Some news sources, maybe even credible ones, are reporting that actor Tom Cruise is spending TEN MILLION DOLLARS on... do you want to guess? What? No, not a home, but that's a good guess. A private island? Nope. AccuWeather? Way off. No, Tom Cruise is reportedly spending TEN MILLION DOLLARS to build a bunker under his home to protect himself and his family from alien invasion.
I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll start with Tom Cruise's spokesperson, who said "Tom can neither confirm nor deny that the evil alien overlord Xenu is heading to Earth right now and planning to use his above-ground-home-destroying space ray on Colorado." Okay I made that up. Actually he denied the whole thing, all the while glancing furtively at the sky.
Now, I don't know a lot about the evil alien overload Xenu and his plans to destroy all of our houses (built above ground) with an above-ground-home-destroying space ray, but I really have to wonder. If you're coming from space to earth, are you really going to go to Tom Cruise's house? And if you do, are you going to be content with searching around the place, looking in a few closets, and then throwing up your hands. "He's not home!" And then leave and go destroy George Clooney's house?
I'm sure if any bulldozers show up at the Cruise Compound (pictured at right) we'll all know about it. And, if an evil alien ruler shows up and starts destroying houses built above ground with an above-ground-home-destroying space ray, well, Anderson Cooper will no doubt be there.
Tropical Storm Karen is still quieting winding its way through the Atlantic, going nowhere in a big hurry. AccuWeather.com's Joe Bastardi thinks that Karen could hold on and eventually make a run for the U.S. Here's an excerpt from his Professional column:
The non-US midday model runs are very exciting indeed, as they are having Karen bust the trough and come west in the wake of the development that occurs early next week and comes north. It is interesting to note the GFS is WEST with the first system into the Gulf and, though taking Karen further west, still has a recurve off the East Coast (a far sight further west than 55 west, though, I think we can agree). However, the Karen west and stronger option is something we have had on the table now since Tuesday and, again, I reference the audience to tracks of past storms that have done this, having to fight the Atlantic trough but, once through, had an open field for mayhem.
Meanwhile, Lorenzo landed in Mexico as a category 1 hurricane. Storms seem to strengthen just off-shore now, like they're trying to get the jump on us...
I meant to write about this when I saw it but I was attacked by a gang of mimes. Disney is getting into the hospital business. This was huge news to me, as I was recovering from my mime attack (my book, "When Mimes Attack," is expected to be in stores early 2008) because I have always contended that hospitals need a huge overhaul. I understand that there are sick and dying people in hospitals, but ever hospital I've ever visited is not conducive to getting well.
Now, construction on a Disney-themed seven-story, 200-bed hospital is beginning in Orlando. The hospital will bear the Disney name, thanks in part (I suppose) to a $10 million dollar gift from Disney. The entire cost of the project is expected to be $35 million, and when complete in 2010 it will replace the current Florida Children's Hospital.
Disney's "imagineers" - those who develop park rides and theming - will be working on the "patient experience."
Sometimes you have to wonder why certain things are. For example, today I found out that there is actually something called an "Albino Ratfish." Why on earth would there be an albino ratfish? I mean, I suppose if there was a ratfish and it lived in white caves it might evolve into an albino ratfish, because then it could, you know, hide really well. But that begs the question - Why is there a regular ratfish?
In case you were wondering where the name came from:
The fish probably owe their name to their exceptionally long tails and rodentlike teeth that crush up clams and other prey lurking in the mud.
Nice. Rodentlike teeth that can crush clams. Someone alert Stephen King...
Photo of the Albino Ratfish (I would put a copy here but I don't want to ugly-up the blog with ratfishes. fishies. ratfish. You know what I mean.)
Nanortalik is the tenth biggest town in Greenland with 1564 people. I don't think they've had to deal with any Tropical Storms lately, and may be caught unawares. Please forward this blog post to all of your friends in Nanortalik so that they can board up their homes and bring the penguins inside.*
*Okay, I don't really think that they have penguins in Greenland but penguins are comic gold so I couldn't resist. In reality, they have to bring their polar bears inside. The polar bears have moved south due to Global Warming decreasing their food supply and Nanortalik is the closest town with an Arby's.
Fortunately Rhode Island is NOT in its path. Of course, all Rhode Islanders should prepare for tropical weather this season, particularly if they live on or near the coast.
Sounds like what you have when you've just come back from a great vacation in the Caribbean. "Well, Carl, you appear to have subtropical depression..."
You can find the latest from the NHC here. They seem to be forecasting Tropical Storm Jerry to go north of New Orleans.
So, after blogging about Dew Shoes you would think, "That's it. He's learned his lesson." But nooooooo. Today I decided to cut across the same lawn to get to the front door. Not only was it dew-covered, but they cut the grass last night. That's right, both of my shoes were completely soaked and covered in grass by the time I got across. So although I didn't tiptoe and leap at the end, I did have to do the "Got Grass on My Shoes Stomp" a dozen times.
The AP is reporting that God has apparently responded to the lawsuit filed by State Sen. Ernie Chambers. I had blogged about this here, and you can find the AP article on God's response here, complete with that bizarre AP photo of Sen. Chambers in front of the holy fan.
Two things of note (I mean, BESIDES the fact that God is now personally responding to lawsuits):
1. The AP article now discusses Sen. Chambers faith, that being "a self-proclaimed agnostic." That's interesting, because there's a very significant difference between "agnostic" and "atheist" (or "nontheist").
2. The person who discovered God's response is named "John Friend." I mean, really. John Friend.
Don't you hate when you decide to walk through the grassy field to get to your work building only to realize, halfway through the field, that it's covered in dew - I mean covered like you're really walking through a field of green water. And you look down at your shoes and they're glistening in the sun as you feel the dampness creeping through your socks, and then you look around and you're in the exact middle of the field and there's no where to go so you sigh and tip toe through the field to stay as dry as possible even though it's too late and when you get near the end you leap over those last few feet and there's the president of the company just staring at you.
No, not by alien stink weapons, but possibly via some sort of tropical trouble. Here's a model spray:
Source: sfwmd.gov
At least three models want to take the storm right into the city. First it has to get into the Gulf though. (Insert sentence about appropriate preparation here.)
UPDATE: JB, who you can read on the AccuWeather.com PRO site, has this bit to say about this potential storm:
As for the system over Florida, my disagreement is with the U.S. model in taking it too far north too early, which by the way is no day at the beach and may even be a very very ugly scenario. A deepening hurricane hitting New Orleans from the angle forecasted here is a major test of the levies...
He has more to say on his subscription blog. Here's a graphic from AccuWeather.com illustrating the threat:
I heard this on the radio while (ironically) driving home and my first thought was, "Only 72 hours?" That seems odd. If you divide 72 hours by 365 days you get something like .2 hours a day, which is 12 minutes. Assuming you're driving to and from some place, that's an average of an extra 6 minutes a trip. That doesn't seem like much.
Apparently a meteorite crashed in all its fiery glory in souther Peru, and then villagers developed a mysterious illness. Residents have complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor." Of course, a synonym for strange is "alien," so what we have here is an illness caused by an "alien odor." Seven policemen were among those who were sickened.
