Sleepless in Midland

A Red Air Day

Usually the air in Midland is fairly clean with a mostly Southern breeze pumping that fresh air through.

But, today is a red air day in Midland. With a 26 mph wind and gusts up to 33 mph from NNW the land outside the city is coming to town. And the sky is red with dust. A good day to stay indoors - a bad day to go jogging.

Click on the link if you would like to see some spectacular photos of a dust storm arriving at Midland last summer. It's worth the visit!

Acme Products

the Acme Anvil, sample usage

The Acme company provided products for use in cartoons for decades, for example, the Acme Anvil is used by Wile E. Coyote in the picture, above. My favorite is the Atom Re-arranger which can transform an object into something completely different. Here's the complete illustrated Acme Products catalog.

Via Memepool subject archive.

You got the flu shot. Are you immune?

Star-Telegram.com is reporting that we are facing one of the worst flu outbreaks in history and that health care providers have been advised to ration flu shots as the vaccine could be in short supply.

But, what about those who have already gotten the shot, are they immune? Well, no. But, they might not get as sick as they would have otherwise, according to WebMD:

The CDC says flu vaccine will offer "some" immunity against the Fujian flu that's going around this year. Some people are expected to get the flu even though they got vaccinated. But they won't get as sick as those who didn't get the vaccine.

Fujian flu is what scientists call a "drift variant." It's nearly the same virus as the Panama flu included in this year's vaccine. But it's not exactly the same, notes Jennifer Wright, DVM, an officer in the epidemic intelligence service at the flu branch of the CDC.

"We just don't really know how well the vaccine will protect against the Fujian variant," Wright tells WebMD. "In the past, where a drift variant didn't match the vaccine strain exactly, some vaccinated people didn't get sick, and those who did, had a milder illness. We'll be looking to see if that's true this year."

I recall seeing news reports from somewhere in the orient years ago which showed people walking wearing surgical masks. If those things actually work to block the flu virus then perhaps that's a custom we should consider adopting.

Update, 12/9/03: The city of Midland is offering flu shots to children 6 months to 18 years of age on Monday 12/15 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Midland Health and Senior Services, 3303 W. Illiniois in Midland. Due to the shortage of vaccine this is likely to be the last opportunity for children to get a flu shot.

Midland Shooters Association - this weekend at the range

M-1 Garand

There are lots of things going on at the rifle/pistol range this weekend.  Saturday the Cowboy shooters will have their monthly contest beginning at 10:00 a.m.  Those things are always fun to watch.  Check out the Comanche Trail Shootists' website for more info. 

Then, on Sunday there will be two events.  The Bullseye pistol match will begin at 10:00 a.m.  Check out the link for a thorough explanation and a clever picture. 

And, also on Sunday there will be a John C. Garand match sanctioned by the Civilian Marksmanship Program.  The event is timed to coincide with Pearl Harbor day to honor John C. Garand, the inventor of the M-1, or "Garand", rifle adopted by the Army in 1936 and used by our soldiers to help win WWII. 

Keep your eyes on the target!

A Grammy for Bill and Hillary?

I heard this on the radio and thought it was a joke, but apparently it wasn't. Bill and Hillary Clinton have been nominated for Grammys in spoken-word categories.

Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, were nominated in separate spoken-word categories. Sen. Clinton was nominated for her Best Spoken Word album, "Living History." The category's other nominees are political satirists Al Franken and Bill Maher, actor Don Cheadle and writer-poet Nikki Giovanni. The former president shared a nomination with ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and actress Sophia Loren for their narration of "Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf/Beintus: Wolf Tracks" in the Best Spoken Word Album for Children category.

What is your investment acumen?

Here's a quiz from NASD which purports to test your investment knowledge. Quiz. (I thought I would ace this one, but I only scored 89%. Dang.)

Via Kirkreport.

Update 12/9/03: Here's a review of that quiz. The author says that of 1,086 test takers only 35% passed. Unfortunately, he doesn't say what score a person had to achieve in order to pass.

How Good is Your Punctuation?

Take this punctuation quiz to find out whether you are a teac'hers pet, a teachers pet or a teacher's pet.

Via A Welsh View.

The cops-beat-citizen video tape

There was another cops-beat-citizen tape that has been shown over and over on the tube in the last few days. The tv talk shows had their usual suspects lined up last night with one side screaming "Police Brutality" and the other side singing "He Had It Coming."

But, something stood out when Gretta showed the long version of the tape. It was interesting to watch the peace officers mill around after the, uh, incident. They chatted about how he had a heart beat but wasn't breathing. And, no one attempted to help him. The only semblance of an effort to assist the guy was when one of the officers yelled "get over here" to the EMTs when they arrived, and only then did the fellow get any help.

Maybe it's a union thing. Maybe their job was done once the guy became motionless. I dunno.

[ Aside. Midland had it's own little official oppression incident a couple of months ago. And, it was caught on video tape. So, it's interesting that no tv station has shown it. ]

Update: The coroner has ruled it "homicide". Link.

