Tarmo Tanilsoo's blog

"Ex-hurricane WHAT?"

2010-09-12T17:48:00.003+03:00

I thought I would gather my weather and related jargon to this post. This may be updated over time.

Ex-hurricane levee - A ridge of high pressure over Northern or Western Europe, effectively blocking recurving extratropical remnants of hurricanes from reaching my neighborhood
Blue sharptooth - A cold front
Red dragontail - A warm front

Something for the halloween

2009-10-28T20:25:00.014+02:00

You know, I am kind of a fan of simulated news programs. And this time, for another anniversary of the Orson Welle's broadcast, I came upon an idea to write a completely different story, as a fictional newscast, with completely different outcome.

The following "transcript" is fictional, describing a fictional television program, in a fictional television channel. All persons are fictional, and any similarity to anyone is coincidential.

"The Celestial Scare"

31.10.2009 20:05 UTC - LRET 5
IDENT: FALL AFTERNOON

JOHN WETHER:
It's 4:05 PM Eastern Daylight time, Fall afternoon here on LRET 5 continues for one more hour, before we hand it over to Halloween 2009. This is a live shot from the roof camera at LRET Center here in Laguja, Estonia, and as you can see, the skies are pitch black - two hours remaining until midnight here. Coming up this hour: The times are changing, literally - tonight we return back to standard time! We'll also take a look how is the Halloween occurring in the States and talk about the special Halloween programming here on LRET 5. Also in this program, the editor of LRET program "Truth or Untruth", will step by and debunk some myths that have surfaced recently. However, we begin with a special anniversary. Yesterday it passed 71 years, since people across the country were scared the daylights out of them by a radio play, that featured a mock newscast of a Martian invasion. LRET has received news that some radio stations will re-air the original program or even air a remake, so now, let's have a look how to detect a mock newscast.
-- BEGIN TAPE
RICK EPORTER:
We interrupt this program to bring you one epic scare! In 1938, Orson Welles scared the wits out of people across America with a mock radio newscast. Throughout history, such pranks have been done over and over again. Obviously every time, when someone pulls off anything like that, some people grab for pitchforks and torches.
JANNO MIRKAM, LRET 1 news anchor:
For example, one of the most recent cases is Bye Bye Belgium, when a mock broadcast was transmitted that Belgium had broken up. People took this seriously, and controversy arose. The broadcaster, who aired it, did err though, disclaimers should have been put out prior to the broadcast.
RICK EPORTER:
However, by educating the public, these broadcasts could even be fun to watch. Next, we are going to give you some pointers on survival of the Halloween scares.
JANNO MIRKAM, LRET 1 news anchor:
If you see very alarming breaking news, for example a country splitup, or cylinders falling from the Space, and you have not seen any disclaimers, the first thing to do is change the channel. Flip around the dial, preferrably across news channels, and see if they are reporting it. If the channel has teletext, check it. If even TV stations close to alleged event are not reporting anything, it may be safe to assume this is not happening. If it is reported, check who they are citing - they might have mistaken the mock report for real. Now, if you have access to the Internet, run a news search. Even the location of the alleged event should work fine as a keyword. Once again, there is the "check the source if reported" rule - the media is nowadays in a rush to be the first one to report anything so they might have also misnoticed all the disclaimers and prior announcements. Now, if you find no other reports confirming the event, then you can assume if is just a fiction, you can lay down in the chair and imagine yourself into the action movie. It also helps to check the TV schedule. You cannot schedule a falling Martian cylinder in the TV guide.
RICK EPORTER:
Nowadays in the era of digital television it is easier to put out warnings. For example, disclaimers could be put into the programming informa...
-- TAPE CUT
-- IDENT : BREAKING NEWS with voiceover: "This is LRET 5 with Breaking News"
JOHN WETHER:
This just in to LRET newsroom, our sister station LKOS-TV is reporting that flashes are being seen emanating from the planet Mars by the observing crew of Laguja Observatory. You are now looking at a live shot provided by LKOS, that is showing a live look at the Mars through a telescope and indeed every now and then some bright flashes can be seen on the planet. We are not sure if this is an atmospheric phenomena... Just a minute... I'm being told it is not. The LKOS is also reporting that an astronomical telegram is in the process of being prepared. Joining us on the phone from Koru farm, where the anomaly was first sighted is Karl Lindi from Laguja Observatory, good evening.
KARL LINDI:
Good evening.
JOHN WETHER:
What was seen and how? I am under impression Mars is not observable very well at this point?
KARL LINDI:
Yes, we were not initially planning to observe the planet at all at this time of night, because the planet just now barely came above treetops in the northeastern sky.
JOHN WETHER:
Sorry for interrupting you, but did you say Northeast? That direction is heavily light polluted by the lights of the city of Tartu, about 20 miles away.
KARL LINDI:
Exactly. We were going to attempt to photograph the Pleiades, that is high up in the southeast. However, as we were setting up shop here in the farm, one resident here, who is frequently with us, popped an idea that Mars is rising and wondered how it is looking. We thought we'd give a try and aimed the telescope at Mars, and that's when we started seeing the flashes.
JOHN WETHER:
Flashes? What Flashes?
KARL LINDI:
There were some small, but noticeable flashes occurring on the face of the Mars. Since Mars is at a very low altitude over here, I initially thought this was some distortion by the atmospheric turbulence. I called a colleague, who is located in an area, where the planet is in a much better position at this moment, and unexpectedly the colleague confirmed me what we were seeing, so what seemed as a light trick by atmospheric turbulence, suddenly became something that was seen elsewhere too.
JOHN WETHER:
How frequently do these flashes occur at this point?
KARL LINDI:
About twice a minute or so, they have gotten a little more frequent than they were a few minutes ago.
JOHN WETHER:
Okay, thank you. Once again, you are looking at a live shot of Mars as it is seen from Laguja. In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that what you are seeing here, is coming actually with the delay of about 10 minutes, that's the time it takes for the light to come from Mars to Earth, so if... we just saw another one!... if the flash you just saw a moment ago comes from the surface of Mars, then it actually happened there about 10 minutes ago, but the light from it is arriving to us just now. Okay, we'll get back to this story later, but now a little reminder to reset your clocks and watches if you go to sleep tonight, as the Daylight Saving Time ends in the U.S. We'll be right back.
CUT TO ADVERTISING
Length: 2 minutes
BACK FROM ADVERTISING, CUT TO BREAKING NEWS IDENT
JOHN WETHER:
And we continue to monitor potential astronomical discovery of an anomaly occurring on planet Mars, and for latest we join Fiona Mirkam from LRET 1, who has raced to the Laguja Observatory and is now on the phone. Good evening.
FIONA MIRKAM:
Good evening!
JOHN WETHER:
I understand you are in the main building of the observatory, where the most science is made?
FIONA MIRKAM:
Yes, that is correct. The ones who just sounded the alarm were actually on a photography mission, but it simply happened that the anomaly occurred in visible light spectrum.
JOHN WETHER:
Is the main building investigating the object?
FIONA MIRKAM:
Unfortunately not. The Mars is too low for the main telescope, but they are...
JOHN WETHER:
I'm sorry, I have to interrupt you. Just in to LRET News, we have some breaking news coming in from the city of Tallinn. There are unconfirmed reports of a fireball, and a sonic boom occurring in Estonian capital. We are right now trying to confirm this, but I'm told this is coming from a fairly reliable source... just a minute? OK, I am told this report came from our Tallinn bureau and as I am telling this, we are seeing fresh video they are feeding to us, taken just moments ago. We are seeing indeed a fireball heading towards the city... It is going behind the buildings, and... now the boom comes. Fiona, are you still with us?
FIONA MIRKAM:
Yes, I am.
JOHN WETHER:
What have you got to say about the latest sightings?
FIONA MIRKAM:
I'm sorry, the TV here was playing, but it was not on LRET 5, they are showing LKOS, that channel is based in this building... but now it is showing a fireball on the screen.
JOHN WETHER:
Yes, this is what our Tallinn bureau just fed in. Apparently a fireball and a sonic boom over the city of Tallinn. Do you have any more information?
FIONA MIRKAM:
I am as wise as you are, I'll try to investigate this.
JOHN WETHER:
OK, thank you. For those who have just joined our coverage, a fireball and a sonic boom has been observed in our Tallinn bureau. In addition we are following news about flashes being sighted on the planet Mars, but at this point, more coverage on that can be found from the channels of LKOS, and also from our teletext. Now joining us on the phone is the chief of our Tallinn bureau, good evening!
JAANUS MILIKE:
Good evening.
JOHN WETHER:
What just happened there?
JAANUS MILIKE:
We are not sure what just happened. It happened that just as we were going to sign off for the day, one of the staff members sighted fireball in the sky, he grabbed the camera and ran outdoors. The light was so bright, he could see his shadow from that light, and a little later, a sonic boom occurred.
JOHN WETHER:
OK, at this point we welcome viewers of LRET's channels 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8, who have just joined our coverage and simultaneous translation will be provided on the channels that do not broadcast in English shortly. It is 20:18 GMT, 10:18 PM in Estonia, and 2:18 PM in the Eastern coast of the United States. We are talking right now with the chief of our Tallinn bureau Jaanus Milike, are you still with us?
JAANUS MILIKE:
Yes, I am.
JOHN WETHER:
When did this fireball occur, how loud was the boom?
JAANUS MILIKE:
The boom was very loud, it shook the entire building. It occurred a few minutes ago, around 10:15 PM. As soon as the staff member got inside, we opened the transmission and fed the tape to you.
JOHN WETHER:
OK, keep us posted! Late bulletin in from United States, this is basically a report that rovers on the surface of Mars, as well as the probes orbiting the planet have now also sighted the flashes, basically it is telling the probes are seeing fireballs exiting the planet. We are now going to Laguja Observatory where joining us live is Fiona Mirkam, good evening!
FIONA MIRKAM:
Good evening! I am now here with Ilmar Langi, chief astronomer here at the Laguja Observatory, mr. Langi, what do you think, what happened in Tallinn?
ILMAR LANGI:
It is too early to speculate at this point, what happened, based on what the TV is showing, it could be meteorite, it could be space debris, it could be missile... just a minute?
FIONA MIRKAM:
Mr. Langi was just handed a note, what is it?
ILMAR LANGI:
It is from the Northern Estonian rescue services, they report that a meteorite has fallen to Pirita tee in Tallinn.
FIONA MIRKAM:
What is your plan of action at this point?
ILMAR LANGI:
We will probably dispatch a crew to Tallinn at the closest possibility. Generally we'd have to wait until daylight, but since the area is already illuminated by streetlights, we can investigate the situation a little better. But it would still get at least 3-4 hours before we get there.
JOHN WETHER:
Fiona! Fiona!
FIONA MIRKAM:
Just a minute please, yes John?
JOHN WETHER:
I was just told our Tallinn crew is headed towards the scene and they should be able to output high definition feed within five minutes or so, depends when they arrive.
FIONA MIRKAM:
I was just told that we might be able to see live picture from the scene in high definition shortly, is this going to be of any help?
ILMAR LANGI:
A little, but I'd prefer to be straight on scene to be sure.
JOHN WETHER:
OK, I'm sorry we have to cut away from you now, we'll get back to you later, but we have the director of Northern Estonian rescue services on the phone, good evening.
DIRECTOR:
Good evening!
JOHN WETHER:
Can you tell, what is the latest information?
DIRECTOR:
At 10:16 PM, we received a telephone call from a driver that a possible meteorite has hit a road near Pirita Tee 10. We have dispatched crews on the scene, who have now closed the street and are examining the place. At this point some scientists are also on the scene, they are taking measurements of radiation in case the object was radioactive. This is all we know at this point.
JOHN WETHER:
OK, thank you. Our Tallinn bureau crew is right now headed towards the scene. In the meantime we have a bulletin from Koru farm where something new has been discovered. By closer examination, it appears the flashes are not dying off, but heading away from the planet. That would agree with the observations of the Mars probes. There is no explanation given at this point. Laguja Observatory has put out a bulletin saying they believe the flashes on Mars are not tied to the possible meteorite that has struck Tallinn. Time check now, 20:21 GMT at this point. And.. just a moment? .. We are now going live from Tallinn, where our correspondents just arrived at the scene of the collision, joining with us is Riho Ligika, good evening!
RIHO LIGIKA:
Good evening! We are now at the scene. Entire area has been cordoned off and the rescue services have been here analyzing the situation. We have received information that the object that just moments ago crashed in the city of Tallinn is not radioactive. The traffic has come to a standstill over here, and just fortunately because our bureau is a few streets away, we were able to get here quickly.
JOHN WETHER:
Have you taken a look at the crater?
RIHO LIGIKA:
I can see it as far as I am at this point, can we pan camera there? OK. At this point we see a elliptic hole in the ground, surrounded by a ring of ejecta. I am walking closer now? Just ten more meters... I'd estimate the crater to be at least 10 meters wide, but not sure about depth. OK, I am now nearing the edge of the crater and ... whaa...? I am seeing a ball of light in the sky, heading North.
JOHN WETHER:
Riho, in the last minute or so the wires have really lit up. Reports of either explosions or fireballs are now coming from national capitals of almost entire European Union, we have not heard anything from Finland, I assume it is heading there.
RIHO LIGIKA:
Meanwhile, quite a crowd has gathered on the scene at this point. Police is trying to keep them back. Staff from LKOS have also arrived now here, and they are as well examining the crater. (unidentified voice off-mic: Mis see on?) OK, I am now looking down at the crater, and there is some sort of a circular object... About 3 meters wide.
JOHN WETHER:
Circular object?!
RIHO LIGIKA:
Yes, at this point there is a circular object down in the ground. Yikes! It is now rising. It is... it is...
JOHN WETHER:
What it is doing?
RIHO LIGIKA:
There is intense humming coming from that object, the object is rising up. About a meter high... It has lights at its sides... it is now really lighting up. We're going, põgenege(Escape)!! (loud) We are running away from this object. It looks that it is remote controlled, and... just for safety, we are leaving.
JOHN WETHER:
Exactly, get out of there! I do not want you to endanger yourself!
RIHO LIGIKA:
I have now ran about thirty... forty meters, and I turn the camera at the object as I run... I try to get away... (shaky image depicting rising object, then big flash of light, signal cut).
JOHN WETHER: Riho? Riho? Are you there? OK, we are now looking at another feed from the roof of our Tallinn bureau. Can we pan the camera towards Pirita tee area? OK, huge glow of light coming from that direction... it looks like there is a fire of some sort underway. Now... the camera is panning upwards in the sky, and at this point... lights of some sort are appearing... in quite a big area. As I am telling this, I am receiving word that similar display is visible around the world. Really trying to make sense of the situation, we got bulletins from our reporter in New York City, reporting nothing is happening there, but lights had been seen heading to New Jersey. Miami, Florida bureau reporting lights in the sky, and similar little disk crashing, however it crashed into Atlantic Ocean. We now go live from Laguja Observatory, Fiona, are you there?
FIONA MIRKAM:
Yes, I am here. I am monitoring the situation as well, and I am being told that radar and satellite observations now indicate that the objects, that have wreaked havoc in Tallinn and hit various cities around the world, are accompanied by much larger objects, and they all appear to be coming in from the planet Mars. It would seem to me, as if these smaller objects that Riho was covering just minutes ago are some sort of recon devices or even missiles, intended for more localized destruction, and are followed by the mission center, that is guiding them. This big area of lights in a circular way we see on the Tallinn feed could be it.