No word on what was found in the meteorite crater, although "boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby." No word of an alien space ship or little smelly aliens or anything like that.
Amateur astronomers are pretty sure the meteorite came from the constellation Big Boötes, which as we all know is the site of the alien UFO Universe Freeway Entrance.
An Australian couple is suing their doctor for $400,000 because their IVF procedure produced twins instead of one child. $400,000 is the approximate cost of raising the bonus unwanted child, including the cost of private school. Of course, stopping at just private school is ridiculous. I hope college tuition and some job training is thrown in there as well, and maybe some sort of internship to Disney World.
Lest you think this completely insane, and haven't yet read the article, keep in mind that the pregnant woman "suffered nausea during her pregnancy." So, there you go.
I should also point out that this is a lesbian couple, although I'm sure that has nothing to do with anything. (For those of you who don't end up reading the article but are going to share the news at the dinner table tonight.)
Break into small groups and discuss: Can an atheist sue God? Does that make much sense?
UPDATE: What is with this AP Photo? Is that a fan behind him? It's obviously supposed to look like a halo or something. Is this the AP being clever, or just annoying?
I didn't know this (which is unfortunate, for it is my job to know these things) but the alien UFO Universe Freeway Entrance has been found.* Amateur astronomer and inevitable Oprah Winfrey guest Ted Anderson spotted it between the stars Artcurus and Muphid. Arcturus and Muphrid are stars in the constellation Boötes, not to be confused with Big Boot-TAY.
Here's a map of Boötes and Ursa Major, in case you're planning a trip. I don't know if the alien UFO Universe Freeway Entrance is guarded, but if you were aliens would you guard it? Exactly.** (At a minimum, I would bring 75 cents for tolls.)
Ted explains that the AUUFE (alien UFO Universe Freeway Entrance) has been used hundreds of times in the last 30 years. If you want to spot some of this traffic, Ted offers this simple advice: "Keep your eye on the handle of the Big Dipper."
*I also didn't know that Bigfoot apparently frequents western Pennsylvania. Now, I've seen a number of people from western Pennsylvania who resemble Bigfoot, but they were eating lunch at Denny's and probably were not actually Bigfoot.
**Blog Hero is in no way responsible for any intergalactic wars that ensue as a result of people will-nilly flying off to Boötes and using the alien UFO Universe Freeway Entrance. Thank you.
Computer weather models appear to be all over the map today, at least to this blogger's untrained eye. That is, my eye hasn't been trained at model viewing. I took a bunch of snapshots of various models in the long range:
Bunch of snapshots of various models, in the long range
Some of them are showing a Gulf feature including the European which has backed off the killer New Orleans storm. So southern Texas may be under the gun, and I wouldn't declare Ingrid dead and buried yet. (Although my sources tell me planes are furiously dropping dust on it as we speak.)
*Does anyone else see that face in the second model? That's Foamy, the greek demigod of tropical weather. He's the second cousin (once removed) of Poseidon, and is only in charge of weak tropical depressions and a very weak tropical storm or two (usually late in the season.) So, this may be a good sign. Or not.
There's a great article at the Times Online site, "The inedibles? Cartoon giant derailed" which talks about the animation industry's tension between creating movies that appeal to kids and to adults, and movies that will are timeless. Ratatouille is used as the case study. The article is a long read but worth it, and a great follow-up to my earlier post about the french rat.
State College's local newspaper, the Centre Daily Times, has the story:
FERGUSON TOWNSHIP — Forty-five years after he founded AccuWeather Inc., Joel N. Myers announced he will step down as CEO.
He will be replaced in that role by his brother and lifelong business partner, Barry Lee Myers. Barry Myers most recently served as the company’s executive vice president and general counsel.
Joel Myers will retain the roles of president and chairman of the board.
As CEO, Barry Myers assumes responsibility for the company’s fast-growing new media initiatives in the Internet and mobile markets, as well as the company’s 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week Local AccuWeather Channel, which is broadcasting in markets across the nation.
“New media is really a major part of the driving expansion going forward,” Barry Myers said. “The company’s continuing to grow. We’re looking at rapid growth over the next several years.”
That growth is what made it necessary to realign the leadership structure, said Joel Myers.
As president, he will continue to develop relationships with higher level clients, and spend more time working on strategic planning for AccuWeather’s future. That includes building upon the company’s entrepreneurial vision to meet the needs of customers and the marketplace.
“I think it’s a natural evolution that works very well here,” he said.
The newspaper promises more details tomorrow - I'll try to remember to hunt down that article then, although the Schaads had a TKD tournament to attend and my brain will likely be mush afterwards. I mean, more mushy than normal.
Jesse and I were discussing the latest run of the Euro at work today. The Euro, or European, is a computer weather model by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. You can find it here, and you can read about their forecasts here.
Their North American model run has a horrible scenario. Here is a montage of images showing the problem:
Source: ECMBF
You can see two problems: first, a storm forms and heads right for the Miskito Coast, where they were hit already by Felix. Then the storm heads straight for the New Orleans area.
Of course, this is only one model - and it's ten days out. And I really can't recall a storm forming in this area and then heading north like this. So we'll have to see. Stay tuned to Jesse's blog for more official news.
UPDATE: Here's an animated gif which may be easier to understand than my images above (assuming you haven't visited their site yet.)
In an amazing show of forgiveness and compassion, the Amish community that lost five girls last year in a shooting has donated an unspecified amount to the widow of the killer.
Milk truck driver Charles Carl Roberts seized an Amish school building in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, tied up the children and started shooting. He killed five children and wounded five before turning the gun on himself.
The Nickel Mines Accountability Committee (set up to handle the more than $4 million dollars of donations that have poured in from around the world) issued a statement on behalf of the community, which read in part:
"Many from Nickel Mines have pointed out that forgiveness is a journey, that you need help from your community of faith and from God ... to make and hold on to a decision not to become a hostage to hostility.
Forgiveness of this magnitude is difficult to imagine. We live in a world which is very much me-centered, where the slightest affront, delay, botched fast food order, is nurtured until it blossoms into hate or anger. If this community can not only forgive but reach out in love after what they've been through then it gives me hope that I practice a little more grace in my day-to-day life.
Indonesia is getting hammered; they've had their fourth major quake in just the last few days. Here's a map showing the area, and here's a list of the quakes depicted:
This AFP article via Google reports that the European Conference on Severe Storms has introduced findings that spraying microscopic (i.e very small) dust into hurricanes could reduce their impact. In fact, the study looked specifically at Katrina and concluded that this method could have spared New Orleans "from the devastating power" of Katrina, had it been used.
The AFP article discusses the science behind the method. It's very technical, and in case that sort of thing bores you here's a quick paraphrase: The extremely tiny dust particles (ETDP) are dropped into the storm where they seek out water droplets (WD). Once they've found these water droplets, they eat them, in a process known as Dusteatstwaterdroplettism. It's a very new science - you can't even find anything on Wikipedia about that yet. Once the dust eats the water it gets fat and heavy and falls to the bottom of the ocean.
