Posts from — August 2012

Position: 17.0N 82.7W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [300°] near 13 mph [20 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 65 mph [105 kph].
Wind Gusts: 75 mph [120 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 125 miles [205 km].
Minimum central pressure: 994 mb ↓.

Currently about 365 miles [ 585 km] East of Belize City.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the coast of the Yucatan from Chetumal northward to Punta Allen and the coast of Belize.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Honduras from the Honduras – Nicaragua border westward to Punta Sal, and the coast of the Yucatan from Punta Allen northward to Tulum.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the coast of Honduras from Punta Sal westward to the Honduras – Guatemala border and the coast of the Yucatan from Tulum northward to Cancun.

Ernesto may be a hurricane tomorrow, but a recon aircraft reports that he isn’t strengthening tonight. The models have come into agreement on the track which has the storm landing on the Yucatan as a hurricane and crossing into the Bay of Campeche.

This storm keeps doing strange things, so I’m not confident about much of anything related to it. It was making a run at intensifying today and then just quit. Something is being missed or misinterpreted, but I don’t see it in the data I’ve looked at [as an informed amateur]. The old rules and assumptions aren’t working like they should.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 16.4N 40.2W [10AM CDT 1500 UTC].
Movement: West [275°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1009 mb ↑.

Currently about 1515 miles [2440 km] East of the Leeward Islands.

The storm has degenerated into a remnant Low. This is the final NHC advisory.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Things Happen:

• 1538 – Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
• 1777 – Revolutionary War: Battle of Oriskany.
• 1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
• 1909 – Alice Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip.
• 1923 – Henry Sullivan swims the English Channel.
• 1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim across the English Channel.
• 1945 – World War II: Hiroshima is devastated when an atomic bomb, “Little Boy”, is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 90,000 people were killed instantly.
• 1960 – Cuban Revolution: In response to a United States embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
• 1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into United States law.
• 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web.
• 2001 – White House briefing entitled Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S. delivered to George W. Bush. This document foreshadowed the September 11, 2001 attacks.

People Are Born:

• 1809 – Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet (d. 1892)
• 1861 – Edith Roosevelt, American First Lady of the United States (d. 1948)
• 1881 – Leo Carrillo, American actor (d. 1961)
• 1881 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1955)
• 1881 – Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (d. 1972)
• 1891 – William Slim, British general (d. 1970)
• 1892 – Hoot Gibson, American actor (d. 1962)
• 1902 – Dutch Schultz, American bootlegger (d. 1935)
• 1908 – Will Lee, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1911 – Lucille Ball, American actress (d. 1989)
• 1917 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (d. 1997)
• 1928 – Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
• 1934 – Piers Anthony, English writer
• 1943 – Jon Postel, American computer scientist (d. 1998)

In Later Years Others Are Born:

• Steve Bates
• NTodd

They did it. The rover is safely on Mars and sent back some pictures.

Occasionally the US wins one.

Update: I added the xkcd cartoon, and I would point out that a lot of people and groups not in the US are involved in this effort, including the Canadian Space Agency.

This is basic research, science. This is meant to be shared with everyone to advance everyone’s understanding of what’s happening. The most important discoveries from this mission, as Dr. John Grunsfeld, a physicist and former astronaut, pointed out during the JPL feed this morning, may be something that no one was even looking for because we didn’t even have the information necessary to pose the question.

This picture demonstrates Weasel’s fluffy tail, but the camera decided to focus behind him, so I didn’t use it. Between low light and using the telephoto capabilities, focus and depth of field are problems.

Froggy has decided she doesn’t like the life of a feral and has taken up residence with the neighbor who puts his cats out on ropes. She injured a leg somehow and had crawled off to heal. He found her and took her inside. Having healed, Froggy decided she liked sleeping on a couch, and doesn’t come out any more.

Ringo is getting stronger every day, and is becoming a nuisance trying to ‘escape’ to eat kibble. The entry and exit wounds have healed well, but the jaw isn’t certain until the x-rays on the 16th. She was shot, with the round piercing her right cheek, and then exiting through her left jaw. I have calmed down enough that I will let the Sheriff handle it, rather than just leaving the perp at the curb for Waste Management to pick up. I’ve made it clear that I don’t want to know anything that isn’t absolutely necessary about it, so I don’t have to deal with the anger involved.

Position: 16.2N 37.9W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [270°] near 13 mph [20 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 40 mph [ 65 kph].
Wind Gusts: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 60 Miles [ 95 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1008 mb ↑.

