A Truth Journal: FYI, Spring Fever At Our House! 6 Funny Links Too: From Denny: Yeah, been enjoying Spring time here in Louisiana, along with the huge hanks of oak tree pollen falling at my feet. The weather has been almost like Hawaii lately: soft warm breezes. Soooo, have not been posting as much lately. Too busy being downright happily sloth like and getting Pollen Head at the same time. I'm sure you all understand. :) My heart goes out to all of you still stuck in snow weather and Snowquester. Should be posting tonight, if not tomorrow. Talk about Lazy Bones here... Throwing kisses out to you all - and thanks so much for your support on this and all my other crazy blogs!
Related articles - meanwhile, to keep you entertained...
After all, your brain is geared up to engage with technology and suddenly finds itself in total withdrawal. And, it's a good thing that humor was created. It's the best weapon in the human arsenal for survival.
I went off the grid for three days - and hot sweaty nights - during the very long week of Hurricane Isaac...
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The Social Poets: Groundhog Day Louisiana Style: New Orleans T-Boy, Baton Rouge Boudreaux: From Denny: Groundhog Day contenders are popping up all over America. Groundhogs are not native to Louisiana (because it's too hot) but we didn't allow a little factoid like that to stop us. Louisiana likes it's holidays so what effort was it to rustle up another creative idea than to draft the swamp rat nutria into the Groundhog Day?
Up in the northern part of America it's considered really bad news when a groundhog sees its shadow, foretelling another miserable six weeks of winter. But here in Louisiana it means a spring that is shorter than usual.
A short spring means summer's grueling heat and drippy humidity will return sooner than desired. So, you see, burrow-loving animals can come in handy to predict the weather both in the chilly North and the hottie Deep South.
The Social Poets: Groundhog Day: How Many Talented Psychic Rodents In America?: This is the stuffed, ok, taxidermied groundhog, known as Potomac Phil that hails from Washington, D.C. He gets wheeled out to the Dupont Circle Ground Hog Day celebration to determine whether he sees his shadow or not. Not sure who the human political hack is for him to make the announcement. But hey, the new burgeoning club played polka music to honor him.
His fans are hoping to raise enough money to replace him with a live groundhog next year. Until then, Potomac Phil continues to trash talk his beltway imitator Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania.
And what is Punxsutawney Phil's response to this stuffed upstart? "Ah, Potomac Phil is Newt Gingrich's first cousin, all trash talk and no money. I'm the real deal since 1887."
After viewing the extreme flooding it does bring to mind those "Millennium Prophets" we heard on the news back in the late 1990's and early in 2000. Remember them? Better yet, remember the aerial maps depicting the flooding, showing much of the American Southeast under water and America split in two, divided by a widened Mississippi River?
We are definitely living in a time of geologic change. As a country we need to get serious about adapting to our changing world of melting polar ice caps, more severe weather, earthquakes and rivers changing course. Just this year alone the earthquakes have been so influential as to change the earth's axis by several degrees. That affects how water and weather moves across the planet.
Current estimates are that at least 116 people have died in this sudden fierce storm last night. The storm touched down at 5:41 PM last night. The town had only 24 minutes after the warning sounded to get to safety."
*** To read more and see the video click on link ***
The Social Poets: Funny 2012 Election Politics, Obama, Bin Laden Cartoons: "From Denny: When it rains it pours, goes the proverb. It applies to weather these days from the Spring snow melt-offs flooding the American Midwest to the South to the frenetic weirdo politics of 2012 presidential campaigning.
Mississippi River flood
I live in south Louisiana in Baton Rouge, a large city just south of the Morganza Spillway. The Army Corps of Engineers let open a number of gates to flood 18,000 acres of farmland and small towns. They hoped to save two of the largest population centers that are each a large port: the capital city of Louisiana, Baton Rouge and the largest port, New Orleans."
*** To read more and see the cartoons just click on the link ***
Polar bears in the Arctic near the North Pole with the USS Honolulu - Image via Wikipedia
From Denny: At what rate is the Arctic currently warming than the rest of the planet? Try twice as fast. And everyone in the scientific community has been trying to figure out why.
Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide warm up the climate while some aerosols like sulfate, from fossil fuel combustion, are a cooling influence on global warming, acting as a counterbalance.
Energy balance on Earth affected by aerosols and clouds
Arctic clouds and aerosols are thought to influence the loss of sea ice, carving out a niche as important roles in the energy balance on Earth. We all know what a cloud is but do you know what an aerosol is?
Technology: The Road More Traveled - Image by Tool H via Flickr
You know it's really bad when a computer can beat you at everything... including that...
A sign of the times...
Who are these melodramatic programmers?
Wow! "Facebook" is now a verb - another to add to the Dumbest Words List...
Awww... the new cute...
Nabbed the ornery culprit sneaking around in my virtual world!
Show-offs...
OK, in this tech world are there any creative types left to breed?
"What Would Ludwig Do?" Better yet, "What Would Mozart Do?" He was the wild child who liked to swing from the chandeliers after writing a few sheets of music. Ya know, get three sheets to the wind drunk, write a few sheets, get three sheets to the wind some more, write, write, write...
Oh, the anonymity of the online romance - until it's too late...
So, now the family cat and the family dog are comparing YouTube hits? What is this world coming to?
Hey! Writers have to change with the times. You know the saying, "Publish or perish!"
If this is what my health care premiums are paying for then I want my money back...
The one time a smart phone may save your sorry drunken life - and a few others too. Hurray for technology!
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Views to date: 11,000 exactly. Thank you! From Denny: With all the severe winter weather we are having across America, stuck at home with nothing to do but cruise the internet for entertainment, well, you knew I just had to put up some funny weather cartoons on this blog. It's even quite cold in south Louisiana! Sure am glad that Mardi Gras isn't until March 8th and maybe it will warm up by then.
I wondered why so many people were visiting my last year's Groundhog Day post when I discovered that the official site for Puxsatawney Phil was so overwhelmed all they had up was a small amount of text for this year's predictions.
Turns out that last year I posted a lot of their Groundhog Day trivia, a Groundhog Cookie recipe and other funnies. So, if their site is still jammed you can check out and laugh at a lot of what I have in that post.
BTW, you can just right click on the embed codes that are no longer supported and go directly to the cartoon site to view that particular cartoon. No worries!
From Denny: Iceland is known as the Land of Fire and Ice but even the residents were not ready for this powerful frightening display from Nature. Near the Eyjafjallajoku glacier, one of the country's largest glaciers, there is a half mile long fissure that opened on 21 March after the fifth largest volcano in Iceland suddenly erupted. Check out the spectacular video clip of the lava flow.
Iceland only has a population of 320,000 people. Their country is known for being the center of a large volcanic hot spot, hugging the Atlantic's mid-oceanic ridge. It's not as if Icelanders are unaware of these volcanoes. They have erupted often throughout their history of living there. When the earth's plates move and bump into each other, molten magma deep underground pushes it's way up to the surface through volcanic eruptions to relieve the pressure. And you thought you had a bad day at work. Can you imagine living with volcanoes in your virtual backyard every day? It sure makes long commutes and the bumper to bumper traffic feel like fun at a theme park in comparison.
This volcano in southern Iceland has not erupted in almost 200 years. Scientists are concerned this eruption and large fissure could set off a volatile volcano nearby, resulting in something far more dangerous with a much larger eruption. The volcano nearby is the Karla volcano. It's positioned just under the thick Myrdalsjokull icecap. Now if this big sweetheart erupts it could be quite the bully, creating massive flooding.
This Eyjafjallajokull volcano that is located near the glacier of the same name looked scary enough to everyone with a pair of eyes to witness it as it spewed ash and molten lava constantly into the air. Yet scientists have deemed this volcano virtually peaceful. If this one is peaceful I don't think I want to be nearby one that is considered a rowdy boy at a nightclub.
