In other news

I know it's absurd and maybe not worth your time, but Jesse told us about a story he may have to work on which, in his words, a person could not make up: a family in Basehor, KS, keeps chickens as pets (illegally, for now at least); to facilitate this 'domestication,' the chickens wear, that's right, diapers. This photo is--no joke, I swear--from the website www.chickendiapers.com. The story from the Basehor Sentinel is available here.



Weather revisited

Today's Journal-World does a nice job of summing up the point I've been trying to get across to people since last week's storm, namely that it really wasn't that bad, whatever the national media may have said. Here's a bit of the story:
For all the broken trees, shattered windows, fallen barns and days of cleanup generated by last week’s microburst in Lawrence, experts say the incident doesn’t rise all that high in the annals of natural disasters to afflict the city.

The ice storm of 2005 did more widespread damage to trees and roofs. The tornado of 2003 gutted whole buildings. The floods of 1993 and 1951 sparked years of rebuilding and huge, expensive projects to alleviate the effects of hard rains. The tornado of 1911 killed two people on its path through Old West Lawrence.

Sunday’s microburst “was definitely significant,” said Paula Phillips, director of Douglas County Emergency Management.

But injuries were minor, and destruction — while widespread — was mostly limited in intensity.

Oh yes she did.

Finally, I love that Candace Parker dunked twice in a tournament game—video is available here, courtesy of espn.