A COSMIC SIGHT & WHERE THE EARTH BLEW UP-THE WEEKENDER

A TIME OF THE COMET

Photo of Comet Ison
Taken November 8 Copyright Adam Block Mount Lemmon Sky Center University of Arizona

     Scientists who pay particular attention to these matters, say this weekend could afford rare naked eye viewing of the comet Ison. That means of course this cosmic traveler is close, in relative terms, to our blue planet.

    You can see a great interactive model of the fly by at this link.

   Later in this posting is a fascinating and instructional short video on Ison. Since the asteroid exploded over Russian, people are paying more attention to these flying pieces of space.

PANUM CRATER

Panum Crater-Eastern Sierra

     My world was rocked as I stood on the edge of a volcano looking into the caldera when the earth shook. A huge cloud of dark and sulfurous gas escaped in what the USGS called a gas piston tremor, a four point plus temblor.

           That moment convinced me that mother earth is still a
work in progress. She is still cooking.  These are scenes of an older event, but still impressive. 

      Panum Crater is at above 7,000 feet in the eastern Sierra.
Here the caldera debris is 650 years old.  A trail takes you up around the rim or to the crater itself.  Panum is the aftermath of rhyolitic volcanic explosion.

      After the blow up and when things cooled a fascinating

   formation of old volcano matter was left.  There was a lot of silica in the magma that blew up through the earth here.

   so today there are interesting formations, pumice and

  huge deposits of obsidian.  Because of how the obsidian 

   came up and how quickly it cooled it became this black and glass like material.  Native Americans used obsidian from these deposits to make arrow and spear points.

    If you are in the eastern Sierra, south of Yosemite at the Tioga pass entrance, the Panum Crater is a great look into the history of our blue sphere.  650 years is blink of an eye in geologic time. You can touch it and see, if you don't mind a hike up an old volcano.

AND NOW BACK TO COMET ISON

Your WEEKENDER Video

A COSMIC TRAVELER

See you down the trail.

LIVING WITH THE PAST-FOR BETTER AND WORSE

THE JAPANESE POISON

Photo Courtesy of CBC

      As we find it difficult to get our mind around the enormity of the devastation and toll in the Philippines, another devastation continues to seep, one wave at a time.

     Scientists report that areas of Alaska are reporting radiation levels higher than anything they've seen since atomic bomb testing in the atmosphere.

      I have no confidence in Tepco, their ability to repair the  damage at Fukishima nor in anything they say about the levels of radiation at the destroyed site or what is leaking into the ocean.

      Though nothing can ease the catastrophic loss of life, time and money will help restore some health to the Philippines. There appears to be no amount of money that can "fix" Fukishima's continuing poisoning of the planet. Time will only make it worse.  Who can the planet turn to? What can be done about it? No one knows.

      It raises again an old and constantly vexing question before humanity.  "What were they thinking?"  What were they thinking when they built a nuclear plant near an ocean, or a fault line, or when they built a factory near a river, or when they permitted any factory to dump its waste into any body of water, or when they modified corn, that kills any strain but its own, or when they started injecting toxic poisons into the earth to extract gas or oil, or when they turned a part of the ocean into a huge dump, or, etc., etc., 

OCCOQUAN

     It's an Algonquian word for "end of water" and it is a charming bit of history in Prince William County Virginia.

     As they develop new housing the population of 934 will likely rise.

    The Oocoquan is a nearly 25 mile tributary of the Potomac. Bull Run enters it south of Manassas. During the Civil War skirmishes were fought and shots were fired across the river.  Today the river, which ends only a couple of hundred yards left of here, is for boaters and bank-side parks and cafes. 

   Pictured above is the historic Rockledge, the Georgian House built in 1760.  It is what is said to be a rare example of a "Tidewater Virginia Stone Dwelling." This home was the key to commercial development that followed, including the building of a mill in 1765.

     This is the old Hammil Hotel where Confederate General Wade Hampton headquartered in 1862.  Hampton was reluctant to join the issues of the Confederacy, but when South Carolina left the Union he joined the Army and because of his family connections was made a Colonel and rapidly rose to General in the cavalry.  After the war he served as a Democratic Senator from South Carolina.

     Hampton's troops raided Union encampments here, took their cattle and captured supply wagons.  Today many sightseers stroll where Civil War engagements occurred.  

     Oocoquan, in beautiful Virginia country side, is a relatively quick commute to Washington DC.

    See you down the trail

   

YEP, THE SEASON'S TURNED-THE WEEKENDER

JUST WAITING

   I remember hearing a Harry Reasoner commentary many years ago where he said "Labor day was like a new, new year."  His logic was that everything sort of stars over then.

