Category: Uncategorized

Pieter Bruegel, 1565, during the Little Ice Age

Turf houses in Iceland

It is not commonly understood that the output of the sun goes through cycles. I, nerd that I am, didn’t appreciate this until I got my ham radio license and learned about the 11-year solar cycles that affect the propagation of high-frequency (1.8 Mhz – 30 Mhz) radio signals around the planet. But there are other cycles of the sun, maybe periodic, maybe more random, that have had a huge effect on human history.

The history of northern Europe, not to mention Iceland and Greenland, was greatly affected by climate changes thought to be related to changes in the sun’s output.

A new 11-year solar cycle should have begun by now, but it’s late. There have been 670 days without sunspots through June 2009.

A recent paper by scientists from the National Solar Observatory observes that there have been changes in the sun’s behavior that go back farther than the 11 years of the solar sunspot cycle, at least back to 1992. This is troubling, because if the trend continues, the solar situation would look more and more like the Maunder Minimum, which is blamed for the Little Ice Age in Europe, which lasted for hundreds of years, starting as early as the 13th century.

This is all very complicated, and the data is sketchy, but if you’re a weather watcher, and a climate watcher, as I am, then this is something you’ll want to read up on and keep an eye on.

If you do a Google search for “Virginia Foxx,” you’ll see that every time she has spoken on the House floor recently, she has embarrassed North Carolina’s Fifth District. It’s not just that she is ignorant and therefore almost always wrong. Or even that she repeats the vilest and most thoroughly debunked right-wing propaganda. It’s that she’s mean.

While GOP operatives and hate-radio hosts are dispatching mobs to shout down home-district town halls by Democratic representatives, Rep. Virginia Foxx isn’t even having a town hall. I called her Clemmons office to check her schedule. Sorry, nothing but a “telephone town hall,” which is of course a one-way affair. She talks, we listen. Watauga Watch reports that she’s only got fund-raisers on her summer schedule.

Lily, who is about nine months old now, has played outside and practiced her tree-climbing since she was a kitten. Her practice paid off this morning. A dog got her up a tree. I heard barking and ran outside with the broom. A nondescript dog I’d never seen before was bouncing around the tree, and Lily was about 20 feet up a slender, bent pine tree, holding on for dear life. I chased the dog off and made poor Lily wait while I got the camera to record her humiliation. I was afraid she’d be afraid to climb down, but she made a very well-controlled descent, first head-first, then tail first, and came to me with her fur ruffled to be petted.

I’ve always told her that there are boogers in the woods, but she doesn’t need to be told. She hears the boogers all the time, though this is the first time one ever came to get her.

Now I’m rethinking letting my chickens roam free. My new chicken house will be ready as early as next week, and I was hoping to get biddies in early April.

Safely down

Lily reposes. Digital effects applied in Gimp photo editor.

I have raised several dogs from puppyhood, and so I have pretty well-developed theories about how to raise puppies. Lily, who is now about nine months old, was about eight weeks old when she came to me. I had to play kitten-raising by ear.

Dogs, of course, need training. Train a cat? Ha! They can learn basic rules fairly well: Don’t scratch, don’t bite, don’t get on the table, don’t scratch the furniture. Lily, I think, has turned out just fine. The guidelines for kitten raising, it seems to me, boil down to: Give them a lot of affection and attention, and always respond to them in a consistent, predictable way that they can understand.

I thought that Lily would never be motivated to come when I call. But these past few evenings, she has been doing that. She knows that one of the unbreakable rules is that she can’t go out until the sun is up, and she must be in before dark. She likes to stay out all day when the sun is shining and it’s not too cold. An hour before sunset, she’s probably sleepy and hungry. So when I go out and call her, I soon hear a meowing in response, far off in the woods. And before I know it, she’s at the door.

I’m pretty sure she’s aware that the woods are dangerous after dark if you’re a kitty cat.

GBBC

My sister is reminding bird lovers that “The Great Backyard Bird Count” starts Feb. 13. It’s sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon. I can’t identify many species, but I’ll at least count bluebirds.

The waning moon, 6:45 a.m., November 23, 2008.

Lily in the morning light — James-Michael Gregg

A friend was visiting from California a couple of weeks ago, and he took hundreds of photos of Lily with his iPhone. Two photos, in particular, caught light and color in a wonderful way. I used Gimp to apply an “oilify” effect.

Lily in the morning shadow

Weather Underground

Western North Carolina is in the possible path of Tropical storm Fay. Wouldn’t a nice rain late next week be nice.

NOAA

Three organizations that watch hurricanes have issued revised forecasts calling for a rough hurricane season ahead. One of the organizations, Tropical Storm Risk Inc., has given a 95 percent probability that 2008 will be in the top third of years historically for hurricane activity.

A good source of hurricane information, and the one I watch most, is Dr. Jeff Masters’ blog at Weather Underground.

NOAA

The National Weather Service released new 30-day forecasts today. For here in the Southeast, the forecast is for above normal temperatures and normal precipitation. OK. I’ll deal with the heat if it will just rain.