Not this - too hard on the lungs.

Yes

I'd rather have this

First Time I've Done This

The restaurant will be tomorrow because the surroundings is getting much worse.  There are several areas around us where forest fires are burning.  Too much, including an area on the dome behind us and across the river but its close enough to provide pollution.

The whole area looks as if it is covered with fog from ground to the sky but its not.  It's smoke.  Thick smelly smoke you can see and smell. There are at least 8 fires within a 30 mile radius of Fairbanks.  Some are under 10 acres while others are over 10,000 acres and with all those fires, it is not unusual to get thick, dense, smoke filled air.

 It is the type that they tell you to stay inside and avoid outdoor exercise.  In fact the local hospital has opened a filtered room anyone can come in to use if they wish because the air is rated as extremely unhealthy.  It has not cleared up in about a week.  The last time it cleared was after a good rain but I don't think there is an end in site.

Rather than suffering through the smokey air, I went into town this morning and after checking a couple of stores I finally found the masks rated N95 which are better at getting smoke particles as you breath.  I got the last box of 20 on the shelf because it may be a while before they get the fire out.  These are not as good as the more heavy duty ones resembling gas masks.  I have never done this before because things never got this bad.  I decided to invest to protect my lungs.

The town has sold out of air purifiers, most masks, and even furnace filters are beginning to run in short supply because you put one on the outside of your box fan in the window so as it draws air into the building, you are getting cleaner air.  It's not the best but it is a good substitute when you don't have a good air purifier.

Even people who do not suffer from asthma, or other lung diseases are starting to feel the effects of smoke and dust.  More and more people are investing in something to help them breath clearer air so they don't mess with their lungs.  Although this happens on a yearly basis, it hasn't been this bad this long for a few years.

I'm expecting to have the announcements at the airport say "Welcome to Fairbanks International Airport.  This is a non smoking facility" and have the interior smoke filled due to the smoke filled air brought in from the outside.  This only happens when there are so many fires in the area that everything from the ground to the top of the mountains and higher.

The whole area is under a high fire danger so no fires.  There was supposed to be a musical night in the garden at the University last night.  Due to the smoke, it got moved to the Great Hall, an indoor facility so people who might have lung issues could be inside.  Most outdoor activities are being cancelled or moved indoors.

It's also crappy because we cannot enjoy walks along the river, runs in the early morning, late night baseball games, due to the amount of smoke.  Unfortunately, it may not fully clear up till the snows begin falling in September.  We just live it day by day and hope things clear.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Monday, I'll talk about the restaurant.  Also next week, I'll be reporting from Costa Rica.  I leave Sunday night and get there Monday mid afternoon.  I'll travel across 4 to 5 time zones.

Rocket Display

 Monday, before going to the Golden Spike National Park, we stopped off at Northrop Grumman some where outside of Layton, Utah to check out the display of rockets.

The rockets are in a rectangular patch outside the building so you never actually go in but each rocket had a plate giving information.

The rocket to the left is the space shuttle reusable solid rocket motor.  It is 143 feet long which is why you can't see the whole thing in the photo.   The guide said the Saturn 5 rocket which powered the Apollo missions is three times the size of this one.

 The one with the black is a Minuteman rocket which has a range of 6000 miles.  The stage 1 part of the rocket was built in Utah.  The other, with the blue stripe, is a three stage Trident Rocket.  This is designed to be launched from submarines and the rounded tip helps reduce aerodynamic drag.

This place has 39 rockets, boosters, and parts of various rockets spread throughout the area.  Some of these you don't realize the size until you actually see them in person because some are much smaller than expected.

 This one is a Patriot missile which they began designing in 1972 but it did not go into production until 1981.  This rocket is placed near the front, right next to the parking lot, between the entrance and several motors.

Both the Minuteman and Patriot rockets were designed for military use rather than civilian. Even if these rockets were built elsewhere, Northrup had a hand in either designing or building them.




This piece was designed to be part of the Space Shuttle.  It is referred to as TU-77 or the cylindrical section in the aft most engine.  It is one of the pieces with the O-ring that failed.

The failure of the O-ring is what caused the Challenger to fail that one time back in the 1980's.  The O-ring is on the other side of this section and is where it joined another part.  It has about a 12 foot diameter and is pretty large.

 This shot is taken looking through it at a much smaller Castor IV motor which was used to power several craft such as the Delta, Athena H, etc.  It's first flight was back in 1971.

The little metal thing in the front is the Star 380P which stabilizes satellites in a 22,000 mile geosynchronous orbits.  This is important to always keep them in a certain place above the earth.

This model shows what the solid rocket fuel looks like.  The reason for the interesting interior shape is because it gives the most surface area so when the explosive goes, it causes this to catch fire.

The guide said it is made in one of the 600 gallon mixing "bowl" they got from the Wonder Bakery.  The example you see is actually made with inert materials but it gives visitors a chance to see what the real one looks like.

This is perfectly safe but it is still nice to see because most of us will never get close enough to see it in person.  I'm told when a rocket like this launches, it creates a loud noise and sends out waves that can pin people to walls if you are too close.

I had a blast checking it out.  The site is located a little past the turn off to the Golden Spike National Park and is well worth visiting if you are interested in rocketry.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Tomorrow, I'll share pictures of a 98 year old continuously operating restaurant filled with charm and great food.  Have a great day.

Golden Spike National Park

The day I headed home from Utah, I took a quick tour that included a stop at the Golden Spike National Park.  This is where the two railroads met creating the transcontinental railroad which connected the east and the west.  The actual location is Promontory Summit, Utah. 

