Catch up time for Joe Lizura's Blog

Joe Lizura and Family

Yikes, It's catch up time again for my barely famous Joe Lizura Blog.  It's February 7, 2015 which means I'm not keeping up with my goal of weekly postings.  The whole purpose of the weekly postings is really to keep a nice record of what's happening in our life so that at the end of the year I can look back and actually have something to show for the 365 days that will have gone by.

With that said, the last week has been a busy and a little crazy.  Saturday was a great day because I got to spend the week at the home of the Moore Family.  They were the recipients of one of our free solar systems from the Solar Alliance Foundation - that wonderful foundation that I get to be a part of which gives completely free solar systems to injured and disabled veterans who will likely need financial assistance for the rest of their lives.

Installing the donated solar system on the Moore home

In this case, we helped Mr. Moore who had survived both a helicopter crash AND a fall down a 200 foot cliff.  He told me that the only reason he survived the helicopter crash was because it didn't explode, and the only reason he survived the fall is because his broken rope got caught in a crevice between boulders just before he was about the hit the ground head first.  He now also suffers from an incurable blood disorder, so needless to say - everyone at the foundation is wishing him well.  I also wanted to that the folks from Sunrun Solar who volunteered to help do the installation.

We literally worked until dark

There were 7 guys there and they knocked out the system in just one day!

Here is a link to the foundation, www.SolarAllianceFoundation.org.  If you happen to be reading this, take a minute to see how you can help.



Other odds and ends to talk about:  The girls seem to be doing fine in college, so that's a relief!  I can't believe that this time next year we will be making plans for Taylor's college graduation - talk about time flying by!

In The News this past week of course is the Super Bowl.  Looks like the 'Cheating Gods' were smiling down on New England (inflate gate and what not) - and I almost feel bad for Seattle Coach Peter Carroll for making the absolute dumbest call ever made in the NFL when his team was on the 1 yard line and had the game in hand.  The worst part about it is that he'll have to live with that notorious decision for quite some time.

Also in the news, the very sad news of Whitney Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown.  This was such a tragic story, and even as I write this, I had just read that the police have opened an investigation into the situation, with her boyfriend as a prime suspect.  It's just a sad situation.

Brian Williams

And what the heck was NBC's Brian Williams thinking?  Hey Brian - we'e not a bunch of morons, there is no possible way that you could be confused about whether or not you were shot down in a helicopter.
I mean seriously??  I definitely feel bad for Brian, and both he and NBC have some tough decisions to make this week.

I think it's going to be difficult to run promos saying that NBC news is the most trusted, etc., when the main guy probably won't be.  Brian is a good guy, so hopefully something will work out.

Also this week, the sad situation in the war on terror just keeps getting worse and worse, and seems like it's spreading all over the world.  This week the nation of Yemen fell to rebels - after just a 10 day fight, and the story of the Jordanian pilot being burned alive was just to sad to even hear.

You know, when I decided to try and write weekly, I seriously thought that maybe I should just write about the good things that went on - but the reality is, that what goes on around us isn't always good but it is what makes up our lives.

Speaking of good news, the story about the guys who walks 21 miles everyday for his job in Michigan turned into a good story.  As of this morning, he had received a new car and the guy who created his Go Fund Me Account had raised $300,000 dollars for him.

That's it for right now - but I'll be writing about a way you can help disabled veterans tomorrow!

Joe Lizura

Football and Doing What's Right

San Diego, Ca., January 25, 2015.  Okay - time to weigh in on the Inflate-Gate - or rather what sports represents.  First let me just say that I grew up with sports - both playing sports (although certainly not great at it), coaching sports, umpiring sports, and as a fan of sports, which pretty  much sums up everything there is about sports itself, with the exception of being a news reporter for sports.

So the comments I'm about to make regarding my feelings on the New England Patriots and their football issues come from a multifaceted view.  As a kid I played baseball pretty much from the time I was in elementary school until the time I had to trade baseball for working to gather college money - I probably played little league for 10 years.  When I wasn't playing little league, I was an umpire hired by my township of Piscataway, New Jersey.  We had some training before they threw us behind homeplate, and I remember quite vividly that two things where not to be tolerated at any time.  What were they?

First and foremost was 'un-sportsman-like conduct', followed very closely by "cheating will not be tolerated'.  Those two rules were simple enough and I followed them diligently by throwing out my share of managers who were acting like babies, and players who cheated by deliberately hitting someone with a pitch or hurting some else on the field.  There were even a few instances when I forced a team to forfeit their game because they violated the two golden rules.

When I had children of my own, I had the opportunity to coach their softball teams (I had girls) and always obeyed the two simple rules that I forced the coaches and managers to follow when I was running the field.  There was Never a time that I cheated, or allowed my team to cheat, or displayed any un-sportsman-like conduct.

So what's the big deal? Is there even a big deal at all about the New England Patriots playing with footballs that violated the league's rules?  You bet there are ... I can Guarantee You that every single one of those players and coaches have been told time and time again that Cheating in sports is unacceptable - all kids are taught that as they are learning football.  The parents know that and the coaches know that.

Punishing cheaters in sports always resulted in forfeiture by the offending team - there is absolutely NO WAY that any of the decision makers in the NFL offices would have allowed their kids to lose to a cheating team - they would have INSISTED that the the cheating team be disqualified.

