Earth Day

On Thin Ice

Global Warming Survival Skills
Inuit people in Alaska are reverting to traditional dog sleds instead of modern snow machines as the icy region warms.

Travel is safer with sled dogs.

"People go out on their snow machines, fall through the ice and are never seen again,"says Patricia Cochran, an Inupiat native of Nome, Alaska. "But our sled dogs will tell you when the ice is not safe ... "

Horsing Around

After a visit from Hollywood hairdresser.

Tiny Alcoholic

Taming of the shrew?

The Pen-tailed Treeshrew is one of the currently known seven wild mammals that actively and consistently (if not chronically) consumes mass quantities of alcohol.

This picture could explain the name, "Pen-tailed".

Because treeshrews are not the same as shrews, and are indeed distant relatives of our own species, they may indicate that consumption of alcohol in the evolutionary line that lead to humans may have occurred, and it may be why today we are still fascinated by alcohol. Because the treeshrew resembles early primates it is no far leap to guess that perhaps an ancestor of our own relied on alcohol naturally created in nectars, and indeed chimpanzees and gibbons eat fruits and nectars today, which can easily ferment.

However in humans, the ability to tolerate such high levels is no longer present, and it can cause disease and even death.

More Baby Stars Found

Stars forming in the Orion Nebula. (image-UKIT/SST)

Astronomers have completed the most wide-ranging census of baby stars in and around the Orion nebula, and found a stellar nursery that's both chaotic and crowded.

The new Aptera

The Wired.com guys test drive the new Aptera in S.F.

http://www.wired.com/video/aptera-car-of-the-near-future/17417995001

Neat Green Gadgets
A couple of Earth Day gadgets to do my part. There was very little Earth Day news, in the news today.
Air Cleaning Light Bulb

http://www.purelyproducts.com/products/purely-anion/

Solar Charger Bags

Manly men's bag

For the lady who likes to charge.

From Wired.com
Composed of biodegradable materials, each bag contains a flexible solar panel on the outside, which connects to a lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack hidden in a pocket. The bags also include adapters for you to plug your iPod, USB-powered device or cellphone into the battery pack to keep your gadgets juiced while you bask in the sun. (GreenLoop, from $330 to $500)

Dolphins Best Friend?

Is that a Portuguese water dog?

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Talk to The Animals -Louis Armstrong

We Are Animals Too

Today In Space

Dodging Space Garbage

Space shuttle avoids debris when possible.

Impacts occur regularly on shuttle flights. Wired Science obtained the Hypervelocity Impact Database, which revealed that in the 54 missions from STS-50 through STS-114, space junk and meteoroids hit shuttle windows 1,634 times necessitating 92 window replacements. In addition, the shuttle's radiator was hit 317 times, actually causing holes in the radiator's facesheet 53 times.

Where Bankin's Funner!

I had to check this out. It's for real.

Redneck is currently offering a 3.1 percent yield, with no minimum deposit, on balances of up to $35,000 (1.65 percent on balances exceeding that) in its mega money market account. That’s considerably better than two of the biggest online banks' money market offerings, ING Direct’s 1.5 percent APY or HSBC Direct’s 1.65 percent.

River Fun

Follow that goose.

We will land here.

Fearless Phil.

Fearless leader.

Fearless follower.

Great fun on the river today. We went under the Sundial Bridge. People on the bridge took lots of pictures of us. Maybe I will see them, one day.

I kept my camera in the dry bag. Since losing the Olympus camera to a damp trunk, I didn't want to take a chance of getting the Sanyo wet. I will have to get a Kayak camera for the next trip. It was beautiful on the river.

Golden Frog

Panamanian golden frog.

I found these pictures in the "China View"-on line news.

Strange Statue

Santa Fe (Photo Source: CRIENGLISH.com/Xinjo.com)

I don't know what is stranger; The pictures, or that I got Panama and Santa Fe pictures, from China.

Wall-E

In keeping with Dodging Space Garbage, I heartily recommend the DVD, "Wall-E".

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Stardust - Artie Shaw

Heavenly

My Life Is

Like It's Supposed To Be

International Space Station. March 25, 2009 (NASA)

Here on Earth
Spray Paint Space Painting

This was done with cans of spray paint!

Cosmic Art Show
This guy is good!

It Just Gets Better

I got an email from Jimmy Sakuma that had this link;

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741

It's a video that uses the song, "Stand by me". The members of the, "Band", are people all around the world, that have been filmed while they add their part to the song. It brought tears of joy to my eyes to see and hear a dream come true.

