‘Bear’ is what we call her even though her paperwork name is ‘Callisto.’ The nickname is appropriate though, since the mythical Callisto was turned into a bear by Jupiter at one point, when she misbehaved.
Our Bear seldom displeases us, though. She has the sweetest personality and is a wonderful companion for us. When we take her to pet care, the caretakers always dote over her and are sorry to see her go home. I just love her.
Monday, we had some errands to run, but took the time to drive to Point Vicente via Del Cerro Park on the Palos Verdes peninsula. The scenic views from both places on this exceptional day were breathtaking! After enjoying nearly unlimited visibility and vistas of Santa Catalina and Santa Barbara Islands from the park, we stopped on Crest Road and looked out over the city. We could see the Hollywood Hills and the San Gabriel Mountains across the L.A. Basin. I took this image looking directly north from Crest Road.
Next, we drove to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center. From the west pathway, you can always enjoy overlooking the ocean, but seldom see the Malibu Mountains as clearly across the Santa Monica Bay. The ocean swells were in pretty good shape as well, sending foam into the air as wave after wave crashed into the rocks along the coastline. The view was beautiful and hypnotic – I could stand here for hours. But, there’s more stuff to see and more pictures to take.
As always, I took lots of pictures. Many of the shots I took yesterday were of the Point Vicente Lighthouse. This day, however, the Image of Catalina Island can be seen crisply in the background. A weak marine haze is still there, but at very low density. The lighthouse is managed by the U.S. Coast Guard. On station with the lighthouse, there is a foghorn; it was funny that they were sounding it when the visibility was over fifty miles. Every minute or so, the horn would sound a two or three second blast.
Standing on the pathway near the lighthouse, you can look back toward the visitor center where whale watchers look out to see the Pacific Grey Whales as they migrate; the whales range between Baja California in Mexico all the way north to the subarctic seas near Alaska. We didn’t see any whales today, but we’ve seen them spouting a couple of times. On the pathway leading into the visitor’s center there is a plaque that reads “Gray whales have only two natural enemies: Orca (Killer Whales) and men.”
You can click on any of the images above to see full-sized in the image viewer.
We enjoyed the beautiful scenery on a nice, balmy winter day on the peninsula. However, before the viewers of these beautiful images decide to head to California, they should keep this in mind – we’re long, long overdue for our next major seismic event.
So say the Greenbats of the world. But, what if the consensus scientists’ theories defy actual physics? What if the CO2 gas in the atmosphere can’t behave in the manner prescribed by the consensus?
Here’s an email I got the other day from my colleague, Rick (highlights are mine):
Bob,
I don’t know if you saw this but it is jaw dropping.
I quote:
It is an interesting point that the heat conductivity of CO2 is only one half of that of nitrogen or oxygen. In a 100 percent CO2 atmosphere a conventional light bulb shines brighter than in a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere due to the lowered heat conductivity of its environment. But this has nothing to do with the supposed CO2 greenhouse effect which refers to trace gas concentrations. Global climatologists claim that the Earth’s natural greenhouse effect keeps the Earth 33 C warmer than it would be without the trace gases in the atmosphere. 80 percent of this warming is attributed to water vapor and 20 percent to the 0.03 volume percent CO2. If such an extreme effect existed, it would show up even in a laboratory experiment involving concentrated CO2 as a heat conductivity anomaly. It would be manifest itself as a new kind of `super insulation’ violating the conventional heat conduction equation. However, for CO2 such anomalous heat transport properties never have been observed.
Rick
Image: Pie charts showing (top) the relative volume of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere, (middle) the volume of CO2, water vapor and other greenhouse gasses and (bottom) the ratio of human-caused CO2 to natural sources.
From National Center for Policy Analysis: Global Warming Primer (PDF)
CO2 is a naturally occurring greenhouse gas. Humans and other animals emit CO2 into the atmosphere when they exhale, and plants absorb it. CO2 and other trace gases are only 5 percent of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Water vapor makes up the other 95 percent.
Humans contribute about 3.4 percent of annual CO2 emissions. But, small increases in annual CO2 emissions, whether from humans or any other source, can lead to a large CO2 accumulation over time because CO2 molecules can remain in the atmosphere for more than a century.
Humanity is responsible for about one-quarter of one percent of the greenhouse effect.
It is indeed jaw-dropping when you consider that consensus science wants you to believe that atmospheric CO2 – a mere 0.03 percent of the total volume of the atmosphere – is said to elevate global temperature by massively disobeying physical science.
You don’t get to ‘vote’ on how the elements behave. You can’t have a ‘consensus’ on the freezing temperature of water nor any other physical properties, including the heat conduction of CO2.
Beautiful! The chili is made using two shredded chicken breasts, 4 large tomatillos, 2 Anaheim chilis, 1 cup broccoli florettes, 1 cubed potato, 2 celery sticks, ½ brown onion, 2 cloves garlic, 2 14 oz. cans chicken broth and a tablespoon of flower. It’s seasoned with salt, pepper, a teaspoonful of ancho chili powder, a bay leaf and a tablespoonful of cumin. Garnish with avocado slices.
Start out with a couple of large boneless skinless chicken breasts. Cover the chicken with chicken broth in a pan and poach for about 30 minutes or until well done. Remove and set the chicken aside to cool. Put four large tomatillos (or enough for about a half-pound) into the hot broth and cook for about 10 minutes. The tomatillos will be done when the skins become translucent – you can tell by the change in color.
Put the two Anaheim chili peppers directly on a burner set to low heat on the stove top. Turn the peppers as the outer skin becomes singed to blacken all sides. After the skin is singed, cut the peppers lengthwise into several slices. Scrape out the seeds and discard. Take a table knife and remove the singed skins and discard. Chop the remaining chili pepper flesh into half-inch squares.
Next, shred the chicken with a couple of forks. Season with salt, pepper and ancho chili powder. Put into the crock pot with diced potatoes, broccoli florettes, coarsely chopped celery, chopped onion, the chili pepper squares and a couple cloves of minced garlic. Transfer the chicken broth and the tomatillos into a blender and puree. Add pureed tomatillos to the crockpot. Add enough additional chicken broth to cover the ingredients along with a tablespoon of flour. Cover the crockpot and cook on high for about four hours. Serve in bowls and garnish with freshly sliced avocado slices. Season to taste.
Delicious and waistline friendly. Serves four to six. Click on the image to enlarge.
Every trip we make to the gun show (about every other month here), we pick up several tablets of 2×3 paper targets. We generally use the paper targets when we shoot our shotguns at the range. Understandably, we go through about four or five targets in a session. Most times, we bring twenty-five 20 gauge and twenty-five 12 gauge target loads.
In the video at the right, Damsel cranks out five 20 gauge rounds and shreds up the target pretty good. The still panels following the video are a fresh target, after 5 rounds and after 10 rounds – the last one is ready to haul in and start the cycle over again.
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What a great Sunday! After a nice outing to the shooting range, we came home and prepared our annual Superbowl Barbecue. The game is great (still watching it as I type), and the meal was outstanding. The chili had been cooking all day in the crockpot and was ready by the time the hamburgers and hot dogs went on the grill. The menu consisted of oven-baked potato wedges, chili dogs and chili-cheese-avocado burgers. Very filling – we took our walk while the Weirdos were performing at halftime. I think that was the name of the group.
Damsel took these photos of the food.
We really don’t know if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today or not. Had he been in Redondo Beach, California, he might have seen a vigorous surf blown by balmy winds on a 62°(F) day.
Click on the image for the large view – but before you decide to move to Redondo Beach, don’t forget that our next great earthquake is long, long overdue.