Avast, Mateys!

I bring this up again because the whole idea makes me chuckle. There ought to be more made up fun holidays like this.

Tomorrow, Saturday September 19th, is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Assuming you read this today, you'll have a few hours to make plans.

(And I've heard that people who went to schools whose mascots were pirates or buccaneers really get into the pirate thing.)

Ya can be sure I'll be practicin' my Arrrhs today during my garrrage sale.


I pulled the above image from Snorg Tees.

9-11-09

Today being the eleventh, I naturally recalled the terrorist attacks of eight years ago. Not that I have anything really new to write on the subject, but I can't let the day pass without some comment.

I still feel sorry for the families of those killed, and hope and pray each year brings at least some more healing.

The firefighters and police who ran in risking everything to save lives - both those who survived and those who gave all - still the truest of heroes.

The terrorist attack still remains as much a monstrous evil as it was on that day.

There are still terrorists who want to kill us and destroy America.

Sadly, there are many people here in our country who deny this.

I remember that for a short time, maybe three weeks that September, people paused, connected with their loved ones, and thought of life issues with deeper meaning. For those whose faith in Christ was strengthened for the long run, I salute you. We need His grace daily, as much on 9-11-09, as on 9-11-08, etc.

And yes, I still give thanks to God for President George W. Bush and his administration. Was the response perfect? No, no human project is perfect. But necessary steps were taken in a measured way. It's neither coincidence nor blind luck that we haven't had another attack anywhere near that magnitude in eight years.

So, I'll close with this link, if you want to read again my recollections of 9-11-01.

It's past time I should have posted this

Ira Moore, 1942 or 1943

I've wanted to keep The Porch a mix of things that I find either fun or interesting or important at the moment; cousin Mike does the same when he posts. That's why I've resisted getting fully into the family tree here, and just kept it to the occasional story or photo. Though I have an interest in genealogy, it can take on a life of its own and take over the content here. I am actually thinking of starting a separate genealogy blog; I haven't decided for sure yet. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, I've had a great time lately e-mailing cousins Trish and Ed, we've been sending each other scans of old letters, family photos and the like. We've each had "oh wow" moments when we've seen something for the first time.

Which by the way, I highly recommend if you have relatives separated by the miles, that you take advantage of this modern connected world and share copies of old family photos and letters with them. Find out what stories you had wrong, and fill in the gaps, so to speak. I'm having great fun with that.

So I came across this today; it's one of my favorites and it definitely deserves to be here.

My sister, the first of Ira's grandchildren, called him Poppy and that stuck with all of us. I'm not sure exactly when this photo was taken, but I think my grandfather was either 40 or 41 at the time.

He built the entire house, including the front porch.

Astronomy stuff, part 1: 150 years ago today

This probably didn't make the news most places, but today marks the 150th anniversary of the Carrington event, the most massive solar flare and coronal mass ejection in recorded history. Not only was the sunlight noticably brighter for a short time, but later when the charged particles reached the earth's magnetic field, the northern lights were brighter than anyone could remember, and seen as far south as Cuba.

Space.com posted an article on the anniversary today, but I chose to dig and find some other articles that had impressed me when I came across them months ago.

An article on nasa.gov from October 23, 2003 explains what happened. Some excerpts:

"...the Sun released a mammoth solar flare. For almost an entire minute the amount of sunlight the Sun produced at the region of the flare actually doubled. With the flare came this explosive release of a massive cloud of magnetically charged plasma called a coronal mass ejection...Not all coronal mass ejections head toward Earth. Those that do usually take three to four days to get here. This one took all of 17 hours and 40 minutes,"

"Not only was this coronal mass ejection an extremely fast mover, the magnetic fields contained within it were extremely intense and in direct opposition with Earth's magnetic fields. That meant the coronal mass ejection of September 1, 1859, overwhelmed Earth's own magnetic field, allowing charged particles to penetrate into Earth's upper atmosphere."

Translation: we got slammed. The article goes on to speculate what would happen if such a "perfect solar storm" were to happen today; damage to satellites, interruption in communications worldwide, etc. Back then, the cutting edge electronic technology was the telegraph. The strong aurora induced currents in telegraph lines in the US and in Europe, causing sparks to fly and setting some fires. The induced currents wreaked havoc with the battery supplied current in the wires, and made it difficult to impossible for the telegraph operators to handle traffic. This exchange between two telegraph operators was recorded for posterity; I pulled the quote from the Wikipedia entry. They tried the obvious solution...

Boston operator (to Portland operator): "Please cut off your battery [power source] entirely for fifteen minutes."
Portland operator: "Will do so. It is now disconnected."
Boston: "Mine is disconnected, and we are working with the auroral current. How do you receive my writing?"
Portland: "Better than with our batteries on. - Current comes and goes gradually."
Boston: "My current is very strong at times, and we can work better without the batteries, as the aurora seems to neutralize and augment our batteries alternately, making current too strong at times for our relay magnets. Suppose we work without batteries while we are affected by this trouble."
Portland: "Very well. Shall I go ahead with business?"
Boston: "Yes. Go ahead."

According to the Boston Traveler, they continued without battery power for about two hours.

The aurora were bright enough that there were reports of people being able to read watches and reasonably large type at 1 a.m., and there were instances of fire departments being called out to investigate what appeared to be red flames on the horizon.

A web site called solarstorms.org has a fascinating list of newspaper entries. It's interesting to see the range of emotions...

from the factual:

…Large print could no doubt have been easily read, for we can testify that the time on the face of a watch was easily legible…[Washington Daily National Intelligencer, September 3, 1859].

to amazement (again a reference to telegraph difficulties):

…Never in my experience of fifteen years in working telegraph lines have I witnessed anything like the extraordinary effect of the Aurora Borealis between Quebec and Farther Point last night. The line was in most perfect order, and well skilled operators worked incessantly from 8 o'clock last evening till 1 this morning...and at the latter hour so completely were the wires under the influence of the Aurora Borealis that it was found utterly impossible to communicate between the telegraph stations...{Rochester Union & Advertizer, Tuesday Evening August

to alarm:

…Half-past eleven. The appearance now is positively awful. The red glare is over houses, streets, and fields, and the most dreadful of conflagrations could not cast a deeper hue abroad…[San Francisco Herald, September 5, 1859].

and to the poetic:

The Aurora Borealis : The Brilliant Display on Sunday Night, The present generation have listened with wonder and admiration to the stories their fathers and mothers have told them of auroras and meteors. They have opened their ears and mouths and eyes as they heard of stars falling from the heavens like rain, of the sky at night becoming read as with blood...Few have had the opportunities of witnessing these sublime displays; but on Sunday night the heavens were arrayed in a drapery more gorgeous than they have been for years…Many imagined they heard rushing sounds as if Aeolus had let loose winds…[The New York Times, ]

I've studied enough astronomy to have a basic knowledge of the northern lights, but I can only try to imagine what people - worldwide - experienced 150 years ago tonight.