Giant Squid Photographed

From National Geographic
As National Geographic is reporting, the first photographs of a live giant squid show it to be more active than previously believed.

The elusive creature was photographed by a team of Japanese scientists near the Ogawara Islands in the North Pacific. By studying the behavior of sperm whales, whose migration took them near the islands and are known predators of giant squid, the scientists learned that near the continental shelf the whales took extraordinarily deep dives to about 1,000 metres (3,250 feet)down - the depth that giant squid are believed to reside.

The scientists built a buoyant camera platform, outfitted it with a baited trap, and lowered away, programming the camera to take pictures every 30 seconds for the 4-5 hours it was at depth. A squid took the bait - and impaled himself on the hook. When the platform was retrieved, a piece of tentacle was still on the platform:

At 9:15 am on September 30 2004, squids as we know them changed forever.

At that moment, 900 metres (2,925 feet) down in the Stygian gloom, an eight-metre (26-feet) specimen lunged at the lower bait bag, succeeding only in getting itself impaled on the hook.

For the next four hours, the squid tried to get itself off the hook as the camera snapped away every 30 seconds, gaining not only unprecedented pictures but also precious information about how the squid is able to propel itself.

After a monstrous battle, the squid eventually freed itself, but left behind a giant tentacle on the hook.

When the severed limb was brought up to the surface, its huge suckers were still able to grip the boat deck and any fingers that touched them -- testimony indeed to the myths of yore, that spoke of monstrous arms that grabbed ships and hauled them to their doom.

Okay, that's just creepy.

The wonders of the depths...

Submitted For Your Perusal

Victor Davis Hanson: "Ivory Cower."

Read. Discuss. Then tar and feather a university president.

You'll understand after you read it.

And if that's not enough campus political correctness, there's always this.

The Friday Furo Questus

Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita should make landfall this afternoon. Keep those who live there and those evacuating in your thoughts and prayers - they are going to need all the help they can get.

For news, try this post for a good summary of news sites; and here is my take on its effect on oil and gas prices.

Questus Furore: All The Virtues I Dislike
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson is at it again.

The good mayor, in between firing communications directors, scaring off secretaries, and using city funds to build statues without authorization, has sent another email encouraging everyone to attend a big anti-war rally this weekend. He also attempts to justify his stand, although I'm not sure he accomplishes what he set out to do:

Those who referred to my participation in the rally as "unpatriotic," "rude," or "inhospitable", or those who disparaged the thousands of good people who participated in the rally as "nutcakes," fail to distinguish between a theocracy and a democracy.

Theocracy? Um, could someone in the City-County Building go check the Mayor's office? I think there may be a carbon monoxide leak.

And while I can understand him taking issue with some of the comments, I think greeting the President to your city by organizing a protest against him is not exactly the model of hospitality.

And as usual, the flak the mayor took the last time is everyone's fault but his own:

Although none of the media reported it...

Ah yes. The original political impulse; when you start taking flak from the public, blame the press. It gets better:

Although none of the media reported it, the large crowd at the rally cheered loudly when I called upon them to express our support for our troops and for veterans who have sacrificed so much for our remarkable freedoms. It is clear to those who attended the rally that our troops have been unnecessarily put in harm's way by a President who failed to tell us the truth about why he was taking our country to war and a Congress that abrogated its constitutional responsibility by handing to the President its war-making powers. We now know that intelligence was manipulated to reach the result desired by President Bush and his advisors - and that the factual assertions made by President Bush in justifying a war in Iraq were false. We want the truth - about why we are in Iraq, about how we are going to get our young men and women out of Iraq, and how the US is going to be better off, rather than be less safe and secure, because of President Bush's war.

My remarks at the Pioneer Park rally addressed more than the tragic war in Iraq. I spoke about the total absence of fiscal responsibility by President Bush and the Republican Congress, who have frittered away the Clinton surplus of billions of dollars and built up enormous, historic deficits - all while members of President Bush's ultra-wealthy class were given huge tax cuts, and Vice-President Cheney's friends at Halliburton have ripped us off for billions of dollars...

...I spoke about my love for our city - and of how furious I am at the President's disdain for our cities and those who live in them.

