Posts from — October 2021

Position: 35.6N 44.1W [10:00PM CDT 0300UTC].
Movement: Southwest [215°] near 8 mph [13 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 85 kph].
Wind Gusts: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 105 miles [165 km].
Minimum central pressure: 990 mb.

Currently about 960 miles [1540 km] West of the Azores.

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.]

Whether you celebrate Celtic New Year’s Eve [Samhain], the evening before All Saints Day [Halloween], or the anniversary of the posting of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 [Reformation Day], have a happy one.

Wikipedia does its normally thorough job of covering all of the bases on the holidays that share October 31^st.

These are my remembrances of a traditional American Halloween.

Locally COVID and the cold front altered normal activities for this holiday. No information on the ‘Autumn Festival’ across the street. If unGovernor Dementis had taken the minimal steps required or stopped interfering with local government we might have seen a semi-normal Halloween, mini-Trump has to prove he’s Trumpier than Abbott of Texas.

I have a bad case of Bronchitis at the moment and have been reducing my on-line activities. With keeping track of three medications Once, Twice, and Four Times a day, some only with food, some without food, and some not to be taken without Iron or Calcium scheduling drugs is an on-going project.

A typically snarky article in The Reg concerning a well-known scofflaw: Florida man accused of breaking Mastodon’s open-source license with botched social network launch.

If you don’t pay your contractors, the competent people won’t work for you. Mastodon isn’t Twitter, but it’s open-source and free. There are rules about open-source software and lawyers who will help you enforce them.

The meteorologists agree that the Pacific now has a La Niña, a large area of cold water along the Equator, in force. This used to mean that there would be more and stronger tropical storms in the Atlantic Basin due to decreased wind shear, strong upper altitude winds that suppress the development of storms. There has been no perceptible decease in wind shear and there is no sign of developing tropical systems.

Nothing seems to work the way it used to and that makes forecasting more difficult than ever. The season officially ends on November 30th, but nothing is certain.

Scientists in Ottawa were attempting to calculate the number of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) cases that could be anticipated after a Covid vaccination. They determined that it was 1 in a thousand and wrote a paper that was released in pre-print (i.e. before it was peer reviewed). This pre-print was noticed by anti-vaxxers and used to attack the vaccines.

While readying the paper for peer review the scientists discovered an error in their data – Study saying COVID-19 vaccines cause heart inflammation that was hyped by anti-vaxxers, withdrawn due to miscalculation:

However, the study has been retracted due to a miscalculation, Reuters reported.

The rate of myocarditis – the inflammation of the heart muscle – was calculated by dividing the number of COVID-19 vaccines in Ottawa by the number of incidences of the heart condition.

By their calculations, the risk of myocarditis was 1 in 1,000 or 0.1%.

However, the numbers used by the study were wrong. The authors largely underestimated the amount of vaccines delivered, giving a number 25 times smaller than the actual amount.

They initially said that the number of vaccines delivered was 32,379 – when it was actually 854,930.

You make your study and get ready to publish the results. If your results are shown to be erroneous, you admit it and correct the error. After more than 100 years we are still testing Einstein’s works – it’s what scientists do…

The Norwegian Nobel Institute awards Nobel Prizes for Peace, Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature.

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is awarded by the Swedish National Bank and is not affiliated with the Nobel Institute.

On Twitter the twit, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is running a poll on whether there should be a “national divorce”. Just because she is divorced from reality doesn’t mean everyone else should be. In five years in the middle of the 19th century an “attempted divorce” probably caused almost as many or more deaths than Covid-19, depending on the records reviewed. I can’t believe that a Georgian would want to go through that period again. Does William Tecumseh Sherman ring a bell Marjorie?

It’s the second Monday in October, so it is Thanksgiving Day / Jour de l’Action de grâce in Canada. Have a happy one.

The US Federal government has decided to call it Columbus Day [and/or Indigenous Peoples’ Day (if the Indigenous People had had better control of their borders, they wouldn’t have been replaced by white whackos)] , even when it isn’t on the 12^th of October which was the second Wednesday in 1492. But it’s okay that the holiday can be on the wrong day, because Christopher Columbus [AKA: Cristoforo Colombo, Cristóbal Colón] didn’t find what he was looking for and identified what he did find incorrectly. The important thing is that a large area of the map got changed from “here be dragons and sea serpents,” to “here be gold and cannibals” and no mention was made of the oppressive heat, mosquitoes, or hurricanes.

[Read more →]

To all of the various and sundry groups sending me appeals to give them money, or sign a petition, or take a survey, or other annoying requests:

The elections are more than a year away and people aren’t really going to care for another 10 months.

I don’t know where the supposed ads are because I haven’t seen any with the names of those requesting money.

I don’t sign petitions for anything other than Florida ballot items.

I don’t fill out surveys because I don’t see the point. Politicians need to tell people what they will work for.

The Postal Service won’t give the town I live in a separate zip code, so the mail comes through the Fort Walton Beach Post Office. I don’t live in or vote in Fort Walton Beach.

I am “represented” by Matt Gaetz, Marco Rubio, and Rick Scott in the Federal Government. Contacting them about anything would be a waste of my time. None of them have done anything for Florida or me.

Position: 51.0N 39.4W [ 4:00AM CDT 0900UTC].
Movement: North [010°] near 23 mph [37 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 80 mph [130 kph].
Wind Gusts: 100 mph [160 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 460 miles [740 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 80 miles [130 km].
Minimum central pressure: 970 mb ↑.

Currently about 690 miles [1110 km] East-Northeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland.

This is the last public advisory issued by the National Hurricane Center on this system.

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.]

Position: 47.7N 40.2W [10:00PM CDT 0300UTC].
Movement: North-Northeast [030°] near 29 mph [46 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 85 mph [140 kph].
Wind Gusts: 105 mph [170 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 460 miles [740 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 80 miles [130 km].
Minimum central pressure: 965 mb.

Currently about 610 miles [ 980 km] East of Cape Race, Newfoundland.

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.]

Position: 18.8N 45.2W [10:00AM CDT 1500UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [300°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 30 mph [ 45 kph].
Wind Gusts: 40 mph [ 65 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1011 mb ↑.

Currently about 1410 miles [2270 km] West of the Cabo Verde Islands.

This is the last public advisory issued by the National Hurricane Center on this system.

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.]

Position: 39.3N 51.2W [10:00PM CDT 0300UTC].
Movement: Northeast [050°] near 20 mph [31 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 105 mph [165 kph].
Wind Gusts: 125 mph [200 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 240 miles [390 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Minimum central pressure: 957 mb ↓.

Currently about 520 miles [ 835 km] South of Cape Race, Newfoundland.

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.]

Position: 17.8N 43.0W [10:00PM CDT 0300UTC].
Movement: Northwest [305°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1007 mb.

Currently about 1260 miles [2030 km] West of the Cabo Verde Islands.

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.]