The snow quit mid-afternoon... or at least that was when I looked out and noticed it.  Final picture of the gage I put up Friday:
 

 

Current Mood: tired

 First, the view from the porch at 12:11 pm:












The measuring stick is just visible against the fence.  Here is the close up of it at 1 PM (after shoveling):




However, the stick is actually in a depression on the leeward side of the fence.  Six inches into the yard things level out and appear to be at or above the 30 inch line.  After the start of 4.5-5 inches, that is a good 25 inches so far, with higher drifts.

Our plants appear to be fine, but two neighbors lost trees, in both cases hitting cars, but with little damage.  One also managed to hit a house, but, again, no apparent damage.

The street hasn't been plowed since early yesterday evening, though at least one local with a plow on his truck made a pass some time overnight, and there are tracks from an SUV or truck out this morning.

I need to make a new userpic for this kind of day.

Current Mood: amused

There has been a definite intensification in the last 4+ hours.

At 10:15 PM:


Two hours later, shortly after 12:21 AM: 


A little further back to show how the snow is stacking up on the fence itself.  The top third or so of the fence slats are buried, and each of the fence posts has a nice little crown.  The top of the 18 inch strip is just visible above the snow, so we are up to 19 inches on the leeward side of the fence.  As you can see behind it, the drift is now up to 2 feet.  Between the 10:15 PM shoveling and now it looked like at least 5 inches, probably more, on the walkway, which matches the pole's measurement.

Shortly after midnight, and while I was out taking that last set of pictures there was a flash of lightning.  No thunder, so it wasn't that close, but this is my first lightning snow.

Satellite went out between 10 and 11.  A well placed snowball knocked most of the snow off, but most channels still didn't work.  At this point some channels are still working, but not, appropriately enough, The Weather Channel...  Hard to tell how much of that is snow in the dish and how much is just to much moisture between us and the satellite.  But a check of signal strength shows only 4 of 32 transponders are getting through to us now, and the strongest of those is showing a '63'.  I'm not that worried about the Superbowl, but the AKC nationals are this weekend, and we do like to watch the big dog shows.  Well, it is re-broadcast a lot, so it isn't that big a deal.

 5:15 pm:


7:29:


Coming down harder now...

Starting documentation of this storm.


 

The bottom of each mark is six three inches above the bottom of the one below it.  That is the six inch mark just above the snow.

The 1 PM picture didn't show addition, though elsewhere we got about an inch in those two hours.  I will take the 3 PM picture shortly.

In the future I may start posting these weekly, since this gets a little long.  Sorry for the changes in formatting, I am still playing with/learning LJ's editor (which can be somewhat... frustrating at times).

First Week
Earlier Bedtimes May Fight Teen Depression
36 Hours in Tucson, Ariz.

 

Second Week

 

Is blue the new black? Why some people think Avatar is racist
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2010/01/is_blue_the_new_black_why_some.html

Man arrested after kiss sparked Newark airport scare
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8450224.stm

The 65
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/09/AR2010010902168.html
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/634820.html

Turning wood into bones
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8446637.stm

Undressing the Terror Threat
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704130904574644651587677752.html

Don't panic. Fear is al-Qaeda's real goal.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/10/AR2010011002143.html

Lunar orbiter spots Apollo landing sites
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31966131/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Common herbicide might affect frogs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/11/AR2010011103384.html

Joe Rollino, strongman, killed at 104 (3 articles)
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/01/11/2010-01-11_famed_coney_island_strongman_.html
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/jan/12/nyc-amusement-park-strongman-104-killed-van/news-breaking/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/nyregion/12ironman.html

Google China cyberattack part of vast espionage campaign, experts say
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/13/AR2010011300359.html
 

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/15/students-evacuated-school-chollas-view/

How are dog people and cat people different?
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/13/cat.dog.personality/

ENUM: Dragging telephone numbers into the Internet Age
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/01/enum-dragging-telephone-numbers-into-the-internet-age.ars

Eye test that spots Alzheimer's 20 years before symptoms: Middle-aged could be screened at routine optician's visit
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243181/Simple-eye-test-Alzheimers-catch-disease-crucial-early-stage.html

Luminous 3-D Jungle Is a Biologist’s Dream [essay]
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/science/19essay.html?em

McCain's wife, daughter back gay marriage movement
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/20/AR2010012004764.html

Software Makers See a Market in Censorship
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/technology/internet/16vpn.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.ratical.org/corporations/SCvSPR1886.html

On the jury, Gene Weingarten didn't believe the D.C. police's eyes
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/22/AR2010012202273.html?sid=ST2010012204400

KID GOTH [New Yorker Neil Gaiman article]
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/01/25/100125fa_fact_goodyear

Photographers protest against police stop and search
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/23/photographers-protest-stop-search-terrorism-police

Scientists Find a Shared Gene in Dogs With Compulsive Behavior
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/science/19dogs.html?ref=science