...I spoke about President Bush's demonstrated contempt for working people, reflected in his opposition to an increase in the minimum wage, which is lower in buying power today than the minimum wage in 1955. I also talked about the outsourcing of good jobs to other nations due to Bush's trade policies, creating an even greater chasm between the very wealthy (i.e. George Bush and Dick Cheney's classmates) and the middle class and poor in our country. As I said in my presentation, "Those of us who believe that government ought to be of the people, by the people, and for the people - and not just run by and for the benefit of Halliburton and the rest of the very wealthy - we've got a message here today: 'We're not going to take it any more!'"

So, we now know that the Mayor apparently belongs to MoveOn.org.

And, a tad more:

So, according to a United States Senator, a newspaper editorial board, and a number of vocal critics of my participation in the rally, only support of the status quo or complacency is "patriotic." Their view is that I should have had the decency to just keep quiet.

That would have been nice.

That's not going to happen.

Yeah, I figured as much.

As Elie Weisel said, "There are times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." As the Salt Lake Tribune said in this connection, we not only have the right to raise our voices; it is our duty.

Spare me the martyr pose, Mr. Mayor; you took flak from your constituents exercising their First Amendment rights. You weren't persecuted. You wanted to take this stand, now deal with it.

This email, to my mind, reveals a man of questionable character. His eagerness to embrace wild-eyed rhetoric as fact (count the Halliburton references in the email, for Heaven's sake) does not suggest a willingness to seriously debate the war in Iraq or anything else. Rather, he is dreaming of a world with no George W. Bush and is hysterically angry that he does not live in it. (And they have the gall to call themselves the "reality-based community." Yeah, if reality was on acid.)

Mayor Anderson is an unserious man in a serious time.

With the nation reeling from the pummeling of the Gulf Coast and watching the impended landfall of an equally horrible Hurricane Rita, one could question the timing of these protests. Any reason they couldn't postpone?

Well there is one big reason. As Mayor Anderson's email demonstrates (me, I, my, me...), it's all about them. They march for themselves.

Let's look at some of these weekend "nation-wide" rally organizers, shall we? From Instapundit:

SPINNING THE PROTESTS: I recommend that readers google the names of people mentioned in the press accounts of this weekend's antiwar protests. I looked up Brian Becker, who's mentioned in this Washington Post story by Petula Dvorak. To be fair, Dvorak at least mentions the ANSWER connection, but a quick Google search of Becker's name finds that he's been praising the "Iraqi resistance" and denigrating U.S. troops since the beginning. It would appear that he's not so much "antiwar" as just on the other side.

It would be nice if Dvorak's article, and others, made that clearer, instead of offering the sanitized treatment of ANSWER that it does. The Post, however, has a history of whitewashing these folks.

For those who have forgotten, here's some background on A.N.S.W.E.R. and its related groups by David Corn. Here's some more, and here's Michael Lerner's piece on antisemitism in the antiwar movement, written after he was banned from an antiwar rally at A.N.S.W.E.R.'s behest.

If there were an authentic antiwar movement in this country, it wouldn't have to rely on the services of fringe groups like A.N.S.W.E.R. to provide organization and cadre.

But with them you have the appearance of a movement, and so the media and politicians come a-running.

I do not intend to start a debate over protesting; while I firmly believe the instrument has been blunted by overuse in the last few years, it is your right.

It is also your responsibility to exercise it properly.

And I do not wish to contend with those who oppose the Iraq war or even the War on Terror. I think you're wrong, and you probably think that I'm wrong. There's nothing either of us can say that will change the other's mind.

But beware the company you keep. Be aware of those whose protests you are attending, and what they say and believe. I'm not talking about the guys in tin foil hats; you can't help some of the hangers-on that show up. I'm talking about the people and organizations organizing and funding these protests. By attending their events, you are supporting them and their causes, which may not match your own. Do you really want to?

Recommended Reading
VDH: "Amnesia."

Editors of National Review: "Paying for Katrina."

Rich Lowry: "Female Chauvinist Pigs."

Patrolling the Front
Bryan (e.gage) has been pretty active, including this piece on pork. All I have to say Bryan, is that Congressional pork is an old game that knows no party loyalty. But you might like this.

Jamo (J.M.) found an interesting movie trailer.

Nathan is advocating ultimate golf.

