UFO Exmouth, Devon. September 2010

Well this is a bit of an unusual post. Last month on 6 Sept 2010
I was on the phone and noticed a bright object in the sky doing a loop
or so it seemed, thinking it was an acrobatic aircraft I got my camera, and
snapped the sky but nothing was now there.

Ten minutes later went outside, to have another look to the West/SWest and get
some shots of the dramatic sky (about 80% cloud cover).
Then for about 10 seconds at 7.32pm I saw an almost stationary bright object
in a cloud break, it seemed very luminous (even too luminous to be just sunlit)
as it was in sunlight. I took a series of photos (Canon small sensor SLR with
Image Stabilized 200mm lens which was AF microfocus adjusted
(+20!! Sigma Lenses can be great, Canon I suspect are being cynical),
and filters removed;
F-stop 7 and shutter 1/250-320th second, so optimal really as not diffraction limited).

The object had structure, it had some bilateral symmetry.
It was very bright without an obvious shadow side from the
setting sun.

I am a scientist by training, but did not measure anything in this instance
(Rutherford needed numbers to call it science).
Certainly high up (guesstimates: over 2000ft and a distance away,
at least a mile).
What is interesting is as cloud obscured the object, the cloud
acted as a neutral density filter and the structure came less "bathed"
in light and the structure easier to see.
Anyway fun stuff, great new technology (or visitors to those inclined),
unlikely to be a natural phenomenon though
...or just another weather balloon, but not Venus,
and there were no space shuttles up....

NB: Apart from first 2 sky shots the Unident Aircraft/UFO photos are reverse order,
Top one is the last, Bottom is first taken over about 10 seconds.
The blow-ups are digitally unprocessed except x4 magnification (400%).



But maybe its whats called a Hybrid Air Vehicle (HAV) or SKYCAT
a modern take on the military zepplin being developed by Advanced Technologies in UK??
Or maybe an X37B and Mother out of Vandenburg? Maybe wikileaks will tell us!?

Or inverted AND dirigible?


Dont know....but if not there is competition up there!

Chinatown Vancouver

Well what a difference a day makes, not to the
weather, we had another  cold night and brisk day today.
The difference is geographical, today we went to
one of the more crowded parts of Vancouver, Chinatown.
 
Chinatown is fine, but neighbors a definitely grittier
part of Vancouver just north of China town from East Pender
is the Eastend docks, east of gastown, where the self-naming
'underbelly' of Vancouver lives. There was an edge
to the area. 
 
Chinatown is an original one, and the tourist leaflet(!)
claims being the oldest and cleanest China town in
North America, or at least Canada. Its the real thing with 
lots of dried goods on sale, I could identify
walnuts and apricots and pigs trotters and scallops,
and cinnamon sticks, but that was about it
without purchasing intent. 

We went to the Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese park next to
the paid entry garden. It was empty and the pond was frozen
so the turtles and ducks had cleared off. The garden is
authentic in so far as all the limestone and supplies,
including gardeners, embarked to Canada from China to
undertake the project. A lady came out to tell us they
had great discounts in the Teracotta army gift shop, 
but we declined.There was a big plaque commemorating
the 300 odd Chinese Canadian veterans by name whom
served during WW2 in the entrance to the
community centre. 

We fell short of finding the restaurant area, not tourist oriented, 
so decided to eat uptown. Funny that Richmond has sprung up as a 
new Chinatown more in the vein of HongKong, and old china town
seems to carry on has it has done for some time now.
 
 

New Westminster - Santa Flashmob

Today went to the New Westminster Santa Claus Parade.

Lovely sunny day, with the Santa parade down on Columbia street
(old New West), just back from the mighty Fraser River
...and it was flash mobbed by about 300 Santa clauses
..unknown to the event organizers.
The organizers were very gracious about the interuption considering
though I suppose it was 'on theme' and good natured afterall!

The parade started at 4pm but it was dark before it ended.
Managed to get some reasonable photos considering the conditions.
So cold we ended up heading home and didnt wait for the Xmas lights
to be switched on!

Love the Hazmat response vehicle float..are those snowmen hazardous?
The langley cavalry also turned out, as well as veterans and
and all the dignitaries and organizers in polished up jags and mustangs.
Of course the real stars were REAL Santa and the Canada Mail Crew.
The 150th Anniversary New West Hyack Santa Claus Parade....
good fun.

