Where did the hurricanes go?

Wunder Blog : Weather Underground: "Quietest September in the Atlantic since 1997
Well, it's the end of September, and what is traditionally the busiest month in the Atlantic was unusually quiet. We had only two named storms this September, the first time since 1997 we've had less than three September named storms. There were only 6.75 days in September with a named storm, which ranks as the 4th fewest September named storm days since 1950 (only 1962, 1970, and 1994 had fewer). The Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index for September ranked as the 6th lowest since 1950. The quiet period is likely to continue for at least another week, as there are no threat areas in the Atlantic to discuss today, and none of the computer models are forecasting tropical storm formation over the next seven days. I'll post my first-half-of-October outlook for the Atlantic tomorrow."

Comment -- Over the short term, weather is never "normal". It's only "normal" when you average it over long time spans. I guess you could say it's normal for weather to vary a lot!

Frost is predicted in mid-Michigan tonight. That may seem kind of early, but it appears that the earliest frost ever was Sept. 5 1997 (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/grr/history/?m=9).

Let there be (laser) light

Think you’re a real sharpshooter?

Hitting an object about the size of a minivan shouldn’t be a problem, then.

The catch? Your target is 250,000 miles away.

Oh, and it’s moving at 3,600 miles per hour.

That feat may be impossible for a single man, but NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages to achieve it 28 times per second. The target? Its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, which orbits the moon.

The target practice is part of the first laser ranging effort to track a spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit on a daily basis. The goal is to provide distance measurements accurate to 10 centimeters, or about four inches — far more accurate than current microwave stations, which track the LRO within 65 feet of accuracy.

Comment -- The thought that crossed my mind when I read this is that if NASA can hit a fast moving Orbiter with a laser, then the Air Force certainly has laser technology to hit a missile fired from Iran or North Korea.

Amazing pictures of Saturn

The Rite of Spring (NASA Cassini Saturn Mission Images): "Of the countless equinoxes Saturn has seen since the birth of the solar system, this one, captured here in a mosaic of light and dark, is the first witnessed up close by an emissary from Earth ... none other than our faithful robotic explorer, Cassini.

Seen from our planet, the view of Saturn's rings during equinox is extremely foreshortened and limited. But in orbit around Saturn, Cassini had no such problems. From 20 degrees above the ringplane, Cassini's wide angle camera shot 75 exposures in succession for this mosaic showing Saturn, its rings, and a few of its moons a day and a half after exact Saturn equinox, when the sun's disk was exactly overhead at the planet's equator."

Comment -- Never in history has anyone seen Saturn's rings from this angle. Pretty cool time to be a planetary astronomer!

Munch munch

More progress on the parking ramp demo.

It's always more fun to destroy than to create

I got a close up photo of the parking ramp demolition going on outside my office in downtown Lansing. They are about a third done.

The demolition is pretty noisy when you're close to the action. There's a giant steel jaw at the end of the arm that slowly munches away at the concrete and rebar. Every once in a while a huge slab of pavement falls off and crashes to the ground.

I was told that the demolition company has to be really careful in their work so that the ramp doesn't suddenly collapse and damage nearby buildings.

Life lessons from two recent sports meltdowns

This week I’ve been pondering what can be learned from two big sports meltdowns that happened in the last week: MSU’s upset football loss to CMU, and Serna Williams’ penalty-point ouster from the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

I think the big lesson is that lots of little mistakes can put you in the position where one more mistake becomes disastrous rather than inconsequential.

In the case of the football game, how did the Spartans allow themselves to be sunk by an improbably-recovered onside kick and subsequent game-winning field goal? They should never have found themselves in that position, but a game-long series of bad penalties, missed tackles and errant passes (i.e. mistakes) made them highly vulnerable to the improbable events at the end of the game.

Similarly, Serena Williams found herself in a tight match, had earned a warning earlier in the match for smashing her racquet, got behind in the last game, and so, when the very improbable happened (a foot fault) she made the additional mistake of losing her temper, screaming profanities at the judge and being assessed another point that lost her the match. Had she been well-ahead in the match, or if she hadn’t been on the judge’s bad side for smashing her racquet, she could have survived the penalty point.

So, since all of us obviously can’t avoid making mistakes from time-to-time, maybe the takeaway from all this is to avoid making a series of continuous mistakes – stop yourself before they get out of control. That helps you avoid getting into in a position – whether it’s in sports, financial or personal relationships – where a mistake turns into an irretrievable disaster.

Finally – when the coach says “be sure not to jump offside on this kick”, try extra hard to remember not to jump offside. And don’t smash your racquet.

I'm world famous (again)

Obama and Acorn - WSJ.com:

"Or at Least Agitated"
'Owner Outraged at Cat's Washing Machine Killing'--headline, Detroit Free Press, Sept. 15"

Comment -- I'm given credit in today's Wall Street Journal "Best of the Web Today" feature for contributing the witty quote above about the cat killed in the washing machine.

I certainly don't mean to imply that I think it's funny that a cat was killed in a washing machine. A microwave, maybe...but never a washing machine. However, I cracked myself up when I thought "I bet the owner was agitated!"

