snow-flower’s Neighborhood

This is in the lobby of the NOAA.  It uses ultrasonic vibrations to generate steam from water without heating it, then pumps it up into this large bowl which you can blow down into or run your hands through.  It doesn't really serve any scientific purpose, really, but it's fun to play with.

The highlight of the tour for most of us was Science on a Globe.  This a six-foot diameter sphere suspended from the ceiling, then four projectors use it as a spherical movie screen to project a globe onto it.  This allows presenters to show any array of global information on the sphere, animated.  The effect looks exactly what you would expect a hologram of the Earth to look like.

Topo maps.

The night side of the topo map shows the lights that are visible form human activity.  Our presenter told us how to recognize the differen types of lights.  White are electric lights - cities.  Purple lights in the ocean (particularly near Japan) are fishing boats using lights to attract squid to the surface so they can turn them into calamari.  Red lights are fires, usually big slash-and-burn operations.  Blue lights are oil rig flares.

A view of the globe seeing the tops of the clouds color-coded to show the infrared spectrum.  Also, the globe-like head of the kid in front of me apparently trying to simulate an eclipse as seen from beyond the dark side of the moon.

An animation showing the formation of hurricanes in the Atlantic.

The next animation I have is a really cool one showing global warming from the 1870's (as based on ice core samples) and projected into the year 2200 (based on computer models), but the clip is bigger than the Vox limit of 50 megs.  When I get back home I'll see if I can work it into a smaller file.  All of the other videos I took were also over 50 megs.  Hmmph!

After Science on a Sphere, the tour took us into a conference room where one of their employees demonstrated on a big screen the NOAA's experimental island in Second Life.  It looked neat, but unfortunately my bandwidth at home just can't handle Second Life.

After leaving the NOAA, we went to the National Center for Atmospheric Research.  It was a much shorter tour and there wasn't nearly as much to see, but their building was neat, and they had a very basic science museum just inside the door.

The building was designed by architect I. M. Pei after visiting Mesa Verde National Park.

A view of the Flatirons Mountains from right outside the NCAR facilities.

Some door archways on the exterior of the NCAR facility.  For comparison, here is a shot I took at Chaco Canyon National Historic Park:

 

Another view of the Flatirons.

Back inside the NCAR facility, a mural showing the different altitudes where various atmospheric phenomena exist.  From this mural, I learned about a type of cloud that I hadn't heard of before: noctilucent clouds.  They are much higher in the atmosphere that other cloud formations, and as such they can sometimes reflect light from the sun back down toward the night side of the planet, making them appear to glow.  I wonder how many UFO sightings such clouds have caused.  They're also interesting because scientists don't yet understand how clouds can form at such high altitudes or why we're seeing them in lower latitudes in the last couple of decades than we used to.

An early air sampler rocket, meant to take samples of air at high altitudes.  This one was used at the White Sands Missile Range.

Finally, since we're going white water rafting Sunday and we forgot to pack hats to protect us from the sun, I bought a couple of floppy fishing hats at the NCAR gift store for Strix and me.

Yes, my face really is that round.  Sad, huh?

It's time for lunch.  More later!

I love myself.

Yes yes, I know that it's a weird statement (no matter what it seems like sometimes I have some self awarenesss), but actually it's one that I am not sure that I have always been able to sign off on. Thinking about it now that I have the time to do so I am not sure that I always loved myself.

It's not like I hated the one I was or something, I am not fishing for you to feel sorry for me (not at all, in fact I don't like when people do that, I don't need anyones pity), but I think it's the truth. When I was younger I wasn't always my own biggest fan. I just didn't think about it because I was to busy pleasing everyone.

There's still a ton of things that I'd wan't to change (the biggest one being my figure, which I am still trying to "fix", I am a girl duh!) but if I never manage to that'll be just fine. Because I love the Sofia that I am today. I think that I am a cool person, I take pride in being one of the (at least in Sweden) few that doesn't always follow everyone else.

And do you know what? I even feel hot sometimes now days. It's not that often and the bubble breaks easily, but it happens. That my friends, is a huge step for me.

