It occurred to me that the reason we get storms in the East and droughts in the West is because we have the Atlantic Ocean “sloshing” up against our shores, bringing more hurricanes and precipitation to our side of the country, while the West doesn’t have an ocean of water sloshing upon it. Likewise, the Pacific Ocean brings typhoons to the Eastern shores of Asia, while Europe gets droughts because there isn’t as much water coming its way. Okay, so I’m not the first one to notice that.
The oceans are absorbing more carbon dioxide because of the fossil fuels we burn. Carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere, which reflects heat back toward the Earth. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means more carbon dioxide falling in to the oceans. Which means the oceans are warmer. Warmer oceans give more energy to the storms that are produced. (There aren’t necessarily more storms being produced, but the storms that are being produced are stronger.) And we get, every once in a while, a Hurricane Katrina or a Superstorm Sandy. Except we’re no longer getting them “every once in a while,” we’re getting them all the time. How many times have you heard we were getting “the Storm of the Century”? How many centuries have you been alive?
This got me thinking about the Coriolis Effect. Here’s an interesting short explanation of it and how it affects the weather. Enjoy.
This is our open thread. Feel free to discuss the Coriolis Effect, the Dunning-Kruger Effect, or any other Effect you wish.
TheZoo 
I followed your blog long before I knew what a blog was. I commented once or twice, but got the distinct impression that there was a conversation among friends here. I’ve written a blog for eighteen months now and kept noticing that I am still following the first blog that I ever read. Just wanted you to know that I have enjoyed reading your blog for a long time. I’m happy to find that somebody is talking about the effects of global warming. Thank you for the link to the discussion of the Coriolis Effect. I’m unfamiliar with it.
Hello George, welcome to the Zoo. I don’t know if we have any other parrots here but you and Cheeky should stick around. I really like your photography.
Thank you. I feel right at home here in the Asylum.
George, please join the conversation more often. 🙂
The inmates run the asylum here.
You should fit right in.
Chuckle… There is a rather unsettling familiarity about this place…
Welcome aboard, matey!
Welcome to the Zoo. Your pictures are beautiful. Feel free to express your thoughts at any time. This blog is ‘user friendly’. We only became ‘friends’ by posting our comments.
Thank you very much. I enjoy photographing whatever is in front of me and relating it to the nice folks who come to visit the blog. I can see that this blog is user-friendly.
George, there is a conversation among friends here. We do our best to keep this site “troll-free”. Non-trolls are welcome, as we always seek to make new friends.
My apologies. I did not mean to imply that anyone is unfriendly. I simply did not know what a blog is and was reticent to comment. I suppose I thought it was some sort of group thing. I find that humorous now, of course.
Thank you very much for your kind response. I enjoy the blog very much.
I’m glad you enjoy this little corner of the internet. I look forward to reading more of your comments, thoughts, ideas, etc.
Allow me to also welcome your voice, and talents George. Gawd knows we need a Texas progressive here. This place sometimes gets a little rowdy, randy, raucous, and cynicky, but always respectful to one another. Those on the right, not so much. Bring Cheeky along too, as there are many avian friends that populate the Zoo.
Cheeky and Rita thank you. (Cheeks is a new resident of the zoo here. He’s a Fancy Green Cheek Conure who is four months old. Rita is a Double-Yellowhead Amazon of twelve years.)
The Watering Hole offers an oasis in the sociopolitical desert that is Texas. I am, as they say in Texas, “not from here”.
Thank you very much for the kind welcome!
Hello, George Weaver, and welcome to our humble Zoo. I remember seeing your name on comments in the past, and I’m glad you feel at home here. As you’ve been reading us a while, you know that The Watering Hole is just a jumping off point. People are welcome to post links to articles they find interesting, though some of us like to be warned if the link is to something disturbing, so we can opt to not view it. (Disturbing to Liberals; other than a video of someone helping another person out, I can’t imagine what would be disturbing to a Conservative.)
We are always delighted to have new visitors, and we welcome your thoughts on anything mentioned here. There is no such thing as an “off topic” comment on our daily open thread. (That’s why it’s an open thread. :)) So don’t feel you have to discuss the topic of the post. If you saw something interesting on TV (or on another blog), go ahead, tell us about it.
And thanks again for visiting The Zoo.
Welcome to the Zoo, George Weaver. 🙂
We’re all friends here, and always welcome friends we don’t know yet.
Thank you, Zooey! 🙂
George, I am late, as ever. I’m a latecomer here and these folks welcomed me as family. We do sometimes share personal trivia, and the not so trivial travails of life, but you will also find a welcoming group of folk who are likely to post interesting news items quickly, and have a free ranging discussion of current events that is difficult to duplicate elsewhere. So welcome, feel free to be yourself, I get away with it.
Perhaps that’s why you’re outstanding in your field. 😉 Thanks you very much. I am who I am. And I appreciate the kind welcome!
https://twitter.com/TheTweetOfGod/status/368598247452835840
And to think, I didn’t believe you existed.
On second thought, you don’t.
John Oliver’s colleagues give him a send-off similar to the greeting he got when he started hosting The Daily Show. His last show was this past Thursday. Jon Stewart returns Tuesday, Sep 3. Yea.
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/john-olivers-colleagues-give-him-daily-sho
But, but, but..what about the poor job createrers?
there’s always Swiss chocolates…
Just saw a list of 30 coastal towns in Washington that will be underwater in 2100.
Seems to me I recently ran across an article that mentioned thirty towns in Texas that will soon be without water.
