Contrail vs Chemtrail The Thought Process

8:35 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 2 Comments


Scenario
I'm at the park on a warm, relatively windless Spring/Summer day. I lie back on my picnic blanket and look into the sky. I see something that looks strange to me. I see:
-an airplane moving across the sky leaving a visible, white trail behind it
-other linear cloud-like trails that, and in combination with the one left by the airplane, make a grid-like pattern that covers most of the sky, horizon to horizon
-the linear clouds spread out and linger for several hours as I lie and observe
-the airplane that is leaving the trail of white substance all of the sudden stops leaving a trail for a beat, then it starts up again.

I wonder what is going on. At this point I think back in my memory if I have seen this before in my life. I decide that I have not seen anything quite this extensive when I was younger. 

What am I to do to figure this out? First I can think about my memories. I am certain that this amount of aircraft activity and all these trails were not present when I was younger and would look to the sky. This needs to be further investigated. I first need to understand that my own memory is a terrible base for conclusions. There are multiple studies, too many to not listen to or at least enough to doubt my own memory. The brain does not like empty space so it often creates false memories to fill the void. When I look back, I can not trust what I am recalling because the mind can play tricks like that. An example of the leading expert talking about this memory issue can be seen here

I am not worried because I can find other ways to address the question of whether this is a new phenomenon. I want to first know if there is documentation to prove that there are more aircrafts in the air at any given time than in the past and have there always been these white, puffy trails in the sky or is this a relatively new occurrence? 

I look at airline data and I find that yes, there has been an increase in the number of planes in the air at any given time since the beginning of the use of aircrafts. 

Increase in commercial airplane use.

Now I need to know if these trails of white are a new occurrence or have they, in fact, been happening for a long time and I am only now just noticing? I found photographs that show these trails throughout history. 

This means that my memory is false and I have proof that there are more airplanes now than in the past and the number is increasing. I also have proof that these trails have been happening for decades, from the beginning of aircraft use.
1944 Contrails
1945 contrails

1954 contrails

1963 contrails

1977 contrails

More 1977 contrails

1987 contrails

1989 contrails

1990 contrails

Next I want to know if these patterns I see are normal or abnomal. The grid shape and the looping shapes. I checked the flight patterns of various airlines and I see that the planes fly in a north south and east west pattern all the time. I have, personally, been on a flight in Heathrow, London, where we were on a holding pattern that had horrible, tight turns. We did a massive oval pattern for probably a half hour. I can confirm that planes do both crosshatch patterns, parallel patterns and looping patterns. This is very normal. Good. 

Planes criss crossing the US

Now I need to answer the more important questions. What can cause these trails and what can they made be made of? I learned that when flying, the aircrafts produce an exhaust and in the extreme and varying temperatures in the altitudes that airplanes fly at that exhaust can cause clouds to form. Depending on the conditions of the air, the clouds that form can be thick and stay for hours, they can stay thin and stay for hours, they can spread out and cover the sky and stay for hours, they can dissipate immediately, they can be produced visibly for a stretch of sky, then when the plane hits a pocket of different physiology, no trail will be produced. This explains what it was I saw in the sky. Here is a simple description from Encyclopedia Britannica: 

Contrail, streamer of cloud sometimes observed behind an airplane flying in clear, cold, humid air. It forms upon condensation of the water vapour produced by the combustion of fuel in the airplane engines. When the ambient relative humidity is high, the resulting ice-crystal plume may last for several hours. The trail may be distorted by the winds, and sometimes it spreads outwards to form a layer of cirrus cloud.
vapour trail. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica.Retrieved May 4, 2007,from Encyclopædia Britannica Online:http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9074829

An example of planes crossing paths at what appears to be the same altitude but our eyes obviously deceive us.

So what are these trails composed of? I read in places like here, that these tails have been tested and it contains mostly water. Here is a very in depth study done on the chemistry of these cloud trails.

I feel confident that I have solved the questions I had about what I saw in the sky. A variation of engine type and weather condition (both of which can vary for any reason) causes varying shapes of these trails but they are very well explained. Here is an journal showing that these clouds are common around the globe.

I have absolutely no reason to add anything to what is a perfectly explained and very common phenomenon. In fact, this was explained as far back as 1921 as I found this article explaining what these long trails are. I could make up other things like there are dragons sitting on the planes, exuding smoke, that that can't be true because the trails have been analyzed and the analyses show that it is composed mostly of water. This is consistent with it being a byproduct of exhaust.  