Ware Eagles Dare

Todays theme is the Eagles of Vancouver.. a lions club institution,
as it was Polarbears when here in 2006.
Basically companies sponsor a fibreglass statue or three
(usually, though I have seen what looks like a bronze one
inside a big building too), which a selection of local artists paint.
Then they are stuck outside, bolted to the pavement for 6 months
and then auctioned off to the rich and famous in the spring,
for charity. Simples.

Anway there is a flight-path map you can get to visit them all,
but this time we are restricted to greater vancouver,
whilst on our roadtrip back in 06
the bears grabbed us all over British Columbia.

Here: http://www.eaglesinthecity.com/default.aspx?PageID=1119
Probably record interest this year being olympic year....

Here is a sample of what I have seen recently,
and a bit more inspiring than talking about cold walls.
Ironically I havent actually seen an eagle on this
trip yet, but maybe with the rain I have simply
missed them for my feet!

Instead as a cheat I post my favorite bird that comes to hand..
an english channel gannet, sorry eagles and sea eagles,
but these guys fish in pairs using their
wingtips to corral and indicate the fish by the first,
just by skimming the water with a wingtip
as if using a lazy arch of chalk,
and the second on this cue dive bombs from a height,
enters the water like a folding pair of scissors.
Simply amazing.

COLD WALL NEW CHALLENGES

Is it really 20 years ago today, that the Berlin Wall fell?
and Sargeant Pepper came to play?
I remember exactly where I was, do you?
Me, I was sitting on a sofa (probably with
an empty Ben & Jerrys pot beside me,
and before I knew it was made with pure cream)
watching CNN on the television in the lounge
of the Visiting Scholars House at Brown University,
somewhat amazed. My mouth fell open.

I had been to Hungary several years before in a VW Beetle,
in a dash across europe to visit a Hungarian scientist friend,
(courtesy of a 2 hour passport renewal by Canada House)
so I knew the iron barrier was real, that Trebants were classics,
the brick museum was only open on the first Monday of the month
the British Embassy was advising not to eat the honey
(aftermath of Cernobyl) and Hungarian people were stoic
and inherently friendly.
The Eastern Bloc border guards were also efficiently active with their prod
wires on the way out at Hegyeshalom; and the electric eyes
in the toilets, the question was a man or a woman watching?

Back at Brown Scholar House that night
The thing I remember the most was my fellow house guests
as they returned home from their various evening
occupations..an international crowd as it happened,
about 15 minutes apart the reactions were all the same:

A pair of Russian lady economists from Moscow State University:
"What? Unbelievable? and their mouths dropped open, amazed.

A single Chinese lady
"What?" her mouth dropped open, amazed,
after a while of silence
"You know we had something like this happen in China."
'Tiananmen?" "You knew about this, I didn't know?"

An individual American and an individual Brazilian chap, I think,
both their mouths also opened wide, equally amazed.

The Russian ladies were the same ladies that had been taken
to the Mall with me as a favour by my sections secretary
the previous weekend, and were convinced the lines of cars
for sale on 'Auto-mile"on the way to Fall River was a US plot,
an elaborate piece of propaganda.
"These cars are awaiting delivery?" "No they are for sale"
"These cars are not already promised?" "No they are available
to buy now." "They are on a waiting list?"
"Nobody owns them", "So these are SPARE capacity, Nooo?"
"This is a western trick". "No, you can walk in with dollars,
buy one and drive off".
"Yes." One was convinced and the other was not.
One of these economists suggested this would cause big problems
if people at home in Russia knew. Well the surprises were
coming thick and fast that week.
The Wall was of course the really big news
and I heard faint talking into the night.

Twenty years on, I am not the Ivy league academic,
or even employed, and not even sure Capitalism survived
looking around at the government supported
economics of the present order:
Capital gains and socialist losses!

What I do know is we now have more pressing problems
than rival national political ideologies, though the consequences
were real enough for those that suffered under the Soviet regime.

The pressing things now are resources, finite earth, population impact,
atmospheric pollution, global warming, loss of biodiversity
and potential collapse of food systems such as honey bees,
salmon and tuna;
the food-chain predators are the mine canaries now
...the new world order is in disarray so far
and looks like a rocky road to come;
Why do economists insist on growth, when steady state
is what we are really after?
Why do we grow and burn biofuel when we should bury it
in order to remove CO2 from the atmosphere?
Tough love but we have nuclear and tidal-wind renewables.
There are still many challenges in Eden,
twenty years after the Cold Wall came down.