Can you believe it?   Snow fell on the House of Commons (in the United Kingdom) AS they debated Global Warming yesterday.   This is the first October snow fall in the city since 1922!     It has been reported that they had two inches of snow fall in 2 hours when temperatures hit zero.  More evidence that the minimum number of Sunspots are having an impact on our weather.   Do you believe the civil magistrates are getting the message?   I doubt it.

Yesterday – we had the strangest weather – in October.   Snow!   Lots of Snow! 

             

Yesterday’s snowfall in central New Jersey – tied a 1962 record for October snow (13.5 inches).    This freak snow storm caught the garden state by surprise and there was numbers accidents and delays on the roads.   

I opened the newspaper this morning and found the colder and snowier weather made the front page.    It was then that I wondered what happened to global warming?   As I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago I believe in global warming (e.g. sunspot cycles, volcanic activity, etc..) - however there is reason to be sceptical of the over hyped CO2 caused global warming.   I predicted there will be a shortage of such reports in the coming months – because it’s going to be a colder then normal winter. 

Speaking about predictions.  This morning for some reason I recalled a prediction that was made January 27, 2006 by Vice President Al Gore.    He said about three years ago;

“We have only 10 years left to save the planet from becoming a frying pan“. 

The idea of course is that the earth’s temperature would drastically rise – where all life would be destroyed.  Wow – what a picture.   A prediction, if true – should have scared us to death.  Thank God, this prediction is not true – this is seen when we look at the global temperatures since this prediction.   As a friend of mine said in response to this post: “The downward trend in the graph can also be used to track Al Gore’s relevance.”


The following graph I put together with the data from the UAH Global Temperature Reports

                                     

I’ve just finished reading my second book dealing with the Band of Brothers series.   This book was written by Lt. Lynn “Buck” Compton – which had a slightly different path and vantage point then Sgt. Donald Malarkey.   He was trained in Georgia and not South Carolina, like the other men (so he did not have the pleasure of dealing with Lt. Sobel).   He first joined Easy Company in England as they were preparing to Parachute into France.    He explains his first encounter with the Germans, where he was face to face with two enemy soldiers.   Of all things – his gun jams and if wasn’t for Sergeant Guarnere following up behind him – he would have lost his life.   

He was known by his men and his superiors as a real combat leader and earned himself the Silver Star for his action in disabling the guns which were shelling our men on the beaches.   Later on, in Holland he was shot in the butt, earning himself the purple heart.   This wound was a bit embarrassing, because they removed him from the line by placing him on the hood of a truck with his butt sticking up in the air.  He later returned to his company and was at the Siege of Bastogne. This Siege was most likely the closest thing to hell on earth.  He had to endure some of the toughest conditions and see his men blown to bits.  He was later evacuated from Bastogne for severe trench foot, and after recovering, spend the rest of the war in Paris.   

His life after the war was almost as interesting.   Buck Compton served as a detective, lawyer and later as a judge in Los Angeles, California.   During his time with the DA’s office, he successfully prosecuted Sirhan Sirhan for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy.    It’s amazing that so much can happen in one man’s life.  

The book also has political leanings – for example the foreword is written by Senator John McCain.   Also the honourable Buck Compton added some advice on strict interpreting the constitution, the death penalty, and even a modern day draft.    All in all very interesting reading. 

I do recommend the book.

Today the girls and I when to the Costello Park in Paterson.   Lou Costello was born in 1906 and raised in Paterson, New Jersey, thus the park and monument made in honor of him.  Lou and his partner Abbott made 36 films between 1940 and 1956 – and were extremely famous during World War II.  Lou Costello played the same role for all these films – he played a bumbling, chubby, fellow with a clean-cut image.  

My brothers and I grew up watching their old films and even their TV show.  We even owned a silent film showing part of  ’Mexican Hayride’ (the bull fight scene) - which we watched over and over again.   Last year I bought a collection of their movies and we sat down on Saturday evenings to watch them.  No surprise my girls love watching their films!  

If you ever watch their movies you will note that Lou always ends up mentioning the town of ‘Paterson’ in his films.   For example on their TV show Costello often would sign off with, “Good night to everybody in Paterson, New Jersey.”

Here’s the ‘Who’s on First’ routine which I found on YouTube;   (notice that ‘Paterson’ is painted on the wall behind Abbott!)

Last Weekend the girls and I wanted to take a hike (also Elizabeth has a school project which she needs to take pictures) – so I selected a park next to my old neighborhood, called Old Troy Park.    When I was a young teenager we would bring our bikes and challenge each other to do crazy stunts in these woods.     Riding down steep hills with out hands or brakes – and the like.   

It was a wonderful day (warm and the leaves are changing) to be walked up these trails with my girls.  Here a few pics that Elizabeth took.


The start of the trail.  


The swamp

After you pass the swamp, and go over a tiny river you go up this hill. 


We use to call this the Crater (it’s smaller then I remember it).   It’s just a big hole in the ground which made for some interesting bike riding. 


