North Dakota adds ten new coal-powered cars to its state fleet

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The state fleet grew by ten this week as the DOT purchased several Chevy Volts. These are electric cars with a range of about 40 miles, so I don’t think anyone will be running from Bismarck to Fargo (or Minot, or Glen Ullin for that matter) with them without kicking in the backup gas-powered generator. I wonder if they’ll make interesting little git-around-town vehicles. They’re going to be distributed around the state to the eight motor pool regions for state employees to use on official business. GM has suffered dismal failure in trying to convince the general public to buy these things, so I hope the state was able to leverage a sweet deal before spending our tax dollars on them.

If you sense apprehension in my words, don’t get me wrong. I’m not fundamentally opposed to electric cars; I think it’s a good idea to explore new technologies. After all, the “brick” cellular phone of the 90’s had to precede the smartphones of today. What I do oppose are any simpletons who claim they’re “saving the Earth” by purchasing one. Apparently people like that think their outlets are juiced by the Electricity Fairy or something. Let’s face it: these things are NOT going to be charged by windmills or solar panels…period. Thankfully I don’t get the impression that anyone at the state is making any of these pie-in-the-sky claims. This isn’t the first set of electric vehicles to frequent the capitol; there are still some GEM electric vehicles in use as well.

All “saving the planet” BS aside, I don’t know if I see these things as nearly as big a boondoggle as the state’s fascination with ethanol blended fuels. Those are a sure-fire loser, with less thermodynamic potential than gasoline, propped up by taxpayer subsidies in a perverse shell game, while wreaking havoc on the food market. These cars are drawing power from North Dakota lignite-fired power plants, and we can be quite proud of that. I just try not to think of the fact that each one of these cars may already have as much as $250,000 in taxpayer money already subsidizing it.

Rabbit in the moon, and the terminator

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Okay, I’ll admit there is no rabbit in this photo, so don’t bother looking. That was just a hat-tip to the song playing in my iTunes right now, “Rabbit in the Moon” by Scott Hardkiss. There is, however, one really cool feature of this photo. Did you pick it out? In the upper left, right along the terminator, is an illuminated rim of a crater that stands out from the rest.

The terminator is not Arnold “GIT TO DA CHOPPA” Schwarzenegger when we’re talking astronomy; rather, it’s the line between day and night, light and dark, the illuminated and non-illuminated part of a moon or planet. Notice the nice, gentle gradient of the terminator’s edge…and how it’s boldly interrupted by the rim of the crater. Cool, huh?

I took this photo in the late afternoon, some might say early evening. It’s the best time to photograph the moon because the sky behind it isn’t dark. While properly exposing for the detail in the moon, you still get some color in the sky surrounding it. At night all you get is a bold white or gold disk in a sea of black. I suppose that’s fine if that’s what you’re going for, but I prefer to show a little bit of blue.

Vanishing point

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One interesting bit about the fog this weekend was that it made things nearly impossible to see from a distance, including the landmark capitol building! Even from the pioneer statue at the bottom of the capitol mall the building itself was completely obscured. That gave me an idea, and it kinda worked out the way I planned.

The plan was for the capitol to actually vanish into the fog as I perched at the bottom. Interestingly, the fog didn’t work that way; while it was certainly thick enough looking horizontally through it, the fog wasn’t dense enough to totally obscure things while looking vertically while remaining as close to the building as I wanted. Standing far enough away to allow the building to be obscured by fog blew the perspective I wanted to achieve. In any case, it’s still a neat photo even if the effect is somewhat less than I’d anticipated. I didn’t freeze my fingers for nothing.

While I didn’t bump into him, it turns out I wasn’t the only other photographically inclined person poking around the capitol grounds at night. Check out a brief video of the weekend’s foggy festivities by Sam Sprynczynatyk by clicking here!

Spiky Saturday

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Yesterday I took advantage of the conditions and bolted out to some of my favorite rural haunts to see what the weather had in store. I knew the night fog would leave behind some photogenic traces, but also that I needed to find the right location to capture them. Out of town, the spikes of frost were up to an inch long!

I was in a little crunch for time and burned much of it pursuing a snowy owl without result, so I mostly hung around this one fence. It had a really cool way of securing the gate, using a chain from an old thresher or bailer. Naturally such a neat metal structure was the perfect place for frost to set up shop, and I was there to catch it.

Daylight began to break later in the day, and I actually came back after we got the afternoon’s festivities handled. Most of the frost was gone from the fences, but a few low-lying areas and shady spots were still adorned with what my four year old said resembled a porcupine’s quills.

Yes, that’s right…I didn’t come out here alone! I had one of my little guys along for some quality Daddy time. We had a blast just roaming around and talking, and we even spotted a new windmill for our collection! He has the same fascination with these structures as I do. We got to take some photos here, and I got to let him touch and break off some of the frosty spikes and see how they felt and melted.

