From the Sublime to the ridiculous? A weather phenomena!

Greetings dear readers.

I was idly reading the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service text bulletin on today's forecast and quote part of it below...

LOOKING AT A CROSS SECTION FROM NEAR GRAND RAPIDS MICHIGAN TO NEAR
ALBANY...PLACING THE LINE THROUGH MUCH OF OUR FORECAST AREA...I
NOTICED A NOTICEABLE WESTWARD EXTENSION OF MID LEVEL FRONTOGENESIS
DURING THIS 00Z-12Z PERIOD WHICH MAY ALSO EXTEND THE WESTERN EDGE OF
LIGHT SNOW AS FAR WEST AS LAKE ERIE. OF COURSE...THE GFS IS MORE
ROBUST IN SHOWING THIS UPWARD SLOPING FRONTAL BOUNDARY THAN THE
NAM...BUT BOTH MODELS DO SHOW SUFFICIENT FRONTOGENESIS AND MOISTURE
FROM 700MB TO 500MB FOR SNOW TO FORM ALOFT. THE BIG QUESTION IS IF
THE SNOW WILL REACH THE GROUND AS THERE IS A VERY DRY UNDERLYING
LAYER THROUGH WHICH ANY SNOW MUST FALL...MAYBE ALL WILL SUBLIMATE
BEFORE REACHING THE GROUND AND WE`LL JUST HAVE SOME REALLY NICE
VIRGA. IN EITHER CASE...WILL EXTEND CHANCE POPS TO COVER THE REST OF
THE FORECAST AREA FROM THE FINGER LAKES TO THE WESTERN EDGE...40
POPS FOR NOW.

See their web page HERE

Well, there's a couple of words there which I find interesting. You don't often see sublimation mentioned. That is not ridiculous, it's where a solid changes to a gas without going through the liquid state. More often in meteorological discussions it is mentioned in the context of snow lying on the ground disappearing although the temperature is below freezing.

Secondly, there's the mention of virga. That is nothing to do with a little blue pill, it's precipitation that does not reach the ground.

I have to say I've met one of the forecasters from Buffalo NWS office, David Sage. He gave a truly fabulous lecture on thunderstorms at an FAA sponsored "Wings" event some years ago. I was impressed by his passion for the subject, his ability to pass on vital information to the pilot community, and above all his wonderful use of English. Look for his name on the text page linked above! Send him an email.....

Cheers.

A Hard Day's Night

You could see the compassion, concern, and love on everyone’s face last night.

Well, last night’s events were hard on us all, because the patient was “family.” He was a law enforcement officer, with family in the same profession. The family, in the widest possible sense, was everyone involved, from the first responders on scene, many of whom knew him, to his own relatives and loved ones.

He was taken to a local hospital and prepared for flight. He passed away despite all the efforts to save him.

You know, events like these make us all feel deep emotions. God created us in His image and commanded us to love one another. When I see so many effected by the events of last night, so many caring people, so much effort and love, I thank God for the blessing and the curse of that love.

The old cliché that “Love Hurts” is true and is the curse part of the gift of love. You could see the hurt on the faces of the crew who carried out CPR for most of the flight. You could tell that the nurses, the helpers, the doctors, the radiographers, the chaplain, the cleaner, the firemen, the policemen, and even the patient in the next bed were all at one with the patient, hoping and praying for the best.

That it was not to be is simply in the hands of God. It reminds us of our own mortality. We feel a profound sense of loss. That loss of someone I didn’t even know cannot compare to the loss felt by the family and loved ones, but is no less painful.

So I ask myself once again, “Why do I do this job?” Well, I know that it’s the same motivation and care that everyone I met last night feels. We are all driven by the same desire, to make a difference. Sometimes we do, sometimes we cannot, but we would all feel defeated, insignificant, a failure if we didn’t try.

I thank God for this patient’s life, for the dedication and motivation shown last night, and ask that He support us all in this work. I also ask Him to comfort the bereaved as well as the caregivers.

Skype Public Chat

Click this link to join an EMS Helicopter Pilots and Crew Chat on Skype

What makes music your favorite? An essay on musical taste.

Greetings those few readers that I attract.

As I was listening to music on my computer via the internet I was tempted to ask myself, "Why do I like one song more than another?" It's almost impossible to answer, so difficult that I cannot even begin. There's rhythm, or if you like the back beat, usually drums and/or bass line. There's melody, a catchy tune that you can't get out of your head. Sometimes it's as simple as the lyrics... one of my favorite musicians is Sting, whose melody lines are not catchy at all, but whose words ring out so often. As an aside, I remember seeing him being interviewed, I think it was on MTV, and was asked what young people thought of all his religion. To paraphrase his answer he said that while church was discredited God was not.

I digress....

