How Much Hotter is Your Hometown Today Compared to the Year of Your Birth?

The New York Times offers up a glimpse of how many of those 90 degree days we typically saw each year and how many we may expect to see over the next twenty or more years.


All you need to do is input the name of your home town and your year of birth. Note, the data set does not go back further than 1960, so those born earlier than then can use 1960.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/30/climate/how-much-hotter-is-your-hometown.html?emc=edit_nn_20180831&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=8099462420180831&te=1


I'm going to "cheat" and give you the results from my hometown, Birmingham, Alabama.  In 1960 the temperature hit 90 degrees an average of 56 days a year.  Then we went through the well known short period when the climate chilled a bit in the late 60's - the 1970's.  I remember those times as snowy in the winter too!  Today, in 2018 I can expect an average of 69 days above 90 and by the time I'm 80 years old that figure is expected to be approximately 84 days!

Why don't you pick your hometown and give it a whirl? 


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The climate modeling was performed by Climate Impact Lab.
See the bottom of the web page for details on the numerical models used for this graphic display.

Cruising for breakfast

Arwen has food anxieties. No, she isn’t starving and her bowl of dried food is never empty. She just wants to insure that her human caretakers understand the importance of receiving canned food on time and served with a flourish. This morning she “got in my face”about it, albeit with the sweetest demeanor. Yes, she will receive her breakfast in about five minutes!

What’s Going On

Well, after a hiatus I’ve returned to my blog and hope to keep up some semblance of continuity. We’ll see if that pans out. In the meantime I’ll close today’s activities with a link to one of my recent Modular musical excursions.

Cumulous cloud Terrarium floating over Morpheus

Napping after book reviews

After those book reviews it is time to take a nap.

Vacation Books - Arwen's Recommendations

Vacation means many different things to different folks. One of the things I associate with a vacation is trying to pick up a “vacation book” to carry along and read when ever time and space allow. This past week I had two books to read. Both of which fit the “vacation book” criteria: not work related, not too intellectually taxing (no philosophy books), and interesting. Arwen has exactly the same criteria! She is sharing our vacation books with you. 

“Hope Never Dies” is a work of fiction (obviously), wherein Joe Biden and Barack Obama play the part of amateur detectives in unraveling the mysterious death of an Amtrak train conductor. This at times hilarious, and at times thought provoking novel is the work of author Andrew Shaffer, whose work “Fifty Shames of Earl Grey” established the author as a purveyor of malarkey! Arwen agrees that the book is pretty crazy at times but an entertaining and fast read. She recommends this book but refuses to give any plot secrets away. 

“The Stranger in the Woods” is the non fictional account of a man who walked into the woods of Maine and disappeared as a hermit for twenty seven years. Christopher Knight survived in the woods for almost three decades by ingenious survival techniques and by becoming an accomplished burglar. A lake community was terrified by the unknown and uncatchable thief who was highly selective in what he stole, and what he refused to steal. After being arrested his encounters in jail, court and with a community of people, and his difficulties in dealing with that transition are detailed in the book. The author also examines the life of hermits, and others who have walked away from mankind and dealt with solitude. 

Arwen likes this book because the hermit did not kill animals to stay alive. She recommends this book highly!

Snow again?

Well we had a beautiful snowfall in December here in Central Alabama and it appears we might get a small bit of snow tomorrow.


The above is a model depicting the forecast for noon on January 16, 2018. That is the 14:08 CST run of the WPC/NDFD model.



This is the official Birmingham, NWS timing map for tomorrow's freezing precipitation.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out!

Travelling To The Stars With Space Music - guided by Chuck Van Zyl

In a never ending attempt to "explore strange new worlds" the last year has found me exploring making music with a synthesizer.  It's been quite the challenge with a learning curve as steep as Everest.  As a long time lover of "Berlin School" space music my searches came across the music of Chuck Van Zyl. His extraordinary soaring timbres and clouds of rhythmic sequencing provide a fantastic modern exploration of that genre of  space music.  One of my favorite videos of his work is below.
I hope you enjoy!

The YouTube link is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoP5J_YpcwY

Hurricane Hunters follow a Pattern

#NOAA42 finishing 3rd and last pass through the eye of #HurricaneIrma collecting Doppler radar data for #HWRF. https://t.co/jwh0azKHML


Sent from my iOS phone.

My Year in the Premier League - In a Manner of Speaking - FA Cup

Part of the Story:

The FA CUP

Association Football (what we Americans call soccer) is so firmly entrenched in England (Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, and 7 dozen other countries) that it is part of the social fabric.  For example, during the month of March in the United States basketball fans are treated to March Madness with a bracket of 68 seeded teams who play each other to determine a winner.  This basketball frenzy sweeps the nation for several weeks and then it is over. 

The oldest association football competition in the world, the FA Cup, is an annual knockout competition in men's domestic English football. The competition is open to any eligible club down to Level 10 in the English Football Pyramid.   Each year the competition features over 600 teams with the first game in August and the FA Cup Final in the month of May. There is nothing closely resembling this competition in the US.  

Early in the competition, when lower ranked teams play teams that are much higher in the pyramid the possibility of "giant killings" is greatly exciting to the football public.  The fact that a poorly funded team that centers on a small village could play and beat (it has happened!) a top ranked Premier League team (a giant) is an unexpected delight to the competition.  

A Football Term Defined:

 Transfer Window - Tranfer Deadline Day

The transfer window is not some pane of glass on the back side of a transfer truck. No no no. The transfer window for the Premier League is twelve weeks of public speculation bordering on the side of insanity about which club is going to buy or sell which player. If you are a fan of a team then you can expect that the amount of discussion and speculation will rise and fall with the revolution of the earth.  Yes, after midnight it calms down and then picks up again about 6 am. However, since the earth is round, and at  every moment in time it is daylight somewhere, then the pace of the frantic speculation never really ceases.

There are two transfer windows in Premier League Football. A four week window in the middle of the winter (January) and the eight weeks comprising July and August. Today, the last day of August, is Transfer Deadline Day. In case you missed it, here is all of the activity during he Summer Transfer Window. 

Most importantly what on earth happened to Liverpool during the summer transfer? 

This article is part of a series where I discuss, define, experience and try to explain my passion for Premier League Soccer, primarily as it is expressed in my semi fanatical support for the best team in the world: LIVERPOOL FC .

Logo borrowed from:  http://www.lfchistory.net/Images/lfc/LIVE_5396.gif

January Tropical Cyclones in The Atlantic & Pacific. At The Same Time! - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal - AGU Blogosphere

http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/2016/01/14/january-tropical-cyclone-in-the-atlantic-pacific-at-the-same-time/


Sent from my iOS phone.

Robinson Springs United Methodist Church - Millbrook, AL

Robinson Springs United Methodist Church in Millbrook Alabama, one of the oldest churches in Elmore County was built in 1848.  It is built in classic Greek Revival style which was very popular in the 1830s through the 1840s. The heart pine foundation is still solid and held in place by pegs. Amazingly there are several families worshiping at the church who are the eighth generation of their family to remain in this congregation. 

Miriam Sagan's Blog On the Forthcoming Book

https://miriamswell.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/rod-scott-on-the-churches-of-alabama/

Laughter

My father sleeps under the blue lagoon
dreaming sweetly of grassy days in
dappled sunlight,
cousins playing vibrantly around
the many ancient oaks,
hiding behind the trunks with
fierce intent....

Scream! Leap! Tackle!

The children lay rolling in
bales of laughter, caring
not for dirt stains, or
scuff marks,
only for
laughter.


Owl's Nest - Wildacres - NC - October 7, 2015.

Yale University Photo Archive Of The Depression Released

http://beautifuldecay.com/2015/10/14/yale-university-releases-170000-incredible-photos-great-depression/









Sent from my portable computer.

Appropriate Tools For Writing

Haiku 14

Haiku 14

Grey ghosts fly overhead
Together in a vee shape –
No honking today.

Sent from my iOS phone.

Explanation ....

I've been experimenting with updating this blog via email.

Here are a couple of the ways that do not work:

          1) The Day One app.    This is my favorite app for writing on the phone.  However, when                      you send a note via email it clutters the subject line with a title that is relevant to the
               date the Day One app sent the file.  Your note Title is missing.

          2)  Evernote.  This is my favorite app for organizing notes.  However, when you share via                      email the shared "Work Chat" becomes an icon to click, therefore you cannot update this
            blog in that manner.


The one thing I did learn was that when using standard email to update this blog the contents of the subject line become the title of the blog entry.  Perfect!

If I forget the subject line, the first line of the article becomes the title of the entry.  --- Not optimal!

NIGHTSIGHT

Nightsight

Cloud caressing towers create man

made canyons that drown in 

dusk induced darkness.

Vagrant wind glances down the dusty street

startles windows and slaps soiled

newspapers across yellow lines.

Humpbacked shadows flicker like

indecisive moths

circling unevenly spaced street lights.

Colorless cars evade airborne paper

skirting pools of halogen light

stirring the shadows into decisive action.

Harrowing loneliness radiates from my marrow

pervades thoughts of my tomorrow and

strangle my fears of yesterday.

Solitary vertigo overwhelms my sight,

diminishes my spirit and 

quenches the fires of the night.

Birmingham, AL - February 21, 1990

The evening view from my cubicle on the

13th floor. 

Pre Autumn Chill

Pre Autumn Chill

The bird calls echo through the tall wooden
columns, underneath the leafy cathedral
ceiling, among the randomly arrayed
understory comprised of brilliant foliage,
shrubs, rotted debris, and four legged
creatures scurrying about in search of
food.

The calliopeic warble of the different
Avian families rebound and re echo from
corners of the cathedral, a building with no
walls, a building with no windows, open to
atmospheric flights of aerial mastery,
and the approachment of Autumn.

A chilled sunrise in late August speaks
Autumnal murmurations at the
latitude of thirty three degrees above the
equator; bringing a loving reminder that
alas, awhile burning summer heat is not banished
from the Southern landscape,
—– it's days are numbered.


Elmore N. Scott, Jr. ©
  August 26, 2015 -
 , Hoover, AL, United States

Sent from my iOS phone.

The Worst Hard Time

An extraordinary book about America's greatest climate disaster. The Worst Hard Time tells the story of the people caught up in the circumstances that led to a greed fueled desire to get rich, at the expense of the greatest grasslands on the North American continent. As the disaster unfolded the reader is taken into the dust filled lives of the ordinary people who watched their land dry up and blo...w away. Who knew that at one point the dust made it all the way to New York City and Washington D.C. and blew more than 200 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean . By the end of the book you have met many memorable characters, historic people, and the ordinary people who had to decide whether to leave or stay as their soil, their farms and their towns blew away.