What's interesting about this eruption is that it did not occur on the volcano's summit but rather a fissure opened up on a slope. Because of this scientists seem to think there is no immediate danger that this glacier could melt and start flooding the area.
When scientists took an aerial survey the next day, examining the lava flow out of the fissure, they realized that while the eruption struck near the glacier it was in an area that did not have any ice. "This is the best possible place for an eruption," said Tumi Gudmundsson, a geologist at the University of Iceland.
For wise precautions, officials evacuated about 450 people in surrounding areas. While a state of emergency was declared there were not any reports of injuries or damage as this is a remote area, sparsely populated. The caustic gases the eruption released was of concern to livestock left behind in the evacuation. "We had to leave all our animals behind," Eli Ragnarsdottir, a 47-year-old farmer, told RUV, Iceland's national broadcaster from an evacuation center. "We got a call and a text message ... and we just went."
Of course, we all know the drill: scientists are still unable to predict what comes next. For now, our technology and data does not allow for predicting the exact timing of when an earthquake will strike or a volcano will erupt. "It could stop tomorrow, it could last for weeks or months. We cannot say at this stage," Gudmundsson said.
When was the last time this Eyjafjallajokull volcano blew? It was in 1821 and was termed a "lazy" eruption because it decided to be an annoying drama queen and keep erupting slowly and continuously for a two year period. Definitely this volcano likes attention.
The locals did have some idea the volcano might erupt as there were thousands of small earthquakes rocking the area just in the past month. Did you know that Icelandic scientists have been monitoring this volcano recently. They have employed seismometers and global positioning instruments. "Yet," says Gudmundsson, "the beginning of Saturday's eruption was so indistinct that it initially went undetected by the instruments."
"The volcano has been inflating since the beginning of the year, both rising and swelling," said Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland's Institute of Earth Science. "Even though we were seeing increased seismic activity, it could have been months or years before we saw an eruption like this ... we couldn't say that there was an imminent risk for the area."
And just when you think those volcanoes might only be Iceland's problem, check out this factoid: When the Laki volcano erupted in the mid-1780's it changed weather patterns all across Europe. A lot of people died from famine when their crops and livestock were destroyed from this eruption.
Here's a bit of Icelandic trivia for you: It was the Vikings who first settled Iceland back in the 9th century. Iceland is known as the Land of Fire and Ice because of so many crazy volcanoes and glaciers. During the Middle Ages, the Hekla volcano which is the most active volcano in the country, was termed "Gateway to Hell" by the locals. They honestly believed that souls were dragged down to hell at this place. Hmmm... they might be on to something.
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From Denny: Thank you everyone who has been checking back on this blog. I took some time off the first of the year and was ready to start writing science posts again - and then the Haiti earthquake hit.
One of my cousins goes in and out of Haiti often, donating her time as a music teacher. Yes, turns out she was there - along with 45,000 other Americans - when the earthquake devastated the place. The family has been trying frantically for weeks to find out if she survived. Official channels were jammed with high call volume and unofficial channels were chaotic to say the least. We did manage to confirm through several of her music friends they had talked to her immediately after the earthquake.
Finally, more than two weeks later she got a message out to her family. She is fine with only minor bruising and she plans to remain for a while to help the people of Haiti.
Now that big drama is resolved it's on to the science... You can bet since the Haiti incident I've been looking at a lot of articles about earthquakes and violent weather! :)
Check out the latest science idea - which I find incredulous. It seems humanity keeps trying to take on bigger and bigger projects without fully thinking through the unintended consequences.
How smart is this? First humanity develops destructive atomic bombs, biological warfare, then Star Wars armed space satellites and now we are going to start tinkering with Mother Nature's weather systems we still don't understand well? Where does the arrogance of "because we can" and the fear of what we might lose intersect with wisdom?
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From Denny: I'm always fascinated with weather, especially when it takes a weird turn like hail and snow in June. The new watchword may be to "expect the unexpected" in the coming years weatherwise. Here's a good video to explain it all. (And if this ABC NEWS video isn't behaving just click on the title link to take you directly to it.)
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