As I'm wont to do on occasion, I went on a Twitter tear yesterday. It started with this:
I had seen this quoted on a couple of my liberal politics blogs, rolled my eyes, and moved on. But Imani ABL caught it and responded:
Then Dr. Skyskull, bless him, posted the trigger:
Okay, so when a potential hashtag like #ConservativePillowTalk is dangled in front of me, I'll take it, hook, line, and sinker.
Then a couple more, in rapid succession:
And for the remainder (all mine), I'll just copy the text.
"Who needs Viagra? I have an AR-15."
"Not tonight, honey. I want to work on the tax deductions."
"I hate how gay marriage causes premature ejaculation. It's ruining my marriage."
"Ladies, just lean back, think about the Gadsden Flag, and do it for 'Murca."
"Here's a thought to get your motor running: Dozens of hacked nude photos from phones of male GOP politicians."
"Maybe we could just hire a couple of illegals to do this for us, so we don't have to pay minimum wage."
"Sorry... what? I dozed off."
"Say WHAT!? I thought "oral sex" was *talking* about it."
"Lights out, night only, because those *parts* are so icky, can't bear to see them.
Sad news for Russia's zero-G sex study: The geckos are stone-cold dead. [A tidbit of actual news that seemed humorously appropriate for this hashtag.]
"What do you mean, 'toys,' dear? Like Hot Wheels and cap guns?"
[Followup, 5:17 PM, 9/2- I'm essentially done with this hashtag, but another just occurred to me and I can't let it disappear; it's too good. One female Republican to another: "Just between you and me, I'm into anal. I have sex with assholes all the time."]
Also, a couple of us tried to figure out how we should be responding to ISIS. This is because John McCain knows Obama should be doing *something.* (Again, for time's sake, just copying texts.)
Me: We should do some undefined *something* about ISIS. I suggest scattering
a million tons of individually wrapped chocolates on the area.
That would distract them for a while.
Unfortunately, I guess that would only empower the dreaded military-confectionery complex.
MGHydro: The Pentagon counters with a million tons of individually wrapped bombs. Compromise? Chocolate coated bomblets?
Me: Chocolate-coated peanut cluster bombs!
MGHydro: Giant (and I mean GIANT) caramel popcorn balls.
MGHydro: Peanut Bunker-Buster® Parfait (co-sponsored by Dairy Queen)
Me: A Cracker Jack (TM) aerial campaign.
Me: Seriously, if we could pull this off, ISIS would be so bloated and obese, they wouldn't want to make any further efforts.
Me: STAHP! USA, enough already! STAAAAHP!
MGHydro: Gotta play the long game: an entire generation w type-2 diabetes. Coca Cola was just our first salvo…
So there you have it. domestic and foreign policy both taken care of in an afternoon.
You know Americans aren't afraid to speak up, right? And speak up we did! Following are the tweets from my stream alone, and they've been coming in here at hundreds per hour- it's impossible to keep up! (unattributed are mine; others' are preceded by (RT @User).
Someone, somewhere, may be having fun in a manner of which I disapprove. RT @GOP: Tell us your top issues
Nasty, filthy, horrible tacksesses. RT @GOP: Tell us your top issues
Over-regulation of drinking water quality in West Virginia RT @GOP: Tell us your top issues
Florida looks too much like the nasty part of male anatomy. RT @GOP: Tell us your top issues
(RT @drskyskull) MT @GOP: Tell us your top issues // I worry that the House of Representatives has been way too productive this session.
I'm tired of the failure of the educational system to bring up misinformed, ignorant, self-satisfied dolts. @GOP: Tell us your top issues
I'm out of toilet paper, but I live in a blue state, so I can't just declare emergency, have feds bail me out. @GOP: Tell us your top issues
They canceled Firefly and The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the socialist bastards! @GOP: Tell us your top issues
Dang scientists *still* sciencing. We need to put an end to that. @GOP: Tell us your top issues
Drugs. You guys are obviously off yours. @GOP: Tell us your top issues
(RT @NayNayCantStop) If WoC stands for "Women of Color", does GoP stand for "Gentlemen of Privilege"? RT "@GoP Tell us your top issues"
RT @drskyskull) MT @GOP Tell us your top issues // Being led by an orange person is not evidence of "diversity."
(RT @drskyskull) MT @GOP: Tell us your top issues // Mascot should be changed from elephant to masturbating capuchin monkey
(RT @JustShers) RT @linnyitssn: I just saw a black kid with skittles and no one stood his ground RT @GOP Tell us your top issues
(RT @JC_Christian) We need to stop infringement on our 2nd Amendment right to shoot random sumbishes MT @GOP Tell us your top issues. Let’s win big in 2014.
Remember back in the Ediacaran, how free we all were? THOSE were the days... @GOP: Tell us your top issues.
RT @knightcali I have a severe case of hemorrhoids RT @GOP Tell us your top issues
@knightcali I think that's more of a bottom issue. @GOP: Tell us your top issues.
RT @missokistic Why do we park in a driveway, but drive on crumbling roads due to GOP refusal to upgrade infrastructure? RT @GOP Tell us your top issues.
