DIY: traveling where the Sun is brutal

It sure is good to have warm, sunny days again after this horrific winter.  Road trip!

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John Cook, I-80 west of Elko, Wikimedia

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Before you venture out, it's best to prepare--especially if your path includes a desert.  If hiking, here are some tips from WikiHow.

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Sydney dust storm, WikiHow

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If you're just traversing desert-like terrain to get somewhere else, here are some survival tips in case your vehicle decides to stop and refuses to go again.

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Desert sun, Discovery News

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To get an idea of how brutal the sun can be, here's an article on sun-poisoning.

If you'd like to get a taste of what it's like to be in the desert in summer, best to join a hiking club.

-- Marge

Sometimes the Sun storms

Last Thursday the sun emitted a powerful X-Flare as reported by Space.com:

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NASA, X1.3 Solar Flare of 2014-April 25, Space.com

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To see an excellent video about what it takes to be an X-class solar flare, check out this video at NASA's site.

The sun is our major source of electromagnetic radiation (EMR), even though, according to YES I Can! Science (sadly now retired):

The Earth and everything on it is a source of electromagnetic radiation. The major fraction of this radiation is in the infrared part of the spectrum, whereas the incident solar radiation is primarily in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

For current information on solar activity, give SolarHam a look.

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RealTime Solar Wind readout, SolarHam

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Another source for information on what the sun's currently up to, especially its cyclic activity, is The Old Farmer's Almanac.

In Alaska there's the Geophysical Institute at University of Alaska Fairbanks sensing how the solar wind affects Earth’s ionosphere and magnetosphere and sharing the data it collects. Another project, called HAARp (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program), also offered some interesting data, but it has been shut down due to local distrust.  It also became the target of a conspiracy theory, although some say the perceived threat was real.

Often electromagnetic radiation is referred to as a spectrum.  Here's an excellent, but very long, NASA video giving a tour of the spectrum:

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-- Marge

Cartoons: Paycheck fairness

On April 9th, the Huffington Post ran this article:  Senate Republicans Block Paycheck Fairness Act For Third Time. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (Wikipedia version) was the first effort to make pay levels more fair.  So what's taking so long?

Cartoons seem almost inappropriate here, but sometimes humor helps us see more clearly.

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Pat Bagley, Cagle

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Bill Day, Cagle

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Rick McKee, Cagle

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Dave Granlund, Cagle

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Bill Day, Cagle

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-- Marge

DIY: Mother's Day

Well, I started out with the idea of showing some fun projects for making Mother's Day gifts.  After pages of cheesy fur-like necklaces and tin cans punched with holes and planted with who-knows-what, I began to ask what moms really want for Mother's Day.  Here's what I found.

At Huffington Post (2013) there's this graph, first published at Rants from Mommyland.

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As you know, Mother's Day is a favorite of retailers everywhere.  They would love for you to spend big bucks.  A good example of this is Forbes.  BuzzFeed suggests wine (an idea I like a lot) and alone-time.

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Many of the articles about what Mom really wants for Mother's Day emphasize time off and time alone. Older moms and grandmas, on the other hand, may have all the alone time they wished for in years past.

Looks like it's up to you on this one. 

-- Marge

Earth changes--sculpted by wind and flowing water and...

To me some of the most visually interesting photos taken show the effects of erosion.

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Erosion, photo origin unknown (a web favorite)

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To help scientists with their research, astronauts have photographed the Grand Canyon--a prime example of erosion effects--from the International Space Station:

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NASA, Grand Canyon , Daily Mail

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As an aside, NASA has a site devoted to Landsat (image gallery here), as well.  According to the about page,

The Landsat program offers the longest continuous global record of the Earth’s surface; it continues to deliver visually stunning and scientifically valuable images of our planet.

A search on "grand canyon erosion" at Google Images yielded many eye-catching photos.  Here is a sampling of what came up.

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Grand Canyon striation, Protocol Architecture

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Ancient site exposed by erosion, National Park Service (NPS)

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Justin Black, Emergent#1, Yelp

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Carl Zimmer at Phenomena, a science salon hosted by National Geographic, states that the Grand Canyon is 17 million years old.

-- Marge

Just some funny cartoons (except the last one)

Today's cartoons don't fit into a theme, they're just plain funny (in my view). Yet each has something to say.

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Rick McKee, The Week

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Dan Wasserman, US News

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Bill Schorr, The Week

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And then there's the Heartbleed internet security breach.

