Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog Archive 28 Aug 2005 to 03 Sep 2005

Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog Archive
Laura "Tegan" Gjovaag

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Lifelike Artificial Ultimate Repair Android

I mercilessly cut down my blogroll and added a link to my bloglines which includes pretty much all the blogs I read daily. I'm still working on making the sidebar managable.

Neil Gaiman and the Satanic Tomato. Makes for a good short story title.

The Dorothy Store has been updated to include issue #4. I was also amused to see Bibliographia Oziana listed. A must-have book for any Oz book collector.

Tony Isabella tells us how he would've ruined Aquaman if he'd kept working at DC.

But Is It Fun? talks about doing RPGs with environment-specific characters like Aquaman.

Elayne has Renfaire pics.

Garrett has a statement and link that folks ought to check out.

More bad news. William Rehnquist has died. You thought the political crap was bad with the NOLA disaster? Just wait. You ain't seen nothing yet.

This Pocket Paper Organizer sounds like just what I need.

TangognaT is a cyborg. I'm General Juggernaut Optimized for Vigilant Assassination and Accurate Gratification. Joy.

Hurricane Thoughts:

How to get a temporary job in disaster relief. I think I want to take those courses anyway, just to be ready. If the hurricane has taught us anything, it's that we need to be ready for disaster and have a week's worth of food and water available.

Speaking of being ready, here's a list of items to put in emergency kits, and advice on how to maintain those kits. Maybe we should start working on one ourselves. Via Garrett.

Boing Boing links to an essay on being poor. I recognize a few of those, enough to know that I have tasted poverty, but never really been poor.

This is the face of a hero.

Eighteen-year-old Jabbor Gibson commandeered an abandoned school bus and took 100 people out of New Orleans to the Astrodome in Houston. He deserves honor. He might get jail for "stealing" the bus. "I dont care if I get blamed for it," Gibson said, "as long as I saved my people." He did what the National Guard didn't do: he didn't wait for orders, but went out and saved lives. He's a hero. God bless this man and give him the honor and praise he deserves. Via Boing Boing.

Wired directs us to a "Wiki" Map that allows people to describe the devastation in New Orleans by location.

Danger, Politics Ahead

CNN compares and contrasts the reactions of people on the ground in New Orleans to the utterly incompetent Michael Brown, head of FEMA and criminally negligent. If Brown doesn't serve prison time for this, there is no justice in the world.

Speaking of incompetence, MetaFilter has more on the people responsible for the failure of rescue efforts, and a roundup of FEMA/DHS's imcompetence leading to the crippling of relief efforts. You would think, from the links, that FEMA/DHS wants everyone left in NOLA to die.

We know who is at fault. From their own website: "In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility". Everyone in leadership positions at DHS and FEMA should be charged with criminal negligance and thrown in prison, preferably one that's still filled with dirty water from the hurricane, and left to rot. They didn't even make the most basic effort to help until it was too late for far too many, and their refusal to give the orders to let others help directly contributed to the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. We had Americans on the ground helping recover from the Tsunami half a world away faster than we got help into New Orleans.

And now the [censored] in charge of "Homeland Security" are keeping people in the city AT GUNPOINT. They won't let the Red Cross in, and they refuse to let the people out!

And apparently our government is at war with the citizens of New Orleans, as they are now calling them "the insurgency". That would explain why Michael Chertoff and DHS are so determined to make sure they die. Via Warren Ellis.

The cops are turning away volunteers and donations at the Astrodome, even though they are desperately needed. What idiot is in charge down there?!???

Kos is hopeful about bipartisan investigations into the relief effort failures, but Billmon is sarcastically skeptical. I also have doubts that the [censored] responsible will ever be punished. Criminal negligence, and Bush will be handing out medals to all of them.

Billmon points out the reaction of FEMA to the hurricanes that hit Florida last year, before the election, was completely different than the reaction to the hurricanes this year. Oddly enough, the major relief efforts didn't start in NOLA until Bush came down for a photo op.