Back to the point or points... another example I like is 12/4 time signature. It's simply uplifting, makes you want to dance, and I don't dance, don't ask me....

So imagine my joy at being directed to Pandora.com by a friend. You will see "my" stations listed on the right. How are those created? Simply by seeding your initial station with a song or artist you like, and those clever people at Pandora have spend thousands of hours classifying music in what they call genomes and supply you with similar music on your station. Sounds delightfully simple, but to be honest is as massive an undertaking, in my humble opinion, as the mapping of the human genome. That scientific miracle was said to have been impossible in my lifetime and yet it has happened.

If Tim Westergren, the founder of the music genome project, reads this I hope he takes heart. I believe their map is as incomplete as the human genome was ten years ago. There's simply not enough definitions, enough genres, enough detail at this time. It is, I believe, for this reason that I get music I don't like on my stations at times. That's no problem as I simply pop over to the open web page and click the thumbs down button. They politely apologize and go on to the next song. (Makes me giggle the way they are so polite! Nice!)

Here's an example of the detail of the song I am listening to as I write. The song, You Are, sung by Ron Kenoly, has been detailed at Pandora as follows:

r & b influences
acoustic rhythm piano
call and answer vocal harmony (Antiphony)
extensive vamping
mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation
paired vocal harmony
a vocal-centric aesthetic
major key tonality
string section beds
acoustic rhythm guitars
subtle use of fender rhodes
vocal duets
upbeat lyrics

(That took some fiddling to cut and paste! For the geeks amongst you, I had to switch to "Edit HTML" to strip out the formatting.... what a pain!)

Ok, so do I like the song, yes, perhaps 6 out of 10. So I went back to Pandora and searched for one of my top favorites of this genre to see what they'd written. It's the Lion and the Lamb by Crystal Lewis. They say:

& b influences
major key tonality
melodic songwriting
an emotional female lead vocal performance
a smooth female lead vocal
electric pianos
subtle use of strings
upbeat lyrics

Note the similarities with the definition above. To be fair to Pandora, the above are summaries of their attributes. They say: 

Q: How many attributes or "genes" are there in the Music Genome?

There are just shy of 400 musical attributes in the Music Genome Project.

When you ask the Pandora Tuner "why is this song playing?" what gets displayed is just a summary of the information used by the Music Genome.

Even two songs that show identical answers to "why is this song playing?" still have countless differences that the Music Genome uses when it matches music based on each of those songs.

These attribute summaries are intended to provide some interesting insight into the musicological elements of a song -- without getting into dozens of individual attributes for each element.

---
For an explanation of the most common summary elements, please see FAQ Section 6D, beginning with:
http://blog.pandora.com/faq/#92

To close this short essay, let me recommend the following if you're interested:

Q: How can I find out more about music theory and structure?

We're creating an audio and video series called Pandora Presents... that explores in more detail some widely used musical features. To listen, check out: http://blog.pandora.com/podcast

Happy Listening

Chase Bank - thieves!

Believe this or believe it or not, Chase Bank have a wonderful gimmick for making money. We decided to pay off the 29.99999% interest rate card last January. Oh, but there was a finance charge for doing that over the phone which was not included in the "final" payment. So we get a statement with not only that finance charge but additional charges for "late" payments.

Three attempts later, we have yet again paid them $5:28 plus an unknown fee for paying over the phone. We'll see if they hit us next month with additional finance charges.

Maybe the CEO of Chase Bank would dip into his own pocket and pay off this otherwise impossible to clear debt!

Argh!

Politics - Conservative Online Group, Grassfire.org

Greetings,

I consider myself to be somewhat of a central but right leaning fellow when it comes to the political scene. Somewhat middle of the road on many issues, but I received information about Grassfire.org from a good friend. There you can add your name to petitions that suit you, take part in straw polls, buy yard signs and so on. Whilst I may not agree with some of this conservative organization's stands on some issues, I do find that it is a good answer to blogs such as move on.org.

Check it out... http://www.grassfire.org/index.htm

Look what I saw, a Morris Minor

On a rural road in New York State, a Morris Minor

Just a thunderstorm kind of day.

Thunder and lightening.

Structure Fire in Branchport, NY

Flew past this house on fire yesterday. Huge flames. When we returned about an hour later it was all over!

Cheers

B2 Crash Video on YouTube

Just dogs

Just Rudi playing with a rope on a boat...

no not soap on a rope..

Want to be informed when there's new posts?

I have yet to find a way to add an email link on the blog so that you may leave an email address to be notified if there are changes to the blog..

However, in the settings panel I can add email addys. If you want to be informed when there's new posts comment to this post with your desired email addy. I will NOT publish that comment, but will add your address to the linked list.

Cheers.

Aerial Photographs today video

Our home on Conesus Lake

Snoopy's in town.

The Metlife blimp is in Rochester for a golf championship.

