links


1
May 14

A day of links

Hey, it happens from time to time.

Tired of crab legs? I am. Here’s some good football:

Want some more? Kaiden on two:

Every team in the country could do that and I’d watch every clip.

Here’s another feel-good piece: Clements volunteer firefighters seek refuge beneath trucks when tornado shelter fills to overflowing:

But there wasn’t room for everyone. The volunteer firefighters, led by Mary’s husband, Fire Chief Jesse Rager, let local residents use the safe room while they hunkered down beneath the fire engines parked in bays inside the cinder-block station on U.S. Highway 72 in western Limestone County.

Chief Rager, on his way from work in Huntsville, was attempting to reach the station but didn’t arrive before the violent EF3 tornado struck not long before 5 p.m. It touched down at Bay Hill Marina and cut a path up the highway, killing two people, downing at least 100 utility poles and cutting power to 16,000 residents, overturning and smashing dozens of mobile homes and ripping roofs from others.

Jesse Rager said as many as a dozen people sought refuge beneath fire trucks.

“We had 10 or 12 people, some crew members, some members of the public, who took shelter under trucks,” he said. As they huddled beneath the engines, firefighters, including Davy and Dawn Hill whose house next door to the department was damaged, could hear the station roof being lifted and set back down. Two metal bay doors were bowed and a fluorescent light fixture was torn from the ceiling.

When the storm had passed, firefighters could see light in places where they believed the roof was separated from the building.

Here’s a great interactive map: Mapping Poverty in America.

‘We’re headed down the road to decimating our armed forces:’ Sen. Richard Shelby blasts budget cuts:

Odierno said the cutbacks would cause a “significant” level of risk and force the services to assume any conflict would be short-lived and backed by allied support.

“If any of those assumptions are wrong, then our risk goes much higher than it is today,” Odierno said. “And so I think we’re on a dangerous path if we have to go to full sequestration, in our ability to what I consider to do is protect our national security interests.”

“We’re headed down the road to decimating our armed forces, aren’t we?” Shelby asked.

“I think it’s going to be difficult,” Odierno replied.

That story touches on multiple campaigns and missile defense. Let’s talk about carriers and the navy, though.

Witnesses: Orlando police car hit bicyclist, then drove off:

He told officers that he was pedaling north on Narcoossee Road in a bicycle lane about 7:35 a.m. when a police car turned right at Dowden Road and hit him. The car’s turn signal was not on, he told investigators.

Two other drivers said they saw the police car hit the bicyclist, then take off. One of the drivers said the cruiser left the scene at “a fast rate of speed,” the report states. The other said the police car’s turn signal was not on.

(Days later update: They have two witnesses and all manner of ways to ascertain the whereabouts and possible routes of police officers, yet there seems to be no indication that Orlando authorities have figured this out, which is mystifying.)

A train derailed in Virginia. There is compelling drone footage. I need a drone.


30
Apr 14

Being impressionable

I am not a food blogger. I am not a food blogger. I am not a food blogger.

But I went to The Paw Paw Patch, which does a cafeteria style meat-and-three. And the vegetables were a childhood memory. I often eat things in a certain order, for whatever reason, and I eat each option without swapping out to a new part of the dish. But these, as a child I mixed up.

food

So when I saw them on the food line I smiled. I knew what I was getting. But I did not stir up the entire plate. Funny how something like that can make an impression on you. Maybe we don’t often realize it until after the fact, if even then. And how we make our impressions upon others? That’s always a mystery. Something to think about.

When I was eating the owner came out and offered some of those ice pops you had in elementary school. Apparently he was just trying to make some space. He began talking with an elderly man and woman a few tables away. Somehow the conversation turned to the owner’s wife and how she once worked at a fur store about 15 or 20 years ago. This elderly lady had purchased a fur coat there during those same years. She said she paid $7,000 in cash and does your wife remember that?

So he had to call his wife to find out the level of impression and the older pair ate their little popsicles.

The older gentleman had apparently just gotten out of the hospital for some reason or another and he said that this, at Paw Paw Patch, was the first good meal he’d enjoyed in several days. And I thought back to when I visited a friend in the hospital and her husband had gone out to get her a plate from Paw Paw Patch because it was one of her favorite restaurants. I can’t ever go there without thinking about, because that was, I think, the first time I’d heard of the place. That’s an impression to make.

I also will forever think of the time I walked in there and the staff and I did lines from Coming to America. They seemed entertained that I knew most of the script.

Things to read … because the Giants can’t play the Packers every night.

Limestone, Lincoln EF-3 tornadoes remained on ground for about 30 minutes each, tracking almost 16 miles each

Lee County tornado placed in F3 category

Volunteers, donations needed for county’s storm victims

Day care worker dies saving child in tornado

Those are some stories worth remembering. Here are a few more worth keeping in mind.

Average visit at newspaper site: 1.1 minutes

We’re headed for a really big ‘collision’ between content and connection networks

Hard Evidence: How Does False Information Spread Online?

The Onion sets its sights on BuzzFeed, Upworthy

I also have an impression of one of the first pieces from The Onion that I read — though I thought it was older. How many stories from 15 years ago can we recall?


29
Apr 14

Three dead in Alabama storms

Two were killed in Limestone County, in north Alabama.

