The latest CBS report on the I-5 bridge collapse over the Skagit River north of Seattle, Washington indicated that they are blaming it on an over-sized load hitting a support girder.

Of course it couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that the bridge was part of the initial Interstate system and was built during Eisenhower’s first term in 1955, and no doubt modeled with an Erector Set [a common practice at the time].

Since the Reagan administration all of the highway money has been spent on new roads, many of them unneeded, and less and less on routine maintenance. That bridge should have been replaced years ago with a more modern design, without the girders and with wider shoulders, but fixing things doesn’t generate the campaign money that new roads do.

People need work, and those with money are willing to pay the Treasury to hold it, so we should be fixing our decaying infrastructure, but we can’t do it. The reason we can’t do seem to boil down to Paul Krugman is shrill and J.M. Keynes was ‘Teh Gay’, so anything that looks and acts as an economic stimulus is totally unacceptable to the Village.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] has issued the official guess for the 2013 hurricane season: NOAA predicts active 2013 Atlantic hurricane season

For the six-month hurricane season, which begins June 1, NOAA’s Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook says there is a 70 percent likelihood of 13 to 20 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), of which 7 to 11 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 3 to 6 major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of 111 mph or higher).

These ranges are well above the seasonal average of 12 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes.

These used to be forecasts, but now they are guesses until we can figure out the new patterns for tropical storms.

[I wonder how long it took them to come up with an acronym pronounced ‘Noah’?]

Hermit Crab

Go away!

[Editor: Hermit is definitely not happy that I discovered where she hangs out.]

Friday Ark