Life is tenacious
At least one of the molecules--polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon--that may have played a chemical role in genesis. Heck, it can even survive a supernova. No wonder life is so durable, and may be prolific.
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August 31, 2007
Freakin' Felix
The Seablogger (who lives in a vulnerable cabin cruiser docked on Florida's east coast, and so keeps an eye on approaching storms) thinks Felix, the likely next Atlantic tropical storm (possibly to be named later today), could wind up in the Gulf of Mexico, though he isn't predicting where it might go ashore. Even if it didn't head for Texas, we're likely to see some serious rain this Labor Day Weekend and next week out of TS Henriette, which the hurricane center expects to track up the Pacific coast of Mexico today. Tropical storms and hurricanes that do that often send heavy rain across the mountains into Central Texas. I can't find any of the usual-suspect meteorologists around here predicting it yet, but Accuweather's Joe Bastardi is.
UPDATE: It's not Felix yet, but it is Tropical Depression Six and, so far, the hurricane center has it aimed south of where Dean hit the Yucatan. Unless it moves a bit north, it won't make the Gulf.
MORE: Finally it became Felix, and still, more or less, aimed at Belize.
Longhorns go 11-1?
That's the prediction of sportswriter Ced Golden, in the daily, predicting a loss to Nebraska or Texas Tech. Mostly likely, he concludes, to Nebraska. Some of his colleagues are even more pessimistic, forecasting up to four losses and even another season-ending injury for the Tuscola Kid, QB Colt McCoy. Ced's more optimistic, and I certainly am, but I wish he'd take back that loss to Nebraska.
Go get 'em Fred
It's official, with this news release, though the formal to-do, via Webcast, no less, isn't until next Thursday. Some say this will lure overweight and shrill AlGore back into it, but the inconvenient truth is he's a has-been--even for those Dems who know Obama is too young, and Hillarity too soiled with Slick Willie's reputation. But are we really ready for President Fred? Do enough people care about the unfriendly profiles Fred is getting and will get in the MSM? I doubt it. Fewer people all the time pay attention to big media anymore. Are there enough Fred Heads for him to get nominated? I think probably yes. But why give up on Rudy? Could they be persuaded to run with each other? Would Rudy agree to play second-fiddle? At least with Fred in, it will get a lot more interesting.
August 30, 2007
The web on the Web
It's a chilling reminder of Aragog, the giant, man-threatening spider of Hogwarts, but entomologists say the giant web on a nature trail at Lake Tawakoni State Park in northeast Texas is more likely the communal effort of ordinary-sized spiders. But who knew ordinary spiders were into communal efforts?
Dreams
I awoke earlier than usual this morning, after several vivid dreams. The usual silly stuff, such as walking across town to class (!?), then realizing I forgot to wear shoes. For some reason, vivid dreaming seems to make me feel more rested than when I don't dream. I seem not to need as much sleep, as I do seem to need when I don't dream. Sleep researchers, however, don't agree. Although they say REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep correlates with deep sleep which is the most restful, and REM often correlates with dreams, you can have REM without dreams. Science is still trying to figure out what part of the brain produces dreams, and why. What dreams mean, if anything, is still in the realm of superstition, however. Commerce, meanwhile, purports to offer pills to encourage dreams, though they seem to be no more useful than the ones that claim to enlarge a certain male organ
Understanding vs behavior
Mr. B.'s school problems are starting early this year. Yesterday, after pickup, he gave me a very pious and unprompted lecture about how he--unlike some of his pals--knows better than to take his Yu-Gi-Oh cards to school to trade on the playground at recess. Teachers, who consider such things a distraction, don't like to see them except, now and then, at show-and-tell. But behavior, of course, doesn't always follow from understanding. This morning Mr. B.'s mom caught him trying to take a handful of the cards to school. She insisted that he leave them at home. He did, but he didn't like it.
Freedom from the oil ticks?
It could come yet, especially with this first, Chevron example of a vast and deep--ridiculously deep--oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. Although many more of them might mean more tar balls on the beaches at Port A, where the condo signs already warn weekend renters not to track inside what tar occasionally washes up. I suppose to make the break from Saudi Arabia, et al fully realistic, though, we'd first have to wean our various pols--including Daddy Bush--off the oil ticks' cash. But it's a hopeful sign for the future, anyhow. Without oil to sell, they'd have no influence at all. They still make nothing of their own, except carpets.
Via Instapundit
Today's pretty picture
Its' a good thing NASA takes its own photos in space and displays them on the Internet. If we had to rely solely on the MSM, as we did before the Web, we'd never see them.
