Volcano in Japan

Gentle Readers,

Just saw this news item: Shinmoedake Volcano.

I'm going to take off from Anchorage to Hong Kong here in an hour or so. I'll spend the next several days flying routes that go near this beast. If I get any pictures or stories I'll share them.

Note to self: Do not fly through Volcanic Ash.

I remain,

Dad / Geoff

Turnagain, Again,

"Anything running counter to conventional wisdom is probably the right choice."
~ The Contrarian Philosophy

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

Most of us would not dream of surfing in Alaska in January in the dead of winter. This post is about contrarians who do.

Please recall that I fly out of Anchorage, Alaska. Anchorage is surrounded on 2.3 sides by water - The Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and the Turnagain Arm and wraps around the city. I wrote about a day trip I took up the Turnagain here. There are also pictures of this general area in this post.

The Turnagain Arm is famous for it's tidal dynamics. It often produces a bore tide.

Please click this link now. Ann pointed it out to me yesterday and I knew my gentle readers would enjoy seeing it too. Roughly half way down the link is a video showing a group of intrepid paddle surfers out running the bore tide several days ago on Jan 13, 2011.

In the video you can see the road that runs along the north shore of the Turnagain and you can see a motorcade of cars following their progress. That is the same road I drove.

Note that the surfers are wearing dry suits - not wet suits.

I looked up the weather observation for Jan 13th and found the temperature rose to a blistering 18F for a high. For those of you who think in communist centigrade that's -8C. Both of those temperatures are below the freezing point of water.

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff

ps, I considered using this quote at the beginning here, but decided it would just confuse us.

"There are amusing mathematical relationships everywhere if you are
on the look out for them. In the ripples on the water, or the shapes of
busts - elegant fifth order functions."
"Huh? You mean 4th order."
"Fifth order. You omitted the time variable. I like fifth order equations,"
Libby said dreamily. "You find 'em in fish, too."

Robert A. Heinlein
Methuselah's Children

The Sun Rose In the West!

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed." ~ Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

I beg that you turn your attention back to the post below this one, Sunset Launch.

The pictures were presented in chronological order. You probably noticed that the sun rose in the west. In the picture of the icebreaker, the island and the volcanoes, the sun was below the horizon. In the next picture of my First Officer flying there was Mr Sun beaming bright through the windscreen. How can this be? Is it time to get right with God because the Apocalypse looms near?

Yesterday was Winter Solstice and I have been meaning for some time to present the astrophysics of living at high latitude. I just realized that this last post presented a wonderful opportunity.

If you are unfamiliar with the reasons why the earth experiences seasons please look a this link built by the Allentown School District Planetarium. It does a bang up job of explanation. Recall that the Earth is tilted away from its orbital plane by 23° 26'. This latitude establishes the Arctic Circle. Everything on Earth above roughly 66° N latitude and below 66° S latitude will experience at least one day a year with no direct sunlight. Anchorage sits at just over 61° N latitude - it is not above the Arctic Circle but "you can see it from here."

The other side of this phenomenon is that the sun does not lurk very far below the horizon when you are this far north. As you climb up in altitude in an airplane, the horizon drops below where a ground observer sees it. Further, during the initial part of our climb, we were flying incrementally to the west. These two factors were enough to cause the sun to appear to rise just above above the southwestern horizon. My pictures do not do justice to what we really saw. The limb of the sun slowly climbed up above the horizon and I think I saw a glint of green flash.

Yesterday, Dec 21st was the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. I used Chris Marriot's estimable SkyMap program to produce these numbers all in Anchorage Local Time.

Civil Twilight began at 0912L.
Sun actually rose at 1014L and set at 1542L
Civil Twilight ended 1644L

So...yesterday we had 5 hours and 32 minutes of sunshine and one hour and two minutes of twilight.

Compare this to Honolulu, Hawaii, situated at 21°N Latitude.

Civil Twilight began at 0640L.
Sun actually rose at 0705L and set at 1755L
Civil Twilight ended 1819L.

Ten hours and 50 minutes of sunshine and 25 minutes of twilight.

Not to mention that it was probably around 80° F yesterday in Honolulu while it was a scorching 5°F here.

The good news is that it's all downhill to summer from here on out!

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff

Toirettsu

"When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth.'' ~ George Bernard Shaw

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

It may seem that my posts often contain potty humor at a higher rate than usually found in polite discourse. I apologize up front for that but good stories are found where they live. Mere mortals have no control over where life takes them and what they may observe. At this point, parents may wish to do some parental control over any youngsters reading....

You may or may not remember this post (Cosmo Crapper) about high tech toilets frequently found in Asian hotels.

Surfing the web today, I found this link describing yet another Japanese potty innovation. If you have not as of yet clicked that link, you will find that some industrious computer and software engineers have invented a computer game that one controls by aiming at specific spots on a bathroom urinal. Let us not sink into recriminations about the unfairness of this totally male oriented and female excluding invention but just relax and enjoy the whimsy.

(Although, one might wonder if Go Girl might not soon see a rise in their fortune.)

The perspicacious reader will note that this invention is called the "Toirettsu". I thought that this might be a good time to indulge in another short Japanese pronunciation discussion. As the cliche holds, the 'l' and 'r' sound in Nihongo (Japanese) are the same. It is a sort of lightly trilled "lri" sound where you hold the tongue at the roof of your mouth and sort of mush the l and r into one blurred sound. Not, as many westerners think, a transposition or 'l' for 'r' and 'r' for 'l'.