RT @JoeAconite Time Magazine, April 8, 1966, National Lampoon, January 1973, Playboy, October 1971, Nintendo Power, all of 92 @GOP: Tell us your top issues
I don't remember when the news broke- I'm thinking early April, but not sure- that Google was shutting down its RSS service, Google Reader (GR). That was shocking, angering and depressing to the many of us who have come to use that service, not as a major "source" of news and other internet information, but as the (in my case, THE) major conduit that tied all the sources we follow into one manageable page. Rather than visiting 500+ pages a day, I need visit only one with all those sources displayed.
Immediately the scramble was on: what alternates were available? What sorts of formats did they come in? (I don't care for photo or "magazine" formats, most often a thumbnail accompanied with a snippet of text- what I am after is the text, and if I have to click through on every article to get it, it completely defeats the whole benefit of the manner in which I use RSS.) Were various alternatives ready to deal with the enormous flood of new users abandoning the sinking ship of Google Reader?
While many people scrambled, I chose to sit back and wait a bit. I wanted to see feedback from others on their experiences, and the strengths and weaknesses of other RSS services. Within 2-3 weeks, the one I'd heard the best commentary on was The Old Reader. However, and this was a major concern, one of the comments I saw about that time was from a newly registered user who said they were somewhere around 14,000 in the queue to get their subscriptions/feed lists loaded. That would have been sometime back around the later part of April- again, if memory serves.
So yesterday, with some free time on my hands, I decided to see if I could figure out the whole process. I logged in to The Old Reader (TOR) using my Google account (you can also use Facebook, but it's not clear whether there are other ways or avenues to log in), and was told I needed to export my GR feeds as an OPML file. I don't know what that designation means, but as I'll describe in a moment, it doesn't matter. So you go the the gear icon on the upper right of the GR page, select settings, then "import/export," and under export choose "Download your data through Takeout." It takes a few minutes to get everything in shape to actually create the export files. When it's at "100%" continue. This is by far and away the most time-consuming part of the
process. Be patient. It was easy to wander around to Twitter, Facebook,
Gmail, and GR in the meantime. Creating your archive files runs easily
in the background, and does not monopolize your computer or browser. This was where I got confused, and wasted a bunch of time. I was expecting to see at least one of those files with a .opml suffix, or some shortened equivalent. None of them will. (I made the mistake of quitting out after 30-40 minutes because I thought I was doing something wrong, then having to start all over again.) You end up with 8 files, one of them, Subscriptions, with a .xml suffix.
Once you have those 8 files (mine showed up zipped, but I just opened the zipped folder and copied the files to a similarly titled folder in an unzipped format), return to TOR, select import, and choose "Subscriptions.xml" as the target file. Loading my subscriptions took maybe 20 minutes or a bit longer, and when it completed, it sent me an email saying so.
So all in all, even though I had never done *any* of those things before, it was relatively quick and simple, with the exception of one mistake on my part that wasted somewhat more than half an hour. I was expecting the transition process to be much more complicated and time-consuming. If this is a concern of yours as well, it needn't be.
About the TOR service itself: the interface is almost a clone of the GR interface with some changes in color, fonts and font sizes. The only significant difference I've spotted so far is that my individual feed subscriptions that I haven't categorized into topical folders are all bound in a single generic folder called "Subscriptions," but given the manner in which I consume my RSS info, that makes no difference whatsoever. I've only had TOR for about a day now, and relatively little time (maybe 2 hours total) spent there, so consider this a preliminary report. As such, I'll just make some bulletted comments:
I was worried that I might have a limited number of subscriptions, but it took all 528 of mine without a quibble. I suspect that's an unusually high number, and that most people will have many fewer.
One thing I noticed immediately and really appreciated was that TOR "Home" page lists dead feeds- that is, subscriptions that have been inactive for a long period of time. I've been aware of deadwood accumulating for some time, but other than occasionally coming across one and deleting it, have had no way of systematically pruning these out.
The response time (i.e., switching from one folder to another, reloading, etc.) is noticeably slower than in GR, but not enough to be onerous. And given the enormous influx of users over the last months, this is something I suspect will improve- even though it'll matter little to me if it doesn't.
You can reverse the read order from newest->oldest, to oldest->newest. This is a feature I've wanted from time to time, though at the moment I don't recall why.
A feature/app I'm particularly intrigued by is called "Pocket," "a handy app that allows you to
arrange, sort, and tag content that you intend to access later." (available at the bottom of the "settings" window) This could be very useful (and if what I envision, something I've really jonesed for in GR) as a way to save and organize things for link lists- Sunday Funnies, geology news, and so on. GR's current set-up basically allows me to star things, or like them, but no way to sort into separate categories.
Want basic instructions? See "Howto" under your profile name, but it's pretty much just like old-school GR.
In short, I'm pretty darned impressed, and while I expect I'll keep using GR right up to the end (currently the easiest way to accumulate the funnies, and the 30th falls on a Sunday), I'm relieved, pleased, and much more relaxed in having a ready-to-go replacement for that service.
Fair warning: I was not prepared for the heart-tearing intensity this song hit me with today. 45 minutes, and I'm still crying. Kind of embarrassed, but not really. The people who aren't crying are the ones who should be embarrassed.
