Been a while since I could take a photo like this one
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Piling on
I love roaming the back roads and this past weekend’s trip was exceptional. I found a few nice photos, got to roam as a guy is wont to do, and even found a location I’d been seeking for quite some time. These bridge footings were a particularly pleasant surprise and, since the water surrounding them was completely frozen, I was able to try several angles over the course of a half hour until I found something that I liked. I was even able to position my flash and trigger it remotely to fill in some light where needed. After all, as my photographic mentor taught me, “lighting is simply controlling the shadows.”
Into the wind…the solar wind, that is
I have a link on my Northern Lights page (link in the upper right column) for each of the many sites I use to “throw in the hopper” and make the call on whether I figure chasing after Northern Lights is worthwhile. It’s a soft science at best. In this case, one particular model was accurate and another was not. In other cases, a different model will make the correct prediction. It really ends up coming down to gut instinct: trying to determine which numbers to trust. Yesterday’s solar wind blast was expected, but it was not expected to cause any auroras. One blip on one set of data is what made me suspicious, and it turned out to be the right call.
Since I’m a husband and Daddy these days, I can’t be bolting out of town every night in the hopes of getting a lucky encounter with the auroras, so I’m trying to see if I can get a better sense of when such a trip is worthwhile. Last night my instincts proved correct.
Just in case
If this windmill indeed becomes a casualty of the sale, I’ll at least have some nice memories of it.
Obamacare pro-abort activism fools Catholics, apparently even at KFYR-TV
I was surprised to hear this poll reported as credible on KFYR, because it ignores two very important facts:
1- The pro-abort crowd has WON this issue if they continue to refer to it as a “contraception” issue. Go back to those same professing Catholics, poll ’em again AFTER reminding them that the mandate also includes ABORTION drugs. Look up what an “abortifacient” drug is, or a “morning after” pill. Guess what: the Catholic church is going to have to hand THOSE out too. My guess is that at a LOT of Catholics who don’t mind strapping on prophylactics in defiance of the Pope would have a real problem with handing out abortion drugs!
2- It’s not just an issue of contraception, or even abortion. It goes far more fundamental. Let’s simplify the scenario for a second:
Government: “Hey, church – we want you to do ‘X’ and we’re going to require it by law.”
Church: “Um…no. ‘X’ is against our beliefs and teachings, and has been for centuries.”
Government: “Well, that’s too bad. We’re going to make you do ‘X’ anyway. After a week of bad press, we’ll claim it’s the insurance companies paying for ‘X’, but you’re still going to do it. Besides, your membership’s doing ‘X’ in secret anyway…regardless of your church’s belief.”
So what’s the right answer for the churches or practicing Catholics to give here? I’ll give you a hint: it’s NOT one of acquiescence.
And by the way, it’s NOT just a Catholic issue. Just because Christian churches don’t have a tenet forbidding contraceptives, they are ALL united against abortion. That’s what brought Catholic, Christian, Jewish, and even Muslim groups together in unity against this mandate. But you don’t hear anything about that anymore, do you?
This is how the media works to further leftist agendas: with a vacuum. They locked the issue of mandatory government-funded abortion into a vacuum chamber, and only reported on “the contraception issue.” Not only did that take the worst part of the issue out of the argument completely, but it also sliced those unified groups apart and focused only on the Catholic church, an organization liberals knew they could easily roll over. Divide and conquer, 21st century style.
I’m not surprised at how many Catholics have fallen hook, line, and sinker for it…given the fact that the Catholic Church has given in to liberal progressivism long ago in what Paul Rahe calls “Catholicism’s Pact with the Devil.”
North Dakota adds ten new coal-powered cars to its state fleet
All “saving the planet” BS aside, I don’t know if I see these things as nearly as big a boondoggle as the state’s fascination with ethanol blended fuels. Those are a sure-fire loser, with less thermodynamic potential than gasoline, propped up by taxpayer subsidies in a perverse shell game, while wreaking havoc on the food market. These cars are drawing power from North Dakota lignite-fired power plants, and we can be quite proud of that. I just try not to think of the fact that each one of these cars may already have as much as $250,000 in taxpayer money already subsidizing it.
Rabbit in the moon, and the terminator
The terminator is not Arnold “GIT TO DA CHOPPA” Schwarzenegger when we’re talking astronomy; rather, it’s the line between day and night, light and dark, the illuminated and non-illuminated part of a moon or planet. Notice the nice, gentle gradient of the terminator’s edge…and how it’s boldly interrupted by the rim of the crater. Cool, huh?
I took this photo in the late afternoon, some might say early evening. It’s the best time to photograph the moon because the sky behind it isn’t dark. While properly exposing for the detail in the moon, you still get some color in the sky surrounding it. At night all you get is a bold white or gold disk in a sea of black. I suppose that’s fine if that’s what you’re going for, but I prefer to show a little bit of blue.
Vanishing point
The plan was for the capitol to actually vanish into the fog as I perched at the bottom. Interestingly, the fog didn’t work that way; while it was certainly thick enough looking horizontally through it, the fog wasn’t dense enough to totally obscure things while looking vertically while remaining as close to the building as I wanted. Standing far enough away to allow the building to be obscured by fog blew the perspective I wanted to achieve. In any case, it’s still a neat photo even if the effect is somewhat less than I’d anticipated. I didn’t freeze my fingers for nothing.
While I didn’t bump into him, it turns out I wasn’t the only other photographically inclined person poking around the capitol grounds at night. Check out a brief video of the weekend’s foggy festivities by Sam Sprynczynatyk by clicking here!
Spiky Saturday
Frosty Friday