Perhaps I have been a silly spoiled girl putting myself down for so long (and it has been long, like all my life...almost) but no matter that I think that this new attiutude towards myself is something to celebrate. It has been the biggest issue for me since I realized that people judge you in everything you do, and let's face it, that happens at a young age.

Before anyone says it: I know that I have said this before, proudly stated for anyone that wanted to listen that I am happy with me the way I am.

Newsflash people! I was lying. That's what you do. When things are hard to keep telling yourself that it's aaaall fine, that everything is great. Because if you tell yourself a lie enough times, eventually it will become the truth. No matter how little faith you had in that "it's all good" to begin with you will believe yourself in the end.

And well...I do now. If you could see me in my every day life you would notice (at least I think people do). I smile quite a lot now (not as much as some, that's just silly), and I have a childish fun side that I didn't think was in me.

It aaaaall good.

Yes it is.

Take care all! (^ - ^) Peace out! 

Scott Peterson

Scott Peterson was photographed by the California Department of Corrections in June 2007. Housed on death row at San Quentin State Prison, Peterson was found guilty in 2005 of killing his wife, Laci and their unborn son, Conner.  Notice "CONDEMNED" on his placard.

How long do you take in the shower?
Submitted by Strive2Be.

Gosh, I'm rather embarrassed now.  I'm the person who posted this question, and I did so because my friend was SHOCKED at how long I took.  Lol.  He wanted to know *exactly* what I could possibly be doing in the shower....take him step by step.  I thought he was being silly, but after reading the answers to this question.....wow, I must transform into a turtle or some such slow critter when the water hits me.  I spend about an hour....yes, you heard me world....one whole hour....sixty minutes.....in the rectangle of spraying water.  That includes wash/rinse hair, wash/rinse body (lol), and shaving BOTH my legs (don't forget that there are TWO of them), plus maybe a touch-up shave between................shhhhhhhhhh.  AND....this doesn't even include getting into the song, "Good, good, good...good vibrations!"  Lol.  You really don't want to know how long I'm in the shower if I get that song into my head!!  So......I'm a turtle......or a slug......or some primordial sludge.  And then don't even get me into what I do AFTER the shower...lotion on the legs and (shhhhhhh area) so the skin doesn't dry out, clip the nails (and remember, we have finger AND toe nails!  Lol), dry myself, pat my hair dry and then let it dry on its own after I've combed it, and get dressed.  I also, at some point during all this time, am cleaning out the shower and drying it.  And guess what, guess what??  I'm one of those people who doesn't use all those creams and lotions and make-up and gobbly gook.  Can you imagine how long I'd be in the bathroom????  Just bodywash, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, and lotion for the shaved areas.  How come I feel like I'm on the witness stand, defending myself desperately so as not to received the death penalty??  *smile*  I'll have to go into hyperactive speed next time and let you know the results.  Probably shampoo in the eye, legs with hair still visible in areas, a nick in a sensitive spot, and a major slip getting out of the shower as my feet are still slimy with bodywash.  Well...at least I can yell to the world...I'M UNIQUE!!!!!  WooHoo!!!!  Not so sure if I like this uniqueness, though.  It's more like "Super freak, she's a super freak!"  Lol.

JP told me about Friday cat blogging. I think it is a great invention.

 

 

 

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/bush_tours_america_to_survey?utm_source=onion_rss_daily

 

Thanks to Maura for word up.

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Useless web fact #432
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Nerd rating 9/10

The web universe increased by 3.9 million sites this month. When you

have a drink with friends this week, you can casually drop into the

conversation that there are now 172,338,726 websites in the world.
<http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2008/06/index.html>http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2008/06/index.html

A good many of which are utterly pointless. But make you smile.
http://www.exactcenteroftheinternet.com

and
http://utterlypointless.com/>http://utterlypointless.com/

If you actually read this you should update your RSS feeds (and/or bookmarks) to this location: http://runforlife3.wordpress.com  I'll be transferring over the posts later.  (Yes, I'm aware I've said this once...no false alarm this time, I promise!)  Have a great day!