Cheaters are disqualified in the Olympics - for crying out loud.  So why on earth is it even an issue for second about what the league needs to do to the New England Patriots - they must forfeit the game they cheated in -- it's incomprehensable to think that anything else BUT that can be the result of their cheating.

Does it matter that Coach Belichick didn't know about it?  Absolutely not - it's his job to make sure that the players, coaches, and equipment folks do their jobs and don't cheat - and if they do cheat then it's immaterial - cheating is cheating and the team that's doing it should be disqualified.

Who cares if it was a blowout??!  It's not about the final score - they were caught cheating and should NOT BE REWARDED by being allowed to advance to the Superbowl !!  What kind of league chairman rewards cheating teams???

What the heck is the matter with the NFL????  Have some balls fellas (no pun intended) - it isn't about "well the Patriots would have won anyway," it's about not rewarding cheating teams by sending them to the superbowl.

Two wrongs don't make a right.  The New England Patriots tarnished themselves - but by rewarding them by letting them advance to the Superbowl??  That's allowing them to tarnish the entire game of football itself.

Shame on the Patriots -  Shame on the NFL - and Shame on the rest of us if we watch the game.

Joe Lizura

A few Random Thoughts and Back to Being "Empty Nesters"

Sunday January 18, 2015.  Just thought I'd jot down a few random thoughts about things.  We just took our younger daughter back to college today, which means both kids are back at school and we are back to being empty-nesters.  It's not really a bad thing, but being that we get along with our kids so well, we actually miss having them around - so I'm a little bit sad at quietness of the house.   Hopefully I'll snap out of it once Downton Abbey comes on.

So I guess that since the kids are back in school, that means the holidays are officially over, so I guess I'll need to take the Santa Claus off the front porch.  Speaking of the Christmas break, it was a pretty good one - although we didn't get to travel and spend it with relatives (gotta change that for next year) we did get to spend some fun times with the kids!

January has been off to a busy start, I can't believe it's only the 18th, because it feels like it should already be February judging by how much we've done in the first 18 days of 2015!

Also from the random category, I'm glad that we actually saw some of the movies that are nominated for 'best picture' by the Oscar folks.  Most notably, we managed to see 'Boyhood', 'Birdman', and Grand 'Budapest Hotel', all three of which were really great films - if you didn't get to see them, they are worth the time!

Today we got to see the teams for the Superbowl!  New England and Seattle - I really wish I could say I cared about the match-up, but there's a good I'll be out on the golf course instead of watching the 'big game'.  Now on the other hand, I would have watched if Green Bay had made it!

Speaking of 'making it', did those two runaway teens really think they could make it anywhere when law enforcement all around the entire country were looking for them?

I'm also kind of glad I'm not back on the east coast right now, because there part of New Jersey where my family members live is covered in ice, and the 50 car pile-up today was pretty close to my brother's house, so I guess once again, there is something to say for living in San Diego.

Speaking of San Diego - I have the opportunity to work on a fun new project and I look forward to writing about it in the weeks ahead!

So that's about it for the random thoughts for now.  Oh, one last thing.  Here is a link to someone who wrote quite nicely what it's like to be an empty-nester, maybe it'll give you a little glimpse into how I feel sometimes.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shelley-emling/empty-nest-syndrome_b_3956231.html

Cheers!  Joe

January 11, 2015.  Fun times this weekend!  Lots of football, went and saw Birdman at the theater last night, the Golden Globes are tonight, and the best of all was being live on KUSI receiving a check presentation donation from our friends at Barona for The Solar Alliance Foundation.

A big Thank You to Barona for their donation!

The Foundation (here is the link:  http://solaralliancefoundation.org) is starting its third year of helping injured and disabled soldiers and veterans who because of their injuries can no longer earn an adequate income and need financial assistance.  Unlike some foundations which provide 'one-time' donations, the Solar Alliance Foundation gives them a completely free solar electric system, which in turn eliminates their electric bill each and every month for decades to come. Now that's making a difference!

Unfortunately, it can't be done without donations, and that's what was happening in Tierrasanta yesterday morning when Dana from Barona stopped by and presented a check for $5,000.

On hand were also Dave Stahl, the car guy who does live shots with the station and one of our veteran recipients, Mr. Greg Roderick who was celebrating the one year anniversary of the installation of his free system from the foundation.

So while watching the Packers beat the Cowboys was fun - it was really the fact that we will be installing another system for a veteran in a couple of weeks due to the Barona donation.

Thanks!!

Joe Lizura

Joe Lizura's Welcome To The New Year!

It's the New Year!  I absolutely can not believe how fast the last 12 months have flown by.  It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting in January saying that "I definitely would blog every couple of days this year."  Yet before I knew it, the year was almost over and I hadn't taken the time to write, which is really a sad thing, because I love to write.

So here goes again ... If all goes well, I'll actually write on a regular basis this year!

You know, with the start of every new year, I think about the months ahead wondering they hold in store, yet it always amazes me that no matter how hard you think about what's ahead that there are so many things that will happen that there is just know way of knowing or even fathoming in advance. This past year was no exception - for example, who would have even thought that we would lose someone like Robin Williams, or that an entire airplane would completely disappear without a trace and with absolutely no explanation - or that we would land a spacecraft on a comet? Or that oil prices would get chopped in half.

