TL;DR: We saw Mercury while on vacation! Wednesday night, we were walking back from dinner, and saw this sight in the western sky. (Picture courtesy GD1): "What is that bright speck at the upper limb of the moon?", I wondered. I vaguely recalled that there was an annular eclipse around now. I was tired from a full day, so my brain said: " Baily's Beads "! This jolted me into action. I yelled "It's an eclipse!" and tore off down the hallway to fetch my 50x zoom camera from the hotel room. Witnesses say I just missed bowling over some alarmed tourists, and numerous grandchildren raced after me. One witness (SIL1) said he'd never seen me move so fast.. A jink and a jag, and I got to our room's balcony, camera in hand, just in time for everything to go behind the clouds. My picture: We're home now, and I've been curating some of our images. I zoomed in on the highlight of GD1's picture: and later SIL2 offered up his, which I zoomed ...
This page at Laurence Livermore National Laboratory is a great time waster. I recommend looking at the following geographies for different years: Texas <-- industry has become less efficient? California <-- not much change, despite the perception of them being a greening economy Iceland <-- it helps to live on top of submerged volcanoes Tanzania <-- huge country, they use no energy, and what they do use comes from biomass. Saudi Arabia <-- no surprise Canada <-- spot the oil sands gas consumption! China is ten times bigger than Canada as far as energy goes, in almost all aspects. Yet their population is almost 40 times more. It's our SUVs and shopping malls! If you squint just right at some location over a decade, you can see North America replacing coal with natural gas. Alternative sources are making some headway, but aren't significant (yet?). One thing I don't understand is why there is more rejected energy, or wasted energy now compared to a dec...
We recently had a lively discussion in the family online chat and later at a seasonal gathering regarding what constitutes a Christmas song. My criteria aren't exactly defined, so I might change my mind, depending on my mood. But key to making the decision is that the song needs to invoke an emotion. Traditionally a happy, warm, fuzzy one. But sometimes these days it's a bittersweet one, remembering what was and isn't likely to happen again. Silver Bells - I'd like to say no, but begrudgingly yes. I liked it when I was a child, I think because of the melody. Same applies to the likes of Rudolph, Winter Wonderland, White Christmas, Baby it's Cold Outside etc. Too bland and contrived? Joy to the World - yes, especially when over the top, like these folks do. We did this in our community choir Christmas concert, and I had the pleasure of getting the soprano descant blasted at me from close range. So much fun! Hark the Herald Angels Sing, another good one. O Holy ...
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