August 29, 2007
Rain ahead
But the LCRA's Bob Rose says not to worry about the tropical wave crossing the Yucatan:
"This system could experience some limited tropical development as it moves over the Bay of Campeche on Thursday.The system will have little effect on our region as it moves inland over Mexico on Friday. An area of clouds and showers is located about 900 miles east of the Windward Islands in the central Atlantic. This system has some potential to develop into a tropical depression over the next couple of days. Another area of clouds and showers is flaring up off the coast of the southeastern US. [It] is drifting south and also shows some potential for development over the next couple of days."
Meanwhile, he does expect a weak cold front sagging into Centex to stall and increase our rain chances tomorrow through the weekend. I'm still hoping to get in a sail on Friday morning, but not at the risk of covering the sails wet.
UPDATE: It came a little early, the rain. Storms all around us, with lightning and thunder. Gotta go.
Three days
Three days to the Longhorns season opener Saturday night against Arkansas State. It will be little more than an exhibition game, but still...
Choice sail
The outboard is still giving me trouble, but the breeze was 5 to 10 mph this morning so I couldn't resist. Perfect light-air ghosting back and forth across Cypress Creek Arm on Lake Travis. Quiet out there with just one or two motorboats in the distance. The water-skiing kids are back in school, of course. I spent a happy ninety minutes on the stick (sailor-speak for tiller). Then, shortly before noon, the breeze quit. Outboard brought me back, then conked out on the approach to the slip, but the Catalina 22 had enough forward momentum to continue on in. Puffy cumulonimbus clouds were rolling over, per the forecast afternoon storms, but I got all the sails covered and went home before any rain fell.
Newman's Own supports our troops
There's not much I find to like about Hollyweird, that typically anti-American collection of nutcases who produce among the tritest and worst movies in the world--including, lately, one ridiculous, lying political rant after another--usually starring people you wouldn't want to waste time with, unless--like them--you're a Scientologist. But there are exceptions. One is the venerable actor Paul Newman, 82, whose Light Italian (con limone!) salad dressing I've been enjoying for a while now. He's a WW2 Navy vet who donates his Newman's Own food products' after-tax profits to various charities. One of them is Fisher House which puts up families of wounded soldiers and Marines while they are being treated. Try his products. They're good, and they genuinely support the troops. No, I'm not getting paid to say so.
Lawrence Sprader's death: superiors contributed
The Army's report on the June death of Sgt. Lawrence Sprader, Jr., in a Fort Hood training accident faults the trainers. So reports AP which apparently had to force the release via FOIA.
Across the fence
"Across the Fence: The Secret War in Vietnam," was vanity-pressed by Real War Stories.com three years ago but, partly for that reason, and also because heroism books about Vietnam aren't generally approved by the New York-based publishing industry, it went unreviewed. Comes now fulsome praise for it in a lengthy look at such books in the Aug. 24 issue of Atlantic.com. I haven't read it yet, but I have ordered one. It's available here for $15.95 plus shipping. Also, sort of, at Amazon which has it priced, used, at $127. Must be a typo. Sight unseen I will recommend it to my rare readers, especially combat veterans of any war. The author, J. Stryker Meyer (whose nickname was/is Tilt), is an old acquaintence I worked with in the late 1970s at a daily in New Jersey. He's now married, has five kids (including one serving in Iraq) and is still an ink-stained wretch, for the North County Times, near San Diego, where, last fall, he outed a local pol claiming to have been in Special Forces. JSM, a MACV-SOG veteran, was always a good writer, and the review says he still is, calling his combat writing "pure grain alcohol." His is one of a bunch of recent books about Vietnam popular with Iraq and Afghan veterans. Try it. We can compare notes when we finish.
Thanks to the Seablogger for the pointer to the Atlantic.com article.
August 28, 2007
ROP strikes again
Never satisfied with merely occupying the Temple Mount, the Religion of Peace must proceed in destroying the Jewish antiquities (this time with a backhoe) which their "scholars" laughingly claim do not exist. Laughingly, that is, if you enjoy the little Muslim history joke that there never was one Jewish temple there to begin with--let alone two of them--upon which they planted their "conquering" mosque. Purely in the interest of "peace," no doubt.
UPDATE: Via LGF, an article about what antiquities are being destroyed by the Muslims.
Pruning roses
It's supposed to be an arcane and scary subject, pruning roses, but I find it rather easy. You prune around Valentine's and again around Labor Day and reap the benefits of a flush of blossoms a month or two later. This year I decided to start a few days before Labor Day weekend since it's been so wet and not all that hot a summer. Rose Magazine's pruning guide was a help, giving me the courage to whack the hybrid tea Mr. Lincoln back by almost half. The electric meter reader will thank me, even if Mr. L. decides to pout and refuse to bloom. The antique roses were easier. I always cut them back by a third. Both types bloom on new growth. The only time you really don't want to prune is close to winter or summer's dog days, when the new growth would either freeze or get burned. Something tells me it's going to be a glorious fall, rose wise.
