When Will the Sun Return?

It's been like this in my backyard for about 10 days now. I actually got a glimpse of the sun yesterday while driving home from Plattsburgh.

Friday Scientific Instrument Blogging - An Easy One

Julia's Continuing African Adventures

Our latest communication from Julia:

I am back at Karen from lake Nakuru, but only for about an hour because then we are headed to Shompole for some quality time with the Maasai, including a boma homestay of two nights, not really sure what we are going to eat when we are there with them, but hey it should be an adventure. Lake Nakuru was amazing, we saw soooo many cool animals, including lots of white rhino, and one black rhino, 3 leopards, a pride of 7 lions and one mom lion with her two cubs, a lot of cape buffalo, and over 2 million flamingos. We were able to get really close to the animals. We took land cruisers, so we got to sit on the roof of them and get a good view of everything. One day we spent counting these cactus trees too. The trip went by fast, the weather was chilly in the late afternoon and evening but nice and warm during the day!



Info on Lake Nakuru from the internet:

Lake Nakuru is a small, shallow, alkaline-saline lake located in a closed basin without outlets in the Eastern Rift Valley of equatorial East Africa. It is the centre of a most familiar national park of Kenya known for its spectacular bird fauna (495 species), particularly the vast flock of lesser flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor). Being in the Rift Valley where tectonic and volcanic activities as well as climatic changes have been very remarkable, the lake underwent drastic changes during the recent geological ages. About 10,000 years ago, Nakuru and its two neighbor lakes, Elmenteita and Naivasha (60 km south of Nakuru), formed a single deep freshwater lake, which however dried owing to the later desiccation of climate leaving the three separate lakes as remnants. The present maximum depth is about three meters, but the lake water level is still quite variable; the whole lake had been almost dried up several times during the past 50 years (Fig. AFR-07-02) due to unknown reasons. The lake is a soda-lake with a water pH value of 10.5 and an alkalinity of 122 meq l-1. Main ions are sodium and bicarbonate-carbonate. The biota in the lake is very simple as in other saline lakes, consisting of phytoplankters dominated by blue-green algae and very poor planktonic and benthic fauna originally lacking fish. However, the lake is highly eutrophic owing to the vigorous growth of a planktonic blue-green alga, Spirulina platensis, which supports an immense number of alga.grazing lesser flamingo and an increasing population of the introduced fish, Sarotherodon alcalicum grahami, though, in the last several years since 1974, the planktonic productivity and the flamingo population decreased abruptly.

Dinner At My House!

There will be martinis and Dubonnet at cocktail time. Dinner will begin with terrapin soup and sherry, then move on to the turbot and a sincere Sancerre. Next will come the beef Wellington, accompanied by a decent Mouton Rothschild. We will stay with the red wine through the salad and cheese course, and naturally crepes suzette will require Dom Perignon. After dinner, when the gentlemen retire to the library and the ladies upstairs with the hostess, the postprandial liqueurs will be served. [Thank-you Sally Quinn!]

Impeachment?

Last June, the polling firm Zogby International asked an important question. If it is found that President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, should Congress hold him accountable through impeachment? 42% of those polled said yes while 50% said no.

The people at Afterdowningstreet.org recently asked Zogby to poll the question again. Zogby refused to do it. So Afterdowningstreet.org raised money to pay Ipsos Public Affairs to poll the question. "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him?" 50% said yes and 44% said no. A big change in only 3 months. Support for Clinton impeachment was much lower than this, with only 36% supporting impeachment.

Afterdowningstreet.org notes that "the strong support for impeachment found in this poll is especially surprising because the views of impeachment supporters are entirely absent from the broadcast and print media, and can only be found on the Internet and in street protests, including the large anti-war rally in Washington on September 24." And that, "The lack of coverage of impeachment support is due in part to the fact that not a single Democrat in Congress has called for impeachment".

Lying about blow job = impeachment
Lying to get us into war = ?

White House Iraq Group

This is the group whose job it was to help Bush convince the American people that invading Iraq was a good idea. Basically, they were the 'marketing' group for the Iraq War. They are the ones that came up with the idea that Saddam had nukes or would have them soon. Members of that group were: Karl Rove, I. Scooter Libby, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, Stephen Hadley, Condoleeza Rice, Nicholas Calio (?), and James R. Wilkinson. It is possible that the Plame leak affair may have originated with this group. Documents from that group have been requested by Fitzgerald at least two times. This means conspiracy, which means lots of people could go down. Christmas could come in October!

The conspiracy would have been to intentionally lie to the American people in order to get them to support declaring war on Iraq.

The Valerie Plame Affair - Anybody Remember?

What was the major reason the Bush admin. put forth for going to war with Iraq. Well, it was the supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq. Remember we don't need to wait for a mushroom cloud before we defend ourselves from Iraq (paraphrase). It was repeated by Bush, Cheney, and Rice time and time again.

