hurricane ike

i live north of houston. we had a hurricane sweep though here early saturday [9/13] morning. i love hurricanes. i plot them. i am amazed at their sheer power and strength. i find the wind beautiful and inspiring. don't get me wrong. i am in no way implying that i welcome the devastation and destruction that so often accompanies them. in fact, i abhor it.

i was not in a voluntary or mandatory evacuation zone. in fact, we were told to shelter in place [meaning not to leave the house] and to 'hunker down'.  we stocked up on supplies, medication, filled up the car with gas, taped the windows, secured everything and still had damage, but thankfully, survived the worst of it.

however, the reason i wanted to blog about this is not because of any of that. there are, i am sure, thousands of blogs posted across the web where you can read different accounts of the storm, see pictures, videos, and even historical comparisons of ike with past storms.

the reason i am writing is that i find some circumstances surrounding ike very unusual.

• the path of ike was unusually unpredictable
• the storm seems to mimic the "galveston hurricane" of 1900 [09/08/00] in many ways including direct hit, storm surge, and tide
• there was very little rain and what rain there was appeared extremely fine and misty [observation, talking to others in the area, local news updates, and report from HPD officer located downtown houston during storm] in fact, on 09.08.08 during passage over cuba, the rain rate remained at under 10 millimeters per hour
• there was no thunder heard [observation & talking to others in the area]
• there was no lightning seen [observation & talking to others in the area]
• the storm encompassed over 600 miles and had an eye of over 60 miles accross at one point
• it did not weaken quickly over land
• although area residents had ample warning and federal disaster aid was set up before the storm even hit, it somehow was delayed for approximately 3 days
• the storm surge was equal to that of a category 4 or 5 storm, causing extensive damage some 10 hours or more before the storm [weather channel live reports]
• the storm was reported to maintain 100 mph winds [for hours] even though the pressure was dropping and the storm was moving over the warm waters of the gulf [observation, live news feed]
• although winds were reported to be at about a sustained 110 mph, more damage was done than is/was listed as a possibility with winds of that force or category
  
• the president did not tour the area until 3 days after the storm
• photos of galveston island have been limited and repetitious, in fact, up until 3 days after the storm, the news was showing the same 4-5 photos on all networks and surprisingly, differing photos could hardly be found on the web  [observation, internet search results, fox news, cnn, msnbc]
• 3 days after the storm, residents are finally being allowed on the island in a "look and leave" manner, with an escort and a limited time to survey damage to their own property
• ike was one of a series of storms that developed within a matter of days; each which took a different path and had a different outcome, not so unusual, but it seemed as if several were triggered at once until one got it right. although stacked storms are not unusual, especially at the peak of hurricane season, these all seemed to originate at or about the same area, which is unusual
  
• downtown houston never did lose power and sustained very little damage although the storm went right through there, including the eye and eye walls. [HPD patrol report downtown houston]. the media reported severe damage. in contrast, areas to the n, s, e and w did have substantial damage
• reportedly, the army corps is not allowing fema onto the island [yet to be confirmed]
• the mayor of galveston stated she would not evacuate the island [this on wed/thur] because it was too late and an evacuation was not possible. she evacuated the island on friday.
• the galveston mayor also said they would not attempt rescues of persons remaining, but thankfully, they did
• supposedly the chief of police for hpd stated that 12 hour shifts could stop 3 days after the storm. the mayor demanded they continue and the area put out a national plea to other police officers to come and help. but not until 3 days after the storm.
• the media has been moved away from the storm operations center in galveston.  check out this blog for more information about the lack of information coming out of galveston
• no coverage or official announcement has been given about the condition or damage of/to NASA besides a general closing announcement and some damage reports. ??? isn't this kind of an important place?
• curfews are in effect not only in blackout areas but in operational areas as well
• almost all of the houston-area refineries are down shooting the cost of fuel up throughout the nation
• the stock market fell 500 pts by friday
• even youtube images of the island are limited to one official flyover video which is very blurry
• today the mayor of galveston told the residents that would participate in the look and leave program that they would not see the coastal devastation that they had seen on the news because it had been cleaned up. cleaned up? already? wait. the mayor has cancelled the "look and leave" program because of traffic congestion and has announced that it will not be tried again. seems this would have been expected and provisions made to deal with it before the program was initiated, that is, if the plans were formulated to be successful in the first place.
• it appears that marshal law is in effect in galveston although the mayor denies it. however, channel 13 local news announced that marshal law is in effect on what is left of boliver peninsula
• nearly 65,000 people live on galveston island. reportedly, over 33% decided to ignore mandatory evacuation orders. to date, the death toll, estimates of people rescued, sheltered, evacuated do not even begin to add up to 65,000.
• all of this fell very close to the seventh anniversary of 09.11
• we haven't heard a word of campaigning or even had a visit from either of the presidential candidates. they seem to be keeping their distance [all i could find searching were sympathy-related statements; granted, obama is helping to solicit donations by linking to the red cross on his website and through emails, but you would think they [obama and mccain] would want to be here in person

