POLAR STRATOSPHERIC CLOUDS: This week, sky watchers are reporting an outbreak of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) around the Arctic Circle. Unlike normal grey-white clouds, which hug Earth’s surface at altitudes of only 5 to 10 km, PSCs float through the stratosphere (25 km) and they are fantastically colorful. Truls Tiller photographed these over Tromsø, Norway, on Dec. 16th:
“Here the sun is gone for now,” says Tiller, “but this beautiful view makes the winter darkness nice to be in as well. The picture was taken at 10.30 am, in the middle of the ‘day.'”
Also known as “nacreous” or “mother of pearl” clouds, the icy structures form in the lower stratosphere when temperatures drop to around minus 85ºC. High-altitude sunlight shining through tiny ice particles ~10µm across produce the characteristic bright iridescent colors by diffraction and interference. Once thought to be mere curiosities, some PSCs are now known to be associated with the destruction of ozone.
“Nacreous clouds far outshine and have much more vivid colours than ordinary iridescent clouds, which are very much poor relations and seen frequently all over the world,” writes atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. “Once seen they are never forgotten.”
Dancing With Fools 
Uh oh, I slept past Saturday 🙂
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Yup.
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A lost mind is a terrible thing.
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Excedrin is the only aspirin we’ve kept in the house since they invented it. I notice it now isn’t just aspirin, it has that Tylenol stuff in it. I hardly ever get headaches anymore, rarely take an aspirin and when I do I only take one. In the old days when I actually got headaches I would take two.
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Wish I could see the Aurora here again. Saw it twice in the 37 years we lived our here in the country. Any time someone alerts us on FB that we may see it, I look outside during the night. Always nothing.
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My Christmas duties accomplished today. Dusted and decorated the basement. Took all the gifts downstairs to wrap another day. Cooking starts Monday, I’ll clean the house in between recipes.
Something is wrong with my butt. Not my butt, but my thighs below my butt, the part you sit down on when you sit down. This new office chair of mine has failed me, I think it’s the cause. I’m constantly shifting in this chair, been rounding up odd pillows, sitting on them in different combinations. Right now I’m using Bob’s office chair, but since I sat on a hard chair in the basement my thighs, or pelvis, or whatever it is was already sore. Our couch is wonderful, it doesn’t hurt me.
I casually mentioned this to Bob’s brother when he called here and he said he had the same problem and his doctor told him to sit on something that in on an incline, high in the back and lower to behind his knees. That’s hard to manage though.
Because of whatever is going on in the thighs, sometimes when I stand up it’s REALLY hard to walk. A little while ago, after I worked on the basement, I sat down at my jigsaw puzzle for a half hour. That is a hard office chair, worse than these up here, and I didn’t know if I could make it up the basement steps. But I did. It always feels good to go out for my evening walks because I’m standing!!!
Well, off to catch up with the news. It’s cold out but I’ll still go out around 9:00, sashay down to the road and get our mail. Might stay out for two beers.
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Google it!
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Another nothing done day. So I didn’t come close to 150 this week.
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Wasn’t sunny here.
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I got laundry done! Other than that I spent too much time in traffic with the insane today.
Xmas makes people nutzo!
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Wow, the Dem debate is tearing it up, actual issue debating, fiercely.
Crowd applause favors Ole Hill it seems.
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Yeah, as much as I like Bernie, ole Hillary seems the chosen one.
Can you imagine Hillary vs The Donald?? A cosmic joke.
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People do not realize Ole Hill has had plenty of chances to fix things but made them worse by siding with the BIG dogs. Hawkish on the money-sucking wars we choose to enrichen our corporate money-baggers with trillions that could be better used for college, medical care for all and infrastructure. Opportunities were there, she chose the rich boys side and left the rest of us in the lurch with no money.
O’Malley who? Apparently no fool.
There she goes with the pouty bitch face again.
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What about the Heroin epidemic?
We will keep guarding the Poppy fields.
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Off to the LLamas…
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Last word.
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