An inverted Grand Canyon

That happened back in December 2014, and the video was posted on the Grand Canyon's flickr account.

In honor of Titan

I'm not particularly thrilled with the convention of naming winter storms that the Weather Channel has adopted these past couple of years. I'm also not particularly thrilled with the choice to go this year with primarily Greek-mythological names as suggested by a Latin class at Bozeman High School in Montana.

Let's see if I can do better going with the theme of winter-/ice-/cold-themed comic book characters.

First, the characters, vaguely ranked from most important downward...

1. Iceman/Bobby Drake (Marvel - X-Men)
2. Storm/Ororo Munroe (Marvel - X-Men)
3. Captain Cold/Leonard Snart (DC - Flash villain)
4. Mr Freeze/Victor Fries (DC - Batman villain)
5. Ice/Tora Olafsdotter (DC - Justice League/Global Guardians)
6. Elijah Snow (Wildstorm - Planetary's fourth man)
7. Snow Queen/Lumi (DC - Fables)
8. Snow Miser (Rankin/Bass character)
9. Frozone/Lucious Best (Disney - Incredibles friend)
10. Weather Wizard/Mark Mardon (DC - Flash villain)
11. Icemaiden/Sigrid Nansen (DC - Justice League/Global Guardians)
12. Icemaster/Bradley Kroon (Marvel villain/Hostess Fruit Pie villain)
13. Frost/Frost Noble (Image - hero)
14. Killer Frost/Crystal Frost/seriously, that's her 'real' name (DC - Firestorm villain)
15. Coldsnap/Alex Barros (Image) 
16. Ice King/Simon Petrikov (Adventure Time)
17. Icicle/Cameron Mahkent/Joar Mahkent (DC - Justice Society villain)
18. Jack Frost (DC - Fables character)
19. Blossom (Powerpuff girl - freezing breath) 
20. Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno (Anime) 
21. Snowbird/Narya/Anne McKenzie-Thompson/Virginia Dare - (Marvel - Alpha Flight)
22. Killer Frost/Louise Lincoln/Catlin Snow (DC - Firestorm villain)
23. Ymir (Marvel - frost giant king) 
24. Mercurio (Marvel villain - seriously, check out his costume...it's outstanding)
25. Endless Winter/Delores Winters (DC - Justice Society villain)
26. Sylph/Jeanine Gale (DC - Super Friends villain)
27. Polar Boy/Brek Bannin (DC - Legion of Superheroes)
28. Icestar/Jonathan Grayson (Eclipse - Champions hero)
29. Quisp (DC - Aquaman villain)
30. Nightwind/Berta Skye Harris (DC - Legion of Superheroes)
31. Idie Okonkwo/Oya - (Marvel - X-Men)
32. Xraven  (Marvel - X-Men)
33. Coldmoon/Wanxia (Marvel - Avengers)
34. Chill/Ross Wexler (Marvel - DP7)
35. Mandarin/Khan/Zhang Tong (Marvel - Iron Man villain - totally out of order)

Now, to the names based on that list...

• A - Ami (#20, Sailor Mercury)
• B - Barros (#15, Coldsnap)
• C - Crystal (#14, Killer Frost)
• D - Drake (#1, Iceman)
• E - Elijah (#6, Elijah Snow, breaks pattern of alternating male-female names)
• F - Frozone (#9, Best didn't feel right, L already taken)
• G - Gramos (#24, Mercurio's home planet)
• H - Harris (#30, Nightwind)
• I - Idie (#31, Oya)
• J - Joar (#17, Icicle)
• K - Kroon (#12, Icemaster)
• L - Lumi (#7, Snow Queen)
• M - Miser (#8, Snow Miser)
• N - Nansen (#11, Icemaiden)
• O - Ororo (#2, Storm)
• P - Petrikov (#16, Ice King)
• Q - Quisp (#29, Quisp)
• R - Ross (#34, Chill)
• S - Snart (#3, Captain Cold)
• T - Tora (#5, Ice)
• U -
• V - Victor (#4, Mr Freeze)
• W - Wanxia (#33, Coldmoon)
• X - Xraven (#32, Xraven)
• Y - Ymir (#23, Ymir)
• Z - Zhang (#35, Mandarin)

