Sunday, August 16, 2009

Hurricane Bill is Coming Right At Us

link

I'm expecting it to make landfall in Manhattan next Friday, 8/27. I've got my plane tickets.

Ana, Bill and Claudette

link
It's not looking like Claudette's going to become a hurricane, so we're not going to have last year's definitive progression where every cyclone became a named storm became a hurricane. But, still. Kicking off with three at once is pretty impressive.

Friday, August 14, 2009

When I type 'www' my browser autocompletes '.nhc.noaa.gov'

Is that wrong?

We have tropical depression two, by the way, and another tropical wave
looking like it could be Ana, just as the Great Book of Tuesday's
Christian Science Monitor predicted.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo_atl.shtml
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0812/p02s01-usgn.html

Oh, storm frequency's doubled in the Atlantic coast:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0813/p02s10-usgn.html
Although the New York Times changes the stress in the story.
Comically, really:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/science/earth/13atlantic.html?scp=1&sq=tropical%20storm%20one&st=cse
"Although current numbers are relatively high, they say, both
analytical methods suggest that a period of high storm frequency,
possibly even higher than today's, began in the year 900 and lasted
until 1200 or so."

OK, now I'm not trying to panic you, but that's just stupid. We're at
the beginning of a trend, and ten years in we've hit the previous high
point for a three-hundred year span of recorded history. Cornelia
Dean's bringing a very weird bias to the grey lady.

RFM

Friday, August 07, 2009

The Great Lesson of the Bailout

there's no link
I wanted to make this a longer posting, but... you know. Anyway, we've see AIG's first quarterly profit since 2007 and Goldman Sachs' -- who was largely the recipient of the credit default swaps we covered -- something like best quarter ever, as well as the biggest and most sustained sucker's rally in the history of the markets. Cash for Clunkers has teased a lot of money into Ford's pockets.

So, I just wanted to capture and crystallize what we've learned, which I think is this:

If you give money to corporations, they will then have that money.

Anyway, CfC is no doubt creating a lot more uncoverable debt; I kind of wonder who's financing it.

My father was always intrigued by the Hebraic tradition of the Jubilee Year, where all debts were forgiven. I kind of wonder if the government will pass a law making it illegal to collect on debts incurred before the enactment date.

I kind of wonder if we'll go to war over it.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

1992 Was The Last Time We Had No Named Tropical Storms in the Atlantic by August Sixth

link
I know you were wondering that, so I looked it up for you. I seem to have completely missed Tropical Depression One, although it's correct to say we've had no tropical depressions since the official beginning of the season, and that the only one we have had didn't last two days.

I was on the West Coast in 1992, so when people talk to me about Hurricane Andrew, I'm all like, "How about that new Coldplay album?" This is from the link

Hurricane Andrew is the second most powerful, and the last of three Category 5 hurricanes that made U.S. landfall during the 20th century, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Andrew caused 65 deaths.[1]

The first named storm of the 1992 Atlantic hurricane season, Andrew struck the northwestern Bahamas, southern Florida at Homestead (south of Miami), and southwest Louisiana around Morgan City in August.[2] Andrew caused $26.5 billion in damage ($38.1 billion in 2006 US dollars), with most of that damage cost in south Florida, although other sources put damage between $27 billion to $34 billion in total costs. Its central pressure ranks as fourth-lowest in U.S. landfall records and Andrew was the costliest Atlantic hurricane in U.S. history until surpassed by Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 season. It was also the first of two Category 4 or higher storms to strike the United States that year (Hurricane Iniki in the Central Pacific struck Hawaii a couple of weeks later).



So, OK. Here we go.