Something we can all agree on

Many years ago when I was just starting out as an electrical engineer I worked with a couple of engineers, let's call them Tony and Bob, who had recently worked for the NSA. They told me many wondrous tales of being able to "read" computer terminal screens from a distance and monitoring all phone calls from the US to overseas via computer voice recognition of key phrases. Van Eck phreaking came into the public domain about 10 years later (1990 or so). I had no reason to doubt Tony and Bob about international phone calls after that.

My next job was for NY telephone (now part of Verizon). It was common practice for linemen to monitor phone calls to "check line quality". All quite legal, just making sure the customers had decent service. After sitting in a switching center late one evening, with a friend who worked as a lineman, listening to a randomly selected phone conversation between a lesbian couple arguing, over what they assumed was a secure line, I came to the realization that there is no such thing as secure communications.

Conduct all your phone calls and email as if there might be somebody monitoring them. In all likelihood there is.

I can understand people shrieking about privacy. I just don't believe we've had any in a long while.

Goodnight Mr. Rumsfield,

Mark

High density housing is not desired by the conservative or "W" crowd, no doubt they'd prefer not to have high-density = lower-income housing at all, certainly not in their neighborhood, so you're simply pushing their agenda. Some rebel you are.

As John Larkin says, "Stop reading the New York Times..."

The dykes had hidden damage caused by boats "nosing-in" to stop quickly.

The Corp of Engineers _constructs_, and generally is not responsible for maintenance.

The locals dropped the ball here in uncountable ways.

I was in Boston when it was hit by a hurricane (Donna, Aug 29-Sept 14,

Shook the crap out of the house I was renting (third floor) in Cambridge... partially tore off the three stories of porches.

Some day a hurricane will follow the coast, but out to sea enough as to not lose strength.

When it hits Boston the whole place will flood, including subways, since it's all virtually at sea level.

New York is in a similar "boat".

Who shall we blame? "W" ?:-)

Sheeeesh!

...Jim Thompson

Careful there. You forgot to say, "Sweet dreams" ;-)

...Jim Thompson

NOAA says this is just the mid-point of a regular ~40 year (total) cycle. Next year is likely to be worse. IIRC the report, the next 12 years will be nasty, followed by about 25 years of tame weather.

...Jim Thompson

wouldn't

lives !

And the immediate problem in New Orleans was that people wouldn't leave--but that wasn't the point. The point was that other governments, faced with a much smaller problem, didn't do much better than the U.S. That's not a criticism, just how it is.

Best, James Arthur

Hmm...I thought 'levy' and 'levee' were interchangeable spellings, but it seems they aren't. High levies are bad; high levees are good. ;-)

Particularly NOT in this 750K$+ neighborhood.

BTW, the City of Phoenix government is predominately weenie ;-)

How about we build public housing next to your place ??

...Jim Thompson

wouldn't

lives !

How do you feel about high levis?

John

How's this?

John

The local Corps is, er, local. When I was a kid, a Corps officer boarded with us. The Corps of Engineers is sort of an auxiliary dregs of the US Army.

They were told repeatedly, for 80 years or so, that they were not. You have no idea what life and politics are like down there... they wouldn't put a $3000 guard rail on an overpass no matter how may people died there. I lived in New Orleans for 30 years, reached the Age of Reason, and left.

There should have been locks on the Industrial and 17th Street canals, and on Bayou St John.

John

Like this?

I like 'em. The low-rider I-wanna-be-a-lady-plumber types ... yeeech.

James

I was referring to the treatment of the 'have nots'. Shocking. Essentially abandoned to their fate.

Graham

The Dykes ( sorry levees ) were built by your Army Corps of Engineers. Not the locals !

Maybe you'd like to point the finger at the actual failure. The local administration was told the dykes were OK. They weren't.

Graham

I didn't say they were.

Because of geography. Neither is it likely to happen here.

It won't. Wrong conditions for that type of weather. Venice is however well equipped to deal with the weather it might meet. It's still above water after all these centuries you know.

Venice is still there.

I suspect there may actually be a long-term question mark over NO and indeed the whole Gulf and Florida area. If storms get any wilder and more regular it might conceivably become economically non-viable to continue living in that area.

But that wasn't my point at all.

Graham

from

I wonder what the equivalent US figures are.

I think Dirk is trying to make the point that old / infirm ppl are dying all the time and that extreme weather tends to accelerate the issue for those who are already really poorly.

In France apparently a major problem during the heatwave was that old ppl wouldn't drink enough water ! They simply didn't realise they were compromising their lives ! Old ppl can be very stubborn.

Graham

Hmmmmm......

Graham

You can't multiply it across Europe. Everybody else (or at least in the Western half) builds houses better than the UK, and provides enough pension for the old folks to heat them. I heard the statistics on a radio program, but I can't remember if it was one of Radio Australia's science shows (The Health Report?) or something on the Beeb. It's something like

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

wouldn't

lives !

Actually , it seems rather more that some ppl didn't have the means to leave. Without a car you were basically stuffed for example. Last train was on Saturday IIRC for example. And if you have nowhere to go.......

After the Asian tsunami - relief was in the spot *very* fast. And we're talking 'developing world' here !

It was agonsing to see the supposedly most developed country in the world disappear into a hopeless swagmire of bureacracy, gross incompetence at all levels, simple bloody-mindedness ( like the cops who turned back some who wanted to leave - but who later let some whites out ) and the 'I'm alright Jack' attitude.

Graham