Sunday, December 6, 2009

Almanacs “Almanac / forecast - The Keene Sentinel” plus 4 more

Almanacs “Almanac / forecast - The Keene Sentinel” plus 4 more

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Almanac / forecast - The Keene Sentinel

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 05:14 AM PST

Sunset today: 4:15 p.m.

Sunrise Monday: 7:06 a.m.

Today: Sunny. Highs in the mid 30s. Tonight: Mostly cloudy. Lows around 20.

Monday: Mostly cloudy. Highs in the mid 30s. Monday night: Mostly cloudy with a chance of snow showers. Lows in the lower 20s.

Tuesday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 30s. Tuesday night: A chance of snow after midnight. Lows around 20.

Wednesday: Snow and rain likely in the afternoon. Highs in the mid 30s. Wednesday night: A chance of freezing rain. Lows in the upper 20s.

Thursday: Mostly cloudy with a chance of snow. Highs in the mid 30s. Thursday night: Mostly cloudy. Lows around 20.


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Weather page proves newspaper still matters - Statesman Journal

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 03:05 AM PST

The naked truth is I'm a weather guy.

I run/walk outside daily, check temperatures constantly and could open a specialized sporting goods store with all my rainproof apparel.

Yet my Weather Guy status was questioned — and exposed — last week as readers called, wrote and e-mailed about changes to the Statesman Journal's weather page.

The first e-mail arrived at 9:14 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 28 — the day our syndicated contract ended with AccuWeather.

The longtime reader seemed to like the larger type and recognized that the changes probably were made for cost reasons (yes, that's true), but his first sentence proved prophetic: "You'll probably receive many comments about the changes on the weather page."

Yes, we received many comments. About eight dozen.

At first, the weekend outlook was partly cloudy with occasionally showers of why-did-you-change-the-weather-page comments.

By Monday, when the office was open for business, we experienced gale winds and stormy conditions. It was raining readers.

Pardon the weather puns, but it's the best way to describe your reactions and my week.

You wanted to know what happened to the records for rainfall and high/low temperatures. You also missed the sunrise/sunset times and river levels.

Most correspondences were genuinely cordial.

Some were not.

Some saw the changes as an opportunity to chew on my ear about other matters.

Some refined their creative writing skills by waxing, er, sarcastically.

Here's my favorite from a reader in Dallas: "Do you have a problem with security in your building? It seems as though Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street have gotten hold of your weather reporting tools and turned it into a kindergarten flannel graph presentation, without the total rainfall display."

(Dear reader: Thanks for your e-mail. Bert was miffed about the changes; Ernie not so much.)

Here's background on what happened:

-We opted to end our contract with AccuWeather, Inc., which supplied the weather page, because of costs. We're a for-profit business in a tough economy, and the cost to keep AccuWeather amounted to five digits annually.

-The Statesman Journal already received weather information from The Associated Press, which coincidentally gets much of it from the same source as companies such as AccuWeather.

-The switchover happened on a Saturday because that's when the contract expired.

Here's the good news: Your feedback matters.

By Monday, we were determined to find an expeditious way to bring back the Local Almanac information (temperatures, rainfall amounts and outdoors indices).

I'll spare the details, but the weather page changed again on Tuesday with a revamped Local Almanac. The rainfall information was back.

Since then, we have returned other information. We appreciate your positive feedback. Many readers thanked us for listening.

I smiled at the feedback from one reader who owns an iPhone yet still counts on the Statesman Journal's weather page for specifics such as rainfall.

The iPhone has applications that allow weather buffs to get instant access to conditions worldwide.

Yet the newspaper still matters.

Maybe that's the sunshine we all should remember.

Bill Church is the executive editor of the Statesman Journal. His column appears on Sundays. Contact him at bchurch@StatesmanJournal.com; P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309; or (503) 399-6712. Read his blog at StatesmanJournal.com/BillChurch. Follow his tweets at Twitter.com/BillChurch_SJ.

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The Almanac - OfficialWire

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 12:13 AM PST

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury. The evening stars are Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include England's King Henry VI in 1421; French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in 1778; pioneer Western movie star William S. Hart in 1870; poet Joyce Kilmer in 1886; lyricist Ira Gershwin in 1896; photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1898; actress Agnes Moorehead in 1900; jazz pianist Dave Brubeck in 1920 (age 89); comedian Wally Cox in 1924; actors James Naughton in 1945 (age 64) and Tom Hulce in 1953 (age 56); comedian Steven Wright in 1955 (age 54); and actress Janine Turner in 1962 (age 47).

On this date in history:

In 1811, the first in a series of earthquakes rocked the Midwest in and around New Madrid, Mo.