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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--Marge

DIY: What you can do with PVC pipe (a lot)

First of all, for those who don't know what PVC pipe is --

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PVC pipe, US Plastic Corp

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PVC is an acronym for polyvinyl chloride, suspected to be detrimental to one's health.  Be sure to look at the health and safety section of this Wikipedia article.  Some of the ideas below involve heating to deform the pipe.  Do so with caution: make sure there's plenty of ventilation and limit your exposure.  Note that artists have been working with hazardous materials for a long time.  For some horror stories, take a look at Poisoned By Painting : The problem of toxic art-supplies.

You can find a number of projects on the web.  Below is one from Formufit, where you can download components for building mockups in SketchUp (also downloadable at the site).

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Standard PVC dining chair, Formufit

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Kent Jenkins built a functioning pipe organ with PVC. Instructions and several videos at available are the WonderHowTo site.

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Kent Jenkins, PVC pipe organ, WonderHowTo

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There are artists who use PVC as a basis for sculpture:

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Kang Duck-Bong, Juxtapoz Magazine

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Mark Booth, Series-300, Cargocollective

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Adam Withrow, WonderHowTo

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I'm not sure about all the heat Adam uses to shape the pipe, but his advice to "follow the cues your project gives you" is spot-on.

-- Marge

Dead reckoning vs. looking to the stars

Getting from point A to point B can be a problem if you're in new territory or crossing a great watery expanse.  It helps to have a map or chart.

If you do have a chart, like one at Open Sea Map, you can use dead reckoning to get where you want to go.  According to Wikipedia, this method is subject to a build-up of errors, but generally it begins with

...a known position, or fix, which is then advanced, mathematically or directly on the chart, by means of recorded heading, speed, and time.

Celestial navigation looks to the stars, Sun, or Moon for directions.

Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is a position fixing technique that has evolved over several thousand years to help sailors cross oceans without having to rely on estimated calculations, or dead reckoning, to know their position. Celestial navigation uses "sights," or angular measurements taken between a celestial body (the sun, the moon, a planet or a star) and the visible horizon. The sun is most commonly used, but navigators can also use the moon, a planet or one of 57 navigational stars whose coordinates are tabulated in the Nautical Almanac and Air Almanacs.

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This classic star trail image shows how stars move in our sky as Earth rotates. More than 150 individual one-minute digital images were stacked in Photoshop. A first-quarter moon illuminated the surrounding landscape for the duration of the exposures.  credit: Peter Michaud, Gemini Observatory, Space.com

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You can download free nautical almanacs in PDF form at NavSoft; there's a free version of AstroNav available, too. 

On your way to the open ocean, you'll have to avoid running into a sandbar or rock. Topographical nautical charts plot underwater features along the coastline.  NOAA offers such charts, as do a number of businesses.

Sextants are used to fix position and can be used to navigate, sound (for hydrographic surveying), and survey on land.  More information about sextants can be found under reflecting instrument.

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Joaquim Alves Gaspar, Marine Sextant, Wikipedia

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For a good article that may help ordinary folk who are out at night and just want to find their way home, take a look at "How to Navigate by the Stars," published on Mental Floss.  Here's a sample:

Forgot to memorize your constellations? There’s an easy fix. Simply place two sticks in the ground and set them one yard apart. Now pick a star—any star. Line it up with the tops of both sticks, as if you were looking down a rifle sight. The earth’s rotation will make the star “move.” If it runs left, you’re facing north. If it shifts right, you’re south. If it rises, you’re east. If it sinks, west.

Oh, and by the way,  Space.com reports a total lunar eclipse tonight:

This first total lunar eclipse of 2014 is set to begin tonight (April 14) into the wee hours of Tuesday morning (April 15). The lunar eclipse is set to begin at about 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT), and it should last about 3.5 hours. The eclipse should be visible, weather permitting, through most of North America and part of South America.

-- Marge

Cartoons: Another Bush president?

Oh, horrors!  Another Bush may force his way into the White House.  Or maybe not.  Jeb has already shot himself in the foot from a Republican standpoint.

Standing back and letting the cartoonists tell the story--

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Chan Lowe, US News

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Bill Schorr, Cagle

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Drew Sheneman, US News

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David Horsey, US News

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Seems to me most of politics is a Game of Thrones.

-- Marge

DIY: Easter eggs

Finally it's spring, and time to celebrate it.  How about decorating, or making, some eggs for Easter (whether you practice the holiday or not).  Here are three projects that you might find appetizing.

Nike at her blog Thrive tells us how to make rainbow jello Easter eggs.

