Re: USVI
Better than being married . Or similar - in the beginning lots of blowing and sucking - next thing you know - there goes your house
I don't know whether you also acquired the Greater St. James island last year, as was suggested in at least one news report yesterday. I saw some of the coverage of the damage to USVI and other Caribbean islands today on the Rachel Maddow show, and on that heard an interview with the governor of the VI. Seeing all that severe destruction of even hefty structures, and things like air traffic control towers, made me feel badly about the sort of damage suffered by all the buildings and facilities (and boats?) that you put your care, attention and resources towards.
Other than concern about anyone you know or employ being hurt in the storm, I suppose my key short-term concern is about the integrity and use of the utility pipe from Little St. James to St. Thomas and about water and power on the Greater island, if applicable. Plus, I suppose, security.
I can only imagine how disappointed and upsetting this monster storm has been for you. Sorry.
I'm pretty reachable on the phone during Pacific time daytime after 10am PDT.
d. (still @ )
Good one!
If you can stand an emoji:
d.
blacks turn into chimps. its amazing to see
That reminds me....Have you stayed abreast of Robert Sapolsky's research and writing (baboons and people, mostly, but informed by other social animals, like New Caledonian crows)?
d.
no i hve not , note the crows are also black :)
They are clever. http://www.sci-news.com/biology/new-caledonian-crows-hooked-stick-tools-03535.html for loud, annoying yet interesting video clips of crows in the wild using tools.
d.
Thank you. As you undoubtedly noticed, there's a standard script for reports of 'looting': describing white people as requisitioning supplies in an emergency and describing non-white people as looters (especially if they're at the jewelry store and not the supermarket...). Rebecca Solnit (a SF-based lefty whose influence has soared after 11/9) researched and wrote an interesting book on how well and spontaneously many groups of people behave after disasters. It makes anarchism, on a small scale, seem a lot more plausible. But this article you sent has a level of texture and detail that makes me truly concerned about what will happen in another couple of days, especially if roads and phone communication stay so poor that MREs and data cannot move. The 'survival mode' in quotes in the headline will be replaced with survival mode, not in quotes....
Do you have any idea what happened to your staff and how they are doing?
d..
PS Solar-powered batteries and ham radio (in portable rigs) clearly ought to be more deployed in the Caribbean.
Here's a thirty seven minute lecture by Sapolsky that I attended, aimed at a general audience. I am sure there are deeper and more recent summaries, but the purpose is to give you a taste. https://www.youtube.comlwatch?v=TnlZwfD-GiU Enjoy,
David
PS By the way, someone as impatient as you might want to know that there are ways to download videos from YouTube and then play them at accelerated rate. A 37 minute video played at 125% normal speed is just under 30 minutes. With practice, it's possible to learn to watch or listen to 'content' much more quickly, without pitch distortion of the voices (the Chipmunks effect).