Friday, February 27, 2015

The Passing of an Icon

Those who were born post 1974 or so, do not remember a time when Star Trek wasn't ubiquitous.  When the show as first aired in the 1960s (66-69), it was not a big hit. Although, because of MBB (My Big Brother) who was 13-16 years of age at the time and a Science Fiction aficionado, I watched most of the episodes first run. In fact since MBB was the eldest of the four of us, and was responsible for us many evenings, we only watched the Television shows he liked. I know that definitely sounds strange to any younger readers, but in the '60s, most families only had a single TV. So we all became Star Trek fans.

The show didn't really gain a cult following until syndication started. Around 1970, new little non-network TV stations sprang up in major markets, usually on the UHF band.
  
  Old dial TVs had two bands, VHF (2-13) and UHF (14-60). To get to the UHF stations, you had to turn the VHF dial to U or what would or should be channel 1, and then use the UHF dial to find the station. The difference in the two dials were that the VHF had a positive "Clunk" for each channel, and there usually was a "fine tuning" ring around the dial for trying to get the channel reception clearer. The UHF dial was like a radio dial or the fine tuning ring on the VHF dial. the dial had numbers and you had to adjust it to tune in the station near the number of the channel you wanted.





Once in syndication the show aired two to three times a day, seven days a week. In fact most of the non-network TV stations only played re-runs and old Movies from the '30s-50s. I would get home from school and in the winter, I would sit and watch TV until dinner.

Leonard Nimoy was on another series in syndication in the mid to late '70s, Mission Impossible as the character Paris.


Here he is, with his Spock hair cut, I believe on Laugh In, singing about Bilbo Baggins..


Friday, February 20, 2015

The Big Fella likes to stir it up with a boat oar..

So I haven't written lately, not that I don't have any ideas, I just have to get fired up to take the time and I have been busy.  So what I do sometimes is make comment on yahoo articles that piss me off and every so often I start a shit storm which I thoroughly enjoy.. Here is the latest based on an article about Antarctica and Global Warming..

 [TheBigManMusing]

The only problem with this article is that the ice isn't melting at either pole... The Arctic ice cap is currently larger than we have ever recorded, and the Ant-Arctic ice cap is also growing. There is an area of the Ant-Arctic cap that is melting, but they discovered a new Volcano on the sea floor near the melting ice that is warming the surrounding water.
As for Global Warming, it is currently 1 degree F or -17 C in Virginia in February.. I have been living here for 46 years, we have gotten snow late in February before, it melts in two days, but usually it is in the 40-50 F range here at this time of the year... Does this cold snap prove that there is Global cooling? No... It's just the weather.... For those who will claim that I am an idiot and that Climate Change doesn't mean just warming and that warming somewhere on the Globe is causing the Great Lakes to completely freeze for the Second year in a row (after not completely freezing for the last 50 years). Where is it warmer today than normal?


    [Jayson]      

    The oceans. Start your thermodynamic journey to greater understanding of how things work with heat capacity. Then you might try learning some physical properties of various chemicals, start with water.
   
   

[TheBigManMusing]

Jayson, the average Ocean temperature has also not changed perceptively. I just recently read about a study which expected to find that the Oceans were expected to be a heat sink and the cause for "the pause", only to find out that there wasn't any change.. The only real change found is in solar activity. We are currently in a Minimum the degree of which has not been seen send the Maunder Minimum.
Global Climate is too broad of a system with too many parts for us to predict with any accuracy using our current technology and understanding.
Does Climate Change? Yes. What causes it? A lot of things... Can we control it? No..


[Richard]

Sure BigMan, you are just repeating talking points that you've heard on Fake News, or Talk Radio. You have your facts all mixed up, combined with lies, so some real research and read some papers submitted for peer review so you don't appear to be such a fool.


[RangersLead]

Only the deep water currents are warmer, and then only a select few. Most of that heat is generated by underwater heat sources on the Pacific ridge and the Mid Atlantic ridge. Not from a warming atmosphere. In fact the upper atmosphere is cooler. Something that the models, (all 114 of them), does not and did not and cannot account fore. Neither can they account for the warming of the deep water currents. Cold water sinks as it becomes more dense. The models never predicted warming deep water currents. They still do not include this in the models.