What also amazes me is how many great things happen.  In 2014, Tamie and I became 'empty-nesters' which was always some "in the distance" event that would never really happen, kinda like when you're 21 years old and people are telling you "Just wait until you get old!"  These are just things that never really seem like they are real until they actually happy - definitely strange. Our kids are such great people that it was very sad on my end when the reality hit me that they were both out in the real world.

It was great to see our youngest daughter graduate high school, I have never been prouder of both our girls who made it through high school and got into college.  When they were babies, I remember holding them in the late hours when they would wake up crying and it never bothered me in the least - I told myself that I would enjoy every bit of what came our way with the kids and when they both became great young adults, Tamie and I sat down and talked about all of the work, time, and effort (most of it on Tamie's end) it took to guide them into adulthood and how proud we were of them.

So now it's on to a new year, one that will see our older daughter Taylor become a college senior in the Fall (another one of the things that you know is coming but it doesn't ever seem like it's really ever going to happen), and our Madison will get through her freshman year, which is usually the toughest year at school.

I have some lofty resolutions this year, and hopefully I'll have the energy and drive to make them happen.  I'd also love to connect with some of the very close friends I've had in my life who I don't ever hear from anymore (which I always find to be a sad thing).

I plan on moving the Solar Alliance Foundation (http://solaralliancefoundation.org) into high gear - it's a wonderful foundation that was formed in 2012 and I've had the pleasure of directing.

I don't know if there will be a family reunion in the works this year - last year we all got to enjoy one in Myrtle Beach and it was so great to be with the whole family!  I do miss my sisters, brother, and father so very much, so when I get to see them it's always a special time.  Last year I had the extra bonus of seeing everyone in Chicago at my sister's house in May and that was nice as well.

Hopefully they'll be lots of golf in 2015 and lots of time with friends - even though most of the people we know are very busy, I hope that we can meet up with them.

At finally, just a few thoughts about all of those things that await in the year ahead - I hope the tragic events a far and few between, I hope the new scientific discoveries are very exciting, I hope that medical discoveries happen that save lives, and I hope that my family and friends (those I see often and those I think about often) are safe, healthy and that everyone gets what they are hoping for.

Welcome to the New Year!

Joe Lizura

2014 worst blockbuster movie list

Anyone who knows the Lizura family knows that we love going to the movies, and this year was no exception with our family visiting the theaters no less than 30 times.  During the course of the past 52 weeks however, I am glad to say that we did not see any of the movies that made the 2014 worst blockbuster list!  

Among the surprise movies we did see this year, were such outstanding ones as "Grand Budapest Hotel," "Boyhood," "The 100 Foot Journey," and even "The Interview."  Surprisingly, all of those movies were ones that I literally did not have any preconceived notions about whether they would be good or not.

Luckily, we managed to miss the movies on the worst list, that included the following:  "Million Dollar Arm," which I did want to see, but didn't get the chance to catch it when it came out.  Apparently the movie only cost $25 million dollars to make, yet still could not produce a profit.

Also on the list was "Pompeii," which I must admit had 'dud' written all over it, plus who wants to see a movie where we know how it ends?  

On the list was also the movie "Transcendence" which cost $100 million dollars to make, yet only made $25 million in the U.S..

Another movie that we didn't get to see was "The Legend of Hercules," which I guess was a lucky miss for us considering that Rotten Tomato only gave it a 3% on the Tomatometer!

Rounding out the list for worst movies of the year were "Sabotage," Winter's Tale," and "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return," which judging by the fact that this was the first time I even saw the name of the movie would explain, in large part, why it was a box office bomb!

Movies are always a matter of preference, but I think every year there is a "sleeper" movie that wins people over and stays hot for months at the box office - with little promotion.  Last year it would arguably be "The Lego Movie" and I think this year it would have to be "Guardians of the Galaxy."

That's about it for my thoughts on the movies of 2014 - I'm definitely looking forward to a great slate of movies for 2015 - including the newest Star Wars movie in the series (due out next fall.)

Have a Happy New Year!

Joe Lizura

  

The Answer To The Drought - Lake Tahoe! by Joe Lizura

Lake Tahoe, California

I found it!  The answer to the drought is Lake Tahoe!  Check out these fun facts I found about lake tahoe:

*  Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the U.S. with a depth of 1,645 feet.
*  At its longest and widest, Lake Tahoe measures 22 miles by 12 miles
*  The Shoreline of the lake is 72 miles long
*  The elevation of the lake is 6,225 feet above sea level
*  There are 63 tributaries draining into the lake and only one outlet at the Truckee River in Tahoe City
*  Average snowfall at lake level is 125 feet
*  If you were to empty the lake over the entire state of California, it would be enough water to cover the state to a depth of 14 inches
*  The amount of water in Lake Tahoe is enough for every single American to use 50 gallons per day for 5 straight years.
*  The amount of evaporated water every single day is enough to supply a city the size of Los Angeles for 5 years.

So clearly, the answer to the drought must be to drain Lake Tahoe!  Unfortunately if we did that, it is estimated that it would take over 700 years to re-fill the lake with normal rainfall and snow fall.  So, on second thought, maybe we should look to building desalination plants first?

Joe Lizura

The California Drought - is there a way to break it?

