Hurricane Sandy Nears East Coast 281
An anonymous reader writes "Scientists have been following and projecting Sandy's path with all the tools at their disposal: ocean buoys, radar and satellite imagery, and computer modeling. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also gathers information from special reconnaissance aircraft, which fly over hurricanes and can drop instruments into them to measure wind speeds, air pressure, temperature, and altitude. The latest data gathered on Hurricane Sandy point to an unprecedented and mighty tempest, scientists say." A couple of our East Coast offices are closed today and people have been told to work from home. Please share your storm stories, and updates while you still have internet access.
Wall St. Closed (Score:5, Interesting)
No work? (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in south Alabama, we get plenty of hurricanes. I have to drive across Mobile Bay in order to get to work. Unless there is over 100mph winds, I have to go to work. I work in an office, punching buttons on a computer. The company that I work for has a main office in the effected area of this storm, and although the storm is still waaaay the fuck out in the Atlantic ocean (yes, it's waaay the fuck out since it's only 85mph winds), we get word that the main office is closing Monday (we got word on this Friday). I have never understood the mindset behind who I work for. I think a better question would be, "What is considered dangerous-enough weather to close an office?" Because here recently I had to drive across 7 miles of open water in over 100mph gusts, and many roads were closed due to flooding during hurricane Isaac.
cause and effect (Score:5, Interesting)
It isn't so much a religious omen as a lesson in scientific cause and effect. Neither of the top two presidential candidates has been talking much lately about what's causing this sort of thing, but one of them (Romney) is promising not to do anything about it. If you can make it to the polls, keep that in mind.
Could be worse, HMS Bounty (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:See what happens? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's the same everywhere really. Not a single snowflake can fall on Greater London without half the British press running a story about it, meanwhile in the North of England and Scotland, it could be 10 feet of snow and the media wouldn't even blink an eye. It's all about perspective, and the world experience of a journalist stuck working in a dingy skyscraper all day is very limited.
Snowfall (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wall St. Closed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Don't PANIC! (Score:3, Interesting)
We all know this is a sneaky plot from the Romney camp to disenfranchise liberal voters by sending a massive 1000 mile storm in their path. Huff Post and Daily KOS told me so!
In all seriousness, if a storm does do significant damage to an area right before/at an election, what do we do? Is this a constitutional crises?
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Don't PANIC! (Score:4, Interesting)
I want to point out just how intellectually dishonest and morally questionable the very common argument that gameboyhippo is making actually is.
When you have voters being disenfranchised, these people in the "center" who are saying "Oh look, the people being disenfranchised are complaining about being disenfranchised. They're such crybabies" become a double-insult to those people. These are not hypotheticals. There is no "question" about whether there are organized attempts at voter suppression by the Right. There are people, today, in this country who are being prevented from voting in a carefully planned and executed strategy. People who are being registered to vote by Nathan Sproul for the Republican Party who are then having the addresses on their registration form changed so that when they show up to vote they will be required to cast a provisional ballot (which will not be counted). Hundreds of voter registration forms showing up in dumpsters. People in states where the Supreme Court said there can be no voter ID requirement being told that they will go to jail if they try to vote without an ID. Official government notices going to potentially Democratic voters from Republican government officials telling them to vote on November 8 when the election is on November 6.
And you're joking about how these people being disenfranchised are a bunch of whiners.
I do assume that you have "a side". You are on the side of the kind of civic cynicism that is poisonous to a society. Whether you meant to or not, you endorse a kind of zombie conventional wisdom that is hurting people. Not hypothetical people, but actual human beings.