Almost chilly
Nice taste of autumn this morning. The thermometer on the patio hovered right at 69 degrees. Cloudy, of course, considering the 40 percent chance of heavy rain this afternoon. A similar forecast all week, but mainly after 1 p.m. so I'll have a chance to sail again tomorrow morning. My guess is the lunar eclipse wasn't visible. Sky shows usually aren't here, thanks to the clouds. I don't know for sure. I was asleep at the time.
UPDATE: Actually KVUE caught some nice lunar views on video. Requires free registration.
School attire
After all the trouble Mr. B. had minding the teacher last year in first grade (his mother said he got in more trouble in first grade than she did in all of elementary school), I decided since clothes-make-the-man, maybe we could change his attitude by losing the batman, spider man and skull t-shirts. Take your choice, I said, polo shirts or button shirts or a combination. "But Dad," he said, "polo shirts and button shirts are only for formal events." "School," I replied, "is a formal event." He looked really good again this morning in his polo shirt. I hope this works, or I may be outvoted next year.
Adios Senor
Also, welcome home where you belong, Alberto. I agree with Scott that when it comes down to it, Gonzales' troubles mainly center around his being Yet Another Texan, in addition to being a Republican and being appointed by Bush the Younger. His firing those US attorneys was just business as usual for both parties. When the Dems have the White House they remove their share whenever they please. Making it out like Gonzales did something unusual was the unusual part here. But being a Texan didn’t help him a bit. It never does for long beyond the state lines.
August 27, 2007
Commenter missed
As inconvenient as it apparently has been for some of my rare but appreciated readers who have not noticeably returned, the TypeKey comment security system has done wonders for my productivity. I no longer have to waste time deleting scores of comment spam which were steadily rising into the hundreds every day. I gave up on trackbacks last year for the same reason, though I wasn't getting any trackbacks, anyhow. But Tom is one rare reader whose vanished comments I especially miss. A fellow OC-504er, who spent his time in Vietnam with the 1st Cav and now commands his local VFW, he was clever enough to track down my sister-in-law's funeral Aug. 6 in Indiana and surprise us by showing up, an hour or so away from his own Ohio River town. Hope you can eventually figure out how to make the registery work, Tom. I'd like to have you back.
Bartholomew Fair
"Bartholomew Fair" is what Napoleonic-era British sailors would say to describe a (insert ethnic group) fire drill, or confused series of unnecessary screwups on the water. It pretty well describes the beginning of my singlehanding of the family sloop this morning for the first time in twenty-one months. The pristine quiet (not another boat in sight) was shattered by the sound of my cursing. First the outboard wouldn't stay running, so I had to push the twenty-two footer out of the slip and fall off on a beam reach as soon as I could get the mainsail to fill. The 5-10 mph wind was coming from dead ahead the slip, which helped. But upon hoisting the jibsail, I found that I had neglected to fasten the tack to the bow. Fortunately the sail snagged, rather than fly all the way up the forestay unfastened. That gave me time to tie off the tiller and go forward to unsnag it and fasten the tack. But, with the wind from dead ahead, to get out of the relatively narrow channel, as we refer to Cypress Creek Arm on Lake Travis, required constant tacking. By the time I was halfway to the main basin, I was exhausted and dripping with sweat. So I wore around and made for the dock on a broad reach, the wind now behind me. That was a pleasure, though too short. I didn't even try the outboard, but rounded into the wind to get the jib down and then fell off down to the slip. I coasted into the berth under mainsail alone and just kissed the dock (instead of ramming it). At least the ending was elegant. Hopefully, Wednesday will be easier, if it doesn't rain as forecast.
Today's the big day
Mr. B. goes back to imitating a budding scholar, and I go back to imitating a leisurely retired person. While he's trying to pay attention, and stay out of trouble, I'm going sailing.
Photo swiped from Miss Cellania
UPDATE: The crush at pickup this afternoon was amazing. More adults than children. I came a half hour early to be sure I could finding parking. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. It'll thin out by next week. Did last year. Mr. B. didn't notice. He was bragging about getting more Xs, good behavior marks, than anyone else. Started good last year, too. Hope it lasts through spring.
The kingdom of the blind
I was ambivalent about President Bush's recent invocation of the Vietnam post-war catastrophe (re-education camps, thousands escaping in rickety boats, piles of corpses in next-door Cambodia) as the definitive example of what could happen if we similarly slam the door on Iraq as the Dems want to do. But the Seablogger, linking to a recalcitrant Christopher Hitchens and a matter-of-fact Mark Steyn, reminds me that the Dems feel free to flee because they have never admitted to any connection between their anti-Vietnam war effort and the horrors that followed. They would just turn their other blind eye to Iraq.