My questions is - now that we know how to stop hurricanes, how long after the next storm hits before the lawsuits start to fly? And really, how long has the government known about this and tried to keep it quiet? Let's say a category 5 storm hits Miami (sorry Miami, nothing personal) and all sorts of Hardee's and Taco Bells and Burger Kings are flattened. Do they have a legal case? Break into small groups and discuss. Bonus question: Who will be the first to file a suit?
This is an amazing radar snapshot from AccuWeather.com Professional - showing the rainfall amounts for the storm from 16Z 9/12 to 14Z 9/13. Some places are showing 15" of rain. Of course, doppler estimated precip isn't always extremely accurate, but Humberto is definitely a rain-maker.
*Blog Hero is in no way responsible for any outcomes resulting in following Blog Hero purchasing recommendations. Purchasing recommendations are for entertainment value only. Blog Hero further recommends that all purchasing recommendations only be followed as suggested if a suitable back up gift is also purchased, that being made of platinum or diamonds. Thank you.
Apparently Humberto went for some extra credit, as it's now a cateogry 1 hurricane. Hats off to JB who called it. Graphics here. It should weaken over land but rainfall's an issue. Check out the model spray - a number curve it back into the Gulf. Round 2?
I saw this article come across the ol' RSS reader and immediately knew I had to read it because of the obvious question. The article is entitled, "Web service gives alibis for adulterers."
Now, I'll give you an opportunity to play along at home - what one question do you have when you read that headline? (Jeopardy theme music.) Okay, times up.
Before I get to the first thought I had, a little background: Ibila* is a French company (stop that) founded by ex-private investigator Regine Mourizard. The company will create fake phone calls, mail, restaurant bills and anything else their client needs to safely cover their tracks. They'll even arrange the secret rendezvous.
In the above article, Mourizard says at least two things that are just amazing:
If the alibi is well done and the spouse doesn't suspect anything, this can sometimes save marriages
No I am not making that up. I suppose there are people out there that think a marriage is "safe" while adultery is occurring as long as it's kept secret. The other quote explains why Mourizard entered the adultery alibi business:
For 20 years, I worked to keep people from doing what they wanted to do. And I then thought, 'what if I help them do it, in a safe way?'
Which is an interesting rationale.
The first thing I thought of when I read the headline was, "Does an adulterer really want some company knowing all about their affair?" I suppose that this is an above board company (and, really, why would anyone think otherwise?) but I'd hate to see what would happen if a laptop went missing. Good luck guys.
"you choke within the family framework and you wish to take the air without creating discord"
"We have a complete range of services intended to help you to protect your beaches from private activity."
And my favorite (emphasis mine):
If I use alibis IBALA regularly, then I to take a subscription? Not. The alibis cannot be permanent. Specific, their use and their contents are also most of the time variable. Under these conditions a subscription cannot be justified. Nevertheless, of the special handing-over can be granted to our faithful customers.
While storm 92 died a quick dead and is swimming with the fishes, storm 91 has been declared a tropical depression (8). Additionally, we have a bonus tropical depression (9) trying to sneak up on Houston:
A quake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.2 on the Richter scale hit Indonesia, triggering tsunami warnings all along the Indian Ocean. Map of the tsunami location:
Today's the sixth anniversary, of course, and even after six years I still get that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about it. I have images of the second tower hit, the fires, the buildings falling, people jumping out - all indelibly etched in my mind. I generally have a poor memory for those sorts of things but that day was just unbelievable.
The one thing that time has done is to make the event more distant. I think of it less often, in general - only when there's something in the news or it's brought up in conversation of there's an anniversary like today. The memories don't feel less powerful; I just visit them less often.
Which is why I'm grateful for anniversaries. They give you occasion to remember and reflect, things you would otherwise not do because of the tyranny of the urgent, and the passage of time. I'm also grateful for posts like this one from Jim Hill: What was it like to be at Disneyland and/or Walt Disney World six years ago today?. Hill has a number of first-hand accounts of how the park dealt with the attack and what people experienced that day. It's really fascinating to me, as a Disney fan but also as American who collectively experienced the events 9/11. Disney thought that they might be hit next, and so getting everyone out of the parks without causing a panic was critical. It sounds like they did an amazing job.
Autumn is probably my favorite season, slightly edging out a snowy winter. A snow-less winter I have no use for, and someone in charge of these things should just lengthen fall and spring and get rid of it. A snowy winter though - that rocks (no pun intended.)
This is also the time of year that frost chasers love. Less well-known than their meteorological cousins the storm chasers, frost chasers rise at an unbelievable hour (sometimes even before 9 a.m.) and hop in their cars, video cameras rolling, and speed off to large grassy fields (preferably shaded) in the hopes of filming the elusive frost. Many a frost chaser knows the pain of arriving scant minutes late, as the sun peaks above the horizon and turns that gorgeous frost to damp dew that somehow thoroughly soaks your sneakers after only walking about five feet.
If you're a frost chaser feel free to send along your frost photos and I'll post them here, or give them to Jesse who will probably print them out and hang them in the break room.
Did you know NOAA had a Corps Song? I bet you didn't know that. But, now that you DO know that, you're just itching to sing it, share it, and download it to put in all of your video mashups.
"We survey the oceans
And we track storms in the air"
Read (and memorize!) the lyrics here, and download the mp3 files. There's an instrumental version for all of your karaoke monsters out there (oh, you know who you are...)
Filed under: NOAA has a theme song? No, really?
Update: They have a flag too! How cool is that?
I wonder if they have any t-shirts, or maybe an official bird. You can purchase a flag if you really want one, although they don't say how much they are. If you actually call the number let me know how much they are, and ask if they have t-shirts too.
If a school bus is stolen it's not really news...but when 17 are stolen? That sounds like news to me. I'm curious if you've already heard about this story - feel free to leave a comment either way, and if you do add whether you live near Houston or not.
There are blogs out there talking about school buses, homeland security and 9/11, and you hate to see those sorts of things talked about in the same post. But there doesn't seem to be much mainstream coverage of this. The above article suggests that the buses have been driven to Mexico and that's that. Hopefully, that's all there is to it.
Alert Reader Mark will probably appreciate this story: Archaeologists have discovered Switzerland’s oldest known building under Lake Biel. Since it was made of wood scientists used dendrochronology they've dated the structure to 3863 BC.
Archaeologists found three circles of stakes, which are thought to have been fish traps. The building was likely used to store equipment or for smoking fish. That is, they put fish they caught in the building and then smoked them. Ancient Swiss fish did not smoke themselves, as fish didn't invent cigarettes for another thousand years.
The site has been detailed to glean as much information as possible. Archaeologists have been active in the area for 20 years and have recovered thousands of artifacts. It's thought that the site will eventually disappear from the effects of erosion, although anti-erosion efforts - including covering the area with special preservation blankets - have been applied.
(Stories about finding things at the bottom of lakes always reminds me of the Five Chinese Brothers, particularly that one that swallowed the sea.)
Two more areas of potential tropical trouble. Model runs are available on storm 91 and storm 92. I haven't checked in with AccuWeather.com to see what full story is; that will probably have to wait until I get into work tomorrow...