Left out

• Weather Wizard/Mark Mardon - #10 - M already taken by Snow Miser
• Frost/Frost Noble - #13 - can't name a storm Frost...N already taken by Nansen, can't move Nansen to Sigrid because of Snart, can't move Snart to Leonard because of Lumi
• Jack Frost - #18 - can't name a storm Frost...J already take by Joar, can't move Joar to Mahkent because of Miser, can't move Miser to Snow 
• Blossom - #19 - B already taken by Barros
• Snowbird - #21 - N already taken by Nansen (see #13); A already taken by Ami, can't move Ami to Mizuno (see #18); M already taken by Mizuno (see #18); V already taken by Victor, can't move Victor to Fries; D already taken by Drake
• Killer Frost - #22 - L already taken by Lumi; C already taken by Crystal, can't move Crystal to Frost; can't name storm Snow
• Endless Winter - #25 - D already taken; can't name a storm Winters
• Sylph - #26 -  J already taken (see #18); G already taken by Gramos, can't move Gramos to Mercurio (see #18)

Man, that leaves me totally stumped. I've searched the web for a list of cold- and wind- and frost- and ice-themed superheroes and villains, and I'm still stuck for a U. Any suggestions?

It's cold

I've had a half dozen 'cold weather' topics working at the margins of the blog this year. None of them have alone managed to work into a full post, but together they're coming out today.

So many of these winter photos - not all from this year by any means - are ridiculously impressive.

Last week's rainbows

This rainbow was hanging over my house last Wednesday.

Or, rather, these three rainbows were hanging over my house last Wednesday...

The highest rainbow, the one going the opposite way from how you would expect, probably came from the ice crystals in the upper atmosphere because we had our first few flakes of snow the night.

Hope springs again?

We haven't had a snow day in nearly two years at PHS, and we're friggin' due.

Maybe Friday (predicted ice/sleet for Friday morning from Winter Storm Q(?)) can finally pan out for us.

All the way...

I caught the above image from The Weather Channel's This Week in Pictures feature and went looking for a larger image to use as background on my school computer.

In the process of searching, I found a great photo album of the same double rainbow from all around the San Fran area. Here are a few of my favorites...

Whither Henryville?

I don't know what to say about the destruction in Henryville, IN.

I knew a teacher at Henryville High School a couple of decades ago and grew up not twenty miles from the High School that no longer exists.

I know I wondered why Princeton cancelled all evening activities this past Friday night, but I stopped wondering after I heard the stories on Saturday morning. Moscow, OH...Henryville, IN...and lots of other cities saw destruction that I hope never to experience but know that I'm lucky to have never seen. Thirty nine people died in one of the largest early-season tornadic outbreaks in recorded history.

I wish the families and folks well.

I can happily say that my folks lost nothing more serious than an awning, but I'll be sending my donation to help out. Give if you've got a couple of bucks.

The Devil Made Texas

Texas is screwed...

From Jeff Masters' WunderBlog...

The devastating Texas drought that has already cost over $5 billion could continue for nine more years, predicted Texas State Climatologist John Nielson-Gammon in an interview with Reuters yesterday. "It is possible that we could be looking at another of these multi-year droughts like we saw in the 1950s, and like the tree rings have shown that the state has experienced over the last several centuries," Nielson-Gammon said. Drought statistics released yesterday by the U.S. Drought Monitor showed that over 96% of Texas is experiencing the two worst categories of drought, extreme and exceptional. The past 12 months have been the driest one-year period on record in Texas. The main blame for this year's drought can be put on La Niña, the cooling of equatorial Pacific waters that deflects the jet stream and takes rain-bearing low pressure system away from Texas. Other large-scale atmospheric/oceanic patterns called the Pacfic Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) have also favored dry conditions for Texas this year. When the AMO brings warm ocean temperatures to the North Atlantic, as it has since 1995, Texas is typically dry. Texas also tends to be dry when the PDO brings cool ocean temperatures to the coastal North Pacific next to North America. This has been the case since 2007 (except for late 2009 and early 2010.) In a post earlier this month in his excellent blog, Climate Abyss, Nielson-Gammon has this to say about the influence of global warming on the 2011 drought:

Precipitation: The balance of evidence does not support the assertion that the rainfall deficit since October 2010 was made larger or more likely by global warming.

Temperature: Compared to long-term averages of summer temperature,the rainfall deficit accounted for about 4°F of excess heat and global warming accounted for about 1°F of excess heat. Warmer temperatures lead to greater water demand, faster evaporation, and greater drying-out of potential fuels for fire. Thus, the impacts of the drought were enhanced by global warming, much of which has been caused by man.

And, yes, I did see Brian Dwan live in college. He and his electric dulcimer opened for They Might Be Giants.

The lyrics, in case you needed them...

