Blue Marble

[Tim Ford]

One upside of our day and age, social media not withstanding, are just simple pictures of our imperilled planet from some ultra-sophisticated cameras. If you haven't visited the array of GOES imagery lately, it's always somewhat breath-taking, for me at least, to visit:

https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/conus.php?sat=G16

and have a look at what's cookin' from an eye in the sky.

GOES 10212019 6pm EDT.jpg

I love the transition from visible to IR east of Pittsburgh.

Indeed, we live in "interesting times." I'd be hard pressed to exchange it for the Middle Ages.

[BeauV]

I keep hoping that folks will see the planet for what it is when they see these pictures. It's fragile, small, and all alone. There is no other place we can live; regardless of what some idiots claim. If we blow it here, we are done.

[Tim Ford]

Interesting TED talks from David Deutsch, one of which suggests we should stop agonising over what we've already done, assuming we are past the "tipping point," and therefore suggest we should implement policy and science imperatives to figure out how to cope with new contingencies instead of wringing our hands over what's done.

Of course, "what's done" is debatable, seeing as how the failure of the planet to "cool" started 12,000 years ago. And I defy anyone to provide data that that figure, 12,000 years, is in error or suspect. There's a metric shit ton of corroborating evidence, ice cores, sea floor cores, etc that say 12,000 years ago is the time.

Interestingly, there are peer-reviewed papers that suggest domestication of farming (around that time) may have been, in essence, the "tipping point."

I just like the pictures, myself.

[BeauV]

Tim,

We, humans, keep trying to find the "cause" of climate change. That's a much more difficult thing to prove than that climate change is happening.

Given that it is happening, and that the side effect of it happening is bad, shouldn't we do what we can to stop it?? I don't give a shit who caused it, I do care that we do not kill off tens of thousands of humans because we were so busy arguing about who or what caused it that we fail to do what we can to stop it.

Awarding "blame" is not a moral imperative.

Fixing the problem most certainly is.

[Benno von Humpback]

All of our serious problems are with human behavior. The actual mitigation is an afterthought compared to creating enough trust and reaching consensus to do anything. We cant even fix the roads.

[Tim Ford]

Yep, the roads are an issue. The Admiral wants to get the county to repave ours. I say, "are you kidding? Instead of people roaring thru the neighb at 35 mph, they'll be doing 45!"

Here's this morning's IR...it is a pretty little marble, in spite of our being such slobs.

GOES tues am.jpg

[Ajax]

I've decided to just live as non-impactful of a life as I possibly can, but I'm just done talking to other people about it.
I'm not "clean" enough for militant environmentalists like Greta Thunberg and I'm too militant for the "rolling coal" crowd. The continual propagation of outdated information and misinformation and the flagrant hypocrisy of Hollywood elites has set back any kind of meaningful environmental progress by years. They have absolutely ruined "the message" and soured a lot of public opinion.

I'll do me, and you do you.

[Tim Ford]

Yup, same here Ajax. The heads-up to the GOES website was about the quality of pictures to which we have access...didn't mean to start up one more Glow Ball Warming debate.

[Ajax]

Oh yes, the quality of the photos is very high. That low pressure near the Canadian border that sucks and flings moisture across the country from the Gulf of Mexico is amazing.

[BeauV]

All of our serious problems are with human behavior. The actual mitigation is an afterthought compared to creating enough trust and reaching consensus to do anything. We cant even fix the roads.

The best example of what’s really going on, that I can think of, is we humans are the mold growing on the surface of a lovely orange as it ages on the window sill. Eventually, the orange is ruined and the mold dies.

Now, back to some happier thoughts....

[slap]

Some have claimed that this is the most influential environmental picture ever taken:

[BeauV]

Slap, I just had the pleasure of a meal with one of the engineers who built the camera that took that shot. I agree, it’s one of the all time best. He was thrilled to have been able to be a part of it.

[SemiSalt]

Interesting TED talks from David Deutsch, one of which suggests we should stop agonising over what we've already done, assuming we are past the "tipping point," and therefore suggest we should implement policy and science imperatives to figure out how to cope with new contingencies instead of wringing our hands over what's done.

