Snow Has Stopped, Sun Is Out

The storm swung slightly south of me and missed me (mostly). My backyard has 18" of snow (I waded out into the middle and measured). The streets are passable (I ran my snowblower down the center of my own street to get the clearance I need for my low-slung Audi).

No more storms until next Wednesday or Thursday (and Seattle is gonna get hammered).

10 Inches of Virgin Snow on Marc's Street

I took my tape measure out and measured. I have 10" of fresh new snow on the street (atop what was already there). Pickup trucks are moving. Not much else is.

I found the right set of chains for my Jeep in my garage. Huzzah!

I broke out my chains for my Audi. I may try an adventure to see if it can get through (a heavy front wheel drive car with "Z" cable chains). I may not. We'll see how brave I feel.

Only about 8 Inches of Snow, Total, Plus Modest Drifts

Apparently just after I finished snow blowing last night and went to bed, the snow stopped (or tapered off). I only have perhaps an additional 1 or 2 inches of additional new snow this morning. Of course, the wind has formed drifts at least a foot deep across my formerly clear sidewalk, so I have to go fix that.

I have not looked at the weather snows on Denver TV yet, but I presume that the storm decided to slew south and more or less missed me. I do not know whether I will get more snow from the back side of the low-pressure front or not. I will have to go see what the weather boffins have to say. Update: the latest forecasts (09:34) say I should expect to get another foot throughout today and tonight.

6" of Snow So Far, Still Falling, Blew Snow

Coming down hard and wet. My policy is to snow-blow at 6" or when the snow stops, whichever comes first. My snow blower is Marc-propelled, not self-propelled. That means I have to push it through the drifts. It is much easier to push the blower through little drifts part way through the snow storm (and more than once, yes) than it is to try to bull through the heavy and packed-down drifts after the snow stops.

I did the sidewalks for a few of the neighbors while I was out there.

The Audi is officially snow-bound, even with cable chains (I think, I have not tried it). The Jeep may or may not be snow-bound with its worn all-terrain tires. I may have to try fitting my chains tomorrow (I don't think they will fit, but I may as well try).

Good thing I do not have anywhere to go to tomorrow (no usual Friday doctor's appointment, due to holiday schedules).

Snow, Snow, Snow

I have one inch of soaking-wet snow so far. I grabbed a fist-full of snow to check the snowball forming properties--my heavy leather glove was instantly soaked through. Some of the Denver weather stations are predicting that we are going to get a "perfect storm" and see several feet. Other stations are saying I'll only get one foot or so.

The temperature just dipped below freezing, so things are just starting to get exciting.

Friday night and Saturday we expect to get another blast, maybe another half a foot to a foot additional snow. Whee!

Snow Falling Now, Huge Low Pressure System Moving In, Moving Slowly

The Denver weather forecasters are bracing for the worst. There is a huge low pressure system moving in, and moving very slowly; we may have snow for a full 3 days. If I am lucky, Denver will get it and we (Loveland) will not. Ha. Snow is falling now just outside my window. I'll fire up the snow blower in a few hours in an attempt to stay somewhat ahead of the accumulation. Sheesh!

Tea of the Day: Upton's Mango Indica

Just the right tea for a gloomy day before I get another 1.5 feet of snow dumped onto my head.

More Snow On The Way

Supposedly we are to get another 1.5 feet of snow in the next two days (today and tomorrow). Sucks. But I have lots of gas for my snowblower.

Lunch and Chats

Yesterday I had lunch with friend Ed L, and then bumped into friend Charlie S in the parking lot. Much chatting. :-)

Women talk three times as much as men, says study

Women talk three times as much as men, says study
By FIONA MACRAE
Last updated at 13:39pm on 28th November 2006

Women talk almost three times as much as men, according to the research. It is something one half of the population has long suspected - and the other half always vocally denied. Women really do talk more than men.

In fact, women talk almost three times as much as men, with the average woman chalking up 20,000 words in a day - 13,000 more than the average man.

Women also speak more quickly, devote more brainpower to chit-chat - and actually get a buzz out of hearing their own voices, a new book suggests.

The book - written by a female psychiatrist - says that inherent differences between the male and female brain explain why women are naturally more talkative than men.

In The Female Mind, Dr Luan Brizendine says women devote more brain cells to talking than men.