He said the death will be ruled a homicide, but added that such a decision does not mean police used "excessive force." The coroner said he had to rule the death a homicide because it did not fall under the other categories: accident, suicide or natural.

The Flood of '68

Bert9785 left a post at the KWEL radio forum the other day with four photos of the photos from the pages of the Midland Reporter-Telegram articles about the flood on May 9, 1968, here in Midland, Texas.  Unfortunately the link to that forum entry is no longer valid, but scroll to the end of this post for a link to the photos.  The old newspapers are on microfilm at the Midland Public Library, and the issues pertaining to that flood make for interesting reading. 

From the May 9, 1968, Midland Reporter-Telegram:

Cloudburst Floods Midland - Wind, Water, Hail Damage to be Heavy

Almost five inches of rain accompanied by damaging hail and whipped by high winds fell from angry storm clouds in a two hour period this morning and resulting flooding virtually paralyzed the city of Midland

Traffic was brought to a standstill in many sections of the city as streets turned into torrential rivers running floorboard high on parked cars.

Reports of flooding in both homes and business firms were common as the cloudbursts caused water to surge over curbs.  City crews were dispatched to several areas to place sandbags around homes to prevent further flooding. ...

To aid rescue and other operations, the Midland unit of the Texas National Guard was called out.  And since the storm did not hit Odessa badly, a number of Odessa emergency units came here to help. ...

Meanwhile, water surged over the top of automobiles on Midland Drive near its intersection with West U.S. 80, and a rescue truck drowned out attempts to rescue the occupants. 

Fire Department units were dispatched across the city to help rescue persons trapped in their cars by the flooding.  In some cases, the water was so high that even the fire trucks were flooded out.  Fire Chief Melvin Little called for extra men. ...

Hail as large as golf balls fell during the storm, breaking windows and striping leaves and branches from trees and shrubs.

And, the next day - from the May 10, 1968, Midland Reporter-Telegram:

Midland Mops Up After Storm - One Killed, Losses Run to Millions 

At least one man is dead, hundreds are homeless, and property damage is estimated in the millions of dollars in the wake of a vicious thunderstorm that roared through the Midland area Thursday afternoon.  Rains up to seven inches were measured.

A 46 year old Lubbock salesman was killed Thursday afternoon when his auto was washed off West U.S. 80 and into a drain running along the highway's south side.  Department of Public Safety officials pulled the body of H. D. Neighbors from the twisted wreckage of his auto about 3 p.m.

Midland police said from 500 to 700 homes - many of them in Midland's fashionable northwest section - had to be evacuated. ...

The rains flooded city streets and made driving dangerous.  Two Dallas men had a narrow escape on West U.S. 80 at the same time Neighbors was killed.  ...

The Dallas men carried on a conversation with Neighbors and both drivers decided to back up until the swift running water subsided.

The Dallas car backed up about 10 feet when a torrent of water came rushing across the highway. Both cars were swept into the draw.  Neighbors car was thrown into a railroad trestle and Neighbors was trapped inside. ...

One of the heroes of the storm was Narciso Navarette of 1303 E. Parker St., an employee of the city of Midland.  Navarette picked up about 30 persons and took them to his home.  Navarette's wife cared for them three or four hours until they could go back to their homes or to the homes of friends or relatives.  ...

B. C. Henderson, president of the Midland Association of Independent Insurance Agents said today  "There is neither insurance protection provided nor available to cover damage caused by flood or surface waters to buildings, structures or contents." ...

City officials estimated 10 to 12 inches of rain fell in parts of Midland.  The official weather bureau measurement at Midland-Odessa Regional Air Terminal was 4.75 inches - below the record of more than five inches for a 24 hour period recorded in 1934.

A spokesman for the Weather Bureau said, however, that the bureau's rain gauge overflowed during the pounding hail and rain and indicated that an accurate measurement may not have been made. 

A fascinating glimpse of a moment in the past. To see photos of the photos that appeared on the microfilm, click 1968 newspaper flood photos.

Selling West Texas Water (3)

Tuesday afternoon the School Land Board (SLB) held a meeting in an Alpine auditorium about the proposed lease between Rio Nuevo, Ltd., and the General Land Office (GLO) of the state of Texas for water rights in far west Texas. (Link to MyWestTexas.com). A template for a lease agreement was approved by the SLB, and the public was invited to comment.

"The highest and best use of these lands would be to develop the water underneath them," [GLO Commissioner Jerry] Patterson said in a recent column. "Texas schools could earn millions of additional dollars for textbooks and computers." ...

Rio Nuevo is proposing to pump around 50,000 acre feet a year -- a little more than 16 billion gallons -- from area aquifers.

Rio Nuevo partner Robert Canon estimated the company could sell the water at around $1,000 per-acre foot, giving 10 percent royalties to the State Land Board. ...

Canon estimated mining the water would reduce the total volume of the aquifers by 7.3 percent over 50 years. ...

But the farmers and ranchers in the audience, who say they are watching their wells go dry and their water tables drop, questioned Canon's numbers. ...