If you haven't seen the clip this MetaFilter thread links to, of Geraldo Rivera and Shep Smith screaming the truth at the talking heads on the FOX news network, then you need to go check it out. I can't stand Rivera, but this is one of those rare times he's worth watching.

Over at Kos, Hunter rants and describes this disaster as what it is: Unforgivable.

A howl of outrage at the incompetence of the rescue efforts, while BBC News' Matt Wells tells it like it is. As does Steve Gilliard.

Dave also rants, and includes a picture of those school buses that should have been used before the hurricane hit to evacuate people who didn't have cars and couldn't get out on their own.

I can't go on. I'm sounding shrill even to myself. But I cannot express my fury at the people who sat on their hands or played politics with red tape while people were drowning and starving in New Orleans and elsewhere in the hurricane's path. I can't even begin to articulate the rage that's building inside of me. The actions of the government during this disaster are truly unforgivable.

End politics

And lastly, give:

-by Tegan at 9:34 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Rapid Reviews - 31 August 2005 - Part I

You might notice a bit of a theme with some of these capsules. Yeah, I'm linking to the Wiki whenever a comic book series has an entry. I'll probably keep doing that in future capsules too.

The Flash #225: "Rogue War: Conclusion": I missed something in there. This is the point where I wish the Wiki was complete, because while I "get" the page where Ashley is updating some files, I'm not sure who Ashley is, or who Meloni Thawne is. There have been too many characters in the last few issues, and I just can't sort them all out. As for the other events... wow. That's a little change in Wally's life.

Wonder Woman #220: "Affirmative Defense": Good final two pages, even if the cover does give it away. This one ties the last issue into the events of the issues before it, which makes it a bit better than the last issue. Unfortunately, it's still forced to be the set up to a crossover, which makes it more confusing than it needs to be. Again, I wish the Wiki for this title was up-to-date, because I still don't really know who Ferdinand is except for what WW says about him. Not horrible... about average for a superhero book.

Amelia Rules #14: "Chapter Four: My Novel's Gonna Need an Evil Villain": It's been so long since the last issue that I've completely forgotten what was happening in this book. The last (non-FCBD) issue came out last October. I need to go hunt it up from my collection so I can update the Wiki of this title and get myself on track as to what's happening. This issue has a remarkably sad ending. I want to see more.

Wha... Huh?: I seriously never expected this one to ever come out, so I was pleasantly surprised to see it show up on the shipping list, and amused to see it hit the stands. It was... well, I can't say "worth the wait" because I wasn't really waiting for it. It's pretty funny, though. I particularly like the "What If... The Internet Existed In..." pages. I think my second favorite would be "What if Galactus got food poisoning?" Ewwwww. Funny and light-hearted. It delivers exactly what was promised.

Powers v2 #12: Deena and Christian use some detective skills and a nice flashback to figure out who stole Blackguard's crystal. I liked this one. Everything hung together and the story moved at a solid pace. Plus the development of Deena is continuing. The words of the perp have much more resonance with her now, I'm thinking. This is another book that has a Wiki in need of updating. At some point I need to snag my back issues and start writing, I guess.

Amazing Spider-Man #82/523: "Extreme Measures": In the middle of Hydra's headquarters, Spider-Man faces off against the faux Avengers. This one is mostly fighting, but manages to be a pretty good issue despite that. I'll try to update the Wiki for this title, but I'm going to stop buying it during the upcoming crossover, and I may not bother to add it to my pull list again after that.

Supreme Power #18: "Exhibit R: The Statement of Mark Milton": Mark is peeved, and he's decided to let his former masters know exactly how he feels. This was a nicely put together issue explaining what is happening with the folks who have powers in this universe. I've been mostly enjoying this series, so I'm disappointed that Marvel thinks I should buy twice as much each month to keep up with the story, in the form of two minis. No thank you. I've dropped the book. I guess someone else will have to keep the Wiki up to date.

Hero Camp #4: Nice final issue to this remarkably silly mini-series. The concept is still done much better by PS238, but it wasn't too bad overall. I kind of wished I hadn't bothered with it, but it wasn't terrible.

