Today's Word: Estivate

Estivate: (verb)  To spend a hot or dry period in a prolonged state of torpor or dormancy.

That certainly describes my last three months.  Well summer's ending today – I'll have none of that 'not until the fall solstice' nonsense, Summer ends with August – and the extreme heat seems to have broken last week.  Actually spent some quality time out in the yard this weekend without requiring any sort of life-support devices, and biking is downright pleasant again.  So local life seems to once more have made it through the summer estivation period.  Soon we'll be off into the Fall camping season.

Monday Reboot

Here, have a triple shot of espresso.

Think I'll take a Little Bike Ride...

Ten years ago this morning:

(click image to embiggen)

In other news, the Coast is back and bigger and better than ever, including plans to rebuild Fun Time U.S.A.  I am really looking forward to a chance at knocking a golf ball down a concrete dinosaur's mouth again!

K+10: I'm taking the day off.

Here are some articles from the Sea Coast Echo though, if you want to look into the festivities:

• Ten Years After Katrina, BSL is Back
• Multiple Events to Note Anniversary of Katrina
• MPB Tells MS's Side of the Katrina Story

That's enough for me today.  Yard work calls.

Media Points to Ponder

As pointed out in the local BSL paper, the Sea Coast Echo.  [Go & read, otherwise the sarcasm here will sound like a nonsensical rant.]  Remember kids, Katrina dead-centered New Orleans, it was all George W. Bush's fault, and we've always been at war with Eastasia.

Here, have a look at downtown BSL where Katrina clearly didn't hit because it wasn't (a) a major urban center that's easy to find on a map and (b) a colorful locale from which to report.

I mean, the national media can't let the hard cold facts on the ground get in the way of a flashy story, can they?  Nooooo, they wouldn't do something like that.

Weak Solar Cycle

And it has raised a few question about long-term trends.  Here's an article at Sky & Telescope on the topic, and here's the bottom line for the next few years:

Not only does this not bode well for HF radio communications over the next decade, but if this amounts to a longer-term series of low activity cycles there could be climate implications – probably as some form of cooling.  But the jury's still very much out on what's going on in the Sun, and even more out on how this will affect Earth's climate.  In the meantime, you can keep up on what is known at the NASA/Marshall Sunspot Cycle page.  In particular, there are links to two very accessible review articles toward the bottom.

Watch a Mustang get smoked...

... by a 5-second car:

Holy cats.