Below is how I'm credited. It's the second time I've been in "Best of the Web Today."

(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Tom Bemis, Jamie Extract, C.E. Dobkin, Hampton Stevens, Jim Tracy, John McGee, John Sanders, Matthew Hamel, Steve Prestegard, Mark Van Der Molen, Chris Scibelli, Nick Kasoff, Mordecai Bobrowsky, Glenn Rowan, Eli Bear, Daniel Mullen, Aaron Spetner, Mike Byers, Will Larson, Michael Segal, Bern Steves, Irwin Chusid, Stuart Creque, Tom Sommers, Joseph DeMartino, Doug Black, Stan Obenhaus, Kevin Hetherington-Young, Evan Slatis, Brian Smith, Michael Rogers, John Williamson, Ken Lawrence, Ed Jordan, Shawn Sarazin, Terry Holmes, Peter Iorio, Richard Haisley, Greg Askins, Ray Girouard, Kyle Kyllan, Phil Scott, Michael Ellard, Arlene Ross, Matt Smola, John Zimmerman, Bruce Goldman and Ross Firestone. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)

Except for July, it was actually a pretty normal summer for temperatures

Out-of-staters show summer love for Michigan | lansingstatejournal.com | Lansing State Journal: "It's no surprise to most people locally: The average Lansing temperature for June, July and August was lower than normal, according to the National Weather Service. July, in particular, was cold - almost 4 degrees lower than the normal average of 70.3 degrees."

Comment -- This sentence above is misleading. A chart in the print edition of the story shows that the actual observed temperature in June was only a tenth of a degree lower than the normal average temperature; the actual observed temperature in August was only two tenths of a degree lower than the normal average temperature. The real change, as noted above, came with a very chilly July.

New advice on what to do if you are caught in a Lake Michigan rip current

New Way to Beat Rip Currents: Tread Water - TierneyLab Blog - NYTimes.com: "If you find yourself being pulled away from shore by a powerful rip current, what should you do? The traditional advice has been to swim parallel to the shore in order to get outside the current. But after an extensive study of these currents — by using instruments and floating in them himself — Jamie MacMahan has concluded that your odds are better if you stay still and just tread water."

Comment -- Considering how chilly this summer has been, it appears that you are more likely to freeze to death in Lake Michigan than drown in a rip current.

Giant flag at state capitol in Lansing

Firefighters flew this flag from two ladder trucks today. I assume the occasion is to recognize the sacrifices of firefighters on 9/11. But, not sure why they did this on 9/10.

The Prius of boats?

Endeavour Green: "Say goodbye to the fuel pump. Endeavour Electric Boats can run all day long on a charge that costs only 11 cents. Maintenance is just minutes per month. Endeavour Green's new battery powered, zero emissions green boats rely on clean electric propulsion and will lead the way to a cleaner environment. The Endeavour Hybrid is built for long range cruising. The Endeavour Electric is the perfect eco tour boat, allowing you to get close to wildlife without spooking them. And imagine the busy Annapolis Harbor serviced by clean, quiet and efficient electric water taxis. This is a sustainable energy boat that when charged by solar, wind or hydro-electric, becomes a true zero carbon footprint boat."

Comment -- The Website says the boat only has a top speed of 6.4 mph, so I don't think it could haul a knee board and provide many thrills.

Barefootin'

Wiggling Their Toes at the Shoe Giants - NYTimes.com: "Recent research suggests that for all their high-tech features, modern running shoes may not actually do much to improve a runner’s performance or prevent injuries. Some runners are convinced that they are better off with shoes that are little more than thin gloves for the feet — or with no shoes at all.

Plenty of medical experts disagree with this notion. The result has been a raging debate in running circles, pitting a quirky band of barefoot runners and researchers against the running-shoe and sports-medicine establishments."

Comment -- To me, this seems not at all quirky. More like totally nuts.

I don't mind running on the tennis court -- it's actually pretty fun -- but I've never had much interest in just running for the sake of running. Still, I have the utmost respect for my readers who have completed marathons. I'd be interested in what you think about running barefoot.

Our next hybrid car?

BMW’s new turbodiesel hybrid concept car does 0 to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds; 75 mpg - SmartPlanet: "The tech behind the effort includes:

* All-wheel drive layout with an electric motor on both the front and rear axle.
* Acceleration from a standstill to 100 km/h (roughly comparable to 0-60mph in the U.S.) in 4.8 seconds
* Top speed 250 km/h (155 mph), electronically limited
* Fuel consumption in the EU test cycle was 3.76 litres/100 km (equal to 75.1mpg)
* CO2 emissions 99 grams/kilometer.
* If you’re into aerodynamics, the drag coefficient is an F1-friendly 0.22.
* Electric power is generated without the slightest increase in fuel consumption through efficient Brake Energy Regeneration. Energy is stored in 98 lithium polymer cells."

Comment -- 0-60 in under five seconds is very fast -- a heck of a lot faster than our Prius. Of course, if this car ever gets to the market it will likely cost five times as much as the Prius.