Cache Valley scene...

Cache Valley scene...  This is the scene this morning from the lot adjacent to my realtor's office.  I took it just after sunrise, looking west from the town of Providence (just south of Logan, Utah).

This afternoon I visited the County Recorder's office to pick up plats and legal property descriptions for the parcels of land we're buying.  If you've ever done something like this in San Diego (I have), you know it's a most painful experience: city traffic, scarce (and expensive) parking, long waits, surly clerical help, expensive and slow (and probably crappy) copies, and absolutely zero chance of meeting anyone with any real authority on a walk-in visit.

Here in Cache County, I drove up to the County Administration building and discovered a vast parking lot behind it, with dozens of empty spaces.  Those spaces were, of course, free.  Then I went to the wrong place to pick up what I needed, and some very friendly folks gently told me where I really needed to go (the Recorder's actual office).  I went there, and asked about getting the documents – and the County Recorder himself (a fellow named Mike Gleed) helped me locate and copy them.  Just like every other County employee I've met (about 10 at this point), he was extremely helpful, took the time to answer all my questions, no matter how crazy or ignorant – and had a smile and a cheerful attitude throughout.  Oh, and those documents cost me a whopping $3.50!

For anyone from southern California, getting quality, cheerful, friendly service from a government employee is a head-exploding experience.  Feels good, though.  Makes me want to go back for more...

What is this?

What is this?  As you drive north on I-15, just before you cross over from California to Nevada you'll see these three towers.  Each of them is surrounded by a small sea of steerable mirrors.  If you click the photo at right (which I took while zooming down the freeway at 75 mph) to embiggen it, you'll see that the second tower from the left is black, while the other two are shining brightly.  In reality, the two that are shining are so bright you can't look directly at them – they appear to be at least as bright as the sun.

The two that are shining here are operating power stations, and the mirrors around them have been aimed so that each of them reflects the sun onto the tower.  These mirrors move all day long, as the sun moves across the sky, to keep the reflected sunlight on target.  Thousands of these mirrors surround each tower, and collectively they focus enough light onto the flat black material of the tower to boil the water circulating under the skin.  That generated steam powers turbines that generate electricity – enough for 70,000 homes.

The black tower is just one that's not operational at the moment I took this photo.  It's mirrors are aimed so that they reflect light anywhere but on the tower.

These power stations have been in the news recently because birds have been flying near the towers.  When they do so, they are killed by the intense heat, and even partially cooked by the time they hit the ground below.  Environmentalists are, of course, trying to shut the power stations down.  Because the power stations are in California, I'd bet that they'll succeed...

Intermittent blogging alert!

Intermittent blogging alert!  I'm back up in Utah (drove all day yesterday), and I'll be up here for a couple of weeks doing the not-so-much-fun part of buying a new home: due diligence.  I get to spend my time with appraisers, inspectors, lawyers, and so forth.  Oh, joy!

Ajanta Caves...

Ajanta Caves...  My mom sent me some photos of this place, located slightly west of the geographic center of India.  I had never heard of the Ajanta Caves before, and I spent an hour or so just “exploring” them online, getting more and more amazed as I went.  The Wikipedia article is a good place to start, and here is a Google map to it...

We live in ridiculously convenient times...

We live in ridiculously convenient times...  That's the first sentence of a Wall Street Journal piece by Dave Barry (actually an excerpt from his latest book).  Go read, but please put down your hot morning beverage first...

Pater: We were manly men before we were ten...

Pater: We were manly men before we were ten...  Another post from my brother Scott, with a story about our dad:

We were manly men before we were ten.

At the tender age of six our father strapped a huge army issue back-pack jammed  full of heavy camping gear onto my short little self. It felt like it weighed a ton. Was wondering if maybe my brother had a lot less weight in his backpack although it looked sort of about the same bulky size. We had a long way to walk before we could park this tortuous load which seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. At the same time though it made me feel more grown up.

Our destination for the day was Chimney Pond. The backpack frame would scrape on the ground every once in a while and I found myself leaning forward more than usual to prevent this from ruining the thing.  Seemed like we almost had to run with all that weight (50-60 pounds?) to keep up with Dad's long strides. Every once in a while Dad let us stop to drink some water and have a small snack – like a few handfuls of gorp or maybe some pemmican.  What a relief it was to take off the backpack for a few minutes. For a teasing brief moment in time it felt like I weighed as much as a feather.