That sounds like a great book title, one that would definitely be scooped up by Tobey Maguire or someone and turned into a multi-million dollar movie.
But, it's actually a reference to an AP article via Yahoo! Health: "Ark. obesity report cards scaled back." I confess when I first read this article I sighed and shook my head a little, because the article didn't answer the one question I had while reading it: Does Jeffery have parents? This is how the article started:
Teenager Jeffery Trimble used to wolf down as many as six cheeseburgers in a day and wasn't worried about being overweight. But then his school sent home an obesity report card.
"They let me know that I was at risk of having things like diabetes and a heart attack if I kept going the way I was," Jeffery said. "I knew I was overweight, but I didn't know how bad it could be.;
The 16-year-old Jeffery changed his diet, started exercising and dropped 35 pounds.
On the one hand, the school is performing a great service: without this letter, Jeffery wouldn't have had any idea that he was overweight. He would have continued his cheeseburger eating ways for the rest of his life. (As an aside: I've been warning everyone about the dangers of putting cheese on your hamburgers and so, I suppose I have to say at this point: See! Just stop that.)
In any event, being the curious and thorough blogger that I am, I decided to spend ten minutes and search around for more information on this program and Jeffery Trimble. After all, surely someone, SOMEWHERE, is talking about Jeffery's parents.
If you watch the video and read the web page, "Fitness Witness Video" you'll see some interesting discrepancies. First, this story apparently takes place in September 2006 - one year ago. That's not mentioned in the AP piece at all, which seems to infer that Trimble's story began this year. ("The 16-year-old Jeffery changed his diet, started exercising and dropped 35 pounds.") The other interesting detail is that Trimble says in the video interview that he could eat 6-7 cheeseburgers a week. The AP article quotes him as saying 6 a day. That's a potential cheeseburger differential of 7 vs. 42 or an extra 35 cheeseburgers a week.
Another interesting note: Trimble says that his epiphany came while he was watching "The Biggest Loser." Perhaps he was watching that program at the recommendation of the school system? But more date problems: Trimble says he saw the television show two years ago, which would be 2004 (I have no idea what this TV show is or when it ran.) Trimble then received some sort of medical referral and joined the "Champions Program" offered by Arkansas' Children's Hospital. This program was the subject of a Food Network documentary earlier this year called "Childhood Obesity: Danger Zone." I haven't seen it, but this press release confirms that it discusses 15-year-old Trimble's story.
Finally, if you watch the entire video - you do find out that not only does Trimble have a mother, she's supportive of his efforts and attends his program. And, she herself has lost 35-40 pounds!
In conclusion, there are a few take-aways here:
1. Never, never, ever research an AP article. What you find will probably confuse and depress you.
2. Never, never, ever put cheese on your burger. Try some tasty broccoli or cauliflower instead.
3. In spite of what the AP reported, Jeffery Trimble appears to have woken up to his weight issues not from a state program but instead from "The Biggest Loser," a television show. He got involved in an exercise and diet program with the active support of his mother (no father is pictured or discussed) and both have lost a significant amount of weight. Trimble's 6 cheeseburgers a week to 6 cheeseburgers a day is a bizarre, perhaps explainable but certainly very relevant discrepancy. And the AP article suggests that Trimble's story occurred with its writing, but seems to have occurred at least as long ago as 2006, and possibly even before that.
(This is what I get for trying to write a quick cheeseburger post. Filed under Aliens/Bigfoot/Elvis because I know at least one is responsible.)
Small update: MSNBC has the AP article which also comes with an AP photo, which says: "Little Rock Central High School junior Jeffery Trimble, 16, plays a field baritone during the school band's rehearsal in Little Rock, Ark. Trimble said his mother received a body mass index report that listed him as obese and that in part led him to seek help through a diet and exercise program." This photo description at least adds the phrase, "in part."
Here's a quick Gabrielle update courtesy AccuWeather.com. The Apple-ish reflection thing is just a bonus I threw in there.
You can find more up-to-date info on Gabrielle here at AccuWeather.com's hurricane center. For up-to-date information on the sidekick of Xena, I would go to Wikipedia. For up-to-date information on Gabrielle Carteris, who played Andrea Zuckerman on 90210 (c'mon, I KNOW you watched it) you can go here.
Two other notes about Gabrielle tonight:
1. That noise you probably heard today was the collective yaawwwnnn of everyone in eastern North Carolina at the news of Gabrielle being named, and then being called sub, and then having its sub dropped like it had cheese on it or something. There's a great quote in this Sun-Sentinel article:
"When people hear about tropical storms, they assume houses are going to fall in the ocean,'' said Margot Jolly, a lifeguard with Nags Heads Ocean Rescue. "They shouldn't overreact like that. Just relax, stay inside, and have a little hurricane party.''
I expect she's right inasmuch as it won't be a "big deal," but you hate to read about hurricane parties. It always makes me think of Camille.*
2. The Carolinas have been in the midst of a terrible drought, so in that sense the rain will be welcome - although you never want too much at one time. Check out this drought map for North Carolina. Unfortunately, the rain is really needed in the western corner of the state.
*Did the Camille part really happen? Wikipedia has an interesting note on the infamous party here, while the channel about weather has this to say. I guess a question I have is, "Do people stay silent when the existing story puts them in a bad light and they actually didn't do something foolish, or do people stay silent when the existing story puts them in a bad light and they really did do something foolish." I tend to think the latter, but can't dismiss the former. George Clooney was unavailable for comment either way, as he's busy trying to make a living.
I came across an old bookmark last night - I have a bad habit of bookmarking things and putting them in a list called "Read Later." Usually, I never read them or if I do, the entire site is gone by the time I get there. I believe an Alert Reader sent this in but it's been a while.
HeroMachine is a website that allows you to create your own comic book character by selecting various pieces (shirt, pants, headgear, etc.) and then coloring them. It's really quite amazing. Cassie and I created a number of characters today. Here's my set:
A bunch of characters that hopefully don't infringe on anybody's rights. If you're infringed drop me an email and scold me.
You can click here for the larger-than-life super heroic version which shows off the HeroMachine's work much better. No drawing was involved in any of this - the only thing I did in Photoshop was to add the names (Cassie helped with at least one of those) and the obligatory Apple-ish reflection. All of the rest of the artwork is generated by the website.
(Note: I'm a bit under the weather (sorry) today and probably won't be posting much. I've received a few Gabrielle emails and wanted to post this as a psuedo-response. Feel free to click on Google Ads while I'm napping or popping OTC medication today.)
I've worked for a weather company now for almost 20 years, and one of the common tensions I've witnessed is the pressure (sorry if that's a pun) of making a forecast and waiting to see if the weather develops accordingly. The greater the weather event (blizzard, hurricane, etc.) the greater the pressure. Meteorologists are very passionate about their chosen field - I would say, on average, more than the 'typical' career - and want to get the forecast right not because of the personal satisfaction of being correct, but because an accurate forecast helps people prepare.
AccuWeather jumped out in front of this potential Gabrielle situation and there's been some criticism of the forecast in various circles. The system in question hasn't been doing much, and I'm sure that's contributed to the criticism. So there has been some nail-biting with regard to the storm: will it or won't it?
