Thursday, January 20, 2011
I had some kinda fun today - at work.
We had a fault at the telescope that at first glance was at least odd. Something java (language) would connect to some tasks but not others. The C (language) tasks would interconnect but the java was intermittent at best. Today my favorite sysadmin and I got a chance at trouble shooting. It took forever, but in the end it looks like the solution is that some things are less multithreaded than you'd expect. Making a (that) virtual machine having one (virtual) CPU instead of 2 appears to have solved the problem. I'm glad we did this trouble shooting in the UKIRT remote OPs office. We would never have had the peace and quiet to do this otherwise. (to (the spirit of) David Beattie: no, I didn't have any trouble shooting experience then. I sure do now.)
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
On a completely different subject: can we have some sunspots please?
I have been following this solar minimum since it started. After all, by education I'm an astronomer. We are or were going for a period of maximum insolation on this our home planet. It made sense to me that temperatures were getting higher. And then the Sun did something nobody had anticipated to the extent it's happening. The solar activity minimum was anticipated. It goes up and down every 23 years (or so) (or so??!!!). There are not enough data of sunspots to analyze far enough back. I looked at them and decided that there aren't. There is more than one period in there, that much I could tell. I happen to be married to this guy who integrated the atmospheric spectrum in the infrared and found that water in the atmosphere is much more important than CO2. I kinda knew that but then, I've been in infrared astronomy for a few years. Tracking some data, the temperature dropped after 9/11/2001 when all planes were grounded. That wasn't burned fuel, it was contrails.
Now here I am after the lowest rainfall year on record for Hilo:
(those are my data points for low rainfall, under 100", in hundredths of inches)
2010 6329
1983 6809
1962 7145
1995 8592
1932 8968 (data point from newspaper)
1981 8991
1977 9038
2003 9132
1972 9885
1975 9993
We have some El Ninos to account for too (definitely the mid90s and 2003)
so were getting to
2010 6329
1983 6809
1981 8991
1962 7145
1932 8968 (data point from newspaper)
omitting a few. It doesn't quite match, but I am writing this off the top of my head and not taking any submarine volcano eruptions into account (the latter is by private communication from my former coworker Firmin Oliveira - regarding submarine volcano eruptions possibly causing El Ninos).
I originally wrote this almost a month ago - and thought I had published it but apparently I didn't. By now we're looking back at another very dry January. Not quite as dry as last year, but the rainfall at the airport was still only 38% of normal and even less, 21% at the Piihonua rain gauge (still, that's better than the about 10% we had last year).
- But, we also have a few more sunspots even if January was low in those again too.
(and even if it says the post was published on Jan. 11, I didn't really finish it until Feb. 9)
Now here I am after the lowest rainfall year on record for Hilo:
(those are my data points for low rainfall, under 100", in hundredths of inches)
2010 6329
1983 6809
1962 7145
1995 8592
1932 8968 (data point from newspaper)
1981 8991
1977 9038
2003 9132
1972 9885
1975 9993
We have some El Ninos to account for too (definitely the mid90s and 2003)
so were getting to
2010 6329
1983 6809
1981 8991
1962 7145
1932 8968 (data point from newspaper)
omitting a few. It doesn't quite match, but I am writing this off the top of my head and not taking any submarine volcano eruptions into account (the latter is by private communication from my former coworker Firmin Oliveira - regarding submarine volcano eruptions possibly causing El Ninos).
I originally wrote this almost a month ago - and thought I had published it but apparently I didn't. By now we're looking back at another very dry January. Not quite as dry as last year, but the rainfall at the airport was still only 38% of normal and even less, 21% at the Piihonua rain gauge (still, that's better than the about 10% we had last year).
- But, we also have a few more sunspots even if January was low in those again too.
(and even if it says the post was published on Jan. 11, I didn't really finish it until Feb. 9)
Sunday, January 9, 2011
New PrayersOnAWire team treasury
Which contains seed beads of mine:
WInter has been on us for a month now and to celebrate winter. Members of the Prayers On A Wire team are having a contest with a winter theme. Here are so items that would work for this Challenge..
This isn't the complete treasury. To see all of it, please go here: http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d2a5347ed6b6d91fd6d4be0/clear-white-and-blue
'Clear, White, and Blue' by mmg10
WInter has been on us for a month now and to celebrate winter. Members of the Prayers On A Wire team are having a contest with a winter theme. Here are so items that would work for this Challenge..