They're crowded into the smallest spaces
While outside all of nature cries
It's known to be cruel and unfair
But there is no place to hide
Oh I've seen a part of people that I never really want to share
Oh I've seen a part of people that I never really knew was there
[CHORUS]
Shelter - give them shelter from the coming storm
Shelter - give them shelter from the coming storm
I can't sleep haunted by their faces
The sadness in their eyes
It hurts so much to see them helpless
It makes me want to cry
But still there is so much left unanswered
For so many innocent lives
They close the doors and are letting nobody in
And only the strong will survive
[CHORUS]
I've seen the anger and I've seen all the dreams
And I've watched an existence torn apart by the seams
And though I may seem helpless
I will do all that I can do
Oh I've seen a part of people that I never really want to share
Oh I've seen a part of people that I never really knew was there
Today's big Twitter meme is #BachmannCampaignSlogans, and it happens to fall at a time when it seems the snark is strong with this one. Here are my suggestions to help Michelle get her minty cylon frying circuits up and running:
We've never had a tax attorney for president. Isn't it about time we did?
I'm on a boat! I'm president of the world!
Ohhhh, I'm an idiot and I'm okay, I sleep all night and I talk all day
Insert vapid slogan here
Please disregard previous slogan. Through miscommunication, it was thought to be finished, and released prematurely
Rabies: It's what's for president!
She may be a raving crazy IDiot, but she's YOUR raving crazy IDiot!
Because we all know 8 years of disinterested, impulsive, ignorant, arrogant and inhumane leadership wasn't enough.
All four Wizard of Oz folks in one: A lost little girl with no heart, no brains, and no courage.
She knows what Real America looks like. She saw it out the window when she flew to Washington. And she will again.
Because she recognized the word "constitution" once.
We hate brown and poor people way more than any of those other guys.
Colder than a Minnesota winter, buggier than a Minnesota Summer
Our campaign bus is the short one.
Nature may abhor a vacuum, but the GOP abhors nature.
Because "Lune" is French, but "Loon" is Minnesotan.
Because the voices in your head said "Vote Bachmann in 2012"
And a great one from @drskyskull: "All four horsemen in one folksy package."
Also, I forgot to note who tweeted this, so I can't give credit (anyone want to fess up?), but for the GOP debate last night, someone said "How about this for a GOP debate drinking game: if any of these fuckers win next fall, spend the next four years drinking."
The word "hubris" is of Greek origin, and the concept (though I suspect it long predates that culture) plays a major role in much of Greek and Roman mythology. In that tradition hubris refers to overweening pride to the extent a character's self-satisfaction and confidence offends one or more Gods, who then decide to punish the mortal who thinks so highly of him/her self. Clearly, the concept exists in Christian mythology as well, though as far as I know, it's merely referred to as "pride," and not as hubris, at least in the King James version of the Bible.
The tale of Titanic, in all its versions, is perhaps the best-known parable of hubris in modern times. I have mentioned the line I chose as the title of this post in discussions I've had with students on the nature of science quite a few times. I've been under the impression it was excerpted from a contemporary editorial, but I don't know that for sure. (Followup: a little poking around, and I found this Snopes post; the quote is probably apocryphal.) You couldn't beg more effectively for a god's wrath and punishment than to challenge said god with "even YOU couldn't sink this ship."
If you're not a believer, though, as I am not, how do you explain this "punishment?" First, you have to give up the idea of "punishment" and "reward." The universe is not conscious, does not have purpose, does not care what you do or don't do, does not care whether you live or die. There are consequences of actions, but these are not "intentional." If you throw a ball into the air, it will fall to the ground. That is a natural consequence of gravity, not a sign that god or the universe finds airborne balls anathema. In philosophical terms, I do not consider the universe to be a teleological construct.
So why do human displays of hubris so often result in catastrophe? Because we are so damned good at constructing our own perceptions, which we then project upon reality. If you are in charge of the largest ship in history, why should you worry about a few piddling little icebergs? If we speed up, we may be able to break the mail record. If you're drilling in thousands of feet of water with the best new technology, why should you be concerned with a potential blowout? Why should you even think about what options you might bring to bear in that event? It can't, and therefore won't, happen. Perhaps you're in charge of managing the most complex machine ever built... why should a frosty night be of concern? A wondrous spaceship like the shuttle is certainly immune to a mere chill, whatever those dweeb engineers might say. If you're convinced that the US is the greatest nation ever, and undefeatable in any way, you might be inclined to ignore warnings of a known terrorist trying to find a way past our security, and declare an unjustifiable war on an uninvolved country when he does. Or, you might put a bureaucrat-lawyer, whose expertise is horse racing, in charge of the nation's emergency response agency, and declare he's doing a "heckuva job" as thousands perish after a major city is inundated. And the list goes on and on, and on. You may allow urbanization and development on coastal plains far outboard of obelisks from centuries ago which warn of tsunami dangers. You may develop residential neighborhoods on the slopes of historically active volcanoes, or in the path of enormous mapped debris flows or lahars. You may build great metropolises in the middle of arid lands prone to decades-long droughts. You may look at housing as a bubble that can't pop, and encourage banks, recently freed to do so, to invest in your bundled loan packages.
And on, and on. And on.
My point is, one needn't fear God or Gods to recognize and fear hubris. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most important and most ignored concepts controlling humanity's future that I can think of.
I wish I could find a clip of this song to embed; it's hauntingly beautiful and sad. But a YouTube and Google search return mostly, in yet another case of hubris, hundreds of clips of Celine Dion's banshee howling.
Hans Theessink: Titanic (lyrics from here) That night it all started when the ship began to shake We were filled with amazement a little shocked but not afraid We didn't really understand what caused the water to come in We had been told this mighty ocean-liner "even god himself couldn't sink" You took a picture of our child your hat and your jewelry And we put on some warm clothes because we thought it might be cold at sea When we left our cabin we noticed how the water started pouring in Was it a tear or maybe just a drop of water on your chin
Titanic Titanic so proud and so free Will your grandeur protect us from the cold icy sea
We followed some white arrows with a lifeboat-sign We had to go onto the first-class deck but no one seemed to mind Despite the strange situation we all took it quite with ease Only one of the third-class passengers was behaving foolishly We talked to a gentleman that we'd met earlier on He introduced us to his wife he introduced us to his son Then the captain said that the lifeboats could not be lowered down I believe it was because some chains of the hoist could not be found
Titanic Titanic so proud and so free Will your grandeur protect us from the cold icy sea
We were all invited for a free drink at the bar We drank to the empire and to good health for us all The ship was leaning to one side we felt it sinking quietly We decided to stay together on board though many people jumped into the sea Then the rats left the ship to try and find dry land But we stayed close together and held each others hand It was midnight on the water we could hear the ocean roar In the lifeboats that were lowered down there was no room for us anymore Not a helping hand around in this cold cold night An iceberg disappearing into the distant morning light We're watching the last lifeboat as it slowly lowers down There's many men women and children left behind not a helping hand around Not a helping hand around not a helping hand around There's many men women and children left behind not a helping hand around Now the members of the band struck up with "nearer my god to thee" Somehow banal but in the vain of our time and century By now we have lost our last tiny bit of hope We're all going down while the flag is going up
Others have noted the irony of Bin Laden's killing on the eighth anniversary of dubya's carrier-deck strut and Mission Accomplished bravado. (All Hat, No Cattle) Golly, whoda thunk that gathering intelligence- and paying attention to it- responding with a focused plan, and carefully targeting your objective might have a more positive outcome than initiating unplanned hostilities against a poorly armed, fractious nation whose leader threatened your daddy and your masculinity?
Here's the thing: I don't want to underplay the importance of killing Bin Laden. I honestly don't know how important he is/was at this point; if reports are accurate, he has been thoroughly out of the loop. I think kudos and more are in order for those involved in this operation: well done! I wish it was as easy for me to assure you of proper health care and the benefits you deserve when you return to civilian life. Lord knows our country and citizens owe you at least that much, but we both know you're going to have to fight tooth and nail to even get attention, let alone the support you're due.
But what really disturbed me last night as I realized what had happened was the mood of celebration. I was watching Twelve Monkeys- an appropriately surreal, grim and depressing film, when I started hearing fireworks, cheering, and chants of "USA! USA!" I didn't pay much attention. Danged Greek kids will use anything as an excuse to make noise and get drunk... one gets inured to it after a while. Then I took a break and checked the web. Oh my. Celebrations in New York and DC. Obama interrupting Celebrity Apprentice Dance Survivors (or some such) for an officious statement. Boo-yah. A guy is dead. Go USA!
Really, people? Yeah, he was an awful person, a prick, a monster, even. Yeah, he planned an event that killed 3000 American Citizens within our national boundaries (I think it's that latter detail that gets everyone's panties in a knot- we sure as shit don't give a fuck when American citizens are killed overseas by ambushes and IED's.) But I had been under the impression that our country was built based on the principle of the basic dignity and assured rights of each and every human being. It's one thing to see a few self-selected yahoos celebrating the execution of a criminal in Texas (after, I might point out, the application of due process of law, however flawed that might be); it's another to see a huge portion of my country celebrating what amounts to a military execution as if it was a game-winning three point play in the closing seconds of a playoff game.
Listen, assholes: this is not a game. These are not the closing seconds- we have been warned that GWOT will likely go on for decades. Bin Laden was a human being, not a basketball. Celebrating the death a human being, however awful he was, cheapens ALL human life, including your own.
Isaac was my friend! he cried, he begged them with his tears But centuries of hatred have ears that do not hear An eye for an eye, it was all that filled their minds And another eye for another eye till everyone is blind
And the tears of the people ran together.
Again, let me be clear: I am in no way saying Bin Laden's death is a bad thing. I would have preferred his live capture and trial, but as best as I can tell, actually following our own law is distasteful and unworkable for our current legislative and executive branches. It's much more pragmatic to throw suspects into a box in Guantanamo, with assurances we'll sort them all out with military tribunals in some nebulous future. Given that fact, and the potential for his martyrdom or becoming an even more powerful symbol, I really don't feel that execution by Special Ops force is a bad alternative.
No, what disgusts me is the idea that we can treat the end of a human life- any human life- as a source of cheap entertainment, nationalism, and a reason to celebrate.
Five years ago today, Mitt "Mittens" AKA "Willard" Romney signedObamaCareRomneyCare The Massachusetts Health Care Bill into law. And hasn't stopped running away from it since.
Finally, 200 years ago today, a team from John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company landed on the southern shore of the mouth of the Columbia River to establish a trading post; the community that grew up around the site is now called Astoria, Oregon. No biggie, right? Well, oddly, for me at least, this may be the most important item on the list. Money quote:
"Without John Jacob Astor sending the party to establish a trade outpost in 1811, Oregon, Washington and Idaho would very likely be part of Canada today. The group he sent beat a group of Canadians by about a month."
That would be who is running our country right now. A group of overwhelmingly white, male, wealthy and religulous bastards have shown their fortitude and conviction of principle by stonewalling any attempt toward a functional Federal budget over the issue of... drumroll, please... Planned Parenthood.
Now I can understand that they don't like abortion. I can understand that, because neither I nor anyone I've ever discussed the issue with "likes" abortion. See, I like puppies. I like kitties. I like ice cream, coffee, pizza and on and on. There are literally uncountable numbers of things I really enjoy as improving my life and my perception of it. Abortion is not one of those things. But sometimes it may be the least painful choice among many, and as a male, I simply do not feel it is my place to make such a choice for someone else by removing that option. I do not feel it is my business at all, beyond advocating for those for whom it may be an option- a painful, sad option, to be sure, but again, perhaps the least painful.
Given that these same sanctimonious pricks also want to remove services for post-fetal human beings, such as WIC (Women, Infants, Children- a food benefits program), and have shown less than interest or concern for access to health care services by ex-utero (even in-utero, for that matter) individuals, their level of concern for the viability of what, let's face it, is tantamount to a nine-month infection by a parasite that plays sheer havoc with a woman's physical and mental health, is puzzling to say the least. But consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, as they say, which I suppose indicates that modern conservatism is all about fat heads.
But what really got my panties in a knot this afternoon was this, from The Daily What:(according to Wikipedia, Planned Parenthood's annual budget is $1.04 billion, not $11.4 million) And here's an excerpt from the post with the above graphic:
Despite the paltry sum (the US spends nearly twice that much on war every day), and the fact that it is illegal under Title X for any federal money to be used to fund abortions, Republicans insist that no federal funds should be appropriated to organizations that perform abortions.
But, according to Planned Parenthood’s 2009 report (as illustrated above), abortions accounted for 3% of all services performed — far outweighed by vital, lifesaving cancer screenings and STD examinations. Also, as Ezra Klein notes, cutting funding for family planning will ultimately result in additional spending to offset the taxpayer cost of unwanted pregnancies “among people without the means to care for their children.”
So abortions amount to 3 whole frakking percent of Planned Parenthood's exorbitant $1.04 billion dollar budget? Gee, that's $30,000,000! That's about half the cost of the hundred or so cruise missiles fired into Libya during the opening hour of the recent and ongoing festivities there! Now in fairness, I'm sure that GOP cruise missiles rain down puppies, kitties and ice cream, so this might not be an appropriate comparison. And anyway, those are brown people over there, and those don't really count.
As I tweeted a little bit ago, "Well," said Ford, "the Thumb's an electronic sub-etha signaling device..." Get me off this crazy planet.
Today's GOP: Nothing a Vogon Constructor fleet couldn't fix.
Twenty people have died in the protests triggered by Pastor Terry Jones' burning of the Koran in March and more violence is likely. But both his action, and the reaction in the Muslim world share the same problematic roots: Claims to absolute truth have little place in the modern world.
As a person who has spent quite a bit of time reading, discussing and teaching about the nature of science, I'm well aware that within the sciences, claims of absolute knowledge are, for practical purposes, forbidden. The word "truth" in a scientific context raises my hackles and sets off my BS alarm.
Moreover, "fact" doesn't mean "absolute certainty"; there ain't no such animal in an exciting and complex world. The final proofs of logic and mathematics flow deductively from stated premises and achieve certainty only because they are not about the empirical world. Evolutionists make no claim for perpetual truth, though creationists often do (and then attack us falsely for a style of argument that they themselves favor). In science "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional consent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.
In other words, I treat my knowledge as an absolute basis for decision-making in the vast majority of day-to-day situations. But I have a duty to acknowledge evidence against data I consider to be "facts." Furthermore, when the outcome of my fact-based decisions may be injury or even death to another, that is not a day-to-day situation, and I have a human duty to reconsider just how certain I am about my facts, and how important I think those facts are, in the grand scheme of things.
It's all about perspective.
Absolutes are comforting, and as human beings we desire them. Our desire for them can lead us to believe they exist. But they don't. In believing that absolute knowledge can exist, and in blindly acting on the basis of that knowledge, the outcome is inevitably injury and death.
This is the basis of religion, going hand-in-hand with the guilt-assuaging certainty that when others suffer as a result of our decisions, it is because of "God's will" or "God's plan."
And unfortunately, that perspective is not limited to religion. One of this country's political parties has a whole laundry list of absolute facts that trump human life, as we saw yesterday with Ryan's "serious" budget proposal. I would be so much more optimistic if I felt that the other party was honestly willing to fight for principles and people, rather than trying to be bipartisan. Because with absolute knowledge, there is no compromise, no middle ground, no negotiation.
I've been oppressed by the news lately, but there's nothing for it: I'm a news junkie. But every now and then, I come across something that, for a few minutes at least, makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Hooray for rescued goggies!Crikey.
Tohoku (previously referred to as Sendai) Earthquake
Via everybody everywhere, XKCD has posted a chart illustrating the magnitude of concern you should have regarding radiation releases from the Japanese reactors. (Spoiler: not so much) ZOMG! Bananas! Domestic Partners! What's my exposure from a cat sleeping in my lap!? Additional fun and enlightening commentary at The Vigorous North.
Michael Welland at Through the Sandglass has a piece on tsunamis in the historic and sedimentary records, and implications for human development of vulnerable areas.
There have been several good posts on the nature of surface deformation in the neighborhood of the quake. I get exasperated with the breathless statements like "Japan moves eight meters east" and "Earth's day shortens" as a result of the quake. Portions of Japan did move east- some more than others, but not the island nation as a whole- and the earth's rotation did speed up- just as an ice skater who tightens their arms against their body will increase their rate of spin. But what is never mentioned in these kinds of headlines is that over the next centuries, as the area around the fault is stressed and strained, and another earthquake builds, is that the same areas will move west, and as the land surface rises again, the earth's spin rate will slow. It's cyclic. Yes, these happened quickly, but the fact that the motions happen in reverse slowly doesn't mean the counterpart of the sudden motion is unimportant. Hudson Valley Geologist has a good color-coded map of how much different areas moved; Highly Allochthonous puts together an excellent round up of information and links; The Chatterbox: it's not just the tsunamis; subsidence means some areas will stay flooded; a variety of teaching resources from Hudson Valley Geologist. In particular, note the video clip; Jorge at Structural Geology provides a nice explanation, an excellent set of schematics, and lots of links; finally, Callan at Mountain Beltway shows the horizontal and vertical components of overall ground movement from before to after the quake. Keep in mind though, as I said in the introduction to this bullet, this nearly instantaneous movement will be reversed in large part, and "reset" over much longer timescales in the decades and centuries to come. Then it will happen again.
If I had to pick one image to express how blown away I've been by the last twelve days of news out of Japan, it would be this one, first seen at Steve Gough's Riparian Rap: cars on the roofs of three-story buildings.
Brookings, OR Harbor reopens; Damage estimate reduced from $10 million to $6.7 million; Federal disaster assistance requested. OregonLive.
If you insist on worrying about radiation from Japan in the PNW (please don't), OregonLive has an article about resources you can use. Most important, there's a link to radiation monitors' recent daily data in Oregon. (link for Washington at the OL article) First sentence at the site: "Radiation from the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan is not a health risk in Oregon."
On the other hand, older Portland homes (pre-80's) not so much. The good news, though, is that retrofitting the typical private home is not likely to be as expensive as I might have guessed.
And on yet still another hand, Portland schools have been retrofitted with an eye to allow survivability, but not continued usability. In other words, occupants will most likely be able to escape safely, but buildings will not be salvageable afterwards. I have mixed feelings about this strategy, and I'm hoping it's a temporary first step, with schools able to withstand a major quake and be usable afterwards replacing older, weaker structures as funds become available. Schools and other public properties can be critically important shelters and organizational centers after disasters... as long as they're safe to use.
Oregon Expat posts a video I haven't yet taken time to watch, examining the OR coast and its tsunami risks. Another topic I've been hoping to get to, but haven't set aside time. Short version: much of the coast is situated on elevated terraces, and at-risk sites are limited in area. However, most coastal communities are situated near harbors with adjacent estuarine-tidal flat lands moderately to heavily developed. So a majority of communities have some of their most economically important land in vulnerable areas. Here's the OregonLive article Oregon Expat is working from.
OregonLive: Don't turn your back on tsunami warnings. An excellent, startling video of the late tsunami at Depoe Bay (most famous as the location for the fishing excursion in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) The reason I say startling is that it really doesn't look like it's all that big a deal... until all of the sudden it obviously is a big deal. Also, if you missed it above, Chris embedded a time lapse video of the tsunami at Crescent City, CA so I didn't have to. For both these clips, you'll probably be happier with the sound way down or off, though I have to say with the Crescent City clip, the time lapse sound of the tsunami tsiren kind of made me giggle.
JFleck at Inkstain notes that the Colorado River Basin is in the clear as far as water shortages go. (Note: read the the comments if the irony escapes you.)
Via Iceland Volcano and Earthquake Blog and Eruptions, yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption. It started off beautiful, became a royal pain in the butt by disrupting European air travel, but it never killed anyone. My kind of disaster.
This could fit in several different categories, but there has been some twitter discussion of a piece by Simon Winchester at Newsweek. Chris at Highly Allochthonous has posted the first blog commentary I've seen so far, but I expect this item will be under discussion for a while: watch for more. For the record, I'm not a big fan of Winchester. As an example, the first book of his I read was The Map That Changed the World. Let's just ignore his predilection for hyperbolic titles and statements, and my general distaste for phrases in the form of "The X that Y'd the Z," where X is a noun, Y is a catastrophic verb, and Z is a general noun carrying implications of "everything important." A person who didn't know who William Smith was would come away from that book with the idea that the great accomplishment of his life- emphasized and re-emphasized at least once or twice a chapter- was spending a few weeks in debtor's prison. Likewise with Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, I think the author makes a good case for the importance of that eruption. He admits very quickly and in passing near the beginning that it was not the largest eruption in recorded history- let alone geologic history. Yet an innocent and geologically naive reader might very well come away with the idea that it was the biggest explosion since the Earth was created; Winchester falls all over himself trying to find ways to supersize this eruption, just like a McDonalds clerk. And like McDonalds, there are way too many empty calories for my taste. As I commented at Chris' post, Winchester too often strikes me as more interested in marketing than informing.
