Disasters

bfwebster on June 27th, 2012

We live about 40-45 miles north-northeast of the Waldo Canyon fire, which is burning in the foothills that sit between Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak. The photo above, taken late this (Wednesday) afternoon from the deck of our house, shows the smoke above Colorado Springs. The local news is just announcing an expected containment date [...]

Continue reading about Waldo Canyon Fire — from a distance

bfwebster on March 19th, 2011

Click on the chart above to see it in full size. The smallest scale is the one at the bottom (labeled (1)). Each scale above that one represents 10x the range of the scale below it. When you hear news reports about “detectable radiation that is above normally accepted limits” around the heavily damaged Fukushima [...]

Continue reading about Keeping perspective

bfwebster on March 13th, 2011

[UPDATED 03/13/11 -- 1809 MDT] Jerry Pournelle links to the blog of an American engineer in Japan who points out at length just how well everything has worked in Japan during and in the aftermath of the quake, with a gentle reminder of how big Japan is: Quite a lot of the reporting on Japan, [...]

Continue reading about Tsunami photos and footage