This image is from the October 1934 issue of Modern Mechanics magazine. The accompanying article contained elaborately illustrated and annotated details about how the aerial airport dirigible could work:

Sun’s Rays to Drive
Aerial Landing Field

Recent experiments in the conversion of the sun’s rays into electric power have led to an unusual idea in aerial equipment. It is a dirigible that not only would get its power from the sun but also provide space for a landing field in the air.

The ordinary cigar-shaped dirigible would in effect have a slice taken from the upper half of the gas bag. This would provide a large deck on which could be mounted solar photo cells, an airplane runway, and a hangar. Planes could land on the dirigible, floating over the sea, to refuel for trans-ocean passenger service.

Another unusual feature of this design, in addition to the landing field, is the use of sun rays to power the motors of the dirigible. Scientists estimate that the sun can develop as much as 86,300 kilowatts or 115,000 horsepower per hour in an area of a square mile. Photo cells convert the sun’s energy into electricity. When this can be done on a practical basis, the roof of an ordinary house can be used to develop electricity for the home.

Fun to think about, but as we know almost eighty years later, it is impractical. This image reminds me of a similar platform in the Art Deco fantasy, “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.”

Click on the image above to view the original Modern Mechanix article.

Tomorrow night, when the full moon rises over North America, it will be a “blue moon,” the first such occurrence to fall on December 31st since 1990.

The modern definition for “blue moon” is the second full moon to occur within a calendar month and tomorrow’s full moon will indeed be the second to occur in the month of December, 2009.

Cartoon Image courtesy of NASA.

But wait - there’s more to the blue moon phenomenon . . .

From NASA

Most months have only one full Moon. The 29.5-day cadence of the lunar cycle matches up almost perfectly with the 28- to 31-day length of calendar months. Indeed, the word “month” comes from “Moon.” Occasionally, however, the one-to-one correspondence breaks down when two full Moons squeeze into a single month. Dec. 2009 is such a month. The first full Moon appeared on Dec. 2nd; the second, a “Blue Moon,” will come on Dec. 31st.

This definition of Blue Moon is relatively new.

. . .

The modern definition sprang up in the 1940s. In those days, the Farmer’s Almanac of Maine offered a definition of Blue Moon so convoluted that even professional astronomers struggled to understand it. It involved factors such as the ecclesiastical dates of Easter and Lent, and the timing of seasons according to the dynamical mean sun. Aiming to explain blue moons to the layman, Sky & Telescope published an article in 1946 entitled “Once in a Blue Moon.” The author James Hugh Pruett cited the 1937 Maine almanac and opined that the “second [full moon] in a month, so I interpret it, is called Blue Moon.”

That was not correct, but at least it could be understood. And thus the modern Blue Moon was born.

. . .

The modern astronomical Blue Moon occurs in some month every 2.5 years, on average. A Blue Moon falling precisely on Dec. 31st, however, is much more unusual. The last time it happened was in 1990, and the next time won’t be until 2028.

Today marks the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere. It’s the shortest day of the year for the Los Angeles area; the solar disk will be above the horizon for only 9 hours and 54 minutes today at our latitude.

The diagram above illustrates the orbit of the Earth around the Sun and highlights the passage of our planet through eight significant portals recognized by cultures for many millennia. Those are the two equinoxes, the four cross quarter days and the two solstices. Today, we pass through the winter solstice for the northern hemisphere.

For more information about the science and lore of these several special days, check out the website Archaeoastronomy.com and have a look around.

Damsel acquired some beautiful sunflowers yesterday for the table centerpiece vase. She snapped this close-up of the center of one of them. When I downloaded the picture, I couldn’t help but notice the natural symmetry of the Fibonacci spiral pattern that dominates the center of the flower.

From the center of the flower, the spirals propagate in both right and left hand patterns outward. The spirals are not only aesthetically pleasing, but mathematically perfect*, in my book. Click on the flower for a closer look at the spirals.

* Definition of the Fibonacci series:

F(0) = 0, F(1) = 1, F(n+2) = F(n + 1) + F(n)

Even in the doldrums of an extended solar minimum, our nearest star continues to be dynamic in it’s (mostly) unseen behavior. This week’s SOHO Pick of the Week illustrates some of this unseen activity in this animation.

A few areas of this rather unremarkable solar image taken in extreme ultraviolet (UV) light on August 4, 2009, provide good starting points for explicating some of the unseen features of the Sun. For one thing, the darker polar coronal holes at the Sun’s poles (top and bottom) are the source of open magnetic field lines (red) that head way out into space. They are also the source regions of the fast solar wind, which is characterized by a relatively steady speed of approximately 800 km/s.

