December 17, 2019

The sunrise narrative arc.

1. At 7:19, 5 minutes before actual sunrise, there was that pink glow on the underside of the clouds that I've learned goes away very quickly. I stopped so I wouldn't miss it this time:

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2. And, 2 minutes later, I stopped again:

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3. I like the way the steam from the heating plant augments the clouds:

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4. I thought the color might wash out with the sunrise, but 3 minutes after the sunrise time, the color was excellent. I liked the way things developed. It was a great sunrise if you understand sunrise greatness in terms of the narrative arc and not merely the peak. I like a lot of interesting stages — changes....

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5. I thought of the criticism: It's a little too governmental.

6. At 7:30, the sun popped into view:

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7. Now, there was the challenge of looking at the sun. I tried hiding it behind the capitol dome:

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8. There's also looking away and seeing what is newly illuminated, like these trees and the receding ice on the lake:

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43 comments:

stevew said...

Eight items?!?

I love the clouds when they get that cottony or quilted look to them. It means something about the weather in the next 48 hours, which I learned in Boy Scouts but that was 45 or 50 years ago and I don't remember the details.

The colors are gorgeous.

Ken B said...

Will you endorse Trump if they impeach him?

Owen said...

But that’s not steam! Steam is water vapor! Power plants spew CARBON! How dare you present this as beautiful, when it is killing our planet! Eleventy!

/sarc

Tommy Duncan said...

"Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere, I've looked at clouds that way"

Seeing Red said...

Grrrr TOMMY!

I’m going to have that stuck in my head!

Tommy Duncan said...

@ Seeing Red:

After 3 years of impeachment this is the song rattling around in my head:

"Don't you love farce?
My fault, I fear
I thought that you'd want what I want...
Sorry, my dear!
And where are the clowns
Send in the clowns
Don't bother, they're here"

Bay Area Guy said...

Nice pics! Always a sweet juxtaposition from the heady DC political shenanigans to the soothing Althouse pics........

rcocean said...

Love the photos. Some clouds always improve the sunrise.

rhhardin said...

What kind of object is the sun? - it is the brightest object in the world.

YES, brilliant to such a degree! We have just seen it.

It takes a whole orchestra: drums, bugles, fifes, tubas. And the tambourines and the tympani.

All that to voice a single monosyllable. A single ononmatopoeic monosyllable.

The sun cannot be replaced by any logical formula, FOR the sun is not an object. THE BRIGHTEST of all objects in the world is - consequently - NOT - _is not_ an object; it is a void, the metaphysical abyss; the formal and indispensable condition of everything in the world. The condition of all other objects.

The condition of sight itself.

And this is what makes it atrocious. Really the last word in bad taste!

What leaves us really unsatisfied, and prevents us from adoring it: The sine qua non condition of everything in the world is revealed in it, imposed by it, appears in it.

It has the effrontery to show itself!

What's more, it reveals itself in such a way that it forbids you from looking at it, that it turns your eyes back into your body!

Really, what a tyrant!

Not only does it force us to be, I will later say under what conditions - but it forces us to contemplate it - and it nevertheless prevents us from staring at it.

YES and NO!

It is a tyrant and an artist, a fireworks specialist, an actor!

- Francis Ponge "Reading the Sun on the Radio"

Howard said...

Steam is invisible

Kit Carson said...

beauty is a beautiful thing
to add to one's life
even if it's only
8 times in a day.

rehajm said...

While the media is focused on impeachment Trump has been quietly surging to the lead in general election polls. A few are advertised as close- Biden, Bloomberg but given the requisite oversampling likely it is not..

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

Imagine if we had a serious press. instead of a back scratching service for billionaires and Democrats.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Howard said..."Steam is invisible"

Next you'll be telling us fire can't melt steel.

pacwest said...

I heard Trump has plans to build a store selling bobbleheads and ties, as well as a 3 hole golf course on the DC Mall in 2025. Probably just a rumor.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gahrie said...

Steam is a greenhouse gas.

(Really...and it has a much larger effect than CO2)

David Duffy said...

#3 "I like the way the steam from the heating plant augments the clouds"

I saw the picture of the steam and thought something similar. I remember a time when there were smoke stacks, when a manufacturing plant was engineered for combustion to produce some product or energy that would better people's lives and release smoke into the air. We still have to have combustion to heat the water to produce steam, but they have hidden the smoke stacks where the gasses of combustion were released. Not sure when this started happening. Perhaps the gasses of combustion are vented into the steam so as not cause alarm. I'll have to look this up sometime.

