Posts from — December 2012

For an overall look at the 2012 Hurricane Season I recommend Jeff Masters’s Summary.

I said ‘weird’ and he says ‘bizarre’ but the tropical storms this year didn’t act like they should have. The track forecasts were really good this year, no matter what the Republicans may think. The problem was the wind speeds were much lower, and the storms much bigger that would be expected. The storm surges were higher than normal for the category of the storms, and the pressures lower.

While Issac provided some drought relief in the Mississippi Valley, its effects didn’t last, and barge traffic on the river may end at any time without significant rainfall over the system. On the Missouri they are limiting flow to preserve water for irrigation, industry, and drinking, but if the barges stop, they may have the water to grow crops and make things, and end up with no good way to ship them to market. Meanwhile the coasts are getting more rain than they want.

The climate isn’t governed by what people believe, it is governed by atmospheric conditions. Global climate change is here, and people need to start taking drastic action, because it is decades too late for gradual solutions.

Happy NODWISH Greetings

It is the first Sunday in Advent, so as a service to my readers I have compiled a list of useful terms for our modern global village.

It is time to wish family and friends: [select one]

Happy NODWISH
Merry Solstice
Happy Hanukkah
Happy Kwanzaa
С Рождеством Христовым
Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Nadolig Llawen
Fröhliche Weihnachten
Joyeux Noël
Buon Natale
Feliz Navidad
God Jul
Rauhallista Joulua
Happy Hogwatch
Happy Christmas

[Read more →]

Once again, Why Now? is pleased to present the link to the webcam of Gävlebocken, The biggest Christmas Goat in the world [now with a blog].

From Steve Bates of Yellow Doggerel Something in the comments from 2006:

Why build a giant goat of straw,
Which most of us would scarcely note?
Some, though, defy the very law,
To vandalize the Gävle Goat.

In some years, they used wayward cars;
In others, flaming arrows smote.
This year’s survives, although with scars…
A fact that gets some people’s goat.

A webcam and some watchful eyes,
A flame-retardant second coat,
Should save it… unless Dubya spies
The thing, and claims it’s his pet goat!

– SB the YDS

[Note: with the time difference and much shorter days in Sweden in the winter, you have to look really early to see the ‘Goat in daylight.]

With all of its annoyances the current structure of the Internet has been working well, but now the United Nations wants to get into the act and take over the administration.

Yes, it is controlled to a great extent by the US government and US organizations, but that has a lot to do with the birth of the ‘Net, rather than some conspiracy to control the world. It works pretty well because the US has developed a hands-off approach to regulating the ‘Net.

If the control is passed to the International Telecommunications Union, UN Bureaucrats will be making decisions and passing regulations that affect us all. I’m not really interested in having people from the governments of Syria, Iran, China, and Russia determining what can and what cannot appear on the Internet, or to have them decide how it will be paid for.

Consider that they have been discussing a model that involves having content providers billed for the data sent over the ‘Net. This means that a denial of service attack will cost the victim a major amount of money for trying to service all of the requests.

A page has been set up, Stop the Internet Coup, to urge action on the UN move. If some of the things they are proposing go through, you can expect to see a lot of people folding their tents and leaving the ‘Net.