The Cajun Navy

DIY rescues down in flooded Louisiana. That's some can-do spirit, initiative, and neighborly feeling: see a problem, do something about it, save some stranded folks.

Your Snowzilla Soundtrack

I am pleased to report that I am still alive and kicking in the massive blizzard that's dumped a metric ton of the white stuff on a huge section of the country.

I am also pleased to report that Snowzilla has produced a peerlessly party-tastic soundtrack that is all the more remarkable for being from a rather unexpected source.  Let's just say that's the best thing to come out of DC in months, if not years.  Listen to this soundtrack to a livestream of the weather, and you'll see why people are freaking out about this.

In Russia, Beach Hits You!

Just another day in paradise as the temperature suddenly plummets 40 degrees and the sky hurls golfball-sized hailstones at fleeing vacationers.

Forgotten History: London's Frost Fair of 1814

Imagine a festival on top of the frozen Thames!

Obligatory Complaint About the Polar Vortex

I am frickin' freezing here!  The wind chill is in the negatives.  I can't tell if this is campus or the ice planet Hoth!  Stuff like this convinces me that hell is a cold place, not a hot one.   Perhaps my incandescent rage will keep me warm enough to prevent hypothermia.  Thatisall.

Taiwan: Driving In The Rain

This happened yesterday in the Old Country in Keelung. Wait for it ...

A Little Geographical Winter Weather Humor

Because it is freezing here!  I'm sure it's also wintry where you are too.  Snowfall totals, though, do differ ...  Click to enlarge the image.

Snow in Jerusalem

Unusual ... and beautiful.  Check out the photos.  The image of snow-covered palm trees is especially striking, and the one of Netanyahu throwing snowballs darn amusing.  You know, wouldn't it be nice if everyone could settle their differences with one epic snowball fight and then hot cocoa afterwards?

Quote of the Day: Greenie Hysteria

Heh:

... the habit of reading every warm spike and every storm as fresh confirmation of the coming apocalypse needs to stop. It’s bad science and it’s bad politics. Green hysteria is more likely to paralyze us then help us take the kind of steps we need to take towards sustainability. 

The gravest danger to Earth these days isn’t climate skepticism; it’s the broken, Malthusian and statist green policy imagination. Wedded to grandiose and unworkable “solutions”, greens feel they must push the panic button at every opportunity to stampede the world into embracing an unworkable and unsustainable policy agenda.

Well, I don't feel the urge to panic and adopt a Stone Age lifestyle if the New York Times is shutting down its environment desk and if Al Gore, that blowhard high priest of the Green religion, feels it's OK to sell out to Al Jazeera for a sweet, sweet personal profit of $100 million.  

Blast From the Past (Literally)

Hurricane Sandy is a history-making storm.  Take a look at 6 other tempests that changed history, from the "divine wind" typhoon that saved Japan from a Mongol invasion fleet in 1281 to the storm that wrecked the Spanish Armada and thus saved England in 1588 and more.

Hurricane Sandy 1, HMS Bounty 0

OK, so it's a replica of the infamous ship, but it's still a shame to see the travails of such a beautiful thing and piece of maritime history off the coast of North Carolina.  Here is the tall ship's website.  Kudos to the Coast Guard for the rescue of the Bounty's crew.  

Tweeting Hurricane Sandy

I'm not sure what's more amusing: that some wag is tweeting as the hurricane or that s/he is quoting Mean Girls:

OH MY GOD KAREN YOU CAN'T JUST ASK A HURRICANE WHY SHE'S ONLY A CATEGORY 1.
— hurricane sandy (@hurricannesandy) October 27, 2012

Hurricane Sandy Humor

Since this storm is making massive headlines all up and down the East Coast, I give you this bit of movie-meteorological fun:

New French President Hollande's Term Begins with a Bang

Literally.

What Doesn't Kill You ... Gives You An Awesome Scar

It's a heck of a souvenir of a lightning strike.

*Insert Tumbleweeds* The Texas Drought

Not good at all.

Hurricane Hilarity: Signs for Irene

Here is a fun collection, though if I had to pick just one, I'd pick the following:

Nerd Journal: A Soundtrack For Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Pain in the Neck Irene

Irene's hit the East Coast, so the weather's just horrible.  The rain is pouring down in sheets.  At one time, it looked as though it were raining sideways!  Still, I have plenty of food and water and candles and flashlights and electricity and Internet access and Netflix and Nerdpocalypse Now research, so I'm all set!  In fact, since we're all chilling out at home, here's some meteorologically relevant musical entertainment:

Leave those umbrellas at home.

Awesome Photography: Hurricane Irene Seen From Space

Some amazing images from NASA.  I like this one best.  First a little earthquake and now a hurricane.  Some people here in Nerdworld are beginning to freak out.  Since disasters happen in threes, let me tell you that the third is nearly upon us -- the plague of incoming freshmen and their traffic-blocking parents.  The horror, the horror!

Tornado in Taipei!

Michael Turton links to this amazing video footage of a twister in the middle of Taipei.  It caused only minor damage, but it still was, as you hear one person say in the video, "So scary!"  No kidding.