In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, abolishing slavery in the United States.

In 1907, in West Virginia's Marion County, an explosion in a network of mines owned by the Fairmont Coal Company in Monongah killed 361 coal miners. It was the worst mining disaster in U.S. history.

In 1917, more than 1,600 people died in an explosion when a Belgian relief ship and a French munitions vessel collided in the harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In 1922, the Irish Free State, forerunner of the modern Republic of Ireland, was officially proclaimed.

In 1933, Americans crowded into liquor stores, bars and cafes to buy their first legal alcoholic beverages in 13 years, following repeal of Prohibition.

In 1941, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a message to Japanese Emperor Hirohito expressing hope that gathering war clouds would be dispelled. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the next day.

In 1969, an all-star concert headlined by the Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, Calif., turned tragic when a spectator was stabbed to death by members of the Hell's Angels, who had been hired as security guards for the event.

In 1973, Gerald Ford was sworn in as U.S. vice president under Richard Nixon, replacing Spiro Agnew, who had resigned in the face of income tax evasion charges.

In 1975, the U.S. Senate authorized a $2.3 billion emergency loan to save New York City from bankruptcy.

In 1990, Saddam Hussein asked the Iraqi parliament to authorize the release of all hostages being held by Iraq. The legislature acted the next day and all Americans who wished to leave were out a week later.

In 1991, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued sweeping changes in food labeling rules that required more detailed listing of contents.

In 1997, the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East was hit by one of the largest earthquakes recorded, measuring 8.5 to 9 in magnitude. But, there were no reported deaths in the sparsely populated area.

In 2002, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "gravely disturbed" by Israel's Gaza attack that left 10 Palestinians dead, including two U.N. Relief Works Agency employees.

In 2003, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., denying she had planned to run for president, blasted U.S. President George W. Bush for trying to wreck the United States.

Also in 2003, U.S. Embassy officials confirmed that U.S. troops apparently accidentally bombed a house near Ghazni, Afghanistan, killing nine children and one adult.

In 2004, the U.S. Congress passed a sweeping intelligence bill that would create a national intelligence director and enact other major recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission.

In 2005, two suicide bombers targeted a Baghdad police academy, reportedly killing at least 43 officers and cadets and injuring 73 others.

Also in 2005, at least 128 people were killed when an Iranian military aircraft hit a 10-story residential building in Tehran and exploded shortly after takeoff.

In 2006, Robert Gates was confirmed as the secretary of defense by the U.S. Senate on a 95-2 vote.

In 2007, news reports said the CIA had destroyed videotapes of the interrogation of two al-Qaida suspects in 2005. Meanwhile, U.S. congressional intelligence committees voted to outlaw harsh methods of interrogation, including waterboarding and other severe techniques reported to be in use.

Also in 2007, a coal mine gas explosion in China's Shanxi Province killed at least 70 people and left 26 others trapped underground. The head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety said the initial investigation indicated the blast was caused by illegal mining activities.

In 2008, seeking to put together a plan to resuscitate the reeling economy, President-elect Barack Obama promised the largest public works construction program since the inception of the interstate highway system a half century ago.

 

A thought for the day: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Houghwout Jackson wrote, "The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion, it will cease to be free for religion."

 

Air molecules make for a sky spectacle - Centre Daily

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 12:56 AM PST

Q:We saw wedge shaped "rays" in the sky a little north of Hancock, Md., one Saturday right before dusk. They began as a series of about five rays, equidistant from each other, and colored red and pink, like the sky. As it got darker, the outside rays disappeared, and left three, then two, which blended together to form one. I've seen such rays before, but between breaks in the clouds. In this case, I didn't see clouds. Do you know what caused this occurrence?

Kate

A:The rays of which you speak actually have a name. They are called crepuscular rays and are illuminated areas of light being scattered by air molecules. The scattered light really contrasts well to the areas that are shaded by clouds.

I was not there for the situation in question, so I cannot be certain of an answer. However, there are two things that I can think of that cause what you saw. During this time of dusk, the sun is dipping below the horizon. When the sun is first below the horizon, you are shadowed by the earth, while the sky above you is still being illuminated. When the sun is low in the horizon, most of the colors of light scatter so much that the primary colors that you see are the long wavelength colors of red, orange and yellow.

The bright areas that you saw were that scattered red light of the sunset while the dark areas were being shaded by something. Even though you did not see any clouds, they still could have been the culprits. They may have been far off in the western horizon, and the puffy tops could have shaded the light from the setting sun.

There is another possibility. I'm familiar with the topography of that region, and I also think you could have seen areas shadowed by the ridges in the distance.