November 28, 2014.  Joe Lizura Blog.  Not to be sarcastic, but have you heard that California is in a drought?  It's a big one for sure with major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno and San Diego facing shortages that may require even more water restrictions.

Folsom Lake during a normal year of rainfall

Around the state, there are farmlands and dairylands that have been abandoned, and mile after mile in the central valley normally very fertile lush farms are nothing more than dirt.

Up and down the state, reservoirs are nearly empty, and in some smaller towns where well water dried up months ago, daily water truck deliveries are now the norm.

A dried up Folsom Lake in January

So after three years of drought conditions, and lots of media coverage saying that it will take years to end the drought,  the question is how long "really"will it take for the drought to end?  Is it possible to end the drought in one year or will it take two or three years of heavy rains to finally restore our reservoirs to their normal levels?

The answer to that question is somewhat surprising because the answer really doesn't have much to do with how much rain falls as it has to do with how quickly storms come back-to-back, and here's why.

Having spent 25 years in California as a meteorologist, one thing I can tell you for certain is that our reservoirs fill up not by rainfall, but by run-off.  So equally as important, if not more so, is how quickly storms come in a row.  In order to maximize the impact of storms, they have to come one after another, because the first storm in a series soaks into the ground, which allows subsequent storms to be "run-off" which fills reservoirs.

So for example, let say the Sacramento area normally gets 25 inches of rain a year (that's actually how much they average annually), and the rain falls evenly from October thru April with a storm every other week. The run-off would be quite low because there would be too much time for the ground to dry out between storms - meaning a large part of each storm would be needed just to get the ground soaked again before the run-off begins.

Whereas, if you were to get all 25 inches of rain in just 8 weeks, the run-off would be huge and the reservoirs would be the recipients of more than enough rainfall to end the drought.

Now with that said, there are two other issues - one helps end the drought and one hurts it.  The first issue is how cold the storms are - the colder the better because the snow pack that builds up in the mountains will melt continuously over the spring with run-off over soaked ground.  The other issue is where the storms enter the state - if the storms soak northern California where the reservoirs are located, then clearly that would mean run-off going into reservoirs because that is where the water storage reservoirs are located.  If the storms come into Southern California, that would be the worst case because there are relatively no storage reservoirs in the southern part of the state, and all of that run-off would directly into the ocean.

So, the summary of all of this is that yes you can end a multi-year drought in one year, but it will take several key things happening in our favor - so let's keep the fingers crossed!

Joe Lizura
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Free Money - By Joe Lizura - The Spectacular Benefit Of Lower Oil Prices

November 18, 2014.  "Free Money" by Joe Lizura.  Look around you everyone - there is free money pouring down on all of us!  And for once, I'm not being overly dramatic.  Thanks to the once "unthinkable" drop in oil prices and the resultant free fall of gas prices, there is free money literally pouring in to families on a nationwide level unseen in any modern economic time.

Remember back at the height of the great recession, when the government let it rain money - in the form of the $300 government checks that were mailed out to Americans?  Well that stimulus program absolutely dulls in comparison to the amount of money Americans are saving with gas prices down between $1 dollar and $1.50 per gallon.

There are people literally saving a hundred dollars a month (or more) on gasoline each month right now - and in some cases even more than that!  I just read a story yesterday morning (which is already outdated because oil fell another $1.50 a barrel again today) which said that Americans were receiving the benefit of $285,000,000 (285 million dollars) a day!  The number they gave was between $70 and $100 per family per month - and in California where people drive twice as far as the national average each week, the number was closer to double that!

How does that stack up?  Basically it's a raise - but it's better than a raise, because you don't pay income tax on it! (unlike that government check we got, which if memory serves me correctly, we had to pay taxes on the following April).

Read about the price of oil ahead from CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102189040#.

It's also better than handing out a government check, because when the government prints out free money - an increase in inflation is a real danger.  On the other hand, when gas prices are spiraling downward, the net results are lower prices, because transportation costs drop dramatically on everything that is shipped - utility costs drop, food harvesting costs drop, material costs for plastics drop, construction material costs drop - in theory, even the expensive ink for our printers should drop.

As I said, this really is an unprecedented economic stimulus that will have economists studying the effects for years to come.

Written by Joe Lizura.  Join Joe on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joelizura
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Tonight's Leonid Meteor Shower, by Joe Lizura

November 17, 2014 - Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I sat down to write a blog post - yikes!  Well a meteor shower is as good a reason as any and tonight's meteor shower should be a good one.

As far as ideal weather conditions go, tonight should be nearly perfect for the Leonid meteor shower, with Santa Ana conditions bringing crisp, clear skies with virtually no humidity and not a cloud in sight for miles.

Now as far as meteor showers go, tonight's Leonid meteor show should be a fairly good one with 10 to 15 meteors an hour.  Now bear in mind that you could see a dozen of them in a fifteen minute period and then wait an hour to see the next ones, so you'll need to be patient.

The key to seeing most of the meteors will be to stay up late, which means between midnight and 5 am, California time.  Also, to maximize your viewing, try to find a wide open area away from city lights if you can.  The best spots in Southern California are usually in the desert or on the tops of the many hills or even in the mountains.

