Peeved Catholics And The Democratic Convention

Gabe writes:

I thought you might like to see [this], because he is a Democrat like you (and he seems to really like Obama).

And what does this fellow write about?:

...[Y]ou might find a mention of Sen. Bob Casey’s address to the assembled Democrats, a speech that for many of us was even more overdue than Clinton’s.

Sen. Casey was aware of the historical import of the moment and he began his speech with these words: "I am honored to stand before you tonight as Gov. Casey’s son…"

In 1992, the Senator’s father was the Governor of Pennsylvania, the fifth largest state in the Union. He was a lifelong pro-life Democrat, one of the few who did not flip their position after Roe v. Wade. (Curiously, one of the other pro-life Democrats who did not abandon her defense of pre-natal life was Connecticut Governor Ella Grasso, the first woman elected governor of a state in her own right.) Gov. Casey wanted to address the convention on the issue of abortion. He was barred from the podium.

Some of the 1992 campaign officials have tried to re-write the history of that first class snub. Last night on CNN, former Clinton aide Paul Begala denied that abortion was the reason Gov. Casey was barred from speaking. He noted that Casey had not endorsed the ticket and "wanted to speak about abortion for thirty minutes" and "no one" wanted that. Well, Mr. Begala, many of us pro-life Democrats did want that. (Would twenty minutes have been okay?) We certainly did not want to see the most noted spokesman of our cause denied even the right to speak. Nor did we want to belong to a party that applied such a litmus test. The governor of a state you need to win can talk about whatever he or she wants when they address a national convention.

For many pro-life Democrats, the appearance of Gov. Casey’s son at the podium last night was the important unity speech. The pro-choice litmus test had been set aside. No one deleted Sen. Casey’s reference to abortion in his speech, nor his acknowledgement of an "honest disagreement" with this year’s nominee, Barack Obama, on that issue.

This fellow misconstrues the history a bit. Many people objected to having Gov. Casey speak, because of his abortion views, but they would not have prevailed if Casey had proceeded to endorse the Clinton/Gore ticket anyway. It is a rare occasion when any political party will allow someone to speak who ostentatiously does not endorse the ticket (some people, like 2004’s Dem. Zell Miller appearing at the Republican convention, likely weren’t even asked to formally support the Republican ticket). Casey refused to buckle, and he was punished for it – an unfortunate but not unexpected turn of events. If Gov. Casey’s son had ostentatiously refused to endorse Obama/Biden, it is likely he too would have been refused the opportunity to speak to this year’s convention.

(I endorse Obama/Biden, and my views regarding abortion are nothing if not malleable, but, sadly, I think it’s unlikely I will be permitted to speak to the convention).

Let's Get This Civil War Started!



Jack Davis, who is running for Congress in New York, succinctly describes the xenophobic attitude to illegal immigration to the United States. He feels that if this human tide is not curbed, the Mexican occupation of the U.S. will ultimately lead to a Civil War, pitting states like Hispanified California, owing its real allegiance to Mexico, against states like New York.

A few years ago, I tried to pin down precisely when my Mexican and Spanish ancestors crossed the border into American territory. Some were already living in New Mexico when Stephen Kearney's U.S. troops occupied Santa Fe. Records fall silent prior to 1840 on my grandfather's side, but I did locate one relative on my grandmother's side who crossed the border in 1852. He was listed as a Candymaker by trade. I have no idea if his immigration was legal or not (people were less particular then about the distinction), but he definitely came north, and settled in the hamlet of Los Lunas, NM.

Some people might say he came north to find a better life, sell candy, and to charm the kids of the Rio Grande Valley. But others know he came north to occupy American territory. Worse, he had plans to have his descendants six generations removed start a Civil War pitting California against New York. Doesn't matter that our Spanish language skills are now lamentable and that we actually know little about our homeland. Fact is, when I was just a little gamete, scarcely even a zygote, I swore eternal allegiance to Mexico. Nothing else matters.

So, all these years later, I sense our hour approaches. All my cousins are in place. Let's get this game on! Viva Mexico! Arriba!

"X" Going To Melbourne & Sydney

Lookin' good:

KYLIE Minogue will hold a week-long series of shows at Rod Laver Arena in December.

"The reason I hadn't confirmed dates in Australia is I really didn't know what I was getting into," Kylie told the Sunday Herald Sun.

"But now I know.

"I have a show that breathes and changes and is dependent on people's moods and environment.

"I can't wait to bring it home."

Chipped

Bad times in Mexico:

Middle-class families in Mexico are having tiny transmitters implanted under their skin so that satellites can track them if they are kidnapped.

Sales of the device have jumped by 13 per cent this year after kidnappings surged by almost 40 per cent in the country between 2004 and 2007.

The crystal-encased chip, which is the size and shape of a grain of rice, is injected into clients' bodies with a syringe.

A transmitter in the chip sends radio signals to a device, carried by the client, with a global positioning system in it, say makers Xega. A satellite can then pinpoint the kidnap victim's location.

Detractors say the chips, which cost £2,000 plus an annual fee of £1,100, give a false sense of security.

...One client, Cristina, 28, who did not want to give her last name, said: 'It's not like we are wealthy, but they'll kidnap you for a watch. Everyone is living in fear.'

...Most kidnappings in Mexico go unreported, many of them cases of 'express kidnapping' where the victim is grabbed and forced to withdraw money from automatic cash machines.

...Xega, based in the central Mexican city of Quererato, designed global positioning systems to track stolen vehicles until a company owner was kidnapped in broad daylight in 2001.

Frustrated by his powerlessness to call for help, the company adapted the technology to track stolen people.

...Katherine Albrecht, a U.S. consumer privacy activist, says the chip is a flashy, overpriced gadget that only identifies a person and cannot locate someone without another, bigger GPS device that kidnappers can easily find and destroy.

She said fear of kidnapping was driving well-off Mexicans to buy a technology that had yet to prove useful.

'They are a prime target because they've got money and they've got a worry and you can combine those two and offer them a false sense of security which is exactly what this is,' she said.

...Outside of Mexico, U.S. company VeriChip Corp uses similar radio-wave technology to identify patients in critical condition at hospitals or find elderly people who wander away from their homes.

Xega sees kidnapping as a growth industry and is planning to expand its services next year to Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.

Shiloh Foundation Horse Rescue

And what's Bruce Warren doing these days? Looking in on people who save horses:

One rescued horse that would not be suitable for riding is the mare Trinity, who has the No. 69 tattooed on her rear. Trinity belonged to a pregnant mare urine ranch in Canada, and was forced to stay in a stall, where they collected urine from her. The urine is later sold and put into menopausal pills for women, Cheryl Rankin said.

“They’re pregnant for about a year and then they are bred again,” Cheryl Rankin said. “The babies are shipped out for auction. Then the mares are put on line again.”

Cheryl Rankin received an invitation from internationally recognized trainer Monty Roberts, the original “Horse Whisperer,” to bring Trinity to his facility at Solvang, Calif., just north of Santa Barbara. In the August 4-8 clinic, the closest Roberts could get to Trinity was putting a long artificial hand in a chute where Trinity was. Roberts, who has written three “New York Times,” best-selling books and trained thousands of abused horses, recommended that Rankin work with Trinity in a gated chute in order to get the horse accustomed to human touch.

