According to the National Hurricane Center, there's a small chance that we'll be hit by Hurricane Hanna over the weekend.
Since they provide latitude and longitude information on their website, I thought it would be fun to have TuttleTree track the storm and keep you up to date on just how close we are to the eye of the storm. I came up with a little script to compute the distance between us (well, I'm actually using the latitude and longitude of our zip code as provided by the Yahoo maps API) and the eye of the storm.
Look up at the top of the sidebar, and you'll see the data I'm tracking:
It looks for updates from the NHC every half hour.
I don't suppose I should neglect to mention that my parents are inside that dark blue stripe, on the DelMarVa Peninsula; so they are all but guaranteed a nearly direct hit, at this point. We've braved many-a-storm, though, so I'd bet they're not too worried.
I'm sure we'll all live to enjoy some Chocolate Covered Bacon in it's wake.
Forever ago, like…
January… I posted a couple of YouTube video's made by a high school science teacher concerned about global warming. He made a convincing argument that how certain we are about whether or not GCC (Global Climate Change) is happening — or whether or not we can do anything about it — is irrelevant, and instead, the only important question was what the possibilities are if we DO or DON'T try to resolve it.
He covers it a lot more in depth in his (6+ hours of) videos, but here's a quick and dirty intro:
A lot of people point out that both columns have a sad-face, and only the second column, do nothing, has even a possibility of a happy-face — so we should do nothing and hope for the best. Of course, the chart is a gross oversimplification of the argument, and of course, he covers that (and every other argument) in the hours of other videos he has posted. The short version is that the "Global Disaster" of the second column is the worst possible things that could happen: Tsunami's every day, Forests spontaneously combust, etc; while the "Economic Harm" of the first column is really just that we have a lower standard of living and we can't afford a
Segway for every home.
Anyway, his videos have really picked up a lot of steam, getting more and more media coverage. He's been written about in all kinds of papers, and the AP even picked up one of those stories. He's also been on radio programs and a few TV programs across the globe. And all because of one question he keeps asking himself:
Have I done all that I can?
And here I am, late to the party, as always. But, I'm doing my part. By helping get the word out — to you, and to anyone you then spread it to — and getting informed. There's a huge movement building up behind the idea, and it's taken its name from a word he made up:
Manpollo.
I'm several videos behind, and I was trying to think about when I would have time to watch them when it occurred to me that I could load up all of their youtube pages, leaving the video paused at the beginning, and let them all download to my laptop; and then watch them on my train ride into Philadelphia.
Don't take for granted the time that you do have. Hopefully the cause of the best interests of the planet we call Home, and my words here, will inspire you to at least watch one or two of the videos. If you want to help out the cause, do what their author suggests: Make the changes in your life that you're comfortable with (Compact Fluorescent light bulbs, a thermostat with a timer, EnergyStar rated/approved appliances — especially a high efficiency water heater — are all easy ways to make a difference, and save you money at the same time!), and then help spread the word.
There are DVDs of his videos in production (if they're not already available — I haven't checked yet), or you can
link to them on youtube, or you can download them, even in iPod format… so there are tons of ways to help get the word out, and the idea is only to do what you can.
And when you think about it, can you afford not to?
Yesterday was not a good day.
R.I.P. Chance
Yellow lab, left. She is survived by her step-cousin, Moxie, Black lab-mix, right.
More information here.