Why am I noticing these cloud trails now? Well, there are more airplanes in the air now. More airplanes equals more exhaust trails.  



Examples of condensation trails that I found pretty.


I found a bunch of beautiful shots of this ice cloud that is formed. Looking at these and looking back on the research I did makes me feel satisfied that nothing is wrong with these pictures. Everything shown on this blog page is a perfectly natural occurring event. Yes, I saw it all with my own eyes, and even though sometimes they can, it appears that my eyes do not deceive me, they look like clouds, they are proven to be clouds. Nothing to worry about at all. 

It is such a common and natural occurrence that it can even be predicted just like the weather. Here is a website from NASA that based on the current atmospheric conditions in real time, it can predict when and where these clouds will form.

Some people have had the same questions that I had about these condensation trails and they, too, did some research. Unfortunately, they came across some scary sites that say these clouds are actually chemicals being sprayed over the populous. The thing about that theory is that none of it makes sense. People are making money off of poor, curious people, like myself by selling the idea that these clouds are something more than ice. They use us by saying we should believe our eyes. My eyes see a cloud but some can say it looks suspicious. In a regular person's mind it could look like something is coming OUT of the plane other than exhaust. That in combination of the fact that these clouds can form in patches (we now know that is because of variations in weather), and can come from some planes and not others (we now know that there could be differing elevations, engines, weather etc in very small areas) and that the planes seem to criss cross the sky (which we now know is because there are a lot more planes in the sky than there used to be) and the fact that these clouds can sometimes disappear immediately after forming and they can also persist and spread out across the sky for hours and hours (just like regular clouds)...all this together makes these fear mongers catch hold of our attention. The problem is, these people have nothing to back up their statements. Sure, there are patents for chemical spraying and geo-engineering. But there are also patents for pretty much anything. Like this one for making unicorns. But just because someone patented it, is a FAR reach from anyone implementing it. It is also can not be considered proof in any way shape or form.

These sites also bring up the fact that governments have admitted to spraying the general public. Yes, that is true, they have. That spraying is not only admitted, it is available for your review. You will find that all the admitted spraying done looked NOTHING like a contrail. That spraying was MOSTLY done from truck, in fact. So that means absolutely nothing and helps not the suggestion that the cloud we see trailing the airplanes has some sort of chemical in them. These websites also suggest that geo-engineering is a possible reason for those clouds but that is also not true. We can find that out by reading all the readily available documents that are not hidden from the public in anyway. Turns out geo-engineering, or cloud seeding, is a known phenomenom and looks and acts NOTHING like a condensation trail. So since we know what spraying chemicals looks like and we know what geo-engineering looks like and it doesn't look like the clouds behind an airplane, we can safely say, sure these things may be going on or have happened in the past, but that is not what we are seeing striping across our blue skies.

Finally, people try to say there is an abundance of chemicals in the air/water/soil and that people are getting sick. There is NO proof of this either. These websites simply suggest that with NO data attached. I should say, there is some data. The data shows absolutely NORMAL amounts of things like Barium and Aluminum in the places you would expect to find those things. As for people getting sick, no, not because of these clouds. In fact, if someone was trying to control the population, like Agenda 21 for example, then they are not only trying to kill themselves and their own families but they are failing altogether. Human life expectancy is rising.

General graph showing the increase of life expectancy. 

I hope people who were like me and were curious about what is in our skies. I love to question things, that is why I became a scientist. Please trust us, friends. We are trying to help the planet by understanding it. What makes a good scientist is one who can keep an open mind. It is difficult for a human to do so, I know...believe me...but we should follow the facts and data. If I come across some facts and data that tell me that it turns out the government (or whoever) is trying to kill us somehow...maybe in our food, water, vaccines...whatever....I will believe those facts and data. I am always here to absorb the truth, where EVER it may lie.

Doing the research for this little blog got me absolutely fascinated in clouds, condensation trails, planes and the photos of them. The amount of variation I find just beautiful. I leave you with a picture of a Lufthansa flight over Poland at sunset. Beautiful.

All photos and references otherwise not referenced can be found here.

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How To Upholster A Storage Ottoman

12:02 AM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

My new ottomans!