"I'm concerned with everyone hitching their wagons to those numbers," said Teresa Todd, a Presidio County attorney and member of the Far West Texas Water Planning Group, of Canon's presentation, noting the scarcity of information on many of the aquifers that would be affected.

Let's do some back-of-the-envelope math on those numbers. The estimate of 50,000 acre feet a year production sold at $1,000 per acre foot would yield $50 million a year gross revenue. And a 10% royalty would amount to $5 million for the SLB leaving $45 million per year before taxes and expenses for the partnership. But, that's not all. The El Paso Times reports the partnership is also looking to lease an additional 300,000 acres of privately owned land. So, Rio Nuevo, Ltd., has the potential for making some big bucks.

The El Paso Times article contains a bit more about the opposition at the meeting:

Bill Addington of Sierra Blanca said many West Texans, including his family, oppose exporting water to other parts of the state.

"This is a desert, and now they want to take water from here, which is a scarce resource, and market it to the highest bidder," said Addington, who also represented the El Paso Sierra Club at Tuesday's hearing.

Some of the people, including ranchers with families dating back three to six generations, complained that they had little information and notice about the proposal.

"This is the Chihuahuan Desert. On a map, it's always depicted as brown," Marfa Mayor Oscar Martinez said. "Leave our water alone. We're dry enough."

Additionally, the El Paso Times article said that two counties, El Paso and Brewster, have been dropped from the original six leaving four, Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis and Presidio.

Common sense just begs for a hands-off-the-water approach. But, there simply isn't enough information currently available for the public to make a fair assessment. Hopefully, after they've gotten around to taking testimony from expert witnesses there will be a consensus opinion on just how the pumping of all of that water would alter the aquifer levels and what economic and environmental impact it would have on the area. And, will our taxes go up if the SLB doesn't get that revenue? Here's hoping that all the facts are known before a final decision is made.

Google Usage Still Growing

Google just keeps getting bigger. OneStat.com, a company that provides web statistical information, had a press release dated 11/18/03 reporting at Pressi.com the following:

"Google's global usage share has reached an all time high and has risen from 55.2 percent to 56.1 percent. ...
The 7 largest search engines on the web are:

1. Google 56.1%

2. Yahoo 21.5%

3. MSN Search 9.4%

4. AOL Search 3.7%

5. Terra Lycos 2.3

6. Altavista 1.9%

7. Askjeeves 1.6%

All numbers are an average of the last 2 months. "

Interestingly, the much lauded Teoma didn't even make the list.

Via Digital Practice of Law.

Snopes.com

[Scroll down for the most recent update -- 10/25/08.]

The Urban Legends Reference Page found at Snopes.com is a frequent reference source for most internet users, so it was interesting to hear Barbara Mikkelson as a guest in a brief telephone segment on C-SPAN's Washington Journal the other morning.

Snopes.com is run by the husband and wife team of Barbara and David Mikkelson. David is a coder and web designer, and Barbara works primarily doing research for the website.

She described how she does the work, for example she explained the process of debunking the belief that colonies of alligators were living in the sewers of New York. According to the myth, baby alligators were brought from Florida but subsequently flushed to end up in the sewers where they thrived. To research this, Ms. Mikkelson searched through microfilm of the New York Times from 1903 to 1993 for alligator stories on the assumption that if the legend were true then there should have been many articles about sightings. There were a handful of sightings during that 90 year period but not enough to confirm the myth. So, Ms. Mikkelson concluded that the myth was "false".

Another debunked myth she talked about was the 2001 fictitious report from the nonexistent Lovenstein Institute on the presidential IQs of 12 presidents. The report was widely circulated around the internet, and it basically said that Democrats had high IQs, but Republicans had low IQs. According to that report, George W. Bush's IQ is 91, exactly one half of Bill Clinton's IQ which was said to be 182.

Ms. Mikkelson pointed out in the interview that, with the exception of Richard Nixon, the IQs of the presidents are simply not known, and the fake report even got Nixon's IQ wrong. At the snopes website, she points out that The Guardian of London reported it as actual news and didn't retract it until after the Associated Press pointed out The Guardian's error. As one might have expected, Garry Trudeau featured it in a Doonsbury cartoon, and at least one anti-Bush website is still presenting that bogus report as fact.

We've all received emails containing stories that are so wonderful and amusing that we just so dearly want them to be true. The Snopes.com website is a great place to check them out. It's best to see if Barbara Mikkelson has opined on them before forwarding them on to the next email recipient, because eventually someone down the line will.

Instant update: Here's an Online Journalism Review interview with David and Barbara Mikkelson in which they discuss the debunking of the hoax about hunters paying to shoot naked women with paint balls that was in the news recently.

Updated 10/25/08: There's an email floating around which claims that Snopes.com is "owned by a flaming liberal and this man is in the tank for Obama." See Snopes.com, revisited on these pages. The version of the email that I received says that "TruthorFiction.com is the better source for verification, in my opinion."

So if one looks at TruthorFiction.com very near the top of their list is a link to an article debunking that very email and attempting to explain why someone would do that.

What we need now is someone who can fact check the fact checkers.