Posts from — November 2009

Apparently not satisfied with annoying coastal residents along the northern Gulf, Ida flooded small farmers in Georgia, and is now attacking the Mid-Atlantic coastline.

Dr Jeff Masters reports: “A historic Nor’easter, energized by the remains of Hurricane Ida is pounding the coast from North Carolina to New Jersey with heavy rain, tropical storm-force winds, and a destructive storm surge. Wind gusts of 64 mph were reported at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and at Cape Henry, VA this morning. The high winds, combined with the slow movement of the Nor’easter are acting to push near-record storm surges onto the coast in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.”

These things are bad enough when it’s hot outside, but having to put up with them when it’s cold is really pushing it.

To one of the most annoying hacks still on CNN Lou Dobbs.

Someone I know may be able to reduce their blood pressure medication with him gone. The man was once a newscaster and did a competent job reading the news, but then they let him express his opinion and people discovered what an idiot he was.

I think we can all safely assume that he will probably be replaced with another old white guy who votes Republican.

Update: Ah, yes, true to form it is John King.

The BBC reports on a New PC to encourage older users

A new computer aimed at people aged over 60 who are unfamiliar with PCs and the internet has been unveiled.

The simplified desktop – called SimplicITy – has just six buttons directing users to basic tasks such as e-mail and chat.

The computer comes pre-loaded with 17 video tutorials from television presenter Valerie Singleton.
…

The computer is built using Linux operating system, a free operating system that can be customised by users.

If people decide they no longer need the SimplicITy desktop, they can replace it with a standard Linux desktop.

The point a lot of people miss is that Linux can be simple to use for simple things, i.e. using a computer as an appliance, like a typewriter and telephone. As long as you aren’t interested in the newest games or most advanced multi-media applications, it is really straight forward. By using Linux, these people are avoiding a lot of the pitfalls that can be annoying and expensive, like computer viruses and trojans.

If we had wider availability of broadband in this country at a reasonable price, this would be a nice addition.

You may have read about the assault in Tampa, a Marine Reservist attacked a Greek Orthodox priest claiming he thought the priest was a Muslim terrorist.

Sorry, but if you can’t recognize a Greek Orthodox priest after living in Tampa for more than a week, you aren’t quite as bright as mildew.

The Greeks were first drawn to Tarpon Springs, North of Tampa, at the end of the 19^th century to dive for sponges in the Gulf of Mexico, and enough of them went down to Tampa that the government of Greece has a consulate in the city. The governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, is a Greek-American from Tampa. It is rather difficult to miss the Greek festival in the city. Actually, even in cities as small as Fort Walton Beach, there is a Greek Orthodox church.

This guy is trying to convince law enforcement that he seriously thought that Muslim terrorists would dress up like Lawrence of Arabia so everyone would realize who they were. Bruce’s claims are ludicrous:

The man yelled “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” the same words some witnesses said the Fort Hood shooting suspect uttered last week.

“That’s what they tell you right before they blow you up,” police say Bruce told them.

Having known a few Muslims I can tell you that they use “Allahu Akbar” the same way Christians use “Jesus Christ” – the meaning depends on the context, and whether the exhaust manifold was hot or cold when the wrench slipped…

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 the guns fell silent. The Great War, The War to End All Wars, was over…for a couple of decades.

The red poppies of Flanders fields became a symbol of that war and the veterans that returned from it. Known as Remembrance Day in much of the world, the poppies will be in evidence. Remembrance Day observances have more in common with the American Memorial Day as day to honor those who have died in war.

First called Armistice Day in the United States, the name was changed to Veterans Day, and its purpose changed to honoring those who are serving, or have served in the military. The change was made to avoid a conflict with the existing Memorial Day observance that goes back to the Civil War era.

A heart felt salute to everyone who managed to survive basic training. We can hope that sooner, rather than later, there will be no need for another generation to put on uniforms and march to war.

I was going to do this on Veterans Day, and then decided to avoid that. This is about all of the lip service that the Republicans pay to military, and then turn around and stab them in the back.

The Pensacola News Journal ran a Tom Philpott piece, Senator puts hold on veteran’s caregiver bill, about one of the worst offenders in Congress, Ensign’s C Street roommate, Tom Coburn† of Oklahoma.