Sometimes I get a bug up my bum to do a crazy little project. Being stuck in the house for the last couple years does that to me every now and again. I refer you to my shelving project or my night stand project as excellent examples. I am still working on fixing up the living room. I am enjoying the bright colors in there. I look around and I see a little black hole where the two ottomans sit. They are ugly, fake leather, brown square blocks that sit next to each other and suck the life and color out of the room. I bought them in 2004 for storage and used them as a coffee table when I lived in a 200 square foot studio. Now we use them as extra seating but mostly as a step ladder. We also used them while painting our emerald green bookshelves so they have bits of paint spattered all over.

Square, brown ugliness.

I have decided to buy some jewel tone fabrics and cover them myself. My closest friend is a costumer so I was able to get into a really cool fabric store with her. I went in to this thinking I wanted a magenta velvet material but none such existed despite the massive, massive warehouse I had to go through. I settled on a thick, fake velvet that is a bright purple. As I was about to leave an earthy, orange fabric caught my eye. Orange being my favorite color and it going so well with purple I decided to get it too. The BF wanted me to get a pattern but I figured that two bright colors kind of made up for not having a pattern. I was afraid that the two colors next to each other might look too mismatched. I also thought that, perhaps, I would do a pretty shoddy job. These two factors combined into making me think I needed something to tie the two together. Something like tassels. Well, if I am being honest, I walked into the Tassel ROOM and went bonkers. My friend and I were unraveling every roll, giggling and running around. It was a fun time. I settled on a relatively plain one but it was also of high quality and that quality showed. In fact, the tassels I bought cost more than all the fabric.

My new gun and the purple fabric

The orange fabric and the tassels.

I figure it would not take too much effort to do the reupholstering. Even if I totally screwed up, they were in such terrible shape before, I could really only improve them. Worse case scenario I would just rip the fabric off. I planned on only stapling the fabric on and the staples would be in non-visible places. I went to borrow a staple gun from my mom but the BF pointed out that it was an opportunity for us to add to our pitiful tool collection. I went to OSH expecting to buy one of the steel staple guns I have seen my whole life and move on. Little did I know that there are all kinds of guns out there. I must have looked perplexed because a man who was shopping two aisles over "came to my rescue". At least that is what HE thinks he did. He came over and was like "I see you look confused, Little Lady. Maybe I can give you a hand there." OK, me might not have called me "Little Lady" but he may as well have. He explained to me how he has always used the steel one and he knows because he works in "industrial settings", as he put it. I asked him the difference between that and the ones that have the pressure device above the staple, the ones that were electric, the ones that were also nail guns, the ones that had automatic dispensing and more. He looked at me dumbfounded. "I don't know about those, I just use that one". Wow, thanks for that help, Mister, you saved me. I am just a girl and I don't get it. I will buy the shiny one like you told me to. I left with the electric one with automatic fire, a safety and doubles as a nail gun. It was, after all, going into our slowly building tool collection. Turns out that I am not perfect after all though. I went against all the suggestions for size of staples and went with the 1/4 inch ones, the smallest. On the all the labels of all the brands of staples they suggest 5/16" for upholstery. Turns out they were right. My staples kept pulling right out if I folded the fabric over more than a couple times. This made it difficult on corners. I remedied that by pushing down harder on the staple gun. Next time I will follow the suggestions. I just thought that the smaller, the less damage.

Before

Before.

Ok, enough yakking, below is how it was done:

1. Measuring.
I bought 1 1/4 yards for each ottoman. The lids were about 17x18 and the boxes were about 17 h and 70 in circumference, all in inches. I ended up with tons of leftover fabric but it was on sale so I was happy to over purchase than under buy.

Measuring the lid.

2. Cutting.
I laid the lid over the fabric, then measured 11 cm out from each side for folding over and cut.
For the box I measured an extra 5cm for the top and another for the bottom to get the height. I cut way more than I needed to wrap around. I measured by rolling the box along and cutting it after it wrapped the length of one extra side.


Revealing the screws on the stoppers on the lid.

\
Unscrewing the stoppers on the lid.


Prying off the stoppers on the lid.

There were these spikes under the stoppers that I removed with pliers.

4. Preparing the ottoman.
I removed the feet from the bottom and the little stoppers from the lid. For the lid, I had to pull back the leather cover that was glued on with a rubber cement type of glue. What I did not do was find a way to mark where the screw holes were to replace the feet later on. I will tell you how I solved that below. I did plan on using those feet and stoppers to further fortify the fabric and in the end it did work for me. Luckily.

