Second sun evidence

Anyone out there able to explain this? I in no way believe this to be a lens flare, if it were so, when the guy shooting moved the filter/hand it would have made the flare move.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=736800573058867

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ç´ç´„å ¢æŠŠ â€œé­šèœå ±ç”Ÿâ€ 搬進都市叢林

New Yorkers bring fish farms to urban jungle

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NEW YORK, (AFP) - So you recycle, drive a small car, and try to eat organic. But what about running an eco-sustainable fish farm combined with a naturally fertilized vegetable patch in your kitchen?

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Christopher Toole and Anya Pozdeeva, two former New York bankers who founded the Society for Aquaponic Values and Education (SAVE), are there to help. "We call it beyond organic," Pozdeeva, 39, said.

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Aquaponics is a technique with ancient roots for breeding tank fish, recycling their effluent-filled water to fertilize vegetation, then allowing this naturally cleaned water to drip back into the tank below.

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Its a perfect, miniature eco system that will let you grow healthy food right in a cramped apartment with almost no specialist equipment. "We built our system just from trash cans," said Pozdeeva, a slender woman who emigrated from Russias Siberian region 20 years ago and still speaks English with a gentle accent.

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If growing fish to eat in your New York apartment sounds unlikely, then Toole and Pozdeeva are even unlikelier urban eco pioneers. Just a short time ago they were bankers working crazy hours among the skyscrapers of Manhattan, a far cry from the gritty Bronx where they are based today.

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After the 2008 financial crash floored the banking industry, Toole, a vice president at Sovereign Bank, discovered he had a serious eye problem, which he says was stress-related. And both of them were severely disenchanted with their careers.

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"They know how to squeeze every drop out of you and then throw you away," Pozdeeva said. "We wanted two feet on the ground," said Toole,47, and striking-looking with a bushy gray beard and pork pie hat.

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Instead, he put two feet in the water. Toole knew a little about fish from childhood summers with his scientist father out at Woods Hole in Massachusetts, a famed marine biology research center in the Cape Cod area. Aquaponics, he reckoned, would let him marry sustainable food production with what he hopes will be an equally sustainable business model.

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CHRISTmas rant

****DISCLAIMER****

this IS a rant on about some Christians and NOT the religion. Either way religiously sensitive people should NOT read this blog. In all defense Im not trying to offend anyone except for the many assholes that need to be offended.

So now that the fine print has been read (you did read it right?) I will go on.

What really bugged me the other day was my walk back home from my grandmas house. I was gazing at the nice looking two story homes and the many nice brick driveways some people have and all the oak trees. This is what set me off for the final time...so much I had to write a rant blog.

A bumper sticker. What did it say?

Merry CHRISTmas

-_-

newsflash Christians, Christmas is NOT even a Christian holiday.

What do you mean shepherds werent dragging their sheep through snowy fields in the middle of December???

Anyway it was believed that Jesus was born more in September, not December (this means that yes it is likely people were tending to their sheep) around the time of passover.

Lets take Christmas back before it was called Christmas. Before the time of Jesus.

In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. People partied and carried on and such. In Rome, the holiday was done in celebration of the agriculture god (Winter Solstice.)

and of course the biggest thing (which still goes on) is Yule. Yule is a pagan/wiccan holiday in celebration for the birth of Mithras, the sun god. It is the shortest day of the year.

Ever wonder why everyone puts up an evergreen tree? It was originally brought into homes as a reminder that crops would grow again. Much like a good luck charm. After all, evergreens are called that cause they are forever green so to say.

So what gives? Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25th? Possibly to get people to convert to Christianity. In the year 350, Pope Julius declared that the celebration of Jesuss birthday would be on December 25th. Sounds fishy...doesnt it?

Of course Christmas isnt the only stolen holiday, Easter is another big one (what do you mean we dont celebrate the death of Jesus with bunnies and eggs???) and there are many more. Halloween was never meant to be evil, for example.

-note Easter falls on another pagan holiday which is a celebration of spring. Goddest of fertility is where the bunnies and eggs come from because she was associated with them -

Thou shalt not steal eh?

hypocrite

-end rant-

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Stirling Engines My second attempt

I think I may have actually built something.

Or nearly built something.

It looks like this and almost works.

Most of that junk in the picture isnt part of it. The bits that are part of it are the bits that look like a Stirling engine.

Sometimes Stirling engines look like tin cans, and wire, and pink balloons. They also look like cardboard disks with blu-tac stuck weights all over the place to act as a flywheel.



I planned on posting a video of it working today, but it doesnt.

What it does do is spin around freely for a few seconds when you spin the flywheel. It also has a displacer and power piston that are configured in such a way as to do what they are meant to.

I think.

When I put it on the stove top, it nearly feels a bit like its trying to work, then smoke starts pouring out of the seals, so I take it off the heat before it catches fire.

Who knew tape might burn.

Yes. Thats right. I thought Id make my engine using gaffer tape for the seals.

It doesnt work so well.

Tomorrow, Ill buy some glue. I seem to remember hearing of someone who used two part epoxy on a real engine crankcase, so it should cope with the heat.

Maybe.

My next choice will be solder. Solder melts when you get it hot, so Im guessing that wont work so well either.

But the glue might.

If it works, Ill put up a big build post. If it doesnt Ill try something different.




120 Things in 20 years - Using a random evolutionary approach to building a Stirling engine. Chuck some bits in a bag, shake, then cull anything that doesnt work like a Stirling engine. Ill get there eventually.


[edit from the future - For anyone concerned that time may not be linear any more, this post was actually written two days ago, but for some reason didnt get posted. As a result the post after this one was actually two days after this one.]

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Electric Bikes My second electric vehicle

We bought some electric bikes!

Way cool.

Aside from sailing and messing about in boats, there is nothing so normal feeling as riding a power assisted bike.

You stick a battery and an electric motor onto a normal everyday bicycle, and you get an uncanny resemblance to the feeling you get when you go sailing.

Something just feels right about it all.

I thoroughly recommend it.

I bought mine from a company called Dillenger, but so far, I have nothing good to say about them.

Thats not to say I have anything bad to say about them yet, but Ive had a few problems due to damage to my delivery in transit, and it will be a while before I get an impression of the company as a whole.

But...

I started work on Mrs 120ThingsIn20Years bike first, because I knew if I built my own bike first I would just drive away into the sunset and it would be weeks before getting around to building hers.

But there were some problems.

So I started work on my bike.

There were some problems.

In the end we spent a few hours at a local bike shop called MiCycles owned by a thoroughly decent human being who made my bike work.

Thanks MiCycles.

Well see about thanking Dillenger if they finally figure out how to do customer service without being...

lacklustre

If they turn out to be a publicly listed company, I might buy a share so I can go to their annual general meetings and bang on about how poor their problem resolution is.

Anyway...

electric bikes are awesome, you should buy one if you can.

I know I sound jaded, but I today I rode a lot without drinking enough water, so really Im a bit "near death" is all.

I see everything once, just like Yossarian.



120 things in 20 years has spent the last three days on the phone so hasnt posted anything.

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Baby muscovy ⌚ update ⌚

Baby Muscovy duck

Baby Duck seems to be growing up nice and strong. This is our only one left out of the 5. If it wasnt goats it was the cold and poor parenting. 
Mostly the goats. Darn goats.... smh. 
Its handled now, 
Dont worry.

Muscovy and baby

Moma duck and baby keeping an eye on the barn cats

Barn Cat

Neighborhood cat watch.

Barn cats

I find barbed wire around the chicken coop and throw it on the other side of the fence to get out of the way, of coarse you know who wants to play with it.

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