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Wednesday/ keeping an eye on Apophis 🌠

I stumbled across an old YouTube video in which astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about the dire possibility of giant asteroid Apophis hitting Earth.

Luckily, I also found this updated report on NASA’s web site:
Estimated to be about 1,100 feet (340 meters) across, Apophis quickly gained notoriety as an asteroid that could pose a serious threat to Earth when astronomers predicted that it would come uncomfortably close in 2029. Thanks to additional observations of Apophis, the risk of an impact in 2029 was later ruled out, as was the potential impact risk posed by another close approach in 2036. Until March 2021, however, a small chance of impact in 2068 still remained.

When Apophis made a distant flyby of Earth around March 5, 2021, astronomers took the opportunity to use powerful radar observations to refine the estimate of its orbit around the Sun with extreme precision, enabling them to confidently rule out any impact risk in 2068 and long after.

Source: https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/apophis/
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Tuesday/ the Republican inmates are running the asylum 😵‍💫

If you want to know what it looks like when democracy is in trouble, this is what it looks like.
– Daniel Ziblatt, professor of government at Harvard University.

Welp.
The House of Representatives in the 118th United States Congress has no speaker— a first in the history of Congress.
(Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina has been named interim speaker under a law passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, in the event of a vacancy in the office. There is no defined timeframe for finding a new speaker. And the interim speaker can only do basic housekeeping functions, and not bring legislation to the floor, for example).

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Monday/ a little rain ☔

It rained a little today, on and off.
There was time in Earth’s history when it rained for eons.

Here is an excerpt from a book I’m reading:

For a few million years our planet had rings, like Saturn. Eventually, the rings coalesced to create another new world – the Moon. All this happened approximately 4,600,000,000 (4.6 billion) years ago.
Millions more years passed. The day came when the Earth had cooled enough for the water vapor in the atmosphere to condense and fall as rain. It rained for millions of years, long enough to create the first oceans. And oceans were all there were; there was no land. The Earth, once a ball of fire, had become a world of water. Not that things were any calmer. In those days the Earth spun faster on its axis than it does today. The new Moon loomed close above the black horizon. Each incoming tide was a tsunami.

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Sunday 🌞

It’s October— and I saw a few Halloween decorations on houses, while I was out on my walk tonight.
It was a dry and mild weekend here in the city (65°F/ 18 °C), but it might rain a little on Monday.

Nineteenth Avenue on Capitol Hill in Seattle, just before 6 o’clock tonight.
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Friday/ rain: way, way too much 🌊

Wow.
New York City has gotten two or three months’ worth of rain in one day, and there is nowhere for the water to go.
JFK airport recorded an unprecedented 8 inches of rain in 24 hours.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive in Manhattan was flooded Friday morning.
[Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times]
Members of Westchester County Emergency Services looked for people who might have been trapped by heavy flooding in Mamaroneck, N.Y.
[Mike Segar/Reuters]
In the Bronx, commuters stood on a bench at a bus stop as the water in the street rose.
[Gregg Vigliotti/ The New York Times]
A commuter at Bainbridge and Jerome Avenues in the Bronx.Credit.
[Gregg Vigliotti/ The New York Times]
Heavy downpours quickly overwhelmed many roadways, including First Street in Hamilton Beach near Jamaica Bay in Queens.
[Uli Seit/ The New York Times]

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Thursday/ another shutdown? 🩻

It’s almost Sept. 30— and they never learn, those House Republicans.
Here it is: we don’t want the US government to shut down, and we don’t appreciate being held hostage to your delusions.

The Dec. ’18 shutdown was a doozie. Will this one happen, and how long will it be?
[Table posted by Steven Rattner @SteveRattner on X]
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Wednesday/ aurora borealis 🌌

When a solar storm comes toward us, some of the energy and charged particles from the sun (mostly electrons and protons) can travel down the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles into Earth’s atmosphere. There, the particles interact with gases in our atmosphere resulting in beautiful displays of light in the sky.
[Infographic by capturetheatlas.com]
These pictures are from the northern lights (aurora borealis) as we saw them from our lodgings some 15 miles outside Fairbanks.
Please note: a camera presents severe limitations when the lights appear in an animated fashion, and in the entire night sky overhead!

The photographer is Francois Theron and he used a Sony NEX-3 digital camera with a 10-second exposure.

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Tuesday/ back in Rain City ☔️

The three friends made their way back to Seattle today, taking an early 7 am flight out of Fairbanks on Alaska Airlines.

A license plate commemorating the Alaska Gold Rush (also called the Klondike Gold Rush). Some 100,000 prospectors made the trip from Seattle to the Klondike region of Yukon, Canada, between 1896 and 1899.
Gold is mined in Alaska to this day, and the state’s largest mine is in fact 25 miles northeast of Fairbanks. The mine’s name is Fort Knox and it has been operating since 1996.
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Monday/ at the museum 🏛

We made a brief stop in downtown Fairbanks today, and then headed to the The University of Alaska Museum of the North (the museum is on the campus of the university).