A few more books are left in my pile to review when I need some more escapism. Those are Beowulf, Usagi Yojimbo, Green Lantern, JLA: Classified, Seven Soldiers: Shining Knight, Solo, Astro City: The Dark Age, and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

-by Tegan at 1:09 PM Seattle time - Permalink

The Government Won't Let The Red Cross Into New Orleans

I don't believe it. I don't understand it. If anyone ANYONE could help the people in NOLA right now, it would be the Red Cross, but according to The Red Cross themselves, they aren't being allowed into New Orleans because, "Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city."

BULL.

This is political crap. It's a lie, and it's morally disgusting. Whoever gave that order, to keep the Red Cross from helping the starving people in New Orleans, deserves to be tried for crimes against humanity.

Too bad we don't have a president who is willing to cut through the red tape and let help go to where it needs to go. Too bad this country doesn't have a leader.

Update: It's worse, much much worse. The reason the National Guard took so long to mobilize had nothing to do with their readiness. It was because the "leadership" of FEMA/Homeland Security refused to let anyone in. Much more here and in the comments here. If you aren't angry, you aren't paying attention.

-by Tegan at 9:47 AM Seattle time - Permalink

Friday, September 02, 2005

Aquaman has been Cast

The Monitor's Heroic History On Film has the name and some pictures of Aquaman on Smallville, Alan Ritchson. If this is the right guy, I approve.

The news comes via KryptonSite via E! Online. Alan Ritchson has his own website as well. Unfortunately, it's got a crappy Flash interface and focuses on his music over his acting or modeling.

-by Tegan at 7:55 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Random Thoughts

I know these posts are a bit odd, with the normal crap on top and the Katrina bits on the bottom, but I've got to keep part of my brain out of NOLA or I'll do nothing but cry in helpless fury. So I apologize if parts of my posts seem flippant and pointless. They feel that way to me, too.

Doug at Howling Curmudgeons asks why Aquaman gets no respect.

Statler & Waldorf have a new From The Balcony.

Pat O'Neill claims that Manga isn't Comics. I don't know why he'd make such an odd claim, but the Beat is covering it.

The Beat also talks about the Spider-Man crossover, the one I chose to stop buying Amazing because of. See, Marvel wanted me to buy two extra books a month just to follow the one that I've been a faithful reader of for a couple of years. Sorry. That seems a bit stupid to me. And frankly, I don't give a rip what sort of "ramifications" the crossover will have. Marvel just lost a reader because they refuse to give me a story in a single title (which is, incidently, why I don't buy any Batman or Superman books for myself as well).

Targeting games at Granny. I'm not really sure what a talking cat will do, but it's a funny concept.

The Art of the First Fleet. Pictures from Australia.

Slashdot reports that a new WinZip is in beta.

Lawrence Lessig believes that the public domain is going to be destroyed by corporations' anti-piracy efforts.

Augie has good links.

Four Color Media Monitor tackles the issue of Black Manta, and makes some good points.

Hurricane Thoughts:

Even Mr Bill was aware of the risk. Via Rude Pundit. More here, here, here, and here. And a review of headlines was enough to let anyone with a brain know about it, too.

The Beat lists some facts. And here is where I want to put in my own little rant. After Katrina hit Florida and went out over the Gulf, lots of folks assumed it would die down. But it didn't, instead it grew in strength. At that point, when it was growing, the leadership of the states in its path and the federal government should have started planning for what would happen if the worst came to pass. This is what "homeland security" should be for, right? The National Guard in all those areas should have been put on alert, warned that they might be needed. As the hurricane grew in strength, the guard should have been called up. By twelve hours before the storm hit they should have been prepared to move in the instant the storm had passed. In the meantime, the local police should have been working on the evacuation of people who didn't have the means to evacuate themselves. Shelters should have been prepared in areas outside the predicted scope of the storm, and all evacuees should have been directed there if they had nowhere else to go.

To be completely honest with you all, I assumed that this was taking place. I assumed that our country was a civilized nation.

