Saturday, September 09, 2017

Ahhhh


21 comments:

  1. ...L.M. Montgomery was obviously not in Florida.

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  2. Received this afternoon from Tim Canova in my inbox:
    Dear Friends,

    As we in Florida brace for Hurricane Irma, our thoughts and prayers are with loved ones everywhere, from those in harm’s way to those watching Irma’s devastation from afar. Like Hurricane Harvey, Irma is a reminder of the fragility of life and of our ecosystem.

    There are reminders everyday. As Houston was hit by its third “500-year flood” in three years, parts of South Asia were inundated by record rainfalls and floods that took more than 1200 lives. A magnitude 8.2 earthquake in Mexico, the strongest in a century, has killed dozens. Meanwhile, Irma has flattened entire island nations in the Caribbean, she's bearing down on Florida, and two more big hurricanes are building in her path.

    This is what climate change looks like, with extreme weather and catastrophic storms as the new normal. An impressive heat wave descended on Los Angeles as enormous infernos of forest fires have broken out in huge parts of California, Oregon, Washington, and Montana. Each year, 4 million acres of American forests go up in smoke and this year’s devastation is even worse.

    Mother Earth is speaking to us, she has a fever, and we continue to heat up the planet with hydrocarbons from fossil fuels and methane from deforestation and enormous factory farms.

    For too long we have accepted climate denial from Republicans and climate excuses from Democrats -- too many of whom are in the pockets of corporate lobbyists, and too many are indifferent to melting polar ice caps, dying coral reefs, rising sea levels, warmer ocean temperatures, and extreme weather and geological events.

    As we brace ourselves for Irma, we know that many in our communities live in dwellings that provide little to no refuge from these storms. Many of our neighbors must now join along with our large and growing homeless population in search of public shelters.

    We think of all those in Florida whose lives and property are now at risk, and those confronted by other deadly natural and man-made disasters around our country and around the world -- from monster storms and flooding, to huge infernos and earthquakes. These are “the common enemies of man” that President Kennedy hoped would bring humankind closer together in shared consciousness of our common vulnerabilities. Let us remember what binds us all together, to love and care for each other and help our neighbors when we can.

    Irma is expected to utterly devastate Key West and the rest of the Keys, followed by a direct hit on Naples and Fort Myers on the west coast of Florida. All of Florida is in danger. Irma is such a huge storm -- bigger than the state of Ohio -- that there will surely be terrible losses along Florida's east coast as well.

    In this uncertain hour, our thoughts and prayers are with all those in Irma's path.
    In solidarity,


    Tim Canova

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    1. A storm bigger than the state of Ohio? This is a concept my mind cannot grasp.

      BTW Susan, apparently the island of St. Martin is now uninhabitable. One imagines the Cheeto-in-Chief's mansion is history. It is heartbreaking that so many innocent people had to lose their homes if not their lives as well.

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    2. A nit in this context, but important in another context: I'm pretty sure the Southern California fires aren't forest fires but chaparral fires. Chaparral is a fire-maintained ecosystem: Suppress fires -- which nobody has ever managed to do -- and the ecosystem goes away. Illinois' tall-grass prairie is also a fire-maintained ecosystem, and there is very little prairie left. (Yeah, a lot of it has gone to farmland. But elsewhere the forest has simply taken over.)

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    3. That is so beautiful and meaningful, Cat. Thanks for posting!!

      Bill is right. Wildlife*Biologist*Son shakes his head that we have so impinged on Nature that we don't let the natural, necessary fires happen. This builds up and the fires that come at that point are far worse. When will we ever learn?

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  3. Dark energy, the vacuum energy, may be the Casimir effect in action.

    A new explanation for dark energy: the matter in our Universe - Click

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    1. Well, that's certainly interesting. Good catch, Cat.

      --Alan

      P.S.: My contribution to the collection: One brick short of a full hod.

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    2. I think DT has maybe one brick left in the hod.

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  4. One brick short of a full hod.

    Alan

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    1. I like the Aussie ones, such as one sandwich short of a picnic or one prawn short of a barbie.

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  5. Hurricane Jose: storm nearly 'category five' as it follows Irma's destructive path
    The system is nearing the eastern Caribbean islands of Barbuda and Anguilla, promising further devastation in the wake of the giant Irma
    [Click] Re Irma strengthening after passing Cuba, there was at least one prediction that would happen, because the water in the Florida Straits was so warm (30C = 86F). And despite the hurricane being "weaker" as measured by its maximum sustained wind speeds, at the same time the eye expanded dramatically with little increase in barometric pressure--which makes the area of the storm surge that much bigger (by the square of the eye's diameter, remember). Another comment I read said that the mountains of Cuba are quite a bit lower than those of Hispaniola, not enough to seriously impede the flow of air to the hurricane from the south.

    --Alan

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    1. I've often wondered that myself. If it's meant to be amusing, it isn't.

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    2. I'm not sure of the rationale of Jeff Masters, who founded WU, but it is interesting to note that both the urban terrorists and the weather-related Weather Underground were both housed (at different times, mind you) at the University of Michigan.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground_(weather_service)

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  7. Finally, I have a little articulation about Hillary's book and the pundits commentaries:

    What the author and the commentators seem to miss is that I would not have voted for HRC or DT even if Bernie hadn't run at all. Just wasn't going to happen. I'm not a Democrat and I don't owe my vote to anyone; it's my right to vote as I see appropriate. I did not want a Clinton dynasty and I'm not willing to hold my nose at the polls anymore. Give us a candidate we can truly get behind and watch this nation soar! Stop complaining about Bernie's platform. He's a visionary and the truth is that many things he pushes for have made strides this year. Ironically, the person who won the Electoral College and the person who won the popular vote can't seem to let go of their election results; while only the person who lost is getting out there every day, working hard for We the People, offering an upbeat message that can take our nation forward!

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    1. If we were on Facebook I would give this a "Like."

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    2. Brilliant! And I totally agree.

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    3. I should only differ with the statement that Bernie was the only person who lost. Otherwise I agree. Should Bernie run again and win the nomination, his choice of running mate ought to count for a lot IMO. I still like a Bernie/Raul Grijalva ticket.

      --Alan

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  8. Sweet thanks! Wow!!

    (There! I can die happy! Both of you, Bill and Susan, liked what I said at the same time!!) ;-)

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