New post at Michael Yon : Online Magazine – Why We Write.
Michael tells about helicopters, the pilots and why he can’t publish his best photos of them.
As a former helicopter pilot, reading this article got the old juices flowing, almost wishing I could be back in it. Almost. However, I’m OK with my job of contributing to the technology that helps these great men and women win wars. That, in itself, is my satisfaction.
Astronomy Picture of the Day is featuring the Mt. Saint Helens rock fin today. They link to a time lapse movie showing the rapid growth of this unusual phenomenon. The picture below shows the fin highlighted in the MSH WebCam. See Rock and Roll Volcano.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (Dim, CA) has been depositing her smack graffiti all over the media recently about the Republican “culture of corruption.” Well, not to mince words, but if her idea is to associate “culture” with “corruption,” it seems she has a pretty good oxymoron going.
First, define culture – a high level of taste and enlightenment as a result of extensive intellectual training and exposure to the arts.
Next, corruption – impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle, decay, decomposition, inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means, a departure from the original or from what is pure or correct.
Now, it’s clear to me that “culture of corruption” refers to “enlightened putrifaction” – a sickening and stark contrast in terms.
It seems to me that this Democratic crone-drone strikes a dischordant tone with many Americans.
Let’s propose another slogan or set of slogans that sounds cutesy like their slogan, but offers complimenting words, meaning essentially the same thing. Here’s a few suggestions along with a couple of recent examples to which they may be applied:
Democrats of debauchery
Democrats of decadence
Democrats of degeneracy
Democrats of degeneration
Democrats of degradation
Democrats of demoralization
Democrats of doom
Democrats of d’oh!
When it comes to the rights and privileges that illegal aliens think they “deserve,” I propose giving them a ride on the Nada Bus – a ride straight back to wherever they came from. We were disgusted by last week’s demonstrations, and decided to have an Itialian and Chinese food weekend – to hell with celabrating “cinco de Mayo.”
Bottom line: the bus says it all – illegals – remember, illegal means they’re breaking the law – deserve exactly NADA – zero, zip, zilch, nunca, nil, goose-egg, the big donut!
Today we had good ol’ homemade spaghetti and meatballs. We prepared it using freshly ground beef (i.e. ground in our kitchen from top round), pork sausage, freshly chopped savories and a great meaty marinara sauce. Very good, if I do say so myself.
After dinner, the Cap’n and I went for a walk as usual. We pass these two trees that the city planted (on the same day) in the parkway in front of neighboring homes. We think its funny that one of the neighbors seems to water his tree and the other seem not to.
Beelzebub just keeps turning the old crank under the Cascades . . .
Don’t miss the near-realtime VolcanoCam image!
From Longview (WA) Daily News Online:
Visitors to the Johnston Ridge Observatory Friday should have a “spectacular” view of the latest lava growth in the Mount St. Helens’ crater, a geologist said.
A large “slab” or “fin” of molten rock is growing within the crater, pushing itself up and over previous lava dome growth, said Dan Dzurisin, a geologist with the U.S. Geologic Survey in Vancouver.
The section with the fin has been growing since November, but it changed shape as it encountered other growth within the crater. It’s moving steadily toward the west, pushing other rock and debris out of its way as it goes.
The fin grows about four to five feet a day but loses some of that growth from rockfalls off its tip, Dzurisin said. The fin is about 300 feet tall from its base, reaching to 7,700 feet above sea level. That puts it about 70 feet below Shoestring Notch, the lowest point of the mountain’s horseshoe-shaped crater.
Photo: A helicopter inspects the outcropping (AP)The feature is in full view from the Johnston Ridge Observatory, which opens after its winter shutdown on Friday. Clear skies are forecast.
Update From JRO:
The Johnston Ridge Observatory (JRO), home of the VolcanoCam, opens today and begins another visitor season.
The visitor center will be open from 10:00 am until 6:00pm, daily, throughout the summer. If views of Mount St. Helens via the VolcanoCam whet your appetite, standing just five miles from the only active volcano in the Lower 48 States is a five-course meal. Come up and get a first-hand look of the ongoing volcanic activity, including that 300 foot high “volcanic fin” jutting out from the new dome. It is only a matter of time before gravity collapses that fin.
The newly-spawned “Red Spot Jr.” Jovian storm system appears that it will overtake “Big Red” in early July. Note the “significant climate change” reference in the article.
From New Scientist:
Hubble watches Jupiter’s ‘Red Spot Races’
Hubble has sent back the clearest pictures yet of Jupiter’s new red spot.
The storm, dubbed “Red Spot Junior” is roughly half the diameter of the Great Red Spot, a huge storm that has churned away on Jupiter for at least 400 years – when humans first started observing the gas giant planet.
On 8 April 2006, the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys took new pictures of the baby storm, which was initially known as White Oval BA before it changed to the same salmon hue as the Great Red Spot (see “Jupiter opens a second red eye”) . The storm formed when three white oval storms merged between 1998 and 2000. Those white storms existed for about 60 years.
Image – NASA – Hubble photos of (top) Jupiter and (bottom) Red Jr.
The red colouring could come from material brought up from deeper within Jupiter’s atmosphere and then altered by the Sun’s radiation. If this is indeed what is happening, it may be a sign that the storm is intensifying.
The newly released images may give weight to the idea that Jupiter is in the middle of significant climate change. Temperatures at some latitudes could be changing by over 5°C, scientists suggest.
Another link to climate is that Red Spot Jr is forming at a latitude of 34° south. Theory has it that this is the where the transfer of heat from the equator to the pole grinds to a halt.
Hmmmmm. It must be all them Jovian SUVs trucking around beneath the clouds causing this colossal climate change.
Update: NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day has a nice close up picture showing Jupiter and both red spots.