please don't get me wrong. this blog is not meant to complain. we were lucky and my heart goes out to those whose fate is yet to be determined.  it is simply my try at putting words this vague yet pervasive feeling that something is just not natural in this whole ordeal.

what became of the 140,000 people who faced certain death from hurricane ike?

media coverage limited on hurricane ike

wordpress blogs on hurricane ike

Now the Xbox 360 has fallen so rapidally to £140 including a game

You can pick it up for that price at GameStation

Granted its Pre-Owned and stuff but meh!

Also get the Arcade and up. The cheapest doesn't have a hard drive :)

Which means limited saves ;)

WE TOOK IT ON EUR/USD'S FAILURE SO FAR, TO REGAIN THE 1.47 HANDLE......EITHER WAY OUR STOP ALLOWS US PLENTY OF CUSHION PLEASE NOT OUR POSITION SIZE IS 0.5X MARGIN

SHORT EUR/USD @ 1.4694 @  0.5XMARGIN

SL    -200

TP  +500

The biggest winners are Rogers, Telus and Bell. New entrants include the folllowing: Quebecor (in Quebec), Globalive (known for it's YAK brand), Data & Audio Visual Enterprises (aka DAVE), Shaw (mainly in the western provinces from B.C. to Manitoba), SaskTel (in Saskatchewan) and an unknown company called Tirabassi.

If you people want to view the bidders' summary, please click here.

It just makes me kinda angry though that 2 years ago, when the world economy was booming etc... there could have been greater political and public will to really make a push towards long term sustainable energy solutions. Live Earth happened...and...sort of went away with not much notice. Here in the UK 5 times as many people tuned in to watch Princess Diana's memorial concert, which is an equally scary thing... I respect what she did and achieved but as a pure marker of public interest it's really terrible that the safety/security of the planet is less attention grabbing than commemorating a celebrity who's really only still that famous because of a bunch of conspiracy theories and Britain's continuing weird relationship between the public and the monarchy. But that's the way it is.

Back then, that's when governments and business - the BIG players who can actually make a difference- should have got their act together, actually been active in backing up the rhetoric. There were warnings about biofuels then too. Now we're in a ridiculously cruel and tragic situation where the giving over of valuable farmland to biofuel farming is nothing more than a disguise of environmental consciousness and is adding perhaps 30% to the world food price crisis.

Basically, right now we're in no state to expect the public to become more environmentally friendly, when people are struggling with basic food and energy bills. But we still need to make a difference as individuals. Yet, without the support of the Government it seems like too much of a sacrifice. Gordon Brown today announced a new set of energy legislation, which is great in that we are pushing towards green technologies. Unfortunately most of the press coverage yesterday night and presumably tomorrow, is based on the predicted 15% rise in energy bills. i guess there are some positives which come out of this like, potentially, fewer flights and holidays, less car use, but at the end of the day if we weren't so dependent on oil, if damaging biofuel production hadn't been as encouraged despite rhe scientific and humanitarian warnings, if public transport was better then we clearly wouldn't be in such a troubled place right now. Perhaps even the virtual recession in the US and stagflation threats across the world wouldn't be as severe....But that's all speculation and i'm probably as foolish as those oil traders.

There's no choice but to do as much as we can in the fight against a changing climate and the struggle towards sustainability - this all comes the same day as scientists are predicting an ice free summer in the arctic this year - We just need to remember that when there's an opportunity to make a difference, we need to ensure we make the most of it.

Newspaper #140
(I give lots of credit to Wwe Adam for the Newspaper part,) Hey guys. There’s only one thing really exciting in the new newspaper. There is a new secret message. Don’t worry about decoding it, because I have it for you.

Find it on the water party review page, on the picture with the crab peeking out.