JOHN WETHER:
What is this info based on?
FIONA MIRKAM:
I learned this in military defense class when I was at school in Nkovmicia. Because I am member of Srepian first family, I was taught anything that could be taught. We had several courses on interstellar wars, which seem to be occurring right now.
JOHN WETHER:
OK, thank you. Some new bulletins. State of Emergency has now been declared in Estonia, as well as in most European countries, as well as in United States, Australia, Japan, and the list goes on. What seems to be happening, seems to be happening all across the planet. It is 20:26 GMT...
----------------------
Now it pays off to give a little background to what will follow. I am tying in a world that I have imagined to be at the other side of our orbital plane, called Nkovmicia, and that is closely communicating with the Earth, and is inhabited by humans(who are identical to people living at the Baltic Sea region). I think this is the first time I am publicly using it in the stories that I have written. Srepia is one of the countries in that imaginary world, along with Adventaresia, Tühükma, etc. LRET Networks, and rest of so-called "Lagujan Media" as well, are done in cooperation with "organizations" Nkovmician countries. Warning: Very bad astronomy follows - including communicating faster than speed of light. Let's just get artistic and assume Nkovmicians have found a loophole somewhere in the laws of physics.
-----------------------
JOHN WETHER:
... and now joining us on the phone is Karl Lindi who is still at Koru farm, what are the latest updates where you are?
KARL LINDI:
Well, we have been hearing the radio and are obviously shaken up from the news, at this point we are here talking about evacuating to our location in Kilomani, which has no strategical places... oi mu(oh my)... just now I am seeing lights gradually starting to appear over the village.
JOHN WETHER:
What lights? Can we get a live shot from our auroracam? Or at least roofcam? OK you are now seeing live shot from our roof cam and indeed, bright lights are appearing in circular shape over the village, apparently heading over towards the Media Park. All right, thank you, Karl Lindi, and stay safe! At this point we are going to leave the studio and head to our shelter, we ask that as we evacuate, you do the same, take cover in a safe place as much under ground as possible. (leaving the studio) For our Nkovmician friends, this is Mayday. We leave you with live shot from the village skies as we head to the shelter. Can we hand over to Cologne? (pause) OK, we cannot. Communications have been lost with our studios in Cologne, Germany which we could have utilized in event of Laguja studios being knocked offline. OK, we can now hand over to our End of the World studios in Tühükma, as we take cover.
CUT TO BLACK SCREEN FOR 5 SECONDS
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
This is Wikine Kifleka picking up the broadcasting for LRET 2 to 8 from emergency transmission center in Tühüpeli in the Republic of Tühükma at Nkovmicia. For the time being, we will broadcast only in Estonian and English. This studio is used in the event of a global disaster. We will now try to show you a live shot of Laguja, Estonia... and the feeds still seem to be operational. At this point it seems that no satellite connections have been disrupted on Earth, and there have been only isolated attacks in the cities. Before we get back to Earth, here are some bulletins that are local for us here in Tühükma, but still relevant. Council of Nkovmician Nations have gathered to a special meeting to discuss the Earth Crisis. Meanwhile, Adventaresian Space Organization has announced that their space reconnaissance spacecrafts have confirmed that the objects are indeed originating from Mars. They have been able to intercept some electromagnetic radiation that have been emanating from the planet, and from there some broadcasts have been detected. These are basically telling that for a long time, subterranean civilization has been existent on Mars. They had been able to produce oxygen and other substances needed for living for the time being, but unfortunately there is now a problem with the equipment, prompting them to head towards the Earth. The time is now 22:29 East Nkovmician Time, 20:29 GMT on Earth. We cross over to Fiona Mirkam who is outside of Laguja Observatory right now. Hello Fiona.
FIONA MIRKAM:
Hello. As you can see, these lights have come across the area where most local TV and radio stations are, but right now no more major actions are occurring. I am kind of suprised for the lack of activity.
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
Has there been any communication from any of these spaceships?
FIONA MIRKAM:
Not that we can be aware of. In other news, we here have a report of fire in Tallinn, but it seems to be contained by now. Lights are in many places, and communication lines are swamped. However, there have been no large scale attacks or anything else... to be accurate, no attacks at all.
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
Is there been any attempts to disrupt the communications, hit the strategic locations?
FIONA MIRKAM:
Absolutely none.
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
Stay safe, and keep us up to date. We have learned our Cologne studio had evacuated, and this accounts for the loss of communications. Meanwhile, Adventaresia, Tühükma, Srepia and Surmäeri have now declared a state of crisis and activated general mobilization of troops. We are going now live from Seipeali, Adventaresia, from Adventaresian Space Organisation, hello Kine Nadese!
KINE NADESE:
Greetings. Adventaresian Space Organisation has been eavesdropping on the Martians and has been able to find their communication frequencies. We have been able to determine that they are monitoring English language television networks. The listening post is saying their language is not much different from Adventaresian, but still different. However, they have been able to decode enough that the visitors understand English language. It does appear that their knowledge of Earth is containing errors, and the crash in areas including Tallinn was likely caused by faulty navigation maps. They are are telling, that from the radio communications it was revealed that the the small... let's call them saucers, that small saucers were a recon devices that were supposed to explode in event of the crash to avoid falling to wrong hands. The big saucers accompanying them seem to be monitoring stations. At this point, chief chancellor of Council of Nkovmician Nations is in the space center, and they are trying to establish communication with Martians.
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
Is it possible to reach them from Earth?
KINE NADESE:
No. They are saying the Martians have not approached the Earth with communications. Our spacecrafts have been simply in a lucky spot to catch them and speak back.
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
OK, thank you. I hear they now attempt to make a communication. Let's listen in.
KEI MIDA:
Martian objects, Martian objects, please respond!
Martian objects, Martian objects, please respond!
UNIDENTIFIED COMMANDER:
This is Lmeiakli fifth squadron, please identify!
KEI MIDA:
This is chief chancellor of Council of Nkovmician Nations, Kei Mida, located in Adventaresian Space Organisation. We demand to know on what grounds are you approaching planet Earth, and making landings there? Are you plans hostile or friendly?
UNIDENTIFIED COMMANDER:
Council from Lmeiakli, our plans is not harm. Our will is not harm. We are in a emergency. Is this planet inhabited?
KEI MIDA:
That is correct - the planet is inhabited. And I should warn you that we will not tolerate any hostile action against people living on that planet.
UNIDENTIFIED COMMANDER:
I repeat, we want no harm, we want no harm. We have tried to communicate them, but to no avail.
KEI MIDA:
What is your mission?
UNIDENTIFIED COMMANDER:
To seek communication with the planet for cooperation.
KEI MIDA:
What are these explosions around the world then?
UNIDENTIFIED COMMANDER:
Our recon objects are set to self-destroy if crashed or if course turns out very incorrect. We have discovered our maps of the planet that you call Earth are gravely flawed.
KEI MIDA:
If you are friendly, communicate Earth as soon as possible. Local media coverage is telling they fear you are invading them.
UNIDENFITIED COMMANDER:
We have been unable to determine how they communicate?
KEI MIDA:
They communicate using transmissions of electromagnetic waves, just like they broadcast.
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
OK, we are now breaking away for now, to summarize the latest developments. Martians are telling to the Nkovmicia that they are friendly, and that they seek no harm to Earth. Our side stressed, that no hostile activity against the planet will be tolerated, and also urged to make contact with Earth quickly before Earth assumes they are hostile. OK, and Nkovmicia just inquired also about the saucers over world cities and they received those were just local monitoring stations, and that military crafts are completely different from those over Earth cities. We switch now to Laguja and Fiona Mirkam is there, good evening.
FIONA MIRKAM:
I have some breaking news coming in at this point, we have learned that the flashes on Mars have stopped, however the saucers are still here. However, they have not done anything. We... (startled) OK, things have changed, it seems as if the... The saucer over Laguja is now coming lower and lower, I think they are landing. Pan the camera to the saucer! They are right now landing in front of... what seems to be LRET Center.
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
I see it on the live shot. OK, joining us from LRET Center is now John Wether, hello John.
JOHN WETHER:
I am right now going outside to the front of the LRET Center along with our general manager. We have been following your broadcast, and we assume this may be attempt to make a contact.
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
Do you have an escape route?
JOHN WETHER:
Yes, there is quick way to shelter in the front lobby. OK, we are now in front of the building and... there is a hatch opening on the saucer. Bright light is there... and... there is... a human walking out?
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
Are you sure? A human?
JOHN WETHER:
Yes, we are now stepping forward. (off-mic: Do you speak English?) The occupant is now asking if we speak English. Let's listen in.
MARTIAN 1:
We are peaceful. We are from a planet next to you in Solar System. Are you the television?
GENERAL MANAGER:
This is indeed a television station. We are live on the air, actually.
MARTIAN 1:
I come to tell you, not to be afraid. We were simply monitoring your transmissions. We attempt to contact you. We come in peace.
GENERAL MANAGER:
Well, I must say, the contact is made. Even Orson Welles did not scare us that much.
MARTIAN 1:
We sorry. We had no other means of communication. We had to scan the electromagnetic band locally, and found your broadcasts.
GENERAL MANAGER:
You can decode digital television?
MARTIAN 1:
Yes.
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
We are breaking away from this now, as we have learned that the Martians have just sent their representative to New York, where the Earth's representatives have gathered. They are about to address the Earth so let's listen in.
MARTIAN REPRESENTATIVE:
Dear Earthlings. I have to apologize for the fear we have caused by accident. Two weeks ago, we ran into an emergency. Ever since Mars became uninhabitable, we have been living under ground, with system, that is able to produce oxygen. Last week, the air production systems stopped working, and this prompted us to find an emergency exit. We knew Earth was in area where there could be life. But we did not have ability to listen in to communications. Our equipment did not allow it, we just knew there were electromagnetic waves coming from here. But we thought it could as well be just natural phenomena. So we headed here, in big clusters, we traced down apparent locations of various sources of electromagnetic waves. But we weren't still sure. So we sent out a listening post to every such a source with a recon device that would have sent us pictures of the planet. Unfortunately recon devices failed, and we were not able to see anything. Eventually, we were guided to contact you, and this is why we are here. We seek nothing else, than to allowing us to repair our equipment, and return back to our homes. If you have any questions, please ask.
LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE:
How could you even learn English when you were unable to pick up our broadcasts from Earth?
MARTIAN REPRESENTATIVE:
We started it independently, just as Nkovmicians had started to speak Estonian independently.
JOHN WETHER:
And picking up the program origination again from Laguja, we are back on air. 20:39 GMT here on Planet Earth, 10:39 PM Estonian Time, and these have been very scary 30 minutes. However, we are now learning that this thing has positive outcome. These ships that had been over the Earth's cities were nothing else than monitoring stations, and explosions occurring have been accidental. Going now live from Koru farm, and we join Karl Lindi, who broke the story this evening, good evening!
KARL LINDI:
Good evening! I heard from the radio, that you visited the disk that landed in Laguja, was it what they promised to be?
JOHN WETHER:
Yes, while the leaders were speaking at the New York, they showed us their ship, and it was indeed nothing else than radio listening post.
KARL LINDI:
Great. I am seeing actually unidentified clusters of small lights appearing now in various parts of the sky, and no more flashes have been occurring on Mars for almost 10 minutes.
JOHN WETHER:
Yes, they told us, that they are sending most of their monitoring stations back to space.
KARL LINDI:
Well, I do not have anything to report, we are seeing that the ship over our area just departed and it seems all calm again.
JOHN WETHER:
Thank you, Karl Lindi. We are now going live from Washington D.C., where the communication were made first, Will Kifena is live from there, good evening.
WILL KIFENA:
People are still recovering from the panic that arose over here when the saucers first came. Many feared first these were hostile forces, but fortunately the recon device crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, so no explosion occurred here. By now the spacecrafts have left the area. There is daylight here, so communication here was a little easier, and it was better to see objects.
JOHN WETHER:
Were there any attempts to contact the visitors?
WILL KIFENA:
No. They feared that any attempt to contact may be regarded as a confrontation.
JOHN WETHER:
I understand the visitors made a contact in Washington?
WILL KIFENA:
Yes, they used some sort of loudspeakers to tell people that they are peaceful and that they apologize for inconvenience.
JOHN WETHER:
Thank you for the report. Going back to New York, where Earth is giving an answer to the visitors, let's listen in.
EARTH'S CHIEF:
We have been listening to your speech, and we have found sufficient proof that you are friendly. We however, would like to warn you that by landing on Earth, you exposed yourself to Earth's germs and bacteria, and this could be dangerous for your population. There are illnesses what even we Earthlings have no protection against. Your situation is especially difficult, since you got no absolutely illnesses over there. Therefore, quarantine might be needed. We have agreed however, to provide you assistance while you repair your equipment. We are also willing to provide you assistance to remain in touch with our planet, and share scientifical knowledge for better cooperation.
JOHN WETHER:
That's it, that's the answer, we will help them. For reaction in Nkovmicia, we go now live from Tühüpeli where Wikine Kifleka has the latest.
WIKINE KIFLEKA:
Everybody here has been joyed by the news that there is no threat to Earth. All activations of the military were just now cancelled. State of Crisis is also declared over. This is that much as I have currently, back to you.
JOHN WETHER:
And you are now seeing live pictures of people singing in the streets in New York. Spontaneous events of joy are being reported anywhere around the world, and it is apparent that the scare is over. Now, joining us live from Tallinn is Riho Ligika, Riho, we thought we lost you! I am seeing you on the monitor, so you must have made it!
RIHO LIGIKA:
It would take more than an explosion to wipe me out. To be honest, the explosion was not too bad though. I was knocked off from my feet and even the news bureau lost a few windows, but it wasn't disastrous. The fire services have put out the fire associated with it and everything is returning back to normal now.
JOHN WETHER:
Did the visitors make any contact to Tallinn? Have they left now?
RIHO LIGIKA:
Yes, they have left by now. They used loudspeakers to tell, that the explosion was from the technical failure and that harm is not their goal.
JOHN WETHER:
Thank you, and great to see you're OK. It is 10:42 PM in Estonia, 20:42 GMT. We are now going to take a little break to gather up all the news we have gotten and to report in the more coherent way. LRET 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 will resume broadcasting. We'll be right back here on LRET 5.