"The battle to prevent dangerous climate change is over; the race to survive it has begun." Via Hot Topic. If only we could get the US House to legislate recalibrating the Fahrenheit, Celsius and Kelvin temperature scales, this wouldn't be a problem.
I found this a baffling mixture of fact and fake, sense and nonsense; it's not totally wrong, but there's enough wrong that my BS detector was ringing at three-alarm levels. Calcite, for example, is much more plastic under high T&P than quartz; halite and gypsum even more so. However, the latter two aren't major components of rock on a global scale. Quartz could hold key to explaining earthquakes.
Garry Hayes at Geotripper takes his analytical skills to the next level, and predicts an earthquake today. And tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that. Useful? You decide.
If only idiots will vote for certain politicians and listen to certain shock-jocks, you can rest assured those pols and jocks will do everything they can to make sure everyone is an idiot.
After spending pretty much the whole day yesterday, and making what felt like very little progress through all the information flying through teh innertubz, I promised myself I wouldn't do the same thing today. Yeah, well... promises are made to be broken, right? I'm just finding too many frightening and amazing things this morning to ignore them. For example:
Mary at Geographile found this amazing video of liquifaction and mud volcanoes on reclaimed ground after the quake. I don't think I've ever seen footage of this phenomenon active before; many photos of the aftermath, but it's pretty interesting to see the actual process.
This clip has been all over the place this morning: the nuclear emergency that was widely reported yesterday has culminated (hopefully) in an explosion at the Fukushima power plant:
Many of the usual suspects are treating this as apocalyptic, Chernobyl-level or worse news, and I'm still trying to unravel exactly what happened. My current understanding, which to be clear may be incomplete or incorrect, is that this is a steam explosion. It clearly is not a core explosion. Some radiation has been leaked, but officials are claiming it is not intense. Still, I find the lack of details in official reports troubling. I'll add on additional information as I find it.
So as I did yesterday, I'll add items as I continue reading. The times I post with each represent the time I found it, not the time it was originally posted... there's still an enormous backlog from yesterday, some of which may be dated at this point, but some of which will undoubtedly provide some important background.
12:27 PM, PDT (UTC minus 8 hours)- Oregon Live lists seven reputable organizations that are accepting donations to aid the victims of the quake. In another article, the same source notes that the FBI is warning the public to be wary of scam artists posing as aid organizations.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned Friday that con artists often prey on donors responding to charity calls in the wake of natural disasters. The warning comes as charities begin reaching out for contributions to help deal with the damage caused by Friday's tsunami.
12:37- Commenter CJR points out an interview by Evelyn at Georneys with her father, a nuclear engineer, on the unfolding Fukushima reactor crisis. Due to noise here inside the Interzone, I haven't been able to listen to it yet, and I'm hoping Evelyn finds time to transcribe it. However, I've been reading so many positive comments on how her father explains the situation that I'm just going to pass it on to readers, even though I haven't listened to it yet.
12:46- OregonLive catches an AP story that reiterates some of what I've read elsewhere, and clarifies some points on the Fukushima story:
The blast destroyed the building housing the reactor, but not the reactor itself, which is enveloped by stainless steel 6 inches thick.
Inside that superheated steel vessel, water being poured over the fuel rods to cool them formed hydrogen. When officials released some of the hydrogen gas to relieve pressure inside the reactor, the hydrogen apparently reacted with oxygen, either in the air or the cooling water, and caused the explosion.
So it was hydrogen exploding (chemically, not fusion) that caused the blast, and the inner steel containment vessel was not breached. The article also confirms my unease with the lack of information and transparency: "But authorities did not say why, and the precise cause of the explosion and the extent of the ongoing danger were not clear."
1:01- Susan at Geology in Motion works toward an order of magnitude estimate for the amount of energy the tsunami imparted on the Japanese coast, concluding that the value is somewhere in the range of 1 to 100 times that of (sum total of) the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She concludes with the comment, "My 'gut feeling' from looking at the number of completely devastated cities is that these higher numbers are very likely."
GENEVA, March 12 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday that the public health risk from Japan's radiation leak appeared to be "quite low" but the WHO network of medical experts was ready to assist if requested.
So is WHO making this judgment based on their own observations and data, or upon evasive statements by public relations officers? 'Cause, you know, that kind of matters.
1:38- Callan has a good piece on so-called "secondary effects," or follow-on consequences of earthquakes, which often kill many more people than the quake itself. As he points out, few people die directly from the quake. Have you ever heard of quake-induced whiplash?