Which way should you look?  If you know the night sky, you would want to face the constellation Leo as that is the direction the meteors will be coming from - it's also why it's named the Leonid meteor show (meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors seem to originate).

The last time I went on a meteor show viewing, about 30 of us had a party at the house until midnight and then we all packed in cars and drove to a nearby park area with lawn chairs and blankets - it was a fun 'meteor shower party'.

If you want to learn more about meteor showers, here is link to Leonid Shower-http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/leonids.html


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Interesting Things I Learned About The Christmas Season

As further proof that yours truly, Joe Lizura has all of his Christmas shopping finished, here are ten interesting things I learned about the Christmas Season on the internet - so I'm not one hundred percent sure they are true, but I think they are.  So on this December 24th, 2013 here are a few things you probably didn't know about the holiday season.

Number one - Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer was created by the department store Montgomery Wards in 1939 for coloring books they gave away in their stores.

Number two - Frosty the Snowman was written by Dick Smith who was in a sanitarium at the time (that explains a lot), and the word Parson in "then pretend that he is Parson Brown" means minister - therefore it actually says "then pretend that he is Minister Brown" ... makes a bunch more sense when you finish ... "He'll say are you married we'll say no man, but you can do the job when you're in town."

Number three - More than 3 billion Christmas cards will be mailed in just the United States alone this year - yikes!

Number four - There are TWO versions of the animated cartoon hit "Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer", the first one in which Rudolf does NOT come back to The Island of Misfit Toys and the second version where he does come back with Santa.  The first version only aired once and due to an avalanche of complaints it was changed before it aired the following year.

Number five - Coca Cola was the first company to use Santa in advertising and merchandising.

Number six - In 2012, "Twas The Night Before Christmas" was re-written to remove Santa smoking a pipe.

Number seven - The first state to make Christmas a holiday was Alabama, and the last was Oklahoma.

Number eight - The first Christmas Carol ever written in the United States was in 1649 and is called "Jesus is Born"

Number nine - Stockings began being hung by Chimneys when in Southern Europe a bag of gold was accidentally dropped down a chimney and landed in a stocking that was hung out to dry.

Number ten - What nationality is the Ginger Bread Man?  He is German!

Ta-Da!!  There you have it, ten things that I found on the internet about Christmas that I think are true!

Happy Holidays everyone, Joe Lizura.

Worst Movies of 2013

Okay, so here it is, December 20, 2013 and already the notorious list of worst movies for the whole year has been released.  How do they decide?  Mostly by box office receipts I think, and that would appear to be true MY family hasn't see most of these on the list.

One exception to that was The Hangover part III, which happened to just barely make it on to the list
as the number 10 worst movie of the year.  So what where the rest?  Here they are:

10.  The Hangover 3
9.    Old Boy
8.    Grown Ups 2
7.    The Canyons
6.    Machete Kills
5.    Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
4.    The Lone Ranger
3.    After Earth
2.    Movie 43
1.    A good day to die hard

Now let me just say right here that there were a couple of these that we really did intend to see, however after hearing the bad review and the bad press, I'm glad we didn't waste our money.  Those movies were The Lone Ranger and and possibly A Good Day to Die Hard.

Otherwise, most of the movies I didn't even know were released - like Movie 43 - What kind of a title is that??

Oh well, so here's the deal - I wish the list wasn't made up until after the Christmas releases come out, because I'm sure there are bound to be a few dogs under the tree there.

Happy Holidays!

Joe
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Liberty Stamp Disbelief

Here are my Joe Lizura (http://linkedin.com/in/joelizura) thoughts from December 4, 2013.  It's been two days now, and I just can't get over the story about the forever Liberty stamps. 

If you haven't heard by now, the version of the Liberty stamp that has been used since 2011 and printed hundreds of millions of times, does not actually have the picture of the Statue of Liberty on it - instead, it has the picture of the Las Vegas statue of liberty from outside the New York, New York hotel on the strip! 

For the life of me I just can't fathom the fact that somewhere, somebody thought it was okay to use a picture of the Statue of Liberty from a Las Vegas gimmicky hotel as the image on an international stamp that is the pride and joy of the United States!  Just how more embarrassing can we get in the eyes of the international community - or even our own!  I can't POSSIBLY be the only one who is absolutely embarrassed by the use of a fake Statue of Liberty on our national stamp instead of the real one!

It's almost like somebody said "Hey, let's use the Las Vegas statue because it looks like Lady Liberty

had a nose job and some cosmetic work on her cheek bones" - and hey why not?  Isn't plastic surgery an absolute trademark of our country?  So what if we don't use the real statue, let's trade her in for a younger, more beautiful one!  Ugh, how embarrassing! And we've been using it for almost 3 years now!

You know what it's like?  It's like telling all of your friends, your wife and kids, and your family members that you're going to Paris for 3 years -- but instead you go to the Paris hotel and casino in Las Vegas for 3 years . . .  AND you send postcards taken in front of the Fake Eiffel Tower and send them out to everyone just like you are in front of the real one!

Okay now, I know there are all kinds of more important problems in the world, but let's face it . .. using a fake Statue of Liberty on our stamps because it looks better than the real Statue of Liberty - and having someone approve it as a good idea -  is beyond my comprehension.

Alright, I got that off my chest - now back to your regularly scheduled web surfing.

