Volutus

Posted on 2017-06-25 by arjaybe

Mirostaw – World Meteorological Organization

Cloud of the Day – Volutus

Volutus, from the Latin volutus, which means rolled, is a species of cloud (yes, they actually come in species, and genera too) that the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently added to the latest edition of its venerable cloud atlas (2017.) It’s described as

a long, horizontal, tube-shaped cloud mass, often appearing to roll about a horizontal axis. It usually occurs as a single line and seldom extends from horizon to horizon.

This species is usually found in the stratocumulus genera, and more rarely in the altocumulus genera. In either case, volutus is rare.

The more observant among you might notice a resemblance to a previous Green Comet Cloud of the Day: Roll cloud. You would be right. It’s the same cloud, only now the WMO has officially included it in the cloud atlas, and given it a Latin name in keeping with the rest of the clouds. The atlas has to have a consistent naming regimen if it’s to be useful for scientific research.

rjb

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NASA Image and Video Library

Posted on 2017-06-18 by arjaybe

You might be aware of the website dedicated to the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD.) You can visit the site and see another great picture every day. Some people even set things up so their computer’s desktop image is the APOD changing daily. It’s a NASA website and just one of the ways that organization shares its discoveries with the public. Today I’m going to direct you to another one called the NASA Image and Video Library. They have brought together about sixty of their media archives into one source. Here’s an article on Space.com about the library.

Here are some samples of the images available. They link to the much larger originals. These images are Public Domain.

Let’s start with a spacewalk.

Next the aurora on Jupiter.

The mystery of Saturn.

Here’s one you might recognize: the Helix nebula.

Finally, a bit of space dust.

Happy rummaging.

rjb

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Unglue.it Tops Two Thousand

Posted on 2017-06-10 by arjaybe

Unglue.it Logo

At Unglue.it the combined downloads of Green Comet and Parasite Puppeteers have surpassed two thousand. To be exact, today they added up to 2,001. Unglue.it, which I have previously posted about, has been my most reliable outlet. It hasn’t accounted for the most downloads — that would be the Green Comet website itself. It’s not even the most productive external outlet — that would be BitTorrent Bundles. But it is the steadiest and most dependable outside of this website. While BitTorrent Bundles and other places have had big surges early on, they have tailed off to nearly nothing quite quickly. Unglue.it just seems to keep chugging along.

So, that’s another milestone for me and for my books. And it’s another chance for me to shine a light on Unglue.it. It’s also another chance for you to go there and see for yourself. Green Comet and Parasite Puppeteers aren’t the only books there. If you dig around you’ll find plenty of others that are at least as good. I’ve even reviewed a few of them here. You should go over there and download some of them. If you like them you can go back and tell the authors. You can even give them a bit of money to reward their generosity, if you feel like it. That’s the beauty of Unglue.it. They’re freeing books, and giving us a chance to thank the authors at the same time.

A pretty good example of how to share.

rjb

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