Saudi Arabia Builds Dystopian Nightmare City, Is Rewarded For It

What do you do when you have absolute power and near-infinite money? If you're Saudi Arabia, you build NEOM, a "smart" city which will feature The Line, a giant 170-kilometer long building stretching in a straight line across the desert. Yes, you read that right. Over 100 MILES long. One gigantic building with all the luxury and expense oil money can buy. If that sounds like something out of a George Orwell (or Aldous Huxley) novel, congratulations, you have more self-awareness than the Saudis. 

If you'd like further evidence that life is just a big cosmic joke, go no further than this announcement: Saudi Arabia will be hosting the 2029 Asian Winter Games at NEOM and The Line. Saudi Arabia. A country that is essentially nothing but baking-hot desert. That country. They're going to host a major winter sports competition. There is no possible punchline I can add to this. 

Picture(s) of the Day #4

So, I had to get a new car recently. The transmission on my last car, a 2004 Volkswagen Golf GTI, gave out. Now I've got a 2004 Acura RSX (well, it's new to me), and I wanted to really give it a proper drive. All I had done with it was run errands around town and commute to work and back. But on Saturday, October 22, I decided to change that. I wanted to go someplace that was out of the way, where the roads would be relatively empty and I could really have some fun driving. I don't know exactly why I chose to go to Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia, but that's where I went. I guess it makes some sense. It's not too far away, but far enough away that I would do a lot of driving, it's a significant local landmark, and it wasn't going to be too crowded. It was a cool and windy day at sea level, and Spruce Knob, being nearly 5,000 feet high, was only going to be cooler and windier. And boy, it was a lot cooler and a lot windier. I'm not sure what I was expecting to find up there, but I wasn't expecting snow. There wasn't a lot of it, but it was there. So, here's some pictures I took from the summit. I'm actually kind of glad I went when the weather wasn't brilliant, it's easy to take cool pictures on a bright summer day, it's a lot harder to take cool pictures on a mostly cloudy day with brutal winds.

I also took a little side trip to Seneca Rocks, which are very impressive looking. And warmer.

Good News for Alaska Golfers

Global warming is generally considered not to be a good thing. When it comes to golf, global warming threatens to disrupt rainfall patterns, making it more difficult to keep courses irrigated, and rising sea levels threaten to wash away coastal golf courses, especially the classic links courses of Great Britain. Not even St. Andrews, the home of golf, is immune to increased storms washing away its dunes.

That said, if you're an Alaskan golfer, you'll be very happy this year, because Alaska golf courses are opening earlier than they ever have. Normally, courses in the Anchorage area open in mid-April, but this year, they'll be opening this weekend, easily breaking the record (set last year) of March 21st. It's so unnaturally warm in Alaska this year that the golf courses are actually opening the day before the Iditarod starts. You know, the dogsledding race. The one that takes place in winter. With all the snow. It's been so warm they actually had to ship in snow this year to Anchorage so the race can begin. Come on guys, how absurd do things have to get before we do something really substantial about global warming? It's getting downright comical now.

Random Thoughts 2/7/16

Currently working on a very long and extensive piece for the blog here, and I don't want to go too long without posting. So, here's a collection of news and random thoughts.

Astronomers have come up with a new theory to address the Fermi Paradox. Unless life can form reasonably quickly after a planet forms to stabilize the environment, the planet will likely become uninhabitable after about a billion years. It does make some sense, Venus and Mars were likely habitable at some point in the early solar system, but became less hospitable very quickly.

I recently finished watching the 2008 Clone Wars animated TV show. I don't want to call it a cartoon, because it didn't really look like one, and there already was a Clone Wars cartoon back in 2003. I really liked the 2003 cartoon, and I was pleasantly surprised that the 2008 show was actually pretty good in its own right. If you get past the 2008 animated movie and the first season, the show does pick up, and there's some surprising compelling stuff in there.

Remember the gigantic snowstorm that barreled right through the Mid-Atlantic a couple weeks ago? It dumped more than 2 feet of snow? Yeah, of course you do. That snow's pretty much all gone. It didn't last very long. What a disappointment. I don't like snow.

Nobody may remember him because he got overshadowed by Alan Shepard and his golfing, but Edgar Mitchell, sixth man to walk on the moon, died on February 4th. One less person alive who's walked on another world, which means there are now seven left.

I feel like there was some sort of significant event tonight, but for the life of me, I can't think of what it could be. Maybe some sort of sporting event? No, that can't be right. I don't know, but if I can't remember, it must not be that important. Oh well.

More Snow Does Not Equal a Cooler Climate

Lake-effect snow in action.

In fact, it basically means the opposite of that. The massive snowstorms that have hit the Great Lakes region have been well-publicized, and for good reason. Buffalo, New York under several feet of snow, in November? They get a lot of snow, but not that much, not this early anyway. It's also been very cold basically all over the country, and no, it's not because of the "polar vortex."

It's complicated, because weather always is; but a typhoon that was in the Pacific maintained cohesion much further north than it should be able to, because ocean waters are warmer than they should be. The jet stream is weaker than normal because the Arctic is warmer than it should be, and when the typhoon remnants smacked into it, the jet stream dipped south, bringing cold air with it. That's why it was so cold everywhere. Lake-effect snow occurs when cold air moves over an unfrozen lake, and the Great Lakes were very unfrozen. Water temperatures were about 50 degrees Fahrenheit above air temperatures, and that is a lot. This is a bad time for lake-effect snow anyway, but that temperature differential equates to prodigious snowfall totals for Buffalo. If the lakes were a bit cooler, like they should be in mid-November, the snow would not have been so bad. Still a lot, but not 7 feet.

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Spring is Not Quite Here

Boy, I happen to mention that it seems like spring is finally here, and the weather just takes a nose-dive.  It's snowing as I'm writing this.  So since outside activity has been impractical the past few days, I've taken the opportunity to start watching a show on Netflix.  For as big a fan of sci-fi as I am, I've never watched the X-Files.  There's a very good reason for that, actually.  Back when I was just a few years old, the show was still on the air, and my parents watched it.  I don't think there was anything five-year old me was more scared of then the X-Files theme song.  Whenever I heard it, I was out of the room, and there wasn't anything you could do to bring me back.  That's how I remember it, at least. 

That brings us to yesterday.  It was raining out, I wanted to start a new show on Netflix, and I had watched nothing but comedies since the summer.  It was time for something else.  So, I went for the X-Files.  So far, I'm really liking it.  And yes, I manage to stay in the room when the theme song plays.  I've overcome that particular childhood fear.

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Rainy Days

I'll say this about the rain, at least it isn't snow.  But boy, nothing makes me feel lazier then seeing a big mass of rain on the radar, cause I know that I'm gonna be sitting inside all day, just watching TV or playing video games.  And hey, rainy days are the only kind of days where you're forgiven for sitting around the house doing nothing.  Whenever it snows you're obligated to go out and shovel the sidewalk, and nobody enjoys that.  I guess plenty of people go out and play in the snow too, but that hasn't been my thing in a while.  There was one snowstorm that came with a bunch of ice, and it created absolutely incredible sledding conditions.  The only things that could stop you were actual physical obstructions.  It was so slick my younger brother managed to get down the hill using nothing but his feet.  After that, sledding was just no fun.  I don't know exactly where I'm going with this, because frankly my brain never really turned itself on today.  Today was a lazy day, and that's okay. 

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