We added this nice two-tone Santana Hibiscus bush to our backyard landscape today. We’re running around getting all the shopping and chores done because tomorrow is the gun show!

While in the garden taking pictures, I spotted this little green arachnid crawling about on one of my morning glory flowers - sorta creepy and pretty at the same time. Mostly creepy.

This might be a green lynx spider which are hunting spiders that spend their lives on plants, flowers and shrubs. Nimble runners and jumpers, they rely on their keen eyesight to stalk, chase or ambush prey.

Yesterday, the 10-day harassment ended and I took possession of our new Glock 26 subcompact pistol. We went into the range and put about 30 rounds through the new gun. I found the gun to be smooth and easy to use. When we were finished, I took the pistol home and practiced field stripping it - we’re going to the range again this weekend and I will clean it up after that.

I found a very good YouTube® video demonstrating how to field strip the Glock 26. This gun is much easier to disassemble and reassemble than our S&W 908 9mm pistols. Using the video as a guide, I was able to strip the gun and put it back together in under 30 seconds - without hurrying. In the image at the left you can see the gun’s component parts after field stripping - the barrel, recoil spring assembly, slide assembly, frame and the stock 10-round magazine. Click on the image for a closer look.

Glock 26 Specifications

Weight: 560 g / 19.75 oz
Length: 160 mm / 6.29 in
Barrel length: 88 mm / 3.46 in
Width: 30 mm / 1.18 in
Height: 106 mm / 4.17 in
Caliber: 9 mm Luger Parabellum
Action: Safe action
Feed system: 10 / 12 / 15 / 17 / 19 / 33 round magazine
Sights: Fixed front and rear

Click on the image for a close-up of this little beauty.

Among the many colorful flowers in the centerpiece this week, are these beautiful mums. When I took this photo, the light shining through the window over the staircase created this nice shadowy effect.

This post has been condensed and abridged from Mark Alexander’s excellent essay, Debunking the gullible warming Gorons. Mark is the publisher of The Patriot Post and I encourage you to read his complete article and to visit his website.

Correcting the Record

Recent analysis shows that many domestic climate monitoring stations have issues that affect their accuracy. That, coupled with NASA’s recent admission that there was an ‘error’ in calculations performed under the supervision of NASA scientist James Hansen, a Democratic activist and climate warming alarmist, shed further doubt on what we’ve been told. In fact, the warmest year of the 20th century was actually 1934, not 1998 like Hansen, et al, would have us believe. Several of the warmest years of the 20th century occurred prior to the rapid vertical component of alarmist’s favorite “hockey stick” temperature graphic.

Continue reading » Recent Developments in the World of Climate Science

More than a dozen of the cereus blossoms popped open overnight. As you can see, there will be many more to come. We seldom see so many opening on a single night. This was taken very early this morning. By 10 AM, these beautiful flowers had all closed and were drooping having done their one-night opening.

We were in the backyard today when the Goodyear Blimp passed overhead. That happens quite often here since the West Coast Blimp Operation is based in Carson, California, about three miles from our home.

The unusual thing about this particular overhead pass, was the position of the sun behind the airship as it flew directly overhead. As the Blimp passed in front of the sun, we were engulfed in shadow for several seconds, enough to perceive a drop in temperature which would also occur during an actual solar eclipse.

I took several shots during the ‘eclipse’ that included totality and the ‘diamond ring’ effect. Luckily, I heard the Blimp, which has a distinctive sound, and grabbed the camera for this most unusual photo opportunity.

Click on each image to see the full-sized photos on the large image viewer.

On our recent vacation, we were in San Diego’s Balboa Park. At one point, we passed the reflection pond where koi and water lilies abound. I got this shot of a water lily as we strolled past the pond.

Cal Tech Astronomers using the GALEX telescope, made a very interesting and unprecedented discovery of a massive tail being left in the trail of a well-known star, Mira. The faint tail, seen in ultraviolet light, spans more than 13 light years in the wake of Mira. The discovery of this phenomenon includes a ‘bow-shock’ ahead of the star, analogous to a vessel underway on the sea.

Mira, a late-sequence red-giant star, is shedding it’s outer layers as it hurtles through the universe at amazingly high speeds (relative to our Sun). As scientists study this interesting discovery, they are likely to learn more about the ultimate destiny of our own star, which, as we know, will be similar to Mira in about five billion years.

From Science@NASA:

August 15, 2007: Astronomers using a NASA space telescope, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, have spotted an amazingly long comet-like tail behind a star streaking through space. The star, named Mira after the Latin word for “wonderful,” has been a favorite of astronomers for about 400 years, yet this is the first time the tail has been seen.

Galaxy Evolution Explorer–”GALEX” for short–scanned the popular star during its ongoing survey of the entire sky in ultraviolet light. Astronomers then noticed what looked like a comet with a gargantuan tail. In fact, material blowing off Mira is forming a wake 13 light-years long, or about 20,000 times the average distance of Pluto from the sun. Nothing like this has ever been seen before around a star.

NASA and JPL/Caltech prepared a half-minute animation which is an artist’s conception of Mira generating her tail. Be sure and watch this neat little video.

Continue reading » A Real Shooting Star

I read the blogs and listen to the news every day. Most of the time, when I see something that pisses me off, my reaction is that of mild disgust. Last night, however, I passed the level of outrage when I saw an article on Planet Gore that tells of the destruction of one of the more intelligent species of hominids in the name of producing biofuels.

The Indonesians are steadily clearing the rainforest habitat of the orangutan to make way for palm oil plantations at the behest of the European Union’s thirst for biofuels, bio-diesel, in particular. The result is that the apes are being slaughtered and displaced.

Where the hell is PETA? Where the hell is Greenpeace? My guess is they’re too busy scheming about their next assault on the ‘evil’ USA.

Read Iain Murray’s Planet Gore article, “Crucifying Apes on a Cross of Green“, for the outrageous details.