Alan, pretty sure the tree in yesterday's pic, and also above, is an Eastern Hemlock. I have a lot of them, and they do remind me very much of Coast Redwoods. Right down to the tiny little cones they produce.
They're dying now because of a tiny predator which looks a lot like lint, and which is seems no one can control.
They sprayed our hemlocks for years. Didn't do any good.
And now I hear vague rumors of a beech blight. I guess there really aren't any ents to look after the trees. It's like someone or something is systematically going through each tree species and wiping it out. arboreal genocide, picking them off one by one.
There are hundreds (thousands?) of tree species in North America. Take a while to wipe them all out. And a lot of the problem is when you get a monoculture all of the same species. Oak Park lost almost all it's elms because that was about all that was planted on the parkways (space between sidewalk and street). They have a mixture of species now.
It seems the hemlock and redwood are not at all closely related; but the foliage is certainly similar. Must be a case of convergent evolution.
The sun was well up by the time I left for work at 0645; the pistachios have leafed out very nicely during the past week, and some alfalfa fields are being mowed. I saw a planting of iceberg lettuce that had been plowed under. I also saw a flock of ibis in the same [intermittently swampy] field where I have seen them before.
Thanks for the book pointer, cat. Sounds interesting.
Bill--I will look into the West, TX fertilizer plant. If it was a simple ammonia storage facility the fire and explosion wouldn't seem to make much sense. Yes, ammonia by itself is a widely used fertilizer; one sees it being added to irrigation water as well as injected into the ground out here.
Bill--I stand corrected re my assumption that the "fertilizer plant" was a manufactory rather than a storage facility; but the following report indicates there was a pretty fair amount of ammonium nitrate there as well. One must take the report below with several grains of salt, though, because the reporter clearly don't know what he is talking about, and the editors were clearly asleep at the switch. I particularly note that they ammonia is less volatile than ammonium nitrate [the reported probably doesn't know the meaning of such an exotic word as "volatile," and that container ships existed in 1947 [again, he probably doesn't know what a container ship is--just another word to toss into the (word) salad]. Of course, one can expect such quality of reportage in the NY Times as well; and they wonder why their business is no longer competitive... =================== By Bill Dedman Investigative Reporter, NBC News
The fertilizer storage facility that exploded this week in the town of West, Texas, had informed a state agency in February that it was storing up to 270 tons of ammonium nitrate – the highly explosive chemical compound used in the domestic terror attack on the Oklahoma City federal building...
News reports on Thursday focused on tanks of anhydrous ammonia –a less volatile fertilizer. [sic]
Adair Grain, doing business as West Fertilizer Co., told the Texas Department of Health Services on Feb. 26 that it was storing up to 540,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, along with up to 110,000 pounds of the liquid ammonia, according to the disclosure report...
The facility in West served primarily as a distribution point for fertilizer to farmers, a retail outfit, not a manufacturing plant, it said in its regulatory filings.
A deadly history
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer was involved in the worst industrial accident in U.S. history, when a container [sic] ship exploded in 1947 in Texas City, Texas..."
I'm inclined to believe the crucial point: That West Fertilizer Co. had reported storing both ammonium nitrate and anhydrous ammonia. That only calls for reporting ascertainable matters of public record without requiring the reporter to actually understand what was going on.
Without looking it up I can't be certain of course, my memory not being what it once was. But I don't think that's what happened in Texas City... Maybe Wikipedia will remind me of what happened...
I looked at the description of the Texas City disaster in the Wikipedia article Alan linked to. Aside from the bit about a container ship, what's missing is that the original explosion set fire to another ship, which exploded in its turn.
Texas City disaster From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Texas City Disaster) For the 2005 oil refinery fire, see Texas City Refinery (BP). The SS Wilson B. Keene, destroyed in the disaster's second explosion
The Texas City disaster of April 16, 1947 is the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history, and one of the largest non-nuclear explosions. Originating with a mid-morning fire on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp (docked in the Port of Texas City), its cargo of approximately 2,300 tons (approximately 2,100 metric tons) of ammonium nitrate detonated,[1] with the initial blast and subsequent chain-reaction of further fires and explosions in other ships and nearby oil-storage facilities killing at least 581 people, including all but one member of the Texas City fire department.[2] The disaster triggered the first ever class action lawsuit against the United States government, under the then-recently enacted Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), on behalf of 8,485 victims.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster
--- OK, I was wrong. It was a container ship. BTW Alan, what's wrong with that phrase? Isn't it the correct term?
