After the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on Friday, the internet was filled with videos, images and social media posts documenting the damage in Thailand.
But across the border in Myanmar, where the devastating quake was centered, there has been a far murkier picture about the scale of the diaster.
Information from Myanmar has been harder to come by in part because of the country’s history of internet censorship. In recent years, the military has repeatedly shut off the internet and cut access to social media, digitally isolating the country from the rest of the world.
– Adam Satariano and Paul Mozur reporting for the New York Times
Central Myanmar, the scene of a powerful earthquake on Friday, lies near the eastern end of one of the world’s most active zones of seismic activity: the Alpide Belt, which extends from the Mediterranean Sea eastward through Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, then along the Himalayas to Myanmar and finally Indonesia.
The epicenter of the quake on Friday was near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city with more than a million people. While much of Myanmar is susceptible to earthquakes, Mandalay and the surrounding towns sit right on top of one of four places in the country that are particularly prone to unusually powerful quakes, according to the United Nations Human Settlements Program. The other three places are in much less populated parts of the country.
– Keith Bradsher reporting for the New York Times
Lots of circles for Pi Day in this picture, right? The blood moon from the total lunar eclipse appears to perch on top of the Space Needle on Thursday night in Seattle. [Picture by Nick Wagner / The Seattle Times]
Here are my (totally amateur) pictures of tonight’s total lunar eclipse*.
I used my Canon EOD 7D Mk II digital camera and EF-S 18-135mm lens with image stabilizer.
I just cropped the full size of the pictures from 5472×3648 pixels down to 2000×1500 pixels but otherwise the photos are as recorded by the camera.
*A total lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, Earth and moon align in space with Earth in the middle, leading it to cast a shadow on the moon. During that time, the moon appears to turn a reddish hue, which is why the event is sometimes referred to as a “blood moon.” – nbcnews.com
We set all of our clocks forward by and hour, and now we’re on Daylight Saving Time again here in the United States.
I have to say: the older I get, the more annoyed I get at these ruptures in time, twice a year.
Also: I should really stop clambering up my kitchen counter top to mess with the battery-operated wall clock that is mounted way up there, almost by the ceiling. That is not worth it.
Permanent Standard Time (NOT Daylight Time) is what scientists and sleep experts recommend. I asked ChatGPT why we are still changing the time twice a year here in the US.
Here’s March, and a picture of the crescent moon with Venus in the early evening hours.
Shot at 6.38 pm (43 mins after sunset) from the back of my house with my iPhone 16 Pro’s telephoto lens (ISO 1250, 120 mm, f2.8, 3.5s shutter opening). I reduced the original picture size by 50% and darkened the night sky a little by using an Adobe Photoshop filter, to make it look closer to what it does with the naked eye.
Whenever planets are visible in the night sky, they always appear roughly along the same line. This path, known as the ecliptic, is the same one that the sun travels along during the day.
This happens because the planets orbit around the sun in the same plane. Dr. van Belle (director of science at Lowell Observatory in Arizona) likened the configuration to a vinyl record: The sun is in the center, and the grooves are the orbits of the planets around it.
Our point of view from Earth, then, is along one of those grooves, “looking out along the platter,” he said. This week, the planets are configured in such a way that all of them will be present in the sky at dusk from mostly anywhere on Earth.
-Katrina Muller writing for the New York Times
Also from the NYT article: “According to Gerard van Belle, director of science at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, an alignment of seven planets is neither mystical nor particularly rare. “On the scale of supermoon to death asteroid, this is more a supermoon sort of thing,” Dr. van Belle said. Still, the planetary parade, as the event is colloquially named, “makes for a very nice excuse to go outside at night, maybe with a glass of wine, and enjoy the night sky.”
Here are stamps issued by South Africa that would be candidates for a themed collection of elements on stamps.
Given South Africa’s large mining industry, it is somewhat surprising that relatively few stamps with a mining theme have been issued.
Gold (atomic number 79) 1961 First Definitive Issue Issued May 31, 1961 Perf. 14 | Photogravure | Wmk Coat of Arms 201 113 2c Ultramarine and yellow | Pouring gold [Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part 1, British Commonwealth 1997]Iron (26) Steel is primarily composed of iron, with most types containing around 98% to 99.5% iron, with the remaining percentage typically made up of carbon and trace elements depending on the specific steel grade.