Oh, the devil in hell they say he was chained,
And there for a thousand years he remained;
He neither complained nor did he groan,
But decided he'd start up a hell of his own,
Where he could torment the souls of men
Without being shut in a prison pen;
So he asked the Lord if he had any sand
Left over from making this great land.

2. The Lord He said, "Yes, I have plenty on hand,
But it's away down south on the Rio Grande,
And to tell you the truth, the stuff is so poor
I doubt it will do for a hell anymore."
The Devil went down and looked over the truck,
And he said if it came as a gift he was stuck,
For when he'd examined it carefully and well
He decided the place was too dry for a hell.

3. But the Lord to just get the stuff off His hands
He promised the Devil He'd water the lands,
For He had some old water that was of no use,
A regular bog hole that stunk like the deuce.
So the contract was signed and the deed was given,
And the Lord went up to his spread up in heaven.
The Devil soon saw he had everything needed
To make a good hell and I'll say he succeeded.

4. He scattered tarantulas over the road,
Put thorns on the cactus and horns on the toads,
He sprinkled the sand with millions of ants
So the man that sits down must wear soles on his pants.
He lengthened the horns of the Texas steer,
And added an inch to the jack rabbit's ear;
He put water puppies in all of the lakes,
And under the rocks he put rattlesnakes.

5. He hung thorns and brambles on all of the trees.
He mixed up the dust with jiggers and fleas.
The rattlesnakes bites you, the scorpion stings,
The mesquito delights you by buzzing his wings.
The heat in the summer's a hundred and ten--
Too cool for the devil and too hot for men,
And all who remained in that climate soon bore
Stings, cuts, bites, scratches, and blisters galore.

6. He quickened the buck of the bronco steed
And poisoned the feet of the centipede.
The wild boar roams in the black chaparral.
It's a hell of a place that we've got for a hell.
He planted red pepper beside of the brooks;
The Mexicans use them in all that they cook.
Just dine with a Mexican and you will shout,
"I've got hell on the inside as well as the out!"

Continuing to learn

Still working to learn about the Mississippi River and how we've attempted to control it - particularly in light of this spring's 100-year flood (the worst since 1973...um...).

This week's reading took me to Randal's blog and his post about his Michael Bay scenario...

I love Randal and the fact that he's fascinated with the same kind of stuff that I am. He went and posted a couple of marvelously revelatory diagrams - the first from The Mississippi River & Tributaries Project: designing the project flood which is clearly and awesome document that I'm going to have to read (it's only seven pages long, a solid start)...

The second was made by Randal and looks at just how close to capacity each of those routes was as of May 8th this spring...

Randal then bounced me along to Wunder Blog's post about the 100-year flood (did I mention there was one of those in 1973?) where they have listed that Old River Control is still flowing at 93% capacity which absolutely terrifies me. There's also Wunder Blog's post giving a whole bunch of background about  Old River Control System itself. If things go wrong there, we're going to have absolutely the most fascinating thing happening: the Mississippi River will carve a new path through the swamps.

I kind of hope I get to see that in my lifetime.

Seriously, read Control of Nature. It's outstanding and illuminating.

PS - Rising Tide seems to be outstanding, as well. I'm only about 100 pages in, but I'm impressed.

Snow day conundrum

It's a snow day because it's clearly unsafe to drive on the roads (we had maybe 1/4 inch of snow when the day was called at 5:30 this morning, but we're supposed to have six inches by the end of the day).

But I want to go to Taqueria Mercado for lunch.

Update: Pumpkin shortage

So, The Girl was at The Jungle this weekend and asked about the pumpkin shortage when she saw that Libby's pumpkin (a Nestle brand, who knew?).

The stocker reported that their Libby's distributor didn't know whether they'd have any pumpkin to ship until after the holidays this year even.  Libby's does have a page up with some basic info about the shortage as well as a quick video and some non-pumpkin pie alternatives.  I haven't heard whether the weather in Morton, Illinois has been any better this year or not, but I'm sure hopeful.

Other bloggers have been posting about the continuing pumpkin shortage recently, and their suggestion fits into one that The Girl got from The Jungle stocker.  He suggested that the head over to the pet food aisle where they've had no problems keeping organic pumpkin in stock.  Turns out that many dog owners (not us) feed pureed pumpkin to their pets to help keep Fido all regular.  I even found a German Shepherd forum topic titled "What pumpkin shortage?" that suggests this very solution.

Other sites I've read suggest a couple of other options.  Some people have swapped in sweet potato puree (and cut back on the sugar in the recipe) instead of pumpkin.  One even suggested using baby carrot puree as a substitute.  Another said to try various squashes: acorn, butternut, hubbard, or buttercup. I also saw that some folks say it's easy to split a pumpkin, drizzle it with a little oil, and roast it before making your own pumpkin puree.

