Queen’s Annual Messages. Artificial Clouds Affect the Climate. Alfred Nobel. First Divorce. Golden Gate Bridge.

 

For “Summary Saturday”, News, Some, New Some Old:

“From audio-only to 3D: How the Queen's Christmas Day message has reflected on world events, social upheavals and intimate family moments over seven decades of change.

“Queen Elizabeth gave her first Christmas message in 1952 in audio-only.  First of many: The Queen pictured at the microphone during her inaugural Christmas message in 1952 which was broadcast in sound only on TV.

This year the Queen gave her Christmas Message to the nation in 3D, as her Diamond Jubilee year draws to a close. 

Since her first message in 1952, The Queen has ruled through enormous historic events and periods of change.  Here, MailOnline looks at the defining Christmas Messages of each decade.

 

Queen of cool: Her Majesty tries on a pair of 3D glasses this year as she watches her first Christmas message to be filmed in the format.”

Videos, pictures through the years, and more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253237/How-Queens-Christmas-Day-message-reflected-world-events-seven-decades-change.html

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Researcher Offers Alternative Explanation for Global Warming

Documentary Explains Why Artificial Clouds Affect the Climate More than CO2

“A new documentary video produced by an amateur climate researcher has the online world buzzing with a new debate: Do human-made clouds affect the climate more than greenhouse gases like CO2?

The 25-minute presentation explains that humans are dispersing cloud-making chemicals, silver iodide in particular, into the atmosphere globally at high altitudes for the purpose of increasing precipitation.

According to Dave Dahl, the writer and producer, cloud seeding programs have proliferated across the US and around the world since the invention of silver iodide by Dr. Bernard Vonnegut (brother of the famous author Kurt Vonnegut) in the 1960s.

"We started cloud seeding in the 1940s using dry ice," says Dahl. "But in the 1960s we started using silver iodide, and its use has grown exponentially every decade since then. Now the majority of states in the US use silver iodide for weather modification to increase precipitation."

Dahl says he recently became aware of several facts that compelled him to produce the movie.

"I had been studying artificial clouds for over six years before discovering that we spray silver iodide at high altitudes around the entire Earth, and we do that in many states before every single rain or snow storm. Counties in dry states like California believe they can get 10-15% more water cheaply by expanding storm clouds in their area. But what happens when every state is doing it? There's only so much water in the atmosphere, and every state wants it."   The video and more at: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/researcher-offers-alternative-explanation-global-warming1

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This Week's Amazing Fact: Alfred Nobel.

“Alfred Nobel was born in 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. He received a good education in Russia and soon took a job as a chemical engineer. Though Alfred Nobel did not invent nitroglycerin, he was the first to produce it commercially. In 1863, he developed a detonator that relied on strong shock rather than heat. But Nitroglycerin in its fluid state is very volatile, and in 1864, an explosion killed his brother Emil and several others. Recognizing this danger, Nobel moved his lab and soon invented dynamite, also known as “Nobel’s safety blasting powder.”

This new material, nitro, absorbed by a porous clay substance, was five times more powerful than gunpowder and provided an easily handled, solid yet malleable explosive. Mining, railroad building, and other construction became much safer, more efficient, and cheaper. But military leaders soon realized the wartime value of dynamite.

This deadly use of his creation greatly troubled the “Lord of Dynamite,” a pacifist, and strongly opposed the wartime uses of his inventions. Yet Nobel continued to produce nitroglycerin-based explosives, saying he was producing weapons so powerful that no one would dare use them. (So much for that theory!) Alfred was also a great entrepreneur—he founded 90 factories and laboratories in more than 20 countries and held 355 patents in his lifetime.

In 1895, a newspaper confused the death of Alfred’s older brother with him, and published Alfred’s obituary! Nobel read it and was horrified that he would be remembered as the man who created the explosive that caused so much carnage. Perhaps to alleviate his conscience and improve his legacy, his will provided that at his death, the bulk of his vast fortune should go to a fund that awards prizes for advancements in science, medicine, literature, and peace.

Few people read their obituary before their death and fewer still get a chance to change their reputation. But because of the matchless gift and sacrifice of Jesus we can have a new name!”

