Posts from — April 2009

The BBC is reporting on the fires and the weather system that makes them almost impossible to control: Two dead as wildfires burn in US

Wildfires have killed two people and destroyed dozens of homes in the US states of Oklahoma and Texas.

A number of small towns were evacuated as fire crews struggled to contain the blazes, which ignited on Thursday and were fanned by strong winds.

Dozens more people were injured, two seriously, by the fires, which prompted the closure of a motorway in Oklahoma.

Meanwhile in neighbouring Arkansas a tornado struck the town of Mena, killing three and injuring at least 22.

The map is from the BBC. CNN now has a map on a separate page linked to their fire update, but they don’t provide the names of the towns that are actually involved, just Oklahoma City and Dallas with three tags.

This is all related to a powerful cold front moving through the area that is generating the winds and tornadoes.  The winds are calming down, so the aircraft can begin flying to combat the fires.

Next Generation

No one here.

[Editor: This young kitty was in the pump house. A few minutes before s/he was helping me replace the cover on the pump switch, but the camera apparently looked dangerous. From the eye color and size, a February birthday, which is way too early.]

Friday Ark

In Memoriam

NTodd has reported the passing of Sam Wednesday night. He was a particular favorite of Ringo and all too young.

Hurricane force winds and drought conditions are feeding close to a dozen wildfires in North Texas and South Oklahoma, according to CNN.

The fires are concentrated in a band between Interstates 20 [Dallas-Fort Worth] and 40 [Oklahoma City], but the high winds are keeping aircraft grounded. There is also reignition occurring in fires that were assumed to be out. Interstate 35 [the North-South connector] is closed in several places because of the fires.

[Note: I lived in this area when I was a sophomore in high school and know the places mentioned, but it would be helpful if CNN provided a bloody map, like the BBC and other professional news organizations always do.]

The CBC reports on the Chinese-Canadian mathematician who created the concept at the heart of the world economic meltdown, David Xiang Li, Wall Street “quant” behind “the Gaussian copula function applied to default correlations” that convinced all of the financial types that the derivatives were low risk.

Interesting article, which touches on the fact that Li’s work wasn’t understood and was abused to produce the necessary models that told the gamblers what they wanted to hear: mega-profits with micro-risk. Obviously the banksters would love to find someone else to blame for their stupidity and greed.

The basic problem of attempting to use mathematics to model market behavior is that there is no way to accurately quantify emotion. The widespread use of computerized trading almost guarantees a cascading effect if the market makes a big move in any direction. The market can swing wildly if someone has a “hunch” and acts on it, or if someone decides to game the system because people are tense.

The NWF Daily News reports on a County Commissioner involved:

In the two years since he rejoined the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office for his second job, County Commissioner Don Amunds has received two raises and three months of adjusted leave – and before that, $4,000 in allowances.

He never questioned it.
…

Commissioner James Campbell called Amunds “one of the most honest people you’ll ever meet,” dismissed any conflict and said a second job is essential. Commissioners make about $67,000 per year under the county’s budget, up 1.2 percent from 2008.

“He’d starve to death on just a commissioner’s salary,” Campbell said. “I’m glad he’s got a job now.”

Mr. Campbell, bless his Republican heart, is an idiot if he isn’t being sarcastic in his statements. First off, before being arrested in Las Vegas Charlie Morris was the most honest person in the county, everyone who was a Republican said so.

As for “starve to death” – a full-time minimum wage [$7.21/hour] job in Florida yields just under $15K. The median income for a male in Okaloosa County is just under $31K. If you can’t live well in this county, and most of the United States, on $67K plus benefits, you are in need of some serious financial counseling.

No wonder Charlie got away with it so long, the county commission don’t know how to live on $67K, so they think huge bonuses are normal. There are only about 180,000 people in the county, so salaries paid to public officials is a significant cost.

[Added Note: The median income for males in the US is just over $45K.]

I have nothing against marriage, it just never worked out, which isn’t surprising given the rather risky employment I had for a couple of decades. It really isn’t apt to work out when you can’t talk to your spouse about how you spend your time and make your money. Both the military and law enforcement have extremely high rates of divorce, so, while I lost some money on engagement rings, I didn’t spend any on divorce lawyers.

News Writer, among many others, covers the Vermont law and provides a little background on the “institution”. I would note that for many years after settlement the Massachusetts Bay Colony banned ministers from performing marriages. Their particular brand of Puritan had no use for “priests” by any name.

I was personally more interested in the Iowa decision. As I said in comments to Steve Bates’s post, this was a conservative opinion that covered the Iowa constitution, but it is just as applicable to the US Constitution.

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The USGS now lists a 5.3 aftershock in the area at 1:53AM local [UTC +1, 7:53PM CDT] after a day of relative quiet.

The BBC’s latest report:

The first funerals have been taking place for victims of the powerful earthquake which struck Italy’s central Abruzzo region on Monday.