“But he said the best thing for her would be to get her to a wild horse range, because she might not ever get better,” Cheryl Rankin said.

Since Roberts has worked with Trinity, the mare has shown some minor improvements.

“She comes closer and is a little more trusting,” Cheryl Rankin said.

Thommy Witt, an instructor who worked with Roberts, commented on Trinity’s experience at the Monty Roberts Learning Center in a telephone interview Monday.

“You weren’t able to catch it or touch it in a pen,” Witt said. “We had the horse in for special clinic where Monty works with the horses. We got her into a chute, which is basically a small hallway where you can get close to them. This horse was very frightened about people in general. Monty said it would be a very, very long process to get her being accepted to be touched by people.”

The Rankins started The Shiloh Foundation entirely from funds raised from the sale of their construction business several years ago. Any money gained from the sale of horses, goes directly to help provide for horses they already shelter.

Shades Of Katrina?

Current NOGAPS forecast brings Gustav's landfall in the Mobile, AL area sometime on Monday (and isn’t the Republican National Convention opening not far away in New Orleans that day?) Shades of Katrina!

Demi Lovato - Get Back



Keeping an open mind today, I listened to two new tunes. First, I listened to Slipknot's "Psychosocial" (suggested by "Loveline"). Suffice to say, it's not me.

This tune (suggested by Radio Disney) is closer to me.

Scarecrows

Birds are smart!:

John Marzluff, of the University of Washington in Seattle, wanted to prove his gut feeling that the crows he studied could identify individual human faces. So he and his students brought out some props. They donned a series of Halloween masks—one was a caveman, which the scientists wore when they trapped the birds. They then let the birds see them in “neutral” masks, like one resembling Vice President Dick Cheney (though this is probably one of the few times Cheney has been referred to as “neutral”).

Sure enough, when the researchers later went for strolls around campus, the crows “scolded” someone wearing the caveman mask, and continued to do so two years into the study. The same scientists and volunteers wearing Dick Cheney masks or other “neutral” faces didn’t hear nearly as much abuse from the crows, though they probably earned a lot of confused looks from passers-by.

Google=Interesting: Luning Torture

Today Google suggested my Weblog in response to someone's search: "Luning Torture". Those terms looked interesting to me. Luning is a small town in rather bleak central Nevada, and to be unexpectedly idled there by a vehicle's mechanical breakdown might hyperbolically be called torture of a sort. So I Googled the terms as well, just to see what came up.

In response, Google found this really interesting account of a paragliding run from the Owens Valley all the way to the town of Luning - just an astonishing distance of 138 miles! That bumpy 7-hours-long ride would be torture of a sort, but what exquisite pain!:

Desperate and just kicking myself for getting low in what I'd started thinking of as the Bermuda Triangle, I circled in zero lift and used every Lookout Mountain light air trick I could think of, but slowly I sank farther below the peak and deeper into one of the canyons I'd sworn not to land in. The cloud street less than five miles to my west taunted me from 19,000 feet, while I dove and roller-coasted down into the canyon's still evening air. Not only did the cloud street torture me mentally, it was shading all but a few small patches of slope in my area. I alternately cursed myself for not only blowing a prime opportunity to break the US record, but now I was going to have to walk out of a rattlesnake infested hell canyon even if I could land safely in the monster boulders and thorny shrubbery. I couldn't imagine being here on a hang glider; landing and walking out was a barely survivable option on a paraglider. The north wind put all the sunny slopes in a mild lee, but I've flown lee a lot and knew it was my only chance to escape the Bermuda triangle.

The Loogie Option

The bicyclist was riding down J Street and the fellow in the pickup truck behind him got annoyed at the slow pace. Passing the bicyclist, the man gestured out his window and said some harsh things. The bicyclist responded with a big loogie that went every which way, including towards me.

Street conflict is like running with scissors - it's all fun and games until someone gets hit with a goober.

Today's Southern Arizona Weather Report

Deborah just says "Wow!"

Looks great! Hope it continues!

Yesterday and today, former Tropical Storm Julio moisture is moving across AZ. Yesterday the forecasters thought that the cloud cover and mid-level warmth might paradoxically suppress rainfall (and that might be true over some areas), but last night big storms blew up near Kingman, and maybe Phoenix is a bit on the edge today and so might benefit!

Bubble, Bubble, Toil And Trouble



OK, this is more interesting than McCain vs. Madonna:

Tensions are running high at MSNBC, at least surrounding veteran host Joe Scarborough who seems to be increasingly discontented at his network's decision to market itself as the cable net of choice for Bush haters. That hasn't sat well with the likes of the far left Keith Olbermann who has played a large role in getting MSNBC to pursue this strategy

The Democratic convention seems to have only exacerbated those tensions. Last night saw Olbermann caught on an open mic blurting out profane disgust at Scarborough, prompting the latter to verbally call him out while fellow MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews sat back mortified at the intra-family dispute.

Things don't appear to have been smoothed over either as Scarborough was involved in another altercation this morning with liberal correspondent David Shuster on today's "Morning Joe." Scarborough ultimately accused Shuster and his MSNBC colleagues of being Democrats, their independent political registrations notwithstanding.

Gustav Could Go Just About Anywhere

Forecasts are all over the place for this bowling ball from hell. Currently NOGAPS suggests landfall in the Panama City/Apalachicola area (which, of course, would bring the storm quite close to Tampa) and then punching inland directly into Georgia. But, in truth, it could possibly go many different places, and so it bears watching.

Forecasts also suggest storms east of Florida could grow into separate tropical storms as well, so, by next week, Florida may be bracketed by bad weather.

North And South

Here's a weird science story. I'm not sure I believe a magnetic field interpretation - sunlight could play a factor too:

Most cattle that were grazing or resting tended to align their bodies in a north-south direction, a team of German and Czech researchers reports in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

And the finding held true regardless of what continent the cattle were on, according to the study led by Hynek Burda and Sabine Begall of the faculty of biology at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.

"The magnetic field of the Earth has to be considered as a factor," the scientists said.

...The study sent Tina Hinchley, who with her husband Duane operates a dairy farm in Cambridge, Wis., to take a new look at an aerial photo taken of their farm a few years ago.

"The cows that were in the pasture were all over the place ... about two-thirds were north-south," Hinchley said.

Two-thirds is close to what the researchers found in their look at 8,510 cattle in 308 pastures. In the study, 60 percent to 70 percent of cattle were oriented north-south, which Begall termed a "highly significant deviation from random distribution."

Hinchley stressed that one factor that must be considered is cow comfort.

"They don't like to get hot. Their body temperature is 102, and they are wearing black leather jackets, literally! If turning north-south would keep them cooler, they would stand that way."

The research team noted that in very windy conditions cattle tend to face the wind, and have been known to seek out the sun on cold days. But they said they were able to discount weather effects in the study by analyzing clues such as the position of the sun based on shadows.

