Starship Asterisk*

rstevenson wrote:
I've had a few house-shaking blasts, but nothing too serious, and no trees down nearby. And my power, obviously, is still on -- for now. I'm well supplied: yesterday I picked up a few batteries, a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine. What more do you need?

neufer wrote:

rstevenson wrote:
I've had a few house-shaking blasts, but nothing too serious, and no trees down nearby. And my power, obviously, is still on -- for now. I'm well supplied: yesterday I picked up a few batteries, a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine. What more do you need?

Toilet paper.

rstevenson wrote:
Earl has passed over most of Nova Scotia and is diminishing as it goes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Alexander,_1st_Earl_of_Stirling wrote:

<< The 1^st Earl of Stirling, William Alexander (c. 1570, Menstrie, Clackmannanshire – 12 September 1640), was a Scotsman who was an early developer of Scottish colonisation of Port Royal, Nova Scotia and Long Island, New York. He attained reputation as a poet and writer of rhymed tragedies, and assisted the James I of England in preparing the metrical version known as "The Psalms of King David, translated by King James."

In 1621 King James I granted him a royal charter appointing him governor of a vast territory in North America which was erected into a lordship and barony of Nova Scotia (New Scotland); the area now known as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and part of the northern United States. The creation of Baronets of Nova Scotia was used to settle the plantation of the new province.

[c]RUFF WEA'ER =>[/c]
Lord Stirling briefly established a Scottish settlement at Port Royal, Nova Scotia, led by his son William Alexander (the younger). However the effort cost him most of his fortune, and when the region—now Canada's three Maritime Provinces and the state of Maine-- was returned to France in 1632, it was lost. However Alexander's settlement provided the basis for British claims to Nova Scotia and his baronets provided the Coat of arms of Nova Scotia and Flag of Nova Scotia which are still in use today.>>

rstevenson wrote:Well, that was interesting. As I said before, it all seemed to be over. About 2:30 this afternoon, having experienced no great personal inconvenience from the mighty Earl, I went out to play pool, as is my wont on Saturday afternoons. About 5:00 pm I returned to a house without power, indeed most of a city without power (except where I was playing pool, and a few other spots.) So I drove around various parts of the city to see what was happening and discovered my little corner of it was the only corner not seriously inconvenienced. There were trees down and large branches scattered everywhere; traffic signals not working in most areas; and various emergency vehicles rolling hither and yon at great speed, flashing their lights vigorously to warn the idiots out driving around (er, um, including me) to get the hell out of their way. So I came back home and sat around frumped out. Darkness is boring. It's Saturday night. I predict a baby boom in 9 months. Then the power came back on just now. I'm connected! I'm alive!

Chris Peterson wrote:Darkness. And no Moon. Dammit, man! Don't waste this opportunity. Go out and see some stars!

owlice wrote:It's not fun coming home to no power, is it?! Rob, I'm glad you've rejoined the connected, though I like Chris's suggestion a lot!!

Last night when I saw that the sky was unexpectedly clear (read: while I was feeding mosquitoes), I wondered where my binoculars were. I kept the big ones under the passenger seat of my Honda for years, but since totaling it earlier this summer, I'd cleared everything out of that car and... didn't know what I'd done with the binoculars.

Today with the windows open, the door to the room I was in kept getting blown shut from the wind. So I picked up something nearby to prop in front of the door to keep it open... oh, look! My big binoculars! At least now I know where they are.

Darkness. And no Moon. Dammit, man! Don't waste this opportunity. Go out and see some stars!

Ann wrote:

Chris wrote:
Darkness. And no Moon. Dammit, man! Don't waste this opportunity. Go out and see some stars!

Wasn't it Walter Baade or someone who availed himself of the mandatory lights out at night policy during WWII to observe the sky under brilliant conditions and make some observational breakthroughs?

http://global-warming.accuweather.com/2008/01/post_911_jet_condensation_trai.html wrote:
Post 9/11 Jet Condensation Trail Study called into Question
January 27, 2008

Jet contrails over the Southeastern U.S.

---

<<A Canadian physicist says that he has found no evidence to support a U.S. finding that jet condensation trails act like clouds, cooling the earth during the day and keeping it warmer at night. Jet condensation trails have been widely quoted as a prime example of short-term human impact on climate, according to the Toronto Star article.

A 2002 study by U.S. researchers had concluded that the temperature spread between day and night over the lower 48 states increased by 1.5C over long-term averages between Sept. 11 and 14 in 2001, when commercial air flights were mostly grounded over North America. Canadian flights were completely grounded for 48 hours following the attacks.

Professor William Van Wijngaarden looked at Canadian temperature records for the contrail-free days immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 and was unable to find any significant changes in the diurnal temperature range (span between daytime highs and nighttime lows) which ended up falling well within the long-term average from 1977 to 2005.

The York University researcher said he decided to double-check the U.S. findings because the claimed temperature rise was so large, almost equal to the global average temperature increase from greenhouse warming, according to the Star. But when he examined the spread between day and night temperatures from 112 weather stations across Canada for Sept. 8 to 17 in 2001, there wasn't a spike during the no-fly period.

The lead researcher on the original U.S. study told the Star that the negative results from Canada don't necessarily undermine his group's findings. "It's possible that Canada simply doesn't have a high enough density of jet traffic for contrails to make any difference," said David Travis, a geography professor at the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater.>>

He took advantage of wartime blackout conditions during World War II, which reduced light pollution at Mount Wilson Observatory, to resolve stars in the center of the Andromeda galaxy for the first time, which led him to define distinct "populations" for stars (Population I and Population II). The same observations led him to discover that there are two types of Cepheid variable stars. This discovery led him to recalculate the size of the known universe, doubling the previous calculation made by Hubble in 1929. He announced this finding to considerable astonishment at the 1952 meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Rome.

Ann wrote:
Wikipedia says this about Walter Baade:

He took advantage of wartime blackout conditions during World War II, which reduced light pollution at Mount Wilson Observatory, to resolve stars in the center of the Andromeda galaxy for the first time, which led him to define distinct "populations" for stars (Population I and Population II). The same observations led him to discover that there are two types of Cepheid variable stars. This discovery led him to recalculate the size of the known universe, doubling the previous calculation made by Hubble in 1929. He announced this finding to considerable astonishment at the 1952 meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Rome.

Chris Peterson wrote:
Darkness. And no Moon. Dammit, man! Don't waste this opportunity. Go out and see some stars!

Chris Peterson wrote:
Wars are no big deal. I could even make a case that they are healthy for our civilization. Humans are well adapted to them, and they rarely result in civilizations collapsing. They usually spur innovation and boost economies. They kill people, but people are cheap and easily replaced (sorry, that's hard but true). They cause physical damage, but the repairs are usually good for the economy. Wars often boost net political stability.

bystander wrote:
Looks like Hermine is going to dump a lot of water on us.
Expecting rain starting this evening through Thursday afternoon.

bystander wrote:Looks like Hermine is going to dump a lot of water on us.

neufer wrote:Do you live south of Tulsa?

geckzilla wrote:
Here's a roll cloud for you, Art.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ouses.html