A tad chilly

Wow, whopper indeed!

I suppose there are computer programs these days to help plan cutting?

There must be. It will probably be scanned from every possible direction with a multitude of frequencies to identify any existing internal features that need to be either avoided or can be used to an advantage during cutting, and then mapped out for target primary stones. I'd think the owner would consult multiple experts before any cutting, to see where there is consensus and varying ideas. No one wants to have that first tap reduce the rock to 81 grams of powder.

i can only imagine the light through a diamond that large. I'm thinking of pf's dark side cover, but much larger.

 Why... this little ol bauble?  Just a paltry 70 mil.  

  There are already tornado chasers out there, what we need now is for a volunteer(CP) to take this thread out on the road and be the first snowstorm chaser. 

i'm sure he'll love that suggestion.

For the past few days the north shore of Oahu has been getting pounded with some of the biggest waves in decades. Wave fronts have ranged up to 70 feet high. A 12-mile portion of the Kamehameha highway was shut for the first time ever because of waves washing across it, and one stretch of beach has disappeared.

  Which then led me to this picture.

The natural wall underneath the artificial trail would be pretty effective. My memory is that most of those central island ridges stay just as steep all the way to the bottom, and the vegetation is always wet and slippery as hell. Even though some of those look like legitimate plants, they're all growing in pretty much bare rock lichen-happy conditions.

The Haiku stairs were repaired about 10 years ago but remain officially closed to the public because of safety/liability concerns, and there is a guard at the bottom. But people still get around and onto the trail. It was originally built for access to the peak for a Navy radio tower in WWII.

Storms have supposedly made some areas impassable again since the recent repairs.

can't stop mother nature, and, when i was there, i saw and felt it.

i also saw how the island was changing. certain areas in my short three month stay were restricted. 

lava flow closing roads. tenacious waves closing beaches.

while it is consindered paradise for some, the hawaii islands are small in the vast pacific.

nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. a statement made a few hundred years ago, is still apt.

I was there in 1987 when they had some good flows going on the Big Island. A few roads and houses were getting re-integrated into the island. I thought one of the neatest things was the presence of steam quite a distance out from the shoreline. The flows make lava tubes that extend out under the water and get longer as the lava continues to flow, and the steam occurs above the water surface over the end of the tube down below the surface, marking the point where lava exits the tube and contacts water at some depth.

At mid-afternoon it's 14°F with 30+ mph sustained wind and a few inches of new powdery snow to blow around. Wind gusts have topped 50 mph. There have been a couple power flickers but no outage yet.

Two days ago the high T was 42°F .

i saw that. relatively nice weekend for many northerners. chicago was in the 60's.

March 1st Lake Superior ice coverage:

top = last year

bottom = this year (yesterday)

wow. what a difference.

The temp has been bouncing up and down by a 30 degree (F) variation for the past several days here.

kco-- next time Perth gets nailed with a really hot week and you run out of beer, you can try this . . .

This little guy would be a better PM than Tony.

^^ Check out his eyes. Dude's obviously got a nasty leaf habit.