Travel Advisory...

No, not for a snowstorm, though there is a winter weather advisory out for Fairbanks today. This was posted on another blog (http://leftcoastsportsbabe.com):

There's a new worldwide travel alert from the U.S State Dept. “U.S. citizens should exercise vigilance when in public places or using transportation." 
To be fair, I suppose it does make sense to issue a warning when we know there are dangerous and crazy people seeking power in another country. So who will be the first to issue an alert for the U.S. based on the GOP debates?

And of course there are lots of political cartoons, with the current crop of repugnant candidates, it's like picking low hanging fruit.

Be very afraid...

Saw an article the other day that speculated what the world would have been like if the Nazi's had won WWII. Well I guess they don't need to write another contra-factual novel, now that the conservative base of the repugnant party rules the roost. With the report that one of the Paris bombers may have been a Syrian refugee, the hue and cry from the repugnant chorus was overwhelming. They say it's because our clueless Muslim loving president, having bungled the war on terrorism, now wants to allow thousands of potential terrorists into the country. But despite the fact that with the exception of 9/11, almost all of the terrorist acts committed in this country were done by white Christians, we should be very afraid. Most of the Presidential candidates, congress and even our state representatives are almost unanimous in decrying the imminent threat to our democratic way of life if these immigrants were allowed in. Even though most of their own relatives came into the country as immigrants, often from countries such as Ireland or Cuba that once had terroristic revolutions. The most ironic quote was from a Texas politician who said we couldn't let them into our country because "it would be too easy for them to buy guns." The irony is almost too much, it'd be funny if it wasn't so sad.

Potential terrorists, coming to bomb a theater near you.
Photo from http://www.worldvision.org.

Air racers...

Saw this poster on a blog (http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com):

It reminded me of a section of Oshkosh air museum (Oshkosh by Gosh...8/30/15) that was dedicated to air racers and stunt planes. Apparently the air races were as popular in the 1920's and 30's as Nascar or the NFL is today. Here's a few photo's from the air museum's collection:

The Laird Super Solution was an air racing champ in the early 30's, flown by Jimmy Doolittle. It's kind of surprising that they were still using biplanes for racing by then.

The Stearman Model 75 was a WWII trainer modified after the war as a stunt plane. It was given a more powerful engine and dubbed "Super Stearman" (photos courtesy of the Oshkosh EAA Air Venture Museum).

Back to winter...

After one of the warmest Octobers on record, the snow and colder weather have returned. The best part, I guess,  if there is a best part, is that it prompted me to get going and head outside, fire up the tractor, and plow the road and driveway. It's the first useful thing I've done since the knee procedure. Great fun.

Now the sun barely clears the sauna roof at noon time. Soon it'll barely clear the horizon.

Here's the October summary, courtesy of UAF's geophysical institute (http://akclimate.org/Summary/Statewide/2015/Oct):
Temperatures were decidedly above normal this October across the state. The monthly mean temperature 37.5°F, a significant 5.5°F above the normal of 32.0°F. This is 5.2°F above the October 2014 mean of 32.3°F. Temperatures were above normal for all 19 reporting stations. Only one day of the month (the 1st) was below normal. The peak warm deviation, an extreme 10.9°F, occurred on the 27th, while the coldest deviation of ‑3.6°F occurred on the 1st. October was slightly dryer than usual;  the statewide precipitation was 4% below normal.