Science and Technology

Watching the satellite launch

| edwinridout

I stayed up really late last night, then drove about a mile to where I thought I had a plausible view of the horizon to the south southeast at about 11:25pm. Stepped away from the car and hope nobody would call the police or set the dogs on me. Checked the compass app on my phone to be sure I was facing Wallops Island, 124 miles or 200km away. A few minutes later there it was — a streaking fireball climbing up out of the trees and to the left. Seconds later it seemed to stop climbing and then started to drop, an illusion as it was now traveling away from me. I couldn’t take my own photo (I tried), but I saved this later from NASA.
clip-from-nasa-video
Gradually the sausage shape flame shortened to a spot. I saw the first burst of energy when the first bit of rocket was ejected, and after a longer gap, the second also. I thought I could see a con trail in the sky but it was so faint I might have imagined it. Then it was gone. No cheering crowds, no dogs, no police, so home and to bed.

The NASA video I took the screenshot from is here on Youtube. LADEE stands for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer.

Working the election Nov 6th

| edwinridout

We 15 election officials at the Hartwood precinct (in the new assembly hall of the historic Hartwood Presbyterian Church) served 226 voters per hour for 13 hours (6am to 7pm). We had four laptop check-in stations in almost constant use, and one more at the help desk in frequent use for special cases. Two printers issued check-in tickets, exchanged for ballots at our single ballot table. We had 14 ballot booths, one combination scanner/ballot box, and one touch-screen/audio electronic voting machine reserved for just three visually challenged voters. All others voted with Stafford County’s usual paper scan sheet ballot. A few of us did an hour or two of setup the day before. All of us convened on election day by 5am and worked until 9pm. I took paperwork and voting machines to the courthouse after that, and was home and in bed by 10pm. Most of the results below appeared on the website of the state board of elections next morning, although it took a week for the provisional ballot results to appear there. [On November 15th, I inserted below a chart from Google showing national results.] At our precinct eight provisional ballots were collected — none of our voters had to use the specially designated provisional ballots for voters unable to present identification on election day. (Eligibility of provisional voters is evaluated by the electoral board in the days after the election in order to determine whether or not to count their ballots at that point.) We had to replace about 40 spoiled ballots for voters who accidentally voted for more than one choice within a given race. About fifteen handicapped or elderly people were able to vote curbside from their cars — I did five together at one point. Several came early, in front of a hundred others standing in line, but none came in the last few hours at the end of the day. There was no line when we closed the doors at 7pm, at which point there was only one voter left in the room.


Hurricane Sandy

| edwinridout

Sandy and I survived Sandy. Lost power from about 9pm to 6am, slept in the basement for fear of the house being blown away (or bashed by the nearest oak tree). Outside things are quite wet and a little battered . . .

. . . but doggone, I need to get out with the chain saw to fix the back fence before the next time the dogs need to go out.

Hurricane Sandy weather statistics from near Heflin Road, a couple of miles from our house:

Bluebird at the box

| edwinridout

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuiKhQ5mhag”
Our Wildview camera’s video of a bluebird at the bluebird box 21 May 2011, 4:23pm. Only a week ago we though this box was occupied by chickadee chicks. After Youtube starts, you can activate the full-screen option by clicking an icon in lower right which looks like one of these:      

Owls

| edwinridout

Still no sign of owl interest in Sandy’s barred owl nesting box. We have started to hear owls in the distance over the last few weeks. I could hear a barred owl this morning before dawn today, and even before dusk yesterday. We’ve also heard another owl, possibly the Great Horned. This morning’s email brought this from Rob Bierregaard at Univ North Carolina, Charlotte (whose plans I followed in building Sandy’s owl box):

. . . we’re back on the internet airwaves with a NestCam in a Charlotte Barred Owl nest box.

This is a new box. Our old faithful pair (Percy and Mrs. Percy) did not use their box. I suspect Mrs. Percy may have come to an untimely end. Percy was scraping in the nest box back in January, and has been delivering food to a female, but they didn’t use the box.

The pair we’re following this year has always started nesting very late. 2 years ago when we first got them in a box, I put the box up on the 1st of February, knowing that that was way too late for them to nest that year. A month later the female laid eggs. Hatch this year was about the 20th and 22nd of April, at which point some Charlotte pairs had young out of the nest already.

Go to this cornell.edu website to watch the cam. [Pick Select a Cam, then Barred Owl, NC.] We should have about 4 more weeks to watch the young grow. It will be interesting to see how they respond to the big 17-year cicada hatch predicted for this year.