In the 1960's, I imagined going around the world and playing music with people in different countries, in towns and villages, sharing the the common language of music. This video, and the foundation that produced it, takes that simple idea and raises it to a level that reaches even deeper into the heart and soul of the worlds people. Playingforchange.com

I still imagine jamming, "live", with people around the world. Fred Mitchell and I continue to experiment and research ways to accomplish this dream.

Here In America

Photo of high speed train in some other country.

From Scientific American
President Obama outlined his vision today for high-speed rail service in the U.S, identifying 10 corridors in heavily populated regions around the country – from the Pacific northwest to the gulf states – for the laying of hundreds of miles of new tracks.

The stimulus bill that passed in February set aside $8 billion for the initiative. The Federal Railroad Administration will begin awarding grants late this summer after a competitive bidding process amongst rail companies.

Hooray!
We can start catching up to the rest of the world.

Here in Redding

The Sundial Bridge before the tea party. 4/15/09

I made a little video about the Fox News Tea Party.


Friday 4/17/09

Flowering plant at Creekside Gardens. 4/17/09

I went to a local nursery to get an aloe plant for my medicine cabinet. What a delightful place.
Pictures, HERE.

Sandi went with me to the nursery and to OSH, where I got a new, and hopefully, longer lasting, umbrella.

New umbrella from inside sliding screen door. 4/17/09

Time For Breakfast

A healthy, Happy Phil, breakfast, at 4:00PM. 4/17/09

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Lazy Bones -Mills Brothers

Relax-Enjoy God's gifts

It's A Beautiful Day

Now What?

LED streetlights in Tokyo.

Those energy saving butterfly streetlights would be great in Pacific Grove.
I wonder if they come in monarch?

Save Birds and Energy

Blinking lights saves energy and birds.

Currently the law requires the red lights on towers to be steady. Birds, traveling at night, navigate by the light of stars and planets. The steady lights on towers can confuse them and many birds are killed when they crash into towers and power lines. Scientists have found that simply making the lights blink, can eliminate 70% of bird deaths, and save money from reduced energy use.

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

- Ralph Hodgson

The Philippine Tarsier

(Tarsius syrichta)

I recently got some new pictures of weird animals from Jo Anna, (Thanks.), and among them was this little primate. I tracked him down to an article that warned of this animals imminent extinction. Of course I had to know more. What I found was an example of the, "world information drought", that began around 1999-2000. The Philippine Tarsier Foundation was last heard from in 1997. I found a report from Wikipedia that was dated, Feb. 1, 2009, but it contained the same information as the 1997 report.

Cost Of War on Pirates...
3 Bullets

What our new military used to stop the pirates.

"For Mr. Obama, the episode ended successfully with the precision takedown of three pirates with three bullets and the recovery of Captain Phillips generally unharmed."

The wasteful military actions of the past, may be coming to an end. Instead of using a 125 million dollar cruise missile, the Obama armed forces achieved success with 3 bullets. We may salvage our economy yet.

Bullets per casualty:

• WWII- 25,000

• Korean War-100,000

• Vietnam War-200,000

• Iraq/Afghanistan-250,000

• Somali Pirates-1

I think we are on to something.


If you wish to be happy,
God is there to show you the way.

If you seek unhappiness,
you are on your own.
- Happy Phil

Nanontech Makes

Wood Planes Fly Again

Nanotubes bringing back wooden planes.

The first airplanes were made of wood, and the next airplanes may be as well.

Researchers in Canada have unveiled plans for a factory that will use nanotechnology to extract cellulose from wood and use it to form composite materials for airplanes. It's not so implausible when you consider that Boeing and Airbus are using significant amounts of carbon composite materials in their latest programs.

If "con" is the opposite of "pro,"

then what is the opposite of progress?

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;

Tea for Two -Lester Young

It's Good to Be Alive

The Mystery Of Spring

Easter

It's a beautiful day before Easter here at the Treehouse.

How Did We Get Easter?

The Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos." Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre."

In The Building "A" Lobby

I love this place where I live. It's Easter-ween, 2009.

Confused?

Actually, many people get confused about which customs accompany holidays, and why.
What do Bunnies, Eggs, and Bouquet's have to do with Jesus?
I will be happy to help clear that up for you;

Sleeping Beauty eggshell carving.

Spring is a time of re-birth. The life within the dormant plants springs forth in beautiful displays of color and shapes to attract pollinators. It's time for lifeforms to make more of themselves, the rites of spring are upon us. Everything is making babies like, well,... Rabbits.