Within 24 hours after the storm had passed, the Guard should have been on the way in. They should have hit town about the same time the levees were breeched and should have been starting rescue operations and levee repair immediately. The lack of any real authority led to the thuggish side of human nature coming out. But the Guard should already have been there, delivering emergency supplies and keeping order! Why weren't they ready? What failed? After 9/11 we were told that we would be ready for disasters... this is a disaster, and we couldn't even do the most basic stuff that makes sense. Why? How could this happen?

Here's how they deal with hurricanes in Cuba. Jim Macdonald explains that we have a system, but it wasn't used by FEMA. Making light on the situation.

Wonkette has the full transcript of New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin's rant about the lack of support. I'd call this one a must-read. You can also listen to it, links here and here.

The international community asked to come in and help, but Bush refused. Why?

How to build a refugee camp. With people unable to return to NOLA for a minimum of a month, maybe much longer, we're going to need a lot of refugee camps.

Boing Boing rounds up offers for students of aid and schooling.

Neil Gaiman on the disaster.

Raphe tells about his experience with a hurricane.

Cryptome has a bunch of images of the devastation.

Kos has political images. Pacific Views also has political images.

The SCA is moving in.

Christopher Priest has had a few words on the situation.

A bunch of BBC reporters look at the disaster. If you are American and aren't ashamed after reading this, you have no soul.

And lastly... as Kos points out. We're sending BILLIONS of dollars to Iraq to "rebuild", so why is our "leadership" saying that we shouldn't spend any tax money to rebuild New Orleans?

And really lastly, if you can, give:

-by Tegan at 1:54 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Good News

Both Robert Aspirin and Fats Domino survived the hurricane and floods and are being evacuated from NOLA.

Hey. At this point I'll take any good news about New Orleans I hear.

-by Tegan at 8:30 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Watch For Poisonous Wild Things

I've been working on the wiki and the database project to keep my mind off what's happening down in NOLA. It's not working, but there isn't a lot more I can do from here.

The Cover of Dorothy #4.

Filk gets Wired.

Augie has good links.

And Library Stuff tells us about Library Thing. Such precise language.

Hurricane Thoughts:

The title of this post is from a list of advice the Weather Channel provided earlier today.

If you haven't read this article about the disaster yet, read it. If you have, read it again.

Former New York Times editor Howell Raines tells the Guardian that he's glad he saw New Orleans before the flood.

Pal Dorian links to donation pages.

Boing Boing reminds everyone to be wary of charity scams, and to only give to proven charities.

Tired of the bad news? Here's a good story.

If you can, donate to Operation USA.

-by Tegan at 4:50 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Final Random Thoughts of the Month

I meant to do some comic reviews for tonight, but the pile of comics was a little too daunting to dive into (17 comic books, yow!) so I just watched lousy coverage of NOLA and played Sudoku instead (to be fair, I also worked a bit on a database project that I'm getting paid for, so it wasn't entirely wasted time). I should have updated the wiki as well, but didn't. *sigh*

MangaBlog links to the wiki, and since David just added full publisher sections for TokyoPop and Viz, I hope that means we'll get some better information on some Manga that folks might be interested in picking up.

Fred Hembeck rips Aquaman apart (so what else is new).

Speaking of, Theosphere wishes Aquaman were around to help New Orleans. I cannot deny I had the same fantasy thought myself.

If you liked Everett True, here's a Mickey Mouse story at the same site. Via Mah Two Cents.

Dark, But Shining has the fascinating story of vampires in early New England, and the speculation that Ralph Waldo Emerson might have believed his wife was a vampire.

Purely Political Link.

Slashdot has picked up the story of the blogger sued because of something someone else wrote in his comments.

Hurricane Thoughts:

This is an absolute must-read article about the economics of NOLA. I've seen it linked from a lot of blogs, but I saw it first at FilkerTom's LJ.

FilkerTom also lets us know that CD Baby has a page of artists donating proceeds from their album sales to the Red Cross.

Some folks don't trust the Red Cross for various reasons. I've seen on many blogs, including Mark Evanier's and Huffingtonpost, that OPERATION USA is a good organization that gives the best help for the dollar. Consider giving to them.