More than 270 people are now known to have died in the quake and about 28,000 made homeless, officials say.

No survivors have been found since late on Tuesday and the relief effort has moved on to helping the survivors.

A mass funeral will be held in the regional capital L’Aquila on Friday and day of mourning across the country.

Many of the villages in the area are leveled with generations wiped out in an instant.

Sundown today marks the beginning of Pesach [Passover]. The story is found in the Book of Exodus.

You can, of course, just pop in a DVD of The Ten Commandments, Cecil B. DeMille’s version.

[I would note that the “monuments” to the Ten Commandments that litter public spaces are often promotional items put out to promote this movie. There weren’t any Happy Meals in 1956, so you got granite, instead of plastic, chotchkies.]

Wow, things are really getting nasty down here as Republicans and Good Ol’ Boys are out for blood – each others.

The Northwest Florida Daily News is actually starting to commit some journalism, which is a little scary after 8 years as a Hedgemony lap dog.

First up, Sheriff’s Office audit reveals $1.4 million in bonuses and a lot of other financial wheeling in dealing. Not only are rocks being turned over, but the local CPAs have broken the omertà pledge on not speaking ill of each other over previous audits.

In additions to the kick-backs, good-time Charlie had a thing for cars, getting himself about 4 a year. I didn’t drive 4 different vehicles in the 10 years I was in law enforcement. Our Sheriff was definitely a high-roller.

Then we have Okaloosa to sue Valparaiso over F-35 dispute. The county commission voted unanimously to file a law suit against the Valparaiso city commission for attempting to block the F-35 training mission. Eglin AFB is the largest single reason for an economy in Okaloosa County. Tourism is a distant second and it is really on the skids. Anything that threatens the missions at the Base is definitely a threat to the economy of the county. Giving the current economic conditions and the recent actions by Bay County, the county is not going to take any chances.

Pass the popcorn.

The BBC reports on the current numbers:

At least 207 people have been killed by Monday’s earthquake in central Italy, with 100 residents critically injured, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says.

He said 150 people had been rescued alive so far, and the operation would continue for a further 48 hours and involve 7,000 rescuers.

About 1,000 people were injured and 17,000 were left homeless following the pre-dawn quake in the Abruzzo region.

There was some good news: “A 98-year-old woman was pulled out alive in L’Aquila after being trapped for 30 hours, local media report. She spent the time crocheting. ”

The USGS list of quakes in the area show that there was a 4.0 event 5 hours before the major quake and 5 aftershocks [4.6, 4.4, 4.3, 4.9, and 4.9] since. The area still hasn’t equalized, and the rescue work is very dangerous in the unstable rubble.

Update: Add a 5.6 and another 4.6 to the list. The adjustment to the plates is definitely not over.

I was living in San Diego when the attack at the McDonalds in San Ysidro occurred. There were 21 dead before the police got a clear shot and killed the shooter.

That was 1984 and the economy was in the tank. There were lay offs and out-sourcing was beginning in earnest. When the economy is bad there is always a sharp upturn in these mass killings. People believe that their worth as a person is dependent on their job. When people are out of work for an extended period they become depressed and some eventually snap.

These events are usually suicides, either by their own hand or by the police. They are often an attempt to establish the perpetrator as “somebody”, not just some faceless loser. Often the victims are chosen with revenge in the mind of the shooter, but the connection may only be obvious to the shooter, usually a white male, just like serial killers.

MSNBC has an AP article that features criminal profilers. They make the point that there isn’t a single cause that would make it possible to predict who will do this, and though the triggering event is usually unemployment, that is merely the last straw for the individual.

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The Times-Picayune has the latest not running for President fundraising events:

BATON ROUGE — Gov. Bobby Jindal is flying to Paradise Valley, Ariz., today to attend a fundraiser for his gubernatorial re-election campaign, his office announced.

The Republican governor has ventured out of state on a regular basis, putting in fundraising appearances last week in Chicago and a Kansas City suburb. He has scheduled trips to Boston and Destin, Fla., later this month.

Gee, Destin … I could wander down and watch him not running in person, although I would have to pay to get in, and almost everything is a better buy that seeing Piyush.

The BBC has comprehensive coverage of the event. The basics are: 91 150 deaths, 1,500 injured, 30,000+ homeless in and around the town of L’Aquila. Many of the small villages in the area have been leveled, while utilities have been cut off and roads blocked.

This occurred on the mountainous spine of Italy and much of the construction was centuries old unreinforced masonry. Survivors report an extended period of shaking, rather that a single, sharp snap. This type is especially damaging to old masonry construction.

The BBC reports that an Earthquake strikes central Italy: “According to the US Geological Survey, the magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck at 0132 GMT about 95 km (60 miles) north-east of the capital, Rome.”

Earlier there was a 4.6 quake East-Southeast of Bologna in Northern Italy.

Here’s a map of the location.