We really don’t know if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today or not. Had he been in Redondo Beach, California, he might have seen a vigorous surf blown by balmy winds on a 62°(F) day.
Click on the image for the large view – but before you decide to move to Redondo Beach, don’t forget that our next great earthquake is long, long overdue.
In 1981 I saw a spaceship land on Earth – twice. I went to Rogers Dry Lake by Edwards AFB in the desert and witnessed the arrival of the Columbia. I went April 14th for the first landing and again on the 4th of July for the second mission.
In 1992, I went to Titusville, Florida and watched as Columbia ascended atop a fiery plume and a trail of white smoke. The ground shook with the rumble and crack of the boosters.
Five years ago today, I awoke with a start – something – I don’t know what – made me turn on the little LCD TV I keep in the nightstand. I was horrified to see images of the destruction of Columbia.
I have a fond place in my heart for the Astronauts of STS-107 and the Columbia – and I will never forget February 1, 2003.
Image from NASA Image of the Day, taken from aboard STS-107. Click on it for 1024×768 in the viewer.
I was in my freshman year in high school and remember the elation I felt after months of failed Project Vanguard flights in the wake of the Russian Sputnik launches.
Image credit NASA
Through the combined efforts of JPL and the Army Ballistic Missile Ballistic Agency, Explorer 1 launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Jan. 31, 1958. There was a nail-biting wait before tracking stations confirmed that Explorer 1 had gone successfully into orbit around Earth. With the launch of Explorer 1, the United States officially entered the space age.
You may have noticed the “Damsel’s Water Zen” widget in the sidebar. This is the background behind it.
Damsel likes the light patterns that water makes when sunlight dances through it. Whether in a swimming pool, in a river, in a marina channel or in a shallow harbor, it doesn’t matter, she likes the shimmering ripples.
Last September (2007), we spent our anniversary, as usual, on Catalina Island. We go to Avalon every year since that’s where we got married. While we were there, we took a lot of pictures and a few movies.
While we were waiting on the Green Pier for our glass-bottom boat tour. I leaned over the rail and captured this short sequence of the rippling water in the harbor. I used my little Canon A710 IS digital camera in AVI mode. I pointed the camera straight down and captured about ten seconds of video. When I showed the preview to Damsel, she said it was relaxing like ‘Water Zen.’
So, when we got home, I converted the short video to Flash® and popped it in the sidebar as a remembrance to our time in Avalon and an opportunity to ‘gaze and relax.’
President Bush will be paying a visit to Robinson Helicopter in Torrance, California tomorrow. That’s about a mile and a half from our house. We’d like to go see and hear the President, but admission is by invitation only.
Bush to visit Torrance on Wednesday
President Bush will pay a visit to Robinson Helicopter Co. in Torrance on Wednesday as he urges Congress to pass three free trade agreements.
Bush will take a tour of the company, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of civilian helicopters, and deliver remarks to employees.
Robinson Helicopter posted a record year in 2007, largely on the strength of its exports to 55 countries. Much of that success is due to the declining value of the dollar, which makes American exports less expensive to foreign customers.
“We’re an unusual story because we’re not outsourcing everything,” said Kurt Robinson, a company vice president. “I think it’s pretty exciting that we get the president here. It’s fun to show off American manufacturing.”
In his State of the Union Address on Monday night, Bush urged Congress to approve trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, which would reduce or eliminate tariffs on American-made goods.
“These agreements will level the playing field,” Bush said. “They will give us better access to nearly 100 million customers. And they will support good jobs for the finest workers in the world: those whose products say ‘Made in the USA.'”
Read the article in the South Bay Daily Breeze.
Wadcutters tend to cut nice, clean holes in a paper target. A wadcutter is a bullet specially designed for shooting paper targets, usually at close range and with significantly subsonic velocities under 800 ft/s (244 m/s) such as are found in handgun and airgun competitions.
A wadcutter has a flat or nearly flat front, which acts to cut a very clean hole through the target, making it easier to score and ideally reducing errors in scoring to the favor of the shooter.
Occasionally, a grouping can resemble a celebrity mouse if you orient the target just right:
The spiral rifling gleams in the afternoon sunlight shining through the barrel of my Para Warthog after the weekly shootout and cleanup. The Strike Hold we now use to clean the firearms leaves them sparkling and bright.