Spencer (The Unknowable) is doing a little tech blogging.

And I (Tyler) finally have a little model-railroad blogging going. (I know what you're going to say. Quiet. If it doesn't sound interesting, don't click the link.)

Thought of the Week
"You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you."
Eric Hoffer

Churchill Quote of the Week
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
Sir Winston Churchill

Hurricane Rita: Here We Go Again

From the Galveston Daily News

In 48 hours, Hurricane Rita has blossomed from a tropical storm to a category-5 hurricane. Landfall is expected by Saturday morning, somewhere in the general vicinity of Houston. Evacuations have begun all up and down the upper Texas Gulf coast, included Galveston and low-lying areas in Houston. If the storm proceeds at the same pace and track as predicted this morning, it could remain a hurricane all the way inland to Dallas.

As before, I'll keep the hurricane news to a minimum here; I'll post most of that stuff over on the Pacific Slope. I hope to have a more detailed news post and some oil news up by this time tomorrow morning.

Our own Jamo is a former resident of Houston, if I remember correctly. Jamo - any thoughts? And could you tell us more about the city?

As far as immediate local impacts go - expect your gas prices to go up, today if they haven't already. 20% of America's refineries are shut down due to the combined impacts and threats of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and both storms have traveled or are travelling through major concentrations of offshore oil platforms. And Utah Task Force One, an urban search-and-rescue team consisting of Utah firefighters, rescue experts, and support personnel, has been mobilized and is staging into Texas this morning.

Some websites and weblogs to watch:
National Hurricane Center
Houston Chronicle and their special weblog, Stormwatchers
Galveston Daily News
Wall Street Journal - Storm Tracker
Drudge Report
Blogs of War - Hurricane Rita page

Ultimate Golf

Is golf a sport? I don't know... is bowling a sport? Either way, they're too boring for the average person to watch on TV. I usually find myself more facinated by the ability of the camera crew to keep the camera on the golf ball so well. I have a solution, that I would like to call "ultimate golf."

The beauty of ulitmate golf is that it is actually exciting, and fun to watch. It consists of one major change to the game. The object of the game will no longer be to get the ball in the hole with the fewest number of strokes, but rather in the fastest time. And no carts or caddies.

Imagine two golfers going head-to-head. They both set up to tee off. Suddenly they get the green light and the clock starts. Whack! and they're off! After smacking the ball, they both start off running towards their ball. Can't you see Tiger sprinting down the fairway, with John Daley huffing behind? Now that's excitement. The players would be allowed to hit the ball as many times as necessary, just get it in the hole the fastest.

The real challenge is now physical endurance combined with precision golf technique. I envision a smaller number of clubs carried in backpack style case. If you hit into a water trap, you'll be forced to drop a new ball at a designated place on the far side of the trap (thus forcing you to run a further distance and thereby use more time).

Ultimate golf would be a fun, exciting game of athletic prowess and skill. It would appeal to a younger generation and would be more fun to watch.

'08 Watch: Romney and the War on Terror

So, is Mitt Romney starting to flesh out his foreign policy positions?

From Andrew McCarthy in National Review Online:

Gov. Romney suggested that in the ongoing war, we ought to be investigating mosques that preach Islamic militancy and the young men who come to this country from rogue precincts of the Islamic world.

For giving voice to such a notion, Romney's comeuppance is to have the usual suspects screaming for an apology.

Just thought you'd want to see it.

Avast There!

It be National Talk Like A Pirate Day, it be!

Strike yer colors, and raise the Jolly Roger!



Find yerself a comely wench, woo her with yer piratey prowess, and search for booty! (Unless she be the booty...)

AAAARRRRrrrrr!

The Friday Furo Questus

Questus Furore
I have to confess something - I'm a bit of a geology geek. Not that I actually have taken a class or anything; I'm just interested. Volcanoes and earthquakes fascinate (and scare) me. So this article on a potentially budding volcano in Oregon and this one on some interesting seismicity in the Juan de Fuca Strait caught my eye.

Along with the king-sized reminder Hurricane Katrina provided, it got me to thinking: how ready am I for a disaster? And the answer is, not very.

I have no 72-hour kit in my home. No bottled water anywhere. Nothing in my car except an afghan and some wrenches. And right now, my gas gauge is resting on empty. (But I was going to fill it after work...)