So to settle the question of whether Iraq was trying to purchase yellowcake (an unpurified source of uranium) from Niger, Cheney told the CIA to check it out. They sent ex-ambassidor Joe Wilson to Niger, who then reported back that there was nothing to the allegation that Iraq was trying to purchase yellowcake from Niger. Remember this all happened before we invaded Iraq.

So Bush and company must have known that their wmd claims were doubtful. Even without Scott Ritter yelling over and over that they were not true. Of course Bush ignored Wilson's report and read the famous '16' words in his State of the Union address ("The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa"). Bush needed to exaggerate the evidence to get us into war with Iraq quickly. Possession of WMD was the key to invasion. And, thus we very quickly went off to war to prevent a nuclear (nucular) attack on the USA.

Shortly thereafter Wilson published a guest editorial in the NYT stating that he had found the Niger yellowcake/Iraq allegations to be bogus and subsequently reported such to the CIA.

Since the reason for going to war was WMD, this meant that Karl Rove had to do what he does best. Smear and attack his opponent. He decided to do this by 'outing' Wilsons wife, an undercover CIA agent. Of course he (and Scooter Libby) denied outing Plame (it's been subsequently shown that they both lied about this).

This case has been investigated by Patrick Fitzgerald for the last 2.5 yrs and I expect (and hope) indictments to come down well before the end of this month. If there is a G_d I am hoping that Rove and Libby will be indicted. It would be especially awesome if Bush and/or Cheney were unindicted co-conspirators. Wouldn't mind seeing NYT reporter Judith Miller and Bob Novak end up frog marched into the courtroom as well. We'll see.

Democratic Contract With America

In a week or so the Democrats are coming out with their version of a badly needed "Contract with America". It should and probably will look something like this:

1. A fiscal responsibility act - no spending without identifying how you are going to pay for it. I believe the Clinton admin. had something like this.

2. A right to healthcare act - affordable health insurance for everyone. If Vermont can do it, why can't the rest of the country?

3. A Corporations pay their fair share act - no more no-bid contracts to Haliburton

4. A freedom from middle eastern oil act - an energy policy that will make us energy independent within the next decade

5. A government integrity and accountability act - maybe congressmen should not be allowed to vote on acts that affect companies they have taken money from.

We need Democrats to sign off on something like this and then we need to hold their feet to the fire to insure they keep their word. I for one will be as critical of corrupt Democrats as I am now of corrupt Republicans. Let all corrupt politicians be released, unarmed in the middle of Bagdad.

South View from Top of Cascade Mt.

Friday Instrument Blogging - Don't Even Ask

You wouldn't believe me if I told you.

Who is in Charge if an Avian Flu Epidemic Hits the USA?

Jerome M. Hauer used to be the Ass't Sec. for Public Health Emergency Preparedness. He developed the country's first bioterrorism response plans while serving as Director of Emergency Management for New York City. He graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and is now director of the Response to Emergencies and Disasters Institute at The George Washington University.

Who is in charge now? Why a Mr. Stewart Simonson, a lawyer, not a medical expert. Simonson is a crony of HHS Sec. Tommy Thompson and was his legal counsel when Tommy was governor of Wisconsin. Let's hope he is more capable than 'Heck of a job' Brownie. BTW, avian flu has killed 50% of the people in China that have been diagnosed with avian flu infection. Recently, Spanish flu, which killed millions in the early 1900's, has been identified as an avian flu strain. Wish ourselves luck.

Duped Pro-Lifers

Have pro-life voters been duped yet again? Republican, conservative, Christian fundie voters have spent the last 40 years doing anything that needed to be done to gain control of the federal government. They only wanted one thing: a supreme court that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Five years ago they finally got their wish - W. Bush was elected along with right wing majorities in both houses of congress. These voters were willing to support George W. through thick and thin. Lies, war, run amok government growth, out of control spending, torture, spit on the bill of rights, cronyism, swift boat veterans...you name it, the pro-lifers were willing to support it or look the other way. So how are they repaid? Harriet Miers nominated by 'W' for a supreme court judge slot. Now they are howling and who can blame them? They are finally getting what 'W' has been giving the opposition for 5 years. Republicans have been getting the support of pro-lifers for years and years. How much longer will they continue to fall for the lie that Republicans want to overturn Roe v Wade?

Now remember a few weeks ago when Roberts was being questioned by the Senate? Republicans were saying, hey...the President deserves to appoint who he wants without a lot of in depth questioning by the opposition. I won't even debate whether they had a point or not. But now, with a new candidate for Supreme Court Justice, the Republicans are saying...what to hell? Where did 'W' find this unqualified person? We are going to have to question her VERY closely and she better answer every question! Ah these are amusing times.

Harriet Miers for Supreme Court?

She says George W. Bush is the 'most brilliant man she has ever met'. Does she only hang around idiots? I'm really not sure what to make of that statement. Supposedly, in a White House where everyone kisses 'W's ass, she takes it to the whole next level of zeal. Oh yeah, she is also the person who investigated Bush's National Guard record and determined that he saved the free world from Communism.

