rthstewart | THE END IS NEAR

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THE END IS NEAR

As you've probably gathered (in fact, I've even said it on a NFFR podcast once), I live in the greater Baltimore/DC metropolitan area. This means that on Tuesday we had an earthquake. As a California native, I of course did not recognize it was an earthquake. I thought my air conditioning unit was crashing through the ceiling.

Now me and 55 million other Americans are bracing for Hurricane Irene. I live in an area where our power grid routinely fails for days and weeks at a time (to quote the Doctor, it's held together with a kettle and some string), so I've purchased 30 pounds of dry ice for the freezer, cranked everything down as cold as it can get and stood in line at 8:30 AM for more batteries. Good luck to all of you in a similar state or worse and hopefully we'll all see each other (virtually) come Monday morning.

This week then, the earth opened up, the skies are opening up and while walking the dog I found cicadas (a sort of locust, but not really). The Apocalypse is obviously at hand. In a discussion this evening with

lady_songsmith wherein we discussed said apocalypse, she urged, "Read all the fic now." To which I responded, PRINT all the fic and take it with you into the bunker because when the power grid fails there will at least still be paper when the nuclear winter falls. I will then be able to twist all of my TSG notes into little tiny logs and throw them on a charcoal brazier made out of my cast iron skillet and my cookie cooling racks.

Should I and my laptop survive, I leave you with this awesome bit of news courtesy of io9, the same folks that informed of the gay finches. We learn that female chickens practice birth control.

According to Dean [the researcher], "these results show that promiscuous females can actively bias sperm utilization to exert a strong and predictable influence on the struggle for fertilization." And in doing so, they manage to "retain control of paternity even in species such as fowl where males can force mating." In other words, even if a female chicken is unable to withstand a rooster's sexual advances, the sperm of a socially subordinate rooster is significantly more likely to get rejected. Rejected hard.

So, female chickens who are unable to spurn the sexual advances of lower social order, less desireable roosters, forcefully eject the sperm once copulation is completed. In other news, another fic is done and should be going up in the next week or so. I'm well.... hmmm... not nervous. I'm excited about this one. Really excited.

Sorry for all the edits but LJ keeps screwing with the formatting.

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I thought of you when the earthquake occurred, so I'm glad to see you came through that just fine. (Me, I didn't even FEEL it happening and did not even know it occurred until I returned to my office desk and saw the IMs and blog posts.)

As for Irene, I live in what has been deemed Zone A in the city, which is currently under a mandatory evacuation (one of many firsts in NY apparently). And yet I'm staying home, one of many who feel (and hope) that it won't be as bad as they claim. We shall see. :-)

And I agree with

lady_songsmith about reading all the fic now. Read first while the internet's still up and go back to writing when it's down. :-)

I don't suppose female chickens can teach songbirds a thing or two about dealing with unwanted male advances?

And have you seen this article about a newly discovered fossil? I thought of Mary Anning Russell when I saw it. I wonder what she would have to say on the subject?

I was wondering if you were under an evacuation order!!! YIKES!!!!

I am! :-) And mass transit will be completely shut down tomorrow afternoon. I think I'm in less danger now than in previous years. There are new high-rise buildings built directly on the water now, so they kind of shelter the lower buildings like mine that are a little further inland.

My parents scoffed a bit at all the evacuation plans. They've lived through monsoons and such in Hong Kong in flimsier flats than what we have in NY now.

Should you get a last-minute attack of the panics, I have a guest bed.

Thanks, but I'm gonna stick it out here! I could always go to my sister's too, she's somewhere in the middle of Queens and is in a "safe" zone.

Be safe! Get all stocked up!

We still have power, but about 20,000 in our area are already without power and areas east and south of us are hit really, really badly. 75% of Richmond, vA or something is without power apparently. The water is already up over the dunes in the Delaware beaches and it's not even high tide yet.

And as for the discovery of Juramaia sinensis in Liaoning, that's where all the feathered dinosaurs have been discovered and where they just found the discoveries that upended understanding of Archeopteryx. I was just wondering actually when the mammal-like reptiles finally became true mammals and then when the marsupials and plancentals split. I don't remember why I was thinking of that... probably something about egg laying and ear bones. Thanks for the link!! There's a great video at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in the Mammal Hall about mammal origins and it includes "Morgie" Morganucodon from the late Triassic who predates both true marsupial and planetal mammals.

Good luck to everyone in Irene's path! And as for cicadas I grew up in Virginia (although not near DC at all) and remember cicadas- both the noise and seeing the insects (or their remains). The last time I was in Virginia in the summer, the 7-year (or whatever the cycle is) locusts were out and *incredibly* loud.
-H

"They are coming." Thanks. Made the runs today for more dry ice, ice, wine and beer and tortilla chips.

If it's any consolation, my little country has had a similar series of problems from Mother Nature. That said, lady_songmith is wise. Fic time!

Oh, what little country is that? And I am sorry if you are having difficulty and certainly do not reveal anything if you do not wish to! And yes, Songsmith is wise!

New Zealand, though it didn't affect me directly - the Christchuch earthquakes have basically wrecked the city, and evveryone over there is still getting so many big shakes that if it's not above a 7.0, it's pretty much ignored. Then, shortly after the massive one in February that started it, there was the one in Japan that set of tsunami warnings, and then more quakes and more... well, you get the picture.

What's hillarious is that what so many people are worrying about is the Rugby World Cup, and how Christchurch can't host any games anymore. I don't know about you, but I'm no sports fan, and that this is what's on so many minds... well, I laugh. It's good to have something to be amused by.

