Saturday, April 17, 2010

Chasing an Asteriod


First it looks like Obama was wiping out a large chunk of the manned NASA programs and according to a report on Fox News paying Russia $52 million per astronaut to ride on Soyuz space capsules up to the International Space Station. Now by 2025, when former President Bush said we would have landed on Mars, we are going after an asteriod to try to deflect one that might hit earth. That isn't going to be easy and Congress could effectivly delay a manned shot into deep space by not giving the project money. We also do not have a manned space capsule yet that would contain astronaunts for so long of a time in space and one does have to consider the isolation factor. I have heard it would be about a 7 to 8 year mission to Mars because it would take 6 years just to travel from Earth to Mars than back again and then have some time to explore the planet in depth. It would be hard to land on an asteriod as well. However, that does seem exciting to consider the possibilty of exploring and understanding more about space.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Hurricane Season



The "experts" say there will be 11 to 16 storms, 6 to 8 hurricanes , and 2 to 4 major (Cat. 3 or higher). For the fun of it I'll forecast 10 to 13 storms, 4 to 6 hurricanes, and 2 to 3 major. It really is a silly exercise to try to guess what will happen, but the main thing is it could be an active season with El Nino wearing off. El Nino cools off the Atlantic and warms up the Pacific and the opposite happens during la Nina. In other words, El Nino is good in that it increases the wind shear and decreases water temps in the Atlantic cutting down on the fuel for storms to develop. These kinds of forecasts are often wrong, but it does serve a point to pay attention to storms. It is true that it only takes one hurricane to make it a terrible season for whoever it hits. It wouldn't hurt to check suppiles just in case one does hit your area since the season is less than two months away and August-September is normally the peak of the season.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Welcome to the Blue Tick Hound Blog


Welcome to the Blue Tick hound Blog. What's a Blue Tick hound and why the name? The Blue Tick hound is a type of hunting dog and I thought it would be different than naming a blog after the more commonly known Bloodhound. I'm a Florida Gator fan, but admittedly am amused by the Tennessee mascot "Smokey." Basically, this blog will be about a wide range of of topics such as sports, weather (for example hurricanes), politics, music, Government, etc. There might be humor involved as well. This is an experment inspired by a blog I had to write for an Advanced Newspaper Reporting course in college.