It’s one thing if you’re stupid enough to risk your own life when a hurricane’s coming, but don’t get your little kid involved.
Category: Moronic
Stupidity is Alive and Well in Texas
I can not honestly believe all the bureaucratic loopholes this low-power Katrina-relief radio station has had to go through just to get up and running (it’s supposed to be up and running today). Thanks Hurricane John for the link (and headline).
More New Orleans Links: Lousy Gov’t Response, Heroes, Volunteers, and More
I apologize for all the Katrina links lately, but this is a massive story that is not going to stop developing any time soon (especially once we get official death numbers).
I do I wish I could make it down south right now — I’d love to help out with this in the best way I could, and this would be my cup of tea: A group of volunteers (with some help from some major corporations) is trying to wire up Houston and New Orleans so that they can get communication systems back up and going. Part of the community effort is getting documented here, and more on BoingBoing. So any of you with Wireless network, mesh network, VoIP, low-power FM radio, etc… , be sure to donate your time.
Note for geeks out there with Internet2 access (which means you’re probably in college), your traffic might be suffering a tad.
On a side note, I won’t get into my feelings about the government’s piss-poor response to all this (stories like this, this, this, this, this, this and this sicken me), but I do get very angry when I see stories like this of very valuable resources going mostly unused.
But on a brighter note, PayPal allows you to setup a fee-free donation page for Katrina victims, and there are a pile of colleges helping out students. Also, here’s a flickr photo collection from a volunteer who’s wiring up the Astrodome.
On a totally random note, here’s a nutjob that thinks Hurricane Katrina was a guided weapon (with more conspiracy theories here).
Thanks to Waxy and BoingBoing and many others for all these links.
Now That They’ve Declared Martial Law, Can They Shoot the Looters?
Obviously, I can look it up and figure out what the declaration of Martial Law entails, but I just hope it means that somebody in Army camo with a big M16 machine gun can round up all those bastard looters in New Orleans and shoot ’em. Food to feed your family is one thing, but the idiots breaking into stores for the sole purpose to steal valuables (like clothes, electronics, etc…, like many of the looters were doing in full view of TV cameras) need to get beaten to death.
</rant>
New Orleans Is A Mess
Needless to say, the newspaper there isn’t printing today (despite a mention on their site yesterday that they were going to try to use a printing press in Baton Rouge). But they have produced and distributed the entire paper online in PDF format. You can also view Newspaper front pages from around the world at Newseum.
It’s certainly a mess in New Orleans right now. And to think that if I still worked for my previous company, I’d probably be in New Orleans in October, though there’s a small chance the convention might not be held, as it was scheduled to be held at the Hyatt in New Orleans which was pummeled by the storm.
While it’s sad that there was all this destruction in that are, and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody, it’s hard for me to feel sorry for the idiots who, despite plenty of warning, stayed around to watch the storm out. I watched plenty of footage on CNN of folks stranded up on rooftops, having to be rescued by Coast Guard helicopters. But I have ask: Why the hell are you still there? You knew this was coming, you had plenty of warning, so unless you’re part of the clean-up or rescue efforts or some other important official (some media is important, as are some government officials), you should’ve gotten the hell out of town a long time ago. This thing was a Category 5 storm as it moved across the Gulf — I would’ve left town a long time ago.
I also wonder about the idiot who drove his car into a road-turned-lake while a news reporter was on camera. He had to drop his microphone and run into the water to rescue the moron, pulling him through his car window. That clip got played a hundred times on CNN last night and wondered about the sanity of both the reporter for being out in that storm and the nit-wit who drove his sedan into the flood.
As usual, Wikipedia has a ton of links and information regarding the storm, its effects both physically and economically, and a bit of science about the storm as well. For journalists (and even the general public), Al has a bunch of tips and useful links.
Moron Crook For The Day
If you’re going to rob somebody, don’t do it on a live TV show. Thanks Cheryl for that.
(And for those folks who are thinking about giving me crap because the news is a week old, don’t bother because I really don’t care how old it is if it’s still funny.)
Moron Crook For The Day
If your weed gets stolen, don’t call the police and report it missing. Just in case you needed to be told.
Good To Hear Britain Is Full Of Idiots, Too
The word “fail” should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase “deferred success” to avoid demoralizing pupils, a group of teachers has proposed.
So you don’t fail a class, you just are going to succeed at it later? Um…yeah, OK….
Kids Is Dumb
Hopefully kids will realize how utterly stupid “the choking game” is before it kills somebody else. Thanks Barn for the link.
Stupid Lawsuit For The Week
NASA is now facing (at least for now until it gets tossed out in court) a $500-million dollar lawsuit over last week’s comet collision. What’s the suit for? Let me just quote the article:
A Russian astrologist who says NASA has altered her horoscope by crashing a spacecraft into a comet is suing the U.S. space agency for damages of $300 million.
…
NASA deliberately crashed its probe, named Deep Impact, into the Tempel 1 comet to unleash a spray of material formed billions of years ago which scientists hope will shed new light on the composition of the solar system.
“It is obvious that elements of the comet’s orbit, and correspondingly the ephemeris, will change after the explosion, which interferes with my astrology work and distorts my horoscope,” Izvestia daily quoted astrologist Marina Bai as saying in legal documents submitted before Monday’s collision.
Thanks Cheryl for the link.