I’m more concerned with other cabins (empathy!), a fire in 2023 got to the edge of our yard on two sides but they successfully defended so there’s not much fuel around here
Yeah, I am aware that you keep the property well manicured and that makes a hell of a difference. You’ve actively done everything you can for the odds to be in your favor. My parents did not lose hing in Oklahoma wildfires a decade ago when all their neighbors minimally lost structures and half lost their houses as well. Keeping the place tight makes a hell of a difference.
Shockingly Texas officials are doing everything but taking responsibility for not evacuating the camp those kids were at. Their current excuse is to blame the NWS
So what happened? Heavy rain all overnight and there was no inclination this was a possibility? Is flash flooding common there?
It is an extremely flash-flood prone area. There is a whole network of lakes and reservoirs on these rivers designed, in part, to deal with that. The forecast dramatically changed during the overnight time period so it would seem likely that many were unaware of the danger that awaited when they went to sleep. There will (or at least should) be lots of questions about how this could happen that will touch multiple levels from policies and procedures at the camps, actions of local officials, on up to whether or not the NWS/science cuts by the deeply evil people running the country may have contributed to the loss of life. The death toll seems likely to exceed 50, with half that number being 7/8-year-old girls swept away in their cabins at camp. The Banks likened it to Sandy Hook, and on an emotional level this news struck me in the same way Sandy Hook did, I suppose due to the obvious similarities in ages of the victims and number of lives lost.
My lord, another event happened last night around Leander/Libery Hill and the South San Gabriel River. Leander is a far north suburb of Austin and Liberty Hill is out in the country past that. 19” of rain in one spot.
This heat map shows total cumulative county-level damages from floods, hurricanes, and coastal disasters between 1996 and 2023. Climate change is tragic and very, very expensive. (Sources: Federal Reserve Bank of New York / NOAA; U.S. Census Bureau.)
we're quietly living through one of the most important technological revolutions in human history and it has nothing to do with "AI"— mtsw (@mtsw.bsky.social) 2025-07-09T17:11:06.556Z article link here: https://www.removepaywall.com/searc...6-billion-years-on-the-sun-is-having-a-moment
Maybe one day we can get to Type 2 on the Kardashev scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale
its also yet another instance where the US will be lucky as fuck and inherently advantaged based only on our geography with our vast country filled with open spaces where solar can be deployed all despite our own god damn stupidity and resistance to it
How much has Trump's tariffs during his first term as well as his current administration trying to (or has already?) abolish incentives for solar panel construction affected this industry though? There's no way it hasn't started facing headwinds.
yes but the article basically argues that the economics make too much sense to significantly slow the momentum right now
In my hometown in south central PA, it’s a rural, heavy dairy farming area, but it’s becoming increasingly popular to lock up land that has no real near term development or commercial appeal (next 20 years or so) for solar. It pays higher than you could get annually to rent out for crops for most spots in that area and it’s a consistent income for some people that no longer want to farm.
article also says 1 acre of solar produces the same amount of energy as 100 acres of corn grown for ethanol
Yeah and the land there is not as fertile as the Midwest and not as large of chunks. Small dairy farms (200 or less head of cows) in the area can no longer really make ends meet sufficiently and/or the land is more valuable than growing crops to feed the herd and solar has been a strong option for some folks
honestly much of the Midwest isn’t fertile naturally either. huge swaths of western Kansas and Nebraska would be more efficiently used for solar production than crops or pasture, and eventually they will be completely unusable for crops once the aquifers run dry problem of course being finding a way to transport that power to cities besides Denver, KC, etc but that’s a Name P. Redacted problem
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