Hurricane Katrina’s Aftermath

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Check out the National Doppler Radar Loop and the Geostationary Satellite Northwest Atlantic Visible Loop to watch the remnants of Hurricane Katrina heading north, now a mere tropical depression.

We thought it would be a disaster, then we thought it was oversensationalized media hype, and after a bit of a delay, it turned out to be a disaster after all. Levees have broken, pumps and sandbags have failed, New Orleans is flooded, the water is rising, looters run rampant, martial law has been declared, and the city is being completely evacuated. The water will not stop rising until it is at level with Lake Pontchartrain.

Here in DC, all is quiet but for a strong wind and a few isolated tornado warnings. More weblog entries on the aftermath:

On Tachmonites

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Update: “Why the Westboro Baptist Church is a Scam” — interesting insight from a SomethingAwful Forums thread, surmising that the “Church” is actually a litigatory racket whose modus operandi is provocation aimed at collecting income from free speech settlements.

Most people assume that Fred Phelps (of Westboro Baptist Church/”God Hates Fags” infamy) is an over-zealous anti-gay Baptist, but it looks more like he and his kin are in the process of starting a homegrown cult. They’re not “Christians” or “Baptists”; apparently they refer to themselves as “Tachmonites.” So Phelps is the “last prophet” with power over his followers’ souls, and the members of his church believe that they are essentially God on Earth, with sole authority to condemn and forgive others. They seem to be developing their own invective-filled scriptural addenda derived from references to homosexuality in the Bible, complete with epistles soundly insulting any who write to them. (No wimpy gay sola fide or sola scriptura for these true chosen ones of God, eh?)

For more info, Wikipedia has an entry on Writings from Westboro, and of course on Westboro Baptist Church itself. Funny part is, the more that they show the standard trappings of a spinoff cult, the less inflammatory I find them, since it becomes much easier to dismiss them as kooks. (Not that it wasn’t already easy to begin with.)

(Links found via rhesagirl.)

Washingtonians can see the Phelps spectacle for themselves when he comes to DC on September 11th to protest the “America Supports You” Freedom Walk. (Not that there’s much to see — some old guy with his folks carrying “God hates fags” signs and acting weird.)

Translation Note: The word “Tachmonites” is derived from an alternate transliteration of the proper name “Hachmoni” or “Hachmonite” mentioned in 1 Chronicles 11:11 and 27:32, also spelled “Tahchemonite” in 2 Sam 23:8.

Found Tables

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Found: Green Work Desk Found: Coffee Table Found: White and Yellow Work Desk Found: Plant Stand Found: Typewriter Stand

Above: a bunch of tables I found by the building dumpster last month. People throw out some of the most amazing things. See that last one? It’s a vintage typewriter stand from Metalstand, an old Philadelphia furniture company which used to manufacture aluminum furniture in the 1950s. This piece might just be that old, judging from the layers of dust I wiped off it. I don’t use typewriters anymore, of course, but the stand makes a great end table.

That, and the coffee table, now sit around the gCouch, forming my living “room.” The white/yellow work table has replaced the old, creaky, cockroach-ridden oak table which served as my kitchen extension, while the plant stand is now a printer-and-media stand in my work area. I put the green work desk up for sale on Craigslist, but no one really wanted it, so it’s just extending my dining table right now.

So check out the dumpster every once in a while. One man’s trash is another man’s free apartment furniture — after a thorough spraying, dusting, and wiping down, of course.

Di Ka Nag-iisa + 22

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I’m over a week late for this, but August 21st was the twenty-second anniversary of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, the Filipino politician who stood up to the Marcos dictatorship and faced death in his imprisonment by Marcos and on his return from exile, because he believed that “the Filipino is worth dying for.” Ninoy’s assassination as he arrived in Manila in 1983 would fan the flames of the People Power Revolution which ousted Marcos in 1986, placing his wife, Cory Aquino, in the presidency.

(Sadly, as I have said before, the Philippines has yet to prove itself truly worthy of Ninoy’s sacrifice.)

Deebeedee recently visited Ninoy’s cell, where he (Ninoy, not Deebeedee) was imprisoned, after Marcos declared Martial Law and used his powers to clamp down on his critics and political enemies. Country Studies has a page on Ninoy Aquino and People Power in its Philippines section.

Hurricane Katrina Heads for New Orleans

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Update, 8/30/2005: What they feared would happen came true a day late: levees have broken and water is rising. Large portions of New Orleans are underwater and getting worse. The mayor has ordered a mass evacuation of the entire city.

Update on Katrina’s aftermath here.

Update, 8/28/2005: Katrina has weakened to a Category 4 and veered slightly east, sparing NOLA a direct hit. This will still be a catastrophic storm, but no longer the ultimate doomsday scenario that was previously predicted. New Orleans is spared becoming New Atlantis for now, hopefully.

Weather news from the South is looking pretty scary: Hurricane Katrina, plowing north as it is fed by warm Gulf waters, is now a Category 5, aimed straight at New Orleans. Large parts of the city and surrounding areas are several feet below sea level, protected from flooding only by levees which would be ineffectual against the massive storm surge of a Category 5 hurricane. Current predictions have Katrina hitting New Orleans just after high tide, with surge submerging some places as deep as 28 feet. The whole city is being evacuated. All of you New Orleaners, I hope you’re getting out okay, and take care. You have our prayers from here up North.

Category 5 is no joke. (That’s on the Saffir Simpson Scale, and is comparable to Signal #4 on the Philippine Signal Scale.)

The hurricane may exact an economic and environmental toll as well as a human one: New Orleans is a major port, and that area is responsible for a significant portion of our oil import and production. Refineries and plants may spike the floodwaters with all sorts of toxic chemicals, not to mention the danger of floating fire ant balls.

More links:

To Think They Call What You’re Sitting In a Car

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(CarAd.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)

This is a subway billboard at Metro Center. I often comment to myself about how car companies pay ad agencies thousands of dollars to implicitly insult the public’s intelligence with unsubtle condescension, but this BMW campaign takes it a step further by insulting the target audience outright. “OH YOU POOR IDIOTS, SITTING IN YOUR SUBWAY ‘CARS,’ TOO MIRED IN POVERTY TO BUY THE WAY COOL EXPENSIVE BMW ON OUR SIGN!”

Firetrucks at Hotel George

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(Firetrucks at Hotel George uploaded by brownpau.)

I was not quite asleep yet when the smell of burning rubber filled the apartment building, and a fire alarm sounded from a few buildings down. I peeked out the window to see people streaming out of the Hotel George, so I got my camera and trotted down the street to get photos — just as an army of firemen arrived on their trucks, and started putting hoses on hydrants and extending a ladder to the roof of the hotel.

There were no visible flames, though, and soon after the firemen had gone into — and behind — the building, they re-emerged, reboarded their trucks, and left. The smell has subsided. I’m going back to sleep now, and the guests of Hotel George appear to be doing likewise. More photos here. I got video too, but it’s too late to import and edit.

Google Talk

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(Google Talk uploaded by brownpau.)

Google Talk, Google’s new instant messaging and voice chat service. Sadly, the Google client is Windows only, but Adium X on Mac OS X 10.2.8 is hooking up to Google’s Jabber server just fine, so I’ve at least been able to message other eager early adopters. (Screenshot is of my desktop, with a notice from “gmail.com” that talk.google.com is now working.)

Update – I agree with Darren Rowse: “It doesn’t add anything to my life as a Mac user.”