3. Affixing fabric to the top.
I placed the lid in the center of the fabric (backside of the fabric facing up). I folded one side up and over, making sure the fabric was 11cm overlapped the whole length of that side. I put one staple in the center. I went to the opposite side and did the same, pulling the fabric pretty tight but not so tight it pressed into the cushioning warping the shape. I did this to all four sides. Then I put in a couple more staples once I had made sure the fabric was where it was supposed to be.
For the corners I tried two different things and found one to be best. The one that worked best was pulling the corner of the fabric across the corner of the lid, pulling tight, tighter than I pulled for the center of the fabric, then placing a staple to hold it in place. Next I took the flaps I had created and pulled them, one by one in a direction parallel to the opposite side and stapled them into place. After that I stapled the heck out of everything holding it all in place.

A successful corner staple.

This the experimental corner affixation I did not like.

The stapled lid.

The stoppers forced back on in approximately the correct places.

A screwed on stopper.

Making sure the lid still fits. It does. Pheww.

4. Affixing fabric to the box.
I tried a few different ways with this one too. I had to pull out a lot of staples, leaving then on the floor to be forgotten about until the BF's foot found them. Sorry, Honey. The method that worked best for me was this. I laid out the fabric and placed the box on its side making sure it was lined up with 5cm excess along the whole top which was the side of the box facing me. I placed the fabric sticking out one half the length of the sides, meaning I was planning on wrapping the fabric one extra half length of overlap. I folded the fabric over the lid of the box in the center and put in one staple. For the first one, I put in two more staples on either side to make certain it stayed parallel to the fabric. I stood the box up and placed it upside down, pulling the fabric as tight as I could without stretching the fabric so much it made folds. I put one staple in the center to hold it there, then two more, one on either side. I turned the box back upright and worked on the corners.

The corners have a little step I had to maneuver around.

The corners of the ottoman are not even. There is a little step in each corner that hold the little stoppers of the lid so the lid doesn't slide off. They are not all that necessary but they are there so I had to find a way to deal with them. I pressed the fabric right to the edge of the step and placed a staple against the inside of the wall I was working on. I am not sure if this really helped or not but I feel like it did: I made a small incision in the fabric to make it lie flat against the wall where that last staple went. I took the rest of the fabric and folded it as neatly as I could and laid it flat against the other side of the step. I think the incision helped me keep the fabric from bunching up thicker than my staples could handle. Once both the corners were tightened, I stapled the corners a bunch more times to keep them in place as I stretched the fabric for the rest.

The finished stapled top.

Next, I laid the box back on its side, measuring the 5cm all the way across the top and repeated, this time with just one staple in the center at the top, then the bottom. I did the corners next, stapling the fabric as close to the step as I could. I chose to do it this side by side rather than wrapping the whole box in one stretched length because I didn't want any staples to show on the outside edge. So what I did was staple up three of the sides. Once I got to the fourth and final side, I cut off all the excess fabric that could have wrapped the fabric another turn around if I let it. I left about 3 or 4 cm excess and folded it over. I folded it so it ended right on the last seam. Remember that I had left the beginning of the fabric half a length excess. I stapled that excess fabric on so it wrapped half way across the fourth side to cover up any mess ups I was about to make finishing off this final side. I took the folded edge and stretched it as tight as I possibly could up and down to keep it creased down and stapled it on the bottom and top after folding it over, of course. This created a really handsome seam that lead from top to bottom that is barely noticeable. In fact, someone even asked me where the seam was. That's the definition of a job well done, I say.

Not the worst job.

Once I finished the folded over seam, I checked to make sure the fabric was not pulled in any funny ways. I checked for that the whole time, too. Then I stapled the bajeezus out of it.


5. Replacing the feet and stoppers.
Uh-oh. I had folded the fabric over all the insides, two, three, four or more times so on the corners. There was no WAY I was going to find where those holes were. I tried many things up to and including un-stapling a whole corner. I was this close to giving up when I performed my last-resort action. I forced it. Turns out it was easy to force. I just eyeballed where the feet should have been, I even measured the untouched ottoman. Then I just forced the screws in and it worked. Phewwwww!

The seam is left loose but it is held tight enough.

