"A Beautiful Day" At Night

All I can say about this is WOW! I have heard the track "A Beautiful Day" by German artist Schiller many times prior to tonight. I even used to own a copy of the CD upon which it appears before I lent it to a friend who died and it got lost in the shuffle. Anywho, set to this music is some draw-dropping footage taken from the International Space Station. This music and these views seem apropos for this space as I nocturnally labor upon my next blog postings before going to bed this night which is nearly over now as I seem to have worked through the night. Immediately below that is the current view from the ISS>




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Last Night Tonight

This  is a gem of progressive house, "Last Night" by Dominic Gertz, that I can't even find on Youtube by itself except as part of a long set so here it is starting at 20:47 mark. This is pure aural ecstasy best experienced nocturnally with speakers cranked up. Also, this entire set is pretty damned great so I recommend also listening to the entire nearly hour and a half set here.

Zalzala Jazeera

I don't care to go too far off into the weeds about the M7.7 strike-slip earthquake under Coastal Pakistan on September 24, 2013, which killed over 825 people. What I do wish to share here are some amazing images and one video (at bottom) relating to the quite fascinating phenomenon of an "earthquake island" or "Zalzala Jazeera" being created non-volcanically by the aforementioned seismic event. Something like this happened in the same area before as a result of an earthquake under that region in the middle part of the 20th Century. That island did not last long and in like manner this one is expected to not survive a year before being reclaimed by the Arabian Sea.

Aerial view of island showing local boats exploring its near-water and one boat hauled out on its shore. Photo by NASA (all rights reserved).

Another aerial view from directly above and at a higher altitude. Photo courtesy of AFP - Getty Images (all rights reserved)

Satellite image showing new island relative to the nearby coastline. Image courtesy of NASA (all rights reserved).

Another satellite image captured last April showing the same region before the island emerged. Image courtesy of NASA (all rights reserved).

Locals clambering all over the new island. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Stringer (all rights reserved).

More detailed image of the surface texture of the new island. Photo courtesy of Gwadar State Government (all rights reserved).

Two Views ~ One Retardant Drop

Yesterday during the latest Santa Ana Wind event wherein the local Santa Lucia Mountains were under a Red Flag Warning a wildfire broke out (Cuesta Incident) on the downwind and south slope of that mountain range along the shoulder of southbound Highway 101. It caused alarm initially given the fire conditions. Fortunately CAL FIRE and SLO Co. Fire Department kept the fire to five acres. Below are two different views of the same retardant drop from a local S-2V (Tanker 74 or 75) based at nearby Paso Robles Air Attack Base. The top-most image was taken by an unidentified passenger riding shotgun in a passenger vehicle headed down the Cuesta Grade while the image below it was captured by the air tactical officer aboard Air Attack 340 operating over the fire.

Photo credit unknown (all rights reserved)

Courtesy of CAL FIRE's Air Attack 340 (all rights reserved)

Treasure Island Aflame

This is an image capture a short time ago by Glib Smaga of the wildfire burning on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay and showing the Bay Bridge to the right of the island aflame. I have no details about the fire other than the fact there is a San Francisco Fire Department fire boat fighting the fire and visible in the image below the bridge at left. Image captured and shared on Twitter by Glib Smaga (all rights reserved).

Treehouse of Horror XXIV

I'm not a huge fan of the Simpsons for whatever reason although don't dislike it either but I do dig this.

A Millenium Of European History