No big deal, hurricanes only effect the god-fearing Southern states. I'm pretty sure Jesus would never let anything bad happen to them.

WTF Indeed: No big deal, hurricanes only effect the god-fearing Southern states. I'm pretty sure Jesus would never let anything bad happen to them.

Don't forget the tornadoes will wipe out the northern parts of the Bible-Belt. This may end up being a good thing in the long run.

Jesus Christ it's Jim Cantore, get in the car!!!

I've always sort of wondered how many lives are saved by our forecasting abilities in a modern situation. I know we can compare to historical events before forecasting, or cities in third world countries which lack it, but our cities are differently built and we're in a different part of the world.

Suddenly I'm seeing the appeal of preserving that mystery just a little longer.

WTF just cancel one jet and you got the damn budget for a year.

OUR DEMANDS FOR GREATER PAY MUST BE MET OR WE WILL SEND A TORNADO TO DESTROY OKLAHOMA CITY.

So will this count as green jobs lost when they furlough them? Or just green jobs added when the bring them back?

dennysgod: WTF Indeed: No big deal, hurricanes only effect the god-fearing Southern states. I'm pretty sure Jesus would never let anything bad happen to them.

Don't forget the tornadoes will wipe out the northern parts of the Bible-Belt. This may end up being a good thing in the long run.

and union workers will get furloughed
win win win scenario

Oh goddamnit, NWS is actually useful but now the "gubmint evil!" people are going to be screaming for it to be cut... please get your shiat together, I like tornado warnings.

leftteffticle: Oh goddamnit, NWS is actually useful but now the "gubmint evil!" people are going to be screaming for it to be cut... please get your shiat together, I like tornado warnings.

time to arrest the people who were screwing with the funds

And everyone said that global warming would cause more hurricanes and every year we hear "this will be the worst season yet". And guess what? It's the same every year.

/DNRTFA

leftteffticle: Oh goddamnit, NWS is actually useful but now the "gubmint evil!" people are going to be screaming for it to be cut... please get your shiat together, I like tornado warnings.

Somebody (I want to say Santorum) tried that a couple of years ago. He was going to kill NOAA and make everyone pay AccuWeather for previously public data.

namatad: and union workers will get furloughed
win win win scenario

yes, because who cares about public safety as long as some union members can get farked, amirite?

Stefanwulf: I've always sort of wondered how many lives are saved by our forecasting abilities in a modern situation. I know we can compare to historical events before forecasting, or cities in third world countries which lack it, but our cities are differently built and we're in a different part of the world.

Suddenly I'm seeing the appeal of preserving that mystery just a little longer.


Population density is a big difference between historical data and 3rd world countries. For example, prior to the 1900's the great planes was practically devoid of human life, so if some "Finger of God" F5 tornado spun up, nobody knew because nothing got damage, nobody got hurt, now in 2012 odds are a storm of that size will take out one of the towns that now dot the area. Also in 1950 Orlando, FL had a population of only about 50,000, today it's around 238,000 so there's a lot more people going to be affected by a hurricane there.

As our population increased storms will become more deadly, not because the storms are getting worse (not getting into a GW debate) but because the number of people in harms way is ever increasing.

ArkPanda: leftteffticle: Oh goddamnit, NWS is actually useful but now the "gubmint evil!" people are going to be screaming for it to be cut... please get your shiat together, I like tornado warnings.

Somebody (I want to say Santorum) tried that a couple of years ago. He was going to kill NOAA and make everyone pay AccuWeather for previously public data.

It wasn't quite that draconian, but yea, it was Santorum.

ArkPanda: leftteffticle: Oh goddamnit, NWS is actually useful but now the "gubmint evil!" people are going to be screaming for it to be cut... please get your shiat together, I like tornado warnings.

Somebody (I want to say Santorum) tried that a couple of years ago. He was going to kill NOAA and make everyone pay AccuWeather for previously public data.

