Tina Is More Entertaining

Sat Sep 13, 2008 12:27 pm by McGehee Talk back [Our Times] [Nature]

She had that high-heel strut thing going on in that video for “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” Ike, on the other hand, just sloshes all over the place, blowing out windows and flooding neighborhoods. Also, driving up gas prices. In my area, the prices I saw for unleaded today ranged from $4.079 at a regional-chain convenience store to $4.359 (or thereabouts) at another regional-chain convenience store. And yet the highest price I saw for diesel in the same sampling of gas stations was $4.199 at a freeway-side gas station. Flash Foods had diesel for $3.999, and its closest competitor (literally and figuratively) was selling diesel for the same price as it had for unleaded: $4.099. Now, I’ve mentioned here before that I’ve noticed an equilibrium of sorts between the price of gasoline and the price of diesel at stations that sell both. Generally speaking in our area—at least until the last few months—diesel has tended to be priced at most a few cents higher than premium. If any grade of gasoline went very much higher than diesel, one of two things was pretty much guaranteed to happen: either diesel would start creeping upward, or gasoline would eventually drop back down where the price of diesel indicated it should be. During this past summer the gap between diesel and premium soared, even as the prices of the various grades of gasoline was going way up. Recently, until the Ike scare set in, that gap has been narrowing gradually as the price of gasoline has subsided and diesel has come down with it. Now, while the Kroger fuel center sells unleaded and diesel at the same price, and Metro Petro actually sells diesel about 25 cents cheaper than unleaded, I think it’s fair to say the price of gasoline is going to be coming down fairly quickly unless the infrastructure damage from Ike matches the worst-case scenario predictions trumpeted in the media. I’ll say here more or less what I told my wife’s aunt via Facebook a couple of nights ago: unless you’re really hurting for gas right now, hold off a while before getting into line at the pumps. Never participate in a price panic—it costs you money and it doesn’t teach the retailers noth’n’.

Not Necessarily Not the News

Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:49 pm by McGehee [Here's Your Sign] [Nature]

Matt Drudge, here’s your sign. Drudge has deemed it headline-worthy to point out that Phoenix could see a high temperature of more than 115°F. Granted, such temps are undoubtedly more common in Tucson or Yuma, but Phoenix isn’t exactly in Arizona’s snow-belt. Hell, I may have seen a temperature of more than 115° in Sacramento while I was growing up. Probably not an official temperature, mind you, but that was before they started putting official weather stations on hot blacktop or next to heat-spewing air-conditioner units.

Don’t Know Why There’s No Sun Up in the Sky

Wed Jun 4, 2008 8:30 pm by McGehee 1 comment [Nature]

Today while driving through Nebraska we saw some scattered storm damage. Our hotel in Lexington had been spared serious storminess last night as the line moving through the area parted almost exactly where we were. We saw lightning and had some rain, but I never heard thunder. Tonight as we sit in our hotel room in Marshalltown, resting up from the longest day of driving yet on this trip (if it isn’t, it feels like it), Chris has a Des Moines TV station on, with non-stop coverage of storm activity in the southwestern quarter of the Hawkeye State. Almost all during the drive the sky has been overcast, and the air beneath the clouds has been too hazy at times to see more than a mile or two—in a part of the country where the horizon should be dozens of miles distant. It made the worst city smog I’ve ever seen look downright sparkly. Twice on this trip we paid as little as $3.699 a gallon for regular—first at a tribe-owned truck stop south of Riverton, Wyoming, then at an Albertsons gas station in Laramie where we benefited from a no-card three-cent discount from the advertised price. Once we got to Nebraska, regular was firmly over $4 a gallon, but mid-grade was in the $3.70 neighborhood because of ethanol content. Corn-belt states like Nebraska and Iowa apparently exempt ethanolized gasoline from gas taxes. What’s more, west of Des Moines I could have filled the tank with E85 for less than $3 a gallon—if only a 1998 Taurus were flex-fuel capable. (If somebody tells me now that it is, I’m going to cry.) Tomorrow is a family day. Of my late dad’s three surviving siblings, two live here and my Uncle John will be 90 next month (which is a big part of why we included Marshalltown on this tour). We expect to be home Tuesday. I wonder what it’ll be like not to live out of a suitcase?

That’s Over, Until Next Year
Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:02 am by McGehee 1 comment [Wackadoodle] [Media Ochre] [Nature]	Yesterday, as you may have heard, was Earth Day. Also known among edutainment TV watchers as Junk Science Day.

