Zwichenzug

The main difficulty with using explosives to modify hurricanes is the amount of energy required. A fully developed hurricane can release heat energy at a rate of 5 to 20x10¹³ watts and converts less than 10% of the heat into the mechanical energy of the wind. The heat release is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes. According to the 1993 World Almanac, the entire human race used energy at a rate of 10¹³ watts in 1990, a rate less than 20% of the power of a hurricane.

If we think about mechanical energy, the energy at humanity's disposal is closer to the storm's, but the task of focusing even half of the energy on a spot in the middle of a remote ocean would still be formidable. Brute force interference with hurricanes doesn't seem promising.

In addition, an explosive, even a nuclear explosive, produces a shock wave, or pulse of high pressure, that propagates away from the site of the explosion somewhat faster than the speed of sound. Such an event doesn't raise the barometric pressure after the shock has passed because barometric pressure in the atmosphere reflects the weight of the air above the ground. For normal atmospheric pressure, there are about ten metric tons (1000 kilograms per ton) of air bearing down on each square meter of surface. In the strongest hurricanes there are nine. To change a Category 5 hurricane into a Category 2 hurricane you would have to add about a half ton of air for each square meter inside the eye, or a total of a bit more than half a billion (500,000,000) tons for a 20 km radius eye. It's difficult to envision a practical way of moving that much air around. |link|

Ninety percent of the structures in the city are likely to be destroyed by the combination of water and wind accompanying a Category 5 storm, said Robert Eichorn, former director of the New Orleans Office of Emergency Preparedness. The LSU Hurricane Center surveyed numerous large public buildings in Jefferson Parish in hopes of identifying those that might withstand such catastrophic winds. They found none.

Amid this maelstrom, the estimated 200,000 or more people left behind in an evacuation will be struggling to survive. Some will be housed at the Superdome, the designated shelter in New Orleans for people too sick or infirm to leave the city. Others will end up in last-minute emergency refuges that will offer minimal safety. But many will simply be on their own, in homes or looking for high ground.

Thousands will drown while trapped in homes or cars by rising water. Others will be washed away or crushed by debris. Survivors will end up trapped on roofs, in buildings or on high ground surrounded by water, with no means of escape and little food or fresh water, perhaps for several days. |link|

1. I am the Walrus -- Gray Matter
   
2. Swing Down Chariot -- The Golden Gate Quartet
   
3. I've Never Been There -- The Country Gentlemen
   
4. Hangman -- Tangle Eye
   
5. Glory of the Sun -- Split Lip Rayfield
   
6. Higher Ground -- Stevie Wonder

On retiring to Capri he devised a pleasance for his secret orgies: teams of wantons of both sexes, selected as experts in deviant intercourse and dubbed analists, copulated before him in triple unions to excite his flagging passions. Its bedrooms were furnished with the most salacious paintings and sculptures, as well as with an erotic library, in case a performer should need an illustration of what was required. Then in Capri's woods and groves he arranged a number of nooks of venery where boys and girls got up as Pans and nymphs solicited outside bowers and grottoes: people openly called this "the old goat's garden," punning on the island's name.

He acquired a reputation for still grosser depravities that one can hardly bear to tell or be told, let alone believe. For example, he trained little boys (whom he termed tiddlers) to crawl between his thighs when he went swimming and tease him with their licks and nibbles; and unweaned babies he would put to his organ as though to the breast, being by both nature and age rather fond of this form of satisfaction. Left a painting of Parrhasius's depicting Atalanta pleasuring Meleager with her lips on condition that if the theme displeased him he was to have a million sesterces instead, he chose to keep it and actually hung it in his bedroom. The story is also told that once at a sacrifice, attracted by the acolyte's beauty, he lost control of himself and, hardly waiting for the ceremony to end, rushed him off and debauched him and his brother, the flute-player, too; and subsequently, when they complained of the assault, he had their legs broken.

