I’ve been cranky lately. Blame the heat — yesterday it was 106. CELCIUS. Okay, no, it was Fahrenheit, but still, that’s pretty freaking bad, especially when the humidity is hovering around 55%. I can’t get anything done when I sweat just thinking about potential future movement. My computer heats up the entire apartment by a few precious degrees, and my cats were apparently birthed in the fiery depths of hell since they clearly don’t mind climbing all over me like furry hot water bottles possessed with an unholy desire for cuddles.
Also, let it be known that I do not own an air conditioner, or for that matter an electric fan, facts that led to Perry (from The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe) to begin a Sally Struthers-like campaign to raise the needed money to bring me into the current century. What can I say? It’s not the money, it’s just that I’m a masochist.
The point is that I was looking around the Internet to figure out what I wanted to write about today, and nothing really struck my fancy. There’s the good news about Kansas finally admitting that there’s something to that there evolution bidness, which is all nice and happy. Too happy for my current mood. There’s this amusing story about people building “eelways” in Maryland dams to allow eels to move upstream. Heartwarming! Bah.
No, it wasn’t until I visited my dear friend Phil Plait’s blog that I found exactly what I needed. A long, beautifully detailed animation of what might happen to the Earth were a 500-mile long asteroid to plunge into an ocean, all set to eerily rhythmic music. Complete and total nearly unimaginable destruction — just perfect for my present state of mind. Watch and enjoy!
EELWAYS!!! Oh, man, how awesome is that?!
I guess I wasn't having such a bad day after all;-)
It's been hot in L.A., too. There have been many media stories about how to survive the heat waves, whether it's related to global warming, coping with power failures. This time, this heat wave, I've been finding places to get cool.
My apartment doesn't have AC, and because the apartment is sheltered from the worst exposure, I don't usually need it. Electric fans are usually enough, but during this brutal heat wave, I took myself over to my mom's; she has a pool and great air conditioning. I couldn't have slept otherwise. I have been asking myself how people survived these heat waves before air conditioning existed — but I think part of the answer is that it hasn't been this hot before. Or that people didn't survive.
Dunno how it is in Boston in the summer — the best thing I've heard about coping through this weather was that we are all in it together; commenting on the heat starts conversations between people who otherwise have nothing to say to each other. I guess that's not all bad.
Eels on a plane. I like it.
Our house has no AC either. Of course, in michigan, who knew we would need it??