Starship Asterisk*

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=45077 wrote:

The Thematic Mapper on NASA’s Landsat 5 satellite captured these natural-color images of Tempe Town Lake on July 12, 2010 (left), and July 28, 2010 (right). The difference in water level is most apparent near the west end of the reservoir. In the July 12 image, the lake’s west end is a uniformly thick band of water. By July 28, after the sudden draining of the lake, the west end of the reservoir appears as a thin, meandering stream and a few disjointed pools.

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Tempe Town Lake Drain

<<Tempe Town Lake is an artificial reservoir on the Salt River (Rio Salado) where the river flows through the city of Tempe, Arizona. The reservoir was created through the use of inflatable dams—rubber-coated tubes of strong fabric affixed to concrete slabs. As part of a flood-prevention program, the computer-controlled tubes could be inflated or deflated, depending on water levels. On the evening of July 20, 2010, however, one of the dams burst, draining the reservoir and sending water down the Salt River.

By early 2010, authorities had noticed that some of the rubber on the inflatable dams was deteriorating, and replacement was scheduled to begin in February 2010, said local news reports. A severe winter storm, however, forced the postponement of repairs as the dams had to be deflated to accommodate a storm surge on the Salt River. Officials explained that water flowing through the dams prevented immediate replacement. After the dam burst on July 20, Tempe’s mayor stated at a press conference that reconstruction had already been scheduled to start on July 21. He described the timing of the dam breach as fortunate because, had the dam burst after repairs started, the event would have endangered repair crews.

The construction of Tempe Town Lake is just the most recent in a long pattern of human engineering along the Salt River, according to a timeline compiled by AZCentral. Native Americans are believed to have built an extensive canal system on the river as long ago as 500 AD. Much more recently, a “lakeside amusement park,” complete with an artificial lake, was constructed in 1949 on Tempe’s section of the Salt River, but seepage apparently caused the lake to dry up the following year.>>

biddie67 wrote:Years ago, when I was looking for a home to purchase, I purposefully looked for a house that was EAST of where I worked. That way the rising sun was at my back both when driving to work in the AM and returning home in the PM - sure saved wear-n-tear on my eyes over those years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf wrote:
<<A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope (from the Greek λυκάνθρωπος: λύκος, lukos, "wolf", and άνθρωπος, anthrōpos, man), is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely, by being bitten or scratched by another werewolf, or after being placed under a curse. This transformation is often associated with the appearance of the full moon, as popularly noted by the medieval chronicler Gervase of Tilbury, and perhaps in earlier times among the ancient Greeks through the writings of Petronius.>>

WallyWeet wrote:When thinking of and discussing something like this Equinox, do you think we humans will ever be able to speak of the earth moving rather than the sun? The earth could bow to maybe, or could slip under the image of, could revolve under or over the image of, for example. I think we hinder the development of reality in the minds of children of all ages when we continue to transgress reality by talking about the sun moving rather than the earth moving one in relation to the other.

henrystar wrote:How great to know some folks are looking! This photo brings home something that occurred to me as I was teaching astronomy last year. As Europeans and Africans spread across North America over the last 400 years, we built town after town ... all on a North South grid. As a result, for parts of each year, commuters have the sun in their eyes, going to work or coming home. Yet if, instead, we'd built the same grid of streets but at a 45 degree angle, NO commuter would EVER have the sun in her eyes! No doubt people have been killed in auto accidents for this silly reason!

henrystar wrote:How great to know some folks are looking! This photo brings home something that occurred to me as I was teaching astronomy last year. As Europeans and Africans spread across North America over the last 400 years, we built town after town ... all on a North South grid. As a result, for parts of each year, commuters have the sun in their eyes, going to work or coming home. Yet if, instead, we'd built the same grid of streets but at a 45 degree angle, NO commuter would EVER have the sun in her eyes! No doubt people have been killed in auto accidents for this silly reason!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan wrote:
<<Tenochtitlan was a Nahua altepetl (city-state) located on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico.

Founded in 1325, it became the seat of the growing Aztec empire in the 15th Century, until captured by the Spanish in 1521. It subsequently became a cabecera of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and today the ruins of Tenochtitlan are located in the central part of Mexico City.>>