Once you decode the message, it will inform you to turn the three puffles into the color red. After this, you will receive a message about club penguin mission 8.

That’s it for the newspaper. Here’s the upcoming events.

• Friday, June 20th (yesterday): New Furniture Catalog, New Pin hidden.
• Friday, June 27th: New Sports Catalog.
• July 1st: Fireworks for the celebration of (the 4th of) July.

New Pin
(This is the stuff from Friday: ) The new Pin is located at the Pizza Parlor and is a basketball.

Furniture Catalog:
In the new catalog, you can find an inflatable dragon by clicking on the penguin on the beach towel.

Click the sea weed for the clam.

Press the sunset painting for a lava lamp.

Earthquake
There has been a weird earthquake in Club Penguin, if you check out the Town and the rooms in the Town (Night Club, Coffee Shop, Gift Shop) you'll see that those rooms broke a bit and that there is an earthquake there. Also there is a sign at the HQ so I think the new mission will be about this.
 

That's it for today (and thursday & yesterday ;) ), and Rockhopper will come soon and I think the new mission will be out on Monday.

~Jellyboard

It talks over the party, which ended yesterday, the 18th.

This article has a pretty good Aunt Artic Section which you should definitly check out!

Well its not the most exciting issue.. Well anyways lots of new events. Here they are:

• June 20th

-New Furniture Catalog

-New Pin

• June 27th

-New Sports Catalog

• July 1st

-Fireworks for the Fourth of July

Thats it!

Thanks,

Jc4x4

update by cheatgnome: there is also a secret message to all agent's to find it go to this page.

(click to enlarge)

then click on the picture of the crab (in red)

after that is should bring you to this letter.

to read this message click on all the puffles and make them turn the color red.

if you make them all red the message will appear like this.

(click to enlarge)

ok that's all for now.

-cheatgnome

é um microblog que você coloca pequenas atualizações de + ou - 140 palavras. Você pode adicioná-las mandando SMSs, por mensageiros instantaneos, e-mails, pelo site oficial ou por alguns programas especializados. Para receber informaçoes de uma conta você pode usar RSS ou SMS. Ouvi dizer que há tantos usuários que o servidor lotou.

Já criei meu usuário e achei divertido, uma boa ideia é usá-lo quando estiver viajando, assim você lembará da viagem e seus parentes saberão o que está fazendo. Você pode mudar a foto do seu usuário e até o fundo.

A única coisa que eles pedem é só o úsuario e a senha, além do e-mail, para verififcar se você tem um amigo que usa o Twitter. Olhem o meu Twitter para ter uma idéia de como funciona.

É muito divertido, experimentem.

Bye,bye.

Right now, the wireless spectrum auction in Canada is already kicking into full force! Two or so hours ago, Industry minister Jim Prentice officially kick off the auction and it's auctioning of 40MHz to new participants, out of the 105Mhz total for newcomers that is aimed to encourage strong competition in the Canadian wireless market.

The National Post has some in-depth coverage of the ongoing spectrum coverage and it can be viewed here. You can also keep track on who is bidding and which round is the auction on by going here: http://agora.ic.gc.ca/AuctionGCLF_BTS/mainmenu.cfm

As I mentioned on my previous blog posting, the new entrant will likely to use the GSM standard - the commonly used worldwide standard throughout the world. In North America, CDMA and GSM are used. I proudly support that while CDMA is good for North American usage, GSM is the most encouraged favour of technology in cellular phones.

Licenses for the spectrum in the highly populated Toronto and Southern-Ontario region has been the strongest. Bids in those areas range from $32 million CDN to $50 million CDN.

In other related news and south of the border, the United States wants to hold another auction on the remaining spectrum for possibly some newcomers after Verizion took up the 700MHz pie spectrum. Either way, the races are now on!

The Canadian auction will wrap up sometime in the next three to four weeks. I'll keep you posted on who will that newcomer will be....stay tuned...