I find myself falling back on my half-remembered German: "Ich glaube es nicht!" (I don't believe it!) When I got up this morning I found the ground covered with snow in the places the sun hadn't yet reached. And the calendar insists this is April 20.
As I walked to my book discussion this afternoon I noticed that our barberry hedges and some trees are starting to show the very first signs of leafing out, although the privet hedges and other trees are not.
The book was Saladin Ahmed's "Throne of the Crescent Moon," which has been nominated for this year's Hugo award. It's a fantasy (sword and sorcery) novel set in an alternate version of the medieval Middle East. Everyone who was there was very enthusiastic; it will be a strong contender for the reward. (Cat ~~ You do have your supporting membership to LoneStarCon 3, don't you? This will be one of the book in the Hugo packet.)
I just checked the LoneStarCon 3 membership list (on-line at http://www.lonestarcon3.org/). The only Thompson listed is Tex Thompson from the state of Texas. Time to get on-line and sign up!
First sentence from the Wikipedia article on "container ship." "Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization." The Grandchamp was clearly not a container ship. It was a regular old-fashion freighter.
No snow here, and I think the forecast called for highs in the mid 50s today, but it was overcast and uncomfortable most of he day, sun only making an appearance sometime after 3:00. And I was back to corduroys, flannel shirt and wool cardigan. Spring indeed!
There's no hiding the fact that Dean is first.
ReplyDeleteAlan, pretty sure the tree in yesterday's pic, and also above, is an Eastern Hemlock. I have a lot of them, and they do remind me very much of Coast Redwoods. Right down to the tiny little cones they produce.
ReplyDeleteThey're dying now because of a tiny predator which looks a lot like lint, and which is seems no one can control.
http://www.saveourhemlocks.org/adelgid.shtml
DeleteThey sprayed our hemlocks for years. Didn't do any good.
DeleteAnd now I hear vague rumors of a beech blight. I guess there really aren't any ents to look after the trees. It's like someone or something is systematically going through each tree species and wiping it out. arboreal genocide, picking them off one by one.
There are hundreds (thousands?) of tree species in North America. Take a while to wipe them all out. And a lot of the problem is when you get a monoculture all of the same species. Oak Park lost almost all it's elms because that was about all that was planted on the parkways (space between sidewalk and street). They have a mixture of species now.
DeleteIt seems the hemlock and redwood are not at all closely related; but the foliage is certainly similar. Must be a case of convergent evolution.
ReplyDeleteThe sun was well up by the time I left for work at 0645; the pistachios have leafed out very nicely during the past week, and some alfalfa fields are being mowed. I saw a planting of iceberg lettuce that had been plowed under. I also saw a flock of ibis in the same [intermittently swampy] field where I have seen them before.
Thanks for the book pointer, cat. Sounds interesting.
Bill--I will look into the West, TX fertilizer plant. If it was a simple ammonia storage facility the fire and explosion wouldn't seem to make much sense. Yes, ammonia by itself is a widely used fertilizer; one sees it being added to irrigation water as well as injected into the ground out here.
--Alan
Bill--I stand corrected re my assumption that the "fertilizer plant" was a manufactory rather than a storage facility; but the following report indicates there was a pretty fair amount of ammonium nitrate there as well. One must take the report below with several grains of salt, though, because the reporter clearly don't know what he is talking about, and the editors were clearly asleep at the switch. I particularly note that they ammonia is less volatile than ammonium nitrate [the reported probably doesn't know the meaning of such an exotic word as "volatile," and that container ships existed in 1947 [again, he probably doesn't know what a container ship is--just another word to toss into the (word) salad]. Of course, one can expect such quality of reportage in the NY Times as well; and they wonder why their business is no longer competitive...