On November 2, Martians departed with gratitude, and they have not been heard from ever since.

THE END
(cc-by-nc) Tarmo Tanilsoo, 2009

Sign of the time of the year

2009-06-21T18:21:00.007+03:00

Happy Summer! This morning, the Sun reached its highest North declination and summer began! And fans of long daylight, panic! Because now the days start getting shorter.

Today around 1:15 PM, when the Sun reached the highest altitude(remember - daylight savings time!), I went outside, with a box, a compass with a ruler and a sheet from my notes book. What I was going to do? Measure the length of the box's shadow:

Unfortunately the cumulus clouds did not let me to take the reading at the exact moment when the Sun peaked over the horizon - this picture with the reading was done about 3-4 minutes later at 1:17 PM. Now what good I would know from the length of the shadow of a random object? This - the altitude of the Sun above the horizon in degrees. For those unaware about horizontal coordinates, here's a reference: If the object is at the horizon, it's altitude is zero degrees. When it is at zenith(right above your head - the Sun was/is visible there if you were/are at 23,44 North latitude at local noon today, you're yet to see it or are seeing it right now if you are in Americas and at that latitude), it's altitude is 90 degrees. But now again? What has the length of the shadow to do with the altitude of the Sun in the sky? Simple: It is just a matter of a trigonometry that every 9th Grader should know.

Basically, we can visualize the shadow, the object and the light beam as a triangle. Leaving the explanation of its shapes aside, we recall from school mathemathics(although I initially read about this trick from a Physics text book before learning about trigonometry when I was in 9th Grade) that tangent of angle alpha equals a divided by b.
tan alpha = a/b
Now, we got a as the height of the box, and b as the length of the shadow. We can get the angle alpha by using the arctangent function - so the height of the Sun equals arctangent of the height of the box divided by the length of the shadow.
height = arctangent(height of the box/length of the shadow)

Now: The box was 8,9 cm tall. The shadow was 6,2 cm long, and here is the result:
About 55,1 degrees above horizon! Now, because of the small dimensions of the object I used, one millimeter(accuracy of my measurement) in shadow size makes fairly big difference in the angle, and therefore this would have been much more accurate if the object used was taller, but you get the idea. Now, when it is measured at the moment the Sun reaches the highest altitude, it is possible to calculate the declination of the Sun(basically this is the latitude where people at their local noons are walking around, trying to see their shadows only to find them below their feet - the Sun is at zenith). How? You need to know your latitude for this. Mine is about 58,167 degrees North. I have the height of the Sun, 55,1 degrees. Now I will simply add my latitude to the height and subtract 90 degrees
decl = h+lat-90
decl = 55,1+58,167-90 ~ 23,27 ~ 23,3 degrees.
Now keep in mind about what I told about the accuracy before - my measurement in this test wasn't too accurate. As a matter of fact, had the length of the shadow been 6,1 cm, not 6,2 cm, the calculation would have yielded 23,7 degrees declination, far higher than the axial tilt of planet Earth(which is 23,44 degrees, and which also was Sun's declination at the moment of Summer Solstice). Plus, I made the measurement a few minutes after the Sun had peaked in its height.
Now, likewise, you can calculate the maximum height of the Sun from its declination:
hmax = decl + 90 - lat (if the height is higher than 90 degrees, it means the Sun will peak actually in the Northern sky, not Southern. In this case subtract the height from 180 degrees, like when hmax=111 then hmax=180-111)

So that's some math behind the Summer solstice! Enjoy the summer!