Night owl's eclipse
Total eclipse, yes, but, here in Central Daylight Time, beginning at 4:52 a.m. tomorrow, and ending at 6:22 a.m. Wish I could join you, but I have a child to help get off to school, so I need my sleep. Thankfully. So I'll just have to miss the exciting part.
August 26, 2007
Sailaway
This is from earlier this month, at the former Yacht Harbor Marina where Paul Schmidt, one of only two sailboat riggers on Lake Travis, did a superb re-rig of the family sloop's standing rigging. Also the topping lift and lazy jacks. If I'd thought of it, he could have done the main and jib halyards, but I can go back for that in a few weeks when it cools off a little. I had the sails ready just in case, but I motored back to Anderson Mill without any problems. Looking forward to tomorrow morning, and the first chance I've had to singlehand it since the re-rig.
One hundred will do
How many people do you need to come to your demo to get international publicity? One hundred will do if you're an angry Muslim and the BBC is handy. Though you have to read eight paragraphs down to find the figure in this story of outrage at American delivery of some free soccer balls. Outrage!
Gone but not forgotten
Among the few Alamo survivors (yes, there were a few), one claimed to have witnessed the death of Lt. Col. William B. Travis. The witness was Joe, Travis' slave and body servant. I mention him because the Texas State Historical Association marks this as the day that Joe escaped from slavery in 1837, one year, five months and twenty days after the fall of the Alamo. He would have been about twenty-four years old. History doesn't record what happened to him, but Stephen Harrigan's wonderful novel, The Gates of the Alamo, has him a waiter in a posh restaurant in Mexico City. Texana writer Mike Cox reports on what little is recorded of the details of Joe's escape, and his burial place.
Complete with chamber pot
Well, of course. After all, this unique seaside vacation home is 131 years old.
Via Miriam's Ideas
Monsters and victims
Even a former NYTimes movie critic knows the impending flood of Hollywood war propaganda when he sees it. Call it the Susan Sarandon version of American military history. You know, Susan, the reliable pal of dictators and Jihadis? Look in vain for the ordinary, quiet heroism of thousands of Marines and G.I.'s. But, hey, they already taught you that American heroism was missing in Vietnam, right?
UPDATE: Brian De Palma is first out of the box with a flick dazzling the Euro morons about US soldiers raping an Iraqi girl and killing her family. Brian looks positively radiant in the publicity stills. It's tempting to think he got Jihadi money for his little anti-American screed. But it's more likely the scumbag was just thrilled to be able to suck up to the views of his Scientology pals by attacking the troops. Rot in hell, worm.
Mookie still in the saddle, part 2
With the big media, and their sycophantic imitators, it's all about the narrative, the "quagmire" or "the surge isn't working." For a few, it's lately become rather astoundingly flipped to "the surge is working." There's still scant middle ground in their reporting from Iraq. Not so with independent journalists like Michael Totten. With them there's always room for bewilderment. Especially when it comes to Mookie Sadr, the Shia puppet of Iran, leader of Iraq's branch of Hezbollah, whom we still refuse to arrest, deport, kill, etc. Instead, surge or no surge, the vicious little neo-Saddam killer goes on and on.
UPDATE: Uncle Jimbo at BlackFive says Mookie's recent declaration of a hudna is a stall. Of course it is. He says letting Mookie live was one of the biggest mistakes of the Iraq campaign. Right again.
Blame the MSM
For choosing the color red for Republican states, that is, as noted by a perspicacious commenter at Hitting Metal With A Hammer, "to avoid the obvious and natural association of the colors with the proper political alignments."
August 25, 2007
Today's pretty picture
Dark matter separates from normal matter, in a major mystery, as galaxy clusters collide, in a false color image by NASA's Earth-orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
Ellis Island of the West
It didn't last long, only from 1907 through 1914, and only ten thousand passed through. But for a time, Galveston was the Ellis Island of the West for Jews escaping persecution in Russia. A littleknown piece of Texana worth the read. "Forgotten Gateway," on Galveston's 75-year history as a port of entry, a new exhibit of the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum in Austin, is scheduled to open in February.
August 24, 2007
Another dead dictator?
UPDATE: So far a day late, but hope obviously is a'borning. And here, as well.
MORE: Now Fidel is supposedly writing essays. That's almost as rich as the O man's purported radio speeches, always certified true by the hapless CIA. As if they both suddenly forgot the word "v-i-d-e-o." TIME buys it, but, hey, they're famous for buying phony stuff.
