Archive for the ‘Nature’ Category
Delaware State High Point: Ebright Azimuth
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010Canadian rockers Moxy Früvous would have you believe that the US state with the lowest highest point is in Delaware. (Moxy Früvous – The Lowest Highest Point from some shady website) In the beginning of the song, they say that they would expect it to be Florida or Louisiana, and they would have been correct had they picked Florida, but they incorrectly went with Delaware. Maybe because of a question in Trivial Pursuit[3]?
In any case, they’re Canadian, so we can give them a break. How many people in the US can even name all of the Canadian Provinces and Territories? I tried to do it once in alphabetical order, and found that there are a lot of them that start with N: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, and Nunavut. 38.4% of the Provinces and Territories in Canada start with an N! I found this interesting enough that I made a pie chart about it.
The Canadian Province with lowest highest point is Prince Edward Island, at 459-466 feet (Sources Vary) [2][4]. This is still higher (but not much higher) than Delaware’s highest point [1].
Anyway, I have been interested in state highpointing for a little bit, and figured Delaware would be an easy one to knock off my list.
After a trip to White Clay Creek State Park to go biking and find the Arc Corner Monument (unsuccessfully, after my bicycle got a flat tire 8 miles from where we parked), we decided to take a detour on our way home to find the Delaware State High Point.
I had done research on it in the past, and had come across this site. It has a cool map showing that there is land near the official high point is actually slightly higher. The Delaware State High Point Wikipedia Entry claims this land was added later for drainage reasons, but it isn’t a natural high point, and therefore doesn’t count. It was easy to find, and near route 202 in Wilmington, so it was close enough to being on our way.
We arrived at the high point around 7:30pm on Halloween, and we were greeted by costumed Trick-or-Treaters. We took a drive into the trailer park and took a photo of a field that is near the areas depicted to be above the surveyed high point (Those specific areas are all private lawns, so we didn’t want to be too intrusive). We also drove over to the official marker sign and took a photograph. It was quite dark, and it required me to strategically position my car’s headlights on a nearby street to illuminate the sign well enough for the photograph.
 The actual highest point is in this photo.. somewhere |
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Carbon Dioxide Emissions on Google Earth
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
The Vulcan project brings us a map of the US and the amount of pollution that can be found. The Vulcan project is a collaboration of a few universities, NASA, and the US D.O.E. Check out their site for more information, they do a lot of good work.
They have released a CO2 emissions map that looks like a pretty interesting application. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the right plugin for Firefox on my MacBook Pro to run this, but it looks like it is very well done, and I hope to get it up and running on windows at some point soon. Please comment on this if you are able to get it to work.
Google Earth maps carbon dioxide emissions (via LATimes.com)
UPDATE:
I reinstalled The Google Earth Plugin, and now this works! I think the problem was that I reinstalled Firefox since the last time I updated Google Earth. Anyway, it works now, and the information is very impressive. This is a screenshot from my local area. Carbon County is one of the worst polluters, and it’s all from industrial uses. So Carbon county is still aply named even after all these years! (This is Pennsylvania’s Coal region, as well as the Slate Belt, and home to many Cement Factories.)
Gurney, K.R., D. Mendoza, Y. Zhou, B. Seib, M Fischer, S. de la Rue du Can, S. Geethakumar, C. Miller (2009) “The Vulcan Project: High resolution fossil fuel combustion CO2 emissions fluxes for the United States”, http://www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/research.html.
"Extinct" Bird Seen, Promptly Eaten
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
Some people are concerned about saving species from extinction, others are curious as to how they may taste.
I hope to see a review on this bird on Yelp any day now!
PHOTO IN THE NEWS: “Extinct” Bird Seen –Then Eaten. (via National Geographic)
America and the Bald Eagle
Friday, March 2nd, 2007How appropriate is the Bald Eagle as a symbol for the United States of America?
Sure, the Bald Eagle is a large powerful bird, immediately capturing the attention of anyone who happens to encounter the bird. With a 7-foot wingspan, and weighing up to 14lbs, the Bald Eagle carries itself as a strong force in the wild.
In 1782, the Bald Eagle was used in the design of the Great Seal of the United States, and has become a national symbol ever since. The Great Seal of the United States features an eagle with 13 arrows in its left talon and an olive branch in its right, to symbolize the balance between war and peace. It makes sense that this bird would be used as a symbol of America, as it is only found in North America, and must have been a great spectacle for newcomers to the land. Many native North Americans have religions connections to the Bald Eagle, with reverence toward their features comparable to the Bible or the crucifix.
But what kind of bird is the American Bald Eagle? Sure, he looks strong, but what are his weaknesses, and what are his threats? Moreover, can these strengths and weaknesses map to The United States of America as a nation? Obviously the bird was not chosen for this particular purpose, but it is fun to entertain the analogy and construe parallels that may exist, even if they prove to be quite humorous.
Predators:
As far as predators, I’ve only been able to find three, by using my Google search abilities. These three are: Raccoons, Great Horned Owl, and Humans. With Humans obviously being the biggest threat.
As far as this mapping to analogies, raccoons and owls probably don’t cause too much of a threat toward America as a nation. Although rabid raccoons can be scary, and the O RLY owl has been getting pretty annoying lately. But… Just like the Bald Eagle, the largest threat to America today is humanity! May it be from terrorists, corrupt politicians, well meaning politicians, citizens, or just anyone, it’s obvious that people are the largest threat to the stability of the United States as a nation.
Prey / Feeding:
Bald Eagles tend to eat anything they can get their grubby little talons on. Which means carrion, small fish, rodents, other birds, and food stolen from humans. These eagles also exhibit a form of feeding that I find particularly interesting, called Kleptoparasitism. Which is basically stealing food from something else, and in the Bald Eagle’s case, this something else is another bird (typically an Osprey) carrying a meal it plans to eat itself.
This Kleptoparasitism is a very interesting trait that has so many parallels cynics can draw to the American government, America’s place in the global economy, the lifestyle of the American people, and other topics that I won’t touch on, for the sake of letter the reader decide how this could work.
So is the Bald Eagle really a great symbol for American Freedom, or does it lack the moral integrity to be able to stand for such a noble concept? I am not proposing we change the symbol or anything drastic, I am just proposing that we take a look at our national symbol, and admire it for what it is. The Bald Eagle is a beautiful creature, and has strong connotations with strength and freedom, while these connotations may not be well warranted; they still are present in much of the population.
I will close with a quote from Ben Franklin (as referenced from Wikipedia) about his stance on the Bald Eagle as a symbol for the United States of America.
For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest country of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country…
I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_eagle
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/www/critters/eagle/826572782.html
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/wrcf/bald.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Seal_of_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_RLY%3F
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptoparasitism
Pictures:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Haliaeetus_leucocephalus2.jpg/200px-Haliaeetus_leucocephalus2.jpg
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/wrcf/images/baldmap.gif
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/USSeal.png/250px-USSeal.png
http://images.yelp.com/bphoto/isV9cXlxoqeWAy5RTulGCg/l