Wil Wheaton is hosting (sort of) a charity poker event to raise money for Katrina relief efforts.

The Whiskey Bar has a good article on the disaster. It gets political, though, so conservatives might want to skip it.

Techies want to help and come up with some ideas.

The Postal Service is halting deliveries to devastated zip codes. Why deliver to a house that no longer exists?

Boing Boing (again) links to a livejournal from the center of NOLA. Reading from the day before the hurricane hits, you see the writer go from grimly optimistic, to practically gleeful (before the flooding starts), back to grimly optimistic again. The biggest problems for the writer and the people he is with are water pressure and crooked cops. Note: I updated the URL. Since last night, a new URL and intro was put up.

-by Tegan at 8:27 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Blogaround Challenge Update

As many of you know, I issued a Blogaround Challenge a couple of weeks ago. The response was great, and I found lots of new blogs to add to my RSS feeds.

Here's the "final" list. I won't be adding more to the original blogaround challenge post, but if I spot a blogaround (or someone tells me about one) I'll include it in a future Random Thoughts post.

-by Tegan at 9:44 AM Seattle time - Permalink

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Return of the Random Thoughts

Tony's Tips tackles Aquaman, then follows up.

David Carter of Yet Another Comics Blog has improved the Comic Series Wiki a LOT and also linked to it. I'd say he's put in at least twice as much time as I have on it, maybe a lot more.

More zombies attack American Idol Auditions... and get to be on TV. "The Austin Police Department says there is no history of zombie-related crime in the city."

Beatrix Potter wrote horror stories. Who knew?

Those silly guys are Mercury Studios are talking about Pink Floyd and Oz.

The Emerald City Comicon has sent out the first e-mail update, and while there's not much news yet, I'm still looking forward to it.

Ouch. Bad name for a town.

The Spriggan Mirror is completely paid for, so go read it without fear of never getting to read the ending. And if you like it, donate so he'll write more books.

Speaking of free books on-line, the entire first volume of Girl Genius is available now, starting here. The second volume is now being posted, three pages a week.

No movement is any good without its detractors. In the meantime, Georgia Tech has been touched by his noodly appendage. Note: The whole point of Pastafarianism is that FSM is just as scientific as ID is. If you think ID is scientific, then you haven't got a clue about science.

5.25" floppies make great CD sleeves. I think I still have some of those kicking around somewhere.

Boing Boing links to a fascinating "Freedom Primer".

Five snarky reasons not to use LINUX. Via slashdot.

A pair of Ruby Slippers from the MGM Wizard of Oz movie have been stolen from the museum they were on display at.

Saturn has a moon with an atmosphere that shoots vapor out of its South pole. Hmmm. Lots of joke potential there.

Would you eat Vat-Grown Meat? I would. I've been reading about it in science fiction books for years. It's about time science caught up.

RassaFrakin' busybodies want to regulate basic cable. Good grief, people. If you don't like what's on cable, don't subscribe to it/demand a change in service from the cable company/learn how to use your v-chip... but DON'T force your morality on everybody else.

Hmmm, maybe I won't buy a new computer when the new Windows OS is released.

The lawyer fighting the RIAA says he'll win, and he'll defend anyone from the RIAA.

Hurricane Thoughts:

In 2001, Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked a major hurricane strike on New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most castastrophic disasters facing this country. Read this article and know that some folks saw it coming. Via Think Progress. More at TalkLeft.

Let me just say: I think looting is awful. It's the meanest side of human nature taking over... theft at one of its lowest points. HOWEVER. Running around in a disaster area to get food is not, in my opinion, looting. Stealing to survive is forgivable. That said, Atrios nails it with these pictures and their contrasting captions. The media disgusts me. It's only looting if your skin is dark? Also picked up by Boing Boing.

Filkertom points us to WWL TV in New Orleans who have some solid first-hand reporting of the disaster. Also, nola.com (Everything New Orleans) has many many pictures and a lot of information. Also, Making Light continues to have link roundups.

Animals caught in the disaster zone pose a huge threat to humans. Aid groups are on it.

