All posts by Richard

Lake Louise Avalanche Video

June 11, 2012Northern LifeRichard

Vacation! Spent yesterday hiking the Plains of Six Glaciers trail at Lake Louise, Alberta. Molly and I are taking our youngest son, Erik, on a hiking trip in the Canadian Rockies for his college graduation trip. This particular hike was a 14 kilometer round trip from our cabin, but gains 2300 feet in elevation just to keep things interesting! At the top of the hike is a mountain chalet which is run as a tea house. The staff lives there all Summer, and their supplies come in by one large helicopter drop and then pack horse the rest of the Summer. The trail had only opened seven days ago … as Winter takes a long time to give way to Spring at this elevation. One half of our hike was across snow fields even in mid June.

Our hike was fantastic, and eventful. We saw lots of wildlife … grizzly bears, mountain goats, Clark's Nutcrackers and much more … and oh yes, on the way back down we were blocked by an avalanche. It was both neat and scarey to hear the telltale signs of an avalanche coming down the mountain … and then watch it unfold in front of us … wondering how we would eventually transit the large snowfield in front of us. The best way to describe the avalanche was a roaring torrent of snow. Wide eyed we watched huge chunks of snow burst over a cliff above us just like a raging waterfall. Thankfully we were safely 300 yards to the side and almost even with this cliff in terms of elevation when the avalanche started. We stood for over ten minutes and watched nature's spectacle in front of us, and debated the best way to proceed down the mountain.

I hope you enjoy my photos and video. This post 100% uses Blogsy from my iPad. It's nice to leave my laptop behind on this vacation. My apologies if the post formatting is not quite as crisp per normal. I'm still learning Blogsy.

Ray Bradbury … My Friend!

June 7, 2012UncategorizedRichard

A friend of mine died this week, Ray Bradbury. Actually, I never met the man, but he is still my friend! Since I started this blog in August of 2006, Mr. Bradbury has been the subject of my own posts many times:

Mr. Bradbury has often been quoted on how libraries opened his world, and introduced him to thousands and thousands of people. Via my own librarian (Thanks to a Great Librarian), I was introduced to science fiction and his writings in specific. Let us hope that our great libraries never reach the point at which paper burns, Fahrenheit 451. However, libraries can burn without fire if our society does not remain diligent.

Quoting from the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University:

"How ironic that Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, with its book burning firemen, was published in 1953 and would once have been entering the public domain on January 1, 2010. To quote James Boyle, "Bradbury’s firemen at least set fire to their own culture out of deep ideological commitment, vile though it may have been. We have set fire to our cultural record for no reason; even if we had wanted retrospectively to enrich the tiny number of beneficiaries whose work keeps commercial value beyond 56 years, we could have done so without these effects. The ironies are almost too painful to contemplate."

As parting gesture, here are two classic covers from of some of his most well known books. Please consider visiting this site from vintage papaerbacks. You can have fun exploring more classic sci-fi covers.

Long Distance Cycling Demystified

June 3, 2012Northern LifeRichard

As a public service of NorthStarNerd.Org I will attempt to visually explain the sport of long distance cycling using photos and Garmin GPS training data images! Yesterday I rode the 72 mile Tour de Pepin with my wife, Molly. Lake Pepin is a very large lake on the Upper Mississippi River between Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The Start!

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The Event …

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The Garmin Data

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Heaven on Earth!

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The Finish!

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The key is Ice Cream!

Every Tour De Pepin rider received a free ice cream cone at the 50 mile mark! Whatever other reason could there be for riding?!

President Obama Visits Honeywell (Veterans Job Program)

June 1, 2012Economy 2.0, Northern LifeRichard

Normally I keep my blog and my job separate, but today was not an ordinary day! President Obama came to Minnesota and specifically my Honeywell manufacturing plant to announce his new jobs program for U.S. Veterans. Given the company encouraged us to bring cameras, here is my post from a proud 27+ year Honeywell employee! It's a great company, and during the past 12 months we've hired over 900 veterans!

Let me pause for a few moments and extend a personal thank you to our men and women in uniform. My first cousin, Richard Fraser, was killed in the 9/11 attacks. Thus, I appreciate everything which our U.S. military does to keep us free and maintain our way of life. However, with all the horrible things in this world, it is still a beautiful place. See an earlier post labeled: "The Dads Fought, the Sons Build".

Back to the Honeywell event at Golden Valley Minnesota. Hiring veterans was the major theme of the President's speech and he announced a new veterans jobs program. In short, if a vet is trained to handle complex jobs for the military, why are they often required to get new civilian certifications to perform the identical jobs upon finishing their enlistment?? President Obama cited the example of an Army Medic who received a Bronze Star for gallantry on the battlefield. In Iraq this young man provided medical care while under fire on the battlefield, yet upon returning home he could not qualify to be an ambulance attendant. This is wrong, and I support the President's program.

Here are a few photos and videos from Obama's visit to Honeywell. By a stroke of good luck I ended up only 20 yards from the podium. Click upon any photo to view at full size.

First two photos: Honeywell Line & Press Setup

I had to stand in line for two hours, and then another two hours inside.
There were three elevated platforms with media. Each platform had about 30 camera persons.

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The third & fourth photos: National Anthem & Veterans

A local high school sang the national anthem. In addition, we all said the Pledge of Allegiance. Honeywell Veterans were given seats of honor on two sets of temporary bleachers. The rest of us stood!

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The fifth photo: President Obama

I also managed to shake hands with Governor Dayton, Senator Franken, and Representative Ellison. They came by where I was standing.

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And now my YouTube videos of the event. Given how close I was to the President, and the fact that I am 6' 2" tall, I could hold my camera up to a height of 7' 6" and then angle the LCD viewfinder down. Thus I could get my camera above most everyone else's camera!

The videos are: