Super-Humberto

Tropical storm Humberto transformed itself into Hurricane Humberto in the wee hours of the morning -- something meteorologists weren't even talking about when I went to bed. It's fascinating how quickly this storm has developed: 2 days ago it didn't even exist and now it's a Catagory 1 Hurricane.

Earlier this season 2 Catagory 5's crashed into Central America -- a rare thing indeed since there have been only 13 in recorded history and no season with more than 1. The weather systems are definitely changing, I believe.

Here's a loop showing the progress of Humberto so far, courtesy of the magnificent Weather Underground (still only $5 for an entire year!).

Visit From Humberto

It looks like we may get some rain. This thing wasn't even on the weather map yesterday -- just a cold front going headed south aiming for a ridge going north. Then this morning we turn on the news and a large spinning mass is drenching Galveston and ruining my commute. A little later on they declared it a tropical storm and named it Humberto.

Right now the thought is Humberto will come ashore north of Conglomeration, TX around 2:00 a.m. with 50 mile an hour winds. Then it will hook to the right and head for Louisiana. Under that scenario we should not be hit too bad, but the feeder arms could still give us some nasty storms and occasional tornadoes.

Here's what it looks like at the moment:

9/11

Farewell, Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti has died of pancreas cancer.

I'm not a rabid fan of opera in any sense but I do like to listen to it once in a while. It's more the singers than the actual operas that attract me. I've enjoyed (but don't own any of, regrettably) old recordings of Caruso from the early 1900's, and even through those crackly, hissing, analog vinyl discs you can feel the emotion he could transmit to the audience.

Most other singers don't really connect on a basic, visceral level like that -- at least not for me. They may display technical prowess or have an excellent voice. But Pavarotti could connect with a vengeance. It wasn't as though he was performing; it was as though he was exploding -- engulfing the audience, washing over us like a tsunami.

My favorite performance of his is Nessun Dorma. The first time I heard it -- on a summer vacation from college as I rifled my dad's collection -- I had no idea what the opera it came from was about. It was 2:00 in the morning, he had a new sound system, and I wanted to see what it could do. Almost idly I popped a CD of arias into his player.

And then I heard this overwhelm and melt down his high-end headphones.

So long Pavarotti. You were a phenomenon.

Unwanted Passengers

How do you accidentally mount nuclear missiles on a B-52 bomber? According to this story nuclear cruise missiles were taken to North Dakota (pity poor North Dakota, incidentally -- the state it's ok to send nuclear materials to!) to remove their warheads. But instead of that, they were taken out and hooked to the wings. Then they were flown to Louisiana, crossing a corridor of oblivious mid-western states on the way.

Don't these things have something that says "Danger: Nuclear" on them? Or at least a little atom sign.

At least the Air Force assures us they couldn't blow up, even if the plane had crashed. They know this, of course, because several nuclear bombers have crashed with no inadvertent mass anihilations. There are even a few bombs on the bottom of the sea that can attest to their non-explosiveness.