..."At one point last year the question came up whether large animals could also sense the Earth's magnetic field or not. But of course, it is difficult, or maybe impossible, to do these studies in the lab," she said. "So, the idea arose to look for other large mammals like cattle, and Hynek Burda was fascinated when he recognized that cattle could be found on Google Earth satellite images."

With satellite images they could tell the north-south orientation of the animals, but not whether an individual cow was facing north or south. You have to get closer to tell which end is which.

Nocturnal Landmarks

"Hey, have a cigarette?" The armless black man gingerly crossed the street and approached Sparky and myself at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday. "No, no cigarette," I replied. He then asked, "can you tell me where the light rail is?"

Turned out, he was simply lost, tired, and confused. He asked about the carwash and the liquor store and the Safeway. He said the liquor store was near a Shell station. When I replied that there was a liquor store nearby, but that it was near a Chevron station, he said "Shell, Chevron, it's all the mothafuckin' same." He had arms after all, he had just kept them under his shirt for awhile, for some inscrutable reason, and he slowly brought them out. After I launched into a tedious disquisition about why E-W thoroughfares are Avenues and N-S thoroughfares are Streets, I could tell he was becoming deeply frustrated.

So, I pointed him back to Broadway, the direction from which he had approached, and he shuffled off, muttering obscenities....

Cutting The Hedge With Mr. O., The Homeless Vet

"Hey! Hey!"

Standing at the top of the ladder, and having just turned off the hedge trimmer, I thought I heard something, so I removed my ear protection. It was Mr. O., the Homeless Vet, sitting on an inverted bucket under the oak tree, next to his recycles cart! So, I asked him how his court date went. "They postponed it again! It's all about money anyway. They want me to pay up, but I told them 'Stand Down' pays my bills." (Presumably 'Stand Down' is some kind of Vietnam-vintage veterans service organization, but why they would pay anybody's bills is beyond me).

So, as I continued whacking at the hedge, he offered neighborhood gossip and emphasized just how hot the afternoon was (apparently he schedules regular stops behind my house every weekend because he likes the cool shade there). He even helped rake up hedge cuttings, in exchange for a Diet Sprite (sans the usual ethanol).

After offering lots of meandering commentary, he headed off to McDonalds (also on his daily neighborhood rounds), before bedding down under the freeway (his usual spot).

Madonna Takes The Bait

John McCain needed some celebrity to offer a fight, in order to get that supportive Silent Majority backlash he's been yearning for. Madonna decided to help him out, but it's all so predictable - after all, she did virtually the same thing with G.W. Bush in her 2006 "Confessions" Tour - I'm guessing it has little real effect.:

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds angrily condemned the segment of Madonna's concert in Cardiff on Saturday that appeared to draw a comparison between McCain, Hitler and Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe.

"The comparisons are outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive all at the same time," Bounds said in a statement reported by Fox News.

"It clearly shows that when it comes to supporting Barack Obama, his fellow worldwide celebrities refuse to consider any smear or attack off limits."

Madonna's apparent swipe at McCain came during a performance of the song "Get Stupid", when the Republican contender's image was flashed up alongside images of destruction and global warming as well as Hitler and Mugabe.

Towards the end of the song, pictures of Beatles star John Lennon, former US vice-president Al Gore, Indian Mahatma Gandhi and McCain's Democrat rival Barack Obama appeared.

Gustav Strengthening Fast!

It may also be changing its sights from Florida to the New Orleans/ Biloxi area. But it’s still early yet.

Fellow POW Not Keen On McCain

Too hotheaded:

People often ask if I was a Prisoner of War with John McCain. My answer is always "No - John McCain was a POW with me." The reason is I was there for 8 years and John got there 2 1/2 years later, so he was a POW for 5 1/2 years. And we have our own seniority system, based on time as a POW.

John's treatment as a POW:

1) Was he tortured for 5 years? No. He was subjected to torture and maltreatment during his first 2 years, from September of 1967 to September of 1969. After September of 1969 the Vietnamese stopped the torture and gave us increased food and rudimentary health care. Several hundred of us were captured much earlier. I got there April 20, 1965 so my bad treatment period lasted 4 1/2 years. President Ho Chi Minh died on September 9, 1969, and the new regime that replaced him and his policies was more pragmatic. ....

...I furthermore believe that having been a POW is no special qualification for being President of the United States. The two jobs are not the same, and POW experience is not, in my opinion, something I would look for in a presidential candidate.

Most of us who survived that experience are now in our late 60's and 70's. Sadly, we have died and are dying off at a greater rate than our non-POW contemporaries. We experienced injuries and malnutrition that are coming home to roost. So I believe John's age (73) and survival expectation are not good for being elected to serve as our President for 4 or more years.

I can verify that John has an infamous reputation for being a hot head. He has a quick and explosive temper that many have experienced first hand. Folks, quite honestly that is not the finger I want next to that red button.

Dealing With The Brutalist Church

Has anyone suggested force?:

In Washington, D.C., about two blocks from the White House, there's a Christian Science church that looks more like a concrete fortress than a house of worship. The Third Church of Christ, Scientist — or the Third Church — is a hulking mass of raw concrete. There's one window, no steeple, and its bells are suspended from a slab of concrete that juts out from the side.

...LaVerne Hill, who works nearby, says she's loathed the place for years.

"It's awful," she says. "It looks like they just dumped a bunch of concrete down here and shaped it into a box."

Which is, in fact, what the architects did. The building was designed by Araldo Cossutta, who worked with I.M. Pei. It is a classic example of Brutalism, which was popular in the 1950s and 1960s but fell out of favor in the 1970s.

...Darrow Kirkpatrick, a longtime church member, says the building sends precisely the wrong message.

"We think it says, 'Stay away.' Something goes on in here that they don't want to get outside, which is exactly wrong for all Christianity. We don't think the architecture conveys taking the Word to the people."

...The congregation wants to tear down the building and build another, smaller church. But it can't.

In 1991 — unknown to the church's members — a group of preservationists applied to have the Third Church designated a historic landmark. From that moment, the congregation couldn't touch the building. Last year, the city made it an official landmark, and now the Third Church is suing to have the status removed.

Kirkpatrick says the restrictions infringe on their freedom of religion.

"Nothing expresses a church's religious exercise more than its architecture. And this architecture does not express our theology and our exercise. Brutalism is not our religious expression," he says.

..."Buildings go through these vicissitudes of time," says Ott. "The city is about preserving a historical construct, and we have to be cautious. It may be considered ugly today. Will we consider it as ugly in 50 years? We do not know."

Introducing Tropical Storm Gustav

Tropical Storm Fay menaced Tampa on nearly all sides, but managed only to graze the area: the best possible outcome for the city from a rather bad situation.

So, Round Two. Tropical Storm Gustav, currently in the eastern Caribbean, is forecast to approach the Miami area on Sunday evening. It’s still way too early to make exact forecasts, however – the current westward movement of the storm is liable to bust this Sunday forecast way early.

And in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Julio has entered the Gulf of California and is inching its way to Arizona! Beware disintegrating tropical storms - they can bring lots of rain!