We the people, as a nation, ain’t really worth much, y’know?
hmmmm…..it just occurred to me…. the U.S. has some 340 million people, of which about 7 million are the wealthy 2%. If about 300 million are wiped out through the effects of climate change, that leaves about 40 million, with 7 million, or nearly 20% of the population being very wealthy. Distribution of wealth solved, not by eliminating poverty, but by attrition of the very poor.
St. Augustine is one of the 519 places here in Florida that will present wonderful new opportunities for scuba diver tour guides in the future.
Look at the bright side, pachy. Just a few more years and Florida will become the new Venice. And DisneyWorld will become a water park.
So, Then Why Are You In A ‘Vegas Stadium, Instead Of Traveling
From Hospital to Hospital?
Insurance doesn’t cover his type of healing, cash or credit card only!
If people were verifiably being cured of all illness, we would have heard about it by now. So, either they aren’t being cured at all (my guess), or if they are, their cures aren’t being verified (unlikely.)
Faith doesn’t heal you from disease, it hides you from it.
I’ve long been anxious to watch a faith healer pray away a cavity in a molar. When I witness that, then we can talk. But until then, I say arrest those shylocks and put ’em in the can with some roomies for them to pray away.
I think the Devil invented medicine, just to make faith healers look bad.
Yech. Sorry I’m not more articulate, but it’s Benny Hinn.
…while the West doesn’t have an ocean of water sloshing upon it.
Wut?
What happened to it!? I was just looking at it yesterday!
The Pacific tends to slosh away from the West Coast more than toward it. 🙂
Are you playing a trick on me or something, Wayne? I’m feeling all discombobulated right now…
He’s just tipping away. Waves are illusions.
I posted this yesterday at the very end of the thread, so not many, if any, saw it. Or I just want to be irritating. 😉
http://twistedsifter.com/2013/08/maps-that-will-help-you-make-sense-of-the-world/
That was an excellent post and after perusing all 40 maps I continued on to the perfectly timed pictures. It was something to do while waiting for a butterfly that never appeared!
My ears is burnin’…
I missed you, 😉
Hope you had a good look at the ocean towns that might not be there in the near future.
I only looked at the parts of towns that are on higher ground. 🙂
My favorite is the Pangaea map. 🙂
Whew…I’m glad gawd straightened the earth out…now onto the RWNJ’s.
Cavemen and dinosaurs had to hold on for dear life when gawd decided to flick the continents into their proper positions. 😆
Was map #40 the one they used in The West Wing, on one of their “Big Block of Cheese” Days? (They had a map of the world with the South Pole on top, and for us it was unrecognizable as Earth.)
I’ve been preparing for a “coffee with your congressman” meeting coming up this Thursday. I watched an interview he had with Bill Hemmer on Fox and Hemmer thanked Congressman Ron DeSantis representing Florida’s 6th district which is Jacksonville. DeSantis failed to correct Hemmer that he does not represent Jacksonville.
He probably doesn’t know…
If they’re R’s none of them represent you.
I’m thinking we need to combine two things: A national aqueduct system that brings excess water from areas prone to flooding (such as the Eastern side of the country) to the driest parts of the country (such as the West); and along these aqueducts, run power lines to bring excess electricity from the areas that can product a lot of solar and wind power (such as the West) to the places that rely too much on power plants for power (such as the Eastern side of the country.)
I suspect it would not be viable without storage. The east is not always wet. As to power, we’ll have to wait until Eric Cantor meets his reward, at least in my neck of the woods. We still have a bad taste from his push to construct/expand new power lines to bring in all the coal fired power from the Ohio Valley that is no longer needed there as the industries it supported have been shipped to China.
Looking at the map of all the rivers that make up the Mississippi, I’m not sure as the aqueduct system is possible.
Oh, well. I tried. My father used to tell me things like, “If it was such a good idea, Wayne, someone would have already done it.” Of course, being the hard line conservative he is, and being a big believer in Capitalism being the only way things should be done (not that it got him rich), I’m sure he meant if somebody could make a lot of money they would have done it already. This idea wasn’t meant to make someone a lot of money, this idea was meant to solve a problem. And I think it can be solved, provided we stop looking at it from purely a Capitalistic point of view.
For any of you following the probe into the Va governor’s unique relationship with shady supplement make Jonnie (never trust a man without an h) Williams: Grifter first lady Maureen purchased shared of the company, twice. She sold at a loss, which means she is not nearly as savvy an inside trader as the Cooch.
“maker” If you get up at 4:30 AM, sometimes you lose your r.
Change your clocks to Greenwich Mean Time and you’ll be getting up at 9:30 AM. You’re welcome! 🙂
Well thanks, but wouldn’t that also mean that I was up drinking until 4:00AM? I can’t see how that would help ;}
I don’t know, I get confused coming here and at C&L because both have Pacific time and if I’m drinking and see its only 10 PM I might really get drunk (er).
Of course its all Obama’s fault, or the Queen’s or Zooey’s, take your pick, I’m innocent.
Damned muslim Kenyan socialist hippie freaks the lot of ya. Sleep well. 🙂
Awake refreshed, OIMF!
Coined by Shakespeare? Think again.
New research indicates he didn’t make up all those words—he just used them better.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/08/17/coined-shakespeare-think-again/tWFE6b8qTD5gnybL5fOn8H/story.html
@FolgerLibrary
The world’s largest Shakespeare collection – plus home to Folger Theatre, Consort, Poetry, Exhibitions, Education, and PEN/Faulkner!
Hang on, I’ll put up a Sunday Roast. I think I’m supposed to be doing it anyway. 😳
Okay, it’s up. 🙂
And there was much rejoicing. 🙂
Smartypants. 😛