MetaFilter posts tagged with sandy

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1970s Antihero — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:33:20 -0800

"WNYC and The Record asked, separately, for documentation of NJ Transit’s hurricane preparedness plans. Both news organizations received the same reply: a three-and-a-half page document with the words “New Jersey Rail Operations Hurricane Plan” atop the first page. Everything else was blacked out." During Superstorm Sandy, New Jersey Transit, the largest statewide transit agency in the country, in a series of bad decisions repeatedly ignored warnings, and decided to store its fleet in Hoboken and the Meadowlands Maintenance Complex in Kearny. It ended up losing over a quarter of its rolling stock, with $450 million in damage. Governor Christie has downplayed the disaster, and no one at NJ Transit has been fired.

"how much of this distress existed pre-Sandy?"

the man of twists and turns — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:24:57 -0800

After Sandy, a great and complex city reveals traumas new and old. "Occupy Sandy" represented a disaster cooperativism in opposition to "disaster capitalism" (previously: 1, 2, 3) A Disaster For All Seasons

In other words, we’re now on a planet where extreme disaster seems ever more normal and, when it comes to the weather, such extremes can increasingly be considered man-made or at least human-influenced. It’s important to keep in mind as well that what’s a catastrophe for many of us always turns out to be the main chance and a profit center for at least a few of us

Race, Class And Disaster Gentrification

“The nurses are bringing the babies down first."

roomthreeseventeen — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 10:21:31 -0800

The night Hurricane Sandy hit New York, New York University Hospital evacuated 204 patients, down the stairs

First you were all like "whoa", and we were like "whoa"

roomthreeseventeen — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 11:54:24 -0800

Winter storm "Nemo" is headed for New England, and weather experts are predicting more than two feet of snow in some areas. According to the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass., in records dating to 1892, there have been only six snowstorms of 20 inches or more in Boston, topped by the Feb. 17-18, 2003 snowstorm (27.5") and the infamous "Blizzard of '78" (Feb. 6-7; 27.1"). Airlines have preemptively cancelled 900 flights and counting. Much of the region in Nemo's path, of course, was battered just a few months ago by Hurricane Sandy. Previously.

Madam Would-Be Mayor

roomthreeseventeen — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:34:47 -0800

An early look at Christine Quinn's bid to become the first woman (and lesbian) mayor of New York,

The Lives They Lived

danny the boy — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:34:04 -0800

The New York Times Magazine's latest issue, The Lives They Lived, is a tribute to cultural icons that have died in 2012. Adam Yauch, a.k.a MCA of the Beastie Boys, is featured on the cover. Alex Pappademas of Grantland writes about MCA's growth as a person, and how it influnced the group:

It's Yauch who raps, “I wanna say a little something that's long overdue/The disrespect to women has got to be through” on “Sure Shot,” from “Ill Communication” (1994). Should it have been obvious from the beginning that disrespecting women wasn't O.K.? Sure. But now they were calling themselves on their own failings of judgment.

He's included in The Music They Made, a montage of the musicians who died this year. The issue also features: Neil Armstrong, Don Cornelius, Whitney Houston, Maurice Sendak, and many others.

Undiscovery

notme — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 07:20:39 -0800

Sandy Island is in the Coral Sea, between New Calendonia and Australia, and is visible on Google maps. The only problem is it doesn't exist.

Manhattan finally gets enough fiber

Tell Me No Lies — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 08:38:08 -0800

Verizon is finally rolling out a comprehensive fiber infrastructure for downtown Manhattan. Not that they have much choice.

In Sandy's Wake

TangerineGurl — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:26:23 -0800

Documented: The People Who Were Killed By Hurricane Sandy "I haven’t found a single news source that has aggregated the names and causes of death of every person killed by the effects of Hurricane Sandy, so I decided to compile one myself. It has taken hours of research, as most articles fail to identify the names of the deceased, choosing instead to depersonalize their stories...." ~Whitney Hess

NOLA to New York

ColdChef — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:20:39 -0800

NOLA to New York Katrina survivors reach out to Sandy survivors

Interpreting Lydia Callis

torticat — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:08:31 -0800

Arika Okrent deconstructs the signing of interpreter Lydia Callis to demonstrate how body language and facial expressions are used grammatically in American Sign Language. Callis received wide attention on twitter and tumblr for interpreting NYC Mayor Bloomberg's press conferences during Sandy. But her expressiveness was misunderstood by some, described by HuffPost as "mugging for the cameras and gesturing wildly" and ridiculed (yt) on E! by comedian Chelsea Handler. The advocacy group Deaf Nation released a letter responding to Handler's routine. Activist and CODA Lilit Marcus pushed back as well against ignorance about sign language.

