Miracle on ice, February 22, 1980
An evening pause: Thirty-one years ago, February 22, 1980, Lake Placid, New York, the winter Olympics: The USA hockey team beats the Soviet Union 4 to 3 to set up their gold medal victory.
Category: The Evening Pause
A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
The Massive February 15, 2011 X Flare on the Sun
An evening pause: On February 15, 2011, the Sun emitted its strongest flare in four years. Though the Sun continues to act relatively wimpy as it ramps up towards solar maximum, this flare was spectacular, mostly because we now have some amazing instruments in space to image and study it. This video does an excellent job explaining what was happening, as it happened. Watch, and enjoy.
And note, as powerful as this flare was, and despite the fact that it was pointed right at the Earth, it represented a relatively minor threat to our technological society, despite what some doomsayers might be claiming. A very active Sun can cause us problems, especially with power systems and electrical grids, but based on past experience during previous solar maximums, most power companies have taken careful steps to protect themselves from this risk. And with the Sun as weakly active as it is, the risks are further reduced. The doomsayers are simply shilling for more government research dollars.
Jansen’s Strandbeests
Who will buy?
Hey Apple
Ventana Canyon
An evening pause: Hiking in the Santa Catalina mountains overlooking Tucson, Arizona. Amazing shots of wildlife as well.
BBC – Walk on the Wild Side
Two girls and a box
My Valentine
Tuba Solo Fnugg Blue, played by Øystein Baadsvik
Frazil ice
How engineers entertain their dog
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Teenage Dirtbag
Bryn Terfel sings two classic folk songs
The administration has now clarified its position on Egypt
More humor: The Obama administration has now clarified its position on Egypt.
The Singing, Ringing Tree
Falkirk Wheel
An evening pause: Some more cool engineering: how to move a boat eight stories from one canal to another. More here.
Reagan tells Soviet jokes
The Beatles – Happy Birthday
Ode to Forgetfulness
Glenn Miller Orchestra – Chattanooga Choo Choo
Bob Hope to the troops
Remembering Columbia
An evening pause: On this day eight years ago, the space shuttle Columbia broke up as it returned from orbit. Rather than watch that sad sight again, I’d rather remember the shuttle’s achievements. Watch this footage of Columbia’s first landing on April 14, 1981, which proved it was possible to glide powerless back from space and land safely on a runway. Though we as a nation might be abandoning this approach right now, future generations will use this as their standard way to return to Earth.
Several things to note as you watch the video. First, the shuttle’s angle of descent is extremely and frighteningly steep, until the very last moment. And every shuttle landing is like this. The shuttle is heavy, but it is still attempting to glide powerless to a landing. To do so it needs the thickness of the atmosphere combined with high speed to give it lift. Thus, it plows downward at a mucher higher speed and angle than any airplane, then quickly levels out at the last moment.
Secondly, this first landing did not have a drogue chute to slow the shuttle down. Rather than complicate things, they simply let the shuttle roll until it came to a stop.
Don Slepian – Next Time
An evening pause: Music by Don Slepian (1984). Graphics: analog video synthesizer.
Loreena McKennitt – The Old Ways
Jack Benny vs Groucho
An evening pause: All funny, but the best moment is the look on Groucho’s face when he asks Benny the “Big Question”.
Challenger accident, 25 years ago
An evening pause: Twenty-five years ago today.
The final words in Reagan’s speech come from a poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ing there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle flew;
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.