Joe
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Joe Lizura vs. Black Friday

November 29, 2013, Flagstaff, Arizona.  Well, Black Friday is almost over and I'm happy to say that the score is Joe Lizura (www.joelizura.com) one and the stores zero.  After a long drive from Flagstaff down to Scottsdale to spend a few hours in the shopping mayhem, it actually turned out be fun.  I didn't actually buy anything, but everyone else in the family did.  I did however, get a kick out of the fact that stores were doing their best to out-do one another.  One store was 40 percent off everything, followed by the next which was 50 percent off and that was yet followed by the next one that was 60 percent off! 

It's definitely going to be a great holiday shopping season, but it's going to be a quick one, after all,
Christmas is just three and a half weeks away!  You know what that means . . . Cyber-Monday is going to be crazy!  And tomorrow isn't looking to bad either; I just saw a commercial for 10 dollars off your 25 dollar purchase at Macys!

Shop well my friends, shop well!   www.joelizura.net

Joe Lizura's turkey cooking chart

Happy Thanksgiving 2013!  It's one of my favorite days of the year (although not my actual favorite, which is Halloween) because Thanksgiving brings the family together for the official start of the entire holiday season.  Lot's of football to watch on TV and in some cases snow to shovel! 

I'm not sure about everyone else, but it seems that our family (even when I was a kid) could never get an accurate explanation of how many hours to cook the Turkey - No matter who you ask, it's always about things like "Is it a stuffed turkey or unstuffed turkey?",  "Are you cooking it at 325 degrees or 350 degrees?", "Is it a fresh turkey or a frozen one?", and on an on ... but this year, I think I found the perfect chart for cooking - here it is!

For an unstuffed turkey, place the meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh, taking care that it does not touch any bone. Roast the turkey until the meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees F. Don't forget to let the bird rest at least 30 minutes before carving to allow the juices to re-absorb into the flesh. You don't want the moisture to drain out.
Roasting times are for a preheated 325 degrees F. oven.

Approximate Roasting Times for Stuffed Turkey
Turkey Weight	Hours
6 to 8 pounds	3 to 3-1/2 hours
8 to 12 pounds	3-1/2 to 4-1/2 hours
12 to 16 pounds	4-1/2 to 5-1/2 hours
16 to 20 pounds	5-1/2 to 6 hours
20 to 24 pounds	6 to 6-1/2 hours
Approximate Roasting Times for Unstuffed Turkey
Turkey Weight	Hours
6 to 8 pounds	2-1/2 to 3 hours
8 to 12 pounds	3 to 4 hours
12 to 16 pounds	4 to 5 hours
16 to 20 pounds	5 to 5-1/2 hours
20 to 24 pounds	5-1/2 to 6 hours

Sad news from the Disney Family

I was sad to learn today that Walt Disney's daughter Diane Disney Miller passed away today at age 79.  Its wonderful to know that a family you have never met has made such a dramatic impact on your life.  Walt Disney was widely credited with creating Disneyland in a large part as something to
give his daughter and we are all better off because he did.

Diane was a very generous woman who gave away millions and millions of dollars to charities and
deserving organizations - exactly as her father would have wanted her too.  Rest in Peace and tell your father "thank you".

Absolutely Awesome - Check it out!

October 3, 2013.  Joe Lizura Blog update.  A very good friend of mine shared this on linkedin today and I wanted to pass it on . . although it's an ad from Intel, the story is really, really cool.  Here is the link:  http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/most-uplifting-ad-youll-see-today-about-15-year-olds-incredible-cancer-research-152827

It's being called the most uplifting ad you'll see - they also should have called it the most inspirational ad as well.  Here is a little bit of the back-story:

Jack Andraka, barely a teenager, decided to develop an early-detection test for pancreatic cancer after his uncle died from the disease. He asked 200 researchers and other experts for help. Only one, a doctor of oncology at Johns Hopkins, provided him with lab space to use after school. At age 15, Andraka succeeded in developing a test that is 168 times faster, 400 times more sensitive, and 26,000 times less expensive than the medical standard.

Intel tells Andraka's story in the ad below. What does a computer-chip manufacturer have to do with his invention? Not much, but Intel is the headlining sponsor—and has been since 1997—of the International Science and Engineering Fair, which gave Andraka its $75,000 grand prize for his work.

The spot, from Venables Bell & Partners (and director Britton Caillouette of Farm League, himself a bone-cancer survivor), is a little self-congratulatory on Intel's part. But it's clever, too. The ad, which proceeds in reverse chronology, might make you feel the same sort of skepticism about Andraka that his idea met—but then you'll feel like a fool when you realize how quite amazing his accomplishment is.

Joe Lizura
www.Joelizura.com

The passing of Tom Clancy

October 2, 2013.  It was very sad to learn today about the passing of Tom Clancy one of our time's best writers, who wrote with such great skill and detail that it made him a natural to have his novels turned into films watched by tens of millions of people all around the world.

Here is a little bit about him and his work from the Associated Press.

NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Clancy, whose high-tech, Cold War thrillers such as "The Hunt for Red October" and "Patriot Games" made him the most widely read and influential military novelist of his time, has died. He was 66.
Penguin Group (USA) announced that Clancy had died Tuesday in Baltimore. The publisher did not provide a cause of death.
Tall and thin, with round, sunken eyes that were often hidden by sunglasses, Clancy had said his dream had been simply to publish a book, hopefully a good one, so that he would be in the Library of Congress catalog. His dreams were answered many times over.
His novels were dependable best sellers, with his publisher estimating that worldwide sales top 100 million copies. Several, including "The Hunt for Red October," ''Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger," were later made into blockbuster movies, with another based on his desk-jockey CIA hero, "Jack Ryan," set for release on Christmas. Alec Baldwin, Ben Affleck and Harrison Ford were among the actors who played Ryan on screen. The upcoming movie stars Chris Pine, Keira Knightly and Kevin Costner, with Kenneth Branagh directing.

 A political conservative who once referred to Ronald Reagan as "my president," Clancy broke through commercially during a tense period of the Cold War, and with the help of Reagan himself. In 1982, he began working on "The Hunt For Red October," basing it on a real incident in November 1975 with a Soviet missile frigate called the Storozhevoy. He sold the manuscript to the first publisher he tried, the Naval Institute Press, which had never bought original fiction.
In real life, the ship didn't defect, but in Clancy's book, published in 1984, the defection was a success. Someone thought enough of the book to give it to President Reagan as a Christmas gift. The president quipped at a dinner that he was losing sleep because he couldn't put the book down — a statement Clancy later said helped put him on the New York Times best-seller list.
Clancy was admired in the military community, and appeared — though he often denied it — to have the kind of access that enabled him to intricately describe anything from surveillance to the operations of a submarine. He often played off — and sometimes anticipated — world events, as in the pre-9/11 paranoid thriller "Debt of Honor," in which a jumbo jet destroys the U.S. Capitol during a joint meeting of Congress.
Earning million-dollar advances for his novels, he also wrote nonfiction works on the military and even ventured into video games, including the best-selling "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier," ''Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction" and "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent." His recent Jack Ryan novels were collaborations with Mark Greaney, including "Threat Vector" and a release scheduled for December, "Command Authority."
As of midday Wednesday, "Command Authority" ranked No. 40 on Amazon.com's best seller list.
Born in Baltimore on April 12, 1947 to a mailman and his wife, Clancy entered Loyola College as a physics major, but switched to English as a sophomore. He later said that he wasn't smart enough for the rigors of science, although he clearly mastered it well enough in his fiction.
Clancy stayed close to home. He resided in rural Calvert County, Md., and in 1993 he joined a group of investors led by Baltimore attorney Peter Angelos who bought the Baltimore Orioles from businessman Eli Jacobs. Clancy also attempted to bring a NFL team to Baltimore in 1993, but he later dropped out.

Tom Clancy will definitely be missed.  RIP.

Joe Lizura
www.joelizura.com
www.twitter.com/joelizura

The Strange Reality of Climate Change

Joe Lizura's Blog on October 1, 2013.  I saw a story today, and you'll see the link to it below, and it struck me a little more than most climate change stories I run across on a weekly basis.  For those


Joe Lizura in San Diego

who may know, as an actual Meteorologist, I tend to look at global climate change with a little more of a scientific viewpoint and a little less of an emotional viewpoint.   So to that end, let me just say that global climate change is definitely going on -- but then again it always has been.  Take for example the very ground I walk on every day in San Diego it's covered with Rocks -- round smooth rocks and when you get into the inland valleys, those smooth round rocks (about the size of a softballs) grow larger and larger until they are the size of small bolders and then larger and larger until they are big bolders.  the odd part about the boulders and the rocks is that they are smooth, very much like the kind that you would find at the bottom of a river.  So the question begs: How did about a million round river rocks wind up in San Diego?  Is it from the ocean from way back when this part of the continent was under water?  Nope -- true, it's where the sand came from and the shells that you can dig up in the inland valleys, but that's not where the rocks and boulders came from.  So where then?  The answer is a little surprising, it's from the end of the last Ice Age as this very southwestern part of the land mass is the farthest extreme expansion of the ice.  The rocks and boulders left everywhere are actually rocks and boulders that the ice sheets pushed for a thousand miles, making them smoother and smoother as they slowly got pushed and tumbled and pushed again by the moving ice sheets, until nature smoothed them out like they were forever in a river (which I guess a river of ice would qualify). 

So what's the point?  Just that climate change is ALWAYS going on, and in the scheme of hundreds of millions of years, our mankind is just a blip of a factor in creating or perhaps enhancing a climate change that has most likely been going on for ten thousand years.

That's why you'll never hear me argue that there isn't global climate change, because there is - there always has been - places like the Sahara Desert were once lush landscapes of vegetation and life but are now endless miles of nearly lifeless sand - not because ancient man did anything, but because it was a much longer scale climate change that mankind just happens to have found itself in the middle of. 

That doesn't mean that we aren't making it worse, or making it happen faster, because we are, we definitely are exasperating the problem and rather than waiting ten thousand years to feel the effects, we are likely to feel the effects in 50 years - that's pretty amazing.  So is this story below about what is happening in Alaska - check this out.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An estimated 10,000 walrus unable to find sea ice over shallow Arctic Ocean water have come ashore on Alaska's northwest coast.
Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday photographed walrus packed onto a beach on a barrier island near Point Lay, an Inupiat Eskimo village 300 miles southwest of Barrow and 700 miles northwest of Anchorage.

