December 3, 2009

There were 3 posts published on December 3, 2009 (this is page 1 of 1).

A real danger to driving safety

older-driver

I’ve been thinking more about the recent N.C. ban on texting while driving, specifically how utterly useless the law is. It got me thinking that if our legislators were serious about making the roads safer, perhaps they would pass a law requiring older drivers to submit to additional screening as they get older. Such a law might have saved the life of a 42-year-old motorcyclist as well as the life of a six-year-old girl getting off her school bus.

I generally support the efforts of the AARP but they were dead wrong in opposing this bill. I hope that Rep. Ric Killian and the rest of General Assembly gets bold enough to pass this bill during the next session.

Snow this weekend?

Looks like snow is a possibility this weekend. This came from today’s NWS forecast discussion (emphasis mine):

THE FORECAST BEGINS TO GET REALLY INTERESTING LATE SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND SATURDAY EVENING WHEN MID-LEVEL CAA ASSOCIATED WITH THE UPPER WAVE STARTS TO SPREAD INTO THE AREA FROM THE WEST…WITH CAA IN THE LOW-LEVELS KICKING IN AT THE SAME TIME AS LIFTING OFFSHORE LOW REINFORCES THE LOW-LEVEL NELY FLOW. A NARROW BAND OF HEAVIER PRECIP IS POSSIBLE AS THE 850 LOW LIFTS ACROSS THE AREA…WITH MODELS SHOWING STRONG 850-500MB FRONTOGENESIS ACROSS THE AREA. PROXIMITY OF THE FRONT AND LOW TO THE COAST WILL BE A DETERMINING FACTOR IN BOTH THE WESTWARD EXTENT OF PRECIP AND THE STRENGTH OF THE LOW-LEVEL CAA SURGE…BUT MODELS ARE IN REMARKABLE AGREEMENT WITH SHOWING THE ENTIRE COLUMN COOLING BELOW FREEZING ACROSS THE NORTHERN/NORTHWEST PIEDMONT SATURDAY EVENING BETWEEN 21 TO 00Z…TRANSLATING EAST ACROSS THE AREA THROUGH DAYBREAK SUNDAY. BUT AS IS ALWAYS THE CASE…IT WILL BE A FINE LINE/NARROW WINDOW BEFORE THE INVADING COLD/DRY AIR SURGE COMPLETELY DRYS THE DENDRITIC GROWTH ZONE. GFS IS VERY QUICK TO DRY OUT THE COLUMN…WHILE THE NAM IS A LITTLE SLOWER…MAINTAINING DEEP MOISTURE AND LIFT WELL ABOVE THE -15 TO -18C LAYER. THIS FITS WELL WITH P-TYPE TRENDS AS WELL. IN SHORT…AREAS ACROSS THE NORTHERN PIEDMONT AND NORTHERN COASTAL PLAIN COULD SEE SOME MEASURABLE SNOWFALL SATURDAY EVENING AND SATURDAY NIGHT.
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Satellite

Satellite
Elvis Costello

She looked like she learned to dance from a
series of still pictures
She’s madly excited now, she throws her hands
up like a tulip

She looks like an illustration of a cocktail party
Where cartoon bubbles burst in the air,
champagne rolls off her tongue
Like a second language
And it should have been her biggest night
The satellite looks down on her as she begins
to cry

All over the world at the very same time people
sharing the same sorrow
As the satellite looks down her darkest hour is
somebody’s bright tomorrow
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