Perception freakout! Stare at the blue dot long enough and it will disappear.

Here we see the webcam view of half dome, with a nice healthy snow bank in front, taken on February 24th of this year.

Today, that same snow bank has grown to completely obscure the camera! What's more, this is the end of March, and the mountains have probably the thickest snow pack they have seen all year, and the thickest for many years. It should be a wet, wet spring, with lots of runoff, and it will be mid June before the high country rids itself of snow this year.

Saturday porch pictures.

In The Land Of The Northern Lights from Ole Christian Salomonsen on Vimeo.

Wow! This is the best time lapse video I have seen to date on the northern lights. Be sure to watch this fullscreen. Jättekul!

Illinois businessman puts the screws to the state's Democratic governor. Hardball, baby, and reason #29 why Illinois and all it's citizens are boned.

Just imagine President O-some Prissy Pants trying to pull off something like this. Bush proves again that he is "The Man."

Essaouira, Morocco.

Obama administration: The action in Libya isn't war, it is a kinetic military action!

Over at Ace's, they have come up with a top ten list of euphimisms for war, and have offered them for free to the Obama people for use in any other "action" in the future.

My favorite: Really just a kind of sanctions, but "dark, edgy" sanctions with "attitude" and a "troubled, mysterious past."

Reason # 39 why Illinios and all it's citizens are boned:

A Chicago are school superintendent makes more money than the Illinios governor.

A little free advertising for SI in order to show the amazing vertical leap of BYU player Jimmer (Jimmer?) Fredette. That white man can jump!

Here is something you don't see in California anymore, grizzly bear tracks on the beach. Better be armed and ready in Alaska.

Ever see a herd of grizzly bears? You can in Alaska, if that is what you want. I certainly would prefer to see them like this, from a plane. I see 41 or 42 of them down there. Must be a convention.

Ouch! Toyota tells US auto plants to be ready for shutdowns if parts from Japan cannot be sent.

Sounds to me like an opportunity for a US manufacturer of parts to step up.

The aurora borealis as pictured from space.

First, we learned that St. Louis' population had dropped 8% over the last decade. Now we learn that the ultimate progressive/liberal/democratic sewer hole, Detroit, has lost a full 25% of it's population over the last ten years!

Is there anything that can really be done with a city this far gone, except plow it under and start again? What lessons can be learned from this amazing transformation from world industrial capital to dying slum?

Holy human teepee, Batman! Who let her go out in that??