What do the friendly folks at the University of Arizona think?:

A major heavy rain event is shaping up for much of Arizona as tropical storm Julio is making it's way northward across central Baja and back into the Gulf of California. Satellite imagery indicates that cloud tops have warmed over the last few hours and the storm seems to be moving more northward than NNW. The upper outflow looks quite impressive. I'm no tropical expert so I'll leave it at that. As expected moisture has increased and much of Arizona is very wet. The low deserts are all in the low to mid 40mm range with Yuma at 47mm and even wetter to the southeast with Puerto Penasco and Hermosillo in the mid 50's. Significant clouds and showers are present over the state this morning which will act to reduce heating, but how much? 500 mb map has a broad high positioned somewhere around the 4 corners with a hint of a mid level trough southwest of El Paso with good mid level NE-E steering flow. 250 shows a trough along the SoCal coast with a SW 30 kt jet over southern AZ. Morning soundings from both Tucson and Phoenix are wet and potentially unstable with MLCAPE's above 1K J/Kg and have cooled in the mid layers as Phoenix has -7C at 500 mb. The major issue with tropical systems is as they spin down, they leave behind a mid level warm layer and combined with a very wet atmosphere, it stays cloudy, cool, and too stable to convect in the deserts. If the circulation can keep going over the northern gulf, as expected though, a big event is likely over the state especially with a upper trough to our west. SE AZ though, can get caught in the low level easterly downslope flow which will cause the atmosphere to further stabilize.

Beware School Bus

Beware School Bus

Left: Sign on the gravel road leading to the eastern entrance of Carnarvon Gorge National Park, Queensland, Australia.


Over at the LA Times last month, I posted this photo I took in Australia in 2006. To me, it's a fun illustration of the slightly-different ways that Australians and Americans use the English language.

Australians interpret "beware" in what must be it's original understanding - something like "be aware of". So, simply, "Be aware of the school bus".

Americans, however, find the meaning somewhat ambiguous, with several possible meanings to the warning.

One of the commenters on this photo at the LA Times notes:

That was placed by that monster from jeepers creepers

What could he be talking about? So, I checked. And you know, he's right!:

Jeepers Creepers 2 trailer

B-Day


Left: Sweeeneeey!

A Season Of Interesting Insects

Tonight at DMTC, under the insect-attracting lights, I noticed a praying mantis on the prowl on the front sidewalk. Looked like a good hunting spot.

Left: Friday night at Davis' Mace Blvd. AM/PM, I saw this unusually large moth (2 inches from wingtip to wingtip). Looking at this Web Site, and noticing the similarities to the photo there, I'm guessing it's a Tobacco Sphinx:

The Tobacco Sphinx is the adult of the Tomato Hornworm. The larval food plants include cultivated solanaceous herbs like tomato as well as native plants like Datura.

Since tomatoes are grown in the general area of Davis, it would make sense if this is a Tobacco Sphinx.

Rihanna Breakin' Dishes Live In Montreal



And this version, in Sofia, Bulgaria is interesting too, because they do the same routine, but heavily clothed, because it was SO cold that night....

"It's Biden!"

Arthur relates that he was closing The Avid Reader at 16th & Broadway at 10 p.m. Friday night, and his last customer was State Senator Gil Sedillo. As he was ringing up Sedillo's purchase, they talked about Obama's upcoming VP choice announcement, which was sensed to be imminent. Afterwards, Arthur escorted Sedillo out the door and locked it.

A few seconds later, Sedillo returned and knocked on the door. Sedillo waved his Blackberry through the door's glass as Arthur opened up the door a crack. "It's Biden!" Sedillo announced.

DMTC's Summer Youth Production - "Into The Woods" (Act I)

Left: Jack (Andrea Canas) and Little Red Riding Hood (McKinley Carlisle).


The summer teen group (ages 13 - 17) was very coherent and unusually talented this year, this time singing the sophisticated rhythms and harmonies of Stephen Sondheim's "Into The Woods".

Frankly I'm glad DMTC went edgy this year with the summer youth production. By presenting the teens with a real challenge, it forced the teens to step up to their potential. No one coasted with this show!

Left: Standing, left to right - Lucinda (Danika Carlisle), Steward (Juliana Wynkoop), Cinderella's Stepmother (Katie Gardner), Rapunzel's Prince (Joey Lemons), Baker (Chris Petersen), Rapunzel (Anna LeFlore), Cinderella (Anna Miles), Baker's Wife (Veronica Russell), Cinderella's Prince (Shane Bradley), Witch (Tayler Anderson), Narrator (Melanie Platt), Florinda (Cass Olson).

Seated - Granny (Ashley Hickman), Little Red Riding Hood (McKinley Carlisle), Jack (Andrea Canas), and Cinderella's Father (Moti Fox-Libet).

Left: Great set!

Left: Witch (Tayler Anderson). A great new face at DMTC! (Or, as I should probably say, a great new performer at DMTC!)

Left: Jack (Andrea Canas).

Left: "Agony". Cinderella's Prince (Shane Bradley) and Rapunzel's Prince (Joey Lemons).

Left: Cinderella (Anna Miles). (Is this right? - she sure doesn't look like Anna Miles, but maybe I'm fooled....)

Left: Baker's Wife (Veronica Russell), Witch (Tayler Anderson), and Baker (Chris Petersen).

Left: Witch (Tayler Anderson). Yes, she completely transformed!

Left: Cinderella (Anna Miles).

Left: Little Red Riding Hood (McKinley Carlisle).

Left: Wolf (Shane Bradley) and Little Red Riding Hood (McKinley Carlisle).

Left: Little Red Riding Hood (McKinley Carlisle), Cinderella (Anna Miles), and Jack (Andrea Canas).

Left: Jack's Mother (Caitland Martin), Jack (Andrea Canas), and "Milky White".

Left: Cinderella's Stepmother (Katie Gardner), Florinda (Cass Olson), and Lucinda (Danika Carlisle).

Left: Baker's Wife (Veronica Russell), Cinderella's Prince (Shane Bradley), and Steward (Juliana Wynkoop).

Left: Rapunzel (Anna LeFlore) and Witch (Tayler Anderson).

Left: Cinderella (Anna Miles).

Left: Granny (Ashley Hickman).

Sacramento Man Goes After Yreka

But is foiled:

A police officer and two civilians subdued an armed man who drove to a California probation office with 11 crude bombs, 70 loaded magazines and more than 4,000 rounds of ammunition, police said.

Michael Solano, 54, went to a California probation office with bombs and other weapons, police said.

"This guy was ready for war," Yreka Police Chief Brian Bowles said in a written statement. "We were very lucky this guy was stopped and nobody was killed yesterday."

The incident occurred Tuesday afternoon, when people saw Solano acting suspiciously near the Siskiyou County Probation Department and called police, Bowles said.

Solano aimed a gun at an officer, police said. Two civilians then jumped into the fray and, with the officer, subdued Solano and wrestled the gun away, police said.

During the scuffle, Solano repeated that he wanted to be killed and reached for the officer's gun and Taser stun gun, Bowles said.

Solano was handcuffed and searched. Police found a pipe bomb in his shoe, Bowles said. A neighborhood near the probation office was evacuated after Solano told police that he had 10 bombs in his car parked nearby, authorities said.