I enjoy the perspective of the view. The sunrise, the wind, the water, the ducks are flowing from and into the same direction. A beautiful symmetry.

Gahrie said...

I ask this in all seriousness: If Trump wins next year in a landslide, as I predict he will, how will the Left react?

madAsHell said...

Has anyone experience with robo-calls? No, not receiving them, but generating them.

I mean.....I get lot's of robo-phone messages in Chinese. It can't be that expensive.

I'm thinking a robot-phone call that posts voice messages saying "I'm trying to contact Mr. Clinton KilledEpstein. Have you any way of contacting Mr. Clinton KilledEpstein?"

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

@Gahrie

that's when they kick it up a notch and the civil war goes 'hot'

madAsHell said...

how will the Left react?

Civil War, and it won't last long.

Big Mike said...

So now people know why I call Howard an educated fool.

Original Mike said...

Where's the evidence he's educated?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

'Twas The Night Before Impeachmas

https://twitter.com/GOPoversight/status/1207068789835255809

gilbar said...

Jo Biden has a new campaign ad, where he states:
I WILL NOT LET DONALD TRUMP BE REELECTED

Jo, with the full support of the FBI and the CIA has Openly come out Against Democracy
He, WILL NOT let Donald Trump be reelected.

Jo has the FBI, the CIA, The Media, Our Poor Chuck
All President Trump has is; the Voters of the United States
Who will win?

Howard said...

Knowing steam is invisible is a matter of avoiding injury or death in old school heavy industrial environments. It's a mantra beaten in by stories of pain, gore and worse.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Judge Rosemary Collyer, the chief judge of the court that approves FISA surveillance, says shortcomings in the government's application to wiretap Carter Page were...

..."antithetical to the heightened duty of candor"

Great Scott, my good man!
Surely a rebuke like that couldst precipitate a cry of discomfort, and manifest in contused dermis on the morrow!



Sebastian said...

"YES and NO!"

Or as we Abelardians would say, SIC et NON!

Take that, sun.

Qwinn said...

No borders without a wall!
No Democrats at all!

Jon Ericson said...

Thinking of you, Howard.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Gahrie said...

I ask this in all seriousness: If Trump wins next year in a landslide, as I predict he will, how will the Left react?

I dunno, but you might want to think about stocking up on ammo!

n.n said...

If Trump wins next year in a landslide, as I predict he will, how will the Left react?

Antifa, eXtinction et al rage, liberals project, Democrats prosecute witch hunts and warlock trials, leftists demand redistributive change, Pro-Choicers and good Americans bitterly defend abortion chambers and selective-child, leftists and axis factions will collude in quid pro Joes with foreign and domestic special and peculiar interests. Progress (i.e. monotonic change).

eddie willers said...

After 3 years of impeachment this is the song rattling around in my head:

If you've got to have one rattling around, that's a good one.

I do it in Sinatra's voice, then change to Judy Collins.

Ray - SoCal said...

I’m surprised there has been so little mention Horowitz’s wife worked on Dukakis’s campaign and later for npr and cnn.

And his investigation of the Clinton Lynch tarmac meeting was perfunctory...

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

just lie back, and think of The Bureau

Lisa the Supine Spook done fucked up,

...and now, in typical ProgLibDem fashion, plays the victim

Sad Lisa -- Cat Islam/Yusef Stevens

She hangs her head and cries for some reason
She must be hurt very badly
Tell me what's making you sadly?

Open your door, don't hide in the dark
You're lost in the dark, you can trust me
'Cause you know that it must be treason

Crazy World said...

Just love these pictures Ann and also the Sad Lisa song 12:44, beautiful.

Mr. Forward said...

I haven’t seen every movie on Netflix but I have seen every plot
Try to avoid getting kidnapped because somebody will get shot
And if you find a stash of cash spend it you should not.

Rosa Marie Yoder said...

Thank you for recognizing that the plumes above the plant are steam and not "pollution."

rhhardin said...

Sad Lisa (Chyl Yu)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TCQUT2Wbyo

Tina Trent said...

In Apollo Beach, manatees gather beneath the coal-burning electric plant to take advantage of the heated water it releases.

During an apocalyptic cold snap that left mullet hanging from the mangrove branches in our backyard when the tide went out (freezing destroyed their ability to swim straight), so many sharks and manatees filled the power plant cove that they were stacked on each other higher than the water-line. The power plant pumped extra hot water for them. The sharks don't bite the manatees.

I think nothing wants to eat a manatee.

Howard said...

It's condensed water vapor. All smokestack plumes don't spew smoke anymore because of the commie pinko clean air act.