Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Senator Judd Gregg Outed in Scandal.

Cyrus Gregg (click title to entry for interactive - thank you)
This map of Cyrus Gregg relationships is interactive.Names with + signs can be expanded by double-clicking. Click on map tools at left for more options.(Requires Flash.)
The interactive gets a little strange after awhile.


Former Pease AFB

...Worse than that, Gregg (click here) was forced to quickly withdraw his name when the Obama Administration's vetting of him revealed that for nine years he had enriched himself and his brother with taxpayer-funded federal earmarks that he diverted into a real estate development deal.
As the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Judd Gregg was able to direct $66 million in taxpayer money to develop an abandoned USAF base. Multiple companies owned by Sen. Gregg's brother, Cyrus Gregg, made real estate deals on the property. Then Sen. Gregg simply skimmed hundreds of thousands of dollars investments from his brother's real estate companies.
The AP ran the story and reported that one of the companies owned by Gregg's brother had sold a $1 million condominium to Gregg's former chief of staff, Bonnie Newman. When Gregg approached President Obama about serving as Secretary of Commerce, one of the conditions he included was that New Hampshire Gov. Lynch appoint Ms. Newman to fill Gregg's vacant senate seat until 2010.
Inquiries are being made as to whether the sale of the condominium constitutes a "pay to play" scheme in which Sen. Gregg tried to profit from the promise of the appointment to fill his senate seat....

While the midwest gets soaked, could the first huricane of the season be forming in the NORTH Atlantic?


March 24, 2009
Fargo, ND
Photographer states :: Flooding Near Fargo





With noted 'heat transfer system' over Hawaii, noted high surf (purple) and small craft (mauve) advisories are noted (click here).

Hazardous marine condition(s):
Tonight:
ENE wind around 24 kt, with gusts as high as 33 kt.
Isolated showers.
W swell 3 feet at 11 seconds.
Waves around 10 ft.

Wednesday:
ENE wind around 25 kt, with gusts as high as 33 kt.
Isolated showers.
W swell 2 feet at 10 seconds.
Waves around 10 ft.

Wednesday Night:
ENE wind 20 to 24 kt, with gusts as high as 31 kt.
Isolated showers.
W swell 2 feet at 18 seconds becoming 5 feet at 16 seconds.
Waves 10 to 11 ft.

Posted on Tue, Mar. 24, 2009
Trawler sinks off Cape May; 2 dead, 4 missing (click title to entry for video - the sound to that video is very noisy so turn down the volume control - thank you)

By Robert Moran and Jacqueline L. Urgo
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
Two men are dead and four others missing after a fishing vessel sank about 70 miles southeast of Cape May this morning, the U.S. Coast Guard reported.
A rescue helicopter plucked three men from the ocean after they were spotted floating near an empty life raft, officials said.
One was dead and another was unresponsive and died this afternoon. The third told the Coast Guard that the 71-foot Lady Mary, a scalloper, based in Cape May sank around 5 a.m.
There were seven people on board, he told the Coast Guard.
Two Coast Guard cutters, a C-130 aircraft and two helicopters are searching for survivors....
...Waves were 4 to 7 feet high when the boat sank. The water temperature was 40 degrees and the air temperature 33 - conditions that would rapidly kill anyone without a survival suit, officials said.
The fishing vessel is the second in a week to run into trouble in the waters off Cape May.
On March 17, a Good Samaritan scalloper rescued three members of the North Carolina-based Miss Dollie who had abandoned ship shortly before it exploded in flames 30 miles out at sea.

March 25, 2009
0230z
UNISYS Infrared Satellite Image (click here for 12 hour loop)

The vortex east of Massachusetts has a great deal of consolidation and 'loft' to the north border.


March 25, 2009
0230z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite Image (click here for 12 hour loop)

"We are lucky to have him." said a gentleman in the room.

The News Conference.


I sat in a room initially by myself. It was a semi-public room where many academic types mill around on a regular basis. I tuned the TV to CBS and Katie Couric looked great with a smile the entire time she was 'hosting' the conference.

As soon as the voice of the President was heard, immediately I had company. The room filled and at some point in time there were folks that came and went during the news conference.

There were a core group of people that stayed for the entire time and we spoke only occcassionally to each other. We wanted to hear every word and that was the collective understanding of the mostly strangers that gathered.

We heard a man intent on setting the USA back on course with precision and heart. There was no rhetoric, no evasiveness and complete indulgence of every question asked without time limits or limits on 'redirect.'

