Come see our Water Barometer @ Flux Science Fair

Two Weekends: June 5-6/12-13, 12-6 PM

Science Fair @ Flux Factory
39-21 29th Street, Long Island City

Featuring a WATER BAROMETER
by SP Weather Station in collaboration with Daniel Robie

The first barometer wasn’t invented to measure air pressure.  In the 17th century, columns of water were used to disprove the church’s position that a true vacuum was impossible.  What people found (eventually) is that water can only be raised about 33 feet from the ground with any suction pump.  Galileo’s protege Evangelista Torricelli realized that such a column could be used to measure changes in the air.  He also realized that a much denser fluid, such as mercury, registers those changes on a much smaller (more scientifically convenient) scale.

Who needs convenience? At Flux Factory for the first two weekends in June, SPWS and Dan Robie, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, York College, CUNY, are measuring pressure with a tube of water the height of Flux Factory, in homage to the barometer’s history.  Come find out if it works!

SPWS 2008 Weather Reports @ IPCNY: Opens 1/14/10

SPWS 2008 Weather Reports on view in:

New Prints 2010/Winter
International Print Center New York

526 West 26th Street, Rm.824
Between 10th and 11th Avenues
New York, New York, 10001

http://www.ipcny.org/exhib/exhib_np/edit_np_w10/w10_pr.html

On View: January 12 – February 20, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 14, 6-8 pm

Featuring works by Leah Beeferman, Natalie Campbell, Carrie Dashow, Neil Freeman, Richard Garrison, Michael Geminder, Katarina Jerinic, Daniel Larson, Bridget Lewis, Lize Mogel, Heidi Neilson, Chris Petrone, Sarah Nicole Phillips, Jing Yu, and Liz Zanis

Cosmic Rays May Forecast Weather!

Thanks to http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/08/01/cosmic-rays-may-forecast-weather/
and the March 1931 issue of Popular Science…

Sunday 4/26: Queens International 4 Closing Party!

The Queens International 4 closes Sunday, April 26th!

We would like to thank all of the collaborators* who participated in the SP Weather Station installation at the Queens Museum.

There is a full program of events for the closing day including SP Weather Station: Weather Sounds in the Panorama of the City of New York from 2-3 pm.  Please see the full schedule below, we hope to see you there!

Sunday, April 26th 12-6pm
Queens Museum of Art
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
for details/directions: www.queensmuseum.org/information/
(open to the public / museum admission is $5 suggested donation)

QI4 Closing Extravaganza
Headlined by Future Shock, an Indo-Caribbean crew with thumping sound system bikes, QMA and Transportation Alternatives invite bike gangs, art bikes, bike advocacy groups, modders, bike clubs and bike crews (including Lightwheels, Mexican Pride, Transalt, Bike NY, C.L.I.M.B., City Reliquary Bike Club and others) to close the Queens International 4 with a bang!
[If you are biking out and want company riding to QMA, you can do the museum to museum ride with the City Reliquary Bike Club, departing CR (370 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg) at 2pm.]

Schedule of events:
12-4pm: NYC DOT Helmet giveaway
1-3pm: Learn to Ride – Kids 5+ class with Bike NY
1-3pm: Take part in Derick Melander’s Into the Fold project in QMA galleries
2-3pm: SP Weather Station: Weather Sounds in the Panorama
2-3pm: Whitney ISP alum Ryan Humphrey talk in Large Theater
2:30-3:30: Future Shock leads a bike rally around the park
3-6: Tim Thyzel boat launch and discovery of The Undiscovered Atoll of Flushtopia with Anti-Fascist Culture Club (via trolley ride to Meadow Lake!)
3-6pm: happy hour in QMA cafe (while supplies last)
3-5pm: BMX pros ride Ryan Humphrey’s installation Fast Forward
3-6pm: Tabling in Tents Outside Museum: Lightwheels, Transalt, Bike NY, C.L.I.M.B.(Concerned Long Island Mountain Bicyclists), Green Map System, Mexican Pride, The Undiscovered Atoll of Flushtopia Tourist Bureau, Okamoto Studio ice carving, and Ixrael’s mobile printmaking workshop
4:30-6: Bands Play: Shining Mantis, Tough Slutting, Unstoppable Death Machines, Elextra, Karahatu (outside, by the Unisphere)
Ongoing: Chin Chih Yang Trash Sculpture3