The bombs were "fragmentation grenades," loaded with nails and BBs, Bowles said. In all, police discovered 70 loaded magazines, more than 4,000 rounds of ammunition, one stolen pistol and two assault weapons. They also found in Solano's car three other weapons, including one with a silencer, surveillance equipment, a tactical vest and clothing with face masks, Bowles said.

...Bowles thanked Brett Duncan and and Darrell Bourne of Yreka, who he said helped subdue Solano.

"We are lucky that the quick response from officers and help from the citizens saved us from a very serious incident," he said.

Trying To Keep Ahold Of The Rural Ways

Political correctness runs amok in Thetford Mines, Quebec. Too bad, too. We are in danger of forgetting our rural roots. These folks tried to reintroduce urban folks back to the ways of the farm. Replacement pasttimes that might pass the political correctness test, like computer games, seem pretty tepid in comparison:

[The Thetford Chicken Massacre] has been taking place for several years on Labour Day when about a hundred people gather to watch decapitated chickens and turkeys flop around on a grid painted on the ground.

The animal rights group PETA wants to put an end to a tradition in the eastern Quebec town of Thetford Mines known as the 'Chicken Massacre.' Every year, a hundred people gather to watch decapitated chickens and turkeys flop around on a grid painted on the ground.

Participants bet in advance on which of the grid's squares the body will come to rest after the head is cut off. Driven by nerve impulses, poultry often run around frenziedly for several minutes after decapitation.

Protests arose after participants posted on the Internet a video of people laughing while decapitated chickens hopped around, as well as photos of past events on Facebook. The web pages were shut down Tuesday.

The U.S.-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) called the activity "redneck" and "gratuitously cruel."

"You don't torture animals just to have fun," said Kristin DeJournett, spokeswoman for PETA. She said she was especially shocked to see spectators betting on the imminent death of animals.

"They are profiting off the exploitation and possible suffering of these animals," DeJournett charged.

She said the activity could violate section 446 of the Canadian Criminal Code, dealing with animal cruelty. But the Quebec provincial police said Tuesday no one has lodged a complaint.

Dr. Gaston Dorval, who hosts the party for his sons at his cottage every year, was adamant they are not torturing the poultry. He said the heads of the animals are clearly severed and that it is the fastest way to kill them.

"If this is torture, then we should close all slaughterhouses in Quebec," Dorval said from his gynecology clinic in Thetford Mines, about 230 kilometres east of Montreal. "They cut the chicken's throat and let them bleed to death. That's much more painful, but you don't see it."

..."It started out with people who came from the big cities and had never seen a headless chicken run. They wanted to see it to believe it," Dorval explained.

..."Our society is hypocritical," Dorval said. "People don't want to see how animals are killed. But I have news for them, the meat doesn't appear in their plate miraculously, you have to kill the animal."

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Customer Scorned

At Jerry's suggestion I'm pulling this post down. If I had personally been affronted by this merchant, that might be one thing, but I'm simply repeating hearsay, and have no evidence other than the posted flyer. Like they say, there are two sides to every story.

Not that I feel obligated to report the other side of the story - it's just that I don't have it.

Sparky Out Of Sorts

Sparky's been feeling ill the last two days. He seems lethargic and he's not eating much. Don't know what that's about. Hope he feels better soon.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Fay Spins And Spins

And looks like it might just graze Tampa....

Satan's Olympics Volleyball

Don't watch the tube! You-know-who established the dress code!:

Freehold, Iowa - Behind the locked doors of America's Christian bedrooms, young boys are getting swept up in a disturbing trend. "I had a frantic mother come to me the other day in tears," said Pastor Deacon Fred. "She told me that her son, Timothy, invited several of his friends over into his bedroom for private prayer and devotional scripture studies. What she told me next is enough to send shivers down the spine of every God fearing mother and father in our Christian Nation! Satan is in our midst, my friends! The Devil is using Olympics volleyball to lure young men into shedding their clothes, flopping around and falling off off their beds with him into the pit of iniquity.

Cake Wrecks

Oh, this is fun!: a blog devoted to cakes gone awry...

Grafton, Wisconsin Gets Serious About Crime

No more of this molly-coddling (and the dragnet catches others as well):

[Heidi Dalibor], 20, was arrested earlier this month in connection with a pair of books overdue for several months. Dalibor, who made the mistake of ignoring a court citation issued after she failed to respond to letters and phone calls from the Grafton library, was busted August 6 for failing to return copies of Janet Fitch's best-seller "White Oleander" (a 1999 Oprah Book Club selection) and "Angels & Demons," author Dan Brown's precursor to "The Da Vinci Code."

Plus others:

• Theresa Sinner: Theresa Sinner's overdue material consists of one book, "Running With Scissors."
• Kevin Pipkorn: Kevin Pipkorn's overdue material consists of one CD, "Jailbreak."

Oprah?



DMTC's Chris Petersen says my feminine look from "La Cage Aux Folles" reminds him of Oprah.

Oprah?

OPRAH?

WTF?

Plus, several people are just now, months after the fact, finally confessing to me what they thought about my feminine look in "La Cage Aux Folles". No doubt, they are prompted by DMTC's 2008 Elly Award nomination for Best Overall Production.

And no, Chris, "fugly" is not in the dictionary....

Yes, the road of fashion can be hard....

The key to winning the Elly actually hinges on the judge-bewitching properties of Darryl Clark's elegant, androgynous legs. They are our light sabers for fighting back the RSP onslaught (three nominated shows!)

God Save The Hairy Mexicans...

Left: Bao Xishun, right, shakes hand with He Pingping.


...Because, without the hairy Mexicans, China would rule the Earth:

Inner Mongolian goat herder Bao Xishun has regained the title as the world's tallest living man after the holder of the record, Ukrainian Leonid Stadnyk, refused to submit to an official measurement.

Guinness World Records (GWR) released a statement overnight announcing that Bao - who measures 2.36 metres (7 feet 9.5 inches) - won on a technicality after Stadnyk refused to submit to being measured by GWR officials.

Stadnyk, who lives with his mother in central Ukraine, is more than 20cm (8 inches) taller than Bao at 2.57 metres (8 feet 5.5 inches), according to a statement from his doctor tendered last year.

...Bao often makes celebrity appearances and in 2006 he was hailed as a hero after he used his long arm to reach down the throats of two dolphins to remove plastic bags they had swallowed.

Last year Bao married a 1.68 metre-tall (5 feet 6 inches) woman and the couple are expecting their first child later this year.

What was not mentioned in today's China Daily story, however, is that - according to the Guinness Book of Records - China is also home to the world's shortest man.

He Ping Ping, who measures 74.61cm (2 foot 5.37 inches) under the new guidelines, will be also included in the 2009 edition of the book.

China just falls short of being able to claim a unique trifecta. Yu Zhenhuan, who suffers from a condition known as hypertrichosis (also called Werewolf Syndrome) and has 96 per cent of his body covered in hair, was listed as the world's hairiest man in the 2002 Guinness Book of Records.

But the current record holders are two Mexican brothers, Victor and Gabriel Ramos Gomez, who have 98 per cent of their bodies covered in hair.

Whither Gasoline Prices?

