Shit!
Tropical Storm Katrina takes aim at South Florida's shoresMIAMI — After emerging Wednesday a mere 230 miles from Miami, Tropical Storm Katrina threatens to blossom into a hurricane and take direct aim at South Florida, with landfall projected on Friday morning. A hurricane watch has been posted from Vero Beach to Florida City, and weather officials urged residents to be on high alert. Around 2:24 p.m. Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center issued a flood watch for Fort Lauderdale and all of South Florida. It will remain in effect from 8 a.m. Thursday until Saturday evening. |
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PS:
Beloit College Releases the Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2009
Beloit, Wis. – In the coming weeks, millions of students will be entering college for the first time. On average, these members of the Class of 2009 will be 18 years old, which means they were born in 1987. Starbucks, souped-up car stereos, telephone voicemail systems, and Bill Gates have always been a part of their lives.
Each August, as students start to arrive, Beloit College releases the Beloit College Mindset List, which offers a world view of today's entering college students. It is the creation of Beloit's Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Director of Public Affairs Ron Nief.
McBride, who directs Beloit's First Year Initiatives (FYI) program for entering students, notes that "This year's entering students have grown up in a country where the main business has become business, and where terrorism, from obscure beginnings, has built up slowly but surely to become the threat it is today. Cable channels have become as mainstream as the "Big 3" used to be, formality in dress has become more quaint than ever, and Aretha Franklin, Kermit the Frog and Jimmy Carter have become old-timers."
"Each year," according to Nief, " when Beloit releases the Mindset List, it is the birth year of the entering students that is the most disturbing fact for most readers. This year will come as no exception and, once again, the faculty will remain the same age as the students get younger."
The list is distributed to faculty on campus during the New Student Days orientation. According to McBride, "It is an important reminder, as faculty start to show signs of 'hardening of the references,' that we think about the touchstones and benchmarks of a generation that has grown up with CNN, home computers, AIDS awareness, digital cameras and the Bush political dynasty. We should also keep in mind that these students missed out on the pleasures of being tossed in the back of a station wagon with a bunch of friends and told to keep the noise down, walking in the woods without fearing Lyme Disease, or setting out to try all of the 28 ice cream flavors at Howard Johnson's."
According to Nief, "This is not serious in-depth research. It is meant to be thought- provoking and fun, yet accurate. It is as relevant as possible, given the broad social and geographic diversity of our students, who are drawn from every state and 50 countries. It is always open to challenge, which has an additional benefit in that it reminds us of students' varied backgrounds. It is still a good reflection of the attitudes and experiences of the young people that we must be aware of from the first day of their college experience."
Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2009
Most students entering college this fall were born in 1987.
PPS:
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to close at 7 p.m.
By Herald staff reports
Due to the approach of Tropical Storm Katrina, the passenger terminals at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport will close at 7 p.m. tonight, according to county officials.
All passenger flight activity will cease at that time. It is expected that throughout the day, more and more flights will be canceled. Passengers are advised to call their airline before coming to the airport.
The terminals are not hurricane shelters, county officials warn, and the public will not be allowed to remain in the buildings during the storm.
Motorists are also advised that the airport parking facilities are not suitable for vehicle storage during a hurricane.
A small group of essential airport employees will remain on site during the storm to allow the airport to reopen as quickly as possible. The airport will resume passenger flights as soon as conditions permit.
PS: The gathering storm!
Katrina Knocks Out Electricity for THOCBDC
Seven people were killed, a Broward deputy was critically injured, a family of five was rescued at sea and more than a million homes and businesses lost power before Hurricane Katrina moved west to emerge over the Gulf of Mexico. Work crews scrambled to clear roads and repair utility lines. By noon, Katrina had weakened into a tropical storm over land, but strengthened over the warm waters of the gulf and became a hurricane again early Friday with top sustained winds of 80 mph. At 2 p.m. EDT, it was about 60 miles west-northwest of Key West. It was moving toward the west-southwest near 8 mph. Forecasters said Katrina would likely get stronger and perhaps make a second landfall in the Florida Panhandle early next week. In a special advisory issued at late morning, the National Hurricane Center said the storm could reach near Category 4 strength by midday Monday. "It's going to be a similar track to Dennis, potentially," meteorologist Chris Sisko said, referencing the hurricane that hit near Pensacola Beach on July 9. The eye of Katrina made landfall about 6:30 p.m. Thursday near the county line between Broward and Miami-Dade, moving southwest across Miami-Dade and dumping up to 11½ inches of rain overnight. The National Hurricane Center measured gusts up to 91 mph at the southeast eyewall, while early reports had gusts reaching 92 mph in Fort Lauderdale, 68 in Miami, 61 mph in Davie and 63 mph in Miami Beach. Electricity was still knocked out Friday to 648,300 homes in Miami-Dade County, 468,900 in Broward and 17,700 in Palm Beach. |
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Editor's Note: As of this evening, power has still not been restored to THOCBDC's Florida offices. Alf and Watcharee are fine, sitting in the dark and dining on delivered Thai food. Depending on developments, and the outlook for power restoration — estimates range from today to next Tuesday — they will either wait out the resumption of voltage, or head to a hotel farther north (perhaps in Palm Beach).
All we suffered was a little bit of inconvenience and a loss of some shrubbery. Sure, 50 hours without electricity is no fun: toss the contents of the freezer and the fridge, wash down room temperature canned soup with warm beer, hook up for the short term with an old AM radio (*), relearn things about candles and non-AC air and try to fully experience how people lived before electricity came along. It sucks.
But, that is pennies compared to what New Orleans is about to get ... from that same windy bitch: Katrina.
Florida has led the way in requiring buildings (save for the 'grandfathered' ones) to be 'beefy'. Our windows are made of "hurricane proof" glass ... and the garage door has to be willing to shoulder sustained 150 mph winds.
(*) Those talk shows are so weird! Who listens to this stuff when they have something other than a battery powered radio?1 And their niche commercials ... well, that tells you something about who is listening!2
1 It's especially bizarre at 2 or 3 in the morning when the wind is howling and it's pitch black both inside and outside.
2 Yep, a lot of Viagra pitches. But, that goes for the New York Times as well.
PS: Don Bull got ripped off by this chick:
"When you pull into a gas station to fill up, pay attention to the attendant a little more than I did yesterday. I pulled in and was approached by a person who said they would pump my gas and I did not need to get out of the vehicle. WELL, little did I know, when they were done and as I was driving home, it just struck me, they charged me 5 cents more a gallon, just because I didn't have to get out of the car. I think that is terrible. I am enclosing a picture of the uniform of the company; perhaps some of you can identify the gasoline manufacturer."
This is an internal B&W version of the cover shot for Ruthless Rhymes. Apparently the publisher of the book chose Grandpas as the most appealing target for its target audience. "Gramps usually are grumps" ... so said the focus group.
Next: September