Three Cheerful Ys for UNI

Make no mistake, these cheerleaders are athletes. You have to possess strength to lift, jump and tumble, plus be able to smile in both winning or losing situations. This squad is part of the University of Northern Iowa team who performed during time-outs and halftime at the women's basketball game last Sunday. The UNI panthers won 87 to 53 over Southern Illinois. The crowd showed appreciation for the squad especially for their court-length run of backflips.

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Shine a Little Light on Me

What's a college basketball game without some dramatic lighting? Boring. But add some lights with automatic controls and others run by humans, the resultant effects can be spectacular. On Sunday this spot operator did her best to zap people's retinas and provide a winter tan to the pale citizens of the north. That was a welcomed relief after the polar vortex of this past week week reminded us what -23F felt like for hours at a time.

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Frozen Button on the Mississippi River

Muscatine, Iowa's The Pearl Button excursion boat remains solidly ice locked in the downtown harbor along the Mississippi River. This past week local temperatures plummeted well below zero due to the arrival of the polar vortex. But three days later the temps warmed a bit and made some progress in local melting. However except for some water atop ice near shore, the ice looked pretty thick and extended from Ioway to Illinois. The 42N crew did spot several bald eagles along the way especially along the Cedar, Iowa and Mississippi rivers.

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Winter's Dam on the Maquoketa

To begin the 42N 2014 blogging season I traveled a few miles up the highway to the old dam on the Maquoketa River located at Monticello, Iowa. Last year's blog activity saw a ready stream of posts until a self imposed slowdown in November. While I broke my one-more-blog-posting-than-the previous-year routine, the pause did rack up more material that I can blog about this year. So let's get started...

For more than 100 years this structure and its predecessors have provided grist milling,ice and electrical power for the city. Today the area is noted as historical and for its fishing magic just below the cascades.

A historical view of the dam taken in the 1920s shows various units of the power plant configuration during its peak production period. The stone ice house building, closest to the photographer, was for storage of river ice used in households in the community.

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Photographing Panther Basketball and Senator Grassley

Yesterday at the women's basketball game between University of Northern Iowa and Saint Louis University, media coverage was sparse. Only two photographers covered the game in which the UNI Panthers won 74-65 over the STU Belicans. This Canon equipped photographer was most likely a student covering sports for the university's website. 

The pro photographer, who also sported video gear, was mostly likely from the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier newspaper. He shot the game with Nikon equipment and spent a lot of time editing shots between action. An account of the game can be found here.

Behind the UNI team, Iowa's senior U.S. Senator, Charles Grassley (standing right in scarf), family and friends were also in attendance. Senator Grassley lives a few miles miles to the northwest of Cedar Falls. When back in Iowa on weekends he and his wife (left) attend many of these games.

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Smile, You Are Being Watched

No approach to wooded areas during recent weeks goes without a set of eyes looking at you. Deer seem to be all over the place as harvest disrupts protected retreats. In this case the large amounts of fallen oak leaves provide a camouflage background for the winter coat sporting deer population. The deer seem curious as to why they are being approached by a 42N photographer but wait only seconds before fleeing. That's okay, I got the photo.

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UFO Spotted Over Wellman, Iowa

Today a daytime sighting of a disc-shape object was observed in the clear sky over Wellman, Iowa. While most of the overhead traffic near Wellman is filled with east-west jets flying between coasts, this classic 1950s saucer shaped object just hung in one spot. Perhaps a check of the MUFON web site is in order to determine if other discs have been observed lately. Mmm perhaps not, if we pull back a bit from the suspended disc the rest of the story comes into play. Hey, this is Iowa. We have plenty of discs near the ground and aimed towards the heavens.

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