Truth is, here on the Wasatch Front we live in an earthquake zone. Geologists expect a 7.0 magnitude earthquake to occur on the Wasatch Fault in our lifetimes.

The authorities will do their best to help. They want to help. But they cannot help everybody at once, and they have certain vital tasks, like clearing roads, that take a higher priority than going house to house.

For at least 72 hours, you will be on your own. Are you ready?

Recommended Reading
Remember Ahnuld? How's he doing? (I'd be especially interested in Jamo's and e.gage's opinions on this.)

Donald Luskin compares Hurricane Katrina and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It is an interesting comparison.

Jack Dunphy examines New Orleans' police force.

Hear about the recent power outage in L.A.? Well, this piece reflects a side of that you may not have considered.

And, of course Victor Davis Hanson: "Four Years Later."
"Where does the United States stand in its so-called global war against terror, four years after the September 11 attack? The news is both encouraging and depressing all at once."

Patrolling the Front
Jamo's been busy. Roberts, FEMA, and other ponderings.

And I blogged hurricane stuff 'till I got sick of it.

e.gage has been busy here, but nothing new on his blog.

Everybody else? Nothing. So they don't get linked.

Thought of the Week
"As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it."
-- Vaclav Havel

Churchill Quote of the Week
Lady Astor: "Winston, if I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee."
Churchill: "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."

For the rest of the story, go to the Pacific Slope.

Four Years Later

Cox & Forkum

The Falling Man - Esquire Magazine

The Friday Furo Questus

Questus Furore


Locally organized Civil Defense: time for a return to it?
The size of Hurricane Katrina's path boggles the mind, and numbers only hint at the size of the disaster. Literally millions displaced; 90,000 square miles hammered; heaven only knows how many dead. The mind equally boggles at the desire to place blame.

Rather than go into the ongoing blame game, I'd like to mention one thing that was hammered home to me this week.

Your survival will depend on you. You cannot expect or count on the government to immediately save you in the event disaster strikes. It pays to be prepared.

Remember Tom Ridge's advice, that was so routinely mocked? His advice to prepare a stash of supplies in the event disaster strikes? (See Ready.gov.)

Doesn't seem so stupid now, does it?

For now - I think we, as a nation, need to reconsider disaster preparedness, and pay a lot more attention to individual preparedness. That 72-hour kit is not guaranteed to save your life - but it will improve your odds of survival.

For more early lessons to be drawn from Hurricane Katrina, check out Instapundit.

Recommended Reading
This Sunday marks the fourth anniversary of the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Remember, remember, lest we forget.

Victor Davis Hanson: "What are we?"

An interesting report (with pictures!) on the hurricane damage:

As we headed up the river I spotted a chemical plant that looked like it had been abandoned years ago. The refining tanks were dark black and appear to be aged and corroded. That was until the pilot pointed out the small patches of green paint. The rest had been scoured off by the wind.

Jerry Pournelle takes FEMA to task, but for a whole other reason:

Every large centralized bureaucracy in history has been inefficient, sometimes notoriously so. We decided to centralize the education system, with disastrous results. The S0viet system of agriculture produced about the result you would expect. NASA is another case.

Federalizing Civil Defense and disaster response in a nation this size faced with the variety of possible emergencies we face produces about the results you expect. It won't work. It was a structural failure.

Now I suppose we can say, well, you should have known that there would be disorder, and have sent in troops before the storm hit. How you were supposed to know that is a problem: why did you expect a breakdown in law and order in New Orleans but not in other cities? And of course it's illegal to send in Federal troops absent a request from the governor.

But why we expect Washington to take care of all our problems is beyond my kenning. It won't work. It never has worked. Self government implies some self responsibilities and self capabilities.

Or was it George Bush's fault that all those school busses sat unused until flooded out? Of course it was -- if you have already decided that it's all the Federal Government's fault. But in fact it isn't any particular person's fault. The system was doomed from the day it was decided that we would have central bureaucracies to deal with such emergencies.

Thought of the Week
"The worst lesson that can be taught to a man is to rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings."
Theodore Roosevelt

Churchill Quote of the Week
"When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."
Sir Winston Churchill

Back To Politics

In keeping my promise, I'm leaving my Hurricane Katrina stuff over at The Pacific Slope.