 White and Blue Porc... $28.00 |  Ornela seed beads, ... $9.50 |  Artic 5 Decade Rosa... $30.00 |
 Winter Snow and Ice... $30.00 |  SALE Handmade Fo... $8.99 |  Rosary Nature Colle... $18.00 |
 necklace $47.00 |  Light Sapphire Blue... $28.00 |  Sodalite Gemstone C... $45.00 |
 Immaculate Heart Ro... $59.00 |  Sesame jasper Seren... $12.50 |  Personalized Rosary... $37.50 |
 35ct - Moonstone Ro... $2.99 |  Frosty The Snowman ... $5.00 |  SWEET WINTER'S ... $18.00 |
Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.
This isn't the complete treasury. To see all of it, please go here: http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d2a5347ed6b6d91fd6d4be0/clear-white-and-blue
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Monday, December 6, 2010
Etsy Team Treasury: Icy Winter
Some seed beads and gemstone chip strands of mine are in it:
Time to pull out those long coats, scarfs, hats, and gloves. The Icy Winter is on its way so let these handpick items from Prayers on a wire members get in you in the mood for winter.
'Icy Winter' by mmg10
Time to pull out those long coats, scarfs, hats, and gloves. The Icy Winter is on its way so let these handpick items from Prayers on a wire members get in you in the mood for winter.
 Blue Topaz Catholic... $20.00 |  December Birthstone... $45.00 |  Ornela seed beads, ... $3.50 |
 Gemstone chips- bla... $9.00 |  Sparkling Bubbles .... $4.00 |  Glacier Swirls ... ... $6.00 |
 Blue Lace Agate Ros... $110.00 |  Ocean Blue Sodalite... $27.00 |  The Original Blue A... $25.00 |
 Snowflake Obsidian ... $10.00 |  Personalized Rosary... $37.50 |  Sammy the Snowman E... $6.00 |
 FREE SHIPPING St. B... $21.00 |  Marian Catholic Leg... $ |  Personalized Decemb... $39.00 |
Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Some cat pictures
Unfortunately taken with flash, both of them don't have 'evil' eyes (you get bigger pictures if you click on these):
Zoomie, asleep on his favorite one of my bags
Awake now as he didn't like the flash
Mikiaoluku III, the cat with the necklace in her coat, hiding her kinked tail behind the door.
Missed 'Alani that night. She was probably asleep elsewhere.
Zoomie, asleep on his favorite one of my bags 
Awake now as he didn't like the flash
Mikiaoluku III, the cat with the necklace in her coat, hiding her kinked tail behind the door.Missed 'Alani that night. She was probably asleep elsewhere.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
No place like home ...
After being gone for a week I'm home again. Not that I didn't have fun, but the traveling gets to me. I got up 22 hours ago. Norman was waiting for me at the airport when I got there, the duffelbag arrived too and we were out of there in shorter time as they start charging for.
Norman said the cats, especially Zoomie, had been upset, but they all came and the two older ones stayed to get fed. And there are some ripe cherry tomatoes, and the rest I'll have to check in the morning.
Oh, and, what I got home from was the EPICS meeting at Brookhaven National Lab (which is on Long Island). Got some overview over some (software) packages that I had been wondering about but I'm not convinced they are for us (at the JAC, definitely not HiloBeads), learned about some new projects, got lost getting there from Newark (but not too lost, the Sun was out), took a good walk on Smith Point Beach, and met the Lab's glass blower, Barry Lafler. If I get around to it there's going to be a few more posts, but at least there are going to be some pictures of Barry and the glass lab, and hopefully at some point a picture of what I picked up at Smith Point (beach glass and shell pieces).
And, I want to thank Leslie Baer for all the driving instructions with maps, without which I definitely would have gotten a lot more lost than I did.
Norman said the cats, especially Zoomie, had been upset, but they all came and the two older ones stayed to get fed. And there are some ripe cherry tomatoes, and the rest I'll have to check in the morning.
Oh, and, what I got home from was the EPICS meeting at Brookhaven National Lab (which is on Long Island). Got some overview over some (software) packages that I had been wondering about but I'm not convinced they are for us (at the JAC, definitely not HiloBeads), learned about some new projects, got lost getting there from Newark (but not too lost, the Sun was out), took a good walk on Smith Point Beach, and met the Lab's glass blower, Barry Lafler. If I get around to it there's going to be a few more posts, but at least there are going to be some pictures of Barry and the glass lab, and hopefully at some point a picture of what I picked up at Smith Point (beach glass and shell pieces).
And, I want to thank Leslie Baer for all the driving instructions with maps, without which I definitely would have gotten a lot more lost than I did.
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