The Seattle Times links to charities accepting money to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

On a lighter note, I never knew that "Wasn't That A Mighty Day?" was about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. The version of the song that I know is a parody about ... um... the Space Needle falling down. Wow, that seems rather trivial compared to the original.

And lastly, I was watching the Weather Channel (least sensationalist of all the news coverage) and saw a piece by Jim Cantore, who left Biloxi right before the storm hit after first considering staying there at the Coliseum during the storm. He showed images of the Coliseum flooding during the surge and again thanked the guy who offered him and his crew a place at the armed forces retirement home.

-by Tegan at 8:53 PM Seattle time - Permalink

You Can Help

The Red Cross needs money, not goods. If you have any money to donate, help the folks down in New Orleans.

As feared, the water is killing/killed more than the storm itself. The latest reports indicate that 80% of New Orleans is underwater thanks to levee breaks. The Superdome will be evacuated as soon as they can figure out how to move ~~10,000 plus~~ well over 20,000 people. The situation in the Superdome is ~~apparently~~ becoming more desperate by the minute, with no air conditioning or running water. New Orleans will be unlivable for at least a ~~few weeks~~ month, maybe a few months.

Even worse hit, Biloxi was wiped off the map. MSNBC is showing a terrifying video of a helicopter tour over what used to be Biloxi. The floating casinos were all over the town, and had crushed whatever they hit. But mostly there was just nothing left. The storm surge hit after the hurricane passed, and it was a 22 foot wall of water.

A lot of people didn't expect the water. I can't imagine the terror of having survived the hurricane itself only to find your shelter rapidly filling with water. People climbed into the rafters of their homes... into the attics...

A million people evacuated. It wasn't enough.

-by Tegan at 9:08 AM Seattle time - Permalink

Monday, August 29, 2005

More Random Thoughts

Rav'Ns Realm mentions the new Comics Series Wiki, the first mention outside wikicities or my blog I've seen.

In other wiki news, it's growing day by day. Davidscarter has added TONS of information. Here's the current list of comics with some information up. I also added some links to Publishers on the main page, if you see any that I missed, feel free to add 'em. And please feel free to promote the wiki elsewhere, on blogs or whatever. It's going to stick around, but only if more folks contribute will it ever get truly useful.

Bookslut is looking for a new Comic Book Slut.

Shane is linkblogging again.

The Illusive Arts folks are looking for Dorothy Fan Art.

Tom Smith doing Girl Genius: The Musical. With the blessings of Phil and Kaja Foglio.

Wow, a family got misidentified by Fox Propaganda Channel as "terrists". More here. I think Faux should pay damages to the family, as well as public apologies every half hour until the harassment has completely stopped. Oh, and they should also reimburse the local police who had to defend the family against the semi-literate Faux viewers... Still, the sheer stupidity involved is slightly amusing. It reminds me of the "misspelling anarchist" up at Western when I was a student there, who chalked up slogans filled with errors all over the main square one night. Apparently, "Satin Lives".

Zombie Mob in Vancouver.

Poppy Z Brite evacuated from New Orleans, but apparently Robert Aspirin couldn't get out (if anyone has an update, please let me know in the comments, thanks).

Cats In Sinks. I think this one is for Elayne. I thought of her cats when I saw it.

I don't know how long this has been around, but GMail Drive shell extension allows Windows users to add a drive to their windows explorer window that sends files to your Gmail account as if it were just another drive on your machine. Cool for backup.

Wow... 43,920 entries for the Blue Peter Contest to Design A Doctor Who Monster. Holy flaming cows. Here are the winners.

Library Stuff directs us to Conan The Librarian.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster has made the NY Times (registration may be required to view the article). Money quote: "Parody is a lot of fun. And parody begets more parody, especially on the Internet. It's contagious. But has anyone ever converted to a parody religion?"

Sep 15-19 is "Holy Pasta Week"
Plan your menus now.