So, how about some politics, national this time?

Seen at The Corner:

YOUR DAILY MITT UPDATE [John J. Miller]
The Washington Monthly runs an article on whether Mitt Romney's Mormonism makes him unelectable. The writer, Amy Sullivan, points out that Romney has been the subject of several profiles--in NR (including a cover story by me), as well as in the Atlantic Monthly, the Weekly Standard, and by George Will. She goes on to claim that "each Romney profile plays down the Mormon issue." This is just plain silly. Mormonism was almost the exclusive subject of the article by Terry Eastland in the Standard.

For my part, I'll acknowledge that I didn't dwell on the Mormonism issue. This was a conscious choice, because the article was meant to assess Romney's record as governor, which to me is a far more important political question for conservatives than the (inevitable) one about whether evangelicals will vote for a Mormon. But I did make two points: There is some polling evidence to suggest that although very few voters say they won't vote for a Jew or a Catholic for president (about 5 percent), there are many more who say they won't vote for a Mormon (17 percent). So it's obviously a challenge. On the other hand, Mormons are not a dirt-poor group of people--if they were to pool their resources and rally behind Romney, the governor of Massachusetts could find himself a very well financed candidate heading into Iowa and New Hampshire.

Sullivan's article is worth reading, once you get past her little potshots at those of us who beat her to the story.

17%? Wow. I didn't realize it was that bad. (Although my inner cynic is surprised that number isn't higher.) (Another note from my inner cynic - is this because Mormons are an "okay" group to hate, whereas Jews are not? Discuss.)

The questions I have are two:

1. Can a competent campaign reduce this problem to a non-issue?
2. What does this say about the overall image of LDS members across the US?

The Friday Furo Questus

Normal Friday fury is on hold until further notice. I'm going to use this space to agitate for charity today.

Donate. There are lots of worthy charities; here's a link to an extensive list.

And here are two I wish to bring to your attention:

American Red Cross

LDS Humanitarian Services

Hurricane Katrina - You Can Help

It is remaining clear that the situation in New Orleans will get worse before it gets better.

Lawlessness and looting continues to be a problem. Evacuation of the Superdome has had to be suspended after shots were fired at rescue helicopters.

And the area of devastation is enormous.

There is something we can do. Now.

Donate. There are lots of worthy charities; here's a link to an extensive list.

And here are two I wish to bring to your attention:

American Red Cross

LDS Humanitarian Services

Personal Note: I apologize if I seemed a bit short yesterday. Again, however, in order to avoid cluttering this site with Hurricane Katrina news, I will post what I find over at The Pacific Slope.

On Hurricanes and Oil Prices

It could be worse, egage - there are reports of $6 per gallon gasoline in Atlanta (due to price gouging).

There is a possibility of a short-term shortage of gasoline in the eastern United States; this is due to a shutdown of pipelines that carried gasoline (among other refined products) into the East from New Orleans refineries. This shortage will be short-lived; there has been no damage to these pipelines, and they will be able to resume shipping as soon as they can again receive sufficient electrical power.

Oil and natural gas production (in other words, the wells and offshore platforms that drill for and collect raw crude oil and raw natural gas) has been hurt, and what's worse the Gulf fields are still recovering from damage incurred during Hurricane Ivan last year. Looking at oil industry news, it is hard to tell how much damage the oil fields sustained. Some companies are reporting no serious damage, while others are reporting major damage. Only time will tell. However, it seems that damage to the oil fields will not cause any serious damage or price pressure.

The problem is refineries. 10% of the United States refineries are located in and around New Orleans, and they have suffered serious damage, not to mention their workforces are now scatterered across three states as they and their families evacuated. And crude pipelines that supply crude oil from Gulf fields to Midwestern refineries are also shut down.

Almost all gasoline used in the United States has to be refined in the United States, both for economic reasons and in order to satisfy EPA emissions requirements.

So, from Econ 101: less supply coupled with constant demand will result in higher gasoline prices. As the extent of the damage is still being determined, and some of the market inefficiencies in the oil market (such as OPEC, environmental regulations, etc.), expect continuing functuations - and fairly big ones - in gasoline prices.

More info:
The Street.com