F84.5

2009-03-25T19:40:00.003+02:00

F84.5 - This is the ICD-10 code for my condition, called Asperger's Syndrome. It's a milder form of autism, and it has designed me to be like I am.

I was born in 1989, exactly 2 weeks after Baltic Chain. When I was small child I learned to read quicker than to speak. Early in the 1990's, I seemed to have sense of reality completely absent... It finally started coming in late in the century and early 21st century. When I was small - I practically lived in my own fantasy world (to be honest, it hasn't completely disappeared, just I've "climbed out" of it, and now it is just in my fantasies, and occasionally in my writings). I was lucky to study my first years of school in the village I lived in. By the time I went to middle school(which was by the way, done for people with disabilities), I had still a lot of behavioural problems, and I was... as I would say, strange. But I am improving. By the time I went to high school, I had developed quite a big interest in weather, but I still couldn't be anywhere alone. The latter was not the case anymore by 2007. As long as somebody I knew was nearby, I could easily go at a summer camp while parents hundreds of kilometers away, provided I could obtain external help for more complicated tasks, such as packing up a tent. Last year, I graduated high school. But still, I have some quirks, and some will remain with me for rest of my life.

So what's AS in a nutshell? Intelligence working as usual, but social skills not so good. One of the quirks is also that you might notice that I am not too good at making direct eye contacts... Sometimes I may sound a little obsessive on certain topics. At the same time, I can memorize various bits of information.

April 2 is World Autism Awareness day. Autism related topics touch me quite much as my younger brother is autistic andd I myself with Aspergers Syndrome. Some have told me that I should hide my condition when in communication because of various attitudes that people might have, but I have chosen not to. I think hadn't I got AS, all I'd be would be just an average Joonas.

Going up? Or going down? Part 2

2009-01-08T12:41:00.003+02:00

If you have read my another post "Going up? Or going down?" then note that I decided to do some changes to the system I wrote about before:

Effective immediately, the procedure for calculating TTTLI will be modified. The current TTTLI value will be divided with 100. The scale for raising and lowering the index will be based on the old system, but with percentage values divided with 100. This means that effective from the change, the percentage range for raising/lowering the index will be 0.04% to 0.20% instead of 4-20% as it was prior to this change. To convert old index to new one, just divide old one with 100. For example, the initial value of TTTLI, 100, will now be referenced as 1. Another example: Yesterday evening's value of: 15030,36876 shall be referenced as 150,3036876.

Changes will be reflected in the graphics at next update at 9 PM today.

Finnish TV seen in Southern Estonia with an indoor antenna

2008-12-16T07:13:00.005+02:00

On Sunday and Monday, a strong tropospheric ducting hit our area... flooding the airwaves with foreign television stations. In Finland, and in Estonia, reports are coming out about problems with signals because of co-channel interference. I had also issues, but because I live northwest of the transmitter serving my area, and as such I was able to place antennas in a way that the local signal would win the battle.

It all began on Sunday morning when the sky dawned and I noticed the weather was clear. EMHI had been forecasting a high pressure area to set in and colder weather to arrive. As I remember many good DXes from the winter high pressure areas, I decided to attempt to pick up neighboring digital transmitters. Koeru from 93 km away, yes! Eventually got Tallinn too. But as the day progressed, I lost their signal again, but not to the bad propagation. Rather I lost it to the good propagation as Finnish signals on the same frequencies(E57 for Koeru, E45 for Tallinn) kicked in. In the noon hours, I was able to lock to Lahti's E51 as well. Then, E46 and E32 came in from Espoo. I was able to save those channels as well to my set top box and managed to get a stuttering picture of YLE's channels and some private channels. Eventually they faded out. However, as the afternoon progressed, I kept scanning the channels and seeing most of the UHF band being overcrowded by digital signals. Then, I saw Lahti. By this time, local television signals from E47 in Valgjärve were dark - only way to get them was to put antenna to another place. By quarter to two PM, I saw E51 from Lahti with signal strength 88% and quality of 90%... Would you believe that I received this with an indoor antenna? Espoo was also coming in. By 2 PM, E51 had weakened and I was scanning channels again. Now I ended up on E53 from Espoo. Signal strength 62%, quality 15%. Sound stuttered. It was about 15 minutes before 3 PM, when I got signal from Tammela. This was E50, and channels list pointed to "kanavanippu C", which is transmitted from Tammela in this frequency. At 3 PM, I noticed strong signal coming on E33. I initially thought it was Multiplex 1 from Kohtla-Nõmme. Think again... If I ran channel search, I initially thought that the receiver had locked to E32. But it was E33. I was receiving Kanavanippu A from Lahti despite Estonian digital transmitter on the same frequency. Still with an indoor antenna, signal strength was 86%, quality 84%.

E33 at 3:10 PM.

By 4 PM, all Finnish multiplexes went dark while still indicating a presence of digital signal. Occasionally some signals from various places jumped in for short time. The hotspot for the evening was Tammela...

On the next morning
Hmm... it appears that it is over... or is it? I scan the band... and I find a strong signal originating on E38. Channels list on that frequency and other freqs with similar strength and their channel lists indicate Mikkeli. Wow. That is the furthest digital signal from Finland I have ever received. My previous record was from E51 in Lahti. By using a directional logarythmic antenna(which could block co-channel interference a bit), I was able to pick up E43 from Mikkeli too... and saw even the "lost sheep" MTV3 and Nelonen. Occasionally the Mikkeli signal, especially the multiplex was very strong... Finnish DX came to an end after 9 AM in the morning.
However, before it happened, I was able to save this signal strength report to the posterity:

The opening continued to gradually weaken throughout the day, with only Koeru's transmitter remaining above normal signal level. In fact, it is above normal even now as I type. Signal strength 64%, quality 58%. Usually all I'd get would be 50%/0-5% with even no teletext!

On analog
I was also able to DX some analog signals. I was able to pick up one station in St. Petersburg, Russia. I do not know its exact name right now, but the logo in their ident read 5 PETERBURG.

Wow! This is definitely one memorable DX experience that will not be forgotten for a long time.

How far(approximate values)?
Laguja-Koeru - 95 km
Laguja-Tallinn - 170 km
Laguja-Espoo - 300 km
Laguja-Lahti - 320 km
Laguja-Mikkeli - 385 km
Laguja-Tammela - 340 km

I apologise for any typographical errors in this posting. I do not have the time right now to do a full spell check.

"We interrupt this program..."

2008-10-31T20:17:00.003+02:00

War of the Worlds, the infamous radio play based on the book by H. G. Wells, turned 70. When it initially aired, people in the U.S had the daylights scared out from themselves. Obviously there was also outrage over this radio play, as has been for other such "newscasts." Remember Without Warning on TV in 1994? Yes, people got scared and outraged. Bye Bye Belgium in 2006? Yep. You know the answer. Same reaction. Sometimes I tend to think that even now 70 years later, people blindly trust whatever they hear on the television, radio etc and are simply unable to make a distinction between fact and fiction. Honestly, I personally find faux newscasts to be quite entertaining. So what would I do if I happened to tune into a faux newscast and I am unaware that it is fake. I have three simple rules for that.
1. Switch to another channel, preferrably a news one - if there are really Martian cylinders falling from the sky, then it is obvious that all news channels from CNN to Al Jazeera would have their staff up and in arms, covering the story. If noone else is talking about that, and other channels do not mention it even in their teletexts(especially if they are in the "affected" area)... something is fishy.
2. Run a Google News search on the event "covered." The news must have started somewhere from a smaller source, and once again, read rule no. 1 - you ought to find other news sources confirming it if it really was real. Although caveat: If you find another news service reporting the event, look who they claim as a source. Maybe they have believed the faux newscast.
3. If you have been unable to verify that the event is really happening in real life, then sit back in your couch, and enjoy the entertainment and imagine as if you were in an action movie.

Going up? Or going down?

2008-10-30T17:16:00.004+02:00

Now, at the time, when people are keeping their eyes on every stock index from Nikkei to Dow Jones, I thought I'd write about a way of keeping track on my emotions... Tension lack index. I got inspiration for this initially in 2004 when hearing about stock prices rising/falling/being steady from the news. I started daily calculations of it on 30 October 2005 at 15:15 with initial value of 100 points. I am raising it a certain level of percents(4-20, depending on the strength of emotions) when I have a positive emotion, and lower when I have a negative emotion. Using a preprogrammed calculator, doing this is easy. Daily at or near 19:00 UTC, I write this value down. As a result I have an insight how well or not well I have been doing. Now, today, I added a feature this blog which enables to show the latest write-down with the recorded change during the previous day.

Ike

2008-09-19T21:08:00.005+03:00

My condolences go out to all people who suffered under hurricane Ike, or under the remnants of it.

