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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 09/19/2013 : 04:41:56
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It looks as though another major Typhoon is headed in our general direction. We here in my house (which I call "The Dorm" due to the several in-laws who are students and are staying here) don't expect a direct hit this time, though we are just inside the "cone of error" of the projected path of Typhoon Usagi (named Bagyong "Odette" in the Philippines). Our generator is working perfectly now, after having replaced a defective battery a few weeks ago, so we don't expect even much annoyance from this storm.
For those who are unaware of this, Filipinos, despite their generally short stature, are a basketball-crazy people. So I bought a regulation basketball, and a quality hoop. My neighbor is going to install the hoop after making a backboard and attachment hardware. I'm having it extend down from my second-story terrace. Its height will be easily adjustable for play by both kids and adults.
I'm sort of on a jag, making pro-vaccination "memes." I'm very convinced of the need to stop the anti-vaxers before they kill a lot more people. On of the things that most infuriates me about them is that many of them host "Pox Parties" and "Measles Parties" to deliberately spread diseases that are very effectively preventable via vaccination.
MY wife here is almost deaf due to complications from her own Chickenpox infection a few years back. Chickenpox and Measles could be eradicated, except for the actions of the "nature-loving" and/or God-trusting anti-vaxers, those de facto bioterrorists who appear bent upon protecting these viruses at the expense of the human race. This species treason makes me angry, it does.
So, if you've seen an excess of such memes posted by me recently, you will at least know my reasons.
Meanwhile, one of my in-laws, my wife's neice, has contracted Dengue fever, a nasty, mosquito-borne virus that can devolve into a very dangerous hemorrhagic fever. This young woman is a married, freshly-certified Registered Nurse. She has a baby aged just over a year, and we are caring for the kid here. The mother is hospitalized. If all goes well, she should be over the hump and recovering in a week or so.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/19/2013 05:18:17
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2013 : 23:21:11 [Permalink]
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Update: Turns out that Jennifer, the nurse niece mentioned above, had suffered from Dengue for a few days before I knew of it, and is already over the hump and recovering well.
Another in-law, a nephew this time, was driving a construction truck a couple of weeks ago on a mountain road further north in Luzon. It had been raining very heavily. He saw the road blocked by a landslide ahead, and managed to pull to a stop without hitting the debris. But then a huge boulder hit his truck, knocking it off the road and far down a steep ravine slope. The truck was totaled. Someone living nearby heard the crashing sounds and rescued the nephew. He was badly battered, and was unable to move his limbs. The first hospital he was taken to diagnosed him with a broken spine. Then his family took him to a better hospital, where the first diagnosis was overturned. After one day, his paralysis was gone, and he's pretty well recovered now.
There is supposed to be a photo of the construction truck smashed up in the ravine. If I can get a copy, I'll post it here.
Update: Jennifer is out of the hospital. Only five days, and already released. That's good because a typical good outcome from Dengue takes about ten days for even basic recovery. (One factor that may have helped her recovery was that her husband, who's also a newly-minted nurse, was the RN assigned to her by Baguio General Hospital!) She came here to retrieve her baby, of course. But she's still looking pretty peaked to me. I hope she'll take it easy and get her strength back.
Oh, by the way, there is no Dengue vaccine. Yet. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/20/2013 06:38:48 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2013 : 02:46:55 [Permalink]
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Super Typhoon Usagi has now been upgraded by the lead weather agency in these parts, the Japan Meteorological Agency to an officially "Violent" storm, it's highest rating.
In Baguio, we're in the main rain bands of Usagi (called "Odette" here) and we're getting occasional torrential showers and gusty wind. Not particularly dangerous right now, but great weather for staying indoors.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii shouts:1. SUPER TYPHOON 17W (USAGI) WARNING NR 015
01 ACTIVE TROPICAL CYCLONE IN NORTHWESTPAC
MAX SUSTAINED WINDS BASED ON ONE-MINUTE AVERAGE
WIND RADII VALID OVER OPEN WATER ONLY
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WARNING POSITION:
200600Z --- NEAR 19.8N 124.5E
MOVEMENT PAST SIX HOURS - 305 DEGREES AT 11 KTS
POSITION ACCURATE TO WITHIN 015 NM
POSITION BASED ON EYE FIXED BY SATELLITE
PRESENT WIND DISTRIBUTION:
MAX SUSTAINED WINDS - 135 KT, GUSTS 165 KT |
Here's a link to Western Pacific Weather's latest on Typhoon Usagi. "WestPacWX" is my favorite English-language Web site for East Asian weather. It's operated by my pal Rob Speta, who also presents English-language weather reports for the NHK TV network in Tokyo. The site also has several other meteorologists and James Reynolds, a professional storm-chasing videographer, who give regular reports. (Here's James Reynold's CNN report on Usagi.)
Usagi is the biggest tropical cyclone anywhere in the world so far this year. It's Category 5 (Cat 4 and Cat 5 Typhoons get the "Super" appellation). The stretch of its main inflow cloud bands are typical of Pacific Typhoons in their titanic reach: About one thousand kilometers (621 miles), from Manila in the Philippines to Japan's Ishigaki-Shima. Usagi is presently blasting through the Luzon Strait (which separates Luzon from Taiwan), and is expected to hit Hong Kong late Sunday night. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/20/2013 08:02:25 |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2013 : 09:53:51 [Permalink]
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Well sheesh! Try to keep your powder dry!
About chickenpox vaccine and pox parties. If you get chickenpox, later in life shingles are a possibility. I do believe that only people who have had chickenpox get shingles, which I have heard is very very painful. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2013 : 10:22:44 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
Well sheesh! Try to keep your powder dry!
About chickenpox vaccine and pox parties. If you get chickenpox, later in life shingles are a possibility. I do believe that only people who have had chickenpox get shingles, which I have heard is very very painful.
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I've heard the same. I had Chickenpox at about age fifteen, some 15 or so years before the varicella vaccine was developed for it. And I don't care much for pain. So I worry. Also (as I mentioned), my wife has had both of her middle ears nearly destroyed by complications of Chickenpox, and is nearly deaf. Another reason I deeply hate the idea of Pox, or any other disease, Parties. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/20/2013 10:27:33 |
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A personal update
