VARIOUS PEOPLE ARE CLAIMING THAT GLOBAL WARMING CAUSED KATRINA: EU Rota looks at the historical record and finds this argument wanting.

Here’s more from The New York Times:

Because hurricanes form over warm ocean water, it is easy to assume that the recent rise in their number and ferocity is because of global warming.

But that is not the case, scientists say. Instead, the severity of hurricane seasons changes with cycles of temperatures of several decades in the Atlantic Ocean. The recent onslaught “is very much natural,” said William M. Gray, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University who issues forecasts for the hurricane season.

From 1970 to 1994, the Atlantic was relatively quiet, with no more than three major hurricanes in any year and none at all in three of those years. Cooler water in the North Atlantic strengthened wind shear, which tends to tear storms apart before they turn into hurricanes.

In 1995, hurricane patterns reverted to the active mode of the 1950’s and 60’s.

It’s sad to see such lame political opportunism at a time like this.

UPDATE: Another response to lame, opportunistic, politically motivated claims.

THINGS SEEM TO BE GETTING WORSE IN NEW ORLEANS:

New Orleans resembled a war zone more than a modern American metropolis on Tuesday, as Gulf Coast communities struggled to deal with the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Deteriorating conditions in New Orleans will force authorities to evacuate the tens of thousands of people at city shelters, including the Superdome, where a policeman told CNN unrest was escalating.

The officer expressed concern that the situation could worsen overnight after three shootings, looting and a number of attempted carjackings during the afternoon.

They need to get these people out of the city as soon as possible.

NEW REPORTS FROM COASTAL ALABAMA look bad, too.

IAN SCHWARTZ has video from Biloxi, and it doesn’t look good.

SLATE WRITES ON DELL’S PROBLEMS, and Jeff Jarvis is mentioned.

My experiences with Dell, I note, have been good.

HERE’S A COAST GUARD BLOGGER, Tidewater Musings, who’s reporting on the Coast Guard’s rescue and recovery efforts.

READER DAVID BROADUS WRITES:

This is from the Baton Rouge Advocate about a good thing done in Houston for the refugees from AL, LA, and MS. I am going to contact other area restaurants and suggest they follow suit:

“Yesterday, we went to the IKEA in Houston. There were signs all over telling Louisiana residents that they could eat for free in the restaurant because of the hurricane. We enjoyed dessert and coffee, but we could have had a full meal for all of us if we’d chosen to. This morning, the local paper has a list of things to do in the city for people from LA, MS, and AL. Everything is free. All museums and the zoo are letting residents of those states in for free, and many of them will do so until the end of October. I guess that’s because they know that people may be stuck here for quite some time.

Sadly, yes.

IN PRAISE OF OLD MEDIA: I’ve watched the TV coverage today, and I think they’ve done a very good job; a story like this tends to bring out their best.

And you’ve got to admire the grit and determination of the Times Picayune, which isn’t letting the destruction of its city stop it from publishing:

The Times-Picayune was forced to evacuate our Howard Avenue newsroom Tuesday. We are setting up bureaus in Houma and in Baton Rouge to continue to provide coverage of this disaster. We will continue to publish the newspaper each day without interruption. We will make it available in PDF form on nola.com each morning around midnight.

Their web publication has also been excellent, and I suspect that quite a few newspapers will find themselves publishing this way, even without a hurricane, in the not-too-distant future. Likewise WWL TV which is still reporting (blog here, and streaming live video.

UPDATE: Reader Andrew Lee emails:

You should mention the radio broadcasters in the area too – I know the staff at WWL-AM (and their sister stations) have been trapped inside their building next to the Superdome for since Sunday night, and truly heroic measures were taken to get them back on the air after Katrina took them out. Imagine working on a 50,000 watt tower in chest deep water – dangerous! Right now they’re the only source of information for a lot of people in the area without power, television, or internet, and they really are performing like heroes.

What’s going to be interesting in the coming days is the cooperation between rivals in the radio business, as they combine their resources and available technologies to provide information – I predict they’ll be simulcasting on a lot of frequencies, owned by different companies soon.

Radio often gets overlooked, but it’s as vital and pervasive today as it has ever been… and there are still aspects of it that the satellite radio providers will never be able to compete with, despite all the hype.

Yes, and everyone should have a battery-powered radio in their disaster kit.

AUSTIN BAY on disaster relief, recovery, and development.

COUNTERPROGRAMMING: Michele Catalano has decided to focus on good news out of the hurricane area, letting everyone else report the bad. Good choice.

