In a world were every day we wake up to unknown tragedy. It is nice to find relief it something simple.
Month: March 2012
SHAPES AND SIZES
Life is complicated. I know who I am looking at when my wife nudges me. At the same time we as a nation are gaining weight like never before. The food has so many additives(just read the label) most of which are not good for us. How do we reconcile these seemingly dichotomous issues.
HEAD FAKE?
?The America’s Cup will grace San Francisco not once, not twice, but thrice, citizens were promised: before catamarans race for the main Cup currently held by Larry Ellison’s Oracle team in 2013, there will be smaller World Series races in October and in August, according to plans the race event authority floated before city leaders.
That may change, event organizers quietly mentioned in a release this week: the boats may in fact race here only twice. The August race could be in New York City, the Event Authority said in a March 5 release, issued to announce that NBC secured television broadcast rights.
This came as a surprise to San Francisco officials and New Yorkers alike, but is likely nothing more than a “head-fake” from an event authority angry over a scaled-down deal, a source told The Snitch.
It was always the plan for America’s Cup-related races to crisscross the globe this year: in a month, the race heads to Italy. Other scheduled races are planned for Venice, and Newport, Rhode Island.
Three teams are competing in the AC World Series. The location of the August event — San Francisco or New York — will be announced “shortly,” organizers said in a release.
The races will be televised for the first time since 1992.
The Event Authority itself did not deign to speak to The Snitch; phone messages and emails were unanswered as of Wednesday afternoon.
The possibility of losing a race to New York is a “surprise” to Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, involved in negotiations to scale back the waterfront land giveaway promised to race organizers in return for gracing San Francisco Bay with their boats. “This was not something I’ve been told by the AC Event Authority,” Chiu told The Snitch via text message late Wednesday.
The America’s Cup is not unknown to New York City, though it’s been a while since the boats graced those waters. When the New York Yacht Club owned the cup betweem 1930 and 1983, the race was held there all the time. The race has not been held in the Hudson since the club lost the cup in 1983.
Reached via telephone in Newport on Wednesday, Michael Levitt, communications director for the New York Yacht Club, of which Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a member, said he had yet to hear of any plans to race sailboats in New York.
Whether this came as a surprise to Mayor Ed Lee is unclear; a spokeswoman for the mayor, who last week announced a vastly scaled-back event, said that the city is “waiting to hear” if the televised race will be held in San Francisco or New York.
“This is one of a series of sailing events even in 2012, so the impacts to the City [San Francisco] will be minimal of one race is held in New York,” Lee press secretary Christine Falvey wrote in an email. “Under either scenario, there will be a regatta here in 2012.”
A source close to the opposition movement called the Event Authority’s bi-coastal hedging a “head fake” designed to keep San Francisco on its toes after waterfront development rights were scaled back.
Under the original agreement, Ellison’s race team was to spend $55 million to rebuild Piers 30 and 32 in exchange for rent-free use of them for 66 years and title to Seawall Lot 330 — all prime, undeveloped waterfront property — nearby.
Those plans — which likely could have left the city in debt until the year 2100 — were scuttled last week, after the Event Authority failed to secure sponsorship rights.
IF IT IS GOOD, IT IS GREAT
TURBOCOLES RUDDER by 50 degrees north.
SOLAR FLARE, DON’T TRUST YOUR GPS TODAY
A massive solar storm is due to arrive at Earth early Thursday, and is expected to shake the globe’s magnetic field while expanding the Northern Lights.
A giant blast of plasma spat from the sun at as much as 4 million miles per hour Tuesday — by some measures the largest solar event since late 2006 — and it could lead to serious issues on Earth, forcing some planes to reroute, knocking out power grids, and blacking out radios.
The sun unleashed the cosmic double whammy late March 6, erupting with two major flares to cap a busy day of powerful solar storms, Space.com reported. One of the flares is the most powerful solar eruption so far this year.
“Super Tuesday? You bet!” joked Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The storm grew as it raced outward from the sun, expanding like a giant soap bubble, scientists said.
“It’s hitting us right in the nose,” said Kunches.
