“Adirondack Cowboys”

The Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, Feb. 5-14, 2010,  is the longest-running event of its kind in the eastern U.S. Now entering its 113th year, the Carnival began as a one-day event to break the monotony of the long Adirondack winter and has grown into a ten day festival that includes sports, dances, performances, two parades and two sets of spectacular fireworks above the world-famous Ice Palace. Over the years, the Carnival has retained the warmth, charm and camaraderie of a community celebration. It starts Feb. 5 with the coronation of the Winter Carnival King and Queen. The event proceeds with the lighting of the Ice Palace, fireworks, sports, parades and performances, culminating in the Carnival Slide Show and Gala Fireworks. Questions? Contact us.

 

A Space Mission Worthy Of Our Attention

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Three images of Saturn taken by Hubble in 2004 show a changing aurora around its pole. Auroral storms on Saturn are caused by the solar wind (a stream of charged particles from the sun) striking Saturn. On Earth, such storms develop in about 10 minutes and may last for a few hours. But Saturn's auroral displays can last for days. NASA, ESA, J. Clarke (Boston University), and Z. Levay (STScI)

“It is humbling, marvelous, full of the same thrill and romance I remember when I stood on my head on the couch cushions in 1969 to watch the first grainy pictures broadcast from the moon.”

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Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag, July 1969.

NPR asked astronomers to share their favorite Hubble images.

Hubble's repair mission requires special equipment. Take a look inside Hubble's toolbox.

NPR.org, May 18, 2009 · If you were born around 1960, you have a vivid if childlike memory of America's race to the moon.

It was a glorious but perilous quest. Two weeks after my seventh birthday in January 1967, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee burned to death on the launchpad in the Apollo 1 capsule.

The tragedy was seared into the nation's psyche. We fretted each time a subsequent Apollo mission to space counted down. It all felt like a wing and a prayer — who knew what would happen? But with every fiber, we rooted for our astronauts and the scientists nervously smoking away in Mission Control in Houston.

If the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement sowed seeds of national doubt about the justness of our cause, our voyage to the moon was the best sort of balm. Smart and brave, that's what America was about. The poster of Neil Armstrong standing on the moon was sold in nearly every grocery store. I put one on my bedroom wall. I was 9.

Doubt

Like the civil rights movement, America's mission to space lost momentum in the 1970s and '80s. Jim Crow was dead, we had gone to the moon, now what? A space station orbiting Earth was OK, but it was a comedown after what had come before.

With the space shuttle, science fiction became reality. Lifting off into space was like hopping a jet from New York to Boston — it was called the shuttle, right? The nation wasn't tuning in to Walter Cronkite for the countdown anymore. Then, when the Challenger disintegrated during takeoff on Jan. 28, 1986, and killed not only our brave astronauts but also a bright young schoolteacher, it did not firm our resolve like the sacrifice of Grissom, White and Chaffee.

It made us wonder why our scientists gave the green light to blast off on a freezing Florida morning when the Challenger's O-ring seals would be stiff and problematic. It made us pause: "What are we doing up there, anyway?"

Supercharged

But there are no deep philosophical questions about the space shuttle Atlantis' mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. Even the most begrudging, no-new-taxes or let's-take-care-of-our-problems-here-on-Earth-first types must concede that the Hubble telescope gives the world and its scientists the biggest possible bang for the buck.

Orbiting at more than 17,000 mph, struggling with stuck bolts and replacement parts that won't fit, this mission was judged to be so perilous that for the first time, a shuttle is standing by on the launchpad ready to rescue the crew of Atlantis should the worst happen.

Humans are trying to understand the origins of the cosmos, and Hubble's upgraded cameras and spectrographs, new gyroscopes, computers and batteries will allow us to look further back in time. The Hubble will emerge (hopefully) supercharged, better than new.

I've been captivated by the eight-hour-long spacewalks and the astonishing video being broadcast live on the NASA channel. While I conduct interviews and plow through research and write pieces for NPR, I watch Mike Massimino, Drew Feustel, John Grunsfeld and Mike Good struggle and toil in space hour after hour. It's like watching the NBA playoffs, with the outcome always in doubt (go ahead and force that stubborn bolt; there's nothing to lose now).

It is humbling, marvelous, full of the same thrill and romance I remember when I stood on my head on the couch cushions in 1969 to watch the first grainy pictures broadcast from the moon. (The initial broadcast began upside down. I remember saying to my parents, "Americans everywhere are standing on their heads!" I was completely convinced of it, but my parents informed me that the number of Americans upside-down on the couch with their feet against the back wall was less than I might imagine. Oh, well — their loss.)

What have we learned from Hubble? We now know that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, that the speed at which the universe is expanding is accelerating, and that it seems major galaxies have black holes at their center (what's up with that?). We are boldly going where no one has gone before. Hubble and the crew of Atlantis will take us there. Two more days. Good luck, everyone. I'll be watching.

