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Astronomy Food Health Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

You came here on a Tuesday night for this, and I shall not disappoint you. This week’s theme – hot versus cold.

1.  We’ve got light rain here in Homestead right now because we have an incredible phenomenon occurring – an actual wintertime cold front approaching us from the north – in September !  It should ooze on through tonight, and then on the other side of it – clear, crisp, cool, and dry. The sun will shine brightly for a few days, and temperatures will only peak in the mid-80s during the afternoon hours with temperatures early in the morning possibly dropping down into the upper-60s !  It’s just a tiny taste of Autumn !

2.  The hot Sun is now south of the Equator. That means that our nights are now slightly longer than our days. It also means that the Sun rises to the south of due east – and sets to the south of due west – but not by much. After all we are in the subtropics.

3.  We had no working A.C. in my building at work yesterday, so everyone was hot and sweaty. Temperatures were in the mid-80s inside. It was quite unbearable. They fixed it overnight, and today we had A.C. struggling to cool off our building (from yesterday’s sudden heatwave). Nevertheless 78°F felt much better than 86°F.

4.  I ate Lunch with a longtime friend of mine at El Nachito today. I ate enough hot and delicious Mexican food for 3 people. When there was no more food left in front of me I realized that my face was sweating. That happens sometimes when I’ve eaten enough food that could satisfy a small horse.

5.  Can you believe this ?  I think I’m coming down with my 6TH cold over the past 10 months. The first sign of an impending cold for me is typically a weak sore throat. I felt the first sign of it this morning at work, and I exclaimed, ‘Oh no you didn’t !’ I then took a Zicam, and then I took another one 3 hours later, and then I took another one 3 hours after that (just now). Please cold don’t bother me now with your antics !

Categories
Astronomy Hoaxes Internet

Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame

Mars
Mars

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular !

This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter’s gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.

Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10 p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 a.m. That’s pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

Share this with your children and grandchildren.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

This widely-circulated perennial E-Mail defies all astronomical logic, and it is of course an Internet HOAX !

Read more about it.

Read even more about it.

Categories
Astronomy History Hoaxes Internet News

Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame

A satellite photo of North America on the night of Thursday August 14TH 2003 – the night of the largest blackout in North American history that affected an estimated 50 million people and caused an estimated 6 billion dollars in financial losses:

Thursday August 14TH 2003

IT’S NOT REAL !

Can you identify at least 5 things that are obviously wrong with the photo above ?

Try to figure it all out, and then read more about it.

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Bedtime Stories

And so we have right here right now the Tuesday night edition of ‘Bedtime Stories’ – brought to you by Zicam.

My unexpectedly long Good Friday / Easter Sunday holiday weekend will soon come to a close as I pray to God and lay myself to sleep in about 2½-hours. I’ll get about 6 hours of sleep tonight, and then I’ll wake up at 5 AM tomorrow morning and be at work by 6 AM. I’m looking forward to getting back to my desk at work and catching up with everything there. Once upon a time I dreaded going to work, but now I adore it.

I saw the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Endeavour over the eastern skies of Homestead tonight just after 8 PM. It was so cool watching the Space Shuttle play tag team with the ISS up in Earth’s orbit from practically sea level.

I bought my very first atomic radio-controlled clock today. It picks-up its signal from the NIST signal out of Fort Collins Colorado. I now know exactly what time it is, and I can set my watch and VCR clocks to its precise time.

FedEx delivered my fresh new 2GB iPod Shuffle from Apple late this afternoon. Now I can get to work and fill that thing up with today’s hottest Christian rock, pop, and hip hop hits !

And that’s how I roll tonight with my ‘Bedtime Stories’. Be sure to catch this blog in action again tomorrow for some more cool stuff, and don’t forget that Thursday night is ‘Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame’ night. Until then remember this:

Zicam – Get over your cold faster.

Good Night Everyone !  Good Night Nancy !