Overnight the system got better organized, although tropical depression status isn't guaranteed. The NHC issued this statement today at 8:45 a.m.:
Satellite images indicate that the area of low pressure located between Bermuda and the Southeast U.S. coast has become better organized overnight. Upper-level winds are becoming more favorable for additional development...and a tropical depression could form later today. An air force reserve hurricane hunter aircraft is scheduled to investigate this system this afternoon. The low is forecast to move generally westward or northwestward during the next couple of days...and interests along the east coast of the united states should closely monitor the progress of this system.
A lingering disturbance southwest of Bermuda could become the year’s seventh Atlantic tropical depression later today, the National Hurricane Center announced this morning.
This is interesting, because his previous post said, "The National Hurricane Center is sounding way less than bullish about that disorganized, drifting disturbance" but there's no discussion of this apparent about-face from the NHC, although he went to pains to highlight AccuWeather's "disclaimers" about the storm intensifying.
Most models still take something into the east coast. Ironically, after putting up the Snoopy's Rhode Island Happy Dance graphic, one model now takes the storm up towards the Ocean State.
In any event, we should all know this weekend who gets, ah, all wet and who doesn't. The lesson here is to be prepared and make sure your flight to Idaho is departing at its regularly scheduled time.
Disney announced today that they're launching a nationwide search for a dozen select moms who will serve on the first ever online "Walt Disney World Moms Panel." In order to be selected you have to eat, sleep and breathe Disney; you have to be a Walt Disney World vacation planning guru, and you have to fill out the form here at http://www.disneyworldmoms.com and do so in such a convincing manner that Disney selects you. If selected, you score a six day vacation to WDW for yourself and three other guests.
Better hurry, though - the application is only open until October 5, or until they reach 5,000 applicants.
My favorite Disney Mom/Alert Reader and brood waiting for the Disney Bus™
Here's an interesting post from Bob King, who talks about AccuWeather.com's prediction of the formation of Gabrielle. As far as I can tell (and with all due respect to Bob) Bob is a staff writer for the Palm Beach Post, although it's possible that he has some sort of meteorological background of which I'm unaware. Of course, you don't need a meteorological background to talk about the weather, or to talk about other people who talk about the weather. My main credential is that I sit next to Henry, and maybe there's some sort of osmosis thing going on...although (and with all due respect to Henry) I think I had a better record on State College snow storms last year because I always said we'd get a rock and for the most part the season was all rocks.
Bob mentions "Gabby" which I guess is "Gabrielle" although giving storms nicknames is probably a bad idea. That would be like talking about hurricane Kat, or hurricane Kitty. (As a total aside: Hurricane Hello Kitty would be interesting.) For AccuWeather.com's part, they're continuing to talk about the storm off the coast becoming tropical. Several models take the storm into the Carolinas and then up the coast. Rhode Island seems to be largely spared.
Both of our kids have certain chores that they're expected to do every day. If, for some reason, they don't get those chores done then I - as "Dad" - have the heavy burden of deciding what sort of discipline has to be meted out. Tonight I found out that Cassie had left a book on the floor of her room, and so I decided I would have to duct tape her to a tree. Naturally I said that she would have to smile the entire time (eight hours) because, well, kids nowadays just have no appreciation for the difficulties and sacrifices of parenting.
Actually, before you email child protective services, Cassie was duct taped to a tree as part of her youth group. Both Connor and Cassie attend a youth group at our church (State College Evangelical Free Church and yes, we just say "E Free" because really none of us have that sort of time) and tonight was the first get together of the fall. Furthermore, it was the Official Debut of our new youth pastor, who promptly took the opportunity to duct tape all of the kids to trees. Okay, I made that up. The kids were divided up into two groups (boys & girls) and each team picked a victim. Then the teams raced to see who could tape their victim up faster. Despite the apparent success of the girl's team the boy's team managed to tape faster.
I figured this was a parable-ish, deep spiritual lesson like, I don't know... God is the tree, our friends represent the duct tape and, well, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition. But it turns out that it was mostly good, clean, adhesive fun.
If anyone is in State College Wednesday nights at 7 p.m., consider dropping the kids off for a great time. You (the parents) can have a nice "date night" for an hour-and-a-half, and as parents know that's pure gold. In the meantime, your kids will get taped to trees, and what kid doesn't want to be taped to a tree, really?
I think there is too much going for this to back away and will post my reasons, more like review all the evidence I have as to why I am sticking to my guns.
It is the model that blew up in my face, not the weather (yet) but look, my point of the post was this model had locked on and then lost it, and yes that did mean, Joe, go back and look. But it's not the model that makes the forecast and if it was, why even have humans forecast (it's funny, sometimes I think that is the true agenda behind a lot of things in this business)
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which must be a fascinating group to be involved with, has announced a voluntary recall of some Oregon Scientific weather radios. You can find the published recall here. Blog Hero has obtained a top-secret early non-published version of the recall, which tells a different story which would panic the public if printed. So, I've printed it below:
Name of Product: Oregon Scientific Weather Radios
Units: About 66,000
Manufacturer: Oregon Scientific Inc., of Tualatin, Ore.
Hazard: The radios have a setting that consumers could accidentally set without reailzing it. The setting, "Random Alerts," results in the broadcast of warnings that are totally random and (usually) not grounded in reality. Because consumers might not realize when they are using the "Random Alerts" setting there has been a recall. Some reported "Random Alerts:"
1. A Godzilla Warning for parts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine. The warning was immediately followed by the dubbed screams of little soliders who were crushed under their own tanks. So far Godzilla has not been sighted in Rhode Island.
2. A Some-Sort-of-Hurricane-in-the-Atlantic Warning was issued for cities between Miami, FL and Rhode Island. The warning suggested that a storm would form out of a few puffy cumulonimbus clouds and suddenly deepen into a nasty category thirteen storm and make landfall. It was suggested that all travel plans to the eastern half of the country be postponed for three months, or until the end of the hurricane season, whichever came last.
3. An Unexpected Twinkies Recipe Warning was issued for Kentucky. Residents of Kentucky, as well as people who were merely visiting Kentucky but were staying in suites that had full kitchens, were cautioned that cooking with Twinkies with or without a cookbook was ill-advised as Twinkies sold in Kentucky were from China and as a result of shoddy Twinkie craftsmanship might explode when heated to temperatures above 350°. A Twinkie, to review, is a golden sponge cake with creamy filling.
Incidents/Injuries: None reported, although there has been rumors that three people and a Twinkie were caught in a stampede of people fleeing the unspecified Atlantic Hurricane and/or Godzilla. The stampede was headed to Idaho.
Description: This recall involves the following Weather Radios and Weather Stations:
All Hazards Portable Weather Alert Radio, WR103NX
Portable Public Alert Radio, WR108
Public Alert Weather Station, WRB308
John Deere Public Alert Weather Station, WRB308J
No other models are included in this recall.
Sold at: Retail stores nationwide, including some electronics and sporting goods stores, online retailers and in catalogs from December 2005 through June 2007 for between $30 and $150.