Reporter's Notebook by Wade Goodwyn

Ready, Aim—Dream!Has photography blinded us to the reality of the American West?

By Sarah BoxerPosted Wednesday, May 6, 2009, at 7:01 AM ET

Click here to read a slide-show essay on photography and the American West.

The Changing In the Glass Trick for Great Bordeaux

Posted: 03:09 PM ET, April 28, 2009

Last night I opened a bottle of 1996 Mouton Rothschild for Giacomo Neri, the famous producer of Brunello di Montalcino. His 2001 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova was Wine of the Year a few years back. I recently scored the 2004 96 points in a blind tasting for the magazine.

Anyway, I wanted to pull out something special for him last night, even though we were just going to eat grilled chicken with a green salad in my kitchen. I was going to make some French fries, but the potatoes in my cupboard had sprouted! I was really in the mood for a French bistro-like dinner with chicken, fries and salad. Almost got there!

It didn't matter. The 1996 Mouton was gorgeous. Interestingly, we didn't like the wine at first – even more so Giacomo. I should have decanted it earlier, instead of just popping the cork and decanting it when he arrived at the door. The wine got some air while we were eating a first course of white beans over toast with tuna, olive oil and onions. We drank a crisp yet exotic a 2008 Tiefenbrunner Pinot Grigio Alto Adige.

We couldn't wait for the chicken to be on the table to try the Mouton, so I poured a glass for each of us. Yikes! It was herbal with some stemmy fruit and sort of green wood aromas and flavors. It was disjointed, too.

Giacomo didn’t like it at all. "This is not up to much," he said. "I thought you gave it a high rating?"

I was a bit worried myself. It did show all those green characters. And it was not fun to drink. Did I get it that wrong? I scored it 96 points on other occasions.

But then the genie came out of the glass. After about an hour, it completely changed and the currant, cassis, berry and plum aromas and flavors came out as well as lead pencil and minerals. The palate was fruity, soft and silky. It seemed to get darker in the glass as we sipped through the decanter. It was stunning juice. 96 points, non-blind. STILL.

We had great smiles on our faces the whole evening. Giacomo said it was one of the best wines he had drunk in years. I think he just loved the texture of the wine.

I love the way great Bordeaux change in the glass. It's what makes me a claret lover. And it's what made Giacomo love claret last night.

If you have not noticed I am a big fan of James Suckling both on Wine Spectator and Cigar Aficionado.

NEW GEOCHRONOLOGIC AND STRATIGRAPHIC EVIDENCE CONFIRMS THE PALEOCENE AGE OF THE DINOSAUR-BEARING OJO ALAMO SANDSTONE AND ANIMAS FORMATION IN THE SAN JUAN BASIN, NEW MEXICO AND COLORADO

James E. Fassett

ABSTRACT

Dinosaur fossils are present in the Paleocene Ojo Alamo Sandstone and Animas Formation in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico, and Colorado. Evidence for the Paleocene age of the Ojo Alamo Sandstone includes palynologic and paleomagnetic data. Palynologic data indicate that the entire Ojo Alamo Sandstone, including the lower dinosaur-bearing part, is Paleocene in age. All of the palynomorph-productive rock samples collected from the Ojo Alamo Sandstone at multiple localities lacked Cretaceous index palynomorphs (except for rare, reworked specimens) and produced Paleocene index palynomorphs. Paleocene palynomorphs have been identified stratigraphically below dinosaur fossils at two separate localities in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone in the central and southern parts of the basin. The Animas Formation in the Colorado part of the basin also contains dinosaur fossils, and its Paleocene age has been established based on fossil leaves and palynology.

Magnetostratigraphy provides independent evidence for the Paleocene age of the Ojo Alamo Sandstone and its dinosaur-bearing beds. Normal-polarity magnetochron C29n (early Paleocene) has been identified in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone at six localities in the southern part of the San Juan Basin.

An assemblage of 34 skeletal elements from a single hadrosaur, found in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone in the southern San Juan Basin, provided conclusive evidence that this assemblage could not have been reworked from underlying Cretaceous strata. In addition, geochemical studies of 15 vertebrate bones from the Paleocene Ojo Alamo Sandstone and 15 bone samples from the underlying Kirtland Formation of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age show that each sample suite contained distinctly different abundances of uranium and rare-earth elements, indicating that the bones were mineralized in place soon after burial, and that none of the Paleocene dinosaur bones analyzed had been reworked.

James E. Fassett. U. S. Geological Survey, Emeritus, 552 Los Nidos Drive, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501

PE Article Number: 12.1.3A
Copyright: U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain April 2009

via palaeo-electronica.org

More food for thought...always of interest. When you get right down to it the theory that a a small population of dinosaurs survived in remote areas until it eventually petered out is plausible, perhaps more plausible than every dinosaur died at once in a gigantic catastrophe that nevertheless was not large enough to affect other animals such as mammals to the same extent.

It seems more likely that their extinction was gradual and drawn-out over a longer period of time. Love them dinosaurs! - Mark