(Probably) Worse.

This looks very, very bad.

From NOAA:

HURRICANE KATRINA
A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH…RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL…LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE…INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY…A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD…AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS…PETS…AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS…AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING…BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

La Tertulia caught my attention because it’s exactly what a yuppie, Upper West Side hash bar might look like, if such a thing existed. I’ve often thought that aesthetic considerations—and not moral or health concerns—are at heart the biggest stumbling block for the “legalize it” movement. Because while we associate alcohol with all sorts of vibes and venues—including black-tie affairs and professional gatherings—we associate pot-smoking only with smelly hippies and zoned-out videogamers. Weed’s got an image problem.

What it really needs is a better publicist. Someone who could play up, say, the scene in Eyes Wide Shut where Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman roll a joint. Here we see a successful, rich Manhattan couple (he’s a doctor, even!) smoking pot in a decidedly non-hippy, non-smelly manner. This is good for the stoners’ cause. (Of course, Cruise’s character later attends a perverted, masked orgy … and it seems that Cruise himself is a couch-stomping loon—but a decent publicist could gloss over this.)

— from “Should I Move to Amsterdam?”, a weeklong series by Slate’s Seth Stevenson

Articles of Consternation: Iraq’s infuriatingly vague constitution. (Slate)

Rest in peace, Robert Moog, electronic music pioneer.

“I was like you got to be freaking kidding me,” said Govan, 25, of her reaction when she saw the bill. “I was so mad I couldn’t even cuss.”

— LaChania Govan, whose Comcast bill for August came addressed to “Bitch Dog”

I’d think it was amusing if I got a bill addressing me as “Bitch Dog” (not that I wouldn’t call the biller to find out why!), but somehow whenever something like this is in the news, it always seems like the person is so mad. I wonder what possible reason there could be for that…

Proponents of Intelligent Falling assert that the different theories used by secular physicists to explain gravity are not internally consistent. Even critics of Intelligent Falling admit that Einstein’s ideas about gravity are mathematically irreconcilable with quantum mechanics. This fact, Intelligent Falling proponents say, proves that gravity is a theory in crisis.

The Onion gets it exactly right.

See also: Flying Spaghetti Monsterism.

iPod Subway Maps (for iPods with color screens)