Behind the chicken wire curtain
Some folks are amazed that Phill Raije Rian (her real name), a 41-year-old Williamson County mother of two, got twenty-three years in prison after being convicted recently of having consensual sex with the 16-year-old boy who mowed her lawn and babysat her kids. She'll only have to serve half that before she is eligible for parole, but it's a tough sentence. Some local bloggers have pointed out that former Williamson constable, Roger Dale Proctor, got five years probation and thirty days in jail for his molestation of a minor girl. But there is a big difference in the two cases, beyond the notion that being a Williamson County peace officer (behind what critics call the county's "chicken wire curtain") will get you more consideration: Proctor pled guilty. Rian insisted she was innocent, but the jury was convinced that she was lying. So they recommended the long jail time. Rian's children will have to grow up without her. It's a controversial situation, and criticism of the sentence keeps rolling in.
Firefox blocked
Clicking on the "I Stand With Israel" banner in the upper left-hand corner of our main page, using the Firefox browser, now only gets a blocked page explanation, instead of Jack Lewis's banner page, which you can still get using Explorer or some other browser such as Opera. It seems he's only warring against Firefox, because some users have installed Ad Blocker, which his block page suggests how to defeat. But his pique is not unique. I had already noticed that blogger won't allow me to comment at a blog using the most popular version of their comment-verification software if I arrive with Firefox. Explorer is not a problem. I'm used to Firefox, after many moons of use, but this campaign against it may force me to use Explorer as my default browser again. Opera is too clumsy for my taste.
August 23, 2007
Another country
The past, as the Archenemy blog says, really is another country, and here's a new blog that will take you visiting for as long as you like. You won't get far beyond the haunting portraits of the victims of child labor. Be sure to click on Shorpy's Page for the poignant story of a child laborer at an Alabama coal mine.
UPDATE: Alas, it isn't only the past: There are child miners in Kyrgyz, a former Soviet republic on China's northwestern border, today.
Pushing illegal immigration
"A Mexican Senate committee passed a measure Wednesday urging President Felipe Calderon to send a diplomatic note to the United States protesting the deportation of an illegal migrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year."
Isn't that precious? Now the Mexican pols are openly pushing illegal Mexican immigration to the U.S.
UPDATE: And what has it gotten us, so far? "...Los Angeles is the second largest city of Mexican nationals in the world." That and similar thoughts from "Mexifornia" author Victor Davis Hanson.
Pump up the bass?
There may be no need. Looks like the record companies are already doing it for you:
"From the mid 1980s to now, the average loudness of CDs increased by a factor of 10, and the peaks of songs are now one-tenth of what they used to be."
Volunteering to fight
I can't find a link for it, but the September issue of AUSA News (The Association of the United States Army) has an article about the service's May and June shortfalls in recruiting, something they will certainly will make up for July, August and September from new high school and college graduates. The news therein that I wanted to mention was the cheery note that more than 900,000 Americans have volunteered to serve in the Army since 9/11, and more than 700,000 soldiers have re-enlisted. Retention, indeed, remains high despite the pressure of multiple deployments: 101 percent of the goal for the active Army, 119 percent for the Army Reserve, and 107 percent for the Army National Guard.
The rap on slaps
Slaps, or flip flops, not only make the wearer look Asian (in Hungary they are called Vietnami papucs) but they apparently can damage your feet--in addition to exposing them to damage. That will be news to the many here (in Austin, at least) who have traded their cowboy boots for slaps almost year-round.
Via Instapundit
August 22, 2007
Texel terminates
Armadillo Aerospace, the Mesquite contender for the X Prize suffered a set back when its mock Lunar Lander, Texel, was destroyed last weekend:
"Texel burst into flames after it crash landed during a test. Its fuel and liquid oxygen tanks were so damaged in the impact that it would be easier to build a new vehicle from scratch than to repair Texel, says Armadillo test team member Phil Eaton."
But company officials say they still can be ready to compete in October. That's a relief.
Miss Cellania
Miss Cellania is two, after escaping blogger. As blogiversaries (blogaversaries?) go, this one is an event.
The death of Sgt. Lawrence Sprader, Jr.
The MSM has not covered itself with glory in its reporting of the training-accident death of Fort Hood's SGT Lawrence Sprader, Jr. on June 8. A report this morning in the daily read like a catch-up piece of some kind, so I went searching the Web for more. I discovered that, on Monday, the Associated Press in Fort Worth reported that judicial action was pending against one or more soldiers involved in the training exercise, a solo compass nav course across difficult, brush-covered terrain in mid-90 degree heat. Today, the Killeen Daily Herald, which has the further incentive of proximity to the fort to endeavor to get the details right, says that only administrative action is being taken, and the judicial action is only "possible." Reading between the lines, it looks like some of Sprader's superiors were involved in a coverup of the reasons for his hyperthermia, dehydration death. But it's hard to be sure, since the Army, so far, is not releasing the details of its investigation. The MSM, meanwhile, seems only to be being its usual sloppy self.
UPDATE: It took some pushing, apparently, but the Army has released the investigation report.