Manufactured in: China (No, really!)
Remedy: Consumers should not rely on the broadcasts of the recalled weather radios. Consumers should contact Oregon Scientific for instructions on returning the radio to receive a free replacement. Note that Oregon Scientific is not responsible for any actions or inaction taken as a result of hearing a Godzilla warning, or a Twinkie warning, or really any other warning that is issued as a result of using the "Random Alert" feature.
*In all seriousness, of course, weather radios are not the kinds of things that you should rely on if there is a recall. Make sure to check your product and take the appropriate action to keep you and your family safe, particularly from exploding Twinkies.
In the history of the universe there at least one thing that could truly be said to be unexpected. That would (of course) be the Spanish Inquisition:
(Insert diabolical laughter here.)
However, it turns out there is another thing, besides the Spanish Inquisition, that has been largely unexpected. That is (as you've probably already guessed by scanning the page:)
(Cue burst of dramatic music.)
Yes, the Twinkies Cookbook: An inventive and unexpected recipe collection. Its chief weapon is golden sponge cake; golden sponge cake and a creamy filling. Its two weapons are golden sponge cake and creamy filling. And ruthless efficiency. Its three weapons are...
I have no idea how you cook a Twinkie, or what you cook Twinkies in, but in all fairness I wasn't expecting this. Get your copy at Amazon.com today so that you'll know what to do with all of those extra Twinkies should Gabrielle fail to materialize.
Flashback is where I regurgitatesputter forthheave republish an old blog post because I don't have to write a new one then because I really enjoyed it. To me, this is a classic but, then again, maybe you had to be there.
Media outlets are beginning to pick up on the possible tropical storm/hurricane/Gabrielle thing in the Atlantic. AccuWeather.com appears committed to the idea:
WCBS says, "Potential Tropical Storm Could Strike NYC." Of course, everyone talks about a NYC strike as a Very Bad Thing, mostly because there are a lot of people concentrated in a small area, and fleeing quickly to Idaho is more difficult.
NBC17 says, "Tropical Storm Could Be Forming In Atlantic." NBC17 is in Raleigh, N.C., located near AccuWeather.com's suspected landfall for the storm. They call it a "fluid situation" but don't apologize anywhere for the pun, puns being the highest form of humor.
Felix and Henriette are still making headlines. The AP via Philly.com reports that the death toll from Felix is nine, with at least 11 people missing. (This doesn't seem to match what Reuters is reporting, with 38 dead and 80 missing, but who can follow these wire reports.) Henriette meanwhile is moving across Mexico and making a run for the U.S. border and the southwest corner of New Mexico. Heavy rain will be a problem along its track.
Again, I want to point out that all of this discussion, analysis, augury, divination, etc., is useless if it doesn't result in preparation on the part of those at risk of a tropical visit. Make sure you have enough dog and cat food, a good supply of Hostess Twinkies (a golden sponge cake with creamy filling), something to do if the power is out and there's no Internet (I have no idea what that would be, it may involve something called "books") and by all means be prepared to flee to Idaho should circumstances warrant.
The weekend will soon enough show who is right, who is wrong, what computer model scored the coup and who, if anyone, has fled to Idaho.
It looks to me like an iPhone without the phone. Which, if you're already locked into a cellular plan until 2014 is a great thing. It reminds me of the Apple Newton. I've been wondering if/when Apple would take the PDA plunge again. Now that the iPod has a touch screen, with built-in contacts, calendar, and wi-fi Internet Browsing, it seems that they've come full circle. I'm going to have to make one of those website/blog "Buy Carl an iPod" Paypal Tip Jar things now. Sigh.
(As a geek aside: I noticed that the above image bears the name "Hero" as does a parts of their web code. I wonder if this was some sort of internal project name?)
I know we've discussed the Japanese Mafia and their weather control/hurricane generating machine before. The Yakuza has been relatively quiet lately, letting global warming do their dirty work for them. But there's an interesting book written by former Yakuza Shoko Tendo just recently translated to English. The book, "Yakuza Moon," chronicles Tendo's life as a daughter of a Yakuza gang leader. Maltastar.com has more here. This book has Tarantino movie written all over it. The 39-year-old Tendo looks like a pretty, average young woman until you realize that - yes- those really are tattoos covering her almost head to toe. The tattoos symbolize her affiliation with the gang, and are an ever-present reminder of a past she's trying to escape.
This excerpted from Joe Bastardi's blog on AccuWeather.com Professional:
At this time, the stand is at least a cat 2 pressure hit late Saturday or Sunday on the NC coast with a track that takes it near the east coast to Long island later Monday.
I'm just cutting and pasting that verbatim. Joe loves to call 'em as he sees 'em, though, and also added this on his blog:
The threat of this blowing into a cat 3 or 4 is there for a few reasons. one, overall pattern of strong high in northwest atlantic, and reversal of storm from cold core to warm with system with major upper ridge building over it 2) The very warm water in the path. 3) a prolonged time over water...
He goes on to talk about Gaston, who I thought was in Beauty and the Beast, but I think he means a different Gaston. For all of the gory details you can subscribe to the Pro service - there's a free trial and everything.
In the meantime, this Model Spray™ still shows a good bit of uncertainty:
But the Canadian model, which we all lovingly refer to as the Uncle Fester of weather models, has some kind of apocalyptic storm:
The moral here, of course, is that when you live on or near the coast during hurricane season you need to be prepared. Buy your supplies, check the batteries, fill the car up with gas, get the boards handy - and run like mad to Idaho.
There's a number of interesting stories today relating to hurricanes and tropical weather. Not the least of which is Felix, which slammed into Nicaragua's coast as a category 5 storm. (This would be the first year two category five storms made landfall, I believe.) In addition to that record, Felix made landfall the same time as hurricane Henriette in the east Pacific (landing on the Cabos resorts of Baja California.) This is believed to be the first time that an Atlantic and East Pacific storm have made landfall on the same day. (Although Andrew and Lester hit within several hours of each other. Jesse will probably have more on this.)
Felix weakened quickly after hitting land, but the there's still a rainfall threat particularly over the mountainous terrain of Central America. The area hit by Felix is relatively remote, and it may be a while before we have a clear picture of what has happened. Nicaragua moved 12,000 people before the storm, and Honduras evacuated 5,000 residents and 3,000 tourists.
The hurricane forecasting team of William Gray and Phil Klotzbach are still calling for more storms. They've downgraded their total by one, predicting six more storms which would be an above-average season. Of course, we're only on "F" and have set a few records.
And Canada of all places is being warned to be ready for a stormy autumn. Of course that's eastern Canada. The Canadian Hurricane Centre says that conditions are right for a busy end to the season for that country. They may be looking at the models calling for a storm to form off the east coast of the U.S. and (some models say) move north.
Jim Hill, of Jim Hill Media - an entertainment news website that often comments on matters Disney - has a post today about the Disney/Pixar movie Ratatouille. Although it recently crossed the $200 million dollar mark, the movie ranks "only" eighth in the year's movie race. By the end of the year it may even fall out of the top ten. Pixar's releases have often landed in the top 5, and so now - apparently - the finger pointing begins. Hill reports that the Pixar people are blaming the Disney marketing people, to the point of seizing control of the marketing of the next Pixar release WALL-E. And of course, the Disney marketing people aren't thrilled about that.