I was young once!

Well here I am n-n-n-nineteen...

Video slideshow in New York

Greetings, I bought the software removing the "bug" text!

Another Day another car wreck

Here's a car well wrapped around a tree.

BTW You can click on the photographs to see them full-sized.

Just another day...

A typical Scene Call for the EMS Helicopter

Greetings,
So here's the deal, went to meet the ambulance, in this case Ontario, Wayne County, NY:










Flight Nurse Dwayne returning to the aircraft.














Then load the patient, Flight Paramedic Doug accompanies firemen and ambulancemen doing the carrying.

Land at Strong Memorial Hospital.

The Crew: Dwayne (Flight Nurse), Doug (Flight Paramedic) and yours truly (Pilot).













Back on the "dolly," refuelled and ready for the next mission.

Just another day at work

This was a beautiful flying day. Picked up this patient in Ontario, Wayne County, New York State, right on the coast of Lake Ontario.

Just another day at work...

Pet Hates! Or isn't it stupid?

Here we are - my pet hates. Have you noticed how supermarkets present you with fruit, vegetables and cakes just as you enter the place. Of course you put those in your shopping cart then load the cans of drink and other heavy items right on top and squash your squash! How stupid is that? Wouldn't it be better to have the delicate items last? Must be some marketing idea!

I hate the gap between car seats and the center console! One of these days I'm going to take my car into the garage to have the driver and passenger seats removed to recover about $100 worth of coins, assorted pens, cigarette lighters and gas station receipts. - Oh yes, and about a ton of candy (sweets in UK English!)

Let me know some of your pet hates.

Ever get that feeling? Lost - forgotten?

Did you ever see a waitress at a restaurant come out of the kitchen carrying a plate of food then stop with that look on her face? You know the one, "I can't remember who ordered this meal." So she's standing there with a look of confused embarrassment on her face looking all around the room for the intended eater!

How that makes me want to rush up and hug her! How that invokes such a feeling of compassion in me! After all, nobody likes to see anyone else embarrassed, and such a simple act of forgetting who ordered some food is cause for embarrassment.

Isn't life like this in a bigger way? Aren't we often looking for something, someone, but don't quite know what or who? It is as if we are expecting a result, that instant recognition of who ordered the meal, or of finding something worthwhile we know we've been seeking all our lives.

I like to believe that revelation is not the blinding light on the road to Damascus because we're surprised but because we realise something we've known all our lives and yet have never acknowledged.

It's like my faith. I believe I've had it all my life to one degree or another. And yet I am constantly reminded of it by such little events such as the confused waitress that the blinding light of accepting something I've always known is such a great yet simple joy.

I hope you find joy in humour, in events, in people, in pets, in a life saved.

So now we sleep in a telephone box.

Cool door art, yes?

Speaking of other things, we are totally fed up with the weather. We are ready for spring!

I mean look at this weather:
KDSV 5:44 AM IFR. Visability 2 1/2 sm.
Weather Light Snow, Mist
Cloud Broken 2900', Broken 3600', Overcast 6000'
Wind Calm.
Temp 33.8°F. Dew Point 28.4°F
Pressure 29.63"
Humidity 80%
Density Altitude -460'
Trace of precip since last report

Wet snow!

Cheers

Conklin Gully Rescue

Chap fell 100 feet into Conklin Gully, Naples, NY, while ice climbing with a friend.
The firemen had to do a rope rescue and hauled him up the cliff on a Stoke's litter.

He was flown to Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester, NY by Mercy Flight Central, with your's truly at the controls.

It was very cold up in those hills.!

Evan Almighty - A Must See Movie

"Do you want to know how to change the world, son? One random act of kindness at a time."

Yes, this is a funny movie. It made me laugh anyway! The idea of a modern day Noah building an ark so that a pretty valley in Virginia can be saved is farfetched. The idea that God himself would appear on earth in the form of Morgan Freeman - hm! I wonder?

But this movie is not without its impact. There's one line in particular, when "god" appears as Al Mighty waiting on tables in a diner. He's persuading "Noah's" wife to return home and says something like, "Do you suppose when someone prays for love I fill them with warm fuzzy feelings towards one another? No, I just give them the opportunity to love. Do you think I make courageous someone praying for courage? I just give them an opportunity to show their courage."

Ok, so you're sceptical, this is all too "touchy feely" for you. Well remember this.... someday you'll be down on your luck, maybe at the bottom, or so you think. You'll shout out something like "God help me" either out loud or to yourself. Do you think God hands out cash money or performs miracles directly answering your prayer? No, he will simply present you with unlimited opportunities to BE HELPFUL to others. If you do this, and have faith, your prayers will be answered. Of this I have no doubt - and God presented me with an opportunity to believe in this funny movie.

Enjoy

http://www.evanalmighty.com/