References:

"SpectrumWatch: Minister Prentice kicks off auction." National Post. 27 May 2008. 27 May 2008. <http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpposted/archive/2008/05/27/spectrumwatch-minister-prentice-kicks-off-auction.aspx>

"Wireless auction sends quick signals." Canadian Business. 26 May 2008. 27 May 2008. <http://www.canadianbusiness.com/technology/trends/article.jsp?content=20080526_174559_3892>

"Canada auction aims to reshape wireless market." Reuters. 27 May 2008. 27 May 2008. <http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNewsMolt/idUKN2737547420080527?sp=true>

"Canadian Wireless Spectrum Auction underway." Marketnewsgadgettalk. 27 May 2008. 27 May 2008. <http://marketnewsblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/canadian-wireless-spectrum-auction.html>

"Spectrum auction to increase competition, lower cellphone prices: Prentice." The Canadian Press. 27 May 2008. 27 May 2008. <http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jvm5sVnLk_XKH2BDQATkvcHTWoyw>

"Government of Canada Opens Up Wireless Industry to More Competition." Marketwire.com. 27 May 2008. 27 May 2008 <http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=861255>

"Canadian Wireless Auction Could Allow for New Nationwide Carrier." Teleclick.ca. 27 May 2008. 27 May 2008. <http://www.teleclick.ca/2008/05/canadian-wireless-auction-could-allow-for-new-nationwide-carrier/>

"Canada starts 2GHz wireless auction." Electronista.ca. 27 May 2008. 27 May 2008. <http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/05/27/canada.2ghz.auction.starts/>

"Options abound as auction kicks off." National Post. 27 May 2008. 27 May 2008. <http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/story.html?id=3dc6e49a-c9ab-41ad-80a5-90ad661b4534>

"FCC mulling AWS III spectrum auction - 25Mhz swath may hit auction block." IntoMobile.com 24 May 2008. 27 May 2008. <http://www.intomobile.com/2008/05/24/fcc-mulling-aws-iii-spectrum-auction-25mhz-swath-may-hit-auction-block.html>

"FCC to hold new auction for remaining AWS spectrum." Phonemag 27 May 2008. 27 May 2008. <http://www.phonemag.com/fcc-to-hold-new-auction-for-remaining-aws-spectrum-052921.php>

Oskitar y Punio, de cero cero y cincuenta y siete . es han organizado el I CONCURSO TWITTER DE RELATOS BREVES DE CIENCIA FICCIÓN y no he podido resistirme :-)

La idea es simple, contar en un tweet (un micropost de 140 caracteres de Twitter) un relato breve de ciencia-ficción. Casi todos los mostrados son bastante apocalípticos, como corresponde habitualmente al género, pero hay otros bastante cachondos.

Estás son mis contribuciones (de momento):

@scifitwit: Era su primer día. Sin ver el cartel, entró en la sala de control del LHC. Su estropajo frotó un botón y el mundo implosionó.

@scifitwit: Sabía que moriría, pero quería un entierro normal. Soltó su casco y lo lanzó con fuerza en sentido opuesto a la escotilla.

@scifitwit: Erastótenes terminó sus cálculos y miró por la ventana con una sonrisa infantil: ¡quedaba tanto mundo por descubrir!

@scifitwit: el zumbido de la última abeja reina cesó y la vegetación planetaria entró en parada cardiorespiratoria, un nuevo letargo de Gaia

Tenéis más aquí.

Il faut dire qu'en France, pour sûr, mais aussi probablement dans toute l'Europe, en plus de publier les cotes de consommation de carburant des voitures, on voit également une autre cote, qui révèle la quantité de CO2 émise par la voiture, lors de son fonctionnement à une vitesse donnée.  Évidemment, pour conserver cette cote d'émission, le véhicule doit être maintenu dans un état de fonctionnement optimal.  Il est tout aussi probable que ces cotes soient déterminées en laboratoire, et que la cote réelle du véhicule que l'on achète doit différer, en fonction des conditions de conduite, de la température extérieure, du niveau de charge de la voiture, etc.

Mais c'est quand même rassurant de constater qu'une autre personne que moi déclare que les véhicules polluent moins.  Par contre, et ceci dit sans vouloir blesser Virginie Roy, cette vérité qu'elle nous a révélé, nous la savons depuis longtemps; l'augmentation de la pollution, que l'on observe entre autres chez nous, ne dépend pas de la hausse des émissions de chaque véhicule, puisque l'évolution constante de la technologie permet de mieux brûler le carburant, ce qui libère ainsi moins d'émissions polluantes.  Cette augmentation dépend plutôt du fait que le nombre de véhicules, sur les routes, augmente de façon régulière depuis plusieurs décennies.  Sauf que compte tenu de cet accroissement, appelons cela "la demande", pour fins de comparaison, le déploiement du réseau routier, que l'on appellera "l'offre", ne s'est pas poursuivi à un rythme suffisant, au fil des ans.  Nous nous retrouvons donc avec un déséquilibre entre l'offre et la demande qui croît régulièrement.