Of course, "what's done" is debatable, seeing as how the failure of the planet to "cool" started 12,000 years ago. And I defy anyone to provide data that that figure, 12,000 years, is in error or suspect. There's a metric shit ton of corroborating evidence, ice cores, sea floor cores, etc that say 12,000 years ago is the time.

Interestingly, there are peer-reviewed papers that suggest domestication of farming (around that time) may have been, in essence, the "tipping point."

I just like the pictures, myself.

Sometime in the last week or so, I read a warning that a small nuclear war in the middle east could cause a period of global cooling. So, there might be a chance to tip back. Drastic times call for drastic measures.

We can hope the next Krakatoa scale event isn't Yellowstone.

[Tim Ford]

Interesting TED talks from David Deutsch, one of which suggests we should stop agonising over what we've already done, assuming we are past the "tipping point," and therefore suggest we should implement policy and science imperatives to figure out how to cope with new contingencies instead of wringing our hands over what's done.

Of course, "what's done" is debatable, seeing as how the failure of the planet to "cool" started 12,000 years ago. And I defy anyone to provide data that that figure, 12,000 years, is in error or suspect. There's a metric shit ton of corroborating evidence, ice cores, sea floor cores, etc that say 12,000 years ago is the time.

Interestingly, there are peer-reviewed papers that suggest domestication of farming (around that time) may have been, in essence, the "tipping point."

I just like the pictures, myself.

Sometime in the last week or so, I read a warning that a small nuclear war in the middle east could cause a period of global cooling. So, there might be a chance to tip back. Drastic times call for drastic measures.

HAH! Way to put it in perspective, Semi.

[Tim Ford]

What's interesting to me is the collective shrug of shoulders most folks have for things like this level of technology (myself included, admittedly).

Things unimaginable, as recently as 50-100 years ago are sort of, well yeah...BFD. As we all know.

The recorded works of J.S. Bach, available on a device not much bigger than a matchbox, in amazing fidelity that rivals any European concert hall...unimaginable. Can you even conceive of showing Bach an iPod Shuffle and telling him, "most of everything you composed is in this tiny box and you can hear an entire orchestra (or smaller, for a sonata) perform it in the richest fulfilment of sound fidelity you've ever experienced? THERE"S AN ENTIRE ORCHESTRA IN THIS TINY BOX."

He'd have had you brought before the Lutheran Orthodoxy and strung up for being....um....whomever Lutherans persecuted at the time (has to be someone, right?).

Amazing world, in which we live....I guess.

And yeah, Slap, thanks for that.

[Benno von Humpback]

...whomever Lutherans persecuted at the time (has to be someone, right?).

The Jews, naturlich.

Huge Bach fan. Couldn’t live without the cantatas.

[Tim Ford]

No thanks, I'll stick with the concertos. Choral music reminds me too much of dreary moments in church, and choral singing in German too much like Bavarian beer halls.

[Benno von Humpback]

No thanks, I'll stick with the concertos. Choral music reminds me too much of dreary moments in church, and choral singing in German too much like Bavarian beer halls.

I don't like the chorales nearly as much as the arias and recitatives. ...and never look at the translation.

[Tigger]

Heard my daughter (0boe) play the St Matthew Passion last year. My son in-law turned to me at the end and said "If I never hear another diminished seventh chord again it will be too soon!"

She played brilliantly--but that piece is a long sit.

[Tim Ford]

Anything over 90 mins is excruciating. Another 74 mins would be real tough.

Hope there was an intermission between Dinner and the Cross!

[SemiSalt]

If you are interested in photos of Earth from orbit, mostly from ISS, go here: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

[Tim Ford]

Hey, thanks Semi! Great page, appreciate the heads-up!

[slap]

For those who like pictures of interesting astronomical phenomena a great site is the Astronomy Picture of the Day:

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

[Tim Ford]

Thanks Slap!

Highly recommend that if you visit the index

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

don't do it in Chrome....it's a bad browser app for this site. Safari works great though!