Seen in the Sky Over Northern Norway, This Morning. ... Subtitle: Oh My God, We've Just Lost Power on the Port Reindeer! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!

This lasted for, according to many witnesses, over a large area of northern Norway, about two minutes.
So far, nobody has come up with a definitive explanation.
The most persuasive one so far is that we're seeing the traces left by a Russian ballistic missile, spinning out of control, and ejecting a fine mist of fuel vapour as it spins. This vapour is sufficiently far into the upper atmosphere to be illuminated by the sun, long before sunrise occurs at ground-level, just as vapour trails from high flying aircraft are often illuminated in the pre-dawn sky.


The Russian Navy is exercising in the White Sea, not so very far away, but..... the Russians deny any launches at or around 7:45 a.m. local time.

There do seem to be sufficiently large a number of reports from different sources to suggest it's not a hoax

Station F - F Archangelsk,RUS
2009-12-08 16:54:55 (GMT+0)
Signal quality 100
Message number 79 Type A (Nav warning)

ZCZC FA79
031230 UTC DEC 09
COASTAL WARNING ARKHANGELSK 94
SOUTHERN PART WHITE SEA
1.ROCKET LAUNCHING 2300 07 DEC TO 0600 08 DEC
09 DC 0200 TO 0900 10 DEC 0100 TO 0900
NAVIGATION PROHIBITED IN AREA
65-12.6N 036-37.0E 65-37.2N 036-26.0E
66-12.3N 037-19.0E 66-04.0N 037-47.0E
66-03.0N 038-38.0E 66-06.5N 038-55.0E
65-11.0N 037-28.0E 65-12.1N 036-49.5E
THEN COASTAL LINE 65-12.2N 036-47.6E
2. CANCEL THIS MESSAGE 101000 DEC=
NNNN

"Russia’s troubled Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile will be test-fired on November 24. Of the 11 test launches that have been conducted so far, only five have been successful.

The missile will be launched from the nuclear powered Typhoon-class submarine Dmitry Donskoy, which is the only vessel in service with the Russian Navy capable of testing the new missile, RIA Novosti reports.

The Bulava was last test-fired from the Dmitry Donskoi in the North Sea on July 15, but self-destructed soon after launch due to a defective steering system in its first stage."

Source: Barents Observer

The Bulava is a 5,000 mile range intercontinental ballistic missile, with capability for multiple re-entry warheads. Somehow that seems like a return to the bad old days of the cold war.

I'm sure things will become clearer in the next few days. But I wish I'd been there to see this strangely beautiful happening.

Update:- Russian Defence Ministry have today confirmed it was a Bulava missile, launched from the submarine Dmitry Donskoi. "It has been established ... that the missile's first two stages worked as normal, but there was a technical malfunction at the next, third, stage of the trajectory," a Defense Ministry spokesman said."

A very expensive light-show. Half of Russia's military budget has been going into these missiles, recently, and 8 out of 12 launches have been failures. In this case, a very visible one. The builder blames the failures on poor quality components coming from the 650 suppliers, and says this would not have happened under the soviet regime. Hm. And under the soviet regime, he might reflect, the chances are that he'd be lucky to get sent to a gulag.

Just the Sort of Shop I Love

"Damn... No spoffle-pins in stock? "
"We get them delivered direct, what size spoffle pin did you want, small medium or large?"
"Ummm I suppose I'd better get a large, just in case"

"It's on its way"

btw: I used to live about ten miles south of Mikkeli.

"Canned", and "Bread"

I recently read an article which quoted someone as describing himself as "The best thing since canned bread".
Sliced, surely?
But of course, the concept nagged at me and I now know that canned bread is a reality. Indeed, if you come from Maine, or from Japan, you're probably bemused by the fact that I'm bemused. As if I were wondering about canned beans, for instance.
Let it be duly recorded that prior to today, I had never heard of canned bread, nor did I ever ponder the possibility.
I understand that canned bread sells rather well, and that New Englanders feel lost without it, so it is exported to expatriates across the globe. It features regularly in SpongeBob cartoons. Survivalists stock it in their bunkers.
I shall not be purchasing any. I like my bread fresh, aromatic, warm inside, and crunchy on the outside. mmmm.
I rather think cylindrical bread in a can might not tick the boxes there. However, if you've ever had canned bread, do tell if it's as disgusting and rubbery as it sounds.

Pigs:Three of, (Size:little), Check. Wolf: (Big/Bad), One of, Check

Unashamedly Reposted...

What sort of music do I like? Well, this is one of my favourite pieces.
I was challenged to find a riposte to Red Dirt Girl's "Magic Man" 
by someone or other... Oh yeah. Heart.
Heart? Never heard of them....

Well, I was listening to heaps of cool music, but in the end I came back to this.  She's unlikely to listen to it all, because this is a whole album worth. Still xxxx!


The Allman Brothers Band, jamming at the Fillmore East, New York, March 1971, played this.
The resulting live recorded album was released in July of that year. Sadly, only a couple of months later lead guitarist Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash near his home in Macon, Georgia. A year later, another member of the band, bassist Berry Oakley died the same way, less than a mile from the spot where Duane had crashed.

I recall that several of my friends said this track was "rubbish" I didn't agree with them then, and I don't now. I just love this. According to the band this was really jammed, it evolved there and then, on the stage of the Fillmore.
The origin of Mountain Jam was a song by Donovan,

I doubt that many of you will listen to it all. That's okay, I won't be offended.



I think this is a great example of improvisation around a theme.

In My Own Time...

Happy Solstice.....

Today is the winter solstice.
Today, at 17:47 GMT, the northern pole of the axis of the earth's rotation is pointed the furthest away from the sun. I apologise for the clumsy nature of my explanation. If you google winter solstice, I'm sure you'll find articulate astronomommerists explaining it better.

It was a festival, signifying the point of the year when the days no longer became shorter, and instead start to lengthen, it's truly the end of one year, start of another, depite the fact that our calendar's a bit out of synch. The Christian church mysteriously chose to hold its major festivals at the same time as the pagans held theirs, the choice of the 25th december to celebrate Jesus' birth is not underpinned by any date evidence in the bible.
(As far as I can determine, the bible scholars pin his birth to mid-september 2 B.C.)

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