Both of the huge flares ranked as X-class storms, the strongest type of solar flares the sun can have. They followed several weaker, but still powerful, sun storms on Tuesday and came just days after another major solar flare on Sunday night.
“By some measures this is the strongest one since December of 2006,” Kunches explained. Solar activity has already led to an R3 level radio blackout on NOAA’s space weather scale, he explained, a midstrength event on a scale that reaches to R5. Such effects are caused by X-ray emissions from the sun.
The bigger effects will hit the planet over the next 24 hours.
“Power grid operators have all been alerted.”
– Joseph Kunches, NOAA space weather scientist
For one thing, geomagnetic storms — disturbances in the geomagnetic field that surrounds the planet — should hit the G3 level, midway up the scale. That could lead to surges in power lines (a major problem for power companies) and issues with satellites.
“Power grid operators have all been alerted, as well as the regulatory agencies that all pay attention to this,” Kunches said.
GPS users will also be affected because of the highly charged atmosphere; it’s very possible that certain types of applications will be interrupted, specifically highly precise calculations and the high-frequency communications that airplanes rely upon.
Indeed, some polar flights have already been affected, he said.
“Some have already taken action to reroute to ensure their [high-frequency communication],” Kunches said.
Solar radiation storms could reach as high as S4, he noted, which could cause astronauts on the International Space Station to seek shelter from the heightened radiation levels associated with such a storm.
These effects should last about 24 hours, probably lingering overnight into the early morning hours on Friday, pending another eruption — “and we think there will be more coming,” Kunches said.
The upside? Some areas may experience a wonderful display of the Northern Lights.
“It’s the treat that we get when the sun erupts,” he said.
NEWPORT, WATCH OUT
Last night, Like many of the sailing population of Newport, I sat and listened to Brad Read speak about the America’s Cup World Tour visit to Newport in June-July. The Bermuda Race will be done and dusted, but preparation for the event will be well underway even before the Bermuda Race leaves Newport.
The Ship which brings the traveling “circus” will dock at Quonset and 90 containers will be trucked to Ft. Adams.
Big efforts are being made to move the expected crowds in other than cars. Anyone who has ever driven in Newport, particularly in the summer recognizes the potential problem. The Sailing will be best seen from land based on the description by Brad. And while I am excited to see the boats, the event itself sounds like everything I try to avoid.
I added the photo of Ft. Adams taken a few days ago which shows the trees which provided a buffer between those living in housing there and the public parking removed. I hope it proves to be a wise decision.
DREAMS DO COME TRUE
We have all been wondering who had won the power ball. Especially since the ticket had been sold in Newport. There have been many rumors. Now that the winner has been revealed, for the first time in my life I can say I know a winner. Mrs. White’s granddaughter was in school with my youngest child.
I hope the win brings them what they hoped for.
CRANSTON, R.I. (AP) — An 81-year-old woman from Newport won last month’s $336.4 million Powerball jackpot, sleeping with the winning ticket in her Bible until coming forward to claim the sixth-largest U.S. prize on Tuesday, a family representative said.
At a news conference at state lottery headquarters in Cranston, Louise White said little, calling herself “very happy” and “very proud.”
Her attorneys said she was a regular lottery player who bought the winning ticket at a Stop & Shop supermarket in Newport where she had stopped for rainbow sherbet. The ticket is being claimed in the name of the Rainbow Sherbet Trust.
White kept the winning ticket in a Bible after she realized she won.
The winning ticket was among three tickets with random numbers purchased on a $9 wager, officials said.
“It was unbelievable,” White said in a statement released Tuesday by her attorneys. “None of us can believe it yet. We’re excited, very blessed and will determine in the coming months how we’ll spend the money but we know we’ll always have rainbow sherbet.”
White said she wrote down the numbers when they were read on television after the drawing, but missed a few — so she waited 10 minutes to hear them again. She didn’t check her ticket immediately.
When she did, each of the numbers was the same. “Is anybody awake — I want you to come look at something,” she yelled.
Not believing she was the winner, she said, she checked the numbers online. Still the same.
“We still didn’t believe it, so we turned off the computer and turned it back on and went back to the website and my numbers were still there,” White said in the statement. “We hugged each other and jumped up and down screaming!! … We hid the ticket in the Bible and went for breakfast on Sunday since we couldn’t do anything with it.”
White will take a lump sum payment of $210 million, the highest ever for Powerball, officials said. The jackpot was the third largest in Powerball history and the largest ever won in Rhode Island, officials said.
The top lottery jackpot in U.S. history was a $390 million Mega Millions prize won in March 2007.
The Powerball jackpot win is the first since the ticket price increased from $1 to $2 in January. Rising sales nearly doubled the jackpot from $173.5 million on Feb. 1.
There is no bonus for the supermarket for selling the winning ticket, officials said. Instead of paying out a bonus, Powerball retailers in Rhode Island get eight cents on the dollar for every ticket sold.
Rhode Island will get about $14.7 million in taxes on the prize in a lump-sum payment, lottery officials said Tuesday.
Powerball is played in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The chance of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is about 1 in 175 million.
NEW WORLD RECORD
This is a story that can to light yesterday, while we were congregated at Indian Harbor Yacht Club for the Carina evening.( see yesterday’s post) A few crewmates felt it merited being included in the blog. We have all folded paper airplanes and even tried to see how far we could make them fly. I honestly had never considered a record setting flight, but there are records for things I have never heard of, so why not?
John Collins, a producer at KRON-TV in San Francisco, is now an official part of history as one of his paper creations glided 226 feet and ten inches through the air to set the new world record for distance. And you teachers with large classrooms thought you were safe from getting pelted by students.
A paper airplane fanatic since a child, Collins has written two books on the subject and has toured the world showing off his creations. Having studied countless designs as well as origami over the years, he felt like he had a shot to create an aircraft that could break the previous world distance record of 207 feet, 4 inches held by Stephen Kreiger. The only thing he was lacking was the arm strength to actually be able to propel a plane that full distance. Enter former Cal quarter back Joe Ayoob, the man who took over for Aaron Rodgers after his ascension to the NFL.
Ayoob and Collins were introduced to each other when Collins first two choices to throw for the record had to bow out due to injury and work pressures. Ayoob had worked with the Vern Glenn, sportscaster at KRON announcing arena football games. Glenn introduced the two after he heard that Collins needed someone with a powerful throwing arm to reach his goal. Looks like he picked the right guy.
On February 26th, Ayoob threw a Collins-made paper airplane ten straight times for the record after 40 or so practice flights. On his fourth attempt is when he nailed the throw, propelling him and Collins into the record books. The event took place at McClellan Air Force Base located near Sacramento. A fitting locale for the record breaking flight.
As of press time, Collins’ site, thepaperairplaneguy.com has been taken offline for too much traffic (not surprising). When it comes back up we should be able to get an idea of the plane’s design so that you can try to replicate it, perhaps one day you will be able to challenge for the title! I have already contacted Tom Brady about a collaboration so go find your own QB.
“NEVER SAY NEVER, SAY NYE”
Tenacity is an important part of almost any endeavor in life. It is an essential ingredient of Ocean Racing. I thought Peter Millard’s words this evening summed up the Carina Story: “Never say never, say Nye”
This evening at Indian Harbor Yacht Club as many of the old crew re-united to celebrate the publishing of a book of the Nye family love affair with the sea.”Home is the Sailor” by Richard Nye, published by Bruce Farr. A bond which had drawn us together. I keep fond memories of my brief years on “Carina” and the friends and shipmates created.
I should add that the trophies won by the various “Carinas” over the years have been given to the Indian Harbor Yacht Club, where they belong; to remind us of the boat, the people, and the stories.
Dick probably got overtired by the event, but I am certain that in his heart he was glad to be there and see many familiar faces of those with whom he had shared events that only those inducted into the fraternity of Ocean Racing could truly comprehend.
FIREFLY
I could not miss this opportunity to write about these hot moulded boats. Above is a photo of my Firefly built in 1948 by Fairey Marine in Hamble, UK. I had visited Fairey Marine many years later in the early 70’s. They still had the autoclaves originally used to build these boats. Some of you may be aware the Wilson Trophy is sailed in fireflies.
The following link shows how these boats were built. Click Here. Another proof of how wonderful the digital age is.