I write about all of this only because I thought Ratatouille was (is) brilliant and am disappointed it hasn't done better. I would highly recommend the movie to anyone, and will buy the DVD as soon as it's released. I'd much prefer that movies like Ratatouille would be made over films like 300 (that's just a personal preference, no offense to all of the Spartans in the audience.) And I'm baffled why it hasn't preformed better. I suspect part of the problem was that no one could pronounce it (trailers and posters actually included the pronunciation) and the story takes place in France. The latter is silly, of course, and didn't bother me, but I do know people who just tune out anything that even as smells French.
All of this will be interesting to watch when WALL-E comes out. I saw the trailer, and it looks interesting - but a movie about a garbage compactor? It sounds like a tough sell - personally I hope Pixar hits another home run.
Felix actually strengthen overnight and made landfall as a category 5 storm on the northeastern coast of Nicaragua. It's expected to have an 18' storm surge and produce 5-10 inches of rain, with up to 20 inches in the mountains. Here's a current sat shot:
Now that I've gotten bitten by the passive income bug (it's a very small, $5.30 bug but his bite is still quite potent) I've started looking around for different opportunities. I've reopened my CafePress account and am putting together all sorts of ideas. So far, this is the best I can come up with:
I thought it was humorous. You might have to think about it for a second. Not that lemmings aren't worth saving or anything.
Then I thought I would create a Blog Hero store, because I've always wanted a Blog Hero sweatshirt. So I went crazy and stuck Blog Hero on a number of things. You can find the store here. I'm not sure about the yellow and green shirts. In the interest of full disclosure I have not marked up anything above the price that CafePress sets - so if you feel seized by some irresistable force to suddenly do all of your Christmas shopping...well, CafePress thanks you. Blog Hero thanks you more from a viral marketing perspective, although none of these items have the URL on them. Which is a great segue - if you have any suggestions for alterations drop me a note or leave a comment.
Classy Blog Hero shirts - all your friends are wearing them!
I'm definitely hurricane'd-out but wanted to post a few more thoughts before the evening is over. KHOU has an interesting article about the Honduran community in Houston and Hurricane Mitch. I think it's behind a free registration wall (I'm signed up with just about every one of these sites so it's hard to tell sometimes.) Here's the link. A brief quote:
In the Honduran community, disaster means just one thing: Hurricane Mitch.
Memories of the killer storm are still fresh.
Reminders are still visible every day.
“Honduras people has still not recovered from Hurricane Mitch. They still living in huts.”
LoveFM, which is a national radio station in Belize, has put together a Hurricane Felix page here. In addition to news it looks like they're going to pass along photos of Felix via Flickr. They have a NEMO update (no, not the fish) posted.
Lastly, it's possible the U.S. may be dealing with a tropical threat soon. The Model Spray™ is all over the, ah, map as it were. This is what it looks like at the moment:
Cassie had a Tae Kwan Do exhibition today at a baseball game. Well, actually, before the baseball game. The event was at "Medlar Field at Lubrano Park" which sounds to me like some sort of naming compromise, as in the Medlars and the Lubranos both help build the park. But really, I have no idea and haven't looked into it.
The park and the field are really beautiful. MFaLP is home to the State College Spikes, which at first might sound like some sort of ninja weapon but actually refers to a deer or a moose or something. You can find their site here. Their mascot is "Ike the Spike" who in addition to being a deer or a moose or something is also a third degree black belt and master of the katana.
Many of Cassie's TKD classmates were on hand for a special demonstration of TKD forms, battling, catapult usage, walking on coals and breaking boards with one's head. Cassie, having inherited a good bit of common sense from the Schaad side of the family (recessive trait) decided to volunteer for board breaking with the elbow. She did marvelously - the board had little chance really - and the crowd at the Spikes' game was very supportive, especially Ike who waved his katana in a sort of moose-like salute.
The weather was gorgeous, and Carl managed to snap a few pictures that accidentally came out okay.
Cassie practices her "karate chop action" before the big event.
Cassie discusses the catapult plans with some other students.
Master Sam Chaar walks onto the field to prepare the students for the big fire walk.
Authorities in Honduras and Nicaragua and not mincing words about Hurricane Felix as they told coastal residents to 'flee for their lives' according to this IOL article. The storm is raising the specter of a Mitch-like disaster. Hurricane Mitch was the slow-moving 1998 category five storm that dropped up to 75 inches of rain (according to some unofficial reports) on parts of Honduras and Nicaragua. 11,000 people died and 8,000 were left missing by the end of 1998 - the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history.
The IOL article goes on to mention that one of the NOAA planes flying into Felix had to turn back because of a "rapid updraft-downdraft cycle" that put four Gs on the plane.
I mentioned here that it seemed like Felix had intensified from 0 to category 5 fairly quickly. Dr. Jeff Masters at the WunderBlog says the following:
Felix now holds the record for shortest time for an Atlantic storm to intensify to Category 5 strength. Felix required just 51 hours to reach Category 5 strength after it started as a tropical depression.
You can read his post here. I'm still checking with the folks on AccuWeather about the intensification, but I have no reason to doubt what Masters writes here. I imagine that Wilma will still hold a record for pressure drop although there may be a footnote on that record now.
This is also the only time since records have been kept that the first two hurricanes of the Atlantic season both went to category 5 - Dean and now Felix. That alone is amazing.
The NHC, AccuWeather.com and various computer models living inside computers have all shifted their track of Felix south. As a result, it seems more likely now that the storm will hit land somewhere in northern Honduras, sparing the Belize coast the full brunt of a category 5 storm. You can find the latest tracks here:
It's rare in life to encounter poetic justice. An example of what I mean would be driving along at the speed limit, and then getting passed by some obnoxious law breaker at warp eight, only to eventually find him pulled over by a police officer.
A similar moment has befallen the Daily Mirror's ex-newspaper editor Piers Morgan. Morgan, now a columnist for the Mail, apparently took great delight in ridiculing President Bush when Bush fell off of a Segway back in 2003. The Daily Mirror ran the headline:
You'd have to be an idiot to fall off, wouldn't you Mr President.
The paper went on to add, "If anyone can make a pig's ear of riding a sophisticated, self-balancing machine like this, Dubya can." (Not being British I have no idea what the ear of a pig has to do with any of this, but I'm willing to roll with it.)
Fair enough; the paper is free to print the news they feel is important. But the long arm of irony reached out and slapped Mr. Morgan silly recently at a Santa Monica beach. Morgan himself tried out a Segway, only to have it swerve and jump a curb. Morgan fell off and reportedly broke three ribs.
Morgan has since been patched up and wrote this past week about his experience:
Since only he and I appear to have ever fallen off one, I think the makers of the Segway can probably still justifiably claim the machines are "idiot-proof.
Here's a recent sat shot of Felix. On the left is the unaltered image, on the right I've superimposed a circle over the storm. It's remarkable how symmetrical it is. When you see a storm this round, with an eye this defined you know you have a well-oiled meteorological monster. Sort of like Henry.