As soon as it started, the day came to an end. The sun approached the horizon and we began our journey back to town. We got to witness some of the wonders of God’s creation, had some great Daddy-son time, got some cool photos, marked a new windmill in the GPS, and simply had ourselves a glorious day.

Frosty Friday

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I took the day off today to accompany my little fellas on a field trip and then to teach a quick introductory karate lesson to the group of kids. Getting up early, I realized there was a lot of fog and just enough time available to bolt out east of Bismarck and look for something frosty. Bonus.

Barbed wire is always a safe bet if there is frost about. Not only is it a good candidate for frost to form, but it’s also quite photogenic in the first place. A while back, when I bought and outfitted my new camera, I had to sell my beloved macro lens in order to afford some accessories (I’m still smarting from that). Even so, I have a couple of lenses in my kit that do a remarkable job of interesting closeups when the situation requires.

On this whole “abolish the property tax” issue (Measure 2)

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I haven’t been able to reconcile the philosophy that a centralized government is a bad thing with the philosophy that putting all local spending in the hands of a centralized state government is a good thing. The problem with the property tax lies with local governments, and that’s where it needs to be fixed. Measure 2 will not accomplish this. In fact, I think it’s an example of bad mechanics.

Our legislature meets part time for eighty days every two years…that is supposed to be sufficient to take on the responsibility of managing ALL local spending for the state? Not likely. Just the support structure required for the legislature to assume the additional oversight duties would amount to a huge balloon in spending and bureaucracy – and we all know how well that works out for the general citizen.

State spending under the guidance of our legislative body has soared time and time again, with no apparent frugality to be found anywhere. Now, according to Measure 2 proponents, this same legislative body is expected to be the responsible party and rein in all this rampant overspending and over-taxation by the local government bodies. These same local entities, I might add, have a pretty decent lobby already in place with the Association of Counties et cetera. Riiiiight. Am I the only one who lacks faith in the fiscal virtue of our legislature? What happens if the Democrats ever get control of it someday and cut loose the purse strings even further?

Remember Governor Hoeven’s ill-fated “property tax relief”? It was a shell game which did little if anything to relieve property taxes in the short term, but it hung the issue squarely around the neck of the state legislature. I remind you that the legislature neither levies nor collects property taxes – but thanks to this blunder, they own it in the eyes of the people.

I read another interesting point about rural counties a while ago. Much of the land in these counties is owned by non-residents. If the property tax goes away, it will not be replaced by income or sales tax from these people; they’re not here to pay it. This will in essence defund many counties, instead requiring the rest of North Dakotans to ante up to pay the difference.

This proposed measure, Measure 2, is an ill-fitting band-aid. We all agree that local (city/county) governments are abusing their power to spend money, assess property values, and levy property taxes; however, this measure does nothing to address that. It takes the idea of spending out of the hands of one bunch of free-spenders and puts it in the hands of another, one which meets once every two years, is barely allowed enough time to finish its business, and has proven itself no more responsible with taxpayer dollars than the local entities this measure aims to dethrone. The stand against abusive property taxes, if it really wants to enjoy any measurable success, needs to be taken at the local level…period.

Somewhere in Bismarck-Mandan a Trans Am is missing a piece of its soul

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Perusing the Antique Mall on west Main Avenue in Bismarck (yes, that’s right – we have no “Main Street”) I came across this box of 8 track tapes. I wonder how many people reading this never experienced the “joy” of this playback system and its associated idiosyncrasies.

For instance, when an 8 track tape deck “changed tracks” it was so cool, almost like random access (in a seventies kind of way) – unless it had to do so in the middle of your favorite song. Then of course was the fact that the tape heads didn’t always align themselves properly with the tape, leading people to wedge a matchbook or something under the tape to “shim it” into position.

While the 8 track collection in our family consisted of smash hits from Johnny Cash, Charley Pride, Tom T. Hall, Johnny Horton, and the like, this bin contains albums from a slightly different genre. I couldn’t help but dive straight for a big ol’ batch of stereotypical humor as a result.

As a photographer, I’m intrigued by the Antique Mall – and perhaps you will be too, if you haven’t visited already. There are old cameras, old toys, and a ton of vintage postcards as well. Some of them reveal some very intriguing and little-known facts about North Dakota! I invite you to pay them a visit. In some cases you’ll find things that are jaw-droppingly cool, and in others you’ll get a little chuckle like I did.

Weather Beacon glitch prompting a quick Beacon history refresher

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Driving around with my little boys tonight, we happened to drive through central Bismarck. It wasn’t long before someon noticed that the Weather Beacon was not lit. My little guys’ eyes frequently check for the Beacon no matter where we happen to be.

