A MODIS satellite view of NASA FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) view of the Santa Rosa Island and Simi Valley fires on California’s South Coast. Click on it for the full view.

Following fires

In normal times, Santa Rosa Island is easy to watch from our deck in Santa Barbara. But right now it’s burning up, and smoke from that fire and the Sandy Fire in Simi Valley have added layers of brown to the gray marine haze that comes and goes. So here are some sources of visuals in addition to those the links above:

NASA: Fire Chars Santa Rosa IslandNASA GOES Image ViewerNASA Worldview Interactive MapNASA FIRMS MODIS view, zoomed in on the two fires, and showing smoke paths

Most of those are interactive and good for following developments anywhere on Earth.

Talk me out of it. Or into something else.

I need a mic for doing podcasts and similar audio work here in my Santa Barbara office. Thing is, I’m here much less than I’m in Bloomington, which is kitted out. All I really need is a mic that’s not too expensive. Currently leaning toward the Shure M7VX.

As to so many other doomed things

At our New Jersey home in the 50s and 60s, my parents expressed a relatively cosmopolitan level of taste by drinking Savarin Coffee, brewed in a percolator. The brand is long gone now, but it’s interesting to see what happened to it.