And, if that wasn't enough, the simple act of talking triggers a flood of brain chemicals which give women a rush similar to that felt by heroin addicts when they get a high.

Marc Says: Only 3X? I would have thought more. I stronly doubt I speak as many as 7,000 words on the average day, more like less than 1,000.

Gaia scientist Lovelock predicts planetary wipeout

Gaia scientist Lovelock predicts planetary wipeout
Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:13 PM GMT
By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) -
The earth has a fever that could boost temperatures by 8 degrees Celsius making large parts of the surface uninhabitable and threatening billions of peoples' lives, a controversial climate scientist said on Tuesday.

James Lovelock, who angered climate scientists with his Gaia theory of a living planet and then alienated environmentalists by backing nuclear power, said a traumatized earth might only be able to support less than a tenth of it's 6 billion people.

"We are not all doomed. An awful lot of people will die, but I don't see the species dying out," he told a news conference. "A hot earth couldn't support much over 500 million."

"Almost all of the systems that have been looked at are in positive feedback ... and soon those effects will be larger than any of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions from industry and so on around the
world," he added.

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Majority of Americans Believe in Angels

Majority of Americans Believe in Angels
By CALVIN WOODWARD Associated
Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A bluebird in the garden, a spirit in a house, a kind man on the side of the road. Americans are big believers in angels, although not necessarily the ones with halos and wings.

An overwhelming majority, almost regardless of backgrounds and religious convictions, think angels are real, according to an AP-AOL News poll exploring attitudes about Santa Claus, angels and more.

Belief in angels, however people define them, is highest - almost universal - among white evangelical Christians, 97 percent of whom trust in their existence, the poll indicates. But even among people with no religious affiliation, well more than half said angels are for real.

Snow Falling Again

It is snowing hard once again. The adventure continues.

No Comments in Blog, Sorry

Even with the switch to the new Blogger tool, enabling comments in my Blog causes immediate overflow of my allocated 20MB on my Comcast account. Sorry.

'Twas the night before the night before Christmas, and all through the house

there actually was a mouse stirring. I assume it came in during the great snowblowing sessions. Off to the hardware store for spring traps and sticky traps, and off to the grocery store for chunky peanut butter to bait the spring traps.

Street is Cleared, Driveway is Open

The road grader made a final pass down the street to cut open the berms in front of every one's driveways! The neighbors formed a block party (I brought my snow blower) and we made sure everyone has 2WD sedan access. Several neighbors then zoomed out in their 2WD rear-wheel-drive sedans to go shopping.

Tea of the Day: Upton's Mango Indica

Just the right tea for a cold day, an Audi stranded in my driveway, the wrong chains for my faithful Jeep, and a hideously painful lower back (translation: the mango tea cheers me up).

Audi Snowed In

No sedans of any nature are moving in my neighborhood, not even 4WD Subarus, due to insufficient ground clearance. My Audi is stranded in my driveway until further notice (that is, until after the city has the resources to run a big plow down my street, and after I feel well enough to dig through the resulting berm). That probably will not be until after Christmas for the plow and who-knows for digging through the berm.

Street in Front of Marc's House Still Nearly Impassable

The snow in the street is now nearly 3 feet deep in sections, as everyone has been shovelling or blowing the snow off of their driveways out into the street. There are two ruts down the middle of the street, made by large high-clearance pickup trucks (about the only thing moving). I made it out of my driveway and across the street into my neighbor's driveway, then got a run at the snow and into the ruts yesterday morning to go out to the doctors. I made it, just barely.

On the way home I did not do nearly so well. I stuck my Jeep 3 different times on my street trying to make it back to my driveway. I had to dig out each time. I finally retreated and went shopping for chains, as I had discovered to my chagrin that the chains I have had for years but never used before were not the correct size to fit my Jeep's tires. Of course, all the auto shops were completely sold out of chains. No surprises there.

I finally made it home (what a roller coaster ride, with the Jeep in 4WD-Low and floored).

The street in front of my house is actually getting worse, not better, as the ruts compact (the compacted ruts still have about 6 inches of snow under them) and if one falls off the ruts into the deep snow one's vehicle high-centers (that is what kept happening to me). Today the sun is out in a clear sky, so we will see if we get enough melting to start to help.

[Bog] New Blogger Blog

Blogger has changed my Blog (this one, the one you are reading) over from the old Blogger format to the new format. The new format supports Labels (tags, categories, etc.).

