This is what happens when they do the Jedi Mind Trick on weak minded Americans . . .

We stopped to check the progress of our home on the way into town two weeks ago. I walked out front and looked down into the little wash that runs through our lot and spotted several quail down there pecking at the ground. I hoped that quail would come around - I think they are really cute. Click on the image to see the expanded picture.

An Interesting eclipse occurred earlier this month when the moon passed between the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Sun. This is the first recorded lunar/solar eclipse taken by SDO although earth/solar eclipses happen often. SDO is like the Hubble Space Telescope but is totally devoted to solar activity.

The image at the right shows the partially-eclipsed solar disk (courtesy NASA - click to enlarge). I also uploaded a close-up image in which the mountains along the lunar limb can be discerned against the solar disc. This demonstrates the excellent resolution of the instruments aboard SDO.

The following is taken from the SDO website where you can download and watch a Quicktime video of the eclipse.

This was a first for SDO and it was visually engaging too. On October 7, 2010, SDO observed its first lunar transit when the new Moon passed directly between the spacecraft (in its geosynchronous orbit) and the Sun. With SDO watching the Sun in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, the dark Moon created a partial eclipse of the Sun.

These images, while unusual and cool to see, have practical value to the SDO science team. Karel Schrijver of Lockheed-Martin’s Solar and Astrophysics Lab explains: “The very sharp edge of the lunar limb allows us to measure the in-orbit characteristics of the telescope e.g., light diffraction on optics and filter support grids. Once these are characterized, we can use that information to correct our data for instrumental effects and sharpen up the images to even more detail.”

This video juxtaposes Ronald Reagan’s observations about Washington politics against a host of outrageous contemporary liberal politicians. After thirty years, Reagan’s wisdom and political intuition are still as valid today as they were then.

The utterances of Pelosi, Frank, Durbin and others demonstrate just how out of control Congress has become and how out of touch with America liberal politicians are. Reagan, of course, makes profound sense as he usually did.

The video runs for a little over two minutes. It’s worth the time.

Ramirez offers this excellent assessment of the Administration’s attitude toward big government . . .

Thanks to DrJim for the reminder . . . I am re-posting (from the other site) the countdown to election day timer.

It is now less than one year three weeks until the next election. We will have the opportunity to throw the bunch of liberal bums currently in office OUT. It’s time to get politically independent and to vote for the ISSUES and not the party.

The media, will be feverishly cranking out the rhetoric about ‘all the tea-party racists out there.’ They will try and protect the liberal bums from those of us who have had enough of left wing socialist BS and gun-grabbing idiots. Ignore the media crap and just VOTE THE BUMS OUT.

Time waits for no politician. The clock is ticking.

When we have business in the Phoenix Metro area, a scenic route to that part of the county is the drive over State Route 74. This is also the route we will use when we want to go north on I-17 toward Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. This hillside is typical of the vegetation along the route. Click on the image to enlarge.

The Idso Clan at CO₂ Science report on a study that reveals that biofuel production will be harmful to the environment and will cause food shortages.

Excerpt from The Large-Scale Production of Biofuels in a Food-Insecure World:

In a review article published in the Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, Rattan Lal of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center of Ohio State University (USA) introduces the subject of his concern by writing that “the world is faced with the trilemma of climate change, food insecurity, and energy demand,” because (1) “there still are more than one billion food-insecure people in the world (FAO, 2009a,b),” (2) “the world food supply will have to be doubled between 2005 and 2050 (Borlaug, 2009) because of the increase in population and change in dietary preferences,” and (3) “the world energy demand is also increasing rapidly and is projected to increase by 84% by 2050 compared with 2005.” And what makes the problem even worse is the fact that in an attempt to meet the anticipated increase in the global demand for energy, “the emphasis on biofuels is strongly impacting the availability of grains for food and soil resources for grain production.”

Ten long years have gone by and the US Government - Clinton, Bush and Obama - have done nothing to retaliate for the vicious Islamic Terrorism act, the bombing of the USS Cole. The current President even had a Judge drop the charges last year. That’s disgusting behavior, but typical of the invertebrate occupying the Oval Office these days.

About the same time the charges were dropped, we made the modification to the animated “Never Forget” tribute seen in the sidebar to include the USS Cole sequence. I was in contact with Gary Swenchonis, Sr., who provided me with feedback on the Tribute. Gary is the father of Fireman Gary Swenchonis, Jr., who perished in the attack on the USS Cole. Gary Sr. asked if I could provide a tribute to the Cole victims and I was honored to include it.

You can read the ten year anniversary post by Gary Swenchonis, Sr. at his website, Terrorism: Politicians and Victims.