Photo Credit: NASA

Early this year, famed astronaut and the last man to walk the moon, Eugene Cernan, passed away. He actually has a close connection to the community I grew up in.

He graduated from my High School, then known as Proviso Township High School, in Maywood, IL. Also, there is a space and science center named after him at Triton College, a local community college in Melrose Park, IL, near Maywood.

One of my colleagues at FiOS1 gave me his perspective on Eugene Cernan. Take a look.

A full profile from NASA can be from here. RIP Eugene Cernan.

Bill Paxton, Hollywood actor, recently passed away. Bill was a notable actor in several successful movies, but most mets and wx people will remember him from his work in the movie “Twister”.

In my opinion, its one of the most entertaining wx movies made in the last 21 years. While it may not have been the most factually correct movie, it was definitely a fun watch and I have a feeling it encouraged many people to study wx and tornadoes.

If you haven’t seen the movie, definitely check it out. If you have seen the movie, see it again, I say, in Bill Paxton’s honor. Also, another favorite of mine that Bill was an actor in was the movie “True Lies” with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. Thats a good one, as well.

Rip Bill Paxton.

Does the music you listen to on any given day have a connection to wx?

According to Accuweather, it does.

Image taken from idownloadblog.com, here

Accuweather recently partnered with Spotify to develop Climatune, a project that puts together playlists associated with wx across the United States.  According to DigitalTrends.com, Accuweather analyzed over 85 billion “anomylized” Spotify streams in over 900 cities in order to compile wx-related playlists. Accuweather found that sunny days generally led to happier and higher-energy music listening, whereas rainy days elicited acoustic, sad sounds. Snowy days were a recipe for instrumental music.

And it varies by city. From the DigitalTrends.com:

“For example, those in New York City and Philadelphia seem most adversely affected by what’s happening outside, as they substantially change their music listening habits when it rains to more morose tunes. Conversely, Chicagoans stream happier music, perhaps to combat the feeling of blues that come along with a grey day. Similarly, Miami and Seattle listeners tend to listen to more energetic music on cloudy days, whereas those in San Francisco put a sad song on when the sun’s not out.”

Pretty cool 🙂

You can read the full article from Digital Trends here.