It’s bad enough that Bush wants to appoint a man who oversaw the blatantly unconstitutional warrantless wiretap program as head of the CIA, but the following is even scarier:

If he gets the job, a military officer would be in charge of every major US spy agency.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have friends in the military, and I respect what they do for us. But I also believe it’s a good idea to keep the military from being in charge of too many areas of our government because history has shown how dangerous that can be.

Lillian Gertrud Asplund, the last American alive who survived the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic and the last who had any memories of the disaster passed away on May 6, 2006 at the age of 99. The two remaining known survivors, both from England were too young to remember the disaster. Barbara Joyce West of Truro, England was 10 months old at the time and Eliza Gladys Millvina Dean of Southampton, England was 2 months old.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, deeply offended by the Da Vinci Code’s purportedly blasphemous portrayal of his religion, is calling on Catholics to register their anger by rioting, burning down buildings, threatening beheadings and committing murders taking legal action against the book and film.

Actually, I think it’s pretty stupid that he’s even calling for legal action. Boycotts, letter-writing campaigns and/or peaceful, non-threatening protests — in other words, counterspeech — would be much better, and much more in line with the concept of free speech, than trying to use the courts in a coercive fashion to suppress free expression and art. But still, it’s good to remember that there are worse things. It’s especially good to consider this before comparing violent radical Islamism with the run-of-the-mill fundamentalism of devout Catholics and Christians in this country (nowadays).

Denial: I have plenty of time. I don’t really need to study… or do my reading… or go to class. Exams are a long way away yet, and besides, I’ve got hurricanes/baseball playoffs/BCS controversies/March Madness/Great Big Sea concerts/South Park kerfuffles/Sabres games to watch and blog about. And hey, I pulled out a decent GPA at the last minute last semester, didn’t I? I can waste time now and catch up later.

Anger: Dammit, why didn’t I study and pay attention earlier?!? Now exams are getting close, and I don’t know what the hell we’ve been doing all semester! God, I’m an idiot!! I’d better start catching up… but, oh look, something shiny! Gotta blog about it. I’ll start catching up tomorrow.

Bargaining: Okay, no way am I going to be as prepared as I wanted to be. But please, O mighty law-school gods, just let me learn enough to get a B, okay? Seriously, I’ll start studying in earnest RIGHT NOW, if you’ll just… what? There’s a tsunami warning for Fiji?

Depression: I’m doomed. DOOMED! I’m going to fail out of law school, I’ll lose my shot at a plum big-firm job, we’ll never pay off our credit card debts, and our kittens will starve! I’ll die homeless and penniless and no one will ever love me. Well, okay, Becky loves me, but she’ll probably leave me for someone who can afford cat food. Oh, woe, WOE is me!

Acceptance: So, my exams start tomorrow and I’m still woefully unprepared. So what? When they’re over, they’re over, and I won’t have to worry about them anymore. No point in fretting, right? And really, I’m prepared as I’ll ever be. Instead of studying, I might as well blog something pointless about how unprepared I am.

:)

With the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season less than a month away, there is considerable buzz in weather-nerd circles about the water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently, there have been an awful lot of cloudless days down there, allowing the sunlight to really heat up the water and produce unseasonably warm SSTs. I’ve gotten a couple of e-mails about this, one from Eric of Erictek, a Purdue student, who compared the maps on this website and concluded that the water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico about three weeks ahead of where they were last year. For example, compare these maps:

Wow. Scary. Another e-mailer, Scott Fort, passes along a relevant excerpt from a local weatherman’s e-mail newsletter:

DATELINE: GULF OF MEXICO: Data buoy #42001 was reporting a water temperature of 80.1. A year ago at this time, it was 75.6. There is growing concern that the Gulf of Mexico, across the board, has warmer water temperatures than at this same time last year. And we all know what happened last year. This means that we could see an early start to the tropical storm season, although water temperature is just one piece of the pie.

When the sea surface temperature gets to the mid 80s, hurricanes really like that.

When it gets to about 86 or 87, it is like giving a kid all the candy he wants.

David Emory Stooksbury, from the University of Georgia, advises that sea surface temperatures reaching 82 does not normally occur until June.