The girls and I left our mark on a fallen tree next to the crater.  

This past Columbus Day (October 13th) my family and I went down to my mother’s house for the day.   We had a wonderful time partly because my Uncle and Aunt were visiting at the same time.   My Uncle Tom is a lover of game of soccer (‘football’ for the Irish) and he loves to share his love of the game with others.   He was wonderful and spend a good amount of time with my girls, and giving them soccer lessons.     He taught them the Nutmeg, Touch the Ball Around the Defender, the Scissors, and the Scoop.   They were instructed to practice their new moves over and over again.  They loved it.


Elizabeth outside practicing her moves.

Monique getting a soccer lesson.


Me and my Uncle.   Elizabeth took this picture.

 
For a cam picture of the Sun (updated every 4 hours) click here.

An interesting phenomenon is occurring in space over the last year and that is how quiet the Sun has become.   Many people are unaware that the Sun has solar cycles where it has more and less activity over a 11.3 year period.    Right now, at this point of the cycle, the sun is very very quiet with virtually no sun spots.  The other day solar physicist David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center said; “Sunspot counts are at a 50-year low” .   This is low level of sunspots is referred to as a Solar Minimum.  

The sunspot data came from a government website, found here. 
This graph does not include the 2008 number, so far there has been a mere four sunspots. 


You are probability wondering why this is significant?   It will be important because with less solar activity it has been noticed in the past that there is a cooling of the earth.  No sunspots means a low level of solar winds.  The theory is less solar winds, low sunspot count – means higher-energy rays reaching the atmosphere and that these cosmic rays affect cloud formation and means lower temperatures, meaning burrrrrrr it’s cold out there. 

Normally our solar minimums are short lived.   However what we are experiencing now is lower and longer minimum then we have had in 50 years.   The best known example of this is the so called Maunder minimum.   From 1645-1715, very few sunspots (about 0.1% of what was expected), which coincided with the Little Ice Age.  While I am not saying that we will experience an Little Ice Age in the short term – however it’s effects should be quite measurable.  No doubt the effects of this quiet sun will interest climatologists as to what impact solar activity plays in earth’s climate.   Also there are those which are skeptical of CO² being the single cause of global warming (myself included) and point to solar activity cycles as a significate contributor.   

What is interesting is when the temperatures rise high the media mentions it as a featured story, but when the global temperatures are low (as they are the last years and a half) they simply ignore it.   My prediction is that a number of countries will experence a much colder winter this year.  Then expect the global warming alarmists to say that it’s colder because of global warming.  They love having it both ways.

The following graph I put together with the data from the UAH Global Temperature Reports.  Notice when you compare the Sunspot graph with the Globe Temperatures – you will see that they peak around the same year the sunspots drop.  CO2 Emissions on the other hand don’t rise and fall, they only rise 0.5% per year since 1990.   The red circle shows the recent lower temperature.    Is this a fluke or is this the effects of the sun? 

I’ve seen some interesting things in people’s yards – but this guy from Mountain Lakes, NJ takes the cake.   Earlier this year I heard about this local guy who fought the town so that he could keep a boat in his front yard.   Not parked, but up a tree!   After he won the court case – he wanted to get back at the town –  so he added a number of other interesting objects.   Here’s a few pictures that I took; 

A mountain of bowling balls.

Looks like a zoo with all the animals.  

The Statue of Liberty

Is that Tony the Tiger or Simba?   

 
Today our family went to the Millbrook Village which is a small historically (1875-1900) preserved town located at a north-western part of NJ, in a National Park.   On the first weekend of October the park gets 150 volunteers which display various crafts and trades of that time period.  The town consists of 25 buildings; which includes an old one room school house, with a wood burning stove in the middle.  They have people in costume which explain and demonstrate how schools were in that day – including manners, respect for adults, and disciple.  In addition they had an old style 19th century country band, a black smith, wood crafts, candle making, wool spinning, needlepoint, town store (with candy that’s 10 cents a piece).  It was a lot of fun for the kids and hard to believe there was no cost (however they do ask for donations to support their work).  As you can see from the pictures we dressed up for the occasion, which makes the whole day even more enjoyable.  Here’s a few pictures I took (click the pictures to enlarge);

 

The Long Hill String Band playing Turkey in the Straw at Millbrook. 

 
The little women and I wait on the Blacksmith to repair our buggy.  Yessiree…time for gettn home.  

Here’s a picture of the Intrepid (WW2 aircraft carrier – 38,900-tons) from my office in Manhattan.   It was launched August 16, 1943 as one of the Essex-class attack carriers, it was in six major Pacific War campaigns including Leyte Gulf, and survived torpedo damage and 5 kamikaze suicide planes.     Later it was used in Korea and Vietnam and also used by NASA a couple times for retrieval.  

 
Here’s a picture of one of the Japanese planes about to strike the Intrepid.   The picture was taken aboard the New Jersey.