When we characterize talk as hot air, we mean that what comes out of the speaker's mouth is only that. It is mere vapor. His speech is empty, without substance or content. His use of language, accordingly, does not contribute to the purpose it purports to serve. No more information is communicated than if the speaker had merely exhaled. There are similarities between hot air and excrement, incidentally, which make hot air seem an especially suitable equivalent for bullshit. Just as hot air is speech that has been emptied of all informative content, so excrement is matter from which everything nutritive has been removed. Excrement may be regarded as the corpse of nourishment, what remains when the vital elements in food have been exhausted. In this respect, excrement is a representation of death that we ourselves produce and that, indeed, we cannot help producing in the very process of maintaining our lives. Perhaps it is for making death so intimate that we find excrement so repulsive. In any event, it cannot serve the purposes of sustenance, any more that hot air can serve those of communication.

There was a time when I was writing fiction by night and technical manuals by day. In the technical stuff, I strove for minimalism - for every word, sentence, or fact, I asked "Who cares? Does this really help?" and if I didn't have a good answer, I cut it. I wrote excellent manuals. But I couldn't turn it off at night, and when I applied the same standard to my fiction, there was nothing left at all.

In thus explaining and championing religious pluralism on affirmative theological grounds rather than on negative or concessionary ones, liberal Protestants could make one of the more important of their distinctive contributions to the moral coherence ‘and consensus that our sprawling society needs but has found it difficult to maintain. Much else -- in the realms, for example, of piety, of doctrine and of social zeal -- can be seen as vital to the revivification of a distinctive liberal witness. But surely the theistic rationale for pluralism, in distinctive Protestant forms, deserves central attention. A liberal Protestant pluralism unconscious of its own grounding in the radical otherness of God and in an uncompromising respect for persons will continue to be vulnerable to charges of timidity -- of not knowing what we are about, or at least of being too skittish about asserting the spiritual and theological grounds of what we are about.

In summary, modern liberalism is the intellectual heir to three bankrupt, irrational, and socially dangerous philosophies. In following the romantics in jettisoning objective morality, modern liberal thought opens a Pandora’s box of deviant and socially destructive behavior without any way to control it. In following the existentialists in jettisoning objective truth, modern liberalism is unable to make crucial distinctions between right and wrong, good and bad, and true and false. Furthermore, it is simply unavoidable that those who do not believe in truth are more likely not to tell it (i.e. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”). Finally, in embracing the philosophy of postmodernism, modern liberalism has sought to redefine and restructure reality through a hijacking of language and overt censorship. In short, modern liberalism has become as bankrupt as the philosophical theories that support it. Modern liberalism was born out of irrational systems of thought and continues to perpetuate irrational thought by means of professors, politicians, and pop culture icons that are in the grip of its powerful delusions. Modern liberalism is perhaps the greatest social threat next to fundamentalist Islamic terrorists yet more dangerous in that its appeal is more subtle, more deceptive, and much more closer to home.

Despite the appearance of the form alright in works of such well-known writers as Langston Hughes and James Joyce, the single word spelling has never been accepted as standard. This is peculiar, since similar fusions such as already and altogether have never raised any objections. The difference may lie in the fact that already and altogether became single words back in the Middle Ages, whereas alright has only been around for a little more than a century and was called out by language critics as a misspelling. Consequently, one who uses alright, especially in formal writing, runs the risk that readers may view it as an error or as the willful breaking of convention. [link]

