Number 85 - To see a tree asmiling.

I would love either locale.

Both are great - however, I recommend Seattle. There is a diversity of ethnic groups there - including Samoans and Native Americans and Asians and all the other groups. It's a great place to live and a great place to visit. I loved it -- but, it started to get toooooo crowded for Patti and me. We moved here in NE TX to get away from the crowds of people.

As I've said in many earlier posts - I love Korean food. I can actually get it here. It's not easy or fast - however, it's convenient. I call or email an address for a place called "Central Market" and order what I want and it suddenly arrives at our house. That's Great!!!!! Try it. Just Google 'Central Market' and order.

Good going everyone.........

Thanks

You mean you can order basic ingredients, not fully prepared meals? I will google it. I love all Asian foods.

I just googled Central Market and got the main listing which has a number of Texan locations, plus Seattle and others. Also saw a Durham Central Market but I bet it's not affiliated. I could call and find out.

Hi all ~

A long day...

Taking care of the babies then a nap before dinner.

whew...may be finished with the exterior of the house before Oct.

Yes sumac, I have ordered 'Pumpkin Seed Oil' from Dallas, TX ((which is about 200 miles from my home)) and got it in two days. It is only available from Austria...........!!!
These stores are astounding - you can get almost anything in existence there. Almost. Grin

Good luck.

Wow, Stradee, you are sure one of the most 'go get things done' people I know -- and of course sumac.

ME!! Like I said - planning is work - I've been planning things for years now..... Big Grin

Maybe one of these days I'll do one of the things I've planned.......hehehehe

Go get em ladies.

LOL....it isn't a matter of planning...it's beginning a project and finding a hundred more projects before i can start what i was gonna start.

Enjoy your rain, Danon, I hope you get enough, All clicked.

September 7, 2010

Weird Weather in a Warming World

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

GIVEN the weather of late, extremes seem to have become the norm.

New York City just had its hottest June-to-August stretch on record. Moscow, suffering from a once-in-a-millennium heat wave, tallied thousands of deaths, a toll that included hundreds of inebriated, overheated citizens who stumbled into rivers and lakes and didn’t come out. Pakistan is reeling from flooding that inundated close to a fifth of the country.

For decades, scientists have predicted that disastrous weather, including heat, drought and deluges, would occur with increasing frequency in a world heated by the rising concentrations of greenhouse gases. While some may be tempted to label this summer’s extremes the manifestation of our climate meddling, there’s just not a clear-cut link — yet.

Martin Hoerling, a research meteorologist who investigates extreme weather for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, calls any such impression “subjective validation.” He and other climate scientists insist there’s still no way to point to any particular meteorological calamity and firmly finger human-caused global warming, despite high confidence that such warming is already well under way.

One reason is that extreme weather, while by definition rare, is almost never truly unprecedented. Oklahoma City and Nashville had astonishing downpours this year, but a large area of Vermont was devastated by a 36-hour deluge in November 1927. The late-season tropical storm killed more than 80 people, including the state’s lieutenant governor, drowned thousands of dairy cows and destroyed 1,200 bridges.

A 2002 study of lake sediments in and around Vermont found that the 1927 flood was mild compared with some in the pre-Columbian past. In fact, since the end of the last ice age, there were four periods — each about 1,000 years long and peaking roughly every 3,000 years — that saw a substantial number of much more intense, scouring floods. (The researchers found hints in the mud that a fifth such period is beginning.)

Many scientists believe that sub-Saharan Africa will be particularly vulnerable in the coming decades to climate-related dangers like heat waves and flash-flooding. But global warming is the murkiest of the factors increasing the risks there. Persistent poverty, a lack of governance and high rates of population growth have left African countries with scant capacity to manage too much or too little water.

As in Vermont, the climate history of Africa’s tropical belt also makes it incredibly difficult to attribute shifts in extreme weather to any one cause. A recent study of layered sediment in a Ghanaian lake revealed that the region has been periodically beset by centuries-long super-droughts, more potent and prolonged than any in modern times. The most recent lasted from 1400 to 1750.

Though today’s extremes can’t be reliably attributed to the greenhouse effect, they do give us the feel, sweat and all, of what’s to come if emissions are not reined in. Martin Hoerling told me that by the end of the century, this summer’s heat may be the status quo in parts of Russia, not a devastating fluke. Similar projections exist for Washington, the American Southwest, much of India and many other spots.

With the global population cresting in the coming decades, our exposure to extreme events will only worsen. So whatever nations decide to do about greenhouse gas emissions, there is an urgent need to “climate proof” human endeavors. That means building roads in Pakistan and reservoirs in Malawi that can withstand flooding. And it means no longer encouraging construction in flood plains, as we have been doing in areas around St. Louis that were submerged in the great 1993 Mississippi deluge.

In the end, there are two climate threats: one created by increasing human vulnerability to calamitous weather, the other by human actions, particularly emissions of warming gases, that relentlessly shift the odds toward making today’s weather extremes tomorrow’s norm. Without addressing both dangers, there’ll be lots of regrets. But conflating them is likely to add to confusion, not produce solutions.

Andrew C. Revkin, a former environment reporter for The Times, writes the blog Dot Earth for nytimes.com.

PBS' NOVA aired a piece regarding Yellowstone and the volcanic materials seething... and in about 700 years should explode and spew ash enough to cover the planet...again.

An amazing earth

Morn'n all........

Yeah, I saw the NOVA segment. Scary, that is one huge volcano. And, if it goes off will probably kill 99 % of life on earth. That includes ALL human life.

In the mean time -- ta da -- we have saved another tree today.

Thanks for the rain thing sumac --- however it was mostly west of us and we only got a small sprinkle.

Here are two of the sweeties that were together in our home. One is still here. Guess which one!!!!!

Great Danon. I'm guessing the tall blond. I have a feeling that the site is down. All clicked.

The tall blond is our grand-daughter............. The little short one with the bolling ball head is still here. That's Hannah...........
Grin!!!!!

That is just to cute of a picture! Granddaughter is lovely, and Hannah? What an adorable puppy! Glad you had a super visit.

omg, the floor tile to die for! Nice deco, dan!

Thunder showers yesterday (just a tad of rain though) and today 70's.
Nuther visit to Home Depot and should have it all together before trees begin shedding their summer fare. Gonna miss summer. Days flew...

What granddaughteer? Where?

sumac, that's a good one.......... She's getting married soon and we will be GREAT grandparents by next year --- probably??

Yeah, I know---I didn't spell bolling right........!

Just look at that little face though---Looks lake a boWling ball --- all white and round and three little finger holes....... Big Grin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stradee, the floor isn't tiled - those are really big outdoor concrete blocks about two inches thick and we finally decided on them after our last trip to Europe and looked at the really old stone flooring over there. Upon our return, many years ago, I found the largest flat stone looking cement blocks I could find and layed them in the house. Does look good doesn't it!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, I designed the house with 9 foot ceilings and when I installed the wall studs I compensated for the extra 2 inches.

SEE --- IT'S ALL IN THE PLANNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Planning is what separates we humans from all the other animals on earth........

Big Big Big Grin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds like a self-satisfied fat Cheshire cat!!