My way of thinking was to sneak as much weight in water and food as possible into my gut so that the backpack would weigh less. Dad taught us some survival skills along the way and spoke to us about the critters that lived around there. He also joked around some.  It seemed like it took forever to get to where we were going but it probably wasn't that many miles. No kid on earth knows what a perfect night of sleep feels like unless they have endured that much slavery and then experience breathing that cool clean mountain air while in la la land tucked in a warm sleeping bag.

Early next morning we were back on a trail heading for the top of Mt. Katahdin. There was a slight difference. The backpacks weighed much less than the day before.  After scrambling over humungous boulders and hiking quickly up steep slopes we did make it to the top. A brass marker on a cairn let us all know that we were a mile high. Off to the south (?) maybe about 100 feet away from the cairn was a cliff that Dad wanted us to sit on top of.  We did as we were told. Problem was our backpacks were now just about empty and they felt like sails on our backs with a 60 m.p.h. wind blowing hard at us. Thought for sure I was going to sail right off the top of that cliff. He instructed us to pick up rocks, throw them over the side and listen carefully for the sound of these rocks hitting bottom.  “Shout when you hear them hit.  I'm going to time you so I can calculate how far down it is to the bottom of that cliff.”  We all decided that this was one heck of a tall cliff because it took a while before we heard those rocks hit anything.

The next cliff experience was phenomenal. The knife edge. A scary long cliff on each side of you as you ran leaping over gaps in this narrow pathway. At times it was not all that narrow, but when it was narrow it gave you thrills and chills – that's for sure.  

After another heavenly night of sleep there was a treat in store for us who knew not what was next. A cool and refreshing swim for 5 minutes and not a second less. Actually this was cooler than your average cool refreshing swim.  35 degrees Fahrenheit I believe was the recorded temperature. We had no choice in the matter.  We were not allowed to leave the water until the 5 minutes were up. We asked several times if the 5 minutes were up and of course they weren't. That was the longest 5 minutes I'll ever experience.  When back at camp ( Long Pond, Lincoln Center, Maine ) my lips were bright blue and purple and I was still shivering from that swim. Caught a pneumonia or something about as bad and Mother Dear was pretty pissed off at Dad for almost killing me which was carrying it a little too far.

My own memories of that trip mostly agree with Scott's.  Those heavy backpacks on the way up to Chimney Pond – oh, those I definitely remember.  I didn't think I'd survive that hike :)  The relief on arriving at our Adirondack shelter was utterly overwhelming.  The swim in Chimney Pond is also an indelible memory, though I'm pretty sure the temperature was actually below freezing, due to dissolved minerals or salts – and there was ice along the edges.  I also remember sitting on the cliffs with our light packs, and throwing rocks over the side.  But most of all I remember the hike along the “Knife Edge” between Baxter Peak and Pamola Peak.  The photo at right (not mine) gives you a feeling for it.  That photo was taken looking south, toward Baxter peak.  That narrow rocky ridge is present for a good part of the length of the trail, and in places there are iron handholds pounded into the rock so that you can safely traverse especially narrow places.  I was thrilled by the feeling of height you get with a near-cliff on both sides of the narrow trail, and that knife edge in front of you as far as you could see.  Before I joined the Navy, I took one last hike on Katahdin, by myself, and I hiked the knife edge three times in a week – my favorite part of that entire gorgeous mountain...

I tow the line...

I tow the line...  A liberal (identified as only as DGCJ) writes something and uses the phrase “I tow the party line” – plainly meaning “I toe the partly line” instead.  Conservative commentator Daniel Greenfield calls him out on it, rather gently correcting him.  What do you suppose the result was?

Naturally, DGCJ asserted his correctness – certified by his political persuasion (liberal), credentials (Ph.D.), and makes several assertions he apparently considers belittling and conclusive, such as:

Thanks.  we both realize you were mentally outclassed from the beginning, but now you know why.  It's because I was born with superior cognitive functions, as a homosexual male.

and

I tow the party line, dummy
I just corrected you.  Nobody toes their car, do they?  They TOW it.  DUH!
And, the last laugh will be on you, my friend.  I don't troll.  I speak the truth and conservatives hate facts.  Science is not your friend.

