Blogging again
February 2, 2009
For a variety of reasons, chief among them being having not much to say, this space has been quiet.
However, at the behest of a friend of mine that will not be the case for the time-being. We’ll see how this goes.
The forgotten heroes of Katrina
August 29, 2008
From Barack Obama’s acceptance speech:
We are more compassionate than a government that … sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
This is a variation on the oft-used statement that the federal government “did nothing”. On my good days the statement annoys me and on other days it angers me. You see, there was this little group that’s part of the Department of Homeland Security that did a little something. They did not let a city drown, they rescued more than 30,000 people. The United States Coast Guard deserves better.
Re: Is Dean becoming annular?
August 19, 2007
(I tried posting this as a comment to Brendan’s post, but it got flagged as spam, so I’ll repeat it here and throw in a couple of references for the meteorologically inclined)
One of the things to come out of the recent research into annual hurricanes is an Annular Hurricane Index, which screens storms for the possibility of being annular and then rates how annular they are. It’s being operationally tested this year.
And yes, yesterday evening, it did pass all of the screening steps and was marginally annualar, according to the index.
One thing that I didn’t realize when I wrote the Katrina post is that (based on observation), there is a max SST for a hurricane to be annular. The screening step for the index fails a storm if it’s over 29.1 C. Dean will be over waters warmer than that today.
References:
Operational Implementation of an Objective Annular Hurricane Index (Powerpoint presentation)
Annular Hurricanes (PDF)
Tropical Depression Two (or Tropical Storm Beryl)
July 18, 2006
As noted by Stormtrack and others, Tropical Depression Two formed this morning off the southeast U.S. coast.
A reconnaisance plane is currently flying through the system. It has not yet made a full pass through the northeast quadrant of the storm where one would expect to find the strongest winds. It looks like the plane won’t do so until fairly close to advisory time (5 PM EDT). To this point the highest flight level winds recon has found is 32 knots; recon rould need to find flight level winds at around 45 knots or higher to justify an upgrade to tropical storm status.
Unfortunately, I lack time to write more until late tonight… stay tuned to the National Hurricane Center for the latest and greatest.
Long time coming
April 14, 2006
Up until now, I don't think I've ever had a book that I've waited several years to read. In this case, the wait was about fifteen years.
One of the great books of my formative years was The Great Escape*, the classic true story of the largest prisioner escape of World War II. In it is this passage:
It was about this time in East Compound that Eric Williams and two of his friends escaped through the most brilliant and ingenious tunnel yet devised.
They made a vaulting horse with covered-in sides and parked it every day by the warning wire in exactly the same place. While a team of men had vaulting drill over it, Williams and his colleagues, who had been carried to the spot inside the horse, were tunneling underneath. Being able to start by the warning wire instead of under a hutgave them a couple of hundred feet less to dig to freedom. After weeks and weeks of dogged and courageous work, they broke through outside the wire one night and all three of them got back ton England by way of sweeden. That effort (described in Eric Williams' brilliant book, The Wooden Horse) is already acknowledged as one of the classic escapes of history.
I had read those words from a vintage 1950's copy of The Great Escape that I had found in a used bookstore. I assumed at the time that the only place I would find The Wooden Horse would be a used bookstore as well, but years of browsing proved fruitless and eventually I forgot about it.
Not too long ago, I found a selection of re-issues of classic WWII books in the bargain bin at Books-A-Million for five dollars a piece, one of them being The Great Escape. I purchased it along with a few other books. I only just recently re-read it, and of course was reminded of my long sought after book. For some reason the thought to search Amazon didn't occur to me immediately at the moment, but it did when I was placing an order for Oriana Fallaci's The Rage and The Pride and The Force of Reason. I was in the usual bind of being just under the threshold for free shipping and needed to order another book. I was stumped for a moment, but then sprang into action and sure enough, found that a reprint of The Wooden Horse was released in 2005.
Got it in the mail yesterday, and am so happy that I'm blogging about it now 
* The link is to the particular edition I found in Books-A-Million. The funny thing about it is the cover, which features Steve McQueen on a motorcycle. The image of course, is from the movie adaptation of the novel. The scene that the picture is taken from is completely fictional. As such, anyone who picks up this copy without having ever seen the movie is bound to be puzzled by the selection for the cover.
technorati tags: books
Despite opening an 11 point lead early in the second half, FSU allowed Wake Forest to take the lead with about 3:40 left in the game. The 4 seniors of the Demon Deacon squad rose to the occasion as the Seminoles collapsed (and continued to foul even though the game was lost; that’s what made the score a bit more lopsided than it should have been). For the 10th time in 15 ACC tournaments, FSU is out after one game.
Halftime: FSU 40 Wake 32
March 9, 2006
The Seminoles scored the first nine points of the game and have yet to relinquish the lead.
Al Thornton leads the way with 11 points and the Noles have shot 53.8% from the field so far.
We now enter the part of the game that has been dangerous for the Seminoles, the ‘third quarter’. In the Duke and Miami games FSU gave up their leads and the Virginia Tech game, which was tied at halftime became a Virginia Tech win because of a slow start in the second half for Florida State.
And that’s why they call it madness
March 9, 2006
George Washington, a team that had lost only once this season has lost to Temple 68-53. Somewhere, a team on the bubble cries.
The top team in the country, Connecticut, is has lost in overtime against Syracuse.
In the ACC opener, Miami, which came into this game 1-11 in games that they trailed at the half, was losing to Clemson 34-26 at the break. Down by 1 with 48 seconds left, freshman Denis Clemente, a 24% shooter from beyond the arc, hit a three-pointer to give the Hurricanes a lead which they held to the end as they beat the Tigers 66-63. Miami faces Duke tomorrow at noon.
Florida State 67 Miami 64
March 5, 2006
Florida State let a 5 point half time lead lapse into a 7 point deficit early in the second half, but tied the game with eight minutes left and came out on top in the ensuing dogfight.
Miami did not score in the last 3 minutes as a desperation 3-point shot heaved at the end went off the back of the rim.
The win gives Florida State the 5th seed in the ACC tournament, which schedules them for a game against Wake Forest on Thursday afternoon.
More importantly, Florida State finished regular conference play with a winning record and has probably sealed a spot in the NCAA tournament.