Following scripts portray the imaginary(and fictional!) media I have written about before during these days. This pretty much should sum up what thoughts I had about this storm in my head. This time I have written into some new characters, LWTV, a weather related English language channel, and LWS, a local (but also fictional weather service). If you want to read more about ex-Ike's effects on Iceland, I'd suggest to read Iceland Review.
LRET 1: 15:30 on 18.09.2008
Ident: SPECIAL REPORT: Ex-Ike
Anchor: Good afternoon, although the main news just concluded, this is once again a special report of LRET 1 News on the remnants of Ike. We would like to remind that continuous coverage on ex-Ike can be seen on LRET 5. Just less than a half an hour ago, Iceland Review released another report on the remnants of Ike. There have been reports of flooding and damage to the roads. It has been told that this was probably the worst storm in years. We shall now switch over to our sister station LWTV, which has been on the air monitoring Ike since last Friday. Let's listen in now..."
LWTV Meteorologist 4: "Honestly, these reports are even worse than I expected. I expected a strong storm with gusts at low hurricane force, but..."
LWTV Meteorologist 3: "Meanwhile, let's say hello to viewers of LRET 1, who will be following us for next few minutes. We here at the LWTV studios in LWS have been on the air continuously, with the exception of weather updates and hourly newscasts, since Friday noon. Now, let's bring out some important reports. Recently a report emerged from Iceland that airstrip in Gjögur had reported wind speed of 47 meters per second last night, per Iceland Review. We were unable to determine whether this was a sustained reading or a gust. For our international viewers's here's a little conversion. 47 meters per second is 169 kilometers per hour, 91 knots or 105 miles per hour. This is the last we have heard from out there."
LWTV Meteorologist 5(leaves roundtable and walks to a video screen): "All right, I'd like to put this reading into perspective. Can we get Saffir Simpson scale to the video screen?"
Hurricane scale appears on the video screen
LWTV Meteorologist 5: "OK. I would first like to put a little caveat on this - Saffir Simpson hurricane scale is used for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean. Ike is no longer a tropical cyclone... and there is chance that it might not even be an ex-Ike anymore by standard means, but possibly the moisture from ex-Ike as a part of another cyclone."
LWTV Meteorologist 4: "Don't forget ex-Lowell that joined ex-Ike!"
LWTV Meteorologist 5: "And moisture from ex-Lowell. Of course, merger with another system will certainly remove identity from the weather maps, but the bad weather itself... Depends. Sometimes the weather conditions doesn't make it through the merger either, but sometimes they might provide extra fuel to the resultant system. Anyway, we have a report from Iceland about winds reaching 47 meters per second. I assume that this was a gust. Now, if this was a tropical cyclone and 47 meters per second was a 1 minute average speed, this would mean a strong Category 2 hurricane. If I remember such wind speed is kind of close to the intensity Ike had at making landfall in Texas. Does anyone have the Texas landfall intensity?"
LWTV Meteorologist 2: "Hang on, I'll check... 49! 49 meters per second, but that was sustained. Gusts were obviously higher."
LWTV Meteorologist 3: "By the way, has Europe even had storm with winds even gusting more than that?"
LWTV Meteorologist 5: "In fact we have. A storm which Germans called Anatol in 1999 had gusts to 48 meters per second. (fact sheet about European storms appears on video screen) Now, of course, in the mountains, much higher above the ground, it can be much windier, but during Kyrill in 2007, winds reached 62 meters per second! I however think this was measured at a pretty high elevation. Also the gusts in The Great Storm of 1987 in the UK were slightly stronger than our today's reason of attention."
LRET 1 Anchor: "Ok, we are breaking away now from LWTV to pass over to our weather studio for the latest comment."
Weather announcer at LRET 1: "Yes, and indeed, we are having a some sort of an identity crisis. Apparently Ex-Ike with the moisture from Ex-Lowell may have lost its identity early this week. Regardless of it, the... even if merged... remnants have probably acted like a high octane fuel, and intensified an extratropical low pressure area to the intensity that is probably even comparable to beasts like Anatol and Erwin. Latter one is also known as Gudrun and that name is also probably familiar for residents in Pärnu and other coastal areas... and also people at far inland. However, folks in that city, don't grab that sand bag! This system is already weakening and in addition, a high pressure area in our neck of the woods, which we here have been aptly calling "The Ex-Hurricane Levee" after it blocked ex-Hanna, will block off ex-Ike either..."

LWTV 20:53 on 19.09.2008
LWTV Meteorologist 12: "And this was the summary of this hurricane and its afterlife. All right, we all have now gathered here to finally end this, for us, record-breaking broadcast. We have been on the air, practically continuously in Estonian on ILTV and English on LWTV, for 7 days, 8 hours and 50 minutes, minus the newscasts and weather updates in every 10 minutes. We have been also simulcasted on Ilm FM in Estonian and on Weather AM in English, and we have been passing notes to each other all the time through the departments at the LWS."
LWTV Meteorologist 9: "Indeed, we decided to stay on the air continuously even after Ike became a tropical depression after it became evident that Europe might need to track this system, and after we almost lost the track of the storm. For about 24 hour time period, locating ex-Ike... or what was left of ex-Ike was like finding a needle from a haystack."
LWTV Meteorologist 7: "I have a strong feeling that we won't get to see Ike in the year 2014."
LWTV Meteorologist 8: "Speaking of the name, did anyone else find the word "ike" from Estonian Language Institute's Estonian Language dictionary - a legal basis of our language?"
LWTV Meteorologist 6: "Sure. But I was on the air here when Ike made landfall and thus the staff trusted me to say following: we here at LWTV would like to send our thoughts and sympathy to everyone who suffered under Ike."
LWTV Meteorologist 4: "And with that, we here at LWTV are now signing off and returning to our regular schedule. Listeners at Weather AM, will have one hour of "Calm Evening" and we will have "Weather Evening" as usual. We thank anyone for watching and may we all have a fair weather for some time. Have a nice evening"
Credits roll as the ominous theme music plays, camera zooms out and mets shake hands, lasting until 20:58, followed by weather update aired in weather alert mode.

Autumn is coming

2008-08-25T11:06:00.003+03:00

BREAKING NEWS: First signs of autumn have appeared on Estonian nature. In addition, weather has been quite cloudy and even a tad rainy this month. Well, entire summer has been rather ... un-summery. I have seen better summers. However, this is Estonia and I should be grateful for any good weather we have.

At least the jinx of eclipses being clouded out got broken. With difficulties I saw the solar eclipse on 1st of August, and the eclipse on 16-17 August was rather well seen too despite the fog.

Some other news - I have graduated high school. Even now, post-graduation, I occasionally see dreams of high school classes, but ... Since 19 June 2008, I am a free man. However, I will keep doing revision in some high school subjects as I am thinking of taking some extra exams so I could go to the university to study Geography and with that also Meteorology.

I am a tad mad at the International Olympic Committee right now... Their restrictions on broadcasting even made The Berlin Wall pale. In fact, their shameful restrictions on Internet streaming probably left some countries without live Olympics footage - in some countries, Olympics were not carried live, at least the opening-closing ceremonies and people were also unable to watch it from any foreign link thanks to The Great Firewall of IOC. Thanks, IOC, for ruining the show for some.

Birthday reminder: Only 12 days until my 19th birthday.

Weather camera from my neck of the woods

2008-08-23T09:21:00.002+03:00

Trying to reincarnate the weather feed from my home:

Video chat rooms at Ustream

LRET 5: Waiting for snow

2007-12-23T10:01:00.001+02:00

All right. You might have heard about the imaginary TV channels I have imagined... And the callsign system where L stands for Laguja and the rest of three letters are the call letters... But leaving that aside, a "transcript" from my fantasies...

SUNDAY 23 DECEMBER 2007
LRET 5
10:02 ESTONIAN STANDARD TIME
Reporter: "... will be brown, maybe even green. Josh Nirmi, LRET 5, Laguja."
News anchor: "All right, we have now a breaking news story to follow. We have just been notified that it is snowing outside.
IDENT: BREAKING NEWS
News anchor: "We are now looking at a live shot from Laguja and yes, it is snowing. Some areas outside are turning white - this is snow. We will now continue from our weather edition, go ahead Brian."
Brian, weatherman: "All right, good early morning to everybody in the US, and good forenoon to viewers in Estonia. It is quite unorthodox for us here in Estonia, where snow is common at winters, to do a breaking news on even a small snowflake, but we are becoming desperate here. Looking now outside at the live shot, it is indeed snowing. Snow is gathering in some places. You can see how it is turning whiter. However, this is not much giving hope for Christmas, as it may melt at every time. Now let's take a look at the current weather conditions. Temperature is hovering at 32 degrees Fahrenheit - still very hot. The precipitation may turn into sleet or rain at any time. We don't want to be Grinches, but I am afraid that I can't deny it: we here in Estonia must face Christmas without snow for a second year in a row."
--
10:13 Simulcast from LWTV
Reporter 3: "Well, we are facing a sad truth here. The snow has turned wet again, and it was just a teaser for us. I am signing off, no more snow here"
News anchor at LWTV: "So so much for the snowfall. It has either stopped or turned into sleet or rain. Let's have look at the Christmas forecast now."
Weather announcer at LWTV: "All right, the weather is still expected to be a Grinch. For the Christmas Day, we are expecting windy, cloudy and hot day, with temperatures over 0 degrees Celsius. Winds may gust up to 8 meters per second in our area here, but gusts may be higher in the coastal areas. Sorry, White Christmas will be just a dream this year, just like a year ago. Taking now a look at the longer range forecasts and we will see that as the new week progresses, weather finally starts to get colder, with temperatures going to negative sides of Celsius scale. It might turn below freezing point already at Boxing Day, but still, we are not expecting any precipitation. Back to you"
News anchor at LWTV: "So much for this newscast right now, now back to programming"
IDENT: "This is LWTV, The Weather Day"
---

Note: I am desperate for snow! Looks like there will be a Christmas without snow for 2nd year in a row

Update to my political views on American scale

2007-10-17T13:12:00.000+03:00

You are a
Social Liberal
(60% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(20% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat (20e/60s)

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Did I forget something?

2007-06-26T09:18:00.000+03:00

Oh yes, to write here. It has been ages since I wrote here. Well, to round up things, I just say that I hopefully managed to graduate 11th grade and I hope I also continue studies at 12th. However, nothing is sure. In less than 2 and a half months, I will be officially a grown-up, on 6 September, I will turn 18, and per Estonian laws, that makes me a grown-up. However, I am feared of this though - I've got to start paying taxes, army probably tries to drag me into it(mandatory army service in Estonia :( ) despite my Aspergers Syndrome and the other fun stuff...

Honestly, I am afraid of growning up... Especially that I might not have all the mental abilities needed for a grown up. Well, let's live one day at a time... However, I am looking toward this autumn with worry... I hope this wouldn't be so scary though...

On Linux for some time

2007-02-10T09:39:00.000+02:00

Well, yesterday at about 8:45 PM, computer went wacko. Mozilla Firefox didn't open anymore after clicking on its icon and after managing to reset its settings using MF Safe mode, the browser opened, but then it hard disk went active and this ended up in complete freeze of the computer. Well, I don't know what's up. I did virus check and spyware check(there were some registry entries found though...). Well, I think that mother has to call one of our relative who knows the computers better than I and who restored lost files after a virus deleted them in 2004.

Until things get fixed, I am running computer from Knoppix Live CD. Besides that it is Linux, not Windows, it runs from CD and therefore uses hard disk only for its swapfile... Well, please pray that things get fixed and everything would be OK.

Knoppix is kind of interesting, it has its own Winamp-like media player, it has 2 web browsers and many other useful tools... If I only could get MIDI and Windows Media to work...

Whoa

2007-02-03T11:05:00.000+02:00

I almost fell out of my chair when I found out(thanks to Google) this morning that as of year 2000, 25 thousand Estonians were living in USA and Florida was ranked 5th in the states what have Estonians... Well, I think I will become more active in tropics section of Estonian weather forum this summer. Yesterday I heard about deadly tornadoes in Central Florida. I hope that there weren't any Estonians affected...

Whoa...

Silent evening...

2006-11-29T20:48:00.000+02:00

It is currently a dark, cloudy and depressing evening here in Laguja village. Unusual warmness has hit us. I am already worried that my uncle's son is going to show his wife blank grounds, not snow when they come to Estonia from Brazil for the Christmas. Well, I haven't seen him for ages. Thank God for Skype! When I have visited my uncle's home, we have stayed in touch with him over Skype.

But things are not so happy always. I just heard few weeks ago that a friend of mine, who was impressed in my weather enthusiasm, passed away in September :( :( I was mentally knocked out for a day.

