New Years Eve, December 31, 2012

Here in the US, we have some hours to go before midnight. Around the world, celebrations are starting.

Happy New Year to all.

Except for the first picture, all are from Wikipedia Commons.

The next two pictures are from Australia  by, Cedventure.

At Hoech  by, Eva K.

In Concepcion, Chile  by, parapente.

The last three pictures are from Times Square, New York.

This is the video display used so everyone can see when the ball drops. The picture was taken by, Replytojain.

Crowd scene  by, User Phier.

This last picture is of the ball. It has LED lights. LED lights are light emitting diodes, like you see on a clock radio or watch. They use a lot less energy.
The ball has Waterford crystal panels to reflect the light. One panel has Dick Clarke’s name inscribed on it. He died and before that, he was known to do the announcing for New Years Eve.
The picture was taken by, Clare Criland.

 

 

 

Odds And Ends, December 30, 2012

We had some snow yesterday. It is supposed to stay below freezing today, so the snow won’t melt. It is windy and some  the snow will blow around. We are lucky. Some areas of the northeast got a lot of snow.

I found an assortment of pictures for the end of the year.

The first is of Mercury  by, NASA.

From Pacific Islands, National Park Service. They took this picture of a something, they don’t know what. It could be a duck or a goose. They posted it on Twitter to see if anyone could identify it.

Also from Pacific Islands, National Park Service, A full moon on December 27, 2012 over Hawaii.

A picture by the US Navy.

From the USDA NRCS, a Southern Bumblebee.

This picture was taken by, Timothy Hale, US Army Reserve Command. It is of a toy drop over Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

In Alaska, at the Mendenhall Glacier, they had wet, heavy snow. The picture is by, US Forest Service.

The last picture is taken at Marine Fox Company 2nd Battalion 7th Regiment rest center in Helmud Province, Afghanistan.

Kestrels

Kestrels are small falcons. There a variety of them, but it would hard to tell them apart unless you are familiar with the different kinds.
Kestrels can live with people. They have sweet natures and are for the most part, calm.

All of the pictures are from Wikipedia Commons.

The first three pictures are by sannse. The first picture is a Kestrel with a Blackbird.

A lady Kestrel in flight  by, Glen Fergus.

By, Andreas Trepre.

A Kestrel on the roof of a car in Boston, Massachusetts  by, RAS.

The next and last four pictures are by, Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK.
You will see the bands around on the legs of the bird in these pictures. They are made of leather and they go around the ankle with straps hanging down. You hold the straps when the bird is sitting on your hand. This prevents the bird from getting hurt if he is startled and wants to take off. It also helps you from losing the bird if it wants to fly away.

 

 

Mariner 4, Launched Today in 1964

Mariner 4 was the first probe to take a look at Mars from orbit.

It was launched with the Atlas Agena D.

The mission ended on December 21, 1967. It had arrived in the Mars orbit on July 15, 1965. They had troubles with this mission.  There were problems keeping Mariner 4 in a stable orbit. There was dust and they think a comet passed by and a ton of dust hit the probe.

Even so, it was a successful mission.
This is the first image Mariner 4 sent back of craters on Mars.

This is the first clear image of craters on Mars that Mariner 4 sent back.

A picture of Mariner 4 in the lab, getting ready for its weight test.

This last picture is of Mariner 4.

Polar Bears

Polar Bears are beautiful, but fierce. They are nice to look at, from a distance or in a zoo. They live in cold regions.

The pictures are from Wikipedia Commons, except for the last one, which is from the US Navy.

The first picture is by, Michael Hafercamp.

By, Alistair Rae.

At the Berlin Zoo  by, Moriel.

Chicago Zoo  by, Grzegorz Polak.

At Tiergarten  by, Ltshears.

At Churchill, Manitoba  by, Brocken Inaglory.

By, Ansgar Walk.

This last picture was taken at the rear of a submarine  by, Chief Yeoman Alphonse Braggs.

 

 

Stars, From Hubble Space Telescope

I have whatever it is that is going around. I am just going to show these pretty pictures today. They are indeed amazing. I can’t quite grasp that they are real.
The mid and south east sections of the US have had some very serious storms. Snow out west and tornadoes down south.
Here in the northeast, we are supposed to have rain overnight with some winds. It is 30 degrees F out there now. We could be in for a bit of snow.

All the pictures are from NASA.There are 12 pictures.

I need to tell you that I can’t upload high resolution photos. They stall and stop. I am on dial up internet and that could have something to do with it. I will look into broadband and get it one of these days. I’ll see if that makes a difference.

Christmas Eve, December 24, 2012

I won’t do a post tomorrow. I’ll post again Wednesday.