   Well, he was right that with summer ending there is a kind of final lap of the year, but as I got older, raised daughters, discovered more home owner chores and lived in the country I found that fall is something different than Reasoner's idea.

    As my friend Frank now does, I put up wood for the winter and put Hatteras shutters on a screened porch, and styrofoam around foundation, basement and/or crawl space openings. And I got out the snow shovel.

    Each step along the path toward winter reminded me, the summer party is over, the beach is closed.

     A lot about this time of year is an homage to waiting.  Maybe some fitness or travel dreams are put on the shelf until next year as we go about preparing for the oncoming end of the year holidays, a distant patch of light.

    Again, my friend Frank had a "wisdom" about the time from Thanksgiving to the New Year.  He said "nothing gets done."  
    At the time he and I were journalists who were looking to improve our lot by developing and producing a television series. I can't begin to tell you how many times I have quoted him over the years.

   But I've also learned there is a special quality to fall.  It seems to be a natural frame for reflection, gathering with family and friends, contemplating a kind of intellectual or spiritual pre winter-hibernation preparation.  

   Putting up wood, winterizing, cleaning a garden and the like are all cues for a recognition that we have about completed another circuit of the sun.  But the older we get, the more quickly the beach seems to open again. Even our waiting seems to fly by.

THE WEEKENDER VIDEO

Please take six minutes to see this

fascinating display about the real wealth 

distribution in the US.  I suspect that regardless of

what you think, you'll be amazed.

See you down the trail.

INSPIRED

A DOSE OF GOOD MEDICINE

    Being personal now- our fall trip to Washington was a much needed medication.

    Time with our dear friends Frank and Sandy was part of a cure. The other "tonic" was to touch history, art and culture as an antidote to a bruising and almost unfathomable battle.

    I sense some of you are saying, "What the...?  Washington as a place to go for peace and inspiration?  Yes!  Yes indeed!

   Frequent readers remember I'm a First Amendment fanatic. I'm the kind of goof who reads the Declaration of Independence each Fourth of July, and who is adamant about protecting our liberties and who holds dear the extraordinary set of bones upon which this republic hangs-the Constitution.

   I believe that all of us are entitled the full extension of  rights, privileges and responsibilities laid out for us by the founders, protected by sacrifices through generations and increased by our perpetually growing enlightenment. 

   So Washington DC is the touchstone, in so many ways.

   Ingrained in the raison d'être of these monuments and memorials are intellects, sacrifices, leadership, vision and a devotion to an ideal-a nation where all live in equality. 
   Personalities who have risen to lead are honored, beyond their days, as a challenge to us in our time.  These stone reminders are a tonic. We are humbled and inspired by what we see and remember.

    Service personnel and journalists have given much, including their all so that we may know and live free. They inspire me.
   Politicians who rise above petty politics to move the arc of history as statesmen inspire me.

    Temples that celebrate the best of our creative dreams,  reaching and artistic output, inspire and offer a healing balm.

    And so our divided and dysfunctional Congress, beleaguered Presidency and questionable Supreme Court do not detract from the wide and long sweep of the true greatness that can and has emerged in and from this Capitol of human longings and achievement. It is not perfect.  None of the heroes who are memorialized were perfect. Like all of us, they had feet of clay and were made of the same star matter. 
   We have eras of which to be proud and periods of shame and embarrassment but it is always on a human scale, moving toward an ideal, an inch, a day, a moment at a time.

    So I take from all of it an inspiration and renewed zeal to stay stalwart in my belief that all of us, regardless of birthright, are children under the same heaven, brothers and sisters of planet earth. I may not like you, I may not agree with you, but neither that, nor how and who you were born should stand between you and full equality, even in a church.

    Your color, your gender, your ethnic heritage, your sexual orientation, your physical or mental challenges simply make you a human being, entitled to the full privileges of life.

    I thank the good Lord for a vision that it is so, and for a nation where we get better at making it so and for a place where we build monuments and temples to remind us to make sure it is always so and to recall those who have said so.

    See you down the trail.

THE MAN FROM VIRGINIA

ANOTHER VIEW OF 

"THE FATHER OF AMERICA"

     I wonder what George Washington would say about the McAuliffe and Cuccinelli race for Governor in his home state.  

    Not far from these peaceful Virginia settings are ever present yard signs of the campaign battle. 

    Million$ have been spent on a nasty media war in Virginia.  So I come back to George and wonder.

    We can see Washington through another lens than the iconic and idealized view we get from our American history lessons.