It happened in May of 1869 and the last bit of it was completed in the last 24 hours prior to the ceremony.

The engine that came from the west belonged to the Central Pacific Railroad and used a wood burning engine.  The other belonging to the Union Pacific burned coal and came in from the east.  There was a telegraph set up to spread the word to the rest of the world once the spike was driven in.

Presidents of the two railroads, a minister, the telegraph person, reporters and others turned out that day in the middle of the summit to honor this historic moment.

The Central Pacific engine was known as the Jupiter while the Union Pacific engine simply had a number.  

These two engines are actually replicas of the original engines and they are pulled out of their garage to recreate the event.  I don't know if this is regular or just happened because there were a couple of groups out visiting.

The two train engines were brought up on the track so they faced each other with a space between.  This space is where the ceremony happened.

The ranger who gave information on the event, asked for volunteers from the audience to recreate the ceremony.  Most of us think they hammered one spike in and it was done but there were actually four different spikes.

One was donated by a friend of the Union Pacific railroad president.  He had $400 of his own gold made into a golden spike 5 1/2 inches long weighing 14 ounces.  It was ornately inscribed.

The second came from a San Francisco newspaper publisher who provided a simpler spike made out of $200 worth of gold. It had a much simpler engraving.

The third spike came from the Arizona Territory. The spike they provided actually had a core of iron with the head plated with gold and the body plated in silver.

The fourth spike came from the railroad commissioner and was made of silver.  It almost didn't make it since it was only ordered a few days before the ceremony.

In the picture to the left you see a board that is golden.  This is where the four spikes were embedded and it marked where the two rails met.  You can actually see a difference between the ties coming in from the east and west.  One set of ties is bigger.

In addition, they created a special hammer or maul for this day.  The heavily silver plated maul was stamped with the name of the manufacturer and commissioned by the president of San Francisco's Pacific Express Company.  The final part was the last time made out of California laurel wood, made by a billiards table manufacturer.  This piece carried a plaque commemorating this great event.

It was all in place when they met to drive all four spikes into the last tie. This was such a cool experience, I am glad I got a chance to see it.  It was a bit more than one hour from Salt Lake City and worth the trip.  Let me know what you think.

Moral Insanity

  I enjoy watching television in the sense that episodes often mention things we've never heard of today and I go check to see if it is a real thing.  The other day, I rewatched an episode of "Call the Midwives" and one of the women they deal with has a sister who was committed to an asylum due to "moral insanity".

The time:  1937
The place: England
The reason:  The young lady was promiscuous.

Apparently, the girl was committed for "moral insanity" but what the sister didn't know was the girl was pregnant when committed.  So when the baby was born, it was adopted out and that is what threw the girl into being not quite right in the head.  The two sisters reconnected and that was good.

Moral insanity was considered a proper psychiatric diagnosis through Europe and the United States during the 1800's and early 1900's.  The diagnosis first appeared in 1835 when a doctor stated there was a mental illness in which the brain was uninjured but manifested itself via habits, feelings, or temper.  In other words, the person was unable to behave in a decent manner.

This particular diagnosis was even used in legal cases such as the one for the man who shot President Garfield.  It was said he was a moral imbecile and suffered from moral insanity.  Just a few years later, one psychiatrist replaced the term moral insanity with psychopathic inferiority but that didn't eliminate the term fully.

Even with this new term, one person in 1939 was glad for the distinction between intellectual mania and moral mania.  Over the intervening years, the psychiatric community got rid of the actual "moral insanity" diagnosis for several reasons including the fact they didn't want criminals to elude justice using this.  Eventually, the standard diagnosis evolved into anti-social, or sociopath.

It appears, this diagnosis was the early one for sociopaths and such, it was also used for locking up people whose behavior was different from societal norms such as the promiscuous young lady or perhaps it was. even used for those whose orientations were not socially accepted.  I found it interesting how they used this diagnosis for both those who were ill and those who were not.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

The Improvised Shakespeare Company

At some point in our school years, we are exposed to Shakespeare and his plays.  I managed to get "MacBeth" three out of four years in high school.  I missed Julius Caesar or King Lear.

I really didn't like it when I had to study it in high school or in college but once I saw the plays in movie form done by people who knew the language and how to read it with all its proper inflections rather than reading in a bored monotone, I enjoyed it.

The other day, I spoke with a friend who told me that if I every got a chance to see The Improvised Shakespeare Company.  This is a group who create plays based on a title provided by the audience.

Once they have a title, they take off and perform a play in the style of Shakespeare while using Shakespearean language so you feel as if you are in the past.

This group of men play all the parts including the women just like they did in Shakespeare's time except they don't dress up in a woman's costume.  They have the young lady, the young lad, the father and all the other usual characters you find in these plays.

Their "plays". are not very long so they are actually more like skits but they manage to cover almost all the high points that one would see in a play.  The one I saw had the two lovers who meet for the first time in three years because he has been off to war and the girl is still kind of shy.  They begin to get close but then dad arrives on the scene and soon a fight ensues between the father and the boyfriend.  Dad gets hurt and mom comes out asking him to come back to bed but before you know it, the priest is out to marry them and they live happily ever after.

You can check this group on YouTube to see the types of things they do but be warned, they play may not be quite PG rated but they are funny, talented, and awesome.  I think if I'd see Shakespeare performed in this manner, I would have enjoyed them.  I think students might find it these short skits more fun and interesting as a way to introduce people to Shakespeare.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.