The Doctor

*CENSORED*

Mission, the original intent of this thread was for the Minnesotans on this board to check in and let us know they are OK. I did not want this hijacked into a government-bashing, crackpot conspiracy theory, "find somebody to blame" free-for-all.

Sand-wench™

And once again, old problems get laid at the feet of the current administration. The 35W bridge was declared "structurally insufficient" in 1990. Reid can thump his chest and bray like the jackass that he is and blame Bush for everything (while he himself does nothing but point his finger, mind you). A present-day appropriation of $200 billion wouldn't have stopped this from happening. This is not the time to find blame. Yes, someone will take the fall for this, but they'll be nothing but a scapegoat. We need to take care of the victims and their families, and prevent something like this from ever happening again. Legislators do a lot of talking about reforming things for the better, but never actually do anything. All told, only 2% of politicians really understand what public service means. There's the deeper tragedy.

Tsk, tsk, tsk... I am so terribly disappointed in you, Rusty! Take the boat, pick the lock, take the shiny bits and bobs as payment for your efforts, and sell the boat back to the original owners for a fair price.

As I stated before, there has been 15 years of non-funding of road projects in this state due to legislative tomfoolery and bureaucratic stupidity. It's all well documented, and has been complained about in the media for years. Unfortunately, it has come to this. Perhaps now they will wake up. Those are the facts fueling my disgust with this event. "Overzealous"? "Slightly irrational"? That's just insulting.

Apparently there are some 80,000 bridges across the country in similar or worse shape than the 35W bridge, according to the DOT.

Current reports have 7 to 9 dead, 60 injured, and at least 50 vehicles still in the water. Here is a graphic that helps explain what happened: I-35W Bridge Collapse Glad to hear you're OK, Bess & Sea Rover!

Fast facts for those not acquainted with this area: • The eight-lane, 1950-ft-long interstate bridge maintained by the Minnesota Department of Transportation • High volume of traffic on the bridge — year 2000 Average Daily Traffic (ADT) is approximately 139,000 vehicles. • The bridge, built in 1967, had both north and southbound lanes inspected by the Minnesota Department of Transportation in 2006. • This Interstate Highway bridge has 64 feet vertical clearance at pool stage. They're saying that at this time, it does not appear to be a terrorist attack. The easy explanation is 15 years of non-funding for highway projects thanks to legislative pissing matches and pork barrel projects. In any case, this is a human and economic disaster, and a senseless tragedy.

The entire I-35 bridge over the Mississippi has collapsed during rush hour. Any forum members in the Twin Cities metro, please check in! Let us know you're safe! Live coverage here.

Avocado gazpacho with crab meat.

*Walks up to Dorian and gives him a hard look.* No doubt you have a bias against formerly dead crewmembers. I will, however, indulge meself with a draught of your fyne rum. *he drains nearly half the bottle* Good luck with all that then, and my compliments to Capt. Brand. Not to mention yourself. And the rum. Ta!

haute dog

I'll be out there every weekend, love. Probably under my favourite table at Mac's.

*Honour, I had no idea you like dirty books! * Boone's Farm

Old Lace

No, but it will make a great research tool! I'm too cheap to buy a set of reproduction maps.

From Investor's Business Daily: Tempest In A Teapot INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 7/25/2007 Global Warming: A private firm's downgrade of its hurricane forecast raises an obvious question: If scientists can't get near-future projections in a limited area right, how can they predict the climate decades from now? A reasonable response is: They can't. But the global warming climate of fear did not blow in on the soft breezes of reason, but by the storm winds of emotion. Forecaster WSI Corp. said Tuesday that the season ending Nov. 30 will bring 14 named storms, six of which will grow into hurricanes, three of them major. WSI's initial forecast was for 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four majors. Why the change? "Because," said WSI forecaster Todd Crawford, "ocean temperatures have not yet rebounded from the significant drop in late spring." Could it be that the 2007 hurricane season is turning out to be as overrated as 2006? Remember last year's predictions — that we were in for a brutal spell of storms? It had been quiet, they said, and we were due for a series of Katrina-like hurricanes. But as we wrote last November, as the much-dreaded '06 season whimpered to a close, the storm year came in like a lamb and went out the same way. For years, the Greenshirts have told us that emissions of carbon dioxide resulting from man's addiction to fossil fuel-based energy are turning the planet into a sweltering hothouse. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change has projected a temperature increase of 2 to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit for the 21st century due to the greenhouse effect. As a result, alarmists say, ice caps will melt, glaciers will thaw and sea levels will rise as much as 20 feet, causing floods and death in low-lying areas. Storms are also predicted to increase in both frequency and intensity. To prevent this coming Category 5 cataclysm, we're supposed to shell out trillions of dollars and gladly adopt Spartan lifestyles. Instead of trying, as their grandparents did, to see how many bodies they can squeeze into a telephone booth, today's college kids are expected to see how many they can get in a Prius. Yet the fact remains: The local weatherman can't forecast more than about 10 days out, and neither can the experts tell us how warm, or cool, the planet is going to be in 2100, 2075 or even 2050. Even short-term predictions have been off. James Hansen, NASA scientist, predicted a 0.45-degree Celsius (0.81-degree Fahrenheit) rise in global temperature from 1988 to 1997. But in reality (a place environmental activists rarely visit) the increase was a mere 0.11-degree Celsius. We hope no one in Hansen's neighborhood relies on him to tell them when it's going to rain or when they'll need a coat and hat. Setting aside the hubristic notion that alarmists know what the right temperature is, too many other factors besides the greenhouse effect influence climate for them to declare they know exactly, or even approximately, what's coming. Solar activity, for instance, is among the most powerful, as are the El Nino and La Nina phenomena. We also question the concept of a "global" temperature. How could such a thing be measured when weather stations dot rather than blanket the Earth? Danish physicist Bjarne Andresen, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, made sense earlier this year when he said it's "impossible to talk about a single temperature for something as complicated as the climate of Earth. "A temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system (and) climate is not governed by a single temperature," he said. "Rather, differences of temperatures drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, etc. , which make up the climate." The formula for a climate of fear, though, requires nothing more than a lot of thunder and a bit of heat generated by political activists. ---------------------------- Amen, brother! And my last post on this topic. (You may now commence with bashing the above as nay saying by the "wealthy elite".)

Perfect! Just what I need for a reference!!

*couldn't resist, love!* lemonade

orange juice

~~

Brava! Bravissima!! Wonderful, Kass! A lot of Ren Fests have taken to calling themselves "historical fantasy"-based. I mainly go to misbehave. I did want to beat that one "Star Trek" guy to death with his own tricorder. He was wearing a red shirt, after all...

Rest and be well, Bess. And above all, enjoy yourself! You make our days here quite bright indeed.