    Washington was a member of the Masonic order and he is memorialized in that more personal way in Alexandria Va.

    The Washington Masonic Memorial was started in 1922 and completed in 1970. Washington's personal life is curated as is his role in the Masons.

    One of the fascinating artifacts is the clock that sat at his bed side.  It was stopped and the mechanism disabled by his attending physician at the exact moment of his death December 14, 1799.

   I learned that our powerful French friend and ally, the Marquis de Lafayette was also a member of the Masonic order.

     The 331 foot memorial also affords one of the grand views of Washington DC.

 There is probably no aspect of American government over which Washington does not cast a legacy shadow.

    To read and see evidence of his participation as a member of a fraternal society and to see pieces of his life is to make him more human and, to my thinking, even more of an extraordinary man.
    To know of his personal and financial struggles and weigh those against his contributions to our founding struggles and  his precedent setting behavior as our first Chief Executive  is to gain a view of a man who indeed looms large over those who occupy or seek power.
    We are told there were many times when he simply wanted to retire to his Mt Vernon estate and seek the peace of the country side.
     When my Scots ancestors left Renfrew they landed in Virginia and some of the clan have remained. Some served in the Virgina regimental line and there is a family pride they served with Washington.

   The Virginia Governor's race is being watched around the world, called an important barometer of America's mood. But what a different mood and depth of issues that face us now than when Washington led us into this new experience of a democratic republic.

     And what a different quality of man and woman.  

    What might George say,were you to come along side as he sat contemplating pristine beauty?  Do you think any of our current leaders will be memorialized?

     See you down the trail.

OF OBAMA, CRUZ, SPOOKS AND FALL NOSTALGIOU-FUN TIME-THE WEEKENDER

WANTING TO KICK THEM AROUND

     While in the Washington DC area this week I took special interest in the fallen leaves, pleased by our liberation from raking and bagging.

     I confess now I hated to rake leaves.  As a kid I'd complain to mom and dad about the pointlessness of it.  "Just let them rot and fertilize the grass" I'd plea, unsuccessfully.

     Leaf raking and bagging is not an activity in our California lifestyle-fortunately.  So while these shots may be old hat to some of you, it is a sweet reminder to others of the positive of an absence.

LINGERING MUMBLES

    Overheard laments and lash outs from the Halloween party circuit.

     "I'm so over Obama" a liberal friend complained. "I almost came in black face but I still know what's wrong!"

     "I'm the affordable care web site" said a tilted box, strung with blinking lights and wires.

      "I came as Ted Cruz" said a friend in street clothes. "So now I'm going to be an ass hole all night!"

      Singer Jill Knight won my award.  Dressed as Captain Morgan complete with long curly tresses, mustache and appropriate attire, I couldn't believe it was Jill, even when she spoke right in my face.  But then proprietor Lyn Nanni was unrecognizable as well in her Mistress of Darkness attire and face paint. I'm slow on the uptake I guess.

THE OBAMA APOLOGIES 

    If anything, the Snowden document leak has given the State Department and or White House protocol officers plenty to do.  With revelation after revelation about who the NSA has bugged or tapped or snooped on, it seems the President has been as busy with world leaders apologizing and parsing words as anything else, other than maybe kicking some tail to get the web site working.  

     As a satirist said, everyone had to know we were doing it, we just didn't want talk about it.  And that is crux the matter isn't it?

INDULGENCES

    For Weekender foodies-a few snaps grabbed during our own journeys into delicious adventure while back east.

      Our dear friends Frank and Sandy have long raved about LAuberge Chez Francoise up in Virginia Horse Country at Great Falls.  It's been repeatedly rated the best and most romantic French Restaurant in the Washington D.C. area.

    Our magnificent 3-hour lunch was dream like.  Frank says when he was there once with his late father, a newspaper editor, he was told back in the old days it was a place where CIA executives used their expense accounts. At least it was money well spent.

AND THE HITS KEEP ON COMING

    A delight of the nation's capitol is the diversity of great dinning options.  Neighbors pointed the 4 of us to a nearby Asian Fusion spot.  The special rolls were edible art and the Pad Thai was the best I've tasted.  Sorry all I can offer here on the net are pictures.  They can't give the credit the place deserves.

    And then there was this crazy Asian take on baked Alaska

     Kenji Fusion is the name.  If you are in the DC area, around Falls Church Va., it should be on your list.

AND FINALLY

A VIDEO TREAT

In the spirit of the international diversity of the Washington DC area, here is something my old friend Bruce, aka The Catalyst, found.  This is amusing and a bit amazing

for a number of reasons.  Enjoy

See you down the trail.