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Big storms, cont.
Well, looks like New Orleans might have missed the worst possible scenario. Now it’s Taiwan’s turn to get wet.
Looks like two in a row, heading right for the island. Animation of the first one (called Talim, or typhoon #13 if you’re Japanese) is available right here. Wind up around 180 kph and pressure down to 925 hPa, which is pretty strong . . .
The Big Storm
Maybe not a perfect storm. But if the hurricane hits New Orleans dead-on, it looks like it’s going to be a deadly one. The October 2004 issue of National Geographic had a piece on the loss of wetlands around the city and the increased danger of storms that could strike with more force due to the lack of that buffer zone. I remember a picture from that article of a guy standing on Bourbon Street with a 6-meter pole, measuring how high the water would be if a major storm hit the city . . . Looks like that might come true.
There was a 1900 storm in Galveston that hit with similar force and brought similar flood waters. More than 6,000 died in that one. Hopefully people will be smarter about fleeing this time around; they’re certainly better informed than the Texans were 105 years ago. Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm is a good book on that old hurricane and its effects.
Oysters, birthdays
So I turned 35 yesterday. I’m halfway to 70! which is a really strange way to frame the milestone, probably. My presents included instant noodles from Indonesia (score!), a bottle of champagne (yes!), some iTunes Music Store gift card thingies, an embroidered pillow with scenes from California (thanks mom!), chocolate-covered espresso beans, on and on . . .
Those beans are coming in handy today. Last night Megumi and I went out to dinner at a cool but pricy oyster bar and ate one of everything. (Seriously. We pointed to the fresh oyster selection and got one of each kind. “This page, please.” Surprised the waiter quite a bit. The enormous rock oysters from Toyama and Kyoto were great, and great in size.) I think the meal came to like $300 or something absurd like that, but hey, we’re made of money, right?
This weekend we’ll go do some shopping. Maybe replace the dead digital camera. On Saturday I’ll teach my class from two to five in the afternoon and then head out to the Yoyogi outdoor beer garden to meet some ASIJ people. Mmmm, beer.
Shakin’ all over
Earthquake! Big one off the coast near Sendai. The early news reports call it a 6.8; we shook pretty hard clear down here in Tokyo. There’s a tsunami warning for much of Miyagi Prefecture now.
Man, this building sucks. If the big one hits while I’m at work, I’m so dead.
EDIT: Now iris.edu is calling it a 7.2.
A Slow Tiger
Now installing 10.4 on my machine at work . . . It turns out there were a bunch of hard drives sitting around doing nothing, so I tossed one in there and am now preparing to enter the modern age. (Pretty much everything in the office is still on OS 9, ack.)
I’m not exactly spoiled for speed. My PowerBook is running at just 867MHz, and my machine at home, even bumped with a new CPU, is at 1.2GHz. But this work box is a 450MHz G4, and it’s got the old 16MB video card in it still. Sl-o-o-o-w. It remains to be seen whether this will be more usable than 9.2.2 (which, after years of tweaking, is fairly stable and certainly a lot more responsive.)
In two days I turn 35. What should I ask for on this momentous occasion? 
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