Kåre V wrote:
Who gives a crap about all this junk you're spewing about .... go away.

I give a crap! I care! I read everything Weatherlawyer writes. Even though
I`m not so good at English yet and don't understand everything. I read
most of it and find it interesting.

Please, there is no need.
I feed on that sort of thing. Anything to do with inverse square laws
and their ilk, is steak and beer as far as I am concerned.

I was going over something Marin Mersenne wrote -some years back now,
but it is still good today.

"Frequent Questions Concerning Genesis" and "The Truth of
Science", asserted that knowledge should freely advance through
experiment and observation, while insisting that hypotheses are, at
best [only] probable explanations.

In 1635 Mersenne formed the informal, private forum: Académie
Parisienne and he corresponded with, promulgated the ideas of, and
mediated disputes among include Galileo Galilei, Blaise Pascal,
Christiaan Huygens, and Pierre de Fermat and was particularly important
in promoting the work of Galileo.

Mersenne greatly facilitated the acceptance of mechanical explanations
against remnants of scholasticism. [ the philosophical systems and
speculative tendencies of various medieval Christian thinkers, who,
working against a background of fixed religious dogma, sought to solve
anew general philosophical problems]

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9052176

A bit of background. Mersenne was a philosopher in the days when only
male scholars, fluent in Latin, and the sons of the at least fairly
rich, got an education and the few of them with the will and the
resources to continue in the sciences fought tooth and nail against
every sort of barricade to reason and insight to define our
environment.

To this day, with the freedom of the press and the resouces of the
treasuries of kingdoms, to meet in open and honest debate; not only for
the rich and the male, the servants of the state and the knob polishers
of the keepers of the philosophies, we are able to examine in the most
minute detail, the theories and the logic of the status quo.

And if possible smash the envelope.

However there is a time and a place for everything. And if a genius
comes along with new insight he must expect still, to be reviled. Even
in this day and this age, a prophet is not accepted by his compatriots.


But one day they will have to know that I am or was a genius. And I am
content with that. It is a very small price to pay for some very great
insights. All I have to do is remember where I got them. And not wear a
mask of humility doing so.

Perhaps I aught to stop the bad language but I am not gifted in dealing
with fools that get in my way. Hank and even one or two of his betters
tend to define the present by looking backwards. Perhaps that is why
such fools are called backward?

He may mean well but so does a hole lot of water.

I realise that making them even madder than the state nature intended,
is hardly likely to endear me to them but for the life of me I can't
see why they just can't leave me alone. Or can they pay for the
lamentable alternative that has cost so many lives, with sacrifices of
their own in order to make full restitution?

Let them. Or let them be damned. They are people of no moment.

Until then I am going to make damned well sure there is as little of
the blood of the uninformed on me as I can wash the hell off.

Weatherlawyer wrote:

I have to admit to being a little suprised. But with winds gusting at
over 213 kilometers per hour or whatever that is in English, and Merapi
threatening to blow it's stack, I can't say that I'm going to be the
only one.

Now at least we shall see what a Low Pressure Area existing for so
long, out where it doesn't belong, is worth.

The latest BBC forecast shows that an occluded front is due to run
across Scotland and points east late Wednesday. That's pretty good for
a sea level forecast given over 3 days back.

Especially consiering the terrific forces involved with this one.

You still there hankie?

I must have scared him off. What is it about us genii? Merciless or
what?

Weatherlawyer wrote:

The latest BBC forecast shows that an occluded front is due to run
across Scotland (and points east) late Wednesday. That's pretty good for
a sea level forecast given over 3 days back.

I've just seen that the storm has taken that 90 degree turn. How would
forensics treat that one I wonder?

And now there is a tropical storm (Makani) out towards Hawaii. What an
interesting spell.
http://satellite.ehabich.info/hurricane-watch.htm

Fe! Fi! Fo! Fum! Who is blowing smoke in the auditorium?
Flaffingffi Flaffingfffuh! It's that coughing Weatherlawyer.

Weatherlawyer wrote:

The latest BBC forecast shows that an occluded front is due to run
across Scotland (and points east) late Wednesday. That's pretty good for
a sea level forecast given over 3 days back.

Well the storm or what there was of it, blew through here earlier
today. Gusts of 50 mph maybe? And a fair bit of rain but not the storm
it could have been.

And now there is a tropical storm (Makani) out towards Hawaii. What an
interesting spell.
http://satellite.ehabich.info/hurricane-watch.htm

The Hawaiian storm isn't going to do much, I think. And it is hardly
what you might call misty weather. However:

The Low pressure area that seemed to cross Britain in the last few days
has re-established itself out in the Atlantic once mo
http://www.weather.org.uk/charts/UKCpf048.png -or will have by Sunday,
according to that site.

I wish that I could find a site that gives the phases between the
phases. There are plenty with the well known lunar phase but I need the
ones out in the middle of the gibbous and waining crescents.