Revelation 2:17 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

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On This Day:

First divorce in the colonies, Jan 5, 1643:

“In the first record of a legal divorce in the American colonies, Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a divorce from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke, by the Quarter Court of Boston, Massachusetts. In a signed and sealed affidavit presented to John Winthrop Jr., the son of the colony's founder, Denis Clarke admitted to abandoning his wife, with whom he had two children, for another woman, with whom he had another two children. He also stated his refusal to return to his original wife, thus giving the Puritan court no option but to punish Clarke and grant a divorce to his wife, Anne. The Quarter Court's final decision read: "Anne Clarke, beeing deserted by Denis Clarke hir husband, and hee refusing to accompany with hir, she is graunted to bee divorced."”

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Construction begins on Golden Gate Bridge, Jan 5, 1933:

“On this day in 1933, construction starts on what will become one of America's most famous landmarks: the Golden Gate Bridge. When completed in 1937, the Golden Gate has a 4,200-foot-long suspension span, making it the world's longest suspension bridge. Since opening to the public in May 1937, almost 2 billion vehicles have crossed the bridge, in both the north- and southbound directions.

The bridge was named not for its distinctive orange color (which provides extra visibility to passing ships in San Francisco's famous fog), but for the Golden Gate Strait, where the San Francisco Bay opens into the Pacific Ocean. The bridge spans the strait and connects the northern part of the city of San Francisco to Marin County, California.

Prior to the bridge's construction, the only way to travel between these two areas was by ferry boat.

The bridge's chief engineer, Joseph B. Strauss (1870-1938), an Ohio native who built numerous bridges across the U.S., was involved with the Golden Gate project by the early 1920s. From the beginning, Strauss and his collaborators faced numerous challenges, including opposition from skeptical city officials (who were concerned about costs), environmentalists and ferry operators (who were worried the bridge would impact their business). Some members of the engineering community said it was technically impossible to build the bridge, and it was not easy to raise funding for the project at the beginning of the Great Depression (a $35 million bond issue to finance construction of the bridge was passed in California in 1930). Once construction began, workers had to contend with the strong ocean currents and heavy winds and fog in Golden Gate Strait. Eleven workers died during the building of the bridge, 10 of them on one day, February 17, 1937, when their scaffolding fell through a safety net.

Despite all of these issues, the Golden Gate Bridge, with its art deco design, was completed in four years and on May 27, 1937, some 200,000 people showed up to celebrate its opening. The following day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in the White House, signaling to the world that the bridge was open to vehicular traffic. The initial toll for the bridge was 50 cents each way.

The Golden Gate would remain the world's longest suspension bridge until it was surpassed, by 60 feet, by New York City's Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which opened in 1964. In February 1985, the 1 billionth car crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. Today, more than 41 million vehicles travel across the bridge each year.”

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Yesterday:

Ray, Jay and I moved moved furniture all over the place to try to make this house present itself better for the appraisal.  It needed to look more streamlined.  I know they really only look at the measurements and condition, but I wanted it to have a good first impression.

Jay and I moved matching chests to each side of my bed, and then put matching lamps on them.  Now it all looks more balanced as you walk in, and we hid the other non-matching ones behind the door.

Having the computer smack dab in the middle of the patio door going onto the screen porch, made it look like it was dominating the whole living room.  The tower, monitor, printer, paper, speakers, keyboard, mouse are on different levels of the little computer desk that I bought, and all plugged into one strip.  We just just wheeled the desk into the Middle room, which is supposed to be an office anyway, and plugged in the power strip.  Easiest computer move I ever made!  But we haven't run the internet cable in to the Middle Room yet. 

I tried using my laptop, but it was acting slow, creaking and groaning, I suppose the hard drive is going out.  So I have a 50’ Ethernet cord running across the floors into the Middle Room, and I have to be careful that I don’t trip over it.  I won’t be leaving it like that, I’ll roll it up when I am not using the computer, so my computer time will be scant for the next few days.  Probably a good thing!

Miss Priss’ big cage was moved into the grooming room, and she seems to be quite happy in there.   Now she can watch TV, which she couldn’t see where she was before.  Some furniture was just stored.  Ray went around with some spackle and fixed some nail holes in the walls, and today he is supposed to paint them.

The bedroom, dining room and living room all look better, but there is more to do before Monday.