[Astronomy] Spectabular Images from Hubble Telescope from Xinhua - English

Xinhua - English

[Colorado] No Birds on Marc's Bird Feeders

No birds flying anywhere. No birds on the bird feeders. None. Zilch. Maybe I will see some more birds once the sun comes out--the sun is trying to burn through the overcast right now. 

[Colorado] Marc's Street is Untracked

Nothing has moved on my street since early yesterday afternoon. Interestingly, I am the only person who has fired up my snowblower so far. I guess everyone else is just waiting for spring. I am drinking my fortifying hot tea (Upton's Baker Street Blend) before I wander out and crank up the snowblower. Everyplace I have looked that I had not already cleared last night the snow is now above my kneecaps. In many places the drifts are above my waist.

[Christmas] Santa

The Christmas ornament on Marc's Yucca Tree (I'm allergic to regular Christmas trees, so I improvise). :-) 

[Family, Computer/VOIP/Skype] Marc's Dad Making His First Ever Skype Call

To my mother in MN, from my living room in Colorado. 

[Colorado] Snow Storm Continues, Another View from Marc's Front Door

The view from Marc's front door, looking up. I have approximately 6 feet of snow drifted on my roof. I'll get up there and knock it off tomorrow if the wind does not blow it off tonight. 

[Colorado] Snow Storm as Seen from Marc's Front Door

The view looking out my front door, looking down. 

[Colorado] I love my Toro Snowblower!

Did I mention that I absolutely love my Toro snowblower?  

[Colorado] Snow Storm Continues

1 foot in my driveway, 2 feet on my elderly neighbors' driveways, knee-deep on my street, Audi is front-wheel-drive and has a body panel under the engine to help raise the body up in deep snow. I didn't even try. Even with chains mounted, the Audi would not have gotten out of my street.

Colorado is Jeep country, they say. :-(

My street is still virgin. No one has made it home from work. I have been out snowblowing my driveway and the driveways of my elderly neighbors (no way they were going to shovel 2 feet of snow).

I absolutely love my Toro snowblower. :-) 

[Colorado] Full Scale Snow Storm

I have about 6 inches on the ground now, with more coming down hard. The drifts are a few feet deep around my house.

I am going to take the front-wheel Audi 100 CS out for a spin after an hour or so. I suspect I will very soon be in the market for snow tires.

Robot Vacuum Cleaner Webcam - A Roomba with a view

Robot Vacuum Cleaner Webcam - A Roomba with a view

Marc Says: Fit a Roomba with a webcam and what do you get? A hilarious video (cats beware!)

[Marc's Medical] Crashed & Burned

Overdid it to stay vertical for my dad's visit. Crashed and burned. Slept all day today. Still utterly exhausted.

[Family] Dad Visited

My dad has been visiting for the past two days. I am afraid I have not been very peppy company. Nonetheless, it has been really good to see him. I demonstrated an RSS reader, a podcast catcher, a Skype video call, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking v. 9 for him. We even had him start training Dragon, and doing some beginning level dictation.

[Technology] TG Daily Top-10: Technology disappointments of 2006

This time of year the pundits review what did not fly. As always, I find Tom's Hardware Guide very insightful. Where is 802.11n, anyway? Some other hits: The Apple iPod is #10, and Sony (the whole company, the one that brought exploding laptop batteries) is #1.

Feed: TG Daily
Title: TG Daily Top-10: Technology
disappointments of 2006

It is less than two weeks to Christmas and less than three
weeks until we will be ringing in the new year. Time to wrap things up for 2006
and take another look on what was hot - and not. We are starting our mini series
with what we felt did not live up to its hype and turned out to be a major
disappointment. Here's our Top-10 for this category.

[AIDS, Africa] Malaria 'speeds spread of Aids'

BBC NEWS Africa Malaria 'speeds spread of Aids':

"Malaria 'speeds spread of Aids'

There may be a link between malaria and the spread of the Aids virus across Africa, research by scientists working in Kenya suggests. The study, published in the journal Science, says the way the two diseases interact can help them spread faster. When people with Aids contract malaria, it causes a surge of HIV virus in their blood, making them more likely to infect a partner, the research says. Meanwhile people weakened by HIV are more likely to catch malaria. The diseases are two of the biggest killers in Africa."