 

The walrus have been coming to shore since mid-September. The large herd was spotted during NOAA's annual arctic marine mammal aerial survey, an effort conducted with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency that conducts offshore lease sales.

An estimated 2,000 to 4,000 walrus were photographed at the site Sept. 12. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that manages walrus, immediately took steps to prevent a stampede among the animals packed shoulder to shoulder on the rocky coastline. The agency works with villages to keep people and airplanes a safe distance from herds.

Young animals are especially vulnerable to stampedes triggered by a polar bear, a human hunter or a low-flying airplane. The carcasses of more than 130 mostly young walruses were counted after a stampede in September 2009 at Alaska's Icy Cape.

The gathering of walrus on shore is a phenomenon that has accompanied the loss of summer sea ice as the climate has warmed.
Pacific walrus spend winters in the Bering Sea. Females give birth on sea ice and use ice as a diving platform to reach snails, clams and worms on the shallow continental shelf.

As temperatures warm in summer, the edge of the sea ice recedes north. Females and their young ride the edge of the sea ice into the Chukchi Sea. However, in recent years, sea ice has receded north beyond continental shelf waters and into Arctic Ocean water 10,000 feet deep or more where walrus cannot dive to the bottom.

Walrus in large numbers were first spotted on the U.S. side of the Chukchi Sea in 2007. They returned in 2009, and in 2011, scientists estimated 30,000 walruses along one kilometer of beach near Point Lay.

Remnant ice kept walrus offshore in 2008 and again last year.
The goal of the marine mammals survey is to record the abundance of bowhead, gray, minke, fin and beluga whales plus other marine mammals in areas of potential oil and natural gas development, said NOAA Fisheries marine mammal scientist Megan Ferguson in an announcement.

"In addition to photographing the walrus haulout area, NOAA scientists documented more bowhead whales, including calves and feeding adults in the Beaufort Sea this summer compared to 2012," said Ferguson. "We are also seeing more gray whale calves in the Chukchi Sea than we have in recent years."

Environmental groups say the loss of sea ice due to climate warming is harming marine mammals and oil and gas development would add to their stress.


Well, as I said, global climate change goes on, with or without us, but with us it is going on at a rate that is unprecedented.  There's no doubt that we are going to see the changes in our lifetime - we already are, but I just don't think that we are going to like what we see.

Thanks for reading my blog!  Joe Lizura
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Fire Up The Volcano - Yellowstone Is Even Bigger Than We Knew

April 18, 2013; Looks like we have something even bigger to worry about than we thought! According to a new research report out this week, the volcano that fuels Yellowstone park and all its wonders is even bigger than scientists first thought. 

"We are getting a much better understanding of the volcanic system of Yellowstone," said Jamie Farrell, a seismology graduate student at the University of Utah. "The magma reservoir is at least 50 percent larger than previously imaged."

Knowing the volume of molten magma beneath Yellowstone is important for estimating the size of future eruptions, Farrell told OurAmazingPlanet.

Geologists believe Yellowstone sits over a hotspot, a plume of superheated rock rising from Earth's mantle. As North America slowly drifted over the hotspot, the Yellowstone plume punched through the continent's crust, leaving a bread-crumb-like trail of calderas created by massive volcanic eruptions along Idaho's Snake River Plain, leading straight to Yellowstone. The last caldera eruption was 640,000 years ago. Smaller eruptions occurred in between and after the big blasts, most recently about 70,000 years ago. [Infographic: Geology of Yellowstone]

The magma chamber seen in the new study fed these smaller eruptions and is the source of the park's amazing hydrothermal springs and geysers. It also creates the surface uplift seen in the park, said Bob Smith, a seismologist at the University of Utah and author of a related study presented at the meeting.

The volcanic plume of partly molten rock that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano. Yellow and red indicate higher conductivity, green and blue indicate lower conductivity. Made by University of Utah geophysicists and computer scientists, this is the first large-scale 'geoelectric' image of the Yellowstone hotspot.

"This crustal magma body is a little dimple that creates the uplift," Smith said. "It's like putting your finger under a rubber membrane and pushing it up and the sides expand."

A clearer picture of Yellowstone's shallow magma chamber emerged from earthquakes, whose waves change speed when they travel through molten or solid rock. Farrell analyzed nearby earthquakes to build a picture of the magma chamber.

The underground magma resembles a mutant banana, with a knobby, bulbous end poking up toward the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park, and the rest of the tubular fruit angling shallowly southwest. It's a single connected chamber, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) long, 18 miles (30 km) wide, and 3 to 7 miles (5 to 12 km) deep.

Previously, researchers had thought the magma beneath Yellowstone was in separate blobs, not a continuous pocket. The shallowest magma, in the northeast, also matches up with the park's most intense hydrothermal activity, Farrell said. The new study is the best view yet of this zone, which lies outside the youngest caldera rim.
Additional molten rock, not imaged in this study, also exists deeper beneath Yellowstone, scientists think.

The planet is indeed such a marvelous thing, and hundreds of thousands of years from now, just through natural causes, the continent we know as North America will likely bear very little resemblance to what it looks like now.  In fact, if the volcano below Yellowstone ever erupts with all of it's potential, there's a good chance that a big part of the world will undergo a huge change.

blog post by Joe lizura
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