Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Environment

Keeping an Eye on Mount St. Helens

mt-st-helens.jpgEvery once in a while I will tune my browser to the Volcano WebCam, located at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, northeast of the famous volcano, Mount St. Helens. They used to have a very basic low-resolution image a few years ago, but since then have upgraded to a variety of resolutions, including both high and low.

I downloaded this image today late in the afternoon (Pacific Time). Click the thumbnail for a larger view.

They say this about their current capability:

These are near real-time images of Mount St. Helens, taken from the Johnston Ridge Observatory (JRO) using our VolcanoCam Classic camera and the new VolcanoCamHD camera. The (JRO) and VolcanoCams are located at an elevation of approximately 4,500 feet, about five miles from the volcano. You are looking approximately south-southeast across the North Fork Toutle River Valley. The VolcanoCam images automatically update approximately every five minutes.

I have a pseudo movie of an eruption event somewhere – I’ll post it when (and if) I find it. Meanwhile check out the cameras at Mount St. Helens during daylight hours (Pacific time).

18 Nov 2008 by Environment Science

Firestorm Caused by a Bird?

orange-sun.jpgA Local brush fire is now under control, but not before the smoke nearly blotted out the sun. Fine, white ashes continue to fall here, even after sunset. This is how the sun looked mid-afternoon from the back yard. Click to enlarge.

SoCal Edison blamed the fire on a bird. From the Daily Breeze:

Firefighters mopped up the remnants of a 10-acre brush fire this afternoon that briefly threatened the Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall earlier in the day.

Unlike fires raging elsewhere in Southern California, the one on the Palos Verdes Peninsula was put out quickly. It took about 100 firefighters and two helicopters about an hour to extinguish it, authorities said.

The fire was reported at 11:02 a.m. It burned in a canyon near Hawthorne Boulevard and Palos Verdes Drive South.

“It started to go to the city yard,” said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Jeff Vroomes. “That was our priority. We made an aggressive attempt to get in front of it.”

No homes were immediately threatened.

Southern California Edison officials determined the fire was caused by a bird that landed on power lines. After being killed by electricity and catching fire, the animal fell into the dry brush, Vroomes said.

15 Nov 2008 by Critters Current Events Environment

Crashing Waves in Avalon

This was such an unusual happening, the local Fox remote Catalina camera got these shots of heavy surf in the normally pond-like Avalon Harbor. I took these shots of the TV yesterday morning as the waves were happening. None of the usual open air putt putt cars seemed to be going up and down Crescent and Via Casino as normally is the case.

big-waves.jpg

14 Oct 2008 by Current Events Environment

Fairyland

“Fairyland” is the nickname for this view from the top of Bryce Canyon. I cannot disagree with that . . .

fairyland

Click to see the ginormogantic size.

12 Aug 2008 by Environment Travel

Red Bird of Kingman

Today, we drove from Prescott, AZ, Northward to pick up Historic Old Route 66. Then, we drove from Ash Fork along the old highway through Seligman and on down to Kingman. When in Kingman, we stopped at the Harley Davidson dealership to look at the nice hardware and buy a souvenir tank top with the “Mother Road” and Kingman, AZ art on it.

red bird of paradise

You’ve seen pictures of the highway before, but I wanted to share this beautiful “Red Bird of Paradise” or “Pride of Barbados” blooming outside the Harley building. People often mistakenly call this the Mexican Bird of Paradise, but either of the two names I mentioned are correct. This is one of my very favorite shrubs – sadly, it doesn’t do well in our garden – too cool and not sunny enough, so I’ll just have to keep coming to visit them. Better yet, maybe I’ll live somewhere soon where they thrive.

Click the image to humongify . . .

25 Jul 2008 by Environment Travel

Sunrise

I generally head for the office early in the morning, often arriving before 0630. Today, unlike most spring and summer days in this area, there was a beautiful sunrise. Our norm for this time of the year is coastal low clouds and fog, burning off late in the morning. I stopped the car and snapped this view over (yet another) construction site on the way to work.

sunrise

As is generally the case, you can click on the image to see the really big version.

11 Jul 2008 by Environment Photography

You Can’t Ride a Polar Bear to Work

bear partyI just read a pretty good editorial in the Orange County (CA) Register. The title, “You Can’t Ride a Polar Bear to Work”, intrigued me and so I read the item (hat tip Opinion Journal). So, I thought I would pass it along here. Plus, it gives me another chance to post this silly polar bear picture.

The article starts with this news item about the reversal of John McCain’s attitude toward offshore drilling:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain this week reversed his position and drew environmentalists’ wrath when he came out in favor of lifting the federal ban on offshore oil drilling. Mr. McCain apparently realizes he needs motorists’ votes more than environmentalists’ endorsements. Better late than never.

And concludes with this encouragement for McCain to similarly reconsider drilling in ANWR:

We hope that even if it’s only a crass appeal for votes, Mr. McCain rethinks his opposition to drilling in ANWR and also pledges to overcome Democrat opposition to leasing interior federal lands that may contain 1.8 trillion barrels of oil in solid shale rock, which a RAND Corp. study estimates could be enough to meet U.S. energy needs for centuries.

The U.S. realistically can’t become energy independent, but it can become energy self-sufficient by drilling closer to home, reviving shunned technologies such as nuclear power and by encouraging private companies to seek new technologies and approaches in support of that goal.

There are a lot of good points made in between the start and finish of the article. Take the time to read some interesting things about energy consumption and production in our country.

19 Jun 2008 by Environment Money and Business

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