Climbing Cascade Mt - In Retrospect Not a Great Idea

Saturday we climbed Cascade Mt. The trail is about 2.7 miles long and a climb of about 2000 ft in elevation. The trail is extremely eroded and basically strewn with 1-2 ft size boulders that you have to step on or around. Because of the condition of the trail the climb back down also took 3 hrs. I've posted a few pictures.



Here is the mountain from the 'bottom' which starts at about 2000 ft. Notice all the cars. I'd guess well over 100 people made the climb that day.



Here is one view from the top looking down on Rt. 73. Unfortunately, you cannot see the two cascade lakes which are hidden by the forest. The top of the mountain is bare, bald rock; very windy; and quite chilly.



Whiteface Mt from the top of Cascade Mt. See the ski trails and the 'castle' on top.



A view more to the West North West. If you know where to look you can see part of the Olympic Bobsled and Luge run.

Friday Instrument Blogging - A DIVA?

Need to book weeks in advance to use. Must admit to liking Neil Diamond to use this instrument.

Kodak Sports Park - aerial ski launching ramps

This is part of the McKenzie-Intervale Ski Jumping complex, also known as Kodak Sports Park. The ramps are called 'kickers' and the jumpers use these to train themselves to do tricky aerial moves. They land in a 750,000 gallon heated pool that has an aeration system to make the landings softer. You can see the bubbles coming up in the picture. That happens just before the jumper takes off.

John Brown - Freedom Fighter or Terrorist?

Visited John Brown's farm with some tourist friends. Later we up the top of the 120 meter ski jump. This is a picture of the Brown farm taken on the elevator ride up the jump tower. In the very center (big tree) is where John Brown's body lies a mouldering along with several of his sons and supporters. The farm house is just to the right of the grave yard and the barn is in the background. Brown purchased several hundred acres here for ex-slaves to farm. The farming wasn't too good, only potatoes would grow. Oddly enough, Cornell Cooperative Extension has a huge seed potato field and research facilities adjacent to the Brown property. Want to know more about John Brown? Look it up for yourselves.

The Lovely Slum of Kibera

Julia, and another student, Suzi are on their urban homestay for the next two weeks. They are staying with Esther and George and their two large german shepherd guard dogs in a Nairobi suburb. They visited Kibera for their health class. 800,000 people on 600 acres. No water, no sewage, no electricity, no government.

Julia's Excellent Adventure in Tanzania

My daughter Julia just returned to Kenya after a two week stay in Tanzania. I want to relate some of her adventures. She spent a couple days living with the Hadza people. Ok, what follows, in italics, I stole from the internet.

The Hadza still live in bands, hunting with bows and arrows, gathering roots, tubers and wild fruits, as man lived 10,000 years ago. About thirty years ago, the Tanzanian government tried to change the lifestyle of the last remaining bands of bushmen who inhabited the inhospitable region of the Lake Eyasi basin. They forced the bushmen to settle down, gave them livestock, grain and tools, and left them to cultivate the land. The settling program was a failure as the Hadza, who had always been hunters, lacked the knowledge or inclination to be successful at agriculture. Once the livestock and grain were gone, they returned to the bush, and regained their primitive status as free people.
Today they are still there, although fighting a losing battle against the progress that will eventually force the extinction of a life style which has been almost unchanged since the Paleolithic. The Hadza speak a click-language, they don't have chiefs, houses, or a political system, and they roam the land in small bands with little sense of tribe. Bali may be a dialect. They hunt baboons, gazelles, and dik diks (small antelope-like creatures) which are still available today. They share their land with another remarkable tribe, the Barabaig or Datoga. They are located quite a distance northwest of the Sandawe, southeast of Lake Victoria, Singida, Arusha, and Shinyanga regions, in the Lake Eyasi region. However, pressures from outside are resulting in less land, food and more disease. They are quite possibly the last hunter gatherers.

Julia and some of her classmates went out hunting with a couple of Hadza guides. They spent about 2 hrs trekking through the savannah without finding anything to shoot. So the Hadza decided they should look for honey. They followed a bird to a tree that was filled with honeycomb. They (the Hadza I presume) built a fire using a stick and their hands. They smoked the bees out of the tree and scooped out handfuls of honeycomb to munch on. Afterwards they proceeded to hunt some more. However, the Hadza guides had the girls stay put on some rocks while they went off alone. As Julia related to me "....they went scampering around and then they got really excited and we heard the snap of a bow, and then they yelled for us to come to them (oh by the way they only spoke Swahili, so we had minimal communication with them), when we rounded the corner coming down from the rocks we saw a huge porcupine dead and a little baby that was also dead, the Hadza were psyched. Then they found another baby porcupine alive and took that too. They built a fire and butchered the porcupine, with our help of course, well we were kind of minimal help, but we pulled some quills out of it and then each took a turn using a wooden stick to beat some quills off of the mother porcupine. Then the Hadza gave us each a taste of porcupine which was pretty gross..."

What a girl!

I'm A Socialist - Who Would Have Guessed It?

You are a Social Liberal (65% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (16% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid