As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows,
cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind.
Cleveland Amory
Posts Tagged ‘nature’
What am I sappy cat blogging?
December 7, 2012
What do I find endlessly fascinating?
December 6, 2012This post is a re-blog from Lights in the Dark – always a good read!
Suomi NPP satellite image of North and South America at night
In daylight our big blue marble is all land, oceans and clouds. But the night is electric.
This image of North and South America at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. The new data was mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet.
The nighttime view was made possible by the new satellite’s “day-night band” of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite. VIIRS detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires, and reflected moonlight. In this case, auroras, fires, and other stray light have been removed to emphasize the city lights.
Although the view looking down from space is of a sparkling show, the downside of course is light pollution over major metropolitan areas which impede the view of the night sky from the ground. (Find out more at the International Dark Sky Association site.)
Read more (and watch a video of these nighttime images of Earth) below:
“Artificial lighting is a excellent remote sensing observable and proxy for human activity,” says Chris Elvidge, who leads the Earth Observation Group at NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center. Social scientists and demographers have used night lights to model the spatial distribution of economic activity, of constructed surfaces, and of populations. Planners and environmental groups have used maps of lights to select sites for astronomical observatories and to monitor human development around parks and wildlife refuges. Electric power companies, emergency managers, and news media turn to night lights to observe blackouts.
This video uses the Earth at night view created by NASA’s Earth Observatory with data processed by NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center and combined with a version of the Earth Observatory’s Blue Marble: Next Generation.
See more images and videos here: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NightLights
NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data provided courtesy of Chris Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center).
What am I sappy cat blogging?
November 30, 2012Cats at work and for those of you who are fans of Red Dwarf – “fish!”
What am I eating, or buying, or something?
November 19, 2012Today’s theme is bacon.
First this story from Orange News about a Chinese farmer who is charging three time the going rate for his bacon. The reason is that his pigs engage in high diving that, he says, makes them more tasty. Here’s the story.
Next, you can decorate your home for the holidays with a bacon theme. These stylish ornaments are available at Artful Home.
Really, there are a lot of bacon-themed decorations to be had. I thought these were kind of classy (as well as glassy.)
Finally, for a touch of home-made, here is a recipe for maple bourbon bacon jam. I have not tried it, but all of the ingredients sound good. Get the recipe at Closet Cooking.
What am I Sappy Cat Blogging?
November 16, 2012
What am I Sappy Cat Blogging this week?
November 9, 2012
Hey Mom! Can I keep them? Can I?
(See, it works for this photo, too.)
Who is looking back at me?
October 21, 2012Scenes from a walk in the park – on the boardwalk over the marshy area.
I have to find out what these berries are.
And this impressive fungus.
Autumn color from maple leaves.
This mushroom was hidden in . . .
This hollow tree trunk
Self-portrait in the water
Some late bloomers
Here is the deer looking back at us.
It looks like a 10-point buck. He was not at all skittish.
What am I looking at this time?
October 8, 2012
I thought this was a marvelous photograph. It was taken by Frank Olsen in Sortland, Norway. Reference is SpaceWeather.com. The photographer captured an impressive multitude of glowing things in this photo – the stars overhead, the green auroras, and the sparkling, luminescent dinoflagellates on the beach.
What am I observing?
September 24, 2012I’m a little slow on the uptake, but September 22 was International Observe the Moon Day. Thanks to Lights in the Dark for recommending this amazing video. I’ve got my bags all packed for the next shuttle . . . oh, never mind.
And for stars of a completely different nature, go read Millenium Conjecture.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 