Currently about 925 miles [1485 km] West of the Cape Verde Islands.

The storm is weakening and is expected to be downgraded to a tropical depression tomorrow.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 15.0N 79.7W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [270°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [105 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 125 miles [205 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1003 mb ↓.

Currently about 235 miles [ 375 km] East of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Honduras – Nicaragua border.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Jamaica.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for Grand Cayman and the coast of Honduras from the Honduras – Nicaragua border westward to Punta Castilla.

The storm has slowed, and is better organized than earlier today.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

The CBC has the necessary links and a Ustream player to watch the Mars landing of Curiosity late tomorrow night/early Monday morning [12:31AM CDT Monday].

NASA coverage starts an hour before the landing.

Since that is prime time for selling stuff on American cable systems, you probably won’t get to watch on your TV, but NASA makes the feed available for free.

Curiosity has a nuclear power supply, so if things go wrong, we might nuke Mars, but life is a risk. I doubt Martians would feel that way. There are very good, technical and engineering reasons for the choice that will make the mission longer and more productive than the two earlier rovers that depended on batteries and photovoltaic panels. [I still don’t like it.]

The Canadian Space Agency supplied one of the instruments on the rover, so they have a stake in this.

One of the things the rover will be testing for is methane in the atmosphere. There have been indications of its presence, and it is a marker for living organisms.

Update: NASA’s site for the Mars Science Laboratory [Curiosity].

If you want to play poker online you have to move out of the US to a place like Costa Rica, because the Department of Justice is shutting down online gambling … er, well some online gambling.

High stakes online gambling is still legal:

NEW YORK – The high-speed trading arms race being waged on Wall Street has finally claimed its first major casualty.

Knight Capital Group, a brokerage that handles nearly 11 percent of all stock trading in U.S. companies, is in danger of collapsing after a software glitch triggered millions of unintended orders. The New Jersey firm lost $440 million in less than an hour – nearly four times the company’s profit last year.

In the illegal form you have to put your cash out there immediately, it is only the legal Wall Street casino that lets you bet with other people’s money, and then only show a fraction of the money to place a bet.

This difference makes sense to Congresscritters.

Position: 16.1N 33.0W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [295°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Wind Gusts: 75 mph [120 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 80 Miles [130 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1000 mb ↓.

Currently about 600 miles [ 960 km] West of the Cape Verde Islands.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 15.4N 72.7W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 22 mph [35 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Wind Gusts: 75mph [120 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 140 miles [220 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1007 mb ↑.

Currently about 325 miles [ 525 km] East-Southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Jamaica.

The models and forecast are beginning to agree on the storm landing on the Yucatan Peninsula and then continuing on to the Bay of Campeche.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

I happened to drive by the ‘Chik’n Chapel’ [not to be confused with Church’s Chicken] at lunch time on the the first and saw the crowd. The Local Puppy Trainer has a slideshow of the sideshow, if you are interested.

I have never eaten there, for a number of reasons, but the most important one is a survival rule I used when I was flying around the world and visiting foreign places – never ingest food or drink prepared by people who think the end of the world is a good thing. To me, the first step in achieving immortality is not dying, and I have a hard time understanding people who think that death is the first step in the process.

They might have handed out badges for proving you’re a bigot, or stuff verses from Revelation in the kid’s meals, I don’t know. I don’t like white meat on poultry; I don’t like food that is breaded and deep fried [excluding hush puppies and doughnuts, which don’t pretend to be anything other than dough]; and I don’t trust people in the food industry who don’t know Holsteins are dairy cattle.

The guy who owns the chain [‘franchisees’ are sharecroppers, not owners the way the chain is structured] has publicly stated his homophobic views, and put his money where his views are. This is America, and that is his right. Government should not be involved in censoring him. People, OTOH, have every right not to associate with him, or buy from his chain. He has made a bad business decision, and will pay for it.

Position: 13.8N 27.8W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [290°] near 16 mph [26 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1009 mb.

Currently about 240 miles [ 385 km] West-Southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.

This is the tropical wave that came off Africa this morning. Things are heating up.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 13.9N 65.6W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [275°] near 18 mph [30 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65mph [105 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 105 miles [165 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1003 mb ↑.

Currently about 795 miles [1280 km] East Southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.

Ernesto sideswiped Barbados and then St Lucia early this morning and continues heading West into the Caribbean.

Another wave with development potential just came off the coast of Africa this morning.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]