One died in Tuscaloosa, in west Alabama. The location wasn’t in the direct path of a tornado, nevertheless a college student died saving his girlfriend. He held up a retaining wall, a wall, so she could get out of the way.

Greater love hath no man than this.

That story … I look at my students and picture this and it is deeply, emotionally hard to conceive. And because of it we are now finding out about how a seemingly incredible young man lived through his last, selfless act. It is most assuredly a moving, tragic, and chivalrous tale. You can’t imagine what his family must be feeling. For his mother to stand in front of his friends the next day and say things like that. What a lady. Maybe that’s where John Servati got his character from. Maybe it will remain an inspiration to us.

Meanwhile the local media, after marathon coverage last night, is getting ready for another round this evening. (Update: The weather wimped out here, but the Gulf Coast got walloped with rain. The flooding they received, feet of it in places — helped lessen the energy in the atmosphere that was expected to feed into more potentially dangerous weather here.) And one of our other best assets, the hardworking line crews at Alabama Power, are out in their trucks and they will work until the work is done. They’d restored power to 80,000 customers before noon today. They never get enough credit, so here’s a dollop more.

The pictures rolled in. The house fires, the wide flooding in some locations, the home that had a roof blown off by lightning.

And, these days, there is drone footage. I need a drone.

I grew up just a few minutes from there. Also, I need a drone.

Other stories give us a sense of the wide range of the tornado outbreak. And perspective:

John L. Johnson said the couple lives with their daughter. During the storm, the family huddled in the downstairs hallway with John L. covering his daughter and wife.

While their house, which recently received new siding and a roof following last year’s hail storm, is considered destroyed by the American Red Cross, Ruth Johnson said she can’t help but feel lucky.

“You can’t get angry at mother nature,” said Johnson. “My family is alive. I feel blessed.”


25
Apr 14

Playing surfaces need spring cleaning too

Here’s something you don’t see every day. They are rolling up the field at Seibert Stadium on the Samford campus.

field

They have FieldTurf and, the story goes, it was installed in 2005. This is the first time it has been replaced since then. The company says they should last for 10 years, so that’s pretty close. The football team practices there. For two years we’ve had two football teams practicing there as Tulane stayed on campus hiding from hurricanes. Also there is a great deal of intramural activity on that field. So it has certainly gotten its share of wear and tear.

It took them about two days to roll it all up.

So my day was spent at the tire center at Sam’s Club. I needed to finally replace the last, oldest of my car’s four tires. And I picked the day that there was a new guy working. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Someone unfamiliar with tires charged me for the wrong tire. (I thought that was expensive.) So we had to go to customer service. Got a cash refund. I had to buy another tire, with the cash refund. We swiped pretty much every card in my wallet. This all went on far longer than it should have and I may now be an unwitting money launderer for Sam’s Club.

But on the way back to campus I received this email: “Congratulations on being honored by one of Samford’s graduating seniors! This year’s senior giving campaign was focused on the faculty and staff who have invested into the lives of students.”

So what was a “Meh” afternoon became a gratifying experience all the way around.

Things to read … because reading is always gratifying.

US and Saudi Arabia: Friends Drift Apart

Scary-Smart is increasingly the wrong term. Inside the Science That Delivers Your Scary-Smart Facebook and Twitter Feeds

As digital ad sales grow, news outlets get a smaller share

The Ghosts of Rana Plaza

Why stocks may be sniffing out inflation

Let’s see if we can predict the future. Government: “Insurance is more expensive because of insurance companies!” Insurance companies: “Insurance is more expensive because of government!” Government, and insurance companies to one another: “We got ’em now!” Aetna: Late Obamacare changes account for half of 2015 premium increases

Oh man. University of Hawaii (Hilo): Our students are easily intimidated, need to be protected from people handing out literature

Drones being used again for University of Missouri classes

Google Glass Explorers Share Experiences at Colleges Across America

‘I Think Google’s Pretty Dangerous and Thuggish. I’ve Always Said That.’

Milo’s Tea expands into 20 more states

We’ll get more bad weather next week, so: Helmets, car seats, other lessons from April 27 on surviving a tornado


24
Apr 14

A Thursday hodgepodge

The very definition of incongruity: a pink Yellow Cab.

cab

I’ve been wondering about this since the last breast cancer awareness month. Is there a more successful awareness campaign in the western world? You’d be hard pressed to find one that has enjoyed greater reach or more significant corporate partnerships in the last few years.

Things to read … because reading always brings about successful partnerships.

Feeding nine billion means growing crops faster, smarter, and in new places. Do we need to find more land?

Fact: We now use the web more than TV

Probe: DHS watchdog cozy with officials, altered reports as he sought top job

Russian social media CEO quits post, flees country

Google Street View lets users travel back in time

T-Mobile to hire more than 100 for its Birmingham call center

Ten words to cut from your writing

One day you wake up and find yourself playing soccer with a robot:

That robot is hoping on one foot. Keepie uppie isn’t too far behind. And then we will all welcome our World Cup overlords.

Dare I say this is the funniest bit on Family Feud in years:

The family is from Tuscaloosa.

Dee Ford is about to make a big splash in the NFL Draft. He’s fast, hits hard, spins like Peterson and breaks Kaepernick’s legs. It’s science:

He’s also a cool piano player. Renaissance man, Dee Ford.