Things are gonna get very ugly tomorrow. I need to study and I need to study a lot. It could be possible that I will have FIVE tests(3 scheduled and 2 work up tests(since I go to school 2-3 times a week, I have missed some tests)) on Friday at school. I have done some revision already today, on Wednesday evening... Friday will have 8 lessons... Day begins at 8:15 AM, ends 3:35 PM... I guess I am not gonna see daylight in my home again... And this means taking off from my home at 7:20 AM... and getting home after 4:30... Brr... Well, let's see how things turn out.

What is the best expression?

2006-11-13T21:58:00.001+02:00

Here's something I wanted to share with you. Few months ago I got a homework assignment at school to do a story containing at least 20 Estonian expressions. I have now translated it to English and supplied some language comments too so you could understand what I am talking about. Have fun!

What is the best expression?
By Tarmo Tanilsoo

“Morning!”, the news anchor Eva said when she entered the news edition of LRET 1. “Morning, morning! We have a major trouble! If I was bull, I would jump into the well,” says Janno, another news anchor. “Well, trouble drives bull to well, but what’s the problem?” asks Eva. “We got an assignment to find the best expression.” says Janno. “Vaat kus lops! (Estonian expression what is used when very surprised). This is indeed difficult.” Just then Fiona comes to work. “Morning!” says she. “Morning! I think we have the most difficult assignment on channel’s history. We need to find the best expression of all times,” says Janno. “Oh no! My head is already full of sticks! Now we are going to feel water and whistle.” exhaled Fiona. “Maybe we should make a competition on the news.” offers Eva. Janno and Fiona agree. “I will talk with the editor. Let’s stop building air castles, let’s grab the bull by the horns, maybe we can organize something!”
“LRET 1 launches new expressions contest “Vaat kus lops”. Viewers are asked to send their favorite expression to the contact info shown on screen and write, how this expression has realized or not realized in real life. We will award the best expression,” chimes Eva’s voice on news edition’s TV. Through the air, news spread across Estonia like wildfire. Meanwhile, muddy Janno walks into the news edition. “What end of the world did happen to you?” asks startled Fiona. “This is horrible. I made live report outside, I slipped and landed in a mud puddle! It is so embarrassing that it makes you sink into the ground.” exhales Janno. “Don’t start giving flour and mush!(This expression means like “don’t give this absurd!” etc, hardly possible to translate) We will make fun about this in our New Year’s Eve specials, including you!” shouts Fiona. Janno doesn’t say black nor white, but shrugs the shoulders
Next morning when they come to work, each of them found huge amount of papers. “You gracious time! (like Good grace!) What is this?” asks Fiona. “These are letters from our viewers. Very many happened to see our news yesterday at 4 PM.” says Mark, the news editor. “Now we did bear’s favor (favor, what brought negative consequences) to ourselves. It takes whole day to survey them,” exhales Eva. But then Mark horns into the conversation. “In several cases, expressions were repeating. I sorted mails by them.” says he. “Be thanked! (like Thank you very much)” says Fiona. They choose 10 pest expressions so they could announce the winner at 8 PM news
“It is now 8:21 PM and those were today’s news stories. But the newscast doesn’t end with that…” says Fiona on the air. Janno enters the studio. “Now we should have Janno here who will announce, who won expressions competition we announced yesterday,” says Fiona. Then she asks: “And there he is. Do we have a winner?” “We have a winner, but we are not going to announce it at once. We will start now at 10th place and will go upwards.” replies Janno. “Which of us will now read the first?” asks Fiona. “You,” replies Janno. “All right. 10th place. Mihkel who wrote about “stomach is so full that you could kill a louse on it” sent this expression to us. He used this expression after eating so much that he could hardly move.” says Fiona. Janno continues: “9th place. Kind like molten water. This expression has been used several times on Karl who sent this.” Fiona says: “Owner of 8th place is Jaana whose water started to boil,”(Play of words. In Estonian language version, word veri(blood) was confused with vesi(water) in this story) Janno asks: “Water boiled?” Fiona replies: “Sorry, blood started to boil. Yes, she sent this expression to us. She had went so angry once that she commented this with boiling blood.” Janno continues: “I think that somebody’s blood just started boiling that you confused water with blood although I can hardly hold my laugh. Somebody had caused owner of 7th place, Marek, to have blood boiling so much that Marek was calling him “eternal snake!” Here it was written, that he applies “eternal snake.” Fiona says: “Pepper on your tongue! And the same is written by Mikk, who got the 6th place.” Janno: “Owner of 5th place has name Andrea in her passport and she didn’t found her newspaper. She said, “vanished like twig to the water”. Fiona: “Owner of fourth place is Vilja, who gave new and old to a person, who had played a trick on her.”
Somebody whispers to Janno: “How long yet it is going to take? Weather studio will start a riot if they don’t get to the air pretty soon. We need to fit “Watching the tropics” also to this half hour.” “We have three left,” whispers Janno. “Now, we need to hurry up when we want to stay on schedule. Third place is “no deed no face.” Mihkel who sent this wanted to cook, but failed heavily,” says Janno. Fiona continues: “Second place is owned by Rait whose lung went over liver (expresses becoming angry) on a day when everything went behind the fence (expresses fail, unsuccess). But now first place!” “Drum roll!” shouts Janno. Drum roll will be on a background for a moment. “I don’t even see a finger to put into my mouth (expresses zero-visibility). Once there was such a fog that the winner Silvia commented the visibility with this expression” continues Janno. “We congratulate the winner and we will contact you shortly. With this we end our today’s broadcast, in a moment we will continue with weather and we will have news again at 21:00. See you!”
And now the winning expression reaches the human who gave the assignment to find it. “Njaa, pretty interesting results. But maybe would you try it again?” says Tiit, the program director. “Go to the Moon! After this water and whistle!” lashes Fiona out. “All right, I was kidding. I am OK with the results. I will now call to the NASA and then start packing my bags,” says Tiit. No one knows if Tiit took expression “Go to the Moon” literally or was joking, but news edition was full of giggling for whole evening.

In USA, I would be Democrat...

2006-11-05T08:10:00.000+02:00

First yes, I haven't written to here for ages. But this is just that I didn't have Internet in my home earlier, I have it now. But here's interesting test results. I found that test posted at Talkweather forum and I gave it a try. And here it is.

You are a
Social Moderate
(50% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(18% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Summer

2006-06-26T11:55:00.000+03:00

Finally typing to the blog. Well, the summer's here. And I'm right now
laying in my bed, reading newspaper and listening to the radio.
Finally, summer is here and I can have a rest from school. There will
be school's anniversary and reunion of nearby villages on Saturday.
Pray for good weather... I'm still messing with my podcast. Meanwhile,
some extra rooms will be built to the house... And I get a room on the
northern side of a house... Well, summer's here and currently 18 hrs
12 minutes long days are now shortening. This can be depressing
because we have only 6 hours of sunshine. Yes, sun sets at 3.20 p.m at
the winters.. But well, this is our yearly life. Reminding, only one
state in USA is as north as Estonia is - Alaska.

There is convection

2006-05-09T08:05:00.000+03:00

After seeing towering cumulus clouds as rain clouds left, I've reached
conclusion that we have some kind of convective activity. TCU's are
relatively high and it is just 8 a.m.

Raining

2006-05-09T07:19:00.000+03:00

Weather pattern has significantly changed overnight. I woke up under a
cloudy sky today and father reported it is raining... Whoa!

School scheduled on June 3!!!

2006-05-08T14:00:00.000+03:00

I am at school right now and just heard in the math lesson that there
will be school on June 3rd too! That's Saturday! Reminds me days far
back in Soviet Union when school was from Monday to Saturday...

Schoolday has been pretty stressful today. There was a test in music
but I don't think I did it good. An old math test was returned with
4(70-90%)...

As soon as I get home, I need to start making homework... Last lesson
is about to begin.

Well, gotta go now. Some people are picking on me what am I typing.
They think I am visiting rate.ee from cell phone. Don't make me laugh!
I think I am only guy in the class who came to study! Classmates
attitute clearly shows it

Horrible event I just heard

2006-05-07T09:54:00.000+03:00

Well, I was reading Talkweather.com forum from my cell phone and read
about tragic event with one user's ex-wife and their baby. A
completely insane driver hit the ex-wife and baby got killed. I have
no words... And I thought Estonians have bad traffic culture. Thank
god they caught that driver. Jail that driver and throw away the key!
And this is not the best punishment I can think of...

I send now my condolence to that forum user(can't remember his user
name right know). I have no words to describe your emotions you may
have.

Breaking news - Our cat's latest addition

2006-05-06T19:14:00.000+03:00

Our cat Garfield has given a birth. We discovered the kitten just five
minutes ago... He-or-she seems to be name. We should start choosing
name for him-or-her now. I keep you posted

Going green

2006-05-06T18:36:00.000+03:00

Laguja's nature has gone through a big change this week. Leaves are
appearing on trees with ultra-high speed. Week ago there weren't any
leaves, now the village is green. Meanwhile, I got a huge jackpot in
school. i had to write a school report about humidity and I found so
much material about it. Now when I have finished report I found out
that one pdf document I was using as an information source was
actually used as studying material in University of Tartu. So I
actually learned what future mets learned. We got another new
neighbours. They came to a neighbouring farm. Also I have an important
note to make. Whenever I am posting from a e-mail, the time of posting
is 10 hours behind of my local time. I can't correct it when I am
posting from wap e-mail. Right now, it is 6.34 p.m in Estonia. Oh...
Chars are out

Warm

2006-05-06T16:46:00.000+03:00

It is pretty warm right now in my home. 23C currently outside.

Spring here... illness and stress...

2006-05-06T13:14:00.000+03:00

Well... situation has not been very favourable for me recently. I just
got a nasty illness at the time when I last needed it. Ahh!!! I can go
crazy.

Meanwhile, started blogging from e-mail because I maybe update this
blog once in half year!!!

On Thursday I launched a new podcast Laguja Radio. You can hear it
from http://www.zone.ee/lagujailm/raadio/indexen.htm (that's english
edition, german ed. is indexde.htm and estonian index.htm).

Well, I am still having a stress... At least I had to write a school
report about humidity in physics and I enjoyed that(you probably know
why).

Well... Estonia is having huge wildfire threat right now... That
dryness should stop next week...

Uh, hot hot!!!

2006-01-30T14:32:00.000+02:00

After deadly frost Estonia had a for a week and what happened a week ago, temperatures have risen to 2°C! That frost Estonia had also broke Laguja's cold record of past years. On the morning of Friday, 20.01.2006, it was -31,2 degrees Celsius... A bit less than 10 people left their lives in Estonia to that cold. Anyway, roads are getting slippery and I travel outside only with so-called finnish sled to avoid falling. On this season and especially after that frost, these temperatures seem to me like heat!