So, one would pronounce this gadget's name phonetically - "Toy lret soo" - a play on words for toilet of course.

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff

Christmas Wish

"It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas Hope and Aspiration that all of us - the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage - may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss - except the inventor of the telephone."

Mark Twain
New York "World", 1890


Gentle Readers,

It has been some time since last I posted here. There are some reasons for that and I may even address them in a future post.

In any case, the point of this blog has always been to share with you the things I see as I travel around the world. Sometimes, I find there are things close to home that are also of interest. Just north of our home in Eagan, MN, the Minnesota River flows into the Mississippi River. The bluffs on either side of the river are steep, wooded and quite lovely in all seasons. Just a short distance from the northern bluffs lies the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (KMSP) and the Mall of America (MOA).

Just west of both of those worthy locations runs MN State HW 77. This road crosses the Minnesota River in a very scenic area. On the west side of the road and on the north bluff sits a lovely home with what must be a breathtaking view of the river valley. These lucky folks have a huge oak tree growing in their yard.

As you know, this is the season for christmas lights and sometimes lighting your abode can become competitive with your neighbors. The folks who live in the house described above could have taken that competitive road. Instead, they have transcended that base desire and have found a way to increase Christmas Good Will and Cheer.

Every year they spend what must be a lavish budget on lighting up this oak tree. They apparently hire professionals who must use a bucket truck as no mere amateur on a rickety ladder could light the tree the way they do. Everyone who drives along HW 77 is struck by the simple beauty of a huge oak tree outlined in mono-color white lights. It also stands out to the aviator landing at the airport. Quite striking, lovely and filled with Christmas Spirit.

My monthly commute to Alaska most frequently begins at the FedEx Cargo ramp on the west edge of the MSP airport. Driving up 77 and seeing this tree is often the last thing I see before I leave home and my first greeting when I return. I find myself anticipating the sight.

I stole this picture from this article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

This link has another very nice photo of the tree. This year, these wonderful folks have turned to using LED lighting and the improvement is fantastic.

I have never met these lovely folks and probably never will. But I thank them and wish them Merry Christmas.

If you want to see this tree, this map will help:


View Larger Map

On that note,
I remain,

Dad / Geoff

This winter

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." ~ Robert Frost, "The Death Of The Hired Man"

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

As I've observed before, I started this blog to share interesting stories and observations about my travels with you. I did not travel much in January as my low level of seniority caused my Vacation bid to 'win' two weeks of vacation in one month - January. As you might surmise, few Anchorage domiciled pilots wish to have their vacation fall in the deep, dark, Alaskan winter. Therefore, I have not had a recent trip worthy of a post.

I have come to understand that one does not have to travel to see new and fascinating things.

The recent 'Snowmageddon' in the northeast US may have given some of you a taste of this. I realized this when my cousin - a frequent contributor and reader of this blog - sent me an email. He lives in a lovely location on the Chesapeake Bay - a locale one does not often associate with Winter Wonderlands. Here is his picture and email:

If you enlarge this photo, you will see a group of small birds near a large tree. It was snowing so hard their normal sources of food would be covered up. They are there because we scattered seed on the snow. But the snow buried that fairly fast too. The leaning metal disc you see to the right was a makeshift food shelter. It worked great. The birds shuttled, actually appeared to take turns, going down into the cavity where we put food that wouldn't be covered over. I like the picture enough (enlarged) it just might be our Christmas card this year. ~ Rex L. Fuller III

On the other hand, my wife and I do live in a place that is a Winter Wonderland.

Ann has been a provider of winter 'bird welfare' ever since we moved to Minnesota ten years ago. She learned this from her Mom and Dad who have had bird feeders for decades. Her feeders are on our deck just outside our dining room window and she loves to watch the birds. She gets special joy when the infrequent Pileated Woodpecker comes visiting.

The link to the Pileated says they are big birds. That is an understatement. This picture is the wallpaper on her desktop computer.

She also loves it when the Cardinals come to visit.

We are lucky enough to live on the edge of very large county park system and there is a wilderness very close by full of wild and ferocious fauna. Ann had been in the habit of keeping the bird seed outside on the deck in a galvanized 5 gallon aluminum can with a lid.

She went out one morning to replenish the bird seed and found this:

Mama Raccoon had discovered the mother lode of seed and moved her family right in. We still wonder how she managed to get the lid off of the can but it explained the loud thump in the dark of night. Mama was watching fearfully from nearby.

Ann says she got up one night when I was on a trip, flipped on the lights and caught the Raccoon standing on the rail, with bird feeder tipped up in both hands, pouring the seed into its mouth. Note how fat the Raccoons are.

On that happy note, I remain,


Dad / Geoff

Dogs

"Money may buy you a fine dog but only love can make it wag its tail." ~ Kinky Friedman

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

Many of you love dogs but often wonder about their behavior. I know I frequently find my dog, Ricochet, fascinating.

Recently, I flew a trip to Oakland, California. Near the hotel was a Barnes and Noble. As is true in most B&Ns, there was a bookshelf containing staff recommendations. On that shelf was this book:

Intrigued, I picked it up and began skimming it. The author, Alexandra Horowitz, is a cognitive scientist who has studied Gorillas and such in the wild. She claims that one day she looked at her dog and realized she did not need to travel to wild and exotic locales in search of rare animals to study. Her dog was an easily available subject for study.

This book was the result. I have yet to read it in it's entirety, but I have ordered a copy from my local county library. I look forward to getting it.

Click here to read a review.

I remain,

Dad / Geoff