I mean, jesus.. have you ever looked at multiple forecasting sites? That shiat is ALL OVER the place. Can you imagine the chaos during severe weather when the Weather Channel is issuing one warning and AccuWeather is issuing another and every TV station is paying some different so there's different information being broadcast on every channel?

NOAA is always one of the agencies that the Congress screws over on budget.

BTW, for those of you who do not know, the US Government employees unions are nothing like those in private sector. They have virtually nothing to say about the way employees are paid, what benefits they get, etc. and union employees many not strike -- as the air traffic controllers learned during the Reagan administration. Also, union membership cannot be made compulsory. They are essentially powerless and do little more than PR for the employees.

namatad: leftteffticle: Oh goddamnit, NWS is actually useful but now the "gubmint evil!" people are going to be screaming for it to be cut... please get your shiat together, I like tornado warnings.

time to arrest the people who were screwing with the funds

Arrest , shoot, wharever works.

Hurricanes are a scam invented by Greenpeace alarmists so that scientists can get grant money.

dennysgod: Stefanwulf: I've always sort of wondered how many lives are saved by our forecasting abilities in a modern situation. I know we can compare to historical events before forecasting, or cities in third world countries which lack it, but our cities are differently built and we're in a different part of the world.

Suddenly I'm seeing the appeal of preserving that mystery just a little longer.


Population density is a big difference between historical data and 3rd world countries. For example, prior to the 1900's the great planes was practically devoid of human life, so if some "Finger of God" F5 tornado spun up, nobody knew because nothing got damage, nobody got hurt, now in 2012 odds are a storm of that size will take out one of the towns that now dot the area. Also in 1950 Orlando, FL had a population of only about 50,000, today it's around 238,000 so there's a lot more people going to be affected by a hurricane there.

As our population increased storms will become more deadly, not because the storms are getting worse (not getting into a GW debate) but because the number of people in harms way is ever increasing.

Exactly. I wish I had a good way of pulling out the increase in damage due to population density and just more buildings, as compared to the decrease in damage due to the warnings/evacuation/short-term preparedness measures, or the decrease in damage due to better building codes.

As someone who lives in a potential hurricane zone, I am ok with this. :)

namatad: leftteffticle: Oh goddamnit, NWS is actually useful but now the "gubmint evil!" people are going to be screaming for it to be cut... please get your shiat together, I like tornado warnings.

time to arrest the people who were screwing with the funds

Congress?

I'm only half-kidding. It seems that money meant for something else was being re-directed to pay the employees (maybe because the NWS was just being under-funded by Congress). As it looks now, it doesn't seem like anybody was funneling money to a hookers-and-blow account. Of course, that could change as more details emerge.

The thing that worries me the most is that if the furloughs go through and there isn't a disastrous weather event, then the TEA party nutcases will be screaming to permanently cut NWS jobs.

cc_rider: As someone who lives in a potential hurricane zone, I am ok with this. :)

I don't understand. So they didn't have enough money to pay all the necessary employees so they reallocated funds that were meant for "projects". What's so wrong about that? They seem to be operational despite having to resort to tricks to get things done (presumably because their budget is too small in the first place).

Pity. I was looking forward to HURRICANE KIRK!

/must...pummel..east..coast...with... driving...rain....

The blame has to be laid at the feet of the leaders and CFO's of the NWS and NOAA. Federal agency budgets are awarded by cost category, and if you start spending money appropriated for "equipment" or "contractual services" for "personnel salaries" then it's not just stupid, it's illegal and a felony under the Anti-Deficiency Act.

Plus it lets Congress avoid responsibility for budget cutting stupidly. If Congress cuts your personnel budget and you have to lay people off - DO IT, and when they complain later about how you aren't able to do your job right, you can remind them that it's THEIR FAULT. That would have been the responsible way to deal with the situation, and it wouldn't have left the agency unable to stay open for 2-3 months. As it is, I'm not sure if anyone can fix the current situation because NWS and NOAA have been lying to everyone about it for so long. Unless Congress passes a supplemental appropriation they can't do anything except shut down.