San Francisco Chronicle Recycles News from the ‘70s

Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:48 am by McGehee 6 comments [Media Ochre] [Nature]

That’s the only possible explanation for this: A strong and deadly earthquake is virtually certain to strike on one of California’s major seismic faults within the next 30 years, scientists said Monday in the first official forecast of statewide earthquake probabilities. They calculated the probability at more than 99 percent that one or more of the major faults in the state will rupture and trigger a quake with a magnitude of at least 6.7. An even more damaging quake with a magnitude of 7.5 or larger, the earthquake scientists said, is at least 46 percent likely to hit on one of California’s active fault systems within the next three decades. It probably would strike in the southern part of the state, the scientists warned. » Huge state quake predicted within 30 years They’ve been saying “the big one” would hit California within the next 30 years, for 40 years. And then when everyone thought the Loma Prieta quake in 1989 was “the big one,” they said, No, that wasn’t it. Probably because California didn’t break off and fall into the ocean. If that doesn’t happen, even a magnitude 12 quake can’t be “the big one.”

This One’s for Chris

Wed Apr 2, 2008 7:59 am by McGehee 3 comments [Nature]

Some striking weather photos with this article. The violent winds howl, announcing the arrival of the twister. Grapefruit-sized hailstones rain down and the huge funnel of the tornado swings menacingly on the horizon. These are the most violent storms on earth, wreaking havoc wherever they whirl. For most, the sight of an approaching “twister” is a vision of hell on earth. But for a few, experiencing a tornado in full flow is their idea of heaven. » Spectacular pictures of nature at its wildest, captured by the storm chasers who risk their lives to follow twisters It’s that time of year again, for folks on the plains. Heads on a swivel, friends.

I Observed Earth Hour Last Night
Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:06 pm by McGehee [Wackadoodle] [Nature]	“Turn out your lights for one hour.” That’s “Earth Hour.” Chris and I observe “Earth Hour” several hours in a row every single night. But do we get credit for it? Noooo-o-o-o-o!

Yup, It’s Spring All Right
Fri Mar 7, 2008 10:51 pm by McGehee 1 comment [Nature]	Chris and I have been in this store: Douglas County spokesperson Wes Tallon confirmed that the roof of Kroger store on Chapel Hill Road at Central Church Road partially collapsed during the storm. One person suffered minor injuries. » Strong Storms Rip through Metro Atlanta The video link on the page offers more detail about the Douglasville storm, with suggestions that it was a small tornado.

They Always Do

Mon Mar 3, 2008 11:10 pm by McGehee 4 comments [Media Ochre] [Nature]

There’s something insidious about being a part of the Establishment Media. The Weather Channel has lost its way, according to John Coleman, who founded the channel in 1982. Coleman told an audience at the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change on March 3 in New York that he is highly critical of global warming alarmism. “The Weather Channel had great promise, and that’s all gone now because they’ve made every mistake in the book on what they’ve done and how they’ve done it and it’s very sad,” Coleman said. “It’s now for sale and there’s a new owner of The Weather Channel will be announced—several billion dollars having changed hands in the near future. Let’s hope the new owners can recapture the vision and stop reporting the traffic, telling us what to think and start giving us useful weather information.” » Weather Channel Founder Blasts Network; Claims It Is ‘Telling Us What to Think’ Of course TWC is “telling us what to think.” For some reason the Establishment Media—which increasingly includes relatively “new” outlets like TWC—appeals to the kind of people who want to do that. When you have a large-audience one-way medium of communication, it’s very easy to convince yourself that you should be believed solely because you’ve got a towering soapbox and a huge megaphone. A big audience and easily controlled channels for feedback just naturally lead to an inclination toward authoritarianism. So, every last one of you needs to sit down and write a short, concise letter to The Weather Channel telling them you agree 100% with John Coleman. Because I said so.

Leap Day

Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:03 am by McGehee [Nature]

This is only the second Leap Year since I’ve been blogging. Apparently I had a lot to say on Feb. 29, 2004. Today, maybe not so much—if the recent past is any indication. The only other Feb. 29-dated entry here is from 1996, long before I had ever even heard the word “blog.” The other day we had snow flurries in the area, and now Chris and I are convinced the banner next to our mailbox—which reads, “Let it snow!”—has been working for us this winter. So, we’re looking for a new one to put up there for this spring. I’m thinking, “Welcome, Publisher’s Clearing House Prize Patrol! See you again next week!”

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