Environment or Army Corps of Engineers: The Floods of 2019 — Cat Rotator’s Quarterly

Going a bit down for the important-starting-quote, but go read more, please.

A little background: In the 1950s, a bureaucratic turf war developed over water control west of the Ohio River Basin. The Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers both wanted access to dam sites and rivers in the Midwest and West. Congress ordered them to come to an agreement. To paraphrase a whole lot of books and a rather cynical professor, each group dropped one dam, merged their wish-lists, and created the Pick-Sloan Plan. Congress blessed it into existence. The Army Corps was in charge of most of the Missouri River proper, and the Bureau got irrigation dams and projects. The job of the Army Corps was navigation and flood control, in that order, with everything else a distant third. And so it remained for decades. Then environmental protection and remediation became the first priority for the Corps on the Missouri.

via Environment or Army Corps of Engineers: The Floods of 2019 — Cat Rotator’s Quarterly

This fits with what I’ve seen in every state I’ve gotten nosy in– the water storage/control is decades behind realistic demand, where it hasn’t been destroyed for what amounts to virtue signaling.

This year should have been the “refill all the artificial lakes” year, which would also help recharge the ground water. (This could also be done with city rain water management, maybe waste water too– I’d love it if they separated out drinking water and had some “just a bit pool of water” options. I’m picturing things like this:

https://www.bing.com/maps/embed?h=400&w=500&cp=31.745058734053316~-106.32207933300782&lvl=17&typ=s&sty=h&src=SHELL&FORM=MBEDV8

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It’s a flash-flood/road water control pit in El Paso, Texas.  The little box center-bottom is a business.  Golf driving range.   Closed when raining. ^.^  (Yes, that is why I remembered it, plus it’s near the Habitat Re-Store.

But we don’t have that.

Instead, it’s a nasty flood.

Then we go back to not having enough water.

The Priests Who Survived the Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima

Repub, using the phone app…sorry if it comes out odd, good post.

https://wp.me/p9OfVB-ak

Don’t Worry

Nothing is wrong, just got really busy.

Had time to mentally compose why I wouldn’t identify as a capitalist, proud or otherwise– short form, I object to th assumption that Crazy (original!)Commie Charley’s demonization of everything that wasn’t “wouldn’t it be great if everybody was forced to do what I want” is any sort of a philosophy, but no time to polish beyond that.

The Scratching Post: At Some Point, You Need To Play Offense

I wish we had someone like St. Augustine these days.

via The Scratching Post: At Some Point, You Need To Play Offense

Go read, it’s very short, and no use repeating myself.

Study Finds Very Few Wild Bee Species Pollinate Major Crops

Wild pollination is increasingly important with the growing instability of honey bee colonies. Wild bees’ agricultural value is now similar to that of honey bees, the study finds. In fact, honey bees are no longer considered wild in many regions due to their intense management.

The most important wild bees for agriculture include some of the world’s most common species, including the common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) in the U.S. and the red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) in Europe, researchers say.

via Study Finds Very Few Wild Bee Species Pollinate Major Crops

While the write-up pushes the instability claim, it’s interesting to note that the wild bees doing most of the pollinating are a tiny portion– and also the extremely common breeds.

The Mythical Rise in White Supremacist Violence | The American Spectator

The first thing anyone familiar with cause-of-death statistics will notice about this passage is that the total is infinitesimal. The 71 percent figure the author, Thomas T. Cullen, attributes to “far-right and white-extremist groups” averages 28 per year. Every death is tragic, but this is less than half the annual fatality rate associated with bee and wasp stings. To suggest that this constitutes a “grave threat” to the republic is ridiculous. The author also fails to note that the 71 percent figure attributed to “far right” groups was derived by arbitrarily including every fatality that was not explicitly linked to Islamist or Leftwing groups.

via The Mythical Rise in White Supremacist Violence | The American Spectator

Science! Strikes Again: Saving the Theory from the Data

Now, they could take the model and try changing it so that it actually reflects what is there, and run it again…..

Yard Sale of the Mind

An amusing headline: For 35 years, the Pacific Ocean has largely spared West’s mountain snow from effects of global warming. A “study” by “scientists” is used to explain what, in a saner world, might simply be stated as follows: “Western mountain snowpack shows no evidence of global warming over the the last 35 years.”

In the article, we learn that models predict that snowpack in Washington’s portion of the Cascade Range, for example, should have fallen by 2% – 44% over the the last 35 years, but in fact have shown no significant decline. Now a crass, narrow-minded person, clearly not in the cool kids club, might leap to the conclusion that the data here contradicts the model, therefore – you’re sitting down, right? – the model is wrong. The whole purpose and entire source of validation for a model is predictions. You build a model hoping to capture some…

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