Those guys should be going to jail for this.

ArkPanda: Somebody (I want to say Santorum) tried that a couple of years ago. He was going to kill NOAA and make everyone pay AccuWeather for previously public data.

And where exactly does inAccuweather get their data?

Boatmech: cc_rider: As someone who lives in a potential hurricane zone, I am ok with this. :)

[gifsforum.com image 640x343]

I was responding to the the headline. Are you really that much of a n00b?

shivashakti: OUR DEMANDS FOR GREATER PAY MUST BE MET OR WE WILL SEND A TORNADO TO DESTROY OKLAHOMA CITY.

you truly are a moron, aren't you?

Things always break down in contract negotiations. They should just continue the season with whatever players they can afford. They can always bring some squalls and tropicals up from the minors.

Are these the shows that tell everyone to board up their house because the storm of the century is coming then they cut to a home depot commercial "the country's largest lumber retailer"?

cc_rider: Boatmech: cc_rider: As someone who lives in a potential hurricane zone, I am ok with this. :)

[gifsforum.com image 640x343]

I was responding to the the headline. Are you really that much of a n00b?

Well, his Fark member # is more than double yours... I do like his image though.

/n00bs
//we were all once n00bs?

FTFA: "Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which directs the service, have declined to say publicly why the practice went on and who authorized it."



...and,"They have asked Congress to cover the gap through the fiscal year."

One of these bureaucratic strategies is incompatible with the other, Farkwits. Good luck with that. I'm totally confident Representative Ryan will get right on adding $36 million to the NWS budget.

DemoKnite: Are these the shows that tell everyone to board up their house because the storm of the century is coming then they cut to a home depot commercial "the country's largest lumber retailer"?

Yes, the NWS schedules commercials. Damn, you caught them.

ArkPanda: leftteffticle: Oh goddamnit, NWS is actually useful but now the "gubmint evil!" people are going to be screaming for it to be cut... please get your shiat together, I like tornado warnings.

Somebody (I want to say Santorum) tried that a couple of years ago. He was going to kill NOAA and make everyone pay AccuWeather for previously public data.

And that was one of his more reasonable ideas!

hiker9999: you truly are a moron, aren't you?

Yes, I am... but that was not a serious post.

Just as a disclaimer, I do not actually represent the views or goals of the National Weather Service. Or tornadoes. Or Oklahoma City.

JackieRabbit: NOAA is always one of the agencies that the Congress screws over on budget.

BTW, for those of you who do not know, the US Government employees unions are nothing like those in private sector. They have virtually nothing to say about the way employees are paid, what benefits they get, etc. and union employees many not strike -- as the air traffic controllers learned during the Reagan administration. Also, union membership cannot be made compulsory. They are essentially powerless and do little more than PR for the employees.

Public unions are like have a private union in an employee-owned shop.

Stefanwulf: I've always sort of wondered how many lives are saved by our forecasting abilities in a modern situation. I know we can compare to historical events before forecasting, or cities in third world countries which lack it, but our cities are differently built and we're in a different part of the world.

Tri-State_Tornado

Brick buildings, completely gone.

cefm: If Congress cuts your personnel budget and you have to lay people off - DO IT, and when they complain later about how you aren't able to do your job right, you can remind them that it's THEIR FAULT.

You're absolutely right about the legal requirements in this situation. If I was convinced that cutting those positions would result in people dying, pointing a finger at congress after the fact would seem fairly hollow, and I can see how someone would be tempted to break the rules. (Not that they don't deserve the penalties under the law...they may just also deserve some people's thanks)

Furloughs are actually pretty biatchin'. Us NYS gub'ment shlubs got four furlough days this year; I'm more than happy losing a small amount of cash from each check in exchange for 9,000 of my coworkers state-wide not getting laid off and getting four days off to take whenever I please.

if the national weather service makes no records of it, then this year's hurricanes never did happen.