What is Coburn’s objection? He thinks it’s a waste of money for the Veterans Administration to give a stipend to family members of disabled veterans who act as caregivers.

Existing law enables veterans to get in-home assistance. Studies show that such assistance is cheaper than having them in VA facilities. Further study has determined that it is even cheaper to offer training to family members and give them a small stipend to provide most of the assistance. Home health care is not always available near the homes of the veterans, and it is extremely expensive to pay for health care workers when most of their time is spent traveling to and from patients. Rather than being a waste of money, this is a way for the VA to save money, and to avoid having to build new facilities for all of the new disabled veterans returning from the conflicts in Southwest Asia.

As an accountant and a doctor [Ob-Gyn] you would think that Coburn would understand about “penny wise, and pound foolish” as well as “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, but that wouldn’t be in line with his adopted persona as a “conservative”. [During the 110^th Congress, Coburn put holds on 90 bills.]

† One of the Family guys.

So I read the media sites after picking up the bigger debris blown into the yard by Ida, and I see this article, ‘Muslim Mafia’ author ordered to remove documents from Web, on McClatchy.

Normally I would be foursquare behind the right to post anything on the ‘Net that you owned the rights to, or was covered by “fair use”, because I tend to be rather unbending on First Amendment issues, but this isn’t a straight freedom to post issue.

The author of Muslim Mafia is on a Crusade, in the 1095 meaning of the word, against the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Among the information ordered removed was the personal contact information for the employees of CAIR and the organization’s donors. CAIR went to court because people have malkinized by the release of this information. The malkintents and 9-twelvers have been making harassing, and occasionally threatening, contact with the employees and donors.

I knew the name of the author was familiar, and Danger Room explained why Paul David Gaubatz had appeared on my screen before. I mean, how could anyone forget the guy who knew where Saddam’s WMDs really were, and blew the cover on the US military’s use of ray guns. I don’t doubt he could tell John where the alien spacecraft took the mammoths.

Don’t get mad, get even.

United States Marine Corps

1775

Position: 30.6 N 87.6 W [ 9 PM CST 1500 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [045°] near 9 mph [15 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1000 mb ↑.

It is 25 miles [40 km] West-Northwest of Pensacola, Florida.

The storm crossed Dauphin Island and then came on to the mainland Northwest of Bon Secour on the East side of Mobile Bay.

Ida was declared Extra-tropical at 9AM CST and all tropical warnings have been discontinued. This is the last advisory.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

For years in this area people were lax about hurricane preparation and that has led to some very dangerous moments when storms have struck. People have refused to evacuate from known danger areas when it was safe to to do so, and then expected to be rescued when the storm was exactly as warned, and was tearing their house apart.

Even though Ida has turned out to be a lot less dangerous than first thought, local governments moved to minimize the risks. The Pensacola News Journal covered closures in the West in Panhandle braces for Ida, and the Northwest Florida Daily News covers the East in Businesses, schools, bases close for Ida.

I can guarantee that officials will be receiving flak from people who will feel that all of the closures were unnecessary for Ida. These are the same people who will call to be rescued after they lose their roof and the wind is gusting over 100 mph.

I would also remind locals that if your area is subject to flooding, this is going to be a rain event, if nothing else, and you can expect the local rivers and creeks to rise. Depending on how slowly it moves, we can have severe flooding in the North County.

If you were trying to get here early this afternoon you may have received odd error messages.

They had nothing to do with the tropical storm because the problem was out West with a database server and a runaway process. It is one of the prices you pay for sharing resources.

Things appear to be back to normal.

Position: 29.3 N 88.6 W [ 9 PM CST 0300 UTC].
Movement: North [360°] near 13 mph [20 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 65 mph [100 kph].
Wind Gusts: 75 mph [115 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 200 miles [320 km].
Minimum central pressure: 997 mb ↑.

It is 100 miles [165 km] South-Southwest of Mobile, Alabama.

A Tropical Storm Warning is now in effect for the northern Gulf Coast from Grand Isle Louisiana eastward to Aucilla River Florida including New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Both Mustang Bobby and Echidne are celebrating their sixth blogiversaries™ today.

A lost of people started blogging a year before the election, but few kept at it.