1978 50th Anniversary of ISCOR* (South African Iron and Steel Industrial Corporation) Issued Jun. 5, 1978 Perf. 12 | Design: Hein Botha | Litho. | No Wmk 441 225 15c Multicolored | Steel rail *In the early 2000s, Iscor was sold by Thabo Mbeki’s government as his administration sought to run a tight ship and right the country’s finances. The name Iscor disappeared for good in March 2005. [Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part 1, British Commonwealth 1997]
Carbon (6) 1980 World Diamond Congress, Johannesburg Issued May 12, 1980 Perf. 14 |Design: A.H. Barrett |Litho. |No Wmk 478 20c Multicolored | Cullinan II diamond*
*Yes, a diamond is nothing but a lump of carbon. The Cullinan II is a 317.4 carat cushion-cut diamond that is the second-largest cut from the original Cullinan diamond. It is also known as the Second Star of Africa and is the most valuable stone in the Imperial State Crown in the Tower of London. The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, weighing 3,106 carats (621.20 g), discovered at the Premier No.2 mine in Cullinan, South Africa, on 26 January 1905. [Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part 1, British Commonwealth 1997]
These four metals happen to sit right next to one another in the periodic table: Titanium (22) Vanadium (23) Chromium (24) Manganese (25) 1984 Strategic Minerals Issued Jun. 8, 1984 Perf. 14 x 14¼ | Design: Hein Botha | Litho. | No Wmk 558 11c Multicolored | Manganese 559 20c Multicolored | Chromium 560 25c Multicolored | Vanadium 561 30c Multicolored | Titanium [Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part 1, British Commonwealth 1997]Gold (79) 1986 Centenary of Johannesburg Issued Sep. 25, 1986 Perf. 14 | Design: J. van Niekerk | Litho. | No Wmk 607 30c Multicolored | Gold bars [Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part 1, British Commonwealth 1997]
This sounds like a very interesting project: find postage stamps of the world that point to an element in the Periodic Table, directly or indirectly.
That is exactly what Larry G. French from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, had done, and writes about here and says:
“A premium was attached to identifying stamps on which element names and symbols or some other chemical notation appeared. I also attempted to include as many nations as possible while ensuring a good blend of people, places, applications and scientific fields was represented. For some elements (typically those with great economic significance such as gold and aluminum) there were many options to select from. Conversely, the frustratingly chemically similar lanthanides and actinides and the ephemeral super heavy weight chemical division posed a more significant challenge, one requiring deep digging and a creative license“.
Here is the “philatelic table of the elements”. (I requested a high-resolution version of this image from the site’s webmaster so that I can see all the details of the stamps). At first blush, I know of several stamps in my South Africa collection that refer to gold or have the mineshafts of gold mines on them. There is also a set of South African stamps from 1984 with symbols for chromium, manganese, vanadium* and titanium on. *Atomic number 23, and the stamp appears in the table above.
Here are the descriptions of the stamps in the table:
1 Hydrogen – North Vietnam
Test of Chinese hydrogen bomb;
nuclear chemistry in hydrogen bomb
2 Helium – U.S.S.R.
Tokamak fusion reactor
Will fusion ever become a viable clean energy source?
3 Lithium – Bolivia
Salar de Uyuni Salt Flats; Lithium resources for battery production/resource development in underdeveloped economies
4 Beryllium – Brazil
Emeralds; Legal battle over ownership of 180,000 carat Brazilian Bahia emerald
5 Boron – Turkey
Colmanite CaB3O4(OH)3 H2O; boron production
6 Carbon – Austria
Petrochemical industry, carbon compound; energy, carbon emissions, global warming
7 Nitrogen – France
Alkaloids, quinine discovery;
medicines from plants, malaria
87 Francium – France
Discovery by Frederic & Irene Joliot-Curie; work of Marguerite Perey at Curie Institute
88 Radium – India
Marie Sklodowska Curie discoverer; radium therapy in medicine
89 Actinium – Zaire
Trace quantities of actinium in pitchblende; uranium ore from Shinkolobwe mine in the Congo (Zaire) source of uranium for Manhattan Project
90 Thorium – Austria
Auer’s thorium mantle gas lamp; thorium pollution around superfund site(s) Camden, NJ Auer Lamp manufacturing site(s)
91 Protactinium – Sweden
Frederick Soddy; partial credit for discovery of protactinium isotopes, Nobel Prize
92 Uranium – West Germany
Uranium fission; Otto Hahn and discovery
of nuclear fission
93 Neptunium – United Nations
Fallout from above ground nuclear tests; nuclear arms control
96 Curium – Madagascar
Curies in Lab; Curies’ contributions to chemistry; uranium ore for radium production from Madagascar
97 Berkelium – Rep. of Guinea
Ernest Lawrence discovery of berkelium with cyclotron; Lawrence’s role in Manhattan Project; cyclotrons for synthesizing elements
98 Californium – Egypt
Landmine prohibition; neutron source for mine detection systems
99 Einsteinium – Rep. Marshall Islands
Ivy Mike test at Enewetak Atoll; first production element 99; nuclear testing, discovery of synthetic elements
100 Fermium – Italy
Enrico Fermi (with famous mistake in equation on board); Fermi’s role in Manhattan Project