1. Wildwood Flower - - The Carter Family
   
2. Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow - - The Carter Family
   
3. Wabash Cannonball - - The Carter Family
   
4. Worried Man Blues - - The Carter Family
   
5. I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes - - The Carter Family
   
6. Cascade - - Chet Atkins
   
7. One Man Boogie - - Chet Atkins
   
8. Boo Boo Stick Beat - - Chet Atkins
   
9. Tiger Rag - - Chet Atkins
   
10. On My Way to Canaan's Land - - Chet Atkins
    
11. Twitchy - - Chet Atkins & Chet Atkins & Jerry Reed
    
12. Jerry's Breakdown - - Chet Atkins & Chet Atkins with Jerry Reed
    
13. Dream Dust - - Les Paul
    
14. Hawaiian Paradise - - Les Paul
    
15. Steel Guitar Rag - - Les Paul
    
16. Guitar Boogie - - Les Paul
    
17. Caravan - - Les Paul
    
18. Whiskey and Gin Blues - - Memphis Slim
    
19. Maybe I'll Loan You a Dime - - Memphis Slim
    
20. Whiskey Store Blues - - Memphis Slim
    
21. I Believe I'll Settle Down - - Memphis Slim
    
22. Beer Drinkin' Woman - - Memphis Slim
    
23. Hallelujah I'm a Bum - - Bob Bovee
    
24. Ain't Done Nothing If You Ain't Been Called a Red - - Faith Petric & Mark Ross
    
25. Put It on the Ground - - Marion Wade

1. The Lord Is My Shepard - - Kings Of Harmony
   
2. Let It Shine on Me - - Kings Of Harmony
   
3. Precious Lord Take My Hand - - Kings Of Harmony
   
4. Search Me Lord - - Kings Of Harmony
   
5. In the Morning - - Golden Gates Quartet
   
6. Sending Up My Timber - - The Ever-Ready Gospel Singers
   
7. I Can See My Savior - - The Ever-Ready Gospel Singers
   
8. In the Wilderness - - Echoes Of Zion
   
9. Look for Me in Heaven - - Echoes Of Zion
   
10. The Lord's Alphabet - - The Dixiares
    
11. Jesus Give Me Water - - The Dixiaires
    
12. The Greatest Creator of Them All - - The Dixiaires
    
13. Just a Closer Walk With Thee - - The Dixiaires
    
14. Let Nothing Separate Me from His Love - - The Blind boys
    
15. Was the Blood - - The Blind Boys
    
16. Sweet Jesus, the Lily of the Valley - - The Atlanta Pilgrim Travelers
    
17. Prayin' Time - - The Atlanta Pilgrim Travelers
    
18. Bedside of a Neighbor - - The Dixie Hummingbirds
    
19. Ezekiel Saw the Wheel - - The Dixie Hummingbirds
    
20. Going On - - The Dixie Hummingbirds
    
21. Jesus Children of America - - The Dixie Hummingbirds
    
22. Let's Go Out to the Programs (Single) - - The Dixie Hummingbirds
    
23. Loves Me Like a Rock - - The Dixie Hummingbirds
    
24. Nobody Knows the Trouble I See - - The Dixie Hummingbirds
    
25. Thank You for One More Day - - The Dixie Hummingbirds
    
26. The Final Edition - - The Dixie Hummingbirds
    
27. Two Little Fishes (And Five Loaves of Bread) - - The Dixie Hummingbirds
    
28. You Don't Have Nothing - - The Dixie Hummingbirds

It was in Randall's lab that she crossed paths with Maurice Wilkins. She and Wilkins led separate research groups and had separate projects, although both were concerned with DNA. When Randall gave Franklin responsibility for her DNA project, no one had worked on it for months. Wilkins was away at the time, and when he returned he misunderstood her role, behaving as though she were a technical assistant. Both scientists were actually peers. His mistake, acknowledged but never overcome, was not surprising given the climate for women at the university then. Only males were allowed in the university dining rooms, and after hours Franklin's colleagues went to men-only pubs.

But Franklin persisted on the DNA project. J. D. Bernal called her X-ray photographs of DNA, "the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken." Between 1951 and 1953 Rosalind Franklin came very close to solving the DNA structure. She was beaten to publication by Crick and Watson in part because of the friction between Wilkins and herself. At one point, Wilkins showed Watson one of Franklin's crystallographic portraits of DNA. When he saw the picture, the solution became apparent to him, and the results went into an article in Nature almost immediately. Franklin's work did appear as a supporting article in the same issue of the journal.