Anyway, latest grade updates from school, I've done some tests and they are between 4 and 5 (between 70 and 100%). Well gale-force wind gusts are expected(not in Estonia - gale-force begins from 9 Bft in Estonia)...

I don't know if I have shared this to you, but I've done a fictional weather story what is an autoportrait of me in 9 years. I now did a short story about it in English language(original is in Estonian language more than 30 A4 pages large). And this is available at http://www.hot.ee/tarmotanilsoo/hurrican.htm .

Well, I saw some beautiful cumulus clouds today and it smells outside like spring... But only half of winter is over so I call this Hotel Echo Alfa Tango... or HEAT!!!(Yes, I'm interested in HAM radio too... unfortunately this is unaffordable).

I apologize for any typos because I am in a rush... Well, I noticed that one user from Talkweather.com has linked to my blog. Thanks! Gotta go now, schoolwork has to be done

Illness

2005-12-15T10:52:00.000+02:00

I am back online... from village center of course. I've been ill for one week from now... and been absent from school since last Tuesday. I think I am going to meet lots of mad teachers when I get back to school... Today, our family doctor visits the village center today so I am finally getting excuse from the doctor. I've had... (looking dictonary right now... hmm... how is nohu in English... ah! influnenza) ee... influenza for a week now and also cough! I had also sore throat earlier... Well, I am now recovering and I was even at theater yesterday... first time in my life. It was "Cinderella" with leading Estonian actors and actresses... We didn't pay for anything because it was done during a trip organized by Elva Handicapped Children Union (I have Asperger's syndrome). Ticket itself costed 60 EEK by the way(I wonder why it was so cheap!)

I reprogrammed my METAR retriever earlier this week so I can enter data manually to it. As you know, I don't have Internet connection at my home anymore... I'm also programming European map in Qbasic... to track better extratropical storms...

Today, second extratropical storm in this week is in forecast. However... winds are going to be only just a gale-force at coast. They were expected to be near 60 knots in coastal areas on Monday!!!

Thanks to illness, I don't have so much school stress so TLI has risen above 400! That's a good news... Bad news is that it is likely to fall next week when I'll be back at school...

I am still hoping that one day, any New Age radio stations would be launched in my area, but this is all...

So much for this time!
p.s. everybody else but not my brother and father are ill..

Finally...

2005-12-07T13:18:00.000+02:00

Finally I remembered to update my blog as I stopped by at the village center.

Well, it has been hard time over couple of months. I am right now struggling at high school and having such depression that if I'd be a low pressure area, I'd be same low as hurricane Katrina! My heart has also become ill and grades have dropped to 2-3(20-45 to 45-70 percent!). And I was so succesful at 9th class!!!

There has a lot happened during the summer. I was even on the meteorology enthusiast meeting in August, went to high school on September 1, had an ex-hurricane Maria on September 14. I have even an observation log at http://karel.pri.ee/laguja/orkaanmaria/maria.htm . Be sure to multiply my wind readings with 0.86 because I used a bit unprecice method. Then came october, I saw a solar eclipse. In November, I had strongest storm since January and wind gusts even reached my home far inland at 50 miles per hour... or 22 meters per second... On last Saturday, TV crew was at my home to film my weather interest. They are going to show me in "Christmas Tunnel" on December 25 at Estonian Television(www.etv.ee).

I calculate now tension lack index what changes as my moods change. As I am having bad times, it drops and as I am having good times, it rises. It was between 15-20 yesterday evening although initial value in 1 November was 100!. From that, I compare myself on weathermap with formula - 1013-((100-TLI)*1.33)). And as you could imagine, low like my depression would be a real headache for Gulf of Pärnu residents.

From my uncle, I got a wet-bulb thermometer yesterday. With that, I even consider bringing my weather forecasts back, although they go only to my weather site's mailing list as I don't have Internet connection at my home anymore(although I have GPRS connection in my cell phone). In November, I restored warnings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/weatheratlaguja . The sad part is that I may not be on guard all the time, because school doesn't even leave me time much for weather observations!

Also, I got a sore throat yesterday. I wonder how I am able to go to school tomorrow. Well, I try... I hope that with the help of GNLD's Garlic Allium Complex, I can get fine soon(It used to help in March when I was ill... and in August too)... In High school, it is not welcome to be ill... I guess that to send more ill people to school and work, our docs have lifted fever limit index from 37.0°C(98.6°F) to 37.5°C(99.5°F).

Oh, and barely forgot! Village Center was in newspaper Tartu Postimees on Monday... It had an article about rings and other activities over here. Although, children here are disappointed in that article :(

Yesterday, I got another 90%(5) in one test in English language. There was also another test, but I don't have that grade yet. But I am very very worried about the school... I hope I can graduate High school successfully... Equations are making me crazy, in chemistry I have to have test for several topics at the same time(a lot of work!). Because graduating high school decides if I am going to be able to start studying meteorology or not... Although I wish I could be able!

Well, that's all for right now. I try now to drop a small update every time I can access Internet from the village center 2 kilometers away from my home.

Our kitten died today

2005-07-28T08:04:00.000+03:00

Today, at 18:25 Estonian time, a terrible thing occurred. Our Kitten Nermal passed suddenly away at the age of few weeks. He was meowing very much during past days and after 6 PM they went very loud. But then suddenly silence arrived. When I was about to sent his mother out of the house because she was about to start puking I saw him on the floor. I threw Garfield(mother of Nermal) out and then went back to him. Then I saw it. He was DEAD! Nermal was buried at 19:00:41. I'll never forget him. I still remember I am holding him on my hands and petting him just shortly after 18:00... I still remember when my sister put him on my bed this morning... I have just so miserable feeling. I am under a severe depression. Nothing can make me happy for a long time...

My life is so sad... it is pretty hard to be happy today. Although it is summer.

This is also probably my last message on this blog. Because I move away, I get disconnected on August 1. Three might be a chance that we get our wireless connection over there too, but I am not very optimistic... In case I can't write to you again from my home, farewell!

Quick update

2005-07-18T04:12:00.000+03:00

I'm fine, I have gotten many thunderstorms and followed hurricanes.

Going to a two-day long tour tomorrow and my relative Erik leaves with his wife Juliana back to Brazil tomorrow...

Graduation is over

2005-06-18T04:47:00.000+03:00

I have several visitors at my home right now. One is also from Brazil. I am audiotaping the event and I'll post updates next week

Written exam done

2005-06-16T00:31:00.000+03:00

Written exam in English is done. I have there at least one minor mistake. I hope that I get at least 4(B)

I have a verbal exam tomorrow. Wish me luck for then!

Graduation is on 17 June 2005 on 17:00 Estonian time

Virtual Arlene chase day 2

2005-06-11T19:16:00.000+03:00

I am listening WNTM-AM right now. I have bookmarked a near-realtime webcam from Mobile, but I hope that there are some more. I am also starting to look some for WeatherMatrix.net.

I am updating data with Weather Watcher every time. Latest data was, that light northeast winds are blowing in Mobile, AL. So far, I haven't seen anything special during my virtual chase. I can't wait til sun rises in Mobile...

Breaking news: Math exam 4

2005-06-11T01:57:00.000+03:00

I just had a phone call from my mother who had a phone call from my class teacher. I do know now my math grade. It is 4(B!)

I guess I failed Math exam

2005-06-11T00:27:00.000+03:00

If Estonian language exam brought many good news, then Math exam brings bad news.

I guess I've failed (I call all grades below "4"(B in USA) as failing) the Math exam. It is likely, that the Math grade would be "3"(C in USA). It might not terribly collapse my quarter grade, but still breaks all my hopes to get A-s in all subjects during this schoolyear.

I am still shocked, and a bit earlier ago I even lost an appetite for life and just wanted to die. Now, feeling is gotten better. Because I've been learning for math, I haven't been doing English exercises for a days now. The exercise debt is at least 15 units long. The whole weekend will go to preparing English language exams. And I really have to work all days long as I have so many exercises to do. But I am still shocked, what happened, how I did fail.

Today's exam ruined all work done in last 9 months and I am very sad. I keep you posted with latest exam news

Two days left

2005-06-09T01:29:00.000+03:00

It is only two days until the Math exam. I made 8 Math exercises today and continuing to do them later. Meanwhile I've made some self-made exercises.
Here are they:
1. A tornado was sighted in two weather services in Laguja. One weather service, Lepiku Meteorological Agency saw tornado at 50 degrees. Koru Weather Service at 2 kilometers SouthEast(160°) saw it in a direction of 20 degrees. How far was it from both weather services?
2. An eye of the hurricane was moving 400 kilometers during 7 hours. It was moving 4 hours with its usual speed, 3 hours with speed 5 kilometers per hour higher. How fast was the eye moving? How much distance it passed during these two speeds?
3. During June 2005, it is possible that Laguja would get hit by 7 thunderstorms. 3 of them contain tornadoes, 2 of tornadic storms contain also hail. 4 of thunderstorms don't contain tornadoes, but 2 of non-tornadic storms contain hail. What is the chance to get hit by a tornado? What is the chance to get hit by hail with and without a tornado? What is the chance to get hit by a thunderstorm in June?

Well, I am watching a TV a bit and then back to school books!

Edit at 20:25 - Some text fixed

It was terrible day today

2005-06-07T10:02:00.000+03:00

After yesterday's good news, I have to write bad news today

I have my Maths consulatation in a big class. We have more than 15 students in that class. I cannot study in a big classes, where are more than 2-3 students. The worst of all, that many guys from that class are problematic children. They have severe problems with behaving. I was shocked as I couldn't ask any help on my exercises. Psychological block came on me and I couldn't do any exercise. I counted minutes til the end of school. I don't know, what should I do today. Everything looks so hard. My free time goes to near-zero. My weather data on the Web has been dark for weeks now, but looks that I should stop collecting data either. Well, I might have now computer time for a hour or two. Other times, I MUST study.

I know, that I am causing too much stress on me, but my hands are tied. I MUST study and that's all!

After the exam

2005-06-06T23:39:00.000+03:00

The exam is now over and I am back home. It began at 10:00, I finished it at 11:55. I was the first one in my group who finished it. Few minutes after me, some other students also finished their exams. First I had to read the text and answer the questions. One text was from "Kalevipoeg"(Son of the Kalev - story about one Estonian hero) second one from article at Postimees. Then, I had to write at least 200 words long short composition on topic "What is necessary to be happy." Finally, there were some gaps to fill and for 11:55, my exam was done. Exam ended at 13:00, but I got free earlier.

Today I have to start studying. Do exercises in English, I didn't make yesterday(I had to rest before exams) and also todays exercises. I have also to do homework for Math consultation.

Wish me luck!

First exam TODAY!

2005-06-06T17:41:00.000+03:00

Good morning to everybody!