101 Mendelevium – U.S.S.R.
Rutherford and Einstein; production of mendelevium via einsteinium bombardment with alpha particles
102 Nobelium – Hungary
10th anniversary JINR
103 Lawrencium – St. Vincent
Lawrence with first cyclotron; Lawrence’s role in Manhattan Project, cyclotrons for synthesizing elements
104 Rutherfordium – New Zealand
Electrons orbiting Rutherford’s head; Rutherford’s contributions to chemistry & physics, Nobel Prize
We have had cloudy skies for most of the evenings here in the Pacific Northwest, so it’s been a challenge to see that wily comet called C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS).
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is a comet from the Oort cloud* discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory in China on 9 January 2023 and independently found by ATLAS South Africa on 22 February 2023. The comet passed perihelion at a distance of 0.39 AU on 27 September 2024, when it became visible to the naked eye. [Source: Wikipedia]
*The Oort Cloud lies far beyond Pluto and the most distant edges of the Kuiper Belt. While the planets of our solar system orbit in a flat plane, the Oort Cloud is believed to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the Sun, planets and Kuiper Belt Objects. It’s like a big, thick bubble around our solar system, made of icy, comet-like objects. The Oort Cloud’s icy bodies can be as large as mountains – and sometimes larger. [Source: science.nasa.gov]
Picture posted by South African Lafras Smit (from Heilbron, Free State province, South Africa), on his Facebook account. 19 Okt 24 Wat wil jy nou nog meer in een foto hê? Daar is die Melkwegkern, Venus, Komeet Tsuchinshan – Atlas en ‘n vrystaatse windpomp! Translation: Could one want anything more in one photo? There’s the core of the Milky Way galaxy, Venus, comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas, and a windpump from Free State province!
Yikes.
From cbsnews.com: After weeks of debate, NASA has ruled out bringing two astronauts back to Earth aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule because of lingering concerns about multiple helium leaks and degraded thrusters, both critical to a successful re-entry, officials said Saturday. Launched June 5, Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams originally expected to spend a little more than a week in space in the Starliner’s first piloted test flight. They’ll now spend at least 262 days in orbit — nearly nine months — before returning to Earth around Feb. 22 with two Crew 9 fliers after they wrap up a normal six-month tour of duty.
‘The full moon captured from space’ posted on X by Curiosity@MAstronomers. It’s not clear from the post when this picture was taken, though. This August’s full moon (the supermoon called Blue Moon*) occurred at 2:26 p.m. EDT (1826 GMT) on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, when the moon was 100% fully illuminated. *Blue Moon means it’s the third full moon in a season that has four full moons.
It’s time for another cool British stamp that had arrived on an envelope in my mailbox.
150th Anniversary of Dinosaurs’ Identification by Owen Issued 1991, Aug. 20 Perf. 14½ x 14 | Phosphorized paper 1577 1010 Triceratops | 37p | grey, greenish yellow, turquoise-blue, dull violet, yellow-brown & black [Source: 1997 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part 1: British Commonwealth] Additional notes: 1. Richard Owen worked as a taxonomist for the London Zoo and coined the word dinosaur (originally ‘dinosauria’) in 1841. 2. Triceratops lived in the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 to 66 million years ago, in what is now western North America.
It was another beautiful blue sky day here in the city— 85°F (29 °C).
Here’s a view of downtown Bellevue, taken from my passenger seat at the top of the Ship Canal Bridge as we were heading north on I-5. That’s the Portage Bay body of water in the foreground. Vessels have the Montlake Cut to get to Lake Washington (visible at left, middle of the picture). Downtown Bellevue is on the east side of Lake Washington, and those are the Cascades mountain range in the distance.