A more variable slow solar wind (gray) flows from all other areas of the Sun, carrying particles out into space. The solar wind defines the breadth of our solar system, the heliosphere. The image also shows a dark coronal hole at lower latitudes, just about facing towards Earth. The high speed solar wind particles (white) blowing from there will likely reach Earth in a few days and may spark some auroral activity. Lastly, magnetic loops (yellow) above the one sizeable active region arc out and connect back to an area of opposite polarity. Hot particles in these loops make them visible in UV light.

Safe to say, there is more than meets the eye when studying the Sun.

Nobody knows for sure, but the lack of sunspot activity could continue and make the next solar cycle one of the longest minimums in modern times. Shall we call it the Gore Minimum?

On the Global Warming Resources page, I have included some ’sage quotations’ attributes to a few of the smartest people in history. The purpose of including these is to demonstrate to modern greenbats (environmental alarmists) that their ‘consensus’ may be flawed due to violation of one or more of the principles these men advocated.

Leonardo Da Vinci has often been described as the archetype of the renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.

“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.”
— Leonardo Da Vinci

Galileo Galilei, was a Tuscan physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the “father of modern observational astronomy”, the “father of modern physics”, and “the Father of Modern Science.”

“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”
— Galileo Galilei

Philip Handler, was an American Nutritionist and President of the National Academy of Science for 2 terms. Handler was also a recipient of the National Medal of Science. He also believed that experimental observation, judiciously and honestly conducted, is the first obligation of the experimental scientist and that theory must be compatible with observation, not the reverse.

“Scientists best serve public policy by living within the ethics of science, not those of politics. If the scientific community will not unfrock the charlatans, the public will not discern the difference; science and the nation will suffer.”
— Philip Handler, National Academy of Sciences

John Michael Crichton, M.D., was an American author, producer, director, and physician, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 150 million copies worldwide. As the creator of the TV series ER, most famously as the author of Jurassic Park, and its sequel The Lost World, which were both adapted into high grossing films and leading to the very successful franchise. In 1994 he became the only creative artist ever to experience chart-topping success in America with a film, a television series, and a novel, all at number one simultaneously.

“Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had.”
— Michael Crichton

Al Gore? James Hansen? IPCC? Are you idiots not listening to the sage advice from some of the smartest men in history?

Today is Solstice, the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere - according to the solar ephemeris for our location, the length of our day will be approximately nine hours and fifty-four minutes.

The graphic below is taken from a very interesting website, Archaeoastronomy.com. On their website, you can learn about Equinoxes, Solstices and Cross Quarters which are moments shared planet-wide, defined by the earth’s tilt and the sun’s position on The Ecliptic along 45° arcs.

This neat graphic is put into motion on Archaeoastronomy.com.

I watched an interview on a news program today that featured a ‘climate expert’ explaining away the recent winter storms as being a consequence of global warming. This ‘expert’ contended that the severity of winter storms actually increases because of anthropogenic climate contributions.

The ‘expert’ blithely ignores actual science - for instance, the current lull in sunspots and solar activity. For the past two years, sunspots have been few and far between. He also ignores the fact that polar ice caps are not decreasing, Florida’s land mass is not decreasing due to a rise in sea level and global ocean temperatures have decreased over the past several years (since 1998).

James Taranto posted the following piece in the “Best of the Web Today” on the topic of selective science validation:

Science’s Ordinary Magisterium

“Scientists have found two large leaks in Earth’s magnetosphere, the region around our planet that shields us from severe solar storms,” Space.com reports:

The leaks are defying many of scientists’ previous ideas on how the interaction between Earth’s magnetosphere and solar wind occurs: The leaks are in an unexpected location, let in solar particles in faster than expected and the whole interaction works in a manner that is completely the opposite of what scientists had thought.

Laymen may be confused by the notion of a scientific discovery “that is completely the opposite of what scientists had thought.” After all, we keep reading that all scientists agree about global warming and no one may question it. Is science infallible or isn’t it?

The answer is: It depends. Scientific teachings that are part of the “ordinary magisterium,” such as those involving the interaction between Earth’s magnetosphere and solar wind, are not infallible. But global warming is what scientists call an ex cathedra* doctrine.

* In Catholic theology, the Latin phrase ex cathedra, literally meaning “from the chair”, refers to a teaching by the pope that is considered to be made with the intention of invoking infallibility. This is a concept that always has and always been unknown to true science - everything that is ‘known’ can be modified when ‘new knowledge’ is discovered.

Greenbats choose to cover their ears and say “la-la-la-la-la - I’m not listening,” when actual facts contradict their tunnel-vision views on climate. Very scientific, indeed.