The sun was sending its light through the valley locations, bringing the light areas, while the darker areas were shadowed by the hills.

In either case (the clouds or the hills), at first, just a few top peaks were casting shadows, and then as the sun sunk lower, the area of shadows grew and the lit areas got smaller. Eventually, there probably was just one little gap before the sun was too low and everything was shaded.

Q:The weather almanac in this paper has a line with the average high and low temperatures. Is this an average of all recorded temperatures or a rolling average of, say, 10 years, or something else? It seems to me that either one could be slightly misleading. In the first case, a hot spell for several years would seem worse than usual, while in the second case, a hot spell for several years would seem more normal.

Redding

A:Any official listing of average temperatures for a location, including the one in the Centre Daily Times, is a 30-year average. Usually, this rolling average is calculated each decade. In other words, the averages that are listed now are an average from 1971-2000. Not too far down the road, we will update and start using the averages from 1981-2010.

This 30-year period is deemed as long enough to diminish single year anomalies, but short enough to study some shorter-term climate changes. As for your suspicion of the data being misleading, you are correct, and there are some who say the statistics can be misleading.

For example, when we take out the temperatures from the cold winters of the late 1970s, many locations in our part of the nation may see these averages take a bit of a jump upward.

If you have a question about the weather, you can write to Joe Murgo at 5000 Sixth Ave., Altoona, PA 16602 or e-mail him at Murgo@wtajtv.com. Some questions will be answered here and all of the questions will be entered in a contest to be shown on WTAJ News at 5 p.m.

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Montana history almanac: Delegates forced to swear an oath during ... - Missoulian

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 12:27 AM PST

Dec. 12, 1864

Back east, Union Gen. William Sherman is marching through Georgia to the sea. Here in Bannack, Sidney Edgerton, appointed governor by Republican President Abraham Lincoln, insists that each member of Montana Territory's first legislative assembly take the "Iron Clad Oath," a pledge of allegiance to the United States.

It's the opening day of the Legislature, and Democratic delegates from Madison County balk at Edgerton's edict – until the governor hints they won't get paid if they don't take the oath.

"This touched the Madison County delegation in a tender place," the Montana Post of Virginia City will report, "and with … such contortions as one would make after over-eating turkey buzzards, they swallowed the Iron Clad."

The assembly has convened at noon on this Monday. After elections to various posts, proceedings are adjourned until Thursday.

Dec. 6, 1866

Another morning, another Sioux attack on the wood train outside of Fort Phil Kearney in northern Wyoming. The difference: Two Army officers who rode to the train's relief lose their lives.

Lt. Horatio Bingham and Sgt. G.R. Bowers are among three men cornered by the Sioux in an entrapment engineered by Red Cloud and Crazy Horse. Col. Henry Carrington leads the pursuit and narrowly avoids falling into the ambush. He has "recall" sounded just in time.

It was Carrington who was charged last spring with established three forts along the new Bozeman Trail to protect emigrants headed for Montana gold fields.

Bingham, Bowers and John Donovan are on the right flank of the charge and find themselves cut off by the Sioux. Their only option is to "run the gantlet." Donovan, armed with a Colt revolver and single-shot carbine, fends off attackers but the other two men are pulled from their horses and killed.

The casualties cause Carrington to rethink the policy of pursuing the Sioux when they retreat into the hills of their homeland. But 15 days later, a few miles to the south, Capt. William Fetterman will lead 80 men to their death in a similar chase and ambush. The Sioux, trying to protect their hunting grounds, will eventually force closure of the forts in 1868.

Dec. 8, 1945

A neighborhood beneath the Billings Rimrocks is awakened shortly after 2 a.m. by the roaring of a plane's motors, followed by an eerie silence. The plane's landing lights shine directly into the window of the home of F.H. Thayer, who hurries outside in a driving snowstorm when he hears a crash.

A C-47 Army transport carrying soldiers returning from World War II lies burning in a field near Billings Polytechnic Institute, later to be renamed Rocky Mountain College. Twenty-one of the 25 men on board die in the crash.

The plane was en route from New Jersey to Seattle and attempted to land here in the snowstorm. Airport manager Dick Logan says it approached the airport from the east, circled Billings and found itself too high to make a landing. The plane made a right turn and came back to try again. Battling poor visibility, the pilots were told the plane was too low. The control tower lost sight when the plane swung to the south. An observer climbed to the roof of the tower and sees the crashed ship burning on a field below the Rims.

It's one of the deadliest plane crashes in Montana history, though none of the casualties are from the state. A crash five years later near Butte will surpass the death toll by one fatality.

Reporter Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com.

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