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Archive for the ‘General’

The ocean says hi

March 25, 2013 @ 21:03 By: gordon Category: Out and about, Photography, Travelling

It’s the darndest thing — I was walking along the beach at Riviera Beach in Florida and I’m sure it said “tell the people I say ‘Hi’”, so I pulled out my iPhone and recorded it:

 

Springing forward: Lose some sleep, increase your risk of an accident

March 09, 2013 @ 22:25 By: gordon Category: Astronomy, Current affairs, General

I almost forgot about it, but fortunately someone (Thanks, Ken!) reminded me earlier this week: This is the weekend that we set our clocks forward an hour (unless you live in Saskatchewan in which case don’t worry about it). As I’ve mentioned once or twice in the past, there isn’t any reliable evidence that daylight saving time has resulted in energy savings (ever) and there is research that shows an increase in accidents in the days immediately following the switch.

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Touché, Air Canada

January 15, 2013 @ 11:49 By: gordon Category: General, Travelling

I’m really not a morning person, and I’m ok with that. I like to travel, but I’m not a fan of really early flights. And based on the comments on some of the flights I was looking at yesterday, Air Canada knows this, too… air canada - early morning

 

Can you spot the warm front?

January 11, 2013 @ 09:55 By: gordon Category: General

XFT radar - 20130111 0940L

It looks like we’re probably going to see some freezing rain beginning over the shortly before the lunch hour and continuing to mid-afternoon:

TAF CYOW 111438Z 1115/1212 09012KT P6SM BKN050 OVC140 TEMPO 1115/1116 P6SM -FZRA OVC050
FM111600 10012KT P6SM -FZRA SCT020 OVC050
FM112000 12010KT 4SM -RA BR BKN012 OVC025 PROB30 1120/1122 6SM -FZRA BR BKN025 OVC050
FM112200 13008KT 4SM -RA BR SCT007 OVC012 TEMPO 1204/1207 2SM -DZ BR BKN007 OVC012
FM120700 18007KT 2SM -DZ BR SCT003 OVC007
RMK NXT FCST BY 111800Z=

Hopefully, it won’t make the afternoon commute too treacherous.

Remembrance Day

November 11, 2012 @ 11:00 By: gordon Category: Current affairs, General

We pause today to remember all those who have made the supreme sacrifice in order that we may have peace and freedom.

Thank you seems so inadequate.

Apparently I felt Tuesday morning’s earthquake

November 07, 2012 @ 00:21 By: gordon Category: General

IMG_0194I’ve been using an app called Sleep Time on my iPhone to track my sleep patterns. So far, it has revealed that my average bed time is waaaay too late (which I knew), that my average night’s sleep is shorter than it probably should be (which I knew), but that when I am asleep I sleep “efficiently” (i.e. lots of deep/REM sleep) (which I didn’t know). Monday night, I didn’t get a lot of sleep – couldn’t fall asleep until quite late and then I had to wake up earlier than usual and was zombie-like for most of the morning.

Looking at the graph for Monday night, it appears that just as I was getting into deep/REM sleep at 4am something disturbed my sleep and cut my deep sleep cycle short, which would correspond to when the magnitude 4.2 earthquake rattled the area in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

Warning: Setting clocks back will result in increased accidents and messed up sleep patterns

November 03, 2012 @ 22:33 By: gordon Category: Astronomy, Current affairs, General

It’s time for my semi-annual rant about having to adjust the clocks by an hour for no particularly good reason. It’s also a good time to change the batteries in your battery-powered smoke detectors.

I rant on a semi-annual basis because daylight saving time has been promoted as a means to save energy, it’s generally accepted that it doesn’t. In fact, it almost certainly costs more to implement than it would save and the increase in accidents in the days immediately following the time change aren’t worth it. Check out David Prerau’s book Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time (hardcover: 1560256559; softcover: 1560257962) if you want to learn more about the history of daylight saving time.

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