ReplyDelete===================
By Bill Dedman
Investigative Reporter, NBC News
The fertilizer storage facility that exploded this week in the town of West, Texas, had informed a state agency in February that it was storing up to 270 tons of ammonium nitrate – the highly explosive chemical compound used in the domestic terror attack on the Oklahoma City federal building...
News reports on Thursday focused on tanks of anhydrous ammonia –a less volatile fertilizer. [sic]
Adair Grain, doing business as West Fertilizer Co., told the Texas Department of Health Services on Feb. 26 that it was storing up to 540,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, along with up to 110,000 pounds of the liquid ammonia, according to the disclosure report...
The facility in West served primarily as a distribution point for fertilizer to farmers, a retail outfit, not a manufacturing plant, it said in its regulatory filings.
A deadly history
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer was involved in the worst industrial accident in U.S. history, when a container [sic] ship exploded in 1947 in Texas City, Texas..."
--Alan
I'm inclined to believe the crucial point: That West Fertilizer Co. had reported storing both ammonium nitrate and anhydrous ammonia. That only calls for reporting ascertainable matters of public record without requiring the reporter to actually understand what was going on.
DeleteWithout looking it up I can't be certain of course, my memory not being what it once was. But I don't think that's what happened in Texas City... Maybe Wikipedia will remind me of what happened...
DeleteI looked at the description of the Texas City disaster in the Wikipedia article Alan linked to. Aside from the bit about a container ship, what's missing is that the original explosion set fire to another ship, which exploded in its turn.
DeleteTexas City disaster
DeleteFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Texas City Disaster)
For the 2005 oil refinery fire, see Texas City Refinery (BP).
The SS Wilson B. Keene, destroyed in the disaster's second explosion
The Texas City disaster of April 16, 1947 is the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history, and one of the largest non-nuclear explosions. Originating with a mid-morning fire on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp (docked in the Port of Texas City), its cargo of approximately 2,300 tons (approximately 2,100 metric tons) of ammonium nitrate detonated,[1] with the initial blast and subsequent chain-reaction of further fires and explosions in other ships and nearby oil-storage facilities killing at least 581 people, including all but one member of the Texas City fire department.[2] The disaster triggered the first ever class action lawsuit against the United States government, under the then-recently enacted Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), on behalf of 8,485 victims.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster
---
OK, I was wrong. It was a container ship. BTW Alan, what's wrong with that phrase? Isn't it the correct term?
"reported probably" = reporter probably
ReplyDelete"reporter clearly don't" = reporter clearly doesn't
--Alan (in editorial mode)
I find myself falling back on my half-remembered German: "Ich glaube es nicht!" (I don't believe it!) When I got up this morning I found the ground covered with snow in the places the sun hadn't yet reached. And the calendar insists this is April 20.
ReplyDeleteAs I walked to my book discussion this afternoon I noticed that our barberry hedges and some trees are starting to show the very first signs of leafing out, although the privet hedges and other trees are not.
The book was Saladin Ahmed's "Throne of the Crescent Moon," which has been nominated for this year's Hugo award. It's a fantasy (sword and sorcery) novel set in an alternate version of the medieval Middle East. Everyone who was there was very enthusiastic; it will be a strong contender for the reward. (Cat ~~ You do have your supporting membership to LoneStarCon 3, don't you? This will be one of the book in the Hugo packet.)
I don't remember, which probably means I don't.
DeleteI just checked the LoneStarCon 3 membership list (on-line at http://www.lonestarcon3.org/). The only Thompson listed is Tex Thompson from the state of Texas. Time to get on-line and sign up!
DeleteFirst sentence from the Wikipedia article on "container ship." "Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization." The Grandchamp was clearly not a container ship. It was a regular old-fashion freighter.
DeleteIt hot 74F here yesterday and our lilac buds began to open!
ReplyDeleteToday it was mid 40's and rainy, then sunny. Spring is here.
I don't envy those who got snow. Been there.
No snow here, and I think the forecast called for highs in the mid 50s today, but it was overcast and uncomfortable most of he day, sun only making an appearance sometime after 3:00. And I was back to corduroys, flannel shirt and wool cardigan. Spring indeed!
Delete