Last week, I saw a poster at Sharp as a Marble that inspired me to tackle a new sidebar widget project for our blog. It is a work-in-progress at this point, and I hope that I can get some suggestions and advice from those of you with an interest in this.

The idea is to pose the question of how you are prepared to cope with ever-increasing violence in suburban areas in light of the ever-decreasing police coverage and, of course, the constant attacks on your Second Amendment rights. We previously posted an article about how the police are spread too thin to protect everyone.

So have at it. Don’t hesitate to criticize what you see because it’s still an unfinished product. Consider what story you would like to tell with it and suggest away. As an extra incentive, I am willing to provide the resulting sidebar widget to anyone who is willing to help out.

The resulting product will be a Flash™ animated widget that fits in the sidebar or just about anywhere else on your web page. You can use the raw file or I will provide scripting to make it compatible with most browsers.

Update: By the way, if you don’t want to register for comments on this post, you may also email me at capnbob (’at’) capnbob (’decimal-point’) us, or use the secure feedback feature.

Update II: For the time being, user registration will not be required for commenting on this post.

This week’s WOW selection goes to Dr. Sanity. Dr. Sanity is an M.D. practicing in psychology and aerospace medicine. She also runs a very popular and widely read weblog where she shares her common sense views on a variety of topics.

Dr. Sanity’s blog was a finalist in the 2006 Weblog Awards and for good reason. We enjoy visiting Dr. Sanity on the web often, and are pleased to select her site as our Weblog of the Week.

In physics, a black body is an object that absorbs all electromagnetic radiation that falls onto it. No radiation passes through it and none is reflected. It is this lack of both transmission and reflection to which the name refers. These properties make black bodies ideal sources of purely thermal radiation. That is, the amount and wavelength (color) of electromagnetic radiation they emit is directly related to their temperature. Black bodies below around 700 K (430 °C) produce very little radiation at visible wavelengths and appear black (hence the name). Black bodies above this temperature, however, begin to produce radiation at visible wavelengths starting at red, going through orange, yellow, and white before ending up at blue as the temperature increases.

Image: CIE Black Body Color Temperature Chart — “The Tongue” — click for full-sized chart

The color temperature of the Sun is near the yellow zone on the inset chart, while the color temperature of the Earth (obviously) is outside the visible radiation spectrum and in the far infrared (low temperature) corner of the chart. Given the (more or less) constant energy level emitted by the Sun, the Earth can only rise to a finite maximum temperature. An independent study predicts that we’re almost there!

John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.), writing from Brisbane, Australia, passes along this article by Ian Schumacher, in which he offers six postulates supporting the maximum temperature argument: What is the maximum temperature of the Earth?

1. The average temperature of a body in thermodynamic equilibrium with an external energy source can never exceed the temperature of a black body in the same environment.
2. The maximum temperature of a body in thermodynamic equilibrium with an external energy source can never exceed the temperature of black body in the same environment.
3. The greenhouse effect can never produce a temperature that is higher than the temperature of a black body in the same environment.
4. The earth is operating very close to its maximum possible temperature.
5. The transition from Ice Age to warm period and back to Ice Age is achieved through a runaway greenhouse effect and its opposite.
6. The runaway greenhouse effect ends when the Earth has achieved a effective absorptivity as close to unity as it can get after which the earth becomes insensitive to further positive feedback changes.

Read the entire article to get a sense for the physics involved and narratives associated with these six postulates.

Hat tip to my colleague, Rick, for bringing this to my attention.

I snapped this picture last weekend at the garden shop at our local home improvement outlet.

Credit to ProFlowers for the meanings of yellow roses:

Yellow roses have a shorter, albeit no less fascinating, history than other roses. It wasn’t until around the 18th century that yellow roses were discovered growing naturally in parts of the Middle East. Prior to this, roses in cultivation predominantly existed in various shades of pink and to a lesser extent, white. However, once the first yellow roses were introduced, their popularity quickly spread.

A bouquet of yellow roses now brings to mind all of the sunny, cheerful feelings of warmth and happiness. In contrast to the romantic meanings attributed to other roses, the yellow rose is purely a symbol for friendship. This gives it a unique place in the pantheon of roses. Yellow roses can send the perfect message of appreciation and platonic love without the romantic subtext of other colors. They can represent feelings of joy and delight, and are an ideal way to brighten someone’s day who may be feeling down. There is perhaps no other flower that is able to bring out a smile in quite the way that a yellow rose can.

We always have a lot of fun at the shooting range when we go. But, it’s not always without mishap. Once in a while one of our guns will jam or misfire. Once in a while we will shoot the target off of the hook. And once in a while somebody gets hit by a ricocheting slug.

Image: slug and resulting injury on my forearm.

Note to self: roll down the sleeves when you’re up in the booth.

Click on the image for a closer look.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have your beautiful family depicted in the rear window of your SUV or mini-van? With Dad, Mom, and all the kids’ names? You’ve seen those rear-window decals around.

But I’d think twice before listing my family members’ names for all to see (maybe some sicko predator would like to know your kids’ names). So this is my solution to listing our family members that I want folks to know about . . .

Each year, our town, Torrance, CA, celebrates Armed Forces Day with a parade and other activities. This is a preview of some of the Military exhibits at the Del Amo Mall. Click on the panorama image for a larger image (Firefox users may have to click on the picture again to get full-size if your preferences are set to resize images to your browser).

God bless our Military men and women!

Update: Black Hawk Panorama (click for big):

As summer approaches, our poppies continue to flourish. I just love the wonderful color of the California Poppy.

I found a new (to me, at least) climate resource blog operated by National Review Online. I added it to our Climate and Global Warming Resources Page and included it in the sidebar under the Climate Science blogroll. The blog is called Planet Gore. A recent post titled Global Warming Roundup by Iain Murray calls attention to a number of recent developments in the area of climate change. Go over and check it out.

This is a picture of one of the Vendela Roses in my crystal bud vase this week. The flower was partially lighted from behind with sunlight through the window above, giving it this nice glowing effect.