HPWREN

Unbeknownst to me, UCSD and USD have been collaborating on a project called High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (or HPWREN) for a while now. HPWREN has several interesting capabilities, some of which were put to good use during the recent Horse Fire. That last link has some terrific “movies” made from still pictures taken at intervals of a couple of minutes, showing the progress of the Horse Fire.

But the most interesting discovery for me is that HPWREN has several near-realtime web cameras (they update every two minutes) mounted on good vantage points around the county — and one of them is just a couple miles south of me, on Lyons Peak. This camera is actually four cameras in one, with each camera centered on a compass cardinal point and viewing a quadrant. The pictures at right I captured just before posting this; they show north and east views. My home is out of sight, just right of center in the left hand photo. The bulk of the Horse Fire was between Barrett Lake and Lake Morena, nearly dead-center in the right hand photo. These two cameras in particular would have been very useful (and in hindsight, very comforting) during the Horse Fire.

I’ve written to the folks at HPWREN to see if there may be ways we can collaborate to make JamulBlog an even better wildfire resource for Jamulians. I’ll let you know what they have to say…

Tip of the hat to “atr” for this excellent information!

Quote of the Day

Jeff Goldstein, in a post on his excellent blog Protein Wisdom:

"Christ. These people are children. And to think — they might be controlling the Democratic party one day soon?"

Jeff is talking about the moonbat blogosphere’s reaction to the UK airliner terror plot thwarted this morning. Lest you think he is exaggerating, consider this: today’s poll at the DailyKos (ground zero for moonbat blogs) has 71% of respondents declaring “The thwarted U.K. plot was more drama from BushCo to keep us all afraid.” and only 28% believing it was “legit”.

Lest you think that poll is some kind of anomaly, consider these comments on an open thread at DailyKos:

Last night, Fund gave us a peak at the coming Republican strategy that’s based on fear when he said that if Iran threatens the U.S., all voters will rush to the President’s side. Since they abandoned the terror alerts, now they have Chertoff declaring that nobody can carry anything in a bottle onto an airplane. On CBS radio in NYC they said that they’re even confiscating makeup and eyeliner. The more Mr. Chertoff declares that the London plan was “advanced,” the more I believe the opposite. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s what happens when you lie about something as serious as war, and that’s what happens when you choose an accomplice of Ken Star for Homeland Security. Joe Lieberman loves Mr. Chertoff almost as much as he loves Karl Rove and George W. Bush.

— — — —

Just when the WH begins to charge Dems are “soft on terror", Georgie’s buddy Blair, finds 17 (?) poor suckers to arrest on yet another “developing” terror plot? I really hate having to distrust my government so..

— — — —

I won’t even buy the “terrorist plot” story unless they can turn up some actual bombs or at least some bomb fixin’s.

My first thought when I head the news headlines was “if the plot was 'foiled' why the panic-stricken mess at the airports?” You have to look further into the story to find out that they don’t really know if they’ve “foiled” anything. Which makes Karl Rove smile because he knows most of the sheep will just remember the “plot foiled” part.

— — — —

Thank you Scotland Yard, MI-5, and for any other Intelligence/Law enforcement agency for foiling this plot (including the CIA/FBI if they were involved).

If they didn’t the Bush Administration would have an excuse to start a war with Iran/Syria/whoever is the “enemy” at the moment.

— — — —

Oops, started already. In Chertoff’s press conference this AM someone (not MC apparently) had to throw out the “they-hate-us-because-they-hate-our-freedom” line. I’m sure this whole plot was ginned up because they realized that Lamont was surging in the polls.

There are many more of the same ilk — go read them if you have a strong stomach.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

So I despair…

James Van Allen

Yesterday Dr. James Van Allen died of heart failure, at the ripe old age of 91. For someone like me who lived through the heady early days of space exploration, just hearing this scientist’s name evokes all sorts of memories. He is most famous for his discovery of the charged-particle belts that now bear his name: the Van Allen Belts. These belts help shield the Earth from the intense radiation that would otherwise strike it, and make low Earth orbits safe for long-term space travel. They were only discovered because Dr. Van Allen insisted on having a couple of the early Explorer satellites carry Geiger counters, so he gets the credit.

But Dr. Van Allen was a very interesting character, reminding me a bit of another scientist hero of mine: Dr. Richard Feynman. Like Dr. Feynman, Dr. Van Allen was completely disinterested in scientific convention, and completely unafraid of controversy. His career is full of incidents illustrating this, including his famous insistence on the Geiger counters (which his colleagues thought were completely useless). Another famous incident is his letter describing a personal sighting of what he believed was a flying saucer from Mars.

Remembering Dr. Van Allen brings back those amazing times in the early-to-mid 1960s: when we really knew very little about space, when our space technology was challenged and risky, when Kennedy announced the objective of going to the Moon, and seven brave men won the competition to be America’s first astronauts. These things were happening just as my own interest in science and technology was awakening; the romance and adventures of the space program (both manned and unmanned) provided much inspiration for me. And Dr. Van Allen was a prominent player in those times. He was one of the era’s “rock star” scientists, like Dr. Von Braun and Dr. Teller — like them, appearing on a cover of Time magazine, and well-known to an entire generation.

RIP, Dr. Van Allen…