P.C.B.S.

The roots of political correctness were no doubt noble. Words like equality, opportunity and tolerance described the cause. Unfortunately, the cause has empowered tiny, hypersensitive groups -- or even individuals -- to force their opinions down the rest of the country's throat. Here are two recent examples:

The first is actually not that big a deal. You've probably seen the two Cingular "dropped calls" commercials. There's the "Earl's got your tongue?" commercial, and the one with the groom-to-be calling his soon-to-be father-in-law, Jim. The latter was recently changed. The line where the young man sings, "Jimmy crack corn, and I don't care" was taken out. Why? Because the song has its origin during times of slavery and was written for a blackface minstrel show. I honestly don't care that Cingular changed the commercial, because the modified version is just as funny. So I ask you: did the old version conjure up images and bad feelings about slavery and unequal treatment of African Americans? Didn't think so. But Cingular -- no doubt over a handful of phone calls -- was forced to spend the money (which their customers will end up paying for) to have it re-produced and distributed.

The second example baffles me. While assembling Christmas presents for the kids on Christmas Eve, a midnight mass was being shown on one the cable channels. Even though the TV was being used as background noise as we struggled to take overly-secured toys from their boxes, a midnight mass seemed like a good thing to have on. At one point -- while putting the finishing touches on a Barbie dream house -- I heard what sounded like a Native American powwow. I thought, "who changed the channel?" -- but when I looked up I saw a group of Native Americans beating a drum and dancing in a Catholic church. It must be a long time since I've been to church, because I don't remember Native American celebrations being part of traditional Catholic ceremonies.

Baby Jesus

El Nino refers to the Christ child, or baby Jesus. Fisherman in equatorial South America coined the phrase because the El Nino phenomena seemed to appear around Christmas.

There is much misrepresentation by some of the local media as to what the El Nino phenomena means for our weather. Here's the truth: El Nino and the Southern Oscillation leads to a dramatic enhancement or formation of a Subtropical Jet, another jetstream that runs from the Equatorial Pacific to Baja California and across the southern United States. This feature is found in tandem with the Polar Jet (the one you're most familiar with). In order for a powerful, winter cyclone to develop, waves in these two Jets must be in phase, or coincident. If they are not in phase, the cyclones that form are warmer and more progressive (they move more quickly from west to east); if they are in phase, the added wind strength high up in the atmosphere can help spin up a monster. So -- during an El Nino event -- powerful winter storms will be less frequent, but strong cyclones that do form will be more intense. Because of El Nino, our winters tend to be (averaged over a long period of time) a shade warmer and drier, but that does not mean we can't get buried in snow or receive painful, arctic outbreaks. Now that you've read the El Nino primer, it's worth mentioning that the effects of El Nino show up nicely on the numerical weather models, and two disturbances will phase over the Heartland to spin up a monster storm Christmas Day and the 26th

UFO!

Have you ever seen a satellite fly overhead at night? They typically look like a slow-moving star. Sometimes -- an hour or two after sunset -- sunlight will reflect off a satellite and appear as a very bright point of light in the sky. This happens most often if the satellite has mirror-like solar panels or is especially large.

No satellite has larger solar panels than the International Space Station, and occasionally there is a spectacular viewing over the Capital Region. Click here for a list of ISS viewing opportunities, or snoop around NASA's Human Space Flight page.

Global Warming

Evidence continues to trickle in, but the debate will (and should) continue. 2006 was an interesting year climatologically. Here's a nice summary -- be sure to check out the map.