Citadel of the Blogs The Inbox of the Internet (really)

The countdown has begun: I head out of Sapporo one week from today. Winding down accounts and needless computer habits. No more posts until I can access my weblog from Canada.

Sayonara!

Spirals, as you may know, are everywhere. They are the heliocentric pattern of life, that following the path of the living from cellular growth to universal decay.

This is an image of hurricane Ivan captured by Astronaut Edward M. Fincke, looking out the window of the International Space Station:

<img src="http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20040914/capt.sge.jkt22.140904160023.photo00.default-378×270.jpg" width="300">

The thing to note about this is that it is <em>everywhere.</em> The cloud pattern envelops a good portion of the earth. And others like it occupy the remaining ground, at some time.

Picture in your mind that the largest body around you, other than the ocean, is a great spiral storm system. It is a humbling image, that.

Care of the BBC, some pretty disturbing images. You heard of the bomb attack outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, right? But did you see these photos?

Here is what truck looks like after it has had the skin blown out of it:

<img src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40051000/jpg/_40051492_jakartacarnage_ap300.jpg" width="300">

Here is what the bombblast looked like from afar:

<img src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40053000/jpg/_40053016_smoke_ap220×300.jpg" width="300">

And this is the most interesting/disturbing photo:

<img src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40050000/jpg/_40050736_flag_300_ap.jpg" width="300">

This is a shot of the Australian Embassy after the bomb blast. As you can see, the force of the blast blew many windows out of the building. And that is what is so disturbing about this new trend in guerilla urban warfare: one doesn't have to enter the building to harm it; one doesn't need any genius at all about getting past security; one merely needs to <em>drive by the silly thing</em> to damage it and get your nihilistic point across to the rest of the world. That is the really disturbing thing: anyone can do this. The building may not fall but its image has certainly been sprayed over the world.

Hi, my name is Frances, and I'm a typhoon. Or hurricane. Or tropical cyclone. Whatever! But I just love to destroy things! Yum!

We just had an unusually strong typhoon rage throughout our northern island last week. It was unusual since the winds never reach such damaging speeds.

I took the first picture two weeks ago.

<img src="http://www.gravesnet.com/drop/-aIMG_0207.jpg " width="300">

It was so beautiful and a sight I see most every week in summer. Quite a bit different now, isn't it?

<img src="http://www.gravesnet.com/drop/-bIMG_1094.jpg" width="300">

The last one is just an image of trees down near our home.

<img src="http://www.gravesnet.com/drop/IMG_1092.jpg" width="300">

Okay, having read the news about hurricanes in Florida and now through Jamaica, and having lived through a number of typhoons in Japan, I did a little <a href="http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/hurricanes/interactive/glossary/frameset.exclude.html">research</a>. Just what the heck is the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon?

Answer: none.

They are both "tropical cyclones". Get it? Cyclone is the root term here. Both are also used for tropical cyclones north of the equator (i.e. in the northern hemisphere). The difference is merely there location relative to the Greenwich Meridian: "hurricane" is used for Northern Hemisphere cyclones east of the International Dateline to the Greenwich Meridian: "typhoon" is used for <em>Pacific</em> cyclones north of the Equator west of the International Dateline.