At the time, I'm writing these lines, it is a bit more than two hours before exam in Estonian language. I hope that all goes well. Many people have wished me luck. I hope that I get 5(A) from that exam. In pre-exam on late March, I was in Top 5

My graduation takes place on June 17th at 17:00 Estonian Daylight time (10:00 AM EDT, 14:00 UTC)

Meanwhile the other news. It is only 3 days till we have a visitors from Eschwege, Germany. Better learn some German words(actually I have already some skills in German)

Meanwhile, one my relative Erik Henno(former radio voice in Raadio Elmar) will arrive to Estonia next week with his wife Juliana. It is a small possibility that he can come to my graduation. We'll have a big celebration on June 17th.

Well, better end now! I hope to write today after the exam, how did it go. And I hope, that we won't have any thunderstorms during the exam. EMHI forecasted possibility of them yesterday.

Breaking news: Estonian language exam 5

2005-06-06T14:29:00.000+03:00

A few minutes ago, class teacher called my mom. I know my grade in Estonian language. It's FIVE(5 is the best grade in Estonian scale)

My first exam ever was done perfectly! Thank you everybody for wishing me luck.

Next exam is on June 10th and there, I really need some luck as it's a Math exam and there are some very hard topics (like simplifying)

Exams are coming

2005-06-03T09:42:00.000+03:00

As the final exams of Basic school are approaching, I haven't got much time to write about my living. Today I found out in school, that I got all 5-s(A-s in USA) during this quarter of the schoolyear. To make it perfect, I need to finish exams

I guess you don't know, when do I have a final exams. Well, I tell you. First one is on next Monday, on June 6th. Then, I'll have Estonian language exam. At June 10th, I'll have Maths exam. At June 15th I have written and on June 16th a verbal version of English language exam.

I started programming new program today in Qbasic. It contains different formulas about geometrical shapes. I've already finished cylinder and trapeze modules.

My relative Erik, who lives in Brazil, started a blog yesterday. Although I discovered it already yesterday, the relative's parents called my mother today and also said about him web diary. This summer, Erik will visit Estonia with his wife Juliana.

This was the little "news bulletin", this was Tarmo Tanilsoo. I wish you good night and maybe I'll write again soon

P.S. Erik and his mother do have a birthday today (June 2nd)...

BREAKING NEWS: Terrible accident in Tanilsoo Family

2005-05-16T03:45:00.000+03:00

It is 17:30 if I am writing this message. A terrible accident has just now occurred at my home.

I have 12 year old brother Andri. He is autistic and very temper. During this hour he was all the time talking about something, but we couldn't understand anything as he can't speak. I was already sick and tired of his continuous ununderstandable speak when this happened. At 17:18, my mother prohibited him again to break TV remote control. He started tempering and smashing him head to the window. The window broke. Crying what began when he started tempering went louder. He went to the kitchen and I still didn't see anything. But then my sister said: "Mom! Come quickly!" Mom said: "What's happened?" My sister said: "Looks that the Andri's nose is bleeding!" But then they found out that the whole head was bleeding. Mom said: "Quickly, call 112(Emergency in Estonia)!" But then quickly they thought that do they call 112 or it would be faster to go to trauma center. During few minutes they decided to rush to trauma center. Andri was still crying and crying. At 17:24 they left to Trauma center in Elva. Not the injury wasn't enough the endless crying made me even more nervous. Right now, whole my family besides me are in trauma center.

At 17:53, he and parents arrived back from trauma center and he is fine. He had only very small wound... Thank god.

April 28th, 2005

2005-04-28T17:37:00.000+03:00

Good morning!

The newspaper has been published now and I've been able to read the beginning of the article(site starts showing whole articles after Friday afternoon). The article is called "Schoolboy the Weatherman" in English. Original title was "Koolipoisist ilmamees".

And the article is about... ME! My and my weather interest. I will go check my weather site's counter now.

Nice morning!

April 27th, 2005

2005-04-28T06:16:00.000+03:00

I have so many news right now.

First, my weather data got its own section in ilm.ee - the leading weather site in Estonia, second I got again A-s in school.

My English book is about to end in school, then we start preparing for final exams this summer.
Math went very difficult today, but I hope I'll Make it until the end of the school
Got one A (5 in Estonia) in Biology.

Tomorrow, people can read about me from one countrywide newspaper called "Maaleht"(Country paper in direct translation)

Well, this was my short note about current situations over there. Bye now!

I am shocked

2005-04-25T08:21:00.000+03:00

Hello everybody again!

I am totally shocked as I heard about the new bill from Palm Beach Post. I've always admired NWS forecasts and warnings, as they are very much forward from Estonia. But now, all these free data might be gone.

I personally hope that weather data and forecasts will stay free in the future...

April 24th, 2005

2005-04-24T21:56:00.000+03:00

And I am finding again time to write into my blog.

In school, I am getting still A-s(5-s in Estonia), as usual. But I have some bad news.
On Tuesday, there was a fire at my grandparents place. Roof of the basement was pretty much damaged. Some trees were damages and grass was burned. It began if my grandfather was warming the basement up using a fireplace. But one fire sparkle got out and landed on roof. Few minutes later, it was on fire. It happened approximately at 10 AM Estonian Daylight Time. I was at school that time. That the bad news would not influence my studying, parents kept it secret from me until I finish studying for Wednesday. Unfortunately they forgot it and I heard about the fire from the radio. I immediately asked: What happened yesterday in Laguja? There was told in the radio, that fire department went to distinguish fire on basement's roof. I was worried, because as I knew, only my grandfather had basement with a roof... And then I heard that it was happened at grandparents place. I was visiting grandparents as usual from Friday to Sunday. And I saw, how much it was burned. And If I saw grandfather, I flew like a thunder cloud to him and yelled: "WHAT ON EARTH YOU DID THIS WEEK?!!!" And he with his sense of humor said that he was making Saint John's day Fire! Boy I was SO ANGRY to him. I was used to have one basement for 15 years. And now???! I have to get used to new basement. This could take a years... If I went to school on Wednesday, after hearing that, I was shocked and angry... I even thought that I should go home from the middle of the schoolday... I was so nervous and if somebody laughed about the event, I sent him a very angry words! Anyway, I had to do my best to not say any swearing words... But still I am receiving A-s at school

In Math, we are already doing an old exercise. We are preparing for final exams on this June. I also have exams in English and Estonian language.

So much for now!

Life goes forward

2005-04-13T19:34:00.000+03:00

Well, it has went pretty peacefully. Got another A at school on Monday and we experienced one thunderstorm.

One of my classmates was beaten today by one 7th grade student in school today. Police and beater's mother was called to the school.

As I said, Life goes forward and I don't have nothing to tell... One bad news still: I'll move to grandparents place in August and I cannot use Internet connection there. So the blogging will be over ;(

April 8th, 2005

2005-04-09T05:13:00.000+03:00

Last evening went peacefully. I was programming and studying for today...

This morning, I woke up at 6:00. I went to school against my will. I wanted to watch Papal funeral, but I had to be at school. Althought I was able to see it about for a hour and listened the end of the funeral from Finnish radio channel Radio Peili.

But I was very bad mood, because I didn't see the whole telecast. I hope I am not working or begin at school during the next historical event...

Good news from school: I got one A today

Tonight there is solar eclipse in USA, Tahiti and Mexico... I hope to see any webcasts...

Tarmo Tanilsoo

April 7th, 2005 - Special bulletin

2005-04-07T23:22:00.000+03:00

I just heard it 3 hours ago: My grandmother is very ill again. She has pains in her stomach. My mom called ambulance for her. Prayers are requested and I hope that she will feel better soon

Meanwhile, I finished new version of my Metar Retriever. It can also decode some data. Going to study for tomorrow's school now.

April 7th, 2005

2005-04-07T18:25:00.000+03:00

Day is begun. 8:25 in the morning according to my computer clock. My web monitor is still alerting about tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings. Tornadoes are right now in Mississippi, and some severe thunderstorms also in Alabama. First weather observation of this day was pretty cold. Only two degrees above zero. Ouch!

Meanwhile I discovered that one other Estonian weather enthusiast has joined weathermatrix.net. He is also a user of my Estonian weather forum. So I'm not the only Estonian there now...

Morning continues and I have to start studying soon. Sky is partly cloudy.

April 6th, 2005

2005-04-07T06:24:00.000+03:00

I am starting today at yesterday. 17,3 degrees weren't enough. Later my last post we had 17,4 degrees Celsius for a half hour. It stayed near 17 degrees til the evening. Later that evening I was studying for Russian language test and watching fairy-tale wedding from "Extreme Makeover".

And now to today, I got two A-s today at school. One in English and other one in Russian. My day wasn't over yet if school ended. After that, I went to Laguja's schoolhouse and was surfing on the web(And discovering category 3rd Northern Storm in Norway). The journalist from Maaleht arrived at 15:59. While talking and answering to questions, I showed some extra details from my Estonian weather site to the journalist. Also some pictures were taken. Journalist and photographer left at 17:04. I arrived at home and started observing weather. Mostly cloudy and 5 degrees. Brr! The evening is continuing and I start watching 7 o'clock news from TV 3. I hear the news and I think: What is going on with the world? I hear 3rd... let's make that 4th death message from the media. Death is active again like on last spring... For now, sky has went a bit clearer and temperature stays at 5 degrees. It is freezing here! Ouch!

Update: Article about my weather interest will be published on the April 28th.

Temperature reached 17,3 degrees

2005-04-05T15:24:00.000+03:00

Temperatures reached 17,3 degrees Celsius for 15:15 Estonian Daylight time.

Next weather observation occurs at 15:30. Stay tuned at http://www.zone.ee/lepikuteataja/weather@laguja for more updates

Breaking news

2005-04-05T14:09:00.000+03:00

Just as I finished posting my last message here I went to my thermometer. And it was showing 16,9 degrees! Nearly off the forecasts! So the temperature record of this spring was measured in Laguja at 13:58 on April 5th, 2005. I go and make a thunderstorm check now.

The first message

2005-04-05T13:38:00.000+03:00

Good afternoon!

This is young weather fan Tarmo Tanilsoo reporting from Estonia. I'll start publishing here latest news I got.

And my blog begins:
April 5th, 2005.
Second day of Estonian thunderstorm season. My first thunder check from AM band at 11:19 Estonian time didn't show anything. Warmest temperatures of this spring are occurring now. At 13:04, temperature was 15,6 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, I meet a journalist from Maaleht(Country Paper) tomorrow. I'll be second time in the newspaper during the past two years. Boy it is windy here... Winds are blowing at least force 4 on Beaufort scale! Unfortunately I don't have wind gage or anything else. Just a thermometer. So I am unsure about the wind... But it is surely windy. I updated weather forecast for my home area, I don't see a cloud yet. European Storm forecast experiment(http://www.estofex.org) convective forecasts show some thunderstorms in Sweden and Norway. Pretty near to us. It is 13:44 right now, I better do a thunderstorm check and then continue studying for school tomorrow. It will be a long day tomorrow. Who knows, how much I can collect weather data tomorrow. Just walking out to my thermometer and see: 15,8! New record! I am running to add weather data to the graphs.