Interesting...

Apparently, if you find any Libby's, you should grab it and stock up.  And if you can't find any Libby's head to the organic section or the pet food aisle to check out other possible sources.

Why do people drive AT these things?

We'll just call it a day by throwing up a third video today...yeah, that's the equivalent of a full, regular post, right?

Snow Day

Happy snow day, everybody.

These pics were taken from inside our walkout basement at around 5:30 Tuesday evening...the door was open, but my feet were on indoor carpet...

 

  

  

 

There are certainly times when I miss living in Cincinnati, but today wasn't one of them.

Various thoughts

Today's post is a hodge podge post of things thought while hanging out on Sunday afternoon watching the US Open with half my attention and now the evening news after their coverage ended.



I hate this commercial. It's painfully obvious that it's a Eurpoean commercial with the voices badly dubbed over in American accents. And the YouTube posting says that the box is photoshopped in as well, something that makes sense but that I hadn't thought about.

---

It was just over three years ago that I started this blog. A month after I began writing here, I wrote that New Orleans was in shambles and then that you should give. Much of what I know about the disaster there comes from my viewing of When the Levees Broke, and I've only been to the Big Easy once - a year after Katrina came through.

And now it looks like Gustav just might finish the job that Katrina started. I've been tracking the storm's approach on Stormpulse, and it looks like the eye of the storm will at least come ashore a bit to the west of the city, so the city may not be wiped entirely off the map, but they're likely not in for an easy time.

---

It's really interesting to see all the politicians anticipate the destruction of Gustav. From Nagin's pre-emptive threats toward any potential looters going straight to Angola to the RNC's plans to shorten the convention.

The fears of the politicians, hoping to avoid any possible appearance of not carrying is fascinating, and I can't decide whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. I understand that it's important that we learn from the clear mistakes of the past, I wonder how much of the pre-emptive work is being done merely so that they appear to care and to have their stuff together.

---

After we got back from the Canyon, I pointed out a virtual tour of the Canyon that showed a marvelous view of every step of the hike. Well, it looks like the photographer/tour guide has updated the site with photos of his hike from this spring.

They look great, and they're about as close as you're going to get to the Canyon's hikes without getting any dirt on your boots. Thanks to Gene Hanson for posting all the pics.

The Masque of the White Death!

The White Death comes at us from the sky!!!

Apparently, the city of Cincinnati is gripped by the fear of weather that isn't even here yet. National weather services are predicting a whole five inches of snow!!!!!! Everyone, hide the children, protect your women, go to the grocery and buy milk and bread. We shall all be trapped forever.

Or is it paranoia?

Here, by the way, is a picture with our school just off of the left edge of the photo. Do you think we should expect a snow day for tomorrow?

Like a freakin' yo-yo...

Last Tuesday, I wore a short-sleeved shirt to school because it was supposed to get up into the low 70's by the end of the day. On Wednesday of that same week, we had snow flurries when I stepped outside for bus duty after school.

Yesterday morning, while we ate breakfast at The Original Pancake House and waited to head over to the Rave to see HPatGoF (review forthcoming on the other blog), the snow fell long and heavy, leaving us blanketed in about half an inch on th grassy areas. Today and tomorrow, we're not supposed to see anything warmer than freezing.

For Monday, of course, the Weather Channel is predicting seventy-degree weather again, with thunderstorms.

Dear lord, make up your freakin' mind!

Is it the dead of winter or the start of spring? C'mon!

What's the weather?

I know, you've been thinking to yourself, "How can I get a cartoon character to suggest to me the outside conditions while I sit here in this dank, dark office?"

I understand your pain and haven't seen any light from my classroom since I moved to Princeton. So, I've got a few solutions for you.

First, there's Weather Pixie which is a little cartoon graphic of a girl or boy (of your choosing, of course) giving you an update on the outside conditions complete with appropriate attire for the weather. You can choose a punk guy, a goth girl, a somewhat coquettish Bratz girl, a geisha, and a bunch more. And you can choose to get information from just about any location around the world. Of course, some of the folks seem a little inappropriately dressed for their Antarctic adventure.

Or, you could donate WeatherBug which will appear in your Windows taskbar with the current conditions in the world.

You can also get RSS feeds of the weather in your area from the National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration.

There's also the Weather Underground which can provide you with an icon for your webpage.

Or, you can just check the Weather Channel for the weather in your area. That might be more helpful in case there was some serious weather coming your way.