I found pictures of sleighs. They used to be used in winter when the snow covered the ground and it was the best way to get around. Now, they are rare.
Except for one picture, they come from Wikipedia Commons.

In Janczary, Poland  by, Robert Woltowicz, Nowy Targ.

In Toronto, Canada  by Reginald Symonds.

Reindeer pulling sleigh in Russia  by, Ellen Shurova.

Sleigh bells  by, Foamposite.

Santa waves to US Marines, somewhere and I don’t know where  by USMC.

A Christmas sleigh in Glasgow, Scotland  by, Declan Jewell.

The last picture is of a sleigh on a roof for Christmas  by, Jim Champion.

 

Chipmunks, In Memory of David Seville

Chipmunks are small, furry and cute as can be. They also chew and dig.
They are well known for digging up plants in a garden. They can dig up an amazing number of plants in a short time.
I have a picture from the US Forest Service of a building where chipmunks had been busy.

These are four pictures of the cute side of chipmunks. They are all from Wikipedia Commons.

This is by, Phil Armitage.

By, Dew26m.

In Manning Park, British Columbia  by, Socceronly.

The last picture is by, Giles Gontheir from Canada.

First Full Day of WInter, Saturday, December 22, 2012

I was reading about the weather yesterday. There have been heavy snow storms out west and in the mid western parts of the US. A foot of snow or more has fallen in some places.
The National Park Service does alerts about weather and roads. Sometimes a road is closed. On some roads in the parks, you have to have snow chains to travel there.
I wondered how to get chains for cars and how to put them on.
You have to know what kind of chains to buy. If there’s no car owners manual, you can always ask at a place that works on cars.
The chains have to be put on the drive wheels. If a car is front wheel drive, you put the chains on the front wheels. On a rear wheel drive car, you put them on the rear wheels. I read that you put the chains on the front wheels of a four wheel drive vehicle.
Sometimes, four wheel drive vehicles are required to have chains in some parks. Sometimes the chains aren’t required if you have on snow type tires.
There are times when you need to stop alongside the road, get out the chains and put them on before you go any further. It is cold, maybe snowing and the ground is covered with snow. Sometimes it is also dark out.
Someone who knows will be putting on the chains. You can watch. If it is dark out, you could hold the flashlight while someone who knows puts on the chains. When it gets to the part where the car has to move forward to roll the tires onto the chains, you can be the guide. If the car goes to far forward, you can say, go back a little. If the car has to move back and forth to get the chains on right, you may hear some muttering inside of the car by someone who knows.

From wikiHow, I found step by step instructions on how to  put chains on a car. They have pictures and best of all, they numbered them.

Number One. They suggest that you do a bit of homework. Lay out the chain and read the instructions. It gives you an idea of how the chains should be put down on the ground when you have to put on them on in bad weather.

Number Two. Get the car tire onto the chain.

Number Three. Hook the chain together.

Number Four. Drive the car about a 1/3 mile and then tighten the chains.

All of this is easier said than done. You can’t go fast when you have chains on the car. They say not to drive over 30 miles per hour. On snow packed roads, you wouldn’t want to be going  any faster, anyway.

This is a picture of a car with the chains on. It is a Honda and it is front wheel drive. The picture was taken by, Domintori, English Wikipedia.

I found five pictures of National Parks when it first started snowing earlier this week. These pictures are by National Park Service.

First, is a rabbit having a sip of snow. This picture was taken in Canyonlands National Park in Southeastern Utah.

Plowing snow at the Grand Canyon.

At Black Cayon National Park in Colorado.

At Capitol Reef National Park in south central Utah.

At the Dinosaur National Monument in Dinosaur, Colorado.

The last picture is a composite of images of the solstice by, International Space Station.
Upper left, 12/21/2010, winter
Upper right, 3/20/2011, spring
Lower left, 6/21/1011, summer
Lower right, 9/20/2011, autumn

 

 

 

 

Expedition 34 Travels to The International Space Station

The Crew: Front row, left, NASA Kevin Ford, right, Canadian Space Agency, Chris Hadfield.
Back row, left to right, Russians, Oleg Novitskiy, Evgeny Tarakin, Roman Romenenko, NASA, Tom Marshburn.
They are flight engineers.

This is a brief look at the Expedition 34 launch to the International Space Station. All pictures are from NASA.

The launch of Soyuz TMA-07 from Kazakhstan on December 19, 2012. It was -30 degrees F.

ISS, International Space Station

A look at Soyuz in space.

ISS

A vie from ISS of Soyuz coming to visit.

This last picture is of an aurora taken from ISS.