Monthly Archives: September 2011

links for 2011-09-27

  • wow.

    …what was there was Michigan Avenue, which had been there in the first place, and which I had seen hundreds and hundreds of times, only I had not seen it like I was seeing it now. The sky was blue, as it often was, only this time it was not only blue, but it was thick. It had a texture. If I could have reached up and taken a piece of sky between my thumb and finger, I could have felt it. The buildings were stone, and brown, and bluish gray, and tall like always, only I felt they were somehow curving, huddling together, and arching out over the street. And the cars! The cars were all these amazing colors, moving along like big beetles, metallic and rounded, and shiny. I could see the air too. It was all amazing. Something had happened to my eyes, or my brain, while I was away inside the painting. By the time I had gotten back inside myself, all my seeing settings had been changed

links for 2011-09-25

links for 2011-09-15

  • nice to find this again, thanks to Tamara… originally in Whole Earth Review of Spring 1987
  • "…Since freight railroads were deregulated in 1980, the number of large, so-called Class I railroads has shrunk from 40 to seven. There are now only four that matter: CSX and Norfolk Southern in the East, Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe in the West. These four now take in more than 90% of the market…"
    (tags: railroads)

Signs of the times

from Dr. Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog:

Figure 3. In Hershey, Pennsylvania, Swatara Creek is 18′ over flood stage, and more than 8′ above its record flood crest. Records at this gage go back to 1930…

The extreme rains are due the the remains of Tropical Storm Lee interacting with a stationary front draped along the Eastern U.S. Adding to the potent moisture mix last night was a stream of tropical moisture associated with Hurricane Katia that collided with the stationary front. You don’t often see a major city break its all-time 24-hour precipitation record by a 60% margin, according to wunderground’s weather historian, Christopher C. Burt, and he can’t recall ever seeing it happen before. It’s worth noting that the Susquehanna River Binghamton stream gage, which has been in operation since 1847, is due to be shut off in 3 weeks due to budget cuts. Here’s the note at the USGS web site:

NOTICE (03/23/2011)–Data collection at this streamgage may be discontinued after October 1, 2011 due to funding reductions from partner agencies. Although historic data will remain accessible, no new data will be collected unless one or more new funding partners are found. Users who are willing to contribute funding to continue operation of this streamgage should contact Rob Breault or Ward Freeman of the USGS New York Water Science Center at 518-285-5658 or dc_ny@usgs.gov.