And fic. Always good to have fic ;)

Oh gosh! yes, terrible things in NZ! The Californians here were much the same way about our little quake, but then everyone here is also very unaccustomed to them so people did very stupid things. They evacuated all the buildings so they could be checked so people are standing around outside and building engineers always say you are at danger of falling debris. Rugby world cup! OH NO!
Of course here we are also moving toward the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and if you hear a roar like that earthquake, you immediately think that it's another attack. So, I imagine its much like the shock of the NZers after the Christchurch quake and then the Japan quake. Ugh. BAD year.

Indeed. But, after bad comes good, and there are lots of sweet stories about the people in Christchurch helping each other and suicide rates dropping and whatnot. It'd hardly call it a good thing but there are some good results.

Here's hoping that's how it turns out for everyone. And I'll mail you an extra raincoat ;)

Now I get the locusts. If (when) the power goes out, you will also have the plague of darkness. Blimey.

Be safe, everyone. And hopefully no one will need to burn any fic :-)

If it starts raining frogs, I'm moving to Alaska.

Hope you stay safe hun! *hugs tightly*

Thanks! I just hope the power stays on long enough to get new Who!

Autumnia, after reading the Guardian's article about Irene, I'm a little concerned for you regarding the storm surge coinciding with high tide. Stay safe! Stay dry! If you can and it makes sense, enjoy Mother Nature's power.

Chickens? meh. I seem to remember reading somewhere that human women also inhibit the sperm of men they don't truly desire to procreate with. The earth doesn't move.

A safe and happy weekend to everyone.

Thank you!! Yes, the New York area could get hit badly.

snacky is another in the line of the storm and I'm sure there others of us. I thought the chicken story was just hilarious and amazing and it, along with the finches and giraffes has SO MANY possibilities. And, I hope you are well!!!!

If you can believe it... I saw people riding bikes and jogging this afternoon. There really are a lot of people staying close by. I'm not all the way by the beach thankfully, I just happen to live near the East River but far from the mouth of the harbor.

But thank you for your concern and well wishes!

Stay safe and well, Autumnia, rth, and any of the rest of you who may be in the path of the storm. I've been thinking of you all the last couple of days - we are prepared here, in the greater Philadelphia area, for power outages and downed trees, and quite possibly some significant flooding. We shall see. Fortunately, our house is at the top of a very large hill, but getting off the hill could turn out to be the problem - the nearby creek routinely floods, and the river is expected to top its banks.

Ironically, I have been reading NFE fic this morning, though I didn't think about it in terms of the power being out. That's going to be aggravating, as I'm already far behind in my reading.

And for heaven's sake, don't burn any fic notes! Write fic, oh yes, by all means, longhand if necessary. It's the perfect excuse to write rather than doing any sort of real work. ;)

Power is still on. I feel like the CassandraClare very secret diaries: Still not King, still no power. My kid was working on a homework assignment (writing a chapter epilogue to Jurassic Park) and apart from the fact that his writing style is appallingly like mine, right down to the comma abuse, I kept saying, SAVE SAVE SAVE because if this goes out/down, you don't want lost work.

UGH

*Lol* I suffer from comma abuse as well, as Autumnia would tell you, even if I do know 90% of the rules about them. I just tend to ignore the rules until I go back and edit, and sometimes I ignore them even then. :) But the saving advice is good - losing computer work when the power goes out is the worst.

Stay safe everyone!

We still have power! for the moment!

Hang on, don't get blown away! As a midwest native, I'm used to extreme weather - tornadoes, floods, ice storms, the like. I'm currently in CA suffering the heat (ice pack on head, even... no A/C "'cause we don't need it here"), watching idly while everyone else gets pommeled for once!

In this case, courtesy of

snacky, http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/marakara/Irenemap.jpg

I'm a California native too, but my last quake before Tuesday was in 1977. I spent 12 years in the upper Midwest, but the winters were pretty mild (though cold) and i never told with the floods or tornadoes. Our worse weather has definitely been since moving here. And our local utility is horrible.

LOL! Great image...

Tornadoes were in our area, but having grown up at the bottom of a hill, they were never really a threat to my childhood home. People here in CA are terrified of the prospect of a tornado, but I grew up barely batting an eye at the sound of sirens... the chances of being hit by one are so incredibly slim in comparison to TERRIFYING EARTHQUAKES, which I'm constantly looking over my shoulder for.

Now floods... yeah, there was that fine summer morning 15 years ago when we woke up to find ourselves on lakeside property. I lost my first car in the flood, only had it for 3 weeks. (Note: Jetta's float, other cars, notsomuch.) Floods are not fun at ALL. The house's foundation was severely compromised, and when my parents finally moved out a few months ago, there was a distinct crack running down the middle.

Ah, Mother Nature, you tempestuous minx...

I am glad to hear you're doing okay with all the Weather. :)

How interesting! Chickens, what!

Things like chickens practicing selective contraception and gay giraffes and finches, ninja stealth owls and the large social intelligence brain capacity of matriarchal hyena groups have a way of finding their way into my Narnia fic, one way or another. Heh. And dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs! Jurassic Park epilogues! Wow!

I never watched Jurassic Park, but I happened to come across the book (in translation) on Saturday, and I've been reading it over the weekend.

I don't think I want to watch it ...

Great to hear from you! I hope all is well!

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THE END IS NEAR

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