CHRIS NOLAN on Nick Lemann.

HOW BAD ARE THINGS IN JEFFERSON PARISH? THIS BAD:

If you live there you can go home next Monday, but only with photo identification, and only for a short time to collect clothes and other essentials. After that, you’ve got to leave again.

For a month.

There’s no way to spin this. That’s just horrible, horrible news. It’s so bad there, Parish officials have asked the public to donate boats to help with the rescue and clean-up efforts.

More reasons to think about hardening systems against disaster, though in truth I don’t know how much you could do about this. I hope, though, that people will be thinking about it.

HUGH HEWITT is suggesting a day of concerted blogging for hurricane relief efforts. It’s a good idea. How about Thursday, to give people a chance to organize? I’ll link blog posts — and in the meantime, send me suggestions for aid organizations worth mentioning. Put “flood aid” in the subject line.

UPDATE: Reader Loren Rueter emails: “Any foreign governments offering aid?”

None that I’ve heard of. Should we call ’em stingy?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Less snarkily, The Anchoress emails:

Glenn, remember how Amazon put together the Honor System for donations after the Tsunami? Couldn’t something like that be done?

It certainly could. Will it? I guess somebody should ask Jeff Bezos!

WELL, THIS SUCKS: A broken levee means that New Orleans is flooding. Slower and without the fatalities we’d have seen if it had happened during the storm surge, but with similar effects on property and infrastructure. Are the pumps just too big to have backup power?

AN INTERVIEW WITH MILBLOGGER BALDILOCKS: Over at the Pajamas Media site.

IN THE MAIL: Jason Hartley’s Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq. It looks very interesting and well-written.

THERE’S A NEW FAMILY LAW BLOG as part of Paul Caron’s ever-expanding blog empire.

MICHAEL YOUNG looks at the Harriri investigation and asks what if Syria is found guilty?

Meanwhile, here’s a report of Baathist henchmen being arrested in Lebanon.

IRAQI CONSTITUTION UPDATE: Interesting translation from the Iraqi newspaper Alhayat, reporting widespread support for taking the proposed Iraqi Constitution to a vote.

GRAND ROUNDS is up!

CZECH PRESIDENT VACLAV KLAUS ISSUES A WARNING:

President Klaus spoke last Monday, warning for the new “substitute ideologies of socialism” such as “Europeanism” and “NGOism.” These “isms” are currently threatening Europe. “In the first decade of the 21st century we should not concentrate exclusively on socialism,” he said. . . .

As substitutes of socialism, Václav Klaus cited “environmentalism (with its Earth First, not Freedom First principle), radical humanrightism (based – as de Jasay precisely argues – on not distinguishing rights and rightism), the ideology of ‘civic society’ (or communitarism), which is nothing less than one version of post-Marxist collectivism which wants privileges for organized groups, and in consequence, a refeudalization of society […], multiculturalism, feminism, apolitical technocratism (based on the resentment against politics and politicians), internationalism (and especially its European variant called Europeanism) and a rapidly growing phenomenon I call NGOism.”. . .

He also opposed “excessive government regulation” and “huge subsidies to privileged or protected industries and firms.” He warned that Europe’s social system “must not be wrecked by all imaginable kinds of disincentives, by more than generous welfare payments, by large scale redistribution, by many forms of government paternalism.” Instead, Europe has to “be based on freedom, personal responsibility, individualism, natural caring for others and genuine moral conduct of life.”

Read the whole thing.

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS:

While scientific literacy has doubled over the past two decades, only 20 to 25 percent of Americans are “scientifically savvy and alert,” he said in an interview. Most of the rest “don’t have a clue.” At a time when science permeates debates on everything from global warming to stem cell research, he said, people’s inability to understand basic scientific concepts undermines their ability to take part in the democratic process. . . .

Dr. Miller’s data reveal some yawning gaps in basic knowledge. American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.

What do they teach them in schools these days?

AGGREGATED CARBON NANORODS: A new substance that’s harder than diamonds. Get used to stuff like this.

MORE ON BRITISH DENTISTRY, from Chicagoboyz.

IN RESPONSE TO MY EARLIER POST ON THE ACLU, a reader emails:

From your website:
regarding the ACLU — “I’ve worked with them in the past, on the New Orleans rave case for example, and will probably do so again.”

Well, You lost another reader. Just now disappeared from my Bookmarks.

That’s okay — there are plenty of blogs out there, and this guy would clearly be happier somewhere else. Eric Scheie, on the other hand, takes a somewhat more nuanced approach. As, for that matter, does Allen Thorpe.