1:46- Yesterday we saw aerial footage of the tsunami sweeping through the Sendai Airport. Today Bits and Pieces finds footage shot from inside the terminal:
2:08-OregonLive: $10 million in damages to Port of Brookings alone. I've read of serious damage to harbors and ports in Coos Bay, Port Orford, Depoe Bay and Gold Beach in Oregon, and Crescent City and Santa Barbara in California. I'll keep an eye out for sources and links as I go- those are just from memory, which is most certainly not flawless. 3:18- here's the article I read last night discussing the some of the tsunamis' impacts on the OR coast. 2:15- Whew! That's a relief! (What Would Jack Do?) In a non-ironic vein, it's too early to make any serious observations or predictions, but this may have negative consequences for the nascent economic recovery. So to say "no impact on Ohio" may be a bit premature... at least in terms of "secondary effects."
My email inbox has continued to flood with earthquake notifications, more than doubling yesterday’s tally. As of right now (15:00 GMT), Japan has experienced a total of 171 earthquakes greater than M 5.0.
Of those, 26 were stronger than M 6.0, including a 6.8 that occurred at 1:47 this morning and a 6.4 less than two hours ago. Incredible.
I'm having a really hard time getting my head around 171 M 5+ quakes, with 26 equal or greater than M 6, in less than 48 hours. Criminy.
2:36- A very helpful post from Swans on Tea discussing the issues with the Fukushima reactor (with the amusing title, which at first I didn't get, "I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night"):
The reactor is shut down, so what’s the danger? The products of a fission reaction are typically radioactive, and subsequent decays also release energy. Shutting down the reactor reduces the fission rate by many orders of magnitude, so it’s effectively zero in terms of heat output, but the radioactive fission products still release up to 6-7% of the plant’s power output. The actual value depends on the operating history; the fission products with long half-lives take longer to build up to steady-state values. This value will drop fairly quickly as the short-lived isotopes decay, but it’s still significant — a reactor rated at 1000 MW will still be producing tens of MW of decay heat. The reactors in question at Fukushima Daiichi are rated at 460 or 784 MW.
2:41-@argillic RT @ejgertz: "Personnel have flooded Fukushima reactor 1 w/ seawater & boric acid: 'throw in the towel' strategy that perm. damages reactor." So hopefully, that's that.
2:47- Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous put up some background information in a post from yesterday. For me, the most helpful bit was on some of the reasons that modern moment magnitudes (estimates of total energy released, as opposed to Richter magnitudes, based on ground motion) frequently get revised upwards in the hours and days following very large quakes. I haven't seen any resolution to this yet, but while the MSM news sources are still reporting this as an 8.9, the geoblogosphere was reporting fairly early yesterday that USGS had upgraded it to a 9, and some other agency (which one?) to a 9.1. Again, Chris titled his piece with an eye to humorous tongue-in-cheek recognition of this.
3:26- I, Cringely gives a good rundown on "How Flea Powder May Be Saving Lives in Japan," highlighting a use of boron (in the form of borates, or more likely, sodium polyborate) that I mentioned just ten days ago. As I noted at 2:41, there are now reports that the borate coolant has been injected into the reactor, which is apparently a permanent killer.
3:40- If you've spent any time reading this blog at all, you know I don't have much use for religion or prayer. That doesn't mean I don't entertain benevolent thoughts and wishes for those suffering and endangered, just that I don't have any belief that there's a great sky wizard waiting around pensively to find out what I'm going to blow out the candles and wish for today. I like hope, and I like this (Sober in a Nightclub):3:49- Ben Travato, The Wulfshead: "We are all Springfielders now."
3:52- I sometimes forget why I subscribe to The Telegraph (UK). Then they remind me. They print some of the stupidest, overblown, sensationalistic headlines this side of the Weekly World News: "Earthquake like 'dropping boulder the size of the Isle of Wight into the ocean.'" All of it from sea level up, or from the ocean floor up? Maybe including the whole of the crust, or the mantle as well? And, uh, dropping it from how high? Sigh... nitwits.
4:12- NASA provides side-by-side before and after images (2/26/11 & 3/12/11) of the flooding near Sendai, Japan:4:37- Jessica Ball at Magma Cum Laude has a post that does a good job of getting at the complexities inherent in establishing a causal relationship between an earthquake and a subsequent volcanic eruption. I'd add that both subduction quakes and volcanic arcs result from (are caused by) subduction zones, so they are related, but as Jessica points out, only rarely will a quake actually trigger an eruption. The details of how a quake might trigger an eruption, though, are interesting.
4:41- Silver Fox at Looking For Detachment has added many, many more links to her post from yesterday, so if you're wondering how the geoblogosphere is responding to the news, this remains the most comprehensive list of Japanese quake/tsunami posts that I'm aware of.
A radiation leak and explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on Saturday prompted the government to expand an evacuation order to affect 170,000 people in the plant’s vicinity. And the plant’s operator issued an emergency notice early Sunday morning that a second reactor at the same aging plant was also experiencing critical failures of its cooling system, and that a way to inject water into the reactor to cool it was urgently being sought.
Fukushima nuclear plant - where a huge explosion yesterday blew the outer walls and roof off the No.1 reactor building - faces a new problem.
The emergency cooling system of No.3 reactor has now also stopped working, the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has announced.
Sea water is being pumped into the No.1 reactor chamber to cool its fuel rods - and officials are scrambling to secure a means of of supplying water to the No.3 reactor.
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