If a new moon is 0% and a full is 100% and the quarter moons are 50%. I
want the times of the phases when the moon is 25% and 75% visible.

If I could get them, I bet my accuracy would go up by soem 50%. It
would be nice to catch up with this fellow:
http://earthquake.itgo.com/today.htm

Try this for phases: http://www.inconstantmoon.com/index.htm. Not sure
whether timings are included for indeterminate phases

Software like any version of the sky has also a phase tool inbedded.

Pierre MK-UK

wrote:

Try this for phases: http://www.inconstantmoon.com/index.htm. Not sure
whether timings are included for indeterminate phases.

Software like any version of the sky has also a phase tool embedded.

Nice site and it lead me back to the JPL, which seems to offer more and
more lately: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons (We get bugger all from
our own people despite the hideous taxes we pay them in comparison.)

JPL produce the nautical and other almanacs in partnership with the
Rutherford Physics laboratory in Cambridge. I have looked there a few
times to try and get what I wanted but I just forgot the need I once
had and developed the ideas I have now, working with what little data
there is.

Here is a good one for the basic phases:
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons: 6000 Year Catalog. When I was
working on the ideas, there was nothing like this. So I look forward to
the future with more and more confidence.

on the saros
Interesting that the Saros continues to produces effective phenomenae
for centuries. I had thought that a cycle only lasts for three eclipses
and that was the end of it.

"Every eclipse is said to belong to a Saros series, and each series
is given a number. For instance, the annular eclipse of February 1999
belongs to Saros series 140, whilst the total eclipse of August 1999
belongs to series 145. At any point in time there will be around 42
Saros series in progress.

The eclipses within any Saros series are not identical, the area they
cover gradually migrates, each eclipse being centred slightly to the
north or south of its predecessor.

This gives a saros series a fixed life span, beginning as a minor
eclipse near one of the poles, evolving cycle by cycle into a major
eclipse spanning the equatorial regions, and eventually ending as
another minor eclipse at the opposite pole.

By convention, the odd numbered series begin near the north pole and
migrate southwards whilst the even numbered ones move northwards from
the south pole.

The lifetime of a Saros, from pole to pole, is some 1400 years, during
which it will produce between 69 and 86 eclipses. Saros 145 began in
January 1639, and will end in April 3009."
http://www.inconstantmoon.com/inconstant.htm

Weatherlawyer wrote:

Here is a good one for the basic phases:
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons: 6000 Year Catalog.

That ^ should have
read:http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclips.../phasecat.html

"The tables available though the links below give the date and time
(Universal Time) of all phases of the Moon for the six thousand year
period -1999 to +3000 (2000 BCE to 4000 CE). This data is provided
primarily to assist in historical research projects.

For the year 2000, the length of the mean synodic month (New Moon to
New Moon) is 29.530588 days (=29d12h44m03s). However, the length of any
one synodic month can vary from 29.26 to 29.80 days due to the
perturbing effects of the Sun's gravity on the Moon's eccentric orbit.

Each one hundred-year phase table also indicates when an eclipse of the
Sun or Moon takes place. An eclipse of the Sun can occur only at New
Moon, while an eclipse of the Moon can occur only at Full Moon.

Historians should note that the astronomical dating system used in
these tables includes the year "0" while the traditional BCE - CE
dating convention does not.

Thus, the year "0" here corresponds to "1 BCE", the year "-100" is "101
BCE", and so on. The old style Julian calendar is used for dates prior
to 1582, while the modern Gregorian calendar is used after that date.
For more information, see calendar dates:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhelp/calendar.html"

Not only has the daily percentage visibility of the moon but the
declination of it too. I have just spent the evening failing to work
out how to convert it to an XL document so I can delete the columns I
don't want.

I'd rather mess around with that all day than collate a
weatherforecast. What I need is a wife who knows how to use a desktop
office and finds this sort of thing interesting.

Where can I find a desperate, young, rich, and pretty woman who has
those qualifications?

Weatherlawyer wrote:
A storm approaching the Philippines and the East Sea will cause heavy
rains in southern Vietnam, the Vietnamese weather bureau predicted
Thursday.

The southern Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Center said Storm Chanchu
was moving northwest by west towards southern Philippines.

It could reach the East Sea Saturday morning and thus become the first
storm this year on the sea, the centre added.

The southern coastal region and Ho Chi Minh City are expected to
experience heavy rains.

China rescues 330 Vietnamese fishermen after typhoon.

BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese rescue ships have saved 330 Vietnamese
fishermen who were aboard 22 boats caught in storms brought by powerful
Typhoon Chanchu, state television has reported.

The search, which the TV report called "the largest international
rescue operation at sea ever conducted by China," had been going on for
close to 40 hours and was continuing.
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stor....bg6k3524.html

Now all I need to hear is that Mayor Nagin has ben relelected by the
survivors of Katrina.