February 7
February 7
February 7
February 8
February 8
Why 2008 Will Be Exciting
In the 1700s, politics was all about the ideas. But Jefferson came up with all the good ideas. In the 1800s, it was all about character. But no one will ever have as much character as Lincoln and Lee. For much of the 1900s it was about charisma. But we no longer trust charisma because Hitler used it to kill Jews and JFK used it to get laid and send us to Vietnam.
Today, we are in the Age of Scrutiny. A public figure must withstand the scrutiny of the media. The President is the ultimate public figure and must stand up under ultimate scrutiny; he is like a man stretched out on a rack in the public square in some medieval shithole of a town, undergoing the rigors of the Inquisition. Like the medieval trial by ordeal, the Age of Scrutiny sneers at rational inquiry and debate, and presumes that mere oaths and protestations are deceptions and lies. The only way to discover the real truth is by the rite of the ordeal, which exposes the subject to such inhuman strain that any defect in his character will cause him to crack wide open, like a flawed diamond.
-Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George, Interface
Same Thing Only Different, Again
Wednesday morning at 9:00am
Wednesday morning at 9:00am
Wednesday afternoon at 5:15pm
Wednesday afternoon at 5:15pm
During the day the river level dropped about six inches, which made the surface more turbulent. The snowfall yesterday was manifested as rafts of slush traveling down the river. I would guess that this will add to the mass of the ice jam, which will therefore start growing back up the river. We may yet have our very own glacier this winter.
Click on any of the photos to see the whole set of them.
Ice Jam, part 2
Proving that not only can you never step in the same river twice, you also cannot take the same photo of a river twice, here are some updates to the ice jam and flooding at the Sixth Street Bridge dam,
Sunday, 3 February
Monday, 4 February
Monday, 4 February
Monday, 4 February
Tuesday, 5 February
Tuesday, 5 February
Tuesday, 5 February
Photos 1, 4, 5 and 6 are all pretty much the same shot. On Sunday the river was placid, ice above and below the dam, but some water flowing through. On Monday the water level had dropped a bit, and there was a small drop between the upper and lower levels. On Tuesday all of the up-river ice had let go and jammed up just below the dam, causing the water to rise to the point that, other than a few odd swirls, there was no sign of the dam at all. I have never seen the water this high. The ice was jammed higher than this three years ago, but that was everything on top of the water. Since we are supposed to get between six and nine inches of snow in the next 24 hours, plus some sleet and freezing rain, I expect the water will rise even higher, and then everything will begin to freeze. Unless something breaks the entire ice jam loose I expect we will see some city streets under water in the next few days.
I have lived in Michigan my whole life. I have seen colder winters than this one. I have seen snowier winters than this one. But I don’t remember ever feeling as beaten down by the weather as I have since the beginning of this year.
Grand River Ice Jam 2008
…and this is the Grand River as of 9:00am.
Looking south from the boat launch on the Sixth Street Bridge dam.
Looking west across the river at the fish ladder.
Looking north.
The River is Thickening
These photos were taken roughly 26 hours apart. The first, yesterday at around 3:00pm. The second, today just after 5:00pm. In the intervening time the lower river has risen approximately six feet and a large ice jam has begun to form.
Normally there is a drop of six to eight feet over the dam. Last time an ice jam formed there was no difference between upper and lower river for about two weeks, and then the ice lasted in some places into April.
The packed ice is still moving slowly, but I expect the frigid temperatures, which hit Grand Rapids last night, will freeze everything solid before daybreak tomorrow.
Impermanence Again
I just posted 46 photos from a Sand Mandala ceremony I attended back in April of 2006. I originally blogged about it here, but I thought it warranted uploading the full set of photos at high resolution. Click the photo to see the rest, or click here for the slide show.
Update Update
The TextPattern update appears to have succeeded! Be on the lookout for much weirdness as the design evolves.
Also, this post is a test to see if posting works.
Updates and Upgrades
I just added a new entry to the Crime Map – an Armed Assault. Some dude got shot down on the SouthWest side. I also changed the status of one of the crimes. This is the first time I have needed to do such a thing, and it upset me a little. There was a kid got beat up outside of a bar back on the 10th of this month. Well, a few days ago, he died of his injuries. So now the Crime Map has its first homicide of the year. My sympathies go out to the family of Jonathan Krystiniak.
This bothered me more than it might have, because of the similarities to an incident that nearly took the life of a good friend. Long time readers of this blog may remember this particularly stressful month, back in 2004.
I have to say that WOOD TV is doing a very good job of covering the Krystiniak story. Of the few local news websites that actually cover local news, theirs is the only one where information is easily accessible, and regularly archived.
Sigh.
In other news, I have begun the process of re-designing and upgrading this website. Hopefully things will go smoothly and (for readers) invisibly, but there is the possibility that es.o could be down for a little while. I am going to upgrade the blogging software – TextPattern – to the newest build, which is 4.something. I am currently using 1.something. The new design should be ready to go in a few more weeks. I have some other things to get off my plate before I can attend to my own desires.
[EDIT: 6:15pm]
Turns out that I just had to upgrade last night’s shooting to a homicide. So now we are up to two murders in Grand Rapids in the month of January, 2008. January 2007 also had 2 murders. With four days left in the month we still have a chance to beat that record!
Follow-up to the Hot Sauce Post
I just had some of the cayenne sauce on a simple salad consisting of an avocado and two small tomatoes, along with a little olive oil.
Two words:
HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!