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Messages - P71nnacle

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61
Severe Thunderstorm Watch and Warning within 10 minutes of each other appears to have knocked our IntelliSTAR offline. We only have the Satellite LF at this time. (Sheesh.)

62
General Discussion / Re: Oil Slick In The Gulf
« on: June 18, 2010, 06:30:50 PM »
In some sense, from what I've seen, it was probably inevitable that given the design of the rigs, something like this would happen. And based upon the fact that oil companies (by design) go for giant profits (I get dividends EVERY quarter from my shares in ExxonMobil) they could care less about regulation by the government.

The sad thing is that the government can regulate it, but there are certain people (who shall remain nameless) who HATE government regulation at any point, and would rather "live free or die". And then they run their mouths when something bad happens. I say this: the politics of this, as with most environmental things, is not even worth discussing because it's all Grade A, USDA Prime bovine excreta. The hypocrisy and the fact that no one wants to be offended until it's time to point fingers is probably why the oil hasn't been shut off by now.

And BTW, Katrina's still a wide open book. There's an article that I want you all to read in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/opinion/30rich.html  - it compares Katrina to the oil leak. I wrote an op-ed to the op-ed for one of my classes, available http://www.psu.edu/dept/e-education/blogs/geog030/2010/06/ethical-hurricane-a-response-to-frank-richs-obamas-katrina-maybe-worse-by-steve-zwolinski.html


63
General Discussion / Re: Hooray the Lakers win!!!!!
« on: June 18, 2010, 06:20:40 PM »
I'm going to say what I did on another forum: If any city knows how to riot, it's Los Angeles. They seem to have plenty of practice. The difference is the police are the solution, not the problem this time. ;) (I'm from Pittsburgh and don't go to Pitt, and our collegiate b-ball team is bollocks, so I could care less. )

64
General Discussion / Re: You Tube malfunctions
« on: June 13, 2010, 08:52:39 PM »
Chill out, Brian, for now. You have to be patient - after all, I've heard that 2 million videos are uploaded to GooTubeHuluVevo every day. There's a little gnome at HQ who has to type all the details by hand - and he never gets any coffee breaks.  :bleh: (And God forbid he has to check for copyright. Tay Zonday and Chris Crocker might get mad when they can't post because of your Chris Camozzi and Trammell Starks affection.)

65
General Weather Chat / Re: FCC To Open Up Weather Data Band (?)
« on: June 13, 2010, 11:53:23 AM »
Well, sort of. Based on what I read, they're saying that "darn, this is a lot of spectrum that is seldom used. Why don't we let wireless carriers share it, 'cos it's really not used that much? We can fit it in." It wasn't really used solely for the government either (they had co-allocated it for non-federal use in the first place) but my fear is that they're going to try and crowd the GOES, POES, and sondes all into a few frequencies, and put AT&T butt up right against it.

Perhaps this would explain things better. Here's a chart of the spectrum and its allowances according to the FCC. Although this is mind boggling to look at, one glance at it shows how truly "crowded" the spectrum is in the usable ranges. Everything from your TV stations to maritime navigation to your microwave oven is crowded in this chart. Given the fact that there are people who are getting new cell phones every day, and buying all sorts of stuff that seriously does need spectrum to operate (so I can't listen to your calls, and vice-versa), you can see their point.

Personally, I would say that if they are going to do this, they must make sure that the sondes and uplinks don't get interfered with. Also, absolutely no "internet sharing" of data. AccuWeather already tried to do something along those lines, and it would have been a disaster.

So, yea, come to think of it, I have mixed thoughts, too.

66
General Weather Chat / FCC To Open Up Weather Data Band (?)
« on: June 12, 2010, 09:40:47 PM »
Got a message from the PSU meteo department's office from the FCC and UCAR, and figured since it was a public message, I'd share it with you. (I'm thinking for 80% of you, this is going to be way over your head, but for those who digest serious data from obs and all, this might be worth discussing):

Quote from: FCC Public Notice Docket 10-1035


The 1675-1710 MHz band is allocated on a co-primary basis for federal and non-federal use for the
Meteorological Aids Service and the Meteorological Satellite Service (Space-to-earth). Specifically, this
band is used for downlinks from certain weather satellites and radiosondes (weather balloons) that are
administered by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA provides
these services for weather forecasting, tracking of hurricanes and other storms, prediction of flooding and
drought conditions, and warning against other hazards to life and property.
We expect that this band is relatively lightly used, both geographically and temporally, and thus could be
shared by others. We seek comment on the utility of the 1675-1710 MHz band of spectrum for wireless
broadband services, and approaches to making the band available for such uses. It may be possible that
reception of the weather satellite downlink transmissions could occur at a relatively small number of sites
and be distributed via terrestrial services, such as over the Internet or other managed services. Thus, with
regard to incumbent satellite receive-only stations, we seek comment on the extent to which and manner
in which non-federal users directly access federally authorized Meteorological Satellite Service space
station downlink transmissions. We also seek comment on the extent to which non-federal users directly
1 Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan, Recommendation 5.8, p.86 (FCC, 2010). The
National Broadband Plan is available at http://www.broadband.gov/plan/.
2
access transmissions from radiosondes. Also, it may be feasible for radiosondes to operate using
substantially less bandwidth than they currently do, freeing spectrum for other uses, or for them to use an
alternative technology or relocate to other spectrum.
Although the 1675-1710 MHz band is co-allocated for non-federal use, the Commission's database shows
no active licensees in the spectrum. Non-federal entities such as universities, private sector weather
forecasters and others are thought to employ receive-only stations for reception of Meteorological
Satellite Service space station downlink transmissions, and in this case an FCC authorization for receiveonly
earth stations is not required. Therefore, the Commission has no information on the extent of such
non-federal use in the band.


