• NOAA site for RainFall Totals and PON NEW rainfall totals and PON, (the website calls it Regional Max/min Temp and Precipitation Table) data This sucker seems to have a weird quirk. Occasionally, it just seems to show temp data without precipitation info. Try selecting a prior version by hitting one of the buttons at the top. Be sure to check the report date to verify relevancy.
    Our Rainfall Totals Jul1-Jun30
    DateInchesNotes
    3/15/080.02"
    10/31/080.25"
    10/31/08 - 11/3/081.0"
    11/4/080.25"
    11/8/080.03"
  • Saratoga Weather Lightning Monitor
  • RealTime Rainfall Doppler Radar San Francisco Bay Area. Interesting, shows a radar loop of precipitation.
  • Wunderground.com THIS HAS some really nice features like a travel section; you enter start and destination information, and it will create a driving map that shows weather forcasts along the route. It also has a section that lets you see private weather stations that other people in your neighborhood might have put online. Give it an address, and it will give you a list of nearby stations.
  • National Weather Service provides highly targeted forcasts. You can move around a map to get localized forecasts. You can enter a street address, zip code or simply a name like Mount Shasta. I think it will also take gps coordinates.
  • Real time lightning detector in Saratoga. Shows a map of hits and a count. Has a link to Boltek lightning detection equipment.
  • Wife's got a misguideded and borderline disturbing loyalty to sfgate.com which, like MANY other services, is simply a re-branded version of Wunderground.com.
  • Find Local Weather is a site that seems to give weather by place name, for instance, Golden Gate Park. It seems to be easier to access this through google.
  • Clear Sky Chart. Locate chart for your location.
  • SkyAndTelescope article about Stargazing Forecasts including links to different weather monitoring and prediction services. Need to take a closer look at this. There is a link that includes near real-time infrared satellite images at the NOAA geostationary satellite server site. Weather models include a link to Penn State's Electronic Map Wall which is supposed to be a one-stop shopping page for all current weather information. Many of the frames have isobars to indicate predicted pressure; interesting note: lots of isobars close together indicate high wind conditions which lead to unstable air and poor transparency.
  • Oh, and spaceweather if you're curious about the current state of the sun, or other topics astronomical.
  • Useful quicklinks to weather for all state parks
  • Sky View Cafe is an online sky chart.
  • Stellarium is one of the best planetarium programs you can get. It shows you what the sky will look like for the given time and location. It also simulates atmospheric effects to give you a reasonable approximation of the brightness of stars and planets. This is excellent for stargazers who need a little help finding objects.
  • Cartes du Ciel is a skychart program that will show celestial objects without the atmospheric simulation. This is very powerful, but more appropriate for people doing more advanced astronomical observations.
  • Basic Yoga Workout For Dummies, Sara Ivanhoe. Pretty good dvd. Here is the santa clara city library listing. Here is a clip on youtube.
  • HIKING NOTES:
    4/9/15 Devil's Slide Trail ≈2.6mi parking lot on the south side of the tunnels. bathrooms on both ends of the trail. really nice hike. lunch at Sam's Chosder House. her: grilled salmon burger, me: grilled sardines. shared: asparagas/pesto/fava bean salad on a bed of pesto. she didn't like it because the dish was cold. don't order again.
    1/5/13 Cowell-Purisma Coast Trail 3.6mi ≈1hr South of half moon bay (very close), just past UC Elkus Ranch, across from "Bob's". Actually very cool, 3.3 miles from here to Cowell Ranch. MUST COME BACK PROPERLY EQUIPPED to do this. Still recovering from flu shot shit. She tried Tetley Orange Spice Tea; still dislikes tea, but she didn't react as violently against this one. STUPID HOURS: trail is ONLY OPEN weekends and federal holidays 8a to sunset!!!
    4/18/15 BayTrail: Burlingame Robert E. Woolley State Park to Millbrae Marriott ≈6.7mi 4hrs To get here via 101, take 101N, exit Peninsula Ave, go left onto airport and keep going down airport until you get to Anza Blvd, go right to embassy suites hotel. Here is the Tide Table for millbrae. Here are the current traffic speeds for 85 north and 280 north. and millbrae weather A better way (little bit of backtracking) is to take 280N, go down Millbrae Ave all the way to the end (past bart) until it hits airport blvd. turn right past the marriot and keep going until you hit Anza. BRING BINOCULARS, excellent views of airport as you head north. lots of hotels and restaurants on the way. great places to picnic. The full trail goes from San Mateo to Millbrae, possibly further.
    • 11a Kincaid's Bay House Restaurant Parking Lot (should have gone further down the road to the Embassy Suites where the actual parking lot for this trail is.)
    • 11:50a 2.6mi, on a bench having lunch near the elephant bar (where we had lunch last time.)
    • 12:05p take off, heading north toward millbrae
    • 12:20p Marriot, 3mi.
    • 12:35p end of trail at sfo viewing area. 3.4mi
    • 12:55p continue
    • 2:55p Robert Woolley Peninsula Park (next to embassy suites hotel.) really crappy bathrooms, 6.4mi
    • 3p done! 6.7mi