A debate about the amount of credit due to Franklin continues. What is clear is that she did have a meaningful role in learning the structure of DNA and that she was a scientist of the first rank. Franklin moved to J. D. Bernal's lab at Birkbeck College, where she did very fruitful work on the tobacco mosaic virus. She also began work on the polio virus. In the summer of 1956, Rosalind Franklin became ill with cancer. She died less than two years later.

C-22740, National Arbitrator Shyam Das, November 12, 2001: Award concerning the counting of casuals among the various crafts in determining compliance with the provisions of Article 7, Section 1.B.3 (national cap). The arbitrator retained jurisdiction and remanded the issue to the parties for further discussion consistent with the findings in the decision.

I remembered another one.

This bear walks into a restaurant and sits at one of the tables. A waitress comes to take his order. "I'll have a tunafish sandwich," he says, "and.....a glass of milk." The waitress says, "Why the big paws?"

They send them to jail.

Actually, a famous satirical piece was once written which proposes, in ridicule, the moral equivalent of that which you endorse: solve the problem of overpopulation by killing the poor and making them into dogfood.

1391: Castilian sailors in Barcelona, Spain set fire to a Jewish ghetto, killing 100 people and setting off four days of violence against Jews. 1763 : Colonel Henry Bouquet decisively defeats the Indians at the Battle of Bushy Run in Pennsylvania during Pontiac's rebellion. 1762: Russia, Prussia and Austria sign a treaty agreeing on the partition of Poland. 1815: A peace treaty with Tripoli--which follows treaties with Algeria and Tunis--brings an end to the Barbary Wars. 1850: Birth of Guy de Maupassant, short story writer and author of "The Necklace." 1858: The first transatlantic cable is completed. 1861: Congress adopts the nation's first income tax to finance the Civil War. 1864: The Union Navy captures Mobile Bay in Alabama. 1876: Birth of Mary Ritter Beard, American historian and writer. 1892: Harriet Tubman receives a pension from Congress for her work as a nurse, spy and scout during the Civil War. 1906: Birth of John Houston, film director of such movies as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon. 1908: Birth of Miriam Rothschild, English scientist and writer. 1914: The British Expeditionary Force mobilizes for World War I. 1914: The first electric traffic signal lights are installed in Cleveland, Ohio. 1915: The Austro-German Army takes Warsaw, in present-day Poland, on the Eastern Front. 1916: The British navy defeats the Ottomans at the naval battle off Port Said, Egypt. 1921: Mustapha Kemal is appointed virtual ruler of the Ottoman Empire. 1923: Birth of Richard G. Kleindienst, one of the key officials who helped elect Richard Nixon to the presidency. 1930: Birth of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. 1941: The German army completes taking 410,000 Russian prisoners in Uman and Smolensk pockets in the Soviet Union. 1951: The United Nations Command suspends armistice talks with the North Koreans when armed troops are spotted in neutral areas. 1962: Actress Marilyn Monroe dies under mysterious circumstances. 1974: President Richard Nixon admits he ordered a cover-up for political as well as national security reasons.

• Mother Very Earnestly Made Jam Sandwiches Using No Peanuts.
  
• Men Very Early Made Jars Stand Upright Nicely, Period.
  
• My Very Empty Mouth Just Swallowed Up Ninety Peanuts.
  
• My Very Easy Method: Just Set Up Nine Planets.
  
• Men Very Easily Make Jugs Serve Useful Nocturnal Purposes.
  
• My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.
  
• Mary's Violet Eyes Make John Sit Up Nights Pondering.
  
• My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nine Porcupines.
  
• My Very Erotic Mate Joyfully Satisfies Unusual Needs Passionately.

1. I'm getting decidedly shaggy. There's a piece of hair above my right ear, a cowlick I guess, that insists on sticking up. Also, I'm about a third of the way to a legitimate philosopher beard.
   
2. The big news, though, is that I've confirmed the presence of gray hairs. Yay! That's not, by the way, one of those ironic "yay"s that you see so often around the blogosphere. I'm legitimately pleased.