They seemed to have reached an inflection point of some sort, but whether they go up again, or continue down, is quite uncertain:

Crude futures fell as low as $112.61 a barrel early today after the government said U.S. oil inventories last week jumped 9.39 million barrels, to an 11-week high of 305.9 million -- another sign that there’s no shortage of supply.

But prices rebounded later in the session, and the September futures contract closed up 45 cents at $114.98 a barrel, the second straight gain. Oil hasn't been up for two consecutive days since mid-July.

The market got a psychological boost from Goldman, Sachs & Co. after the brokerage’s commodities analysts reiterated their prediction that crude would rebound to $149 a barrel by the end of the year. ... Also, some traders were noting that U.S. gasoline inventories slid for a fourth straight week to the lowest totals since November. Refineries have been operating at relatively low levels, necessitating a drawdown of gasoline stocks. But with the summer driving season ending that hasn’t been worrying the market much.

...Is this the end of the slide? Market bears expect oil demand in the developed world to continue to weaken given the economy’s struggles, and they say that should put additional downward pressure on prices.

Making Traffic Do The Limbo

This sounds a lot like people I know:

Bungling engineers have been left red-faced after building a railway tunnel that's too small for trains to actually fit through.

The costly mistake was only discovered when inspectors measured the finished tunnel in the Polish capital, Warsaw, and realised the roof was so low that no trains would get under it.

Rail bosses claim the mix-up happened because workers who were laying new tracks didn't talk to the team that was building the tunnel.

...The cock-up is the latest in a series of public transport construction fiascoes in Poland.

A tunnel built recently to divert lorry traffic in Warsaw turned out to be too low for lorries.

Last year, the Polish road authority produced plans for two sections of major motorway that would have missed each other by five miles - each coming to a dead end in the middle of the countryside.

Fay Begins Coming Ashore Again

Fay's forward movement is so sluggish that it's a rain menace wherever it hits. Melbourne, FL is going to be a real mess before this is through - it's been raining there, hard, for more than a day. Mercifully, after being lashed all day, Daytona Beach is now in the eye. But rains there could pick up again soon.

Here's more on Melbourne:

The storm could dump 30 inches of rain in some areas of Florida and the National Hurricane Center said up to 22 inches had already fallen near Melbourne, just south of Cape Canaveral on the state's central Atlantic coast.

For the short term, both NOGAPS and GFS models seem to agree that the storm will move slowly across northern Florida. Already the storm seems to be coming ashore again, heading WNW. After that, Fay will then cross over into the Gulf of Mexico and rake the NE Gulf Coast. Such rain as there is should be mostly over in Tampa by Friday evening.

Then the storm will stall again around Mobile, AL and then either head north (NOGAPS) or reverse direction, begin falling apart, and sweep across Alabama, Georgia, and both Carolinas (GFS). The GFS prediction would be a canonical, standard finish to a tropical storm, and I think that's most likely to occur.

Tampa will get rain from Fay on Thursday and Friday, but compared to many other places in Florida, Tampa's experience with this storm will be rather mild.

Spanish Airliner Crash

An MD-82. Very bad.

"Face Off"

I saw 1997's "Face Off" on DVD on Tuesday (just the latest info here on Marc Valdez Weblog....)

Lots of terrorist fun, with lot's of stuff blowing up, and Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) and Sean Archer (John Travolta) trying to act just like each other. And a good tagline: "To destroy your enemy, you must find him, face him, and then... become him.":

Sean Archer is a very tough, rugged FBI Agent who is still grieving for the dead son Michael. Archer believes that his son's killer is his sworn enemy, a very powerful criminal, Castor Troy. One day, Archer has finally cornered Castor, however, their fight has knocked out Troy cold. As Archer finally breathes easy over the capture of his enemy, he finds out that Troy has planted a bomb that will destroy the entire city of Los Angeles and all of its inhabitants. Unfortunately the only other person who knows its location is Castor's brother Pollux, and he refuses to talk. The solution, a special operation doctor that can cut off people's faces, and can place a person's face onto another person. Archer undergoes one of those surgeries to talk to Pollux. However, Castor Troy somehow regains consciousness and now wants revenge on Archer for taking his face. Not only is Troy ruining Archer's mission, but his personal life as well. Archer must stop Troy again. This time, it's personal.

The script writers were so shameless. Every dramatic contrivance imaginable was used to maximize the tension (Wife is a pawn between her hubby and her worst enemy. Likewise, daughter. Enemy's squeeze has a winning son, and a heart of gold. On and on and on and on.... )

No wonder it was a popular movie!

Felicitous Florida Weather

Fay picked up a bit of strength today from the half of the storm being over the warm waters of the Atlantic, and in response to the lop-sided development, the eye has finally shifted offshore, just north of Cape Canaveral.

Nevertheless, since steering winds will soon start moving again, and move the storm onshore, it is probably too late for the storm to become a hurricane. The storm will move slowly west across northern Florida, dropping lots of rain.

Already, Tampa has seen 0.04 inches this evening (oppressively humid at 100% RH, and overcast too), and it will pick up, as Fay's rain bands bring scattered thundershowers periodically across Tampa over the next two days.

By mid-day Saturday, rains in Tampa will cease, and the storm will push on into Alabama, Mississippi, and either Arkansas, Tennessee, or both, depending how things work out.

So, it looks wet, and wet, but in regards to wind, not that bad.

D&D Prepares People For The Military

Annoyed veteran (and D&D player) Robert Mackey slams Michael Goldfarb's assertion that war gamers (like, perhaps those in Obama's camp) are too geeky to be trusted with the military.

(Judging from my high school friends, D&D players are actually more likely than most to become responsible soldiers):

Well, as anyone with half a brain should know, not all D&D players live in their parents' basement. Some live upstairs.

And others, the vast majority of them, became doctors, lawyers, excelled in business, the arts, and even politics. And a more than a few of them put on the uniform and stand by the colors. And more than a few of them have come back from the very wars that men like Mr. Goldfarb have sent them covered in the colors, the same colors that are given to grieving mothers, wives, and girlfriends.

Yes, Mr. Goldfarb, I play Dungeons and Dragons. And I have, in my home, a very large box filled with medals and decorations that prove my service to this nation. Where were you, sir, when your country called? Oh yes, writing for the Weekly Standard.

Shoplifting Does Not Pay

Hide-and-seek:

The Eaton County sheriff's department said two women fled a Lansing-area TJ Maxx discount store after spraying a security guard with Mace. A deputy found one of the women behind a nearby trash compactor.

Deputies say the woman wouldn't say where the other woman was hiding.

Shortly afterward, authorities got a call about a woman trapped in the trash compactor. Tyree Monique Tate of Delta Township was pulled from the machine by rescuers and taken to a hospital, where the 26-year-old later died.

Things To Avoid During Tropical Storms



A man is thrown across a Miami, Florida, beach while kite surfing during Tropical Storm Fay.

So, Who's It Going To Be?

The fundraiser from 21st Century Democrats awakened me at the ungodly hour of 10 a.m., and asked, among other things, "Who do you think Obama's VP choice will be?"

I said, after all was said and done, that it would be Bill Richardson.