    • Washington Exodus Info

  • real estate listings
  • Blaine city information
  • Bellingham data
  • Port Angeles data

    • Totality: Solar Eclipse 2017

  • Climatology and Weather Predictions
  • Weather In Cities In Path of Totality
  • Cities In The Path of Totality: including notes about quality and duration of totality
  • 25 things to bring to eclipse.
  • Astronomy MagazineEclipse Tours: Music Cities Pacific Northwest National Parks of the West
  • Total Solar Eclipse, wherever that happens. Here is NASA's eclipse schedule.
  • 25 facts from astronomy magazine, including YOU NEED TO LOOK AT TOTALITY WITHOUT FILTERS! This blurb about safety also says it is safe to look during totality.
  • 2 DOZEN tips
  • Cities in the path of totality
  • Eclipse calculator. Very cool, just plug in coordinates and timezone, and it will give you details of what to expect during the eclipse.
  • TimeAndDate countdown clock
  • we were wondering how much eclipse blaine will get, so I got the coordinates for blaine, 48.9937° N, 122.7471° W, but needed to plug in HMS values into this calculator. to do that, use emacs to convert decimal degrees to hour-minutes-seconds format, use calc-to-hms.
  • VERY FUCKING COOL Interactive Eclipse Map
  • Better map shows you times associated with the eclipse for any selected spot. The times are in UT, so use this UTC - MST converter. Eclipse starts in Ketchum ID at 16:12:37 UT which evidently is about 10:12a MST on that day. In Carbondale, IL it will start at 16:52:26 UT which is about 11:52p CT.
  • According to this site, the altitude of the sun at start of totality will be 35.3deg, maximum totality will be about 47.6deg. The end of the eclipse will be 56.6deg
  • CNN article about how to watch the eclipse safely
  • CHECK OUT $20 plastic eclipse glasses that includes 2 pairs of paper solar glasses, and inexpensive binocular solar filters. saw these in an add in astronomy magazine. Here is their free sample program.
  • Use this eclipse map to find your viewing location (it will show long/latitude). It will give you eclipse data at that point (start/stop times, etc) and you can find the distance to the center line.
  • Use this calculator to convert UTC to local time.
  • World Clock

    • Phil's Stuff

    • Michael Mosley's pbs series about high intensity interval training, intermittent fasting, and guts. Here's the section about The Truth About Exercise.
    • Sitting (or standing) test predicts how long you'll live
    • Although recently completed long term studies were disappointing, this scientific american frontiers episode about calorie restriction is interesting.
    • metformin study to alleviate the effects of aging is actually pretty interesting. Article in Nature describing the goals of the TAME study.
    • Michael Mosley Intermittant Partial Fasting diet, also called the 5-2 diet.

    Financials Crap

    Monte Carlo based retirement simulation. Evidently, some advisors don't like these simulations. People got in trouble relying on monte carlo analysis in the 2008 crash because it doesn't accurately simulate real world market moves; in many cases, it isn't completely random and indenpendant, but a series of years of bad or good can be connected. Some analysts say it is better to use historical simulations over monte carlo simulations. I think fireCalc is a simulator based on historical data.

    Dad's Stuff

    Looking at grocery delivery options for dad
    • Amazon Prime Fresh seems to have an unpopular $300/year subscription model! AmazonFresh does grocery delivery. Free delivery on orders $50 or more.
    • Safeway Delivery. $12.95 delivery fee for orders under $150. NO TIPPING
    • Google Express. $10/month or $95/year subscription. NobHill/WholeFoods/Costco/Walgreens/Target/Fry's/SmartAndFinal, etc. Seems to have limited products with each store.
    • InstaCart. Safeway/NobHill/Costco/SmartandFinal/Petco/WholeFoods. Here is a detailed review and description of the service. Personal shopper; like Uber for groceries. InstaCart is banned from TraderJoes. $3.99 for a 2 hour deliver window if yo spend more than $35. You pay instacart prices, not store prices; there can be as much as a 20% markup. Tips allowed but not encouraged. Here is another review that compares InstaCart/GoogleExpress and AmazonPrimePantry. She preferred InstaCart.
    Uber Stuff:
    • How To Use Uber
    SmartPhone Stuff:
    • Setting up a smart phone
    • wireless carrier comparison