The seam.

I am quite proud of myself and my work. I did a great job, a professional looking job, and changed the look of the whole room. I have not yet added the tassels. That will have to be another day and another blog. For now, I am thrilled with my orange and purple ottmans...ottomen?


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New Year's Resolution #1: Take Care Of My Plants - The Before Images

11:14 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

I wanna live.

Oh this is going to be embarrassing. I mentioned before that I noticed that the only time my plants looked good was when I went away for a period of time. Every time I went on vacation someone else was actually taking good care of my plants. That is when they would actually flower, bloom, stand up, and produce...anything, something. That was a wake up call for me. It is a situation that has become, why even have plants? Why go through the bother of planting or purchasing anything? It is kind of miserable.

Help us!

But not anymore. I resolve to take care of my plants this year (and the years to follow, hopefully). This means pruning, cleaning, keeping from the cat as best I can, and the really important one, watering. It seems so simple but apparently it isn't for me. I mean, I go through all the trouble of buying soil and pots and seeds and watering cans and cute little shovels. I spend a couple days of the year planting, getting dirty, yelling at the cat for chewing on my freshly watered plants or for sitting in the pot of dirt. I have fun doing that when the notion moves me but it ends there. I sit on my couch wishing the plants were healthier, not so crispy and saggy. I will them to suck the nonexistent moisture out of the air so I don't have to get up, grab the watering can, bring it into the kitchen, fill it up, carry it back out to the patio...a whole 6 meters away....pour the water into a few pots. Repeat. We really could use a spigot on the patio but it isn't there so I have to do all this work. I live in California so I somehow feel entitled to have healthy, happy plants. Not happening. Now I have to actually do something.

Look at these poor things.

It sounds like I am groaning about it and I am but that is because I am lazy, not because I don't care about those poor cellular entities out there, struggling to live. I DO care. Which is exactly why I am resolving to take care of them this time. They give me pleasure. If I can do exert just a fraction of my energy (which is a very small amount due to my illness) to keep those little guys alive and kicking, they will, in turn, give me energy in the form of pride, pleasure and beauty.

Enough talking. I have all the "BEFORE" pictures here for the world to see. I will then plant, sow, protect and encourage them all to thrive, then post the results as they come along. I think I can figure out watering but I am pretty horrible at pruning so if you see something I have done horribly wrong or something that I have horribly neglected, please leave a comment so I can get the most out of these beauties. And now for the ugly truth...


First off, my Jasmine Vine. I bought this to put in front of the sliding screen door leading to my bedroom so I could smell it's sweet perfume as a slept on a warm, summer night.

Instead, I neglected it to the point of it having about three green leaves left which I think are dead anyways.

I'll start by pruning it and, of course, watering it in hopes that I can save it. This plant may be beyond saving but I won't give up on her yet.

Next is my 10 year old Plumeria Tree. I grew this little beauty from a little stick I bought in Hawaii. It is winter now so there are no leaves but in the summer it does grow leaves and you can see that the top several inches are green which I hope means it is still growing. I don't know if it will ever flower because it is so old now but I hope to help it do so this year.

I have these two Hibiscus plants that have been surviving pretty well, considering. This one is ok.

This one is a bit fallen down. I will try to prop this one up with some soil. I think the cat uses this plant to sit on, causing it to keel over and grow sideways.

You can see that these are green and they even flower year round amazingly. Very hardy plants.

Here is one of my house plants that I have kept outside for too long. As you can see, it is destroyed.

Another Spider plant, destroyed.

This guy gave it a good try, see it's extension? Why are these getting ruined?

Oh, that's why. I have a stupid cat.

A cat that eats and destroys plants.

Non-stop. Munch munch munch.

Here is the result -  a chewed up, brown, ugly plant. Too ugly to even bring inside. 
Thanks, Nova, you stinker.

There you have my plants who have been my neglected children, born of love but then left to fend for themselves in a harsh, harsh world, begging on the streets for scraps of water or a break from the abuse brought on by the wild animals. The above represents the plants that have survived, I use the term loosely. Some weren't as lucky. I had to remove several grey-brown streamers that once were sprouting seeds full of hope and wonder. 

In memory of those I have lost I am going to plant a few new ones and a few replacements from seed. I'll get into that in the next posting. For now, this shame that is my 'garden', soon to be my past. 






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