"All the news that's fit to reprint."Greetings, Dear Reader. News Nits is back from our stint on the DL and is currently in our basement ditching a tornado warning. Reminds me of the folks in Joplin, MO, who were lucky if they were able to ditch the storm, as many of them were not so lucky.
Check out the following videos of a group of bystanders in a gas station who got through the storm in a walk in fridge. An incredible testament to just how scary it must have been. Then check out the second video to see just how dangerous it really was and how they all might have died had they remained in the store. Thus, we are in the basement, which is not too bad since the wireless router is still working.
In other news, when a storm does come to town, it is always good advice to find shelter. However, you may want to stand while in that shelter. Turns out, sitting is bad for the body, regardless of exercise rates and other factors. Even NPR agrees, and this is bad news for those of us who have desk jobs and work in front of a computer or on a phone all day.
Did you hear about the rumor about the emails Sarah Palin didn't send? Well, in a rather brilliant move, Alaska released all of the emails that Sarah Palin sent as Governor of the state (after legal teams screened them all). The brilliance of the move comes in the form that they released all the email by paper -- 6 boxes totalling nearly 25,000 pages. And reporters lined up to get their share. Poses an interesting problem, though, how would one actually go about reading through all these emails and finding any juicy tidbits left by Palin's warpath to stardom? An information processing problem indeed. Who knows, maybe this will allow Mrs. Palin to claim she has created more jobs than her GOP opponents if she runs for President.
To round out the nits as our power just went out... there is a rising anti-intellecutalism in the Geek community. Sounds sort of contradictory, right? But think how many successful Geeks bypassed the academic path... and Geeks are always right, right?
High power magnets can thin your blood in seconds, which is cool since TLATL has a strict no drug policy. The drones are here, which is not cool, because they are here to stay. Pretty interesting look into the seedy underbelly of the military-industrial complex. Who will police the drones? I dunno, the Coast Guard?
Please enjoy and comment away a slow morning or afternoon, as we strive to enrich our readers. I need to go find a flash light.
Posts
5 comments:
Saw some pretty bad pictures on the Tribune this morning from the storms in the North suburbs. Not nearly as bad as Joplin, but you guys get through everything okay?
We were fine. Pulling the trigger on ordering the family (sleeping baby and all) into the concrete basement is always dicey. Am I over-reacting? Nothing ever happens...
This case, something did happen. After getting several questioning glances and groans from the brood, about 10 minutes later the lights flickered and the electricity in the whole house went out. I kept typing out this post in the total darkness while everyone else slept in chairs.
Eventually went to bed upstairs in the dark, but by morning, the electricity was back on.
Didn't notice any trees down or anything around here, but I heard more than a quarter of a million people were without power this morning.
I heard that on my way to work. Where I went to my desk and sat for long periods of time. I should have read the rest of my own post.
Those Palin docs could probably be scanned, right? I'm not sure how smart scanners are these days - I'm assuming they can scan in text and have those docs be aware of the text?
Didn't Mark Cuban pay his ridiculous NBA fines all in pennies? I love that...
I think hitting the deck with the fam is the right idea for a tornado is the right idea. Glad to hear you were alright!
I thought this op-ed from back in May about recent weather events and global warming was interesting:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-link-between-climate-change-and-joplin-tornadoes-never/2011/05/23/AFrVC49G_story.html
I'm a big fan of the best available science, I'm not totally convinced Bill McKibbin has it, but it is compelling.
G! I love it.
For as pitiful and small as we are, we do have our die hards, and it is the only reason we bother to eek out posts (apparently once a month now) but for to keep a place for friends to haunt.
I don't know, I thought the tone of the article was a little shrill. I don't know how many people don't believe wild weather is somehow related to climate changes or big shifts ins something over time.
The question is, so what?
I mean, what do "we" do about it and who is we? And what on earth [sic] would we expect Congress to do about it? They can't even balance a budget or solve a debt problem, how could they react to extremely complex and very uncertain science?
I already know what Noah did about it. Can't say it's totally out of my mind to ensure a little more self-sufficiency around my family.
I'll try to have another post up soon.
Post a Comment