This year, by early May, much of the Caribbean water had reached 82 degrees.

Not only are sea surface temperatures abnormally warm for early May, he reports, but the entire hurricane season is expected to be very active.

Indeed, Dr. William Gray is predicting a busy season, with a higher-than-usual chance of U.S. landfalls — although The Storm Track says, “It is worth noting that William Gray’s forecasts…since he has been giving them are less accurate than the 5 year running average.” But the point is, Dr. Gray and other experts believe the general atmospheric conditions are ripe for lots of storm formation — and once the storms form, if they move into the jacuzzi-like temps the Gulf of Mexico may have by that point, we could in for big trouble. Again.

[UPDATE/CORRECTION: As noted here, this post may be somewhat misleading. Charles Fenwick, who knows more about this stuff than me, says “SSTs can be volatile on a daily basis… it is more useful to look at at a longer term average and compare it to a long term norm.” And, looking at such an average, the sea-surface temperatures in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico are actually now lower than what they were last year, according to The Storm Track. (They’re still above normal, though.) PLEASE NOTE: The maps posted by Fenwick, and by a commenter on this post, purporting to show that the Gulf is now MUCH cooler than last year, are unintentionally misleading, as explained here. The colors are just bluer because they changed the scale, not because it’s cooler. Fenwick’s broader point, however, is correct.]

P.S. On a related note… does anyone want to volunteer to be a “hurricane guestblogger” — or perhaps I should say, guest weather nerd — this summer? I want to plan ahead for this: I assume that BrendanLoy.com will get heightened traffic anytime a storm is nearing the U.S. coast, because of last year… and yet, for the first time ever, I most likely won’t be able to blog at all during business hours on weekdays from late May through mid-August. (Blogging on the job is not exactly the first impression I want to make at my law firm!) This obviously presents something of a dilemma, as I don’t want to lose my status as a go-to blog for up-to-date hurricane info, insight, and links. So, I’m hoping to put together a small army of guest-nerds :) to help me keep things fresh, monitoring not just news sites, but NHC advisories and images, computer-model maps, and the handful of weather blogs that I routinely link to. (I feel like I should have training sessions or something… heh. No, but seriously, I will probably put together some sort of a basic “how to” document, as there are certain issues of timing, what’s important and what’s less so, etc., that one learns when one has been blogging hurricanes for four years and following them for about 17 years.) Because hurricane-blogging is kind of a specialized thing, I don’t know how many of my regular guestbloggers will want to do it on a regular basis… plus, the ability to help out in this regard is obviously contingent on having at least some ability to blog during business hours. Anyway, if anyone — current guestblogger or not — thinks they might be interested, please leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail (tips[at]brendanloy.com).

Australian Nine Network reporter Richard Carleton has died after suffering a suspected heart attack at Tasmania’s Beaconsfield Gold Mine today, during a press conference regarding the trapped miners. Witnesses said Carleton went red in the face after asking a question at the press conference and walked a short distance before collapsing. A radio journalist began CPR while an ambulance was called and someone was sent to the mine site to get medical experts working with the trapped miners. Carleton was taken away in an ambulance and pronounced dead a short time later.

Minutes before he collapsed, Carleton asked Beaconsfield Mine Manager Matthew Gill about the safety history of the mine:

“On 26th October last year, not 10 metres from where these men are now entombed, you had a 400-tonne rock fall. Why is it, is it the strength of the seam, or the wealth of the seam, that you continue to send men into work in such a dangerous environment?”

Carleton, who reports for the network’s flagship 60 Minutes program, has a history of heart problems.

Meanwhile, rescuers still have at least 1.1 metres of solid rock to get through before they begin to tunnel vertically to reach two trapped Tasmanian miners. They are now drilling small holes into the rock face, inserting low-impact explosives and detonating them. The narrowness of the rescue tunnel means only one rescuer can drill into the rock at any given time. But he is helped by another rescuer kneeling behind him to help him hold the drill, which weighs up to 40kg. It is hoped Todd Russell and Brant Webb will be freed tomorrow. The men are still insisting that they will walk out of the mine and are doing exercises within their confined space to help them achieve this goal.