I reminded the boys that Daddy used to be responsible for updating the Weather Beacon five nights a week. There are a lot of cool things I’ve been able to do over the years, and this is one of them. As a result, I have a little bit more Beacon background than the average Bismarck-Mandan resident. That’s why I occasionally shift into Weather Beacon History Mode. here’s the lesson material:

The staff of KFYR 500 AM radio are in charge of switching it these days, but I don’t think they have any way of verifying that the relays on top of the building actually switch as they’ve been instructed. Sometimes they don’t. That’s typically the issue when the weather beacon isn’t up there indicating (or, as some surmise, generating) the next day’s weather.

So…that thing doesn’t really make the weather…does it?

It was fun to joke about that during my KFYR days. The TV station control operator (me, five nights a week) was in charge of changing the weather beacon to reflect the updated forecast throughout the broadcast day. On our program log in the control room, in between entries for commercials and programs, were occasional reminders to update the weather beacon.

There was a panel in the weather room with six buttons on it: red, white, green, flashing red, flashing white, and flashing green. These switches are still in a rack at the TV station, even though they are have not been connected to the Beacon for quite some time. Last I remember, the KFYR Radio control guys switched it by dialing a phone number (no, I’m not posting that here).

The poor Beacon almost faded into history in 1997. It was showing its wear, and the cost of modernizing it was prohibitive. That was, however, until KFYR Radio rode to the rescue. Phil Parker and Mark Armstrong of the “PMS in the Morning” show headed an effort to Save the Beacon!

At this time, Meyer Broadcasting was still intact. While I was hard at work on the TV side of the building, I also freelanced the website for KFYR-AM Radio. As part of the campaign to save the Weather Beacon, we had a couple of pages on the website urging people to help donate.

You can click here to see the original Save the Beacon page from my archives. Yeah, the Web has come a long way.

The campaign was a success in that it raised money toward the Beacon’s restoration, increased public awareness of its plight, and served as a rallying cry to its rescue. While the entire cost of the Beacon’s renovation was not raised, its importance to the community was indisputably proven. Through a matching grant from local government and plenty of donations, the project was underway.

As part of the KFYR website, we were happy to post that the Beacon would be saved. Cliff Naylor did a report on the Beacon that aired as part of a live telecast from the roof of the Provident Building, atop which the Beacon still sits.

You can click here to see the post-campaign page from my archives and watch the video.

As I recall, and the details in my head are quite murky, the Beacon was restored but still had some gremlins. I believe it was then refitted one more time and has functioned ever since. None of it would have been possible without Phil and Mark. To this day, the controls reside with KFYR Radio instead of the television station. In fact, why don’t you call the Phil Parker Show on KFYR some morning and ask Phil about it?

Oh yeah…the t-shirt. We had t-shirts made, and I still have mine. It has caricatures of Phil Parker and Mark Armstrong on the front, and a key to understanding the Beacon on the back:

Weather Beacon white as snow, down the temperature will go.
Weather Beacon red as fire, temperature is going higher.
Weather Beacon an emerald green, no change foreseen.
When colors blink in agitation, there’s going to be precipitation.

Provident Life used to sponsor TV spots featuring the Beacon and its rhymes, voiced by the dulcet tones of the late Ron Franke. Since they’re no longer doing business there, the ads don’t run. That means that the weather beacon itself is somewhat obscure now, with newer Bismarck-Mandan residents unaware of its history. For those of us who have lived here a long time, it’s good to see the weather beacon standing tall. No matter what the forecast, there’s something great about seeing it red in the spring, green when things are just right, and white when Thanksgiving and Christmas approach. Thanks to everyone who helped keep it up and running!

And now for something completely different

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I wanted to try one of these funky polar images using a panorama of the sunset at one of Fort Lincoln’s blockhouses. I think it turned out pretty well for a first attempt. In the course of wrangling this through Photoshop I learned a few things about how better to compose and exopse a shot for this sort of treatment, as well as get an idea of which types of shots will respond well and which won’t work at all. Have a good weekend!

Lean into it

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Today’s music reference blog post title comes from the Mr. Big album. This farm sits north of town and was a point of interest for my youngest boy and me a short while ago. We couldn’t go near, but of course I have a loooooong lens for situations like that.

I have a strict rule about obeying posted NO TRESPASSING SIGNS (and the law) when out on these photo hunts. I’ve found that if I discover a place where I want to take my camera, locating that sign and calling the landowner listed thereon will result in an invitation to proceed. Only once have I reached some drunk jackhole who thought it’d be fun to be rude, swear, and insult me rather than simply say “No.”

If you are into photography, I suggest the same diligence when out with your cameras. It only takes one wandering uninvited photographer to tick off a landowner to the point of never allowing anyone on their property. Ask a hunter how that works out.