A story of disaster solidarity and mutual aid

latkes — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 09:59:11 -0800

As you all know, being the creative type that I am, I love do it yourself projects… however, I found myself in the middle of a rather unusual project, which involved a lot of creative “thinking outside of the box” and it was more then just a do-it-yourself. It was more of a “do it ourselves” project. and we did it. successfully.: Here’s the story of how we helped Nick Dupree. Big organizations like FEMA and the Red Cross do useful work, but usually not at this stage of chaos on this individual level. A week and a half from now they’ll be in charge whether they’re effective or not, but right now it’s anarchy, so we have a chance to be the most useful with direct action. Just go…right now while it’s crucial… go to wherever the problem is, LISTEN TO PEOPLE… and pitch in. Don’t just donate some old clothes or cans of food as if you can dump your trash on other people and it will magically make them middle class and give them all the infrastructure of your massive privilege! Go to gather information, find out what is needed, improvise, and DO SOME WORK.

Skeletal remains found in upended tree

axoplasm — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:13:38 -0800

Not-Hurricane Sandy turned over a hundred-year-old tree — that had grown through a body buried a hundred years before THAT. " A homeless woman made a spooky Halloween’s eve discovery on the Upper Green: bones from a centuries-old human body unearthed by a giant oak tree toppled by Superstorm Sandy."

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

entropone — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:44:31 -0800

Hurricane Sandy's proximity to Election Day means that the response to it is highly politicized. NYC's Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked President Obama not to visit NYC, preferring to focus on the large amount of work needed to restore New York City - restoring power, unflooding subway and car tunnels, and cleaning up from a record-breaking storm surge. New Jersey governor Chris Christie took a break from his recent criticism of President Obama to praise Obama's response to Sandy and partnership with New Jersey during Sandy and its ongoing aftermath - though perhaps he has an ulterior motive. Despite the apparent snub from Christie, candidate Mitt Romney is getting involved in the relief effort - but is allegedly only delivering supplies to swing states. Meanwhile, Romney's taken some flak for a year-and-a-half old comment saying the federal government should not help states with disaster relief.

Hurricane Sandy

booksherpa — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 22:50:26 -0800

"So, when we first started talking about the idea of this storm which will have far reaching effects for many along the eastern seaboard later this weekend and early next week, we were somewhat skeptical as to whether such an event could happen. It truly is an unusual occurrence – most hurricanes taking the path Sandy is currently on are whisked out to sea, with only rough surf and maybe some clouds along the majority of the east coast; but not this one – not Sandy." Twenty-one years ago was the "Perfect Storm". Last year was Irene. This year, whether you call it Sandy or "Frankenstorm", the northeastern United States appears to be in the path of a dangerous Halloween storm once again. The different models don't agree on the exact track, but the closer we get to the storm, the more it looks like one for the history books. Meteorologists are taking this one seriously. Basically, hurricane + nor'easter + full moon = lots of wind and water. Here are some resources that may help you track the storm, and what is going on in your area. Weather Info: National Hurricane Center | Wunderground | Weather Channel | AccuWeather State OEM offices: CT | DE | MA | MD | NH | NJ | NY | PA | RI | VA | VT | WV State OEM Twitter accounts: CT | DE | MA | MD | NH | NJ | NY |RI | VA | VT | WV City OEM Twitter accounts: NYC | Philadelphia | DC | Baltimore Please prepare and stay safe.

so bad it's good, for sure

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:43:23 -0800

Folks, tunes like Scotch Tape (by Lana Johnidas with the Swinging Strings) and Portland Rose Song (by Bert Lowry with Orchestra and Chorus) could only have come from a "vanity" record label like Film City, who provided us and future generations with a plethora of endearingly awful little masterpieces.

Remembering the GTD Hive's gooMilk Found in 30Boxes of Joe's Tickler Nutshells

WCityMike — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 12:17:37 -0800

Nowadays, if you're of a mood to be all Web 2.0 about it, to-do lists have gone past the paper and pen with web applications such as Remember the Milk, Hiveminder, Toodledoo, Todoist, Ta-Da Lists, do.Oh, Nozbe, Treedoolist, Vitalist, Web To Do, SimpleGTD, Sandy, Tracks, gootodo, Zirrus, OnMyList, TaskToy, Gubb, Nutshell, Joe's Goals, Tedium, MyTickerFile, voo2do, and 30boxes — even plain old text files have gotten spiffied up with Unix shell scripts to generate graphs and reports and projects. These groups have developed about 10²⁰ ways of getting tasks into them, including shell scripts, Google gadgets, Dashboard widgets, Firefox extensions, Twits, Gmail, and even just talking into the phone — and they introduce a myriad of organizational features such as tagging, task reviews, braindumps, reminders, and smart searches. A lot of these were created in response to the call of Getting Things Done, although, ironically, there are now so many ways to get wrapped up in entering, organizing, and manipulating tasks that people end up being encouraged to just get the damn work done already.