Blu-ray Maker Re-Boxes $500 Player, Charges $3,500
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/blu-ray-maker-re-boxes-500-player-charges-3500/

China spends billions to study dinosaur fossils at sites of major discoveries
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012503035.html

TOBACCO PLANTS TAPPED TO GROW SOLAR CELLS
http://news.discovery.com/tech/tobacco-plants-solar-cells.html

NEXT-GEN TOUCH SCREEN INSPIRED BY COFFEE RINGS
http://news.discovery.com/tech/touch-screen-device-coffee-rings.html

FIRST MOLECULAR TRANSISTOR CREATED
http://news.discovery.com/tech/molecular-transistor-benzene.html

LAMINATED LINEN PROTECTED ALEXANDER THE GREAT
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/linothorax-alexander-great-armor.html

NASA's Spirit won't be roving Mars anymore
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-sci-rover27-2010jan27,0,7278032.story

Kentucky a first-time loser on court, but winner off it
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/12846970/kentucky-a-firsttime-loser-on-court-but-winner-off-it

This is the title of a typical incendiary blog post
http://faultline.org/index.php/site/item/incendiary/

Interview with Rob Janoff, designer of the Apple logo
http://creativebits.org/interview/interview_rob_janoff_designer_apple_logo

State of the Union Speech Text
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/28/us/politics/AP-US-Obama-State-of-the-Union-Text.html

Revealed: The love letter-writing beauty who left her heart on a bus
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1245397/Revealed-The-love-letter-writing-beauty-left-heart-bus.html
[The comments nearly overshadow the article…]

Zoologger: The very hungry caterpillar usurps a queen
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18439-zoologger-the-very-hungry-caterpillar-that-usurps-a-queen.html

Migraines Force Sufferers to Do Their Homework
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/health/30patient.html

Ride the Slime Mold Express!
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2010/121/1

The World's Oldest Swiss Army Knife
http://gizmodo.com/5460475/the-worlds-oldest-swiss-army-knife

Pictured: Three cheetahs spare tiny antelope's life... and play with him instead
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246886/Pictured-Three-cheetahs-spare-tiny-antelopes-life--play-instead.html

I have been reading some of the reactions and editorials to Thursday's supreme Court ruling, and had an interesting thought...
 
In a supreme Court ruling in 1886, the Court (is claimed to have) said:

Current Mood: hopeful

http://www.movetoamend.org/we-corporations

A petition to amend the Constitution to state that People means people, not corporations, in response to yesterday's Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations unlimited spending for political purposes, as reported in:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012104866.html

Current Mood: determined

BoingBoing noted a link to images of sculpture by an artist in the SF Bay area posted to "deviantART.com". The sculpture was neat, as was some of the other work of the artist. The site seemed like a decent way to display artwork, so I decided to look into registering there. I took a look at their Service agreement, and saw a few things that are probably boilerplate, but which I still don't like. But the silly bit (you knew there had to be one) was in their 'Privacy Policy' statement.

In the section "What we collect" was the following paragraph. The final sentence caught my attention:

"We also collect “Anonymous Information” such as your IP address, the type of browser you use, the pages on our Sites that you have visited, and the advertisements that you have clicked on. Your Personally Identifiable Information is linked to your Anonymous Information."

So I guess it is a good thing that they put 'anonymous' in quotes...

At least the sculpture was cool:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/14/mark-newmans-eel-wal.html

Current Mood: disappointed

At http://online.wsj.com/community/groups/question-day-229/topics/level-should-legality-gay-marriage
the Wall Street Journal is asking:

At what level should the legality of gay marriage be decided?


* Local municipalities
* States
* Federal Government

My answer:

None of the above.

The more I see the arguments about this issue, the more certain I become that the problem is not gay marriage. The problem is "marriage" as it is enshrined in law.

The decision on marriage is a personal one. And it is not the province of the Government to say who can and cannot get married; it is up to the individuals based on their personal beliefs and needs.

New Jersey has experimented with an alternative to marriage for gay couples. After several years of the experiment the conclusion was that it did not work. People did not perceive or treat civil unions as 'equal' to marriage.

Part of the problem is that to many people in the USA, marriage is a religious institution, and their religion considers same sex relationships wrong.

The other part of the problem is that the government, as a simple expedient, wrote 'marriage' in to laws and codes.

The solution is simple: remove 'marriage' from the law. Substitute what you like; 'civil union' was the obvious choice, but the simple fact is that the government has no business telling people what to call their relationship. It might need something to call it, but that is a different problem. File your paperwork with the government, as you have to do now in any case, pay your fee and you are a couple. Call it a marriage if you want to; that is up to the people in the relationship. Let some churches 'require' that people get married in a church if they want to say they are married in that faith; that is their business if they are of that faith.

But stop using the law to block people from associating with the people they choose when all the government needs is the paperwork filled out and the right fees and taxes paid.

Current Mood: cold