At the end of the news conference there was a curiousity as to how this country ever achieved the collective will to place him in office precisely when we needed him most. It was noted the 'bust' of Lincoln was in the hallway and we all smiled to note we all had 'picked that up.'

As we tried to 'call up' reasons for our 'good luck' to have him for President, we realized we didn't know enough about this man that has come to lead the USA during its dark hours. We didn't know the moral content of his character that took a President of the Harvard Law Review to Illinios to work as a community organizer. What drove him? What made his spouse at one time during the primaries state, "It is this time or we don't run again."

We love the guy, his point of view, his dedication to our country and his absolute correctness in his approach, but, at the end of the day, who is Barak Obama and how did the USA 'get lucky?'

The temperature in Antarctica (Crystal Wind Chime) even after the equinox is still warm upto 41 F.


SIR EDMUND HILLARY ALPINE CENTRE (click title to entry for audio and rare fiilm - thank you)
HISTORIC: A copy of a photo found with the film shows, from left, Ron Webster of CB Norwood, Sir Edmund Hillary, J H Millerand John Crampton of CB Norwood in front of the Endeavour.



March 24, 2009
0300 PM
Antarctica Surface Wind Image (click here for 24 hour loop)
The wind is primarily the same in that WAIS winds are primarily offshore, hence removing coldness. The winds off the top of the Blue Ice move primarily toward East Antarctica. The reason may be related to the fact the lower altitude winds are primarily onshore, hence bringing the hottest temperatures to the ice continent. It would make sense then the onshore warm winds would be more of an updraft against the Blue Ice as less dense air would rise and/or create percipitation. With an updraft over the lower altitudes of Antarctica it could create a subsidence of denser air off the Blue Ice. A subsidence of this type would be marked by percipitation and/or sublimation of the ice. And indeed at Casey and Davis in East Antarctica the 'conditions' are partly cloudy with pressure falling at Casey.


March 24, 2009
1800 gmt
Antarctica Jet Stream Image (click here for animation from Sunday, March 22 - 24)
In animation, the direct center of the vortex is noted to be disturbed from a heat transfer system of high tropospheric origins. The equinox in 2009 was March 20th at 11:44 UTC.


March 24, 2009
0300 PM UTC
Antarctica Temperature Map (click here for 24 hour loop - currently the only images available are 3PM, 6PM and 9PM)



Warmest reporting station:




Base Orcadas
Local Time: 9:30 PM GST (GMT -02)
Lat/Lon: 60.8° S 44.7° W
Elevation :: 20 feet
Temperature :: 41 °F
Conditions :: Overcast
Humidity :: 66%
Dew Point :: 33 F
Wind :: 23 mph from the North
Wind gust :: -
Pressure :: 29.29 inches and rising
Visibility :: 9.0 miles
UV :: 0 out of 16
Clouds :: Overcast at 984 feet
(Above Ground Level)




Coldest reporting station:




Vostok
Local Time: 5:36 AM VOST on March 25, 2009 (GMT +06)

Lat/Lon: 78.4° S 106.9° E
Elevation :: 11220 feet





This station is not reporting! - this station has been stating this for nearly a month or more, however, the facts regarding the conditions at Vostok have changed during that time. So, obviously, the station is having issues even if it is in error of reporting it is not reporting.





Temperature :: -77 °F
Conditions :: Clear
Humidity :: 33%
Dew Point :: -85F
Wind :: 9 mph from the SSW
Wind Gust :: -
Visibility :: 12.0 miles
Pressure :: inches and rising

I've grown tired of the bigotry shown our President.

"...In "Playin The Fool (click here)," Watkins documents the folktales and rhymes spun by slaves that became what he calls "techniques for surviving," the physical brutality of slavery while maintaining some semblance of self-respect: "Got one mind for white folks to see, `Nother for what I know is me."...



For centuries minorities and women have 'coped' with White Men by instilling humor into interactions and social content. The 'comments ridiculing content humor' by any member of the White House is nothing short of crass and poor judgement and even poorer taste.

I think he has a wonderful smile and uses it to soften his personality, which is completely a 'no-nonsense' approach to everything. President Obama prides himself on openness and transparency. I find his willingness to be self-deprecating in welcoming questions in good spirit to 'transition' into a serious answers a 'consistent' approach which is disarming and provides 'in roads' to further understanding.

The absolute 'hatred' that is permeating the media toward this adminisration needs to stop. The FACT is they are NOT responsible for this mess and it is high time everyone 'deal' with that reality !