Our local hospital has an enclosed garden and visiting area for patients, staff and visitors to enjoy. One of the features is a Koi pond in which there are water lilies. That’s not something you see everyday in Arizona. Click on the image to enlarge.
Not visible in this view is a large Koi fish lurking beneath the lily pads. There are several other Koi in the pond in diminishing sizes. There is a waterfall that flows into the pond in the corner of the garden area.
Last evening, Damsel and I went out to watch a flyover of the International Space Station. The conditions were right for it to be a very bright and spectacular pass. As a bonus, we were also treated to a beautiful conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus in the western sky.
The flyover was everything we expected with the ISS appearing in the twilight to the north northwest and flying overhead at sixty degrees above the horizon. The magnitude of the spacecraft was very bright and registered at minus 3.6 according to SpaceWeather.com. We watch it until it winked out crossing the terminator (Earth shadow) well to the southeast of here, about three minutes after the initial sighting.
I was intrigued by the asterism, however, and went back inside to get my camera and a tripod to attempt to capture the stellar event. I got set up and experimented with various camera settings. The image above, even though slightly overexposed, shows the positions of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus as they appeared to us. When you click on the image to enlarge, you can see the earthshine-illuminated darkside of the Moon.
Canon SL1, 1/20sec., F4.0, ISO 6400 and 75mm focal length.
Lately, the flowers at the supermarket flower concession stand have been less than spectacular (to say the least). Today, however, there were these gorgeous yellow spider mums on the shelves. I picked out a couple of the packaged flower bundles and some baby’s breath and arranged them into the large vase on the sofa table. Click on the image to enlarge.
Spider mums are actually a variety of chrysanthemums grown throughout the world and originally from China. This interesting information is from GardenGuides Dot Com:
Spider mums belong to the chrysanthemum family, with some of that family’s largest blooms. Spider mums are also known as football mums in the United States, as they are the flower most commonly appearing in homecoming corsages. Long revered in China and Japan, versatile chrysanthemums retain their blossoms long after they’ve been cut, have antibacterial properties and even represent a substantial cash crop for their ability to produce a natural insecticide.
Native to China, mums became popular in the United States over the last century. The 18th century Swedish botanist Karl Linnaeus created the name chrysanthemum by combining the Greek words chrysos (meaning gold) and anthos (meaning flower). In 1989 chrysanthemums made news in NASA’s study on plant abilities to remove toxins from indoor air; the report indicated that mums absorbed 61 percent of the formaldehyde in its environment. The mum is also a significant source of pyrethrum, a naturally occurring insecticide used in flea repellent. Tea made from the flower has long been used throughout Asia for medicinal purposes.
Hmmm . . . I guess the acronym for the title of this post is CRAP. Oh well, that is not important.
I was thinking about the eventuality of me not being here for the Damsel or vice versa. We each have our own IRAs and have each other as beneficiaries. I wanted to see what would happen to my Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) amount should I not be here or what the withdrawal implications of hers would be if she were to be gone. Hard stuff to think about but it’s gotta be done.
I looked around on the (insert famous savings institution here) website and did not find much information on my specific concerns. Next, I used an on-line search engine with appropriate keywords and found several links. One link to the Charles Schwab IRA Calculator proved to be the exact information I needed to know since it was specific to the beneficiary of an inherited IRA.
I needed to enter several relevant items: the balance of the account as of 12/31/14, date of birth, date of death, type of inheritance (spouse), beneficiary’s date of birth and an estimated annual rate of return. The calculator itself updates immediately with each new entry. I actually like this calculator better than the one found on my IRA holder website.
The answer to my original question of “what happens if . . . ?” is – nothing! When I go, she inherits the IRA just as it is and will continue to have the required minimum distributions just as it does today. If I should inherit her IRA, RMDs won’t be necessary until the year where she would have turned 70½ and the distributions would be based on her date of birth, not mine. The IRA distribution scenarios are identical whether we’re here or not.
My reliable Bishop’s Cap cactus is flowering again. Only three flowers today, not nearly a record for this cactus, but pretty indeed.
I did a little research on Wikipedia and came up with this information about one of my favorite cacti:
Astrophytum myriostigma (common names: Bishop’s Cap Cactus, Bishop’s Hat or Bishop’s Miter Cactus) is a species of cactus native to the highlands of northeastern and central Mexico.
Synonyms include Echinocactus myriostigma, Astrophytum prismaticum, A. columnare, A. coahuilense, A. tulense, and A. nuda.
A. myriostigma is a spineless cactus defined by the presence of three to seven (usually five) pronounced vertical ribs which define the cactus’ shape when young (the genus name “astrophytum”, literally, “star plant”, is derived from the resulting star-like shape). As the cactus ages, more ribs may be added and it becomes more cylindrical in shape, growing up to about 70–100 cm tall and 10–20 cm in diameter. In the wild, globose to cylindrical stem is covered with a whitish flocking of trichomes. Some horticultural varieties lack the flocking.
In the wild, the cacti flower in early spring, so that their seeds can grow with summer rains. In cultivation this differs, and the plants may flower in summer. Plants produce one or more flowers 4–6 cm diameter near the apex; the numerous tepals are creamy yellow, sometimes with an orange or red base. Pollinated flowers develop into a hairy reddish fruit about 2-2.5 cm in diameter. Plants may take up to six years to flower. A. myriostigma is commonly grown as an ornamental plant in cactus collections.
The fourth and final verse of the Star Spangled Banner By Francis Scott Key 1814:
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Anyone who has actually looked into the reasons for the current drought in California will understand that occurrences of dry spells have been common for the area over the course of eons.
It is left-wing politicians and the complicit media that have fanned this drought into a sh*t storm that they quickly blame on man-made (anthropogenic) climate change. In their book, the adage of “never waste a crisis” is repeated loud and often.
Image: One of many similar signs posted near I-99 and I-5 in Sacramento Delta country.
In a case of actual science, the folks at CO2 Science reviewed a paper entitled “Assessing the Uniqueness of the California Drought of 2012-2014″ which concluded that, as noted before, droughts have repeatedly hit the current drought area long before the evils of man-made carbon emissions. The review conclusion is ” . . . it would appear the answer is not so unusual, unprecedented, or unnatural, and there is no evidence to ascribe it to rising atmospheric CO2/global warming.”
We all know (and the left knows it too) that the issue is very poor water management in California. In the name of saving the endangered “Delta Smelt,” a two-inch fish, the politicians have steadfastly refused to allow water from the Sacramento River to flow to places where it is needed. The URLs of organizations visible on the sign in the image (click to enlarge) link to groups who know this and are working at the grassroots level to promote water flow.
As an aside, did you know that CO2 Science is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization? Donations to this anti-anthropogenic global warming organization are fully tax deductible. We donate to their organization not only to promote the truth about AGW, but to piss off the IRS, the Obama administration and all the Greenbats in general by getting a tax deduction for doing so.
There are others that fit the 501(c)(3) piss-em-off category. The Second Amendment Foundation, numerous Christian organizations, Military and Veteran support organizations and so on. We no longer have mortgage deductions, so to offset that, we tend to donate what we can to good charities who will promote our values.