She thought that was interesting, and that she had been leaning towards Edwards until the latest media fuss. And, of course, as she mentioned, we have the latest Joe Biden boomlet to deal with.

I think the VP will be someone who can be pulled out of their current job without doing the Democrats massive damage, which is why it won't be the fellows from Virginia, Jim Webb and Ted Kaine, who barely won their offices and must remain in power long enough to flip that Red State, Blue.

It won't be Edwards (sad, that).

It won't be Hillary Clinton (please).

I wish it was Wesley Clark. He's good! But does he have enough allies in the Democratic power structure?

Will it be has-been types, similar in stature to Dick Cheney: Tom Daschle, John Kerry, Sam Nunn or Joe Biden? Or Indiana's Evan Bayh? They might be enthusiasm dampers (although they bring experience to the ticket).

Or is it someone else? Kathleen Sebelius maybe?

Or is it the guy who made his bones in the Clinton Administration and who has been frantically signalling for weeks that he is tanned, rested, and ready: namely, the aforementioned Bill Richardson?

We'll see shortly....

Spinning Away At Cape Canaveral

And so Fay just spins away at Cape Canaveral, drifting ever so slightly to the north, and bit by bit, losing strength. That is a good thing! The lack of movement is bothersome, but at least it didn't head east where it could gain strength.

NOGAPS suggests a northward movement along the coast, finally coming inland around Daytona Beach and lingering in the Suwannee River basin tomorrow evening before finally heading into Georgia/Alabama.

GFS still forecasts the storm will pick up strength, cross Florida, park tomorrow evening around Cedar Key (where its rain bands will be close enough to Tampa to cause rain there), before heading west and raking the Gulf Coast before coming ashore in Alabama.

NOGAPS consistently projects less rainfall than GFS.

I'm still leaning towards the NOGAPS solution (NOGAPS performed less well than GFS regarding the Florida crossing, but it seems to be outperforming GFS now).

Inscrutable Fay

Fay is still inscrutable. The eye is on the east coast, and will probably move just off of the coast. Strengthening may happen tomorrow, but will be limited if a large portion of the storm remains on land. The important thing is to keep the storm moving north, and not east.

The forecasts haven't budged much: NOGAPS still suggests northward movement and weakening, and GFS suggests strengthening offshore and a new threat later in the week to the NE Florida coast.

Oh-Oh! Leonard's Grandstanding Again!

I rarely watch Cable TV, but I caught a glance of CNN today, and wouldn't you know it, Leonard's on national TV!

Colorful Sacramento personality (and gubernatorial and mayoral candidate) Leonard Padilla has got himself involved with the high-profile disappearance of Caylee Anthony:

Padilla arrived Sunday with his cowboy-hat-sporting, bounty hunter uncle Leonard Padilla to bail Anthony out of jail — and, rumor has it, shoot a TV show.

"My only interest ... is to get that child back," Leonard Padilla told FOX News on Monday.

His interest might also be a reality program called "Bounty Hunters" that he stars in on the National Geographic Channel. There have been rumblings that the elder Padilla has gotten involved in Anthony's case to have material for the small screen.

Anthony is charged with child neglect and lying to authorities about her daughter's disappearance on or around June 16.

The Pleasant North Shores of Lake Okeechobee

Currently the eye of Fay is at the north shore of Lake Okeechobee. It's beginning to head straight north.

NOGAPS suggests it will move parallel to the eastern shore of Florida, maybe just along the coast, steadily weakening, and eventually moving into Georgia.

GFS suggests the eye will move offshore (though not as far as it suggested last night), strengthen, come back ashore, and cross the state to strike Tampa on Friday before moving into the Gulf.

I'm thinking NOGAPS is correct, because generally it's a little better with the timing of the mid-latitude circulation than GFS is, as a general rule, and now that Fay is as far north as Florida, the mid-latitude circulation will determine its destiny.

So, we'll see.

Sympathy For The Mayor

Mt. Isa is way, way out there, and the gender imbalance is real. He shouldn't have to toe anyone's idea of political correctness:

The mayor of an Australian outback mining town has come under fire for urging unattractive women to move in, assuring them they will find a man because there is a shortage of women.

John Moloney, mayor of Mount Isa in northwestern Queensland, told a newspaper his town was a place for "ugly ducklings to flourish into beautiful swans" and called on the "beauty-disadvantaged" to flock there.

In the face of outrage over his remarks, Moloney stood by his comments, saying he did not mean to cause offence but wanted to highlight the gender imbalance in the remote town of some 25,000 people.

"Well I said beauty disadvantaged," he told national radio. "Now beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty can be a good set of teeth, beauty is nice wavy hair. Beauty can be blue eyes or green eyes.

"There is such a thing as disposition, temperament, manners, general attractiveness, attitude and demeanour, all those things tend to make a person attractive."

Mount Isa city councillor Gary Asmus said that while there was a shortage of women, Moloney's comments were an insult to the town's menfolk.

The mayor was "returning us to the Dark Ages and making the guys that live in this town seem like sex-hungry starved men that will pounce upon the first girl that they see walking down the street," he said.

Anne Morris, who has lived in Mount Isa for 50 years, told the radio she had not come across anyone who she would call ugly.

"The people that are coming into town now are coming here to work and find a house and live and bring up their families, but with these sort of comments ... I'd say 'humph, fancy going up to that place'," she said.

"Just The Facts, Ma'am"

Like Cervantes' Don Quixote, this Canadian woman clearly believes "facts are the enemy of truth":

An 18-year-old woman from Guelph, Ont., is facing charges after she allegedly stripped naked on a highway, ran into a cow pasture and threw mud and feces at police officers.

The alleged incident occurred after police responded to a car crash on Highway 21 west of Owen Sound, Ont., on Sunday.

An officer tried to help an injured woman who exited the car, but police say she began acting irrationally.

Police say the woman smeared blood on the officer and then burned herself when she mounted a motorcycle belonging to someone who had also stopped to help.

The woman then allegedly took off her clothes and shoes and ran into a nearby cow pasture, where she spit at pursuing officers and flung mud and feces at them before being restrained.

One officer suffered minor scratches and abrasions.

An investigation showed the woman's vehicle had been involved in two separate fail to remain collisions earlier that day.

Heading NNE

Fay looks like it's going to start crossing Florida, in a line stretching from Ft. Myers to Daytona Beach. At some point, Fay's eastward movement will stall, and the storm will turn in a westerly direction.

The NOGAPS model has the storm stall while it is still over land. On the other hand, the GFS model carries the storm back over the Atlantic before it's eastward movement stalls. If the storm stalls over the warm waters of the Atlantic, that will be very bad, because the storm is likely to strengthen. On the other hand, if it stalls over land, it won't strengthen, and will lose energy.

It is still possible Tampa won't get it by the storm, or at least not hit badly. It's going to be close, though.

Diablo Canyon Off-Line

I helped prepare a permit for these guys. I wonder if they tried to set fire to it?:

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) - Authorities are investigating a fire at a California nuclear plant that forced a reactor to be shut down.

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant spokeswoman Sharon Gavin said Monday that there was no danger of a radiation leak after a fire the day before. The blaze was in a non-nuclear part of the plant.

