Pyrocumulus Cloud

Beaver Creek complex fire. There is an F-15 jet fighter aircraft in the mid-lower center of the picture.

Click to embiggenate.

It's fire season and this one is a pretty big. It's down on the Oregon-California border and it's been burning for the last week  Big fires can sometimes generate big clouds - pyrocumulus clouds - which can sometimes get big enough to become thunderstorms. NASA has more photos. Via Posthip Scott.

Embrace the Suck

From a recent email conversation:

    Cory described that to face the dread of another physical workout as "Embrace the suck".
    I liked how the term, accurately described the feeling.
    A ex-marine recently told me it was a commonly used in the marines, and it referred to soldier referring to the Marine Corp as the 'suck'.
    I also like turkey-peak, Fobbit & pig-looking-at-a-wristwatch.
    from http://www.npr.org/2007/03/08/7458809/embrace-the-suck-and-more-military-speak
- Iowa Andy

    "Embracing the suck" takes two. One (1) is the organization that sucks. The other (2) accepts the organization for what it is, due to lack of alternatives, initiative, or ability. I'm starting to get to that point. I paid a lot of dues over the past two years, rewriting a sanskrit scribble code base while ignoring and avoiding the soul-sucking organizational wallow.
    It's the lifers versus the talents. The lifers know how thing were always done. The talents know how other places do things successfully. It's pretty much a one way street, with the lifers creating weirdly byzantine procedures primarily in order to assure their continued lifer-ness. Bosses have the unenviable task of balancing keeping the operation sucking along while not discouraging the talent. The talent comes in occasionally with an eye-opening improvement, and the lifers scatter like roaches.
    I, however am tired of it. I've given up on promoting a cooperative, informative, development oriented workplace and instead will trim my hours, avoid commitment and hopefully point out deficiencies while
using my now characteristic humor.
    Have I taken embracing the suck to the next level? Have I "become one with the suck"? Well, the pay is ok. - Irba

...  Along with the interesting things you do in the military, there's a ton of crap and boredom along with it.  To get along you have to try to accept the crap in an almost positive way.  I get that.
    I guess it's also called "having a good attitude," although it's one of these weird, sarcastic, passive-aggressive, oxymoronic approaches where people claim a "good attitude" toward something they describe as "sucking."
    Well, I'm totally guilty of that.  I've had to drink my share of Kool-Aid, and at times I've tried having a genuinely positive attitude about it.  It's never worked, so I always have to settle for an ironic, "Yeah I'm totally psyched about our new initiatives to leverage our core competencies by firing all the good people." - California Bob

Drones on the Moon

Gaza City, Aug. 3, 2014. An Israeli drone circles over the city. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)

Orion Recovery Test #2

PACIFIC OCEAN. USS Anchorage picks up the Orion crew module.  This is the second at-sea test using the well deck recovery method. (U.S. Navy photo by Gary Keen)
Test #1 here.

The Honeybee and the Congressman

 

Laurie Dotson Design

Got an email from Earl, Congressman from Portland, Oregon:

Here is a scary statistic: One in every three bites of food is the result of honey bee pollination.

This may not seem like any cause for alarm, unless you know that honey bee colonies have been dying off in record numbers. It’s time for us to step up to help protect these invaluable members of our ecosystem.

A recent survey indicated that annual honey bee colony loss reached a startling 45.2 percent. There is also evidence of population declines in wild pollinators like bumblebees. Pollinators are responsible for not just billions of dollars in US agriculture, but also the continued health of our planet.

These declines have not gone without notice. In response to the largest bumblebee die off on record in Wilsonville, Oregon last year, I introduced the Saving America’s Pollinators Act with my colleague Rep. John Conyers. The legislation suspends certain uses of neonicotinoids-- particular types of insecticides that are suspected to play a role in the bee die-offs happening in Oregon and in bee declines around the world, until the Environmental Protection Agency reviews these chemicals and makes a new determination about their proper application and safe use.

Though pollinator die-offs are likely a combination of a number of effects, from global warming to parasites, neonicotinoid studies have observed several detrimental effects on bees, from impaired foraging and feeding, disorientation, weakened immunity and interruptions in the breeding cycle. Recently, severe bird population declines have been observed in areas where there were high levels of neonicotinoid pollution.

Last month, the President issued a directive to federal agencies to create a federal strategy to promote honey bee and other pollinator health. As a part of this initiative, I am urging the Administration to look closely at the evidence showing neonicitinoids harm pollinators and to take steps to restrict or suspend their use until more research can be done. You can read my letter to the administration here. This is a simple, straight forward step, and one that cannot be overlooked as we search for ways to help protect the pollinating species we rely on.

Sincerely,


Earl Blumenauer
Member of Congress

 It seems to be a reasonable description of the problem, and a reasonable approach to dealing with it. What gets me though is how far down he has to reach get to the root of the problem. Just what the heck is a "neonicotinoid" anyway? Shoot, how do you even pronounce it? Once again we have reached the limits of our current scientific knowledge.
    It bothers me that Congress is dealing with problems like this. I guess we're lucky that Earl, at least, seems to understand what he's talking about.
    I am sure we will eventually figure it out. Actually, some smarty-pants grad student has already figured it out, but it will take a few years for this new knowledge to percolate up through the ranks to someone who can make things happen. I least I hope that's the case.

Screen Saver Glitch, Part 2

Monitor power cord connection.

This is just a little embarrassing. A couple of months ago I wrote about how it was taking my computer several seconds to wake up instead of waking up instantly as it has been for the last umpteen years. Last week Marc tells me a story about a loose electrical connection in an airplane.
     Yesterday my computer was even more sluggish about waking up, and this morning I thought the display had gone to monitor heaven. Then I remembered that the power cable had gotten disconnected from the upstairs monitor for no apparent reason. I reach around back and push the power cable into it's socket and presto! The lights come on!
     Thing about these flat panel monitors is that the power plugs are now vertical, so the cable is hanging from the socket. The individual sockets in the plug should grip the pins in the socket, but evidently it is not enough to keep them from working their way loose. When I pushed up on the plug on monitor a minute ago it didn't move, or if it did, it didn't move much, but it was enough to restore contact.

Fuerzas Comando 2014

Last week there was a competition in Colombia for soldiers from countries in the Americas. One of the events was the obstacle course, which included the spider's web, which is shown at the beginning of the above video clip. I had never seen something like this before. It looks like it could be extremely frustrating. It might make you mad enough to pull out your knife and start hacking your way through. That would probably get you disqualified.