Happy solstice!
It’s the earliest summer solstice in 228 years, or— since George Washington’s presidency.
So astronomical summer starts today here in the Northern Hemisphere.
With the scorching weather in much of the USA, it has felt like summer for many weeks already, of course.
We are going to be at 81 °F (27 °C) or so, through Saturday, here in the Seattle metro area.
Today marks the 44th anniversary of the 1980 Mt St Helens eruption.
‘We know that Mount St. Helens is the volcano in the Cascades most likely to erupt again in our lifetimes. It is likely that the types, frequencies, and magnitudes of past activity will be repeated in the future. However, neither a large debris avalanche nor a major lateral blast like those of May 18, 1980 is likely now that a deep crater has formed’.
– Cascades Volcano Observatory, Mount St. Helens, Nov. 3, 2023 (from the usgs.gov website)
Mount St. Helens prior to the catastrophic eruption of May 18, 1980. Streams and lava flows also visible. View is looking southerly from oblique aerial view. Mount Hood in distance. [Photo and description from usgs.gov website]Plinian eruption column from May 18, 1980 Mount St. Helens. Aerial view from the Southwest. [Photo and description from usgs.gov website]
Here is a new image of the Martian surface, taken by the Perseverance rover.
The atmosphere of Mars is much thinner than Earth’s.
The Red Planet’s atmosphere contains more than 95% carbon dioxide and much less than 1% oxygen.
Gravity on Mars is about 38% of the gravity of Earth, due to its smaller mass.
We were treated to a rare display of the northern lights here from Seattle on Friday night.
I took the first two pictures from my back porch around midnight on Friday.
The third picture was taken by my friend Thomas from Kitsap Peninsula. Look for the grouping of stars called the Big Dipper (a big ladle, left-of-middle, top of picture).
Anticipation of the total eclipse of the sun that is about to be visible in a large swath of North America, is at a fever pitch.
The eclipse will be visible starting at 12:06 p.m. CDT near Eagle Pass, Texas, before progressing to totality by about 1:27 p.m. CDT.
It will progress along its path to the northeast over the next few hours and the last of the eclipse in North America will be seen from Caribou, Maine at 4:40 p.m. EDT.
It does look like there will be cloud cover in several places along the way.
Here in the Pacific Northwest we will only see some 20% of the sun being obscured by the moon, and that is if the clouds allow it.
The Black Sun at Volunteer Park tonight. The sculpture of black Brazilian granite on a concrete base was created in 1969 by Isamu Noguchi.
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
The Associated Press
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in a quarter century rocked the island during the morning rush Wednesday, damaging buildings and creating a tsunami that washed ashore on southern Japanese islands. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, and the tsunami threat largely passed about two hours later.
Despite the quake striking at the height of the morning rush hour just before 8 a.m., the initial panic faded quickly on the island that is regularly rocked by temblors and prepares for them with drills at schools and notices issued via public media and mobile phone.
Still, the earthquake was strong enough to scare people who are used to such shaking.
“Earthquakes are a common occurrence, and I’ve grown accustomed to them. But today was the first time I was scared to tears by an earthquake,” Taipei resident Hsien-hsuen Keng said. ”I was awakened by the earthquake. I had never felt such intense shaking before.”
A five-story building in the lightly populated southeastern coastal city of Hualien near the epicenter appeared heavily damaged, collapsing its first floor and leaving the rest leaning at a 45-degree angle. In the capital, tiles fell from older buildings and within some newer office complexes, while debris fell from some building sites. Schools evacuated their students to sports fields, equipping them with yellow safety helmets. Some also covered themselves with textbooks to guard against falling objects as aftershocks continued. [Image taken from a video footage run by TVBS]
Just on the border of your waking mind There lies another time Where darkness and light are one And as you tread the halls of sanity You feel so glad to be Unable to go beyond I have a message from another time
– Lyrics from ‘Prologue’ on the album ‘Time’ by Electric Light Orchestra, 1981
It’s time to fiddle with our clocks again here in the United States.
Daylight Saving Time starts Sunday morning at 2 am.
Yeah, an hour extra daylight at the end of the day— robbed from the daylight in the early morning.
So we’re not really saving any daylight now, are we?
