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Hurricane Update 0315
1.6 million people are without power.
Brennan's Restaurant in Houston reportedly burned down.
There have been major fires in Galveston too. No emergency services there for the people who stuck around despite the mandatory evacuation ordered two days ago.
We are very lucky.
Asshat of the Day – Hurricane Ike Edition
An anonymous commenter (he calls himself "Scott") on Eric Berger's SciGuy blog wrote:
You "experts" better HOPE it's as bad as your saying or your "chicken little" DRAMA will bite you from now on.You better HOPE it's another 25 years before the next one so people won't remember what DRAMA QUEEN MORONS you are!
Those who attack others anonymously in blog comments are, as a general principle, colossal asshats, not meriting any special attention in the form of an Asshat of the Day Award (ADA). But Eric, for those of you who haven't perused his blog, has been doing exceptional work, writing levelheadedly about Hurricane Ike's approach, tracking the experts' predictions, patiently explaining what Texans can expect, and answering hundreds of questions every afternoon in a lengthy live chat session.
I'm not saying Scott's polemic wouldn't be appropriate directed toward, say, the producers of any TV news program in town. But it's not appropriate toward SciGuy. Eric Berger is a beacon of reason in times of media-induced hysteria. He's the antidote to those in the media who squeeze every dram of drama out of each impending tropical storm.
Hurricane Ike Update – 2130h
I went to fetch Oma back here; there was hardly anyone on the road - I passed maybe three other cars on I-10. There are lots of small branches in the streets; lots of people don't have power, probably as a result of transformers blowing when branches blow onto power lines. I guess it's not cost-effective for the utilities to keep trees cut away from lines, and most people don't think to do it themselves until it's dark and the wind is blowing. I for one am sure not going to get up on a ladder with a chainsaw right now.
Hurricane Ike Update – 2015h
A nice breeze, with a few gusts. Few drops of rain. We heard a transformer blow in the neighborhood about 15 minutes ago, but we still have power. I relented and boarded up a few critical windows - Jennifer can be very persuasive.
Oma's power (she lives a few miles northwest of here) is out already. She had vowed, in the event of an outage, to get in the car and head to Chicago, but I think she was expecting the storm to come before the power failure.
Why the power problems before the storm?
Hurricane News
It turns out that storm tides were largely responsible for the 6,000-12,000 deaths in the Galveston Storm of 1900 (the deadliest natural disaster in the United States, even now). Those tides were 8 to 15 feet.
Since then the elevation of the city has been raised, but with a storm surge up to 22 feet above sea level expected, it is foolhardy to remain on the island, as up to 40% of Galveston's population has reportedly done.
Storm Update
Thank you to all who have expressed concern about how we'll fare in Hurricane Ike.
Ike looks like it will come ashore somewhere on Galveston Island (50 miles to our southeast) with a huge (up to 22-foot) storm surge. Galveston has a seawall that is 17 feet high on the Gulf of Mexico side only. So Galveston is in a world of hurt. (Since I wrote that, I heard that there's already seawater in the streets there.)
I think we're going to be okay. We're in the Houston Heights, about 3 miles from downtown and about 60 feet above sea level. The storm surge will not directly affect us. We'll get a bunch of rain - maybe more than a foot. We're high enough above sea level, and built high enough above the ground, that that won't be enough to wash us away.
We're also going to get some winds. See here for forecast maximum sustained winds - we're in ZIP 77007. We boarded up for Hurricane Rita, and still have the lumber in the attic, but I'm not planning to do so again this time around. We're stashing all of the yard litter in the garage with the cars, which are full of gas in case we want to head for somewhere that has electric power after the storm.
Paging Mrs. MalAProp
Quoth the Associated Press:
By acclimation, the Republicans nominated Palin as their vice presidential pick Thursday night, an almost anticlimactic step after McCain's surprise selection of her last Friday and her speech Wednesday night.
I'll Let Someone Else Judge Whether That Was Appropriate.
A political convention is theatre, and the clothing worn by the participants is costume. Every choice has a meaning.
I think the costume designer for Governor Palin's speech last night:
has a really dark sense of humor:
About Thinking
When lawyers start talking about The Art of War, I sometimes suggest that they should first read and grok - or at least understand - Lao Tse
In my readings I've come upon numerous technologies - some of which I've discussed in this space - that may make better trial lawyers. There's a common thread among these technologies (from acting to survival): they're about tapping the resources of our brains.
The principle that suggests that we read Lao Tse to understand Sun Tzu also suggests reading cognitive science to understand Lao Tse (and Johnstone
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