Daniel uses this as a teaching moment.  Go learn...

The view from Mars...

The view from Mars...  Well, what it would be, if you were riding atop Curiosity!

The shame of That One...

The shame of That One...  Niall Ferguson on America's global retreat.  Very sad, for us old-fashioned Americans.  The progressives are cheering, though...

Fort Caroline found – in the wrong place...

Fort Caroline found – in the wrong place...  Fort Caroline was the first French settlement in the U.S., long believed to have been near present-day Jacksonville, Florida, but never found.  Until now, possibly: researchers recently announced that they've discovered the remains of the fort – in southern Georgia!  This is a controversial discovery, overturning decades of scholarship – but it has the interesting advantage of actual, you know, evidence.  I'll be keeping an eye on this one...

Solar time vs. local time...

Solar time vs. local time...  Here's a wonderful map (full resolution version) of the difference between Solar time and local time zones over the entire Earth.  This difference is what accounts for sunrises and sunsets being later or earlier (by clock time) in different locations around the globe.  This is the kind of data that really needs a good graphical treatment, and the creator of this map (Stefano Maggiolo) has done it brilliantly...

More Mann-ly takedown...

More Mann-ly takedown...  From the irreplaceable Steve McIntyre, of course.  This time he demolishes Mann's characterization of the Muir Russell inquiry...

Ukraine – events happening too fast to keep up with...

Ukraine – events happening too fast to keep up with...  It appears that in the past 24 hours, a peace agreement was signed, a truce immediately violated, Parliament restored the 2004 Constitution and voted to release the former Prime Minister (Yulia Tymoshenko), police and military reportedly “defected” to the protesters, current President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital of Kiev, the Parliament voted to remove Yanokovych, Tymoshenko is released and is heading for Independence Square, and demonstrators took over the entire city of Kiev, including all government offices.  Yanokovych vows to remain in the country and in power, calling the demonstrators “bandits”, as he has for the past three months.

After months of sometimes-bloody conflict, this is quite an amazingly rapid progression.  So far as I can tell, it's all good news, too – but it's certainly not over yet.  Yanokovych could conceivably lean on Putin to supply the muscle needed to restore himself to power.  Internal forces may yet be able to do the same.  I have no idea how it's going to end up, but it looks hopeful right at the moment...

Some relevant reading for you here, here, and here... 

Working 1 to 5...

Working 1 to 5...  Wait, what???  Reason and Remy, together again...

The Mann he loves...

The Mann he loves...  Michael Mann, the posturing, stuffed-hat, litigation-prone “climatologist” from Penn State filed a libel suit against Mark Steyn for articles Steyn wrote poking fun at Mann's work.  Now Steyn has filed a counter-suit (text here) with two multimillion dollar claims against Mann (a fairly standard tactic in the defense of any lawsuit – make it as painful for the other guy as you can).  Between these two lawsuits, a vigorous discovery process is almost certain.  That means all of the emails and documents that Mann has so carefully be refusing to make public ... will become public if introduced in the trial.  From the ClimateGate emails, we already know there's a rich trove of material there that will defend Steyn's statements – and you can bet those will be introduced into evidence.  Read the text of Steyn's complaint – it's far better written, with wit and humor, than any complaint I've ever read.

Stock up on popcorn, folks!

A murmuration of starlings...

A murmuration of starlings...  Beautiful mini-documentary, sent to me by reader Simi L...

Farmer's Almanac: 1, NOAA: 0...

Farmer's Almanac: 1, NOAA: 0...  The Farmer's Almanac predicted an unusually cold winter this year.  The NOAA did not.  Neither did the IPCC, who said global warming would be particularly “visible” this winter.  Yeah, not so much.  Via reader and friend Larry E...

What's the alternative to ObamaCare?

What's the alternative to ObamaCare?  Well, at one point we had BushCare proposed.  I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, as it was obviously dead on arrival at Congress.  Now, looking back on it, it sure sounds good by comparison...

Music of the printer...

Music of the printer...  I'm a big Wallace & Grommit fan, so naturally their theme played on a dot-matrix printer is my favorite – but there are quite a few more to hear, too...

They have free time all week long!

They have free time all week long!  10 tips for Japanese travelers to the U.S.  I've always found it interesting to learn how other cultures view ours...