Miss Ellie's tail
Miss Ellie, Mr. Boy's more-or-less constant companion since he was four months old, is worn and tattered and her once-yellow color is now greenish gray. So much so that the "spirit animal," a stuffed elephant I sometimes call the precocious pachyderm has lately been coming apart in strategic areas. This morning I answered the cry for help and sewed part of her tail back on, the part by which she is carried about, in fact. I got a grateful hug for my efforts, though I kept thinkling while I was doing it that my maternal grandmother would not have awarded me any prizes for the thread-and-needle work. It was a little sloppy. Mr. B. didn't notice, of course. He wanted strength, not finesse. Miss El was the gift of his maternal aunt, who was killed earlier this month in a motocycle accident.
August 21, 2007
The Lone Ranger
Clayton Moore is welcome to the title he guarded so assiduously until his death in 1999. I still remember the outfit I got for Christmas when I was in second grade, especially the double-holster set with those faux pearl-handled, long-barrel .45s. Cap pistols, of course. I don't think you can even buy those things anymore. (Well, maybe you can, but they're pricey.) My mother being from Texas--even though we were then part of my father's Air Force career and so living in Tripoli, Libya--The Lone Ranger rig was a natural. None of this phony kickboxing stuff that television now attributes to the Texas Rangers. They are, in any case, more often detectives with accounting degrees these days than their famous incarnation: the Samurai of the Old West.
Early rising
Mr. Boy struggled to get up this morning, despite being within ten minutes of the time he will have to leave for school each day next week. The summer vacation lazies are still clinging, and we're still working on the "early to bed" part of the old Ben Franklin admonition. The "early to rise" part is coming on like a runaway NASACAR, but he has to work at being a "morning lark." This afternoon, we'll be up at the school checking out the lists to see who his new teacher and classmates are. Mom hopes we lose some of his first grade cronies who helped lead him astray a time or two last year. That would be good, but I'd opt for a little continuity.
Longhorn countdown
Just twelve days to Arkansas State. Now, if those hot receivers Limas Sweed, Billy Pittman, and Jordan Shipley can just recover from their pre-season injuries...
August 20, 2007
Not the best timing
Comes a hearty, happy email from my American Express account touting an untimely trip to Jamaica:
"Use your Card to book three nights in an ocean-view accommodation at the AAA Five Diamond Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort in Rose Hall, Jamaica."
Rose Hall is on Montego Bay, on the north side of the island, which got not so much of Dean, as it happens. Reports from there (scroll down) are that the hotels are okay, with only a few fallen trees, but still trying to get the power back on.
Dean's course
Looks like Old Mexico is going to get the schnitz (with Cancun turned into Rangoon), tomorrow through Thursday. Hopefully, after crossing the Yucatan's jungled, hilly waist, however, Dean will be a shadow of its former self. At least the cenotes will get recharged.
Top Ten Newspaper Web Sites
The daily made the cut, coming in at No. 8, even getting praise for letting anyone blog on its site. Despite still using what Instapundit calls "a lame and buggy registration scheme." Who knows, maybe they'll drop it, like I's Knoxville News Sentinal (also on the list at No. 6) did.
Lake Travis declining
The road to the docks was covered by rising water yesterday at Anderson Mill Marina. I had to turn around on the steep hill descending to the road, in order to retreat. I noticed half a dozen cars and trucks parked on the hill, as if their owners had come early to taken their boats out before the water came up. They would be be in for a surprise, I thought, when they came back and found the water had risen to block their retreat. But I see now that it didn't. In fact, it has fallen a little, by this morning, to 686.43 feet msl. Mr. B. and I might be able to sail, after all, in this last week before school resumes-- if Hurricane Dean stays well south of Texas. So far it looks like it will.
August 19, 2007
Those lead-painted Chinese toys
"Purchasers just looking for something cheap from China will get it -- cheap in every sense of the term. That's not China's fault: it's early stage industrialization. Britain's factory life was dirty, slipshod, and dangerous in Charles Dickens's era, and America's was in the day of Upton Sinclair. And, frankly, American consumers just looking for something cheap will get it too. So avoid Chinese toys if you feel you must. But let's not make this the basis for a big fiesta of anti-China-ism."
Considering that my shirt comes from Honduras, Mr. B.'s new sandals from Vietnam, and his mother's new shorts from Mongolia, that's good advice. Globalization is only all bad if you're a Marxist.
Hurricane trimmer
Accuweather's Joe Bastardi, as usual, has some out-of-the-box thinking on hurricanes, such as the saving grace of the high peaks of the Hispaniola mountain ranges:
"I can remember my [meteorologist] dad saying to me '[D]o you realize how much worse things would be for the southeast United States if there was no Hispaniola?'...as big as Flora [1963] was it never got its core back, nor did Inez in 1966 until it was out in the gulf and even then it never got back to what it was before Hispaniola...In 1998, Georges did battle with the island and because of that, was not the storm it could have been. And in 2005 Jeanne got tangled up there for a while."
