Something fun is happening on my political blog. We're doing podcasts. I am one of the speakers, but I also produce it. Am enjoying it a lot. Here's the link to the article discussing it. You can stream the first one now.
If you listen in, let me know. We'll get a lot more sophisticated with the page and the whole process. This was thought of Wednesday, taped Friday, and up Saturday around midnight. Should be up each Friday now.
United Airlines, Delta, and Southwest think fat people have to buy an extra ticket - one for each cheek. That's cold. Surely it can't be purely weight-driven. Tipping at 250 yields a vastly different breadth if the person if five-foot tall versus six feet.
Ah, I am right. They use a Body mass index of 30 or more. Here's a calculator. I come in at 20.1. I'd have to crank it to 209 pounds - about me + 69 - in order to met the fat standard.
But, wait a minute. Assume I am 209 pounds. I know that I have to buy two tickets. So I say that I am 205 pounds, coming in safely under the standard. They can't just take my word for it. So they must ask people close to the fat standard to step onto the scale that we all put luggage on. I take off my coat, my shoes, etc. Then everyone watches me as I step onto the scale! How embarrassing is that? They are actually doing this? Isn't there a better way?
It seems that being against abortion marks a person as a potential terrorist - and the Obama Administration is standing behind the report that states it. Time to stock up on tinned meat and bullets.
I'm reading through Ananova's Strange Crime entries, but most are just shake-your-head stupid.
Gotta run.
The first place to make the safety list is West Union, WV. Here's some good data on the town.
Seems low crime, low cost of living, and only a few people. A place people grow up in and leave.
It's on the east-west line from Clarksburg to Parkersburg.
Here's a pic:
Pearisburg, Virginia, seems to fit, too. Here's the profile. I am going to wander at least further east if I can. Maybe further south. I want to cut the annual snowfall and be closer to the ocean. Not sure how much of that I can achieve.
My goal is northern NC and as close to the ocean as possible. Maybe I'll bite the bullet on hurricanes. I'll update this post as I find areas.
Can't find a blizzard map, just discussion. So this will have to do.
Areas hit by either blizzards or otherwise ranking high enough to make the article: Massachusetts and Connecticut; Texas to South Dakota; WDC (but just two feet of snow? I am beginning to think a blizzard isn't all that bad); Philadelphia (30 inches - big deal!); and Colorado.
OK, that's all our source data. Now to dig into it and the suggested safe havens.
Water, logically, stays by the rivers. So avoiding floods should be easy enough - high ground, no rivers close by. Got it. Good source data here.
Great site on tornadoes here. The map is 1950 to 2007 - image not as good - had to do a screen shot:
I'm liking West Virginia over these last few pics.
There's a whole bunch of earthquake maps here. The general description is below, followed by the map I chose. Anticipating the other natural disasters, western Maryland and parts of North Carolina are looking good.
These figures are probabilistic ground motion maps for Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA), 1Hz (1.0 second SA), and 5Hz (0.2 second SA). Some additional spectral accelerations (SA) are also included for central and southern California. Most figures correspond to the 2% in 50 year probability of exceedance, but there are a few figures for the 10% in 50 year and the 5% in 50 year probability of exceedance as well. The latter figures are identified in the listing below, or can be identified by examining the file name and looking for a “10pc50” or “5in50” (respectively). All ground motion probabilities are computed for the B/C Boundary (Vs30 = 760 m/s).
I have a statistical analysis I want to do. The question is this: Over the past 100 years, which locale(s) have had the fewest combined earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, and floods taking into account economic loss and loss of life?
I've come to learn that life has enough internally generated challenges; seems prudent to minimize the risk of external ones.
The locale(s) identified need to be in an area at 50 miles square - locating in the middle of a 2,500 square-mile area seems safe.
My initial assumption is that the locale will be in the upper South. I recall Kentucky getting tornadoes, so it won't be that far west - but I'll verify that.
I'll post my source data as I find it. I'll start with incident data, and then after several places are identified, I'll look at loss data.
Hey, FEMA, little help - where have you never gone?
Yes, it's been a while. This blog began a little over five years ago. Politics was a focus. Then I bored of the empty suits. and wrote more personally. I always enjoyed listened to myself tell a good joke, so I wrote some humor. But then the focus went back to politics, and in that I somehow came to the attention of a few folks like myself - social conservatives with an expectation that people actually care to read what they write. So we spent a few months designing The Patriot Room, and launched in December 2008. I stopped writing here at that time because I was rarely writing personal stuff. Now I feel like writing personal stuff. So here I am. Ta-da!
I'm teaching, mostly on-line. It's interesting to balance six classes and 100 students, but is often aggravating. Students disappear, don't respond to e-mails, and just piss me off. Others are good - excited to be a part of the process. They're fun.
I've been writing my book is spurts. Total rewrite in progress. Have wanted to bail so many times just because I don't feel myself good enough. Head down, focused ... trying. Need to finish it this year. I want to finish it.
Personal life has had its challenges. Talk about giving up! Man, I've been ready countless times to pack it in. But for this and but for that, I'd have been room temperature countless times. Yeah, I overreact. It's my defining characteristic.
I am currently on emotional and psychological life support. I am writing this post, in fact, because I'm sure if the attendant is going to pull the plug and watch as I go isoelectric. Well, hey, now you'll know because I'll go silent again! And that's a good thing.
So anyway ...
It dipped into cold weather a few days ago. I was so pleased when it was warm. I could sit outside with my dogs and let the sun warm me. Now it's been cold again - seeing my breath. It chills me deeply. I am uncomfortable in the cold - always have been.
I wonder what it would be like to live in a more temperate climate as I used to in California. I recall being much more comfortable. There is some comfort in warming under several blankets. I'll admit to not liking sweating my way through an August night. Perhaps someday, but it doesn't feel real to me anymore. I think that window I look through now will be my last, and that resonates uncomfortably.
The financial pressure I feel is enormous. Resolution, catching up, seems within reach, but it has countless times before. It is challenging to see the fires, and only be able to address the one that flares to uncontained status. I worry that several will flar at once and thereby consume me. Yet, I worry about those things I can control, and much of these things I can do nothing about except as money comes mid-month each month. But, my, mid-month seems so far away each month. Just frustrating at times.
Man, am I bitching! Sorry. Just getting it out. Trust me - I am pulling my punches. I got a few other issues that wipe all the above away like dust off furniture.
You know what? Gonna end this bitch session. I'll try to me more socialable next time. Promise.
I write my politics at The Patriot Room. I'll write some other things here.
I'll clean up this template when I have time and focus. Rather unfocused at present.
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