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Nike, Rainbow Easter Eggs, Thrive

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From Country Living we have eggs with interesting patterns made using small squares of patterned, black-and-white silk.  (All the things that vinegar can do continues to amaze me.)

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Silk fabric transfers, CountryLiving (photo by Alison Gootee/Studio D)

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Lastly, here are eggs patterned with herb leaves and colored with vegetables. 

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Pearl Sanborn, Onion- and cabbage-colored eggs, A Storybook Life

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Pearl explains in her post, "Easter Eggs – Elegant Ideas For Your Easter Eggs!," how to use the vegetables to color the eggs.  The colors break down thus:

Spinach = Pale Green
Hibiscus tea = Green
Blackberries = Deep Purple
Red Cabbage = Robin’s egg Blue
Cranberries = Lavender
Beet Juice = Pale Pink
* The longer you leave the eggs in, the more the color changes

She has suggestions for other, egg-related projects as well.

-- Marge

Out fishin' again

Gone fishin' today...

In the meantime, here for your viewing pleasure is Wikimedia Commons "Picture of the Year 2013."  The other entries are eye-catching, too.

Stefan Krause, Germany (License: FAL 1.3).

 

-- Marge

Cartoons: American democracy for sale

We're back to writing about the Koch Brothers and Republicans yet again.  

Picture U.S. and state governments with only Republicans writing and enforcing legislation.

It's possible, because the big political spenders--the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson--spend Republican.  And the U.S. Supreme Court supports their spending, as shown in this article "Winners and losers from the McCutcheon v. FEC ruling."  If you're tired of seeing the Supreme Court replace democracy with rule by dollar (a plutocracy), you can show your resistance by signing Credo Action's petition to Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Anthony Kennedy.  Or you can join MoveToAmend and get into the action.

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Supreme corporate justice Scalia, Credo Action

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Here are some editorial cartoons that give more information.

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David Horsey, US News

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Marshall Ramsey, US News

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Pat Bagley, The Week

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--Marge

DIY: Fiber sculpture

Every day (uhm, most days?) we put on apparel made of fabric, which is made of fiber and stitched together. For some artists the fabric and fiber are most interesting.  Sometimes what they do is called textile art, sometimes fabric sculpture.  Stuffed dolls, puppets, and dramatic props fit in here. Below are some ways fabric and fiber are being used creatively.

Andrea Graham makes felt and felt shapes.

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Andrea Graham, oganic pods, TextileArtist

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For instructions on how to make felt and shape (needle) felt, take a look at these wikiHow articles.

Lisa Lichtenfels make fabric sculptures.

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Lisa Lichtenfels, womanegg, LisaLichtenfels.net

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She says about her art:

 Curiously, although my work has evolved over the years, my earlier styles of working have never been out of favor with me, and I love the early figures as much as ever. I still cherish my first soft sculpture, and it reminds me of the time I showed her to a college professor. He proclaimed it the “worst piece of junk” he had ever critiqued, and chastised me at length for having the gall to present it. I also remember how hurt he was that his words didn’t bother me. How could he have known that all his harsh castigation could possibly achieve was the cementing of a permanent relationship between a new artist and her work? In any case, I can’t say I explored my medium as much as followed where it took me. It has been such an enlightening, enriching, and forgiving journey that I always feel excited in the morning when I go into my studio.

Visit her techniques page for tips on how she does what she does.

Rebecca Akins makes puppets and props.

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Rebecca Akins, A Puppet Couple, Prop Agenda

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Her work and the materials she's used are reported by Eric Hart in his post, "Rebecca Akins: Surviving Forty Years of Making Props." WonderHowTo has a collection of easy movie prop ideas.

The elusive French designer, Manon Gignoux, gives new purpose to old clothes and used fabric to make dolls and other items.

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Manon Gignoux, dolls, Stars

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Sam in Sam's Notebook quotes Manon:

The clothes I create pass on the experience of living, flattering and deforming the body. My fabric dolls, each a kind of symbolic object, represent attitudes and personalities. I play on the relationship between clothes and object, I dress objects in order to protect them and to tell their story… damaged coverings, darned, made from accumulation and colours faded by time. I also set up installations in which I associate my work with objects that I have found, re-invented and/or photographed.

And photographer Eric Valdenaire beautifully catalogues her studio.

In closing, here's a company--Transformit--that makes fabric structures.  While their products look somewhat commercial, they offer great ideas for art installations and decorating.

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Transformit, suspended form

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Transformit rents and makes-to-order a variety of shapes and gives instructions on how to set them up.

-- Marge