*SP Weather Station’s participation in the Queens International 4 features contributions from: Leah Beeferman, Natalie Campbell, Susan Goethel Campbell, Carrie Dashow, Mike Estabrook, Neil Freeman, Richard Garrison, Michael Geminder, Isaac Gertman, Vandana Jain, Katarina Jerinic, Daniel Larson, Bridget Lewis, Lize Mogel, Heidi Neilson, Chris Petrone, Sarah Nicole Phillips, Andrea Polli, Chuck Varga, Jing Yu, Liz Zanis; lectures have featured Isaac Gertman, Kenneth Goldsmith, Nathalie Miebach, and Jane D. Marsching.  More info: http://spweatherstation.net/?page_id=120

The Queens Museum Station

Yesterday SPWS teamed up with Andrea Polli and Chuck Varga to install a weather station on the roof of the Queens Museum of Art! Data from the station is posted to Weather Underground and Citizen Weather, and more information on station specifics is available on Hello, Weather!. More information on this endeavor overall will be forthcoming. . .

Chuck begins station install

Andrea sets up station software

Lunch Victorious

In the air

Anyone who’s been in the vicinity of SPWS in the past few months would have noticed (and smelled) the cleanup activity that’s happening at the end of the block.  One look at the site raises plenty of questions including: Are those some kind of filtration mechanisms attached by tubes to the giant tent? And what’s up with the school bus?  

Two recent links with some information about the NYSDEC toxic remediation project that’s happening next door to SPWS.

http://www.liqcity.com/health/if-you-smell-something-say-something

http://www.dec.ny.gov/enb2004/20040623/not2.html

All of this just underscores the need for an SPWS air quality monitor!

“Primary contaminants of concern in the soil include elevated levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), petroleum, and metals (lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium) above site specific soil action levels. Primary contaminants of concern in the groundwater include VOCs (benzene, tetrachloroethene) above Class GA groundwater standards and locations with a floating petroleum product layer on the groundwater.”

Ian Cheney on “The City Dark”

The image above suggests the relevance of Ian Cheney’s recent Guest Lecture at SPWS.

SPWS Guest Lectures invite artists to present work that responds to environmental phenomena. Presenters to date have included LoVid (Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus) and Douglas Repetto, who collaborate as Cross Current Resonance Transducer on projects that record and transform weather data, and Stephanie Rothenberg, who gave an Introduction to Basic Divination.

Ian Cheney, our third Guest Lecturer, is the co-creator of the recent documentaries King Corn and The Greening of Southie. and, together with Curt Ellis operates as Wicked Delicate Films.

At SPWS, Ian gave a preview of his new project, The City Dark, which poses questions about a phenomenon that pervades contemporary life yet receives little popular attention: light pollution. Read more »

Stephanie Rothenberg invites you to divine… almost anything

On April 25th, Stephanie Rothenberg (www.pan-o-matic.com) introduced an audience at the SP Weather Station Base to the basics of divination, also known as dowsing.

The lecture and hands-on workshop gave attendees a point of entry into a a practice which continues to be widely practiced in numerous forms around the world.

The practice of divination, like the operation of a Personal Weather Station, is a way that individuals can take direct action in monitoring their immediate environment.

Despite a lack of scientific evidence for its efficacy, dowsing is likely the more widespread practice; while currently over 8,500 Personal Weather Stations upload data to Weather Underground from within the US and over 3,000 from other countries, one article estimates roughly 10,000 active dowsers in Germany alone.

Read more »

David Lynch’s daily weather report

Every day, on his website, David Lynch reads the weather.http://www.davidlynch.com/