Tonight. A Full And Eclipsed Blood Red Moon.

Oroville Dam and the California Drought

The spillway is to increase runoff to 45,000 CFS starting Wednesday, where it previously was at 15,000 CFS.

Oroville Dam was in the news in February, when increased rains produced a problem with water release. The regular spillway removes dam water overages. When the dam water reaches it’s maximum height, at 960’, the highest dam in America begins using the emergency spillway.

Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway went into use February. The news found the emergency spillway seemed insufficient and an evacuation was called by DWR. 180,000 were evacuated, and crowded into churches, Evacuation Centers, and friends homes outside the dams area. It was chaos. Some had only an hour’s notice. Some were diverted after evacuating. They all got out. After about a week, officials said it was safe to go back, and residents returned to their homes.

The Oroville Dam evacuation of February proved to be a harbinger of what was possible after the 5 year California drought. Climate Change caused heavy rains to appear.

It also damaged the spillway. A lot. The Oroville Dam Spillway was broken in half. Water removal from the spillway had increased to 100,000 CFS, but was now decreased, eventually to zero, while DWR officials checked to see just how bad it was, up close. It was found that ‘it needed fixin’, and Governor Brown went to Washington to ask for funds. That happened and California was going to get it’s dam spillway repaired.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were expected for the repair. Those contracts were appointed, and spillway reconstruction was begun in April 2017. Oroville is to expect completed reconstruction of the spillway by November.

David Schaedler 5/8/17

ISS

The ISS is orbiting over Belgium, now. 1:42 pm PST, 5/2/17. David Schaedler

What happened to NASA?

January 27, 2014

Do We Need Another Space Truck?

NASA’s Space Shuttle program ended July 8, 2011, we no longer have any satellite boosting capacity, other than ‘throw-away rockets’ that were until then the mainstay.

The Space Shuttle was our ‘Cargo Capable Carrier’ from Earth to orbit, retreival of non-functioning, repair and return-to-orbit satellites, and, was re-usable. Only the orbiter’s main tank needed replacing when used (refitting was also required). Once the ‘way to go’ was worked out and snarls removed, many satelittes were put into orbit, including the very large ”International Space Station” inhabited by dozens of ”space fare-ers” up to now. There were a total of 135 missions. Canada produced the ”Canadarm”, the necessary mechanical arm used to remove ‘cargo’ and delicately place it into  orbit.

Notable satellite, “The Hubble Space telescope” was one. Due to the vacuum of space and distance from gravity-heavy, atmosphere and tremor-filled Earth, the Hubble has, and continues to produce awesome images of billion light-year distant Stars and Galaxies. Now what could be more inspiring than that? Knowledge of other planets with lifeforms like our own would be a momentous occasion.

”SpaceX” in 2011 has commited to designing and building a heavy-lift, low-cost rocket booster that would do twice the job of current rockets, at a third of the cost, in the ‘mythical’  $1,000/pound range, still being worked on.

In 2012, NASA was building a heavy lift rocket bigger than the Saturn V, that would have a payload of 77 metric tons, due in 2017. But is it a Space Shuttle? Not being reusable, this would not be the case. It’s a ‘different package’ rocket, to be used for deep space missions.

Manned Mars missions would cost $500 million with a scaled up version of this new rocket, with a 130 ton payload, compared to a shuttle SRB worth $23 - $70 million. The SRB did have a lower payload.

So, space is not being ‘left alone’, we do have future plans for inter-planetary travel, and, it will be spectacular.

. Sources: Ask.com, Google images

DS

Stand up for us, too, Hillary!

This Is Your Female Empowerment Post and Call to Action

The Election and Planned Parenthood

I often get frustrated when people say that feminism is no longer relevant or necessary, and that third wave feminists, like myself, are all just man hating, tear drinking “feminazis.” I could go on for several hours about the specific needs of women of color and women in the LGBTQ community, but for now I will give that particular horn a rest, while still recognizing that it is beyond important. Currently there are several examples of the relevancy of feminism in modern America, and it is so important that we not only recognize them, but do something about them, because they are time sensitive and could have major implications in the near future. 

Currently there is a Republican primary going on, and if you are as liberal as I am, it would be very easy to ignore it, or just laugh off their crazy antics, but in reality this is a very scary time. One of these people is going to be running for president against the Democrat’s candidate (Go Bernie Sanders), and that should make every woman shake in their boots. These candidates are boasting about defunding Planned Parenthood like it is going out of style. and apparently none of them even understand the constitution in terms of the relationship between religious freedom and civil rights. 

One candidate in particular still seems to think that a woman is unqualified for this position simply because he thinks she is ugly, and then thought telling that woman that her face is lovely somehow made up for the fact that he was so sexist as to think physical attractiveness had anything to do with the job. People of color, whether female of not, you should be terrified too! This same guy thinks that Mexico “isn’t sending its best” and that “the black love him.” Not only that, but he is utterly stupid when it comes to politics, policy, and common sense. He believes vaccinations put children at risk for autism, that building a wall is equivalent to an immigration policy, and that because it has been colder lately, global warming doesn’t exist. 

The scariest thing about all of this is how he is polling. In case you haven’t been able to figure out who I am talking about, its Donald Trump: the man, the myth, the legend. And the people supporting him in these polls illustrate how alive racism and sexism still is in the United States. 

If that wasn’t enough, ever since the video about Planned Parenthood went viral, our reproductive rights have been under attack. FYI Planned Parenthood is not selling fetal tissue, that video shows Planned Parenthood donating said tissue to science and research, a practice that is perfectly legal. The money that they collect is for preservation efforts and shipping costs. These donations are vital to fetal research that many people have benefited from. Somehow this video has been twisted beyond how horribly inaccurate it was when it was made, and has become the rallying cry of activists who was to make abortions illegal again, or at the very least defund Planned Parenthood. 

Lawmakers, you know the people who should really know the most about the law, seem to forget that federal funding isn’t even used for abortions at Planned Parenthood, except for in the case of rape or incest. The money is used for women’s health services such as breast cancer screening, PAP tests, and STD screenings, along with general services like flu vaccines, diabetes screening, and physicals. Less than 3% of what they do relates to abortion. Even so, why are 50 something, rich, white men so concerned with my womb? My body. My Choice. 

With the house recently voting to defund Planned Parenthood, it has become all the more real how at risk our rights are. Although the Senate is not likely to pass this bill, and even if they did Obama would most likely veto it, take this as a warning! We as feminists need to be proactive! 

Three independent observing campaigns announce the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star. DS 1/25/17

TV VAMPIRES

    Television is a way to get your feeling high, that much is true. “Everyone”  assumes that shocking anyone will get your attention and get your blood lust to rise. And it could be war, crime or the supernatural, nearly anything on the tube will shock. Even with no blood on her teeth, this will cause excitement, of sorts. By practicing moderation, people can learn to control their feelings. At least in theory.

DS 11/02/2015

#Vampires, #Television, #TV

Techno News

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/05/nasa-seeks-industry-help-with-lunar-landings-potentially-sample-return/ – More on Techno News

NASA sampling industry moon landings? It looks like NASA is looking ahead. And well it ought to, due to long range planning of previous Moon landing. We all should do that sometimes.

David Schaedler 5/4/17

View On WordPress

Twitter and Google+

Both of these Social Media seem to be in trouble. 11:50 am PST, 6/20/17.

DS NBC news app 2/16/17

1-25-18 California sunrise.