Geek Habitat

When the news is just too soul-crushing for words, it seems to get even worse…

At least 965 die in Baghdad stampede {meta}

This is not the same scope of destruction (infrastructure and physical devastation) as Katrina, of course, but it’s a horrific human toll. Sadly, we don’t yet know just how many lives have been lost due to Katrina.

Hurricanes at least have warnings and, if need be, evacuations. Stampedes on bridges with tens of thousands of people on foot? Not so much warning…

I understand that when you live on the coast, hurricanes are a part of life, just like the high humidity, the sea spray, the constant daytime breeze, the seagulls and tourist kitsch vendors. However, I was getting seriously stressed about Hurricane Katrina during my brief reading prior to her making landfall. 28 foot storm surge? Floodwaters overtopping 14 to 19 foot levees, creating an undesirable “flooded bowl” where water was never meant to stand even an inch deep? Mandatory evacuation of a city the size of New Orleans? Hurricane with all the hallmarks of being worse than Camille (1969)? What’s not to take heed of, here?!

Here

Check back periodically; better yet — bookmark that link. It will grow in size and scope over the coming days and weeks, no doubt.

She’s dead. My replacement Razr v3, which I accidentally washed with my jeans on Saturday, is dead. She wasn’t even in my posession a week, and I killed her. She replaced my original Razr, which (thankfully, through no fault of my own) had developed some bugs. So, I drowned a brand new, thoroughly beautiful $300 cellular phone. Oh, joy. This is my shortest relationship with a piece of geek gear, ever.

Her only sign of life is now a brief flicker of the blue lights on the keypad right after I press any key. She won’t power on, make any sounds, or light up either LCD (internal or external).

From the Hurricane Katrina blog of Miles O’Brien:

Amen! I am a little confused what Miles means by “the past war,” however. 9/11? Afghanistan? (The only war directly related to 9/11, although the U.S.A. never declared war against anyone — Taliban, al Queda, Afghanistan or Iraq. Yet it’s a “War on Terror”.) Sorry, I’ve got to stop, this is making my head hurt.

Why is it that satellite views of hurricanes are far more beautiful than they have a right to be?

Death, destruction and anguish below, yet beauty, symmetry and life (seemingly a living, breathing entity), when viewed from above.