The mountains, guarding part of the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, have skimmed the intensity of more than one big hurricane. Unfortunately, those peaks only tugged on Hurricane Dean as it passed well to the south instead of trying to cross them.
Ben Folds
Theoretically, I'm a little old for Ben Folds. Okay, a lot old, particularly for his repeated preference for cuss words. But his piano playing is fine and some of his lyrics are quite funny, or insightful, or both.
"Rocking the Suburbs," for instance:
"We're rocking the suburbs
We part the shades and face facts
They got better looking Fescue
Right across the cul de sac"
Also "Army":
"cause my peers they criticize me
and my ex-wives all despise me
trying to put it all behind me
but my redneck past is nipping at my heels"
Most of his clips on YouTube have terrible audio. This one of his hit song "Brick," about a guy accompanying his girlfriend to an abortion, is admittedly a little weird. But the music and lyrics (despite the absence of the F-word) are a good introduction to him.
August 18, 2007
Dean-o
All eyes are still on Dean, as it gets ready to clobber Jamaica tomorrow. Inevitably, someone has put up a page of nothing but hurricane and Gulf of Mexico graphics (some of them in motion) to facilitate the Dean watchers. Stare at them long and hard. Repeat after me: "Dean will stay away from the Texas coast. He will stay away from the Texas coast."
UPDATE: Be a voyeur. Read the "Pleas for Help" bulletin board at stormCARIB, the Caribbean Hurricane Network. Be glad you're not there.
Jump or sell
The American Automobile Association, a service agency Mr. B's mom has long insisted on belonging to, isn't just about maps and emergency road help anymore. It also rents cars, sells used ones and offers travelers checks and foreign currency exchange. But my favorite extra is one I discovered this morning when I called them to come honor our membership and jump start the dead battery I discovered in the CRV when we got back from Port A last night. I figured if the battery wouldn't start, they'd obligingly tow the Honda to a place that could sell me a new one. Instead, when they discovered the battery was truly dead, they offered me a service they'd just begun: selling me a new battery on the spot, and then installing it. Whole problem solved in about thirty minutes, instead of most of the morning. Now that's a service that makes me glad I carry a AAA card.
Bullet deficit
If this is true, and knowing the recent machinations of the Associated Press, it's hard to tell...
"Troops training for and fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are firing more than 1 billion bullets a year, contributing to ammunition shortages hitting police departments nationwide and preventing some officers from training with the weapons they carry on patrol."
...then it is a comment on the poor planning of the bullet industry, considering that the current military campaigns are puny compared to previous wars.
UPDATE Scott, at The Fat Guy, thinks its the cops' fault. They're wasting ammo.
MORE: Ha! The AP story is bogus. More MSM anti-war narrative bull. Now why am I not surprised? But it also seems Scott came closer to the truth, i.e. the militarization of our domestic police forces is unnecessarily running up the ammo bill.
Up she rises
Lake Travis is getting an unfortunate boost from heavy Hill Country rains (12 inches in 24 hours along the Pedernales River which feeds the lake) generated by the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin. The LCRA is forecasting the lake to rise to 690 feet msl by Monday--and higher if we get more rain by then--which is about four feet too high for the dock extension to shore at Anderson Mill Marina. Six ninety is one foot below the height that the Army Corps of Engineers allows flood gates to be opened on Mansfield Dam to quickly lower the lake. Once again, lake levels are taking the family sloop out of our reach. At least we got the rerigging done. Too bad we can't use it. What a year!
UPDATE This morning, they revised the peak rise to just 688 feet msl by Sunday afternoon, still two feet too high for the docks at the marina. Also three feet below where they'd open flood gates, though they are running the hydrogeneration gates which lets some water out. So the 688 will linger awhile. Then, we'll see if Hurricane Dean sends us a lot more rain to raise it still higher.
August 17, 2007
Mean Dean
This sucker doesn't compress well, but it shows something hopeful for Texas. Namely that the models like Hurricane Dean going into Mexico instead of the Texas coast. Crossing the Yucatan should slow it down a lot, and if it doesn't get stalled when it comes out, it could be a minimal storm after that. Link via Fresh Bilge where Alan has more.
UPDATE LCRA's Bob Rose doesn't see Texas getting off easy at all, and notes that the Hurricane Center now sees Dean only clipping the northern Yucatan, which would hardly slow it down, and a low pressure area moving toward Texas could pull it farther north: "...Dean will be a large storm upon landfall and could threaten much of the Texas [coast?] with high winds and torrential rain even if it makes landfall along the lower coast."