So, essentially, FCC wants to use the spectrum (kind of like hard drive space in the radio waves) to put wireless communications, and move your weather data to perhaps small, finely tuned transmitters, who would then pipe it through the internet or some means like that.

For most of you, I would imagine this is a non-issue. But I know that many of you work for meteorological industries (WSI, TWC, AccuWeather) who probably love having the "raw feeds" from radiosondes, satellite imagery, and such. Also, if you are faculty in a meteo/atmsci department, this would probably affect the quality of the data ingested into the system This would be a big impact for you as noted.

Like I said, most of this is over your head. But if you know anything about this, do share. :) If so you so desire, the original document is found here: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-1035A1.pdf

67
General Discussion / Re: What is the last thing you bought?
« on: June 08, 2010, 12:14:02 AM »
How about 2 8x10s of my girlfriend?  :D And some Little Debbie snack cakes.

68
General Discussion / Re: 4 Day School Weeks- Good or bad idea?
« on: June 08, 2010, 12:12:48 AM »
Yes! Martin....we don't do that. Although I will admit there's some rather, eh, "liberated" stuff you can do in the extra free time you have. (And I never will wear flip-flops to class. I bruise easily.)

BTW, I mentioned to a few people about a former 8th grade teacher who came in our Physical Geography class and told us that air pressure increases with height.  :thrilled:

69
General Discussion / Re: What is the last thing you bought?
« on: June 06, 2010, 11:06:30 PM »
Dinner at McDonalds. Double Quarter Pounder with cheese and ketchup, two large fries, and a 32 oz lemonade. $9.45.

Last fun thing? A pair of shoes at a flea market for $2.

70
General Discussion / Re: Oil Slick In The Gulf
« on: June 06, 2010, 11:03:56 PM »
It's a double edged sword IMO. If there's a hurricane that comes through, then there's a possibility that some of the vapors that might be in solution in the water will evaporate and cause acid rain further in. No oil will come in rain because it has a different evaporation temperature and water and oil don't mix, so I wouldn't worry about it raining sweet crude in Atlanta. :) But in some sense, having a little bit of oil in the water might reduce evaporation and hinder hurricane development (highly unlikely, but possible).

 My biggest worry is that tropical activity will carry oil to the Gulf Stream, and then you'll have a BIG problem. (And it might be @ Key West right now, but a tropical system stirs up the waters even more.

71
General Discussion / Re: The Front Porch
« on: June 06, 2010, 10:59:10 PM »
Pittsburgh got swamped the past few days...we in State College had a couple of Severe Thunderstorm Watches, a Tornado Watch, and maybe three Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in the past week. The line today with the front was the scariest because there were so many supercells. I was trashed last night and was awakened by the Weatheradio at 7:30 AM with a Tornado Watch.

72
General Weather Chat / Re: Watch/Warning Thread
« on: June 06, 2010, 07:05:47 PM »
I'd post all the ones for Pittsburgh in the past week, but I lost track at about 7 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings, 2 Tornado Watches, 3 Severe Thunderstorm Watches, and 1 Tornado Warning.  :dunno:

73
General Discussion / Re: 4 Day School Weeks- Good or bad idea?
« on: June 06, 2010, 07:02:41 PM »
Do like the Chinese and make them live in school  :biggrin: I'm not in favor of 4 days of school, because I get the feeling that it's going to mean teachers will be more liberal in handing out homework, e.g. "to keep kids off the street", "to boost our test scores", and other cookie-cutter, immensely frivolous reasons.

TWCToday secret: When you get to college, you'll realize how idiotic your high school teachers were, and how much time they wasted talking down to you and assigning "busy work". Best part is when you get to college, you go to class for 15-20 hours a week and have a lot more liberty in free time. And your high school counselors? Satanically paranoid about SAT's and ACT's. Penn State is one of the most accredited schools, and I went to a branch campus, and they were actually looking for people to go there. Two years later, automatic acceptance to main campus and better housing, and way ahead of everyone else. You heard it here first.

74
General Discussion / Re: Recent music purchases
« on: June 06, 2010, 06:46:23 PM »
Lenka - Lenka
Alison Iraheta - Allison Iraheta
Electric Light Orchestra - The Very Best Of.....
Plus James Blunt, The Academy Is, and Randy Jackson's Music Club at Dollar Tree. (No idea what they're doing there....)

75
Well, just to clarify: If you don't want to be a meteorologist, you shouldn't get the degree, because that would make you a meteorologist. I don't think any school's going to have a two-year program in meteorology or something like that...either you get the certificate or you go to school like I did and get the four-year program.

If you're interested in online courses, I know that Penn State does offer an online meteorology course (Meteo 101) that might be of interest to you. The problem is that in order to really get involved with meteorology, you need the math skills, and thus, I think most schools would rather teach it in the classroom, because it is one of the most rigorous science majors not in the medical field.

I would say this: If you don't want to be a meteorologist, get the certificate from Penn State. Otherwise, you're going to plunk down thousands of dollars for a hobby which might not be of interest to you in a few years.

As for storm chasing, be forewarned (from someone who knows a lot of the Vortex2 team personally): 98% of it is driving under sunny skies and eating bad food at truck stops. The other 2% is under a storm cloud, praying it will pop up a tornado. It's BORING and is NOT like what you see in Hollywood or TV. You'd be disappointed, trust me. ;) (A lot of people think you get three tornadoes every day and six EF5's over one summer. *buzzer*)

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