-by Tegan at 7:38 PM Seattle time - Permalink

It Missed... Barely

The worst of the storm went to the East of New Orleans, but the storm surge is still building. The Superdome was damaged, but the initial reports are that the folks inside were all safe, about 10,000 people. Apparently, over 1 million people successfully evacuated from New Orleans.

Think about that for a second. Over 1 million people. Holy freakin cats.

The storm was a category 4 when it hit, but the intensity was still high enough to make this the third worst hurricane to ever hit the US. It's still impossible to determine casualties, the storm is still too dangerous for emergency workers to get in. And many people will go out, thinking the storm is over, only to get hit by the flooding still to come.

Boing Boing link.
Wikipedia Link.

-by Tegan at 11:10 AM Seattle time - Permalink

Sunday, August 28, 2005

New Orleans

You know a storm is serious when the reporters leave.

The Weather Channel's reporters have apparently started evacuating, and none of them are left in New Orleans. The ones on the coast are moving inland as quickly as possible, many of them reporting on the traffic jams as they go.

In other places, the evacuation is going very poorly. Too many people are left in the city and on the coast. This time tomorrow, New Orleans will be mostly underwater, and many people simply can't get away. Current estimates are that 25,000 people could die if they don't get to high ground before the storm hits.

Katrina is now one of the strongest hurricanes of all time.
Update: The ABC news reporter just said that "if there was a category 6 level for hurricanes, this one would qualify".
Update: Truth Laid Bear has an aggregator of blog posts on the hurricane. TalkLeft also has some links. And on the Weather Channel, a tornado watch is now in effect for most of the area.

If you doubt its power, this is a rather brutal statement trying to get people to understand the intensity of this storm:

WWUS74 KLIX 281550
NPWLIX

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...

HURRICANE KATRINA...A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969. Note: Katrina is now more powerful than Camille.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.

ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET...DO NOT VENTURE OUTSIDE!

Our thoughts go out to anyone who cannot escape the hurricane. Good luck and God bless.

-by Tegan at 1:20 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Wikiless Random Thoughts

Here's a solid roundup of hurricane Katrina news, including some information about New Orleans that I didn't realize... if you are down in Lousiana reading this, WHY ARE YOU SITTING AROUND READING THE 'NET? RUN, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

Jack Kirby's Birthday.

Dorothy's Journal lets us know when the next issue is due out, and has this intriguing comment: "Anyone out there want to submit their original comic or book to us for our publishing consideration? Dorothy really doesn't keep up busy. We're not nearly insane enough yet."

Alex Ross' model for Aquaman is playing a 'sensitive' ghost hunter. I may just have to check out the show to see the guy.

Many people have already linked to The Outbursts of Everett True, but I think I'll add a link. These are remarkably amusing, and strangely soothing.

The first person to stand up to the RIAA about their lawsuits now has a blog run by her lawyers to collect information and let everyone know what's happening with the case. Here's the direct link.

Best Metaphor For The Internet, Ever. From Cat and Girl, via Librarian.net.

BBC TV channels to be put on net. I'm watching this story very closely, in the hopes that we'll be able to legally watch Doctor Who at the same time it airs in England.

Walter Koenig is going to play Chekov again in a story written by D.C.Fontana.

Huh. The Placebo effect actually has physical, measurable, manifestations.

Robert Scoble justifies moderating or removing comments with a story about a blogger getting sued over what's in his comments... and then he tackles the "free speech" aspect of comments. May comments are on moderation due to an amazing explosion of poker spam, but avoiding getting sued isn't a bad reason to moderate.

Trash Heap's air conditioner story.

And then Trash Heap linkblogs. Go check it out. Gotta subscribe Brian Wood's new blog to my RSS reader.

The story of the 27th Amendment, and how lawmakers are completely ignoring it.

Slate takes on Entourage. I still haven't been able to get myself to watch the last episode from last week. Sometimes I feel eager to see the show, sometimes I just cringe at the thought of watching it again.

Pastafarianism is catching on. Speaking of, I got myself an FSM Logo T-Shirt (with proceeds going to the National Center for Science Education (NCSE)). The logo was just way too cool to pass up on:

-by Tegan at 12:39 PM Seattle time - Permalink

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