[Computer] Adobe Reader version 8

I installed the newly released version of Adobe Reader, version 8. It is lots faster than version 7.

[Humor] Another Blonde Joke

A blind man walks into a bar, sits down, orders a drink and announces that he wants to tell a blond joke. The bar tender tells him"before you tell the joke that you should know that the bouncer is 6'4", 280 pounds and blond. The guy sitting next to you is a biker. He's 6 feet and weighs 250 pounds. He's blond. The guy sitting at the end of the bar is a SWAT officer. He's 6'1", weighs 200 pounds and he's bond. I'm 6'2", 220 pounds and blond."

The blind guy tells them "Oh! Forget it then. I don't want to explain it four times!"

[Humor] Blond Joke

Blond Joke:A blonde walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan officer. She says she’s going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000. The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so the blonde hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce. The car is parked on the street in front of the bank, she has the Title, and everything checks out. The bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan. The bank’s president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the blonde for being so dumb as to use a $250,000 Rolls as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Rolls into the bank’s underground garage and parks it there. Two weeks later, the blonde returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says, “Miss, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is why would you bother to borrow $5,000?” The blond replies, “Where else in New York City can I park my car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?”

[Humor] High Speed Policeman

In most northern states, there is a policy of checking any stalled vehicle on the highway when the tempratures drop down to the single digits or below.

About 3am one very cold morning a state police officer responded to a call: there was a car off the shoulder of the road on the outskirts of Casper. He located the car, stuck in the deep snow and with the engine still running.Pulling in behind the car with his emergency lights on, the officer walked to the driver's door to find an older man passed out behind the wheel with a nearly empty vodka bottle on the seat beside him.

The driver came awake when the officer tapped on the window. Seeing the rotating lights in his rear view mirror and the state policeman standing next to his car, the man panicked, jerked the gearshift into "Drive" and hit the gas. The car's speedometer was showing 20-30-40 and then 50MPH, but it was still stuck in the snow, wheels spinning.

The policeman, having a sense of humor, began running in place next to the speeding, but still stationary, car. The driver was totally freaked, thinking the officer was actually keeping up with him. This goes on for about 30 seconds when the patrolman yelled at the man ordering him to, "Pull over!". The man obeyed, turned his wheel and stopped the engine.

Needless to say, the man was arrested and is still trying to convince his friends that he encountered a state patrolman that could run 50 Miles Per Hour.

[History, Archeology, Technology] ScienceDaily: Mystery Of Ancient Astronomical Calculator Unveiled

ScienceDaily: Mystery Of Ancient Astronomical Calculator Unveiled:

"Mystery Of Ancient Astronomical Calculator Unveiled

An international team has unravelled the secrets of a 2,000-year-old computer which could transform the way we think about the ancient world.

Recreation of how the front gears of the device might have looked. (Copyright of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project)Ads by GoogleAdvertise on this site

Professor Mike Edmunds and Dr Tony Freeth, of Cardiff University led the team who believe they have finally cracked the workings of the Antikythera Mechanism, a clock-like astronomical calculator dating from the second century BC.

Remnants of a broken wooden and bronze case containing more than 30 gears was found by divers exploring a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera at the turn of the 20th century. Scientists have been trying to reconstruct it ever since. The new research suggests it is more sophisticated than anyone previously thought.

Detailed work on the gears in the mechanism show that it was able to track astronomical movements with remarkable precision. The calculator was able to follow the movements of the moon and the sun through the Zodiac, predict eclipses and even recreate the irregular orbit of the moon. The team believe it may also have predicted the positions of some or all of the planets.

The findings suggest that Greek technology was far more advanced than previously thought. No other civilisation is known to have created anything as complicated for another thousand years."

How to Make a 3D Paper Snowflake - WikiHow

How to Make a 3D Paper Snowflake - WikiHow

Marc Says: Fun, festive, brightly colored, utterly inexpensive, and really easy. Merry Christmas in advance! :-)

[Colorado] Balmy Today

Nearly 60°F on my back porch with the sun shining. Yesterday's high was only 14°F.

[Household] Baking Turkey Smells Really Good

It is making me really hungry!  :-)

[Household] Baking a Turkey

Good prices on turkeys following Thanksgiving, so I got one.  Baking it now.  Smells great!  :-)