Friday, October 22, 2010

Probably Preposterous

Parallel Particulate Presence

10/22/10

A couple relaxes in an infinity pool overlooking the haze-covered skyline in Singapore. Singapore, blanketed under a smoky haze for days, beseeched neighboring Indonesia on Friday to douse fires lit for illegal forest clearing that are causing the worst air pollution in the region since 2006. Malaysia has also blamed poor air quality in some of its southern towns on fires on Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Vivek Prakash-Reuters

People are burning stuff they don't want all over the world, so the controlled burns in Burney were a good thing, right?

What Smoke?

Sunrise in Redding while Burney burns stuff it doesn't want. 10/20/10

End of the Earth Postponed

"Boy, that was a close one!"

By Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer

It's a good news/bad news situation for believers in the 2012 Mayan apocalypse. The good news is that the Mayan "Long Count" calendar may not end on Dec. 21, 2012 (and, by extension, the world may not end along with it). The bad news for prophecy believers? If the calendar doesn't end in December 2012, no one knows when it actually will — or if it has already.

A new critique, published as a chapter in the new textbook "Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World" (Oxbow Books, 2010), argues that the accepted conversions of dates from Mayan to the modern calendar may be off by as much as 50 or 100 years. That would throw the supposed and overhyped 2012 apocalypse off by decades and cast into doubt the dates of historical Mayan events. (The doomsday worries are based on the fact that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012, much as our year ends on Dec. 31.)

Children Of The Night

Thanks to Garie Lebow for sending me this Happy Halloween Card

It's that spooky time of the year for fun and frightening e-cards.

This one I got from Garie, (Happy Halloween Card), is a good example.

Think Pink

The fountain at Cypress and Pine. 8:00 pm, 10/21/10

There are a lot of Breast Cancer Awareness Month events and statements around Redding. The Cypress and Pine fountain was one visual reminder that i happened to see as I left the Shasta Blues Society Thursday Jam, around 8 last night. I went to put my guitar in the Buick outside Lulu's, in the parking lot, and I noticed the fountain was lit pink and flowing. I had the Lumix TZ1 with me, so I took a few pictures.

There was a gathering at the Sundial Bridge last night, for Nor Cal Think Pink, but I missed it. There will be another gathering at the Sundial Bridge on October 23rd.

My Halloween Decor