Category Archives: General

General, Political Commentary

A DC Earthquake?

13 Comments

I’m seeing lots of tweets from DC folks.

Actually, while I have a lot of friends there, a Richter 10 would solve a lot of the country’s problems.

Seriously, there’s a lot of old unreinforced colonial masonry there. A good shake could do a lot of damage in Old Town Alexandria, and the district as well.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Wow, a 5.8 in Virginia, a few tens of miles from DC. Pentagon and Capitol being evacuated.

[Update a few minutes later]

Apparently people are reporting it from New England, including a Fox reporter in Martha’s Vineyard. Here’s a Free Republic thread, with a report from Cleveland. Instapundit has a report that they didn’t actually evacuate the Pentagon, but that some rapidly exited on their own. It’s been declared safe now.

[Update a few minutes later]

Hmmm…Obama is out of town, can’t blame him. Must be Bush’s fault.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Looking at the map, it’s just east of Charlottesville, toward Richmond. Let’s hope it’s not a foreshock.

Even if it’s not, it could still be a bad week. Irene seems to be targeting the same area, with an arrival this coming weekend.

[Update a couple minutes later]

I’ve heard that cells are jammed. Folks, text, don’t talk. That will free up bandwidth for the first responders.

[Update]

No, it’s not too soon. Quake humor: “Krugman says it wasn’t big enough.” Hey, didn’t I say that, up above? Stopped clock, I guess.

Also, social media is faster than seismic waves.

[Update a few minutes later]

See what I meant about unreinforced masonry? “The historic Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington has cracks in the interior walls by the earthquake.”

That’s the red stone “castle” on the mall, the original Smithsonian Building and now its headquarters. A bigger shake, closer to the DC area, would do a lot of damage, because it’s not designed for earthquakes (even the new buildings). East coasters are way too complacent about this. They think that because it hasn’t happened in their lifetimes, that it can’t happen.

[Bumped]

General

Christchurch

19 Comments

Things sound pretty bad there, from the reports I’m reading. Usually these things hit in lesser-developed countries, and in the US, we could probably take a hit that big, at least in the west, with relatively few fatalities, because we’ve long had building codes for it, but it sounds like there was a lot of unreinforced masonry in the town, and the epicenter was very close.

But people on the east coast should be aware that it could be just as bad if one hits there, and while it happens a lot less often than in California, it can still happen.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Here’s an interesting animated map showing all of the temblors today, most of which were aftershocks, and big ones. It looks like it’s on the Greendale fault.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here’s all the coverage at the New Zealand Herald.

[Update about 10 PM PST]

CNN is reporting at least sixty five dead. I suspect the toll is going to be quite a bit higher when they clear the rubble.

General, Social Commentary

Intern Of The Year

12 Comments

This guy should get a raise:

“When I heard gunshots, my first instinct was to head toward the congresswoman to make sure that she was okay,” Hernandez said in an interview with ABC’s Christine Amanpour Sunday. “Once I saw that she was down, and there were more than one victim, I went ahead and started doing the limited triage that I could with what I had.”

Hernandez, who is 20, told ABC that he simply “shut off all emotion.” “I knew I wouldn’t be good to anyone if I had a breakdown,” he recalled. He noted that he went to help because he had “limited experience in triage and training.”

He lifted up Giffords’ head, because he feared she might choke on her own blood, and used smocks from the grocery store’s meat department as a makeshift bandages for her and other victims.

Giffords, he says, was alert, but couldn’t talk.

“‘Just grab my hand to let me know that you’re okay,'” he recalls telling the injured lawmaker.

According to Hernandez, she squeezed his hand, and he didn’t let go, riding with her in the ambulance to the hospital, where she was rushed into emergency surgery.

“It was probably not the best idea to run toward the gunshots,” he told the Arizona Republic. “But people needed help.”

You never know how you’re going to react to such events, but he definitely performed far above and beyond.

General, Political Commentary, Space

Best Wishes ToRIPSpeedy Recovery, Rep. Giffords

57 Comments

This is horrible:

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot along with three of her aides by a gunman Saturday morning outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, Fox News has confirmed.

Twelve others were shot as well at Giffords’ “Your Corner” event held at Safeway. The gunman is in custody.

Sounds like it may have been an assassination attempt. I doubt it was over space policy, though. I hope it’s not as serious as it sounds. I’m kind of surprised that a gunman could shoot twelve people in Tucson without being shot himself — at least when I lived there, over thirty years ago, a lot of people open carried, in holsters.

[Update a couple minutes later]

NPR is no reporting that she was killed, with six others. My deepest condolences to her friends and family. I had deep disagreements with her on policy, and hoped for her electoral defeat, but this should not happen in a republic.

Of course, expect that “violent” Tea Party to be blamed in 3…2…1…

[Update a few more minutes later]

More over at Hot Air. The reporting still seems to be confused, but Fox News has also confirmed that she is dead.

[Update a couple minutes later]

OK, now Fox is saying alive but in critical condition. I guess we just have to wait a while for the fog of events to clear.

[Update a while later]

Out of surgery and “responsive” (which beats the alternative, I guess). Condolences to friends and family of those who didn’t survive.