure fully engulfed in flames. Courtesy KTTV Fox News.
Update: Map of the Malibu Colony fire area:
RECAP: Only 4 homes with significant damage – one guest house destroyed. Many celebrities own homes in the area but no specifics on whether any of them received damage.
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