But how does this fit with the Jesus story?

Spring is in the air.

This from Wikipedia;

Pope Gregory the Great ordered his missionaries to use old religious sites and festivals, and absorb them into Christian rituals where possible. The Christian celebration of the Resurrection of Christ was ideally suited to be merged with the Pagan feast of Eostre, and many of the traditions were adopted into the Christian festivities.^[5] There are also good grounds for the association between hares (later termed Easter bunnies) and eggs, through folklore confusion between hares' forms (where they raise their young) and plovers' nests.^[6]

Or;

The ancient Persians painted eggs for Nowrooz, their New Year celebration, which falls on the Spring equinox. The Nawrooz tradition has existed for at least 2,500 years. The decorated eggs are one of the core items to be placed on the Haft Seen, the Persian New Year display. The sculptures on the walls of Persepolis show people carrying eggs for Nowrooz to the king.

What About The Ham?

Coming to an Easter dinner near you.

About.com has this;
In the United States, ham is a traditional Easter food. In the early days, meat was slaughtered in the fall. There was no refrigeration, and the fresh pork that wasn't consumed during the winter months before Lent was cured for spring. The curing process took a long time, and the first hams were ready around the time Easter rolled around. Thus, ham was a natural choice for the celebratory Easter dinner.

Taking A Gander

Also popular to eat during the Christmas season.

I haven't found a long standing Easter goose tradition, except for the giving of goose eggs. I did find a recipe that an Australian used for Easter dinner, but it was a first time event. I will ask Lon, tomorrow when I stop by for Easter goose dinner.

About The Flowers

.
Flowers are abundant here at the Treehouse.

See the bee?

Beautiful flowers everywhere I turned. 4/11/09

There were so many photogenic blooms,
I made a slide show video.

Todays Relatively Appropriate Song;
Life Is What You Make It -Happy Phil

Be Thankful-Blame No One

Spacecraft, Spring, Stars, Trekkies, and Turbans

Enough Space

Measuring sea level, gravity field fluctuations and more.

ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2009) — GOCE’s highly sensitive gradiometer instrument has been switched on and is producing data. The spacecraft has an ion propulsion device to keep it in a perfectly steady orbit and accelerometers, (Like the one in this Macbook), that can detect the slightest fluctuation in earths gravity.

Gris Gris In Your Pocket

Happy Phil adds background vocals in living room.
Zombie Reggae
I made time today to experiment with the new MXL microphone. It fulfilled it's expected purpose and then some. It responded well to a variety of vocal and mechanical techniques, and embedded the results with presence and dynamics in the recordings. So far, the nuances and qualities have been able to withstand the digital processing required to converting to various formats. Speaking parts retained an intimate quality and the singing retained physical and harmonic dynamics.

Spring Has Sprung

Rose along the driveway at the Treehouse Apartments.

Each day brings more beautiful sights and smells.

Spock Shows New Star Trek Movie

Enterprise

Surprise, surprise.
Leonard Nimoy showed the new Star Trek movie to a group of Trekkie's in Austin, Texas, Monday. The Star Trek fans thought they were going to see a special showing of "Wrath of Kahn". Imagine their delight when, "Spock", announced they would be getting an advanced showing of the new Star Trek film. Rave reviews were, "all a twitter".

Starlight

A star making galaxy, billions of light years from here.

After two years spent analyzing data from the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope (BLAST) project, an international group of astronomers and astrophysicists from Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. reveals April 8 in the journal Nature that half of the starlight of the Universe comes from young, star-forming galaxies several billion light years away.

Yo Ho Ho

Pirates everywhere

The coastal region of Puntland is booming.

The port of Eyl, is where most of the hijacked vessels are kept by the well-armed pirate gangs.

People wear ties and smart clothes. They drive land cruisers and carry laptops.

Fancy houses are being built, expensive cars are being bought - all of this in a country that has not had a functioning central government for nearly 20 years.

Observers say pirates made about $30m from ransom payments last year - far more than the annual budget of Puntland, which is about $20m.

What I find interesting in the news about pirates, is what isn't in the news about pirates. Pirating and collecting ransoms has been the economic engine of the Muslim world for hundreds of years. Nations throughout history have been ponying up payoffs to Islamic Pashas, Imams, and Sultans, for safe passage. To learn more about the role of pirates in history, type, "Pirates", in the blog search box at the top of the page.


Ask An 8 Year Old
HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?

"You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids."
-- Derrick, age 8


Todays Relatively Appropriate Song;
Zombie Reggae
Of Course.

Be Kind