Tous les activistes demandent, dans le but de ramener l'équilibre, de freiner la demande, c'est à dire de moins utiliser la voiture pour ses déplacements.  Malheureusement, l'offre de transport en commun parvient à peine à combler la demande actuelle, ce qui fait en sorte que l'effort supplémentaire ne peut pas non plus être fourni de ce côté.  Bref, pour conserver l'équilibre, il aurait fallu bouger bien avant aujourd'hui.

Mais comme nous ne pouvons pas reculer dans le temps, il faudra reconnaître que les premiers efforts ne feront que peu de différence, l'écart à combler étant devenu énorme.  Aussi, les 2,7 milliards$ d'investissements, annoncés par le MTQ l'hiver dernier, ne suffiront malheureusement pas à réduire la pollution engendrée par les véhicules.  Parce qu'une mesure exprimée en gCO2/km est précise si le véhicule avance à une vitesse donnée et non pas s'il est arrêté sur un pont, au beau milieu d'un bouchon de circulation.  D'autant plus que ces investissements serviront davantage à remettre en état le réseau actuel, qui en a bien besoin, qu'à augmenter l'étendue de celui-ci.

Donc, merci encore à Virginie Roy pour cette excellente nouvelle.  À défaut d'effectuer - et de publier - de telles mesures chez nous, les français peuvent compter sur des statistiques qui leur permettent de respirer plus d'aise.  Et quand on ajoute à cela que l'activité humaine ne compte que pour environ 5% de tout le CO2 de la planète, et que celui-ci - tout le CO2 de la planète - représente moins de 0,04% du volume de l'atmosphère, il y a vraiment de quoi célébrer!

     222 Ahli Parlimen yang dipilih oleh rakyat dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-12 telah mengangkat sumpah di hadapan Speaker Dewan Rakyat. Speaker baru yang terpilih pada awal majlis, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin dari Sabah telah mempengerusikan Majlis. Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi mengetuai upacara mengangkat sumpah.

Yang DiPertuan Agong, Tuanku Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin akan merasmikan sidang bermula 29 April 2008 hingga 27 May 2008. Persidangan Parlimen kali ini menyaksikan pelbagai sejarah tersendiri terlakar di Dewan Rakyat. Antaranya ialah Ketua Pembangkang Wanita Pertama dilantik oleh Pakatan Rakyat iaitu Datin Seri Wan Azizah setelah Parti Keadilan Rakyat, PKR mewakili kerusi Parlimen pembangkang terbesar mengatasi DAP dan PAS.

Dewan Rakyat juga menerima kehadiran muka baru paling ramai iaitu seramai 90 orang. Parlimen Malaysia telah menerima tiga pasangan ibu dan anak atau bapa dan anak iaitu Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail bersama anaknya YB Puan Nurul Izzah Anwar, YB Tuan Karpal Singh a/l Ram Singh bersama anaknya YB Tuan Gobind Singh Deo dan YB Tuan Lim Kit Siang bersama anaknya YB Tuan Lim Guan Eng, di mana kesemua hadir daripada barisan Pakatan Rakyat!

Menantu Perdana Menteri, YB Tuan Khairy Jamaluddin pula menjadi pelengkap bagi hubungan bapa mentua-menantu dalam Dewan Rakyat. Manakala hubungan adik-beradik berlainan parti diwakili oleh YB Tuan Khalid Abdul Samad (PAS) dan YB Tuan Shahrir Abdul Samad (UMNO) melengkapi sejarah tersendiri.

Warum sollte man das denn machen? ... Weil es einfach einfach einfach ist. Kurze Registrierung und schon kann man los-twittern (=zwitschern). Vielleicht ist es wieder nur ein Hype des Internets, aber vielleicht setzt sich das genauso durch wie seinerseits die SMS, zu denen es ja viele Parallelen gibt.

Auf http://twitter.com/sojahund gibts jetzt auch mein Gezwitscher. Was es da so gibt? Belanglose Dinge und Momentaufnahmen (im wahrsten Sinne der Wortes: Es gibt immer wieder Fotos zu sehen). Eben das was ich auf den Klowänden Chinas hinterlasse...