The bridge over the Cena River in downtown Fairbanks is lined with the Stars and Stripes and the Alaska State flag.
We stopped by this arts and craft market with its vast collection of weird and wonderful souvenirs and antique items.
The U.S. Post Office and Courthouse building on Cushman St. between 2nd and 3rd Ave. was constructed in 1932-33 and features aluminum trim with Art Deco detailing.
The next set of pictures are all from the Museum of the North. This illustration features animals that roamed around what is now Alaska, from the Pleistocene Ice Age that began 2 million years ago.
That’s a kayak above, of course— and an umiak below: an open boat made of animal hide stretched over a wooden frame, designed to carry many people.
Male Doll, 1998. Artist Rosalie Paniyak. Sealskin, rabbit, wood, textile, beads and waxed thread.
Seabird Mask ‘Uyaleg Kegginaqur’ 1982. Creator: Qiu Henry Shavings.
Postcard of the 1970s of young people doing a ‘blanket toss’.
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Sunday/ Alaska Route 2 🏞

Today we drove in a southeasterly direction from Fairbanks, on Alaska Route 2 South along the Tanana River.

There is gold in the trees on the rolling hills that the Alaska Route 2 road runs through.
The vista from the Alaskan Range Viewpoint, a scenic viewpoint on Route 2 that is a few miles from the Harding-Birch Lakes.
And here is a feathered friend (wild duck, Anas platyrhynchos) stretching its wings on the waters of the Harding-Birch Lakes.
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Saturday/ Alaska Route 3 🏞

These pictures are from a four-hour roundtrip drive on Alaska Route 3 South— from Fairbanks to the Denali National Park Visitor Center.

There is a dog sled sign on the dirt road from our cottage to Fairbanks. It’s not that the dogs and sled will cross the road— they will share the road with traffic (in wintertime, when there is several inches of snow on the ground).
That’s the Alaska Native Veterans’ Honor Bridge over the Tanana River in the distance, constructed in 1967.
This monument is at the entrance of the town of Nenana.
The plaque on the monument reads as follows: During World War II under the leadership of Major “Muktuk” Marston and 21 paid staff, 6,368 volunteers from 7 native ethnic groups and European Americans, whose ages ranged from 12 to 80 years old, and including some 30 women, watched the northern shores of Alaska for enemy movements and were instrumental in the Battle for Attu, a foreign war battle fought on domestic soil. In commemoration of their personal sacrifices for our Freedom.
This canister accepts entries for a ‘lottery’ for which entrants need to predict the exact minute in May of 2024 when this beacon on the ice of the Nenana River will fall over, due to the melting of the ice in spring. (Winner gets several thousand dollars, depending on the number of entries).
The Nenana River Bridge near Healy, not far from Denali National Park, was constructed in 1970.
A view from under the Nenana River Bridge.
The tourist season is over and the rafts are gone, but here is a picture of what the rafts looks like. There is a steep embankment and a launch ramp (without people in, I presume!) for the rafts to the waterside on the left of the picture.
Hellooo Mr Moose. Inside the Denali Visitor Center.
Looking back at Denali mountain, from Healy on Alaska Route 3.
The summit of Denali is the highest mountain peak in North America, elevation 20,310 ft (6,190 m).
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Friday/ Fairbanks, AK 🏞

It’s fall here in the Northern Hemisphere, and the three friends from Seattle made it out to Fairbanks, Alaska, for a long weekend.

Top to bottom: Stepping on board in Seattle; a glacier somewhere over Canada; approaching Fairbanks— and noticing fall’s colors in the woods; a bear at Fairbanks airport; the view from our rented cottage, some 15 miles outside Fairbanks.

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Tuesday/ Canoe Pass bridge 🛶

Two two-lane bridges (Canoe Pass Bridge and Deception Pass Bridge) on Washington State Route 20, connect Whidbey Island in Island County, to Fidalgo Island in Skagit County in Washington State.
The bridges opened on July 31, 1935.
[Source: Wikipedia]

These pictures of the Canoe Pass Bridge were all taken from Pass Island, looking south. The pictures were taken around 4.15 pm. The Salish Sea is to the west, and with high tide at about 6.48 pm today, the tide from the Pacific Ocean was still coming in.

 

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Monday/ at the roastery ☕️

Here’s the scene at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Pike street.
We didn’t get to see the roasted coffee beans spill from the roasting barrel into the giant cooling pan, but the place was packed with tourists and locals (a guy wearing a shirt with an Amazon Web Services logo on, for example).

Coffees from Sumatra, Malawi and Viet Nam were being brewed, and we picked Malawi. (My friends that are visiting Seattle, are from South Africa).

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Sunday 🪷

The summer days are rapidly running out, but the dahlias in the little rose garden in Myrtle Edwards Park (the extension called Centennial Park) are still in bloom.

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Saturday/ setting sail 🛳️

Here’s the Norwegian Bliss just leaving the pier in Seattle and setting sail for Sitka, Alaska, shortly after 5 pm this afternoon.
She will go as far as Juneau and then to Icy Straight Point 30 miles across the Alaskan Inside Passage, before turning back to Seattle.

The Norwegian Bliss was built in 2018 and can accommodate 4,900 passengers.