Gavin says one of two reactors was shut down as part of standard safety procedures. She doesn't know when it will be restarted.

Geologic Changes In Your Lifetime

Jerry pointed this out last week - it's pretty interesting, actually. As it turns out, rock arches are a temporary state of affairs:

Wall Arch, located along the popular Devils Garden Trail at Arches National Park collapsed sometime during the night of August 4, 2008. Rock has continued to fall from the arms of the remaining portion of the arch necessitating the closure of the Devils Garden Trail just beyond Landscape Arch.

Yup, There's A Conspiracy There For Sure

Genius from the future, Newt Gingrich:

GINGRICH: Well, I got a very funny e-mail from a retired military officer in Tampa who pointed out that most tire inflation is done at service stations and you pay for it. And it’s actually a higher profit margin than selling gasoline. So Sen. Obama was urging you to go out and enrich Big Oil by inflating your tires instead of buying gas.

Ninth Anniversary Of The End Of Human Civilization

The Daily Rotten commemorates August 18, 1999:

A giant black rainbow encircles the Earth, sucking all oxygen from the atmosphere. The air returns shortly thereafter, but only after millions die from asphyxiation. On the bright side, the survivors go on to build a utopian civilization. It all happens precisely as predicted in the 1950s by Criswell, the TV psychic immortalized in the movie Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Somehow I don't remember this sequence of events, but I do remember reading one of Criswell's books, and being struck at how poorly he seemed to do compared with psychic Jeanne Dixon.

Of course, she wasn't that good either, but she seemed less prone to flights of fancy.

They should tried their hands at predicting the paths of hurricanes. Now that will separate the pretenders from the merely lucky!

Fay Makes A Break For It

Fay's making a break for it.

The storm's blowing through the Keys right now, and seemingly headed straight up the coast for Tampa.

Let's hope it just hits Tampa once.

Wolf Wants To Play



Mama Grizzly isn't too happy about it, but the cubs are up for some action!

Not Symmetric

Dwight writes:

HI Marc - Here is something on Fay that I found on the Weather Channel. Any thoughts?

The Weather Channel discussion (written by Stu Ostro) is interesting:

Within the past few hours, though (I'm posting this around 2:30 am EDT Monday), the most robust convective flareup the storm has had in a long time has sprouted, and it's spinning like a top as evidenced both by rapid scan infrared satellite imagery (in which images are taken every few minutes and looped) and the Key West radar.

At first it appeared as if this was one of two seemingly innocuous spins aloft, one on the west side of the center and one on the east. However, this eastern one has persisted, and it'll have to be monitored very closely given that it's not out of the question that the surface center relocates under the convection given how broad and weak the circulation was earlier.

My response:

Hi Dwight:

That discussion on the Weather Channel is very informative, and pertinent. Hurricanes are usually pretty axisymmetric, but tropical storms like Fay can have the center of circulation displaced considerably from the center of convection, creating an unsightly sloppy appearance, but making the storm susceptible to darting, unpredictable changes in direction, as the center of circulation will suddenly snap back to where the center of convection is.

I'm afraid that is what's happening right now with Fay. It's almost as if the storm is trying to hop over Cuba. All of a sudden, the storm looks like it is choosing some of the eastern paths I had hoped it would skip.

Currently, the NOGAPS model shows that the center of circulation will remain just off the western coast of Florida, and the center of convection will remain well on-shore. Then the storm moves south to north, raking the entire state with heavy rain.

If anything, the GFS model forecast is even more alarming. It carries the storm NNE across South Florida, hitting the Miami area quite hard, and perhaps clipping Tampa. Then the storm crosses back into the Atlantic near Jacksonville, strengthens, then comes westwards, crosses the Florida peninsula, clips Tampa a second time, before heading westward across the northern Gulf of Mexico, stopping, turning right, and plowing into the Mobile, AL area.

As much as dislike the GFS model, for this storm, it seems to have a better track record so far.

So, we will have to see. If Fay dallies too long, you might have to delay a return to Florida a second time.

DMTC YPT's First Summer Workshop - "Pinocchio"

Pinnochio (Gemma Vanover) and Geppetto (Will Forkin).

Coachman (Jasmin Mould).

Left: Pinnochio (Gemma Vanover) and The Blue Fairy (Nancy Kimball).

Left: Pinnochio (Gemma Vanover), Angelina (Yasmin Kochesfahani), and Antonio (Jasmin Mould).

Left: "Finale"

Left and Below: Candlewick (Kelly Ragsdale), Pinnochio (Gemma Vanover), and Gino (Brian Stewart).



Left and Below: "The Land Of The Toys" reprise.



Left: Signore Volpone, The Fox (Camila Ortiz) and Signore Gatto, The Cat (Kelly Ragsdale).

Wonder Who Those Guys Are?

Idling with the traffic on 19th Street at the light-rail crossing, I watched a fellow on bicycle roll up to the crossing arm, take out a bottle of spray cleanser from the bicycle's basket, and meticulously remove graffiti someone else had scribbled on the crossing arm.

Driving past the parking garage at 14th & I Streets, I glanced into the entrance and saw a fellow practicing his trumpet.

Nightmarish Possibility

The newest GFS run suggests a possibility that is disturbing. First, Hurricane Fay hits Tampa from the SSW, then crosses over the Florida peninsula to the Atlantic near Jacksonville. The storm then stalls, gains strength over the warm water, and starts moving west, crossing BACK over the Florida peninsula, hitting Tampa a second time, then heads west over the Gulf of Mexico to cause even more mayhem elsewhere.

If getting hit once is a problem, then getting hit twice is a real problem. I fervently hope this scenario is not the one that evolves.

Tampa Squeaker

The National Hurricane Center is shifting their forecasts a bit to the west, following the NOGAPS model lead. So now, NOGAPS calls for the storm to just barely miss Tampa, pass on by, and then shift NW and make landfall around Mobile, AL.

The FNMOC Web Site has yet to present the latest GFS model forecast, but checking on another Web Site for that, I note GFS has the storm nearly miss Tampa, but then jog NE and come into the Suwannee River area, and clip Tampa along the way.

The NOGAPS NW shift hinges on how rapidly a high-pressure system develops in the Illinois-Indiana area. Since the high pressure system doesn't even exist yet, it's hard to say too much about it. The GFS model has a slower-developing high than the NOGAPS model does, which is why GFS brings the storm into Florida rather than Alabama.

In any event, Tampa will be so close to the storm you'll be able to look out the window and watch the porpoises fly by. (so to speak)

Strength is hard to call - Class 1, most likely, but Class 2 can't be ruled out.

Cattlemens' Maze

Left: Cindy Gumpy (right), and her party.


Hmmm. More secret rooms here than I understood. I wonder how many other rooms there are here? Maybe there are some Vikings stashed in a secret corner over here, or Lumberjacks over there.

Went to Cindy Gumpy's 30th anniversary party of working with AT&T. One of her posse said "I started working at AT&T until something else turned up. Thirty years later, here we are!" (Funny how life works that way).

Talked to Missy (in the background here) and Megan on the phone (she likes married life in Jackson, TN). I get so confused: I thought Megan was in AL (Funny how life works that way).