[Betula]

Yes Jayson - "greater understanding of how things work with heat capacity"

You mean like the computer models that never predicted the "hiatus", because they didn't take into account the oceans....the affect of which is still being researched and debated?

Is that the understanding you are talking about?


[Betula]

Richard, thanks for your assumptions backed up by the research you forgot to source. You're quite the teacher...

[Stephan]

derp derp TheBigManMusing derp ice derp derp dooo derp...
yah, dats it, the ice ain't melting, sure they'll buy it, like candy!

[Jayson]

Betula, models on fluid behavior can be very complicated in lab settings. This is a larger arena. These global models are constantly being updated with new data, observations, and theory all the time. This is cutting edge work and not every model is going to be correct, get over it. General understanding of this issue however suggests we better be wary of whats going on, which is why it is being studied.

[Betula]

Shorter Stephan - "Having a counterpoint is difficult, so derp will do"


[Magloo]

you guys really need to read more scientific journals. The ice melting in Antarctica is caused by the active volcano 1 or 1/2 kilometer below the western continent. It has nothing to do with global warming at all. This was discovered in 2010 if memory serves me.

The rest of the continent's ice is much thicker than originally stated but liberals never admit their mistakes.

There is no AGW in Antarctica, move along, Global Warming Hypochondriacs.

[Betula]

Jayson - So then you agree that the predicted future catastrophic climate scenarios based on averaging estimated climate sensitivity are derived from invalidated computer models..... and these predictions are then used to create policies that are predicted to fix the predictions.

Isn't that about right?


[Earl]

TheBigManMusing--I live in Michigan (Portage) and looked at the thermometer at 1:10 AM this morning and it read -11.1 degrees F. This is a record and last year on Feb. 28 the temp. reading was -10 degrees F. Both years have set record low temperatures and the great lakes are 80-90% frozen. Some global warming. Eh. This is not just locally but 2/3 of the US has record cold and heavy snow. I know the scientists will claim this is what they expected from global warming after the facts but never predicted before.


[Jayson]

No that's not what I said, but if you want to warp the message to your bidding I'm not going to stop you.


[Betula]

Tell me how my message is wrong, as compared to what you said.....it would make it that much more interesting for the reader.


[RangersLead]

Betula, they just recently discovered, (2014) a deep water current they never knew about in the area of Indonesia. What he is saying is that the science of fluid dynamics and how the ocean currents work are still unknown. They don't even know if there are currents they still don't know about. So how can they predict the behavior of the oceans and their currents if they don't even know where all the currents are at, how they flow or where they originate? They cant . They make assumptions based on what they want to believe. It doesn't make them right.

[RWayne]

Jayson, “LACK of ocean heat
puzzles NASA hunt for Warming 'hiatus' ”
October 6, 2014

Washington (AFP) –
The deep ocean may not be hiding heat after all,
raising new questions about why Global Warming
appears to have slowed in recent years,
said the US space agency Monday.

Scientists have noticed ...greenhouse gases have
continued to mount in the first part of the 21st century,
global average surface air temperatures have
stopped rising along with them, said NASA.

Some studies have suggested that
heat is being absorbed temporarily
by the deep seas, and
that this so-called Global Warming hiatus
is a temporary trend.

But latest data from satellite and direct ocean
temperature measurements from 2005 to 2013
"found the ocean abyss below 1.24 miles
has NOT warmed measurably,"
NASA said in a statement.

The findings present a new puzzle to scientists,
but co-author Josh Willis of NASA's JPL said
the reality of Climate Change
is not being thrown into doubt.
"The sea level is still rising," said Willis.
"We're just trying to understand the nitty-gritty details."

A separate study in August in ...journal “Science’ said
the apparent slowdown in the Earth's surface warming
in the last 15 years could be due to that
heat being trapped in the deep Atlantic & So. Ocean.

But the NASA researchers said their approach,
described in the journal “Nature Climate CHANGE”,
is the first to test the idea using satellite observations,
as well as direct temperature measurements of the upper ocean.

"The deep parts of the ocean are harder to measure,"
said researcher William Llovel of NASA JPL.

"The combination of satellite & direct temperature data
gives us a glimpse of how much
sea level rise is due to deep warming.

The answer is – NOT MUCH.”