MORE I do like this note of Accuweather's Joe Bastardi: "Here is what the weather over the past has done... Through the Yucatan channel, most major storms hit the US. Through the Yucatan from east to west, they dont."
Erin was a pussycat
Dean looks like another story. Hopefully, it will hit Mexico. Terrible to hope someone else gets the grief, but there it is. Down at Port A we watched the precursor storms of Erin gather strength on Monday and Tuesday, and weathered the Weather Channel's exaggerations, wishing all the while we had a laptop so we could be checking the Web for the detail the talking heads seldom got around to. Long on coiffed beauty and emotion and short on everything else. But when Erin arrived Thursday morning, we got about five inches of rain which mostly was gathered up by the sand. A little ponding on the roads. Nothing special. The waves were steeper--if still short--than usual, and the backwash was a little frightening, such that neither Mr. B. nor the teenage boogie boarders ventured too far into the surf. It was actually sunny by noon on Thursday, a few hours after Erin had swept ashore and fallen apart. Back here in Austin, the rancho got almost an inch of new rain from Erin's northward careering remnants. Dean, well, it's been Biblical in the Caribbean, so stay tuned.
UPDATE Well, Erin was a pussycat on the coast, but not in West Texas where it caused floods that killed and is doing the same thing now in Oklahoma, of all places. Almost a week later!
August 12, 2007
Off to Port A
Leaving tomorrow on our annual trek to the beach at Port Aransas, so no posts until we return on Friday. Only glitch might be the storm brewing in the western Caribbean, which Accuweather's Joe Bastardi, among other meteorologists, forsees sweeping into the Gulf of Mexico later in the week, possibly as a tropical storm. Maybe Dean unless an Atlantic one gets the name first. But he sees the chances of landfall as better for Mexico than the Texas coast. More tropical storm/hurricane argument here on what has been a quiet season so far. We will keep our fingers crossed that Bastardi's right. Not like in 2004 when Ivan, crashing into western Florida and Alabama, sent huge waves across the Gulf to hit and close the beaches at Port A. I remember one almost washed away a family from West Texas who had incautiously spread out their blanket on the sand. They were awash in an instant and struggled up a dune with what remained of their stuff to escape the water.
UPDATE It looks like the name Dean may go to another storm, first, making the Gulf one (if there is a Gulf one) Erin. Unless Dean goes into the Gulf first. Which might not occur before we are back in Central Texas, which would be good. We shall see.
Mufflers
Trying to figure out why the muffler on the Honda CRV sounds like it has a box of rocks in it, a noise that only began this week. After Googling the problem, and discovering that mufflers have nothing like rocks inside, duh, I started the engine, which got the sound to resume, then got out and, just for the heck of it, nudged the muffler with my shoe. Not a kick, just a nudge. The sound has stopped. Weird. It's off to a muffler place first chance I get.
August 10, 2007
Let the games resume
The Soviets, er, the Rooskies, are at it again. Putin, it seems, wants the Cold War back in play.
Via Fresh Bilge
Escape from Gringotts
Mr. Boy, of late, has been extra fidgety during the nightly readings of the final Harry Potter tale. But not tonight. The theft from the wizard's bank of one of Tom Riddle's soulfull horcruxes, and especially the escape on the back of a half-blind dragon raptly held his attention.
The warmest year on record? Try 1934.
Take that, global warming ideologues. And this: five of the 10 warmest years on record all occurred before World War II.
More shuttle trouble
The space shuttle seems to have suffered some launch damage to its re-entry heat shield--again.
"On Sunday, the astronauts will use a robot arm and extension boom, tipped with a laser and camera, to determine the exact size and depth of the gouge... Experts will then decide whether the damage warrants repair. If it cannot be fixed, the crew would have to remain at the space station until a rescue shuttle could be launched..."
These things are getting old, obviously. Retirement can't come too soon.
UPDATE There's enough worry for NASA engineers on the ground to start running heat tests to see if the gouged tiles can withstand re-entry temperatures, or if a fix in orbit is required.
Priceless
"...Reuters is caught by a 13-year old Finnish schoolboy representing still photos from the movie 'Titanic' as pictures from the Russian North Pole expedition..."
When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?
Via LGF
Swiss Afghanistan
Imagine Afghanistan as brown and tan and rubble-strewn? Some of it is, certainly, but not the Switzerland-like 10,000-foot "foothills" of the Hindu Kush in these beautiful photos put up by Blackfive of a 91st Cav air assault. Clean out the jihadis, build some hotels and tourism could really take off.
TS Dean around the corner?
LCRA meteorologist Bob Rose notes a situation that the forecast models foresee in the Gulf that could serve to draw in any tropical storm forming in the western Carribbean and crossing the Yuca