Source: NOAA Godzilla Hunters Aircraft
A Record for Felix?
I'm not sure but this storm may have set some sort of record for speed of development. The NHC issued a tropical storm declaration on Saturday September 1, 2007 at 5:00 AM AST (Atlantic Standard Time) and now has called it a Cat 5 on Sunday, September 2, 2007 at 8:00 PM EDT (Eastern). That would be a total of 40 hours or something? If anyone out there can do that math let me know. I'm trying to carry the one and whatnot but it's just not working out.
Update: I can't find any records for Atlantic hurricane intensification beyond the record set in 2005 for Wilma. Wilma dropped 97 millibars in 24 hours, beating Gilbert in 1988 which had dropped 72 millibars in the same time period. Nothing in terms of the elapsed time from depression to category 5. Wilma was a TD on October 15 and category 5 on October 19 - four days or so later.
More: Jesse points to this page which discusses the Wilma pressure drop. I remember the Schaads were in Disney World when Wilma formed - we woke up the next day and checked the news and it had gone from nothing to a category five that might hit Orlando. I've uploaded the Disney Vacation Blog to commemorate the occasion.
Not the fish, but the National Emergency Management Organization of Belize. Here's part of their statement:
On the advice and direction of the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) regarding the potential threat posed to the country of Belize by Hurricane Felix, the Ministry of Education informs General Managers, principals, teachers, students and parents of its decision to delay the re-opening of ALL primary schools countrywide. This delay will remain in effect pending further advice and direction from NEMO.
You can find all of the statement here. The Model Spray™, NHC and AccuWeather.com tracks show the storm making landfall in Belize somewhere, and further strengthening is likely.
Felix has been upgraded to a category 4 storm. Here's an impressive shot of the storm courtesy NOAA. I think you can see Anderson Cooper waving from in there, if you squint just so.
NOAA satellite courtesy the aliens orbiting in low earth orbit
Here's some detail on how Aruba fared during the pass of the storm. AccuWeather.com track forecasting Felix to reach Cat 5 before following Dean's track into the Yucatan.
I live in State College, Pennsylvania - although if you asked me where I lived I would say "State College, PEE AY" as in PA because all of us here are simply exhausted from saying "Penn-Syl-Vain-Ee-Uh." I honestly don't know how Californians do it, saying "California" all of the time instead of "SEE AY" as in CA. Well, except for the Governor - he's in pretty good shape and doesn't get winded so easily.
There's a fanciful (yet completely true!) story about the birth of State College. State College, PA was founded by Joe Paterno, who at the tender age of 16 cleared whole acres of forest with a giant axe and a blue ox. The blue ox was named "Nittany Lion" and yes I think that's a horrible name for a blue ox. When JoePa (we call him "JoePa" because saying "Joe Pa-Ter-No" quickly becomes tiring) first founded the town there were no Lowe's or Home Depot stores. (Or Red Robins or Macaroni Grills, but that's a story for another post.) Eventually Lowe's discovered our sleepy community and built a store here.
The evolution of home improvement shopping in State College is a colorful (yet completely true!) tale that while completely true! may be hard to believe. The story goes something like this: Home Depot found out that Lowe's had built a store in State College and Home Depot, having a policy about these sorts of things, decided that they would come into town too. They arranged to get a key piece of real estate right off of a major road through town. But before they started building their store, Lowe's decided to relocate their existing store next to the future Home Depot, a move of about three miles from their current location.
Lowe's succeeded in building their store before Home Depot starting digging. Their old building still sits vacant months later (though rumor has it Kohl's is coming) as Home Depot finally begins construction. Why do these home improvement box stores like to go head to head? Well that's a whimsical (yet completely true!) yarn traced back to the founders of Lowe's and Home Depot, who are brothers. Years ago the brothers had a falling out and now, largely out of spite, whenever one of the companies puts a new store in a town the other moves in right next door. Unbelievable!
Okay, yes, that's unbelievable. It turns out that the Lowe's/Home Depot Brothers story isn't true after all. I found this urban myth (and a few even more colorful variants) debunked thoroughly at Snopes.
So why does it seem like the two stores are always built near each other? Because that's the best place to build. According to this Pensacola News Journal article, the requirements of building a large home improvement store usually result in the two chains being near each other. How usually? A spokesperson for Lowe's claimed that 78% of Lowe's stores are located within 10 miles of their competition (I'm assuming Home Depot here).
Another outlandish (yet completely true!) claim by the Lowe's spokesperson: Lowe's does not "deliberately locate its stores across the street from its business rival."
So all of the behind the scenes home improvement machinations in State College? Apparently they're not what they seem. Just like the story of JoePa and his ox.
Alert Reader Chris made mention of Model Spray™ in the comments. The spray on Felix (currently a Cat 3) isn't terribly interesting because there's general agreement:
It's with great solemnity that I announce that the Google AdSense Experiment (See ad at left; go ahead take a look - sure, you can click on it, I'll wait. Thanks.) has not been the runaway hit that I was hoping it would be, and so I will not be retiring this year as planned. Nor next year. Nor, anytime before the Mayan Calendar runs out, at a minimum.
In fact, since I've only raised Five Dollars and Thirty Cents (pause for laughter) I'm actually not allowed to get paid, as Google will only issue you a check after you've reached the five thousand dollar mark. That's too bad, because I was actually going to cash out and get a double decaf half-caffeinated latte grand chai mint mocha tea expresso at Starbucks, although I figured I'd have to throw in a few dollars of my own. As it is, I'll just have to be satisfied with going to their website and looking at pictures of various beverages.
If George Clooney is still reading, maybe he'll send me a Nespresso because, well, it's tough making a living (with AdSense.)
Felix has been upgraded to a Category 1, not to be confused with being updated to a cartoon cat. As an aside, I would be willing to bet that the Felix the Cat Wikipedia entry sees more traffic this month than the last three years combined.
Felix is heading for Aruba, which is a lovely tourist destination but hurricanes generally avoid it because of its southern location, breathtaking views, crystal clear ocean and white sand beaches. Aruban (Arubian? Arubanese?) residents are boarding up and an Anderson Cooper watch is in effect until after the holiday. Here's a fairly recent look at Felix:
Image by NOAA and the American Taxpayer and (probably) George Clooney
There's a great view of Aruba via Google Maps. Here, you can see the giant Arubinian Hurricane Bowls that have been erected to contain the monster storms should one ever stray to the island. I think if you zoom in enough you can see Anderson Cooper waving.
Felix was born in the wee hours of the morning. He's expected to travel pretty much along the same path as Dean, as you can see from this model spread courtesy the AccuWeather.com Pro site:
RSS:
Both of our kids have certain chores that they're expected to do every day. If, for some reason, they don't get those chores done then I - as "Dad" - have the heavy burden of deciding what sort of discipline has to be meted out. Tonight I found out that Cassie had left a book on the floor of her room, and so I decided I would have to duct tape her to a tree. Naturally I said that she would have to smile the entire time (eight hours) because, well, kids nowadays just have no appreciation for the difficulties and sacrifices of parenting.
