Texas Eyes Hurricanes

Big swinging gates (WSJ graphic)

One of the overarching themes of history is how humankind battled and overcame the vicissitudes of nature. But some phenomena, like hurricanes, seemed too daunting to be resisted...until now.

Texas is considering a $26 billion barrier system to protect against hurricane storm surge.

The plan calls for 43 miles of new dunes and beaches and man-made fortifications designed to weather storm surges of up to 21 feet, including a gate system across the main entrance to Galveston Bay.

A complex gate system stretching between Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island would reduce storm surge while maintaining about 90% of current water flows when gates are open.

Three newly constructed man-made islands would anchor and house two pairs of large fan-shaped sector gates.

Comments:

The engineering mentality that built much of America--its cities, superhighways, hydroelectric dams, railroads, and the space program--is still alive.

Much of this spirit and skill used to be in California and has moved to Texas.

The above is the type of real infrastructure spending that your humble blogger can support. Note: this is mostly not "infrastructure":

Mr. Biden’s proposal includes $621 billion to modernize transportation infrastructure, $400 billion to help care for the aging and those with disabilities, $300 billion to boost the manufacturing industry, $213 billion on retrofitting and building affordable housing and $100 billion to expand broadband access, among other investments.

While the technology may never exist to stop a hurricane, earthquake, or volcano, the worst damage from these natural phenomena is being reduced through projects like these.

Good News That You May Not Have Heard About

Map: U.S. News

Some North American hurricane zones are experiencing a remarkably quiescent period [bold added]:

For millions of Americans living in hurricane zones on the Gulf and East coasts, recent decades have been quiet — maybe too quiet. Cities like Tampa, Houston, Jacksonville and Daytona Beach historically get hit with major hurricanes every 20 to 40 years, according to meteorologists. But those same places have now gone at least 70 years — sometimes more than a century — without getting smacked by those monster storms, according to data analyses by an MIT hurricane professor and The Associated Press.

Pity poor global warming climate change: it gets the blame for 2005's Hurricane Katrina, but no credit for an extended hurricane-free period in parts of the U.S. that normally get hit. No storms? That's just "a matter of luck."

It has been more than nine years since the U.S. was struck by a major hurricane — Superstorm Sandy did major damage but didn't qualify meteorologically as a major hurricane. That's a streak that is so unprecedented that NASA climate scientist Timothy Hall went looking to see if it could be explained by something that has happening with the weather or climate. He found that big storms formed, they just didn't hit America, coming close and hitting islands in the Caribbean and Mexico. The lack of hurricanes hitting the U.S. "is a matter of luck," Hall concluded in a peer-reviewed study.

Fear not, global warmists. If you want to read about your favorite topic, just wait for the next big storm.

Following OPM

The New York Times confirms the good news that others have been saying for weeks:

The government is expected to announce on Wednesday that three-quarters of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak has already evaporated, dispersed, been captured or otherwise eliminated — and that much of the rest is so diluted that it does not seem to pose much additional risk of harm.

And there won't be future oil to worry about because the static kill procedure used to seal the hole seems to be working.

As is often the case, the people who put real money on the line anticipated these developments a month ago. That's when the stock prices of the three companies that stood to lose the most--BP, Anadarko, and Transocean--stopped their decline.

Unlike the oil-spill stocks, the S&P 500 has traded in a narrow range this year.

Using other people's money is one way to get rich. Following OPM is another.

Overblown

The WSJ’s influential tech columnist, Walt Mossberg, gives a qualified endorsement to the iPhone 4 after a six-week personal testing period. Excerpts:

After my six weeks of constant use of two iPhone 4s, I still believe it is, overall, the best device in its class, for reasons including its ultra high-resolution screen; easy, integrated video calling; slick software; strong battery life; a remarkably thin body; and a world-beating selection of 225,000 third-party apps.

…touching the hot spot doesn't always ruin the call, even if it lowers the number of bars. In several cases, when I was already on a call with three or four bars showing, I deliberately covered the hot spot with my hand, and the call continued normally, strong and clear, even though the bars dropped to one or two.

