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We were driving adjacent to the Grand Canal in Venice and spotted these white birds as they climbed up the bank. No, not Venice, Italy but Venice, California. We aren’t sure what species these waterfowl are, but they sure are pretty.
“The Sun is anything but a stable yellow ball in the sky” — That’s how the narration begins in the NASA video presentation about the STEREO mission. The video itself is well done, with informative commentary and the usual outstanding NASA animated graphics. I highly recommend that you follow the link above and watch the four-minute video.
NASA’s twin STEREO spacecraft completed a series of complex maneuvers Sunday to position the spacecraft in their mission orbits. The spacecraft will be in position to produce the first 3-D images of the sun by April.
As physicists learn more about the Sun and it’s less than subtle behavior, we can expect to be able to “connect the sunspots” and identify the extent to which the Sun influences Earth’s environment and climate.
I caught this encounter yesterday over the County Recycle Center. Adjacent to the center lies the open fields of an inactive landfill where critters dwell — both predators and prey. And there also, live scavengers like this crow who tries to discourage a red-tailed hawk from hunting in the area. The hawk, a voracious raptor, eventually drove the crows away and resumed its graceful search for prey on the landfill.
Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) is one of the few rational voices in the Senate when it comes to addressing the global warming issue. The Senator and his staff have established a weblog on the website of the Environmental and Public Works Committee where they don’t pull any punches when it comes to taking on the hype and misstatements by the Congress or the public in general. When Heidi Cullen, host of the Weather Channel’s weekly global warming program “The Climate Code” called for the American Meteorological Society to decertify any TV weatherperson who exhibits undue skepticism about climate warming, the Senator and his staff wasted no time in publishing a rebuke.
Kudos, Senator! We have added the “Senate EPW Blog” to our blogroll.
Kimberley A. Strassel wrote the following in her article in Opinion Journal:
As the former Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Republican Jim Inhofe was a coruscating critic of climate change alarmism. Now in the minority, he plans to make sure his voice is heard over the din of the media-savvy environmental groups through a new blog. His team even intends to make a bit of Congressional history by conducting the first-ever live Senate blog during the president’s State of the Union Address tonight. Watch out, National Review Online.
About a year ago, I snapped a picture of a spouting whale swimming offshore near the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Yesterday, I caught this whale-watching vessel cruising offshore near the same location. I didn’t spot any spouting whales this time, but when I do, I’ll be ready with my new telephoto lens!
I can almost see people in the vessel . . .
New York is seeing temperatures in the 70’s today and in Washington, the cherry blossoms are blooming. Meanwhile, in Colorado, avalanches plummet down slopes onto the interstate and ranchers can’t find their cattle for all the snow. Six hundred miles to the southwest, along the Southern California coastline, mild weather and sunshine prevail. There, the seagulls perch atop fence posts while the sun turns the ocean into millions of tiny twinkling diamonds across the Catalina Channel. What’s up with the weather? Nothing, actually, it’s just business as usual as the Sun dominates all major weather on Earth like it always has and always will.
Oh, and before you decide to rush off to California, don’t forget to consider that we’re long overdue for the next major quake along the San Andreas.
According to some GPS data compiled by geological scientists, New Orleans is sliding into the Gulf of Mexico. It seems that the city is situated on a big, moving mass of bedrock that is detached from the North American Continent. Over the next few thousand years, this rock will slowly move south toward the Gulf, but it is simultaneously sinking at more than twice the rate at which it is moving.
I wonder who New Orleans Mayor Nagin, Louisiana Governor Blanco and the Democrats will blame for this other natural phenomenon?