Nagle: cc_rider: Boatmech: cc_rider: As someone who lives in a potential hurricane zone, I am ok with this. :)

[gifsforum.com image 640x343]

I was responding to the the headline. Are you really that much of a n00b?

Well, his Fark member # is more than double yours... I do like his image though.

/n00bs
//we were all once n00bs?

I know. But they need to lurk moar if they are still assuming every post on Fark was meant to be taken seriously, or that everyone even RTFA before posting their comments about the headline.

Hell I didn't even look at his profile, before I called him a n00b. :D

Restore the $36 million that the union and its cronies in management misappropriated?



How about instead the President pull a Air Traffic Controllers Union, Act 2?

The Congress needs to pass, and the President sign, a bill outlawing public employee unions. To be followed by the several States. Stat.

SlothB77: if the national weather service makes no records of it, then this year's hurricanes never did happen.

If North Carolina can outlaw a rise in sea level, why not try this?

"Either NOAA turned a blind eye to this deficit, or they were asleep at the wheel," Broun said in a statement.

... or they've been limping by with what little money they've had, doing what they can to prioritize their remaining resources while Congress has a shiat-throwing fight about the budget. The money wasn't being funneled into management's pockets. They had an insufficient budget in some areas, some non discretionary budget money in others, and did what they could.

Federal budgets are always like this. I've worked with budgets that require an official report if you stray 10% or more outside of any pre-appropriated money "bin", regardless of whether the total expenditure amongst all bins is any different. You plan everything ahead of time, shiat happens, and you have shift money around and waste time writing up reports about why $500 migrated from the "Travel: Lodging" category to the "Travel: Airfare" category.

As long as we can cut Rush Limbaugh's taxes, who cares about funding the weather service?

So that creepy, computer-generated voice, instead of telling us the weather, will tell us to go fark ourselves?

Why spend millions of dollars and have all that fancy, new-fangled technology when folks've been predicting the weather with a weather rock for years? You don't even have to hang the rock up with a rope, just put it somewhere out in the open where you can see it, easily. Then just follow these simple, easy-to-understand rules:

If the rock is wet, it's raining.
If the rock is swinging, the wind is blowing.
If the rock casts a shadow, the sun is shining.
If the rock does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy.
If the rock is not visible, it is foggy.
If the rock is white, it is snowing.
If the rock is coated with ice, there is a frost.
If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost.
If the rock is bouncing, there is an earthquake.
If the rock is under water, there is a flood.
If the rock is warm, it is sunny.
If the rock is missing, there was a tornado.
If the rock is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane.

And THAT is how you can cut $730,000,000 dollars from the Federal budget!

IronButterfly: Why spend millions of dollars and have all that fancy, new-fangled technology when folks've been predicting the weather with a weather rock for years? You don't even have to hang the rock up with a rope, just put it somewhere out in the open where you can see it, easily. Then just follow these simple, easy-to-understand rules:

If the rock is wet, it's raining.
If the rock is swinging, the wind is blowing.
If the rock casts a shadow, the sun is shining.
If the rock does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy.
If the rock is not visible, it is foggy.
If the rock is white, it is snowing.
If the rock is coated with ice, there is a frost.
If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost.
If the rock is bouncing, there is an earthquake.
If the rock is under water, there is a flood.
If the rock is warm, it is sunny.
If the rock is missing, there was a tornado.
If the rock is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane.

And THAT is how you can cut $730,000,000 dollars from the Federal budget!

They're way ahead of you.

I see the anti-union idiots crawled out from under their rocks to spout their absurd shiat. Not to worry, all. Unions will be gone soon and collective bargaining outlawed. When that happens we'll start working you 15 hours/day, six days/week without breaks, pay you $50/week in company script and dock you a dollar when you take more than five minutes to go to the bathroom. If you say something we don't like we'll fire you on the spot. If you get sick, we'll fire you. If you don't look quite right or start looking too old, we'll fire you. It'll be just like in the good old pre-union days. You'll all be much happier for getting your way and showing those damned, evil unions - the farking commies!

/has never joined a union