I also spent a few days testing the "bumper" case Apple is now giving away to every iPhone 4 user. It greatly reduced what call problems I experienced, even in weak areas, though it didn't entirely eliminate dropped calls, which occur even in good coverage.

A key reason Apple moved most of the antenna to the outside of the phone was to free up room inside for a larger battery, while keeping the phone thin. In my six weeks of experience, the battery life has been outstanding. I have never run out of battery in a day's use, despite constant, heavy email traffic, lots of Web surfing and app usage, and frequent checking of social networks.

So that's my six-week, real-world report. Despite the hot-spot issue and the exposed antenna, the iPhone 4 does better than the 3GS for me in decent coverage. But I still wouldn't advise adopting it as your primary phone if you live, work or travel in areas with poor AT&T reception, or if you prefer a network under less stress.

Walt Mossberg’s assessment seems consistent with that of four other iPhone 4 users whom I’ve spoken to. The whole antenna-attenuation controversy now appears grossly overblown, as was the unintended acceleration of Toyotas and even (can it really be true?) the damage from the BP oil spill.

Were I suspicious and not the trusting soul that I am, I might attribute the media piling-on to: 1) lawyers in search of big payoffs from class-action lawsuits; 2) those who want more government control or oversight (which term one uses betrays one’s philosophical leanings) of the economy; 3) reporters in search of the next bleeding lede. Because I know from TV crime shows that businessmen are the bad guys (but not public-interest lawyers, regulators, and newspeople) there must be another explanation for all this emotion-stirring. Not to worry, I am sure reporters will ferret out the truth. © 2010 Stephen Yuen

[Afterthought: if the oil-spill turns out to be not so bad, that might help President Obama, who had been severely criticized for his inaction. He's a deliberator, not a ditherer! On the other hand, why continue the moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf? It's a puzzlement.]

In Over His Head

We are close to a tipping point. Contrasting memes about the President are jockeying for the lead—the cool customer, the elitist professor, the young internationalist, the talkative lawyer, the too-nice guy, the “Chicago way” bully. The oil leak in the Gulf threatens to swing all the needles to negative and freeze them there.

To be sure, there are lots of negatives already: persistently high unemployment, Afghanistan, Iran, debt-and-deficit worries, a looming hot war in Korea, worsening illegal immigration, and a dozen other problems that scream for attention.

The main problem and my biggest fear about this President is that he is incompetent. Many may disagree with his policies, but nearly everyone wants to see the government running smoothly. Existing laws should be enforced effectively and efficiently, whether the subject is immigration, environmental protection, homeland security, or tax collection. President Obama may not know how to plug the leak, but the Chief Executive should have done what it was in his power to do, namely, to protect the coast line and have the Coast Guard and Navy help break up the slick.

(Like any neophyte manager who's taken aback by bureaucracy, the President in his early months tried to cut through red tape by appointing dozens of "czars." At least he's abandoned that approach with the Gulf.)

The rumblings are not yet a roar. Diehard progressives still blame the previous Administration, but it’s been 17 months and to a majority of the country things seem to be getting worse. As I wrote well before Mr. Obama was nominated,

The four L's on how to get to the top of the heap in the Democratic party: liberal, loquacity, looks, lawyer. No experience necessary.

The chickens are coming home to roost.

By Ramirez from Investor's Business Daily.

The Nuclear Option

The uncontrolled gusher from BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig has prompted one editorialist to call for the nuclear option, literally:

Obama should be discussing the possibility of using an atomic weapon to seal the leak [bold added]. Before the signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, the United States successfully detonated nuclear devices both on land and under water, and two potential delivery paths for a nuke are already in place in the form of the partially completed relief wells. Assuming the bomb could be delivered close enough to the drill channel, the yield required would be relatively small. Moreover, well-established formulae establish the burial-depth-to-yield ratios that make it possible to trap virtually all of the radioactive fallout within the sub-oceanic bedrock. [snip]

It seems a reasonable conjecture that the dissipation of a limited amount of radioactive material across the vast Gulf is preferable to the blanketing of thousands of miles of American coastline in ribbons of tar.

It sounds so crazy that it just might work.

But be very careful. As this experience has taught us, the ocean deep unleashes forces that man cannot control.