New York Blackout

Sitting here in my darkened office in the middle of this (NYTimes – free login required), I’ve finally gotten enough information about what is going on that i’m not concerned about nefarious activity… Just waiting for the power to be restored.

Well, hail!

   

For the last few days, I’ve been off relaxing in the mountains of Western North Carolina. While I was there, several serious thunderstorms pelted parts of the area with golf-ball sized hail and flooded some roads. Fallen trees and power lines caused problems too, for motorists like area resident James Webb, who was quoted saying, “I ought to have known I should have left that chain saw in this truck.” in the Asheville Citizen-Times. For a nice glimpse of small-town life, including how residents dealt with a power outage at the mall, read the whole article here. For related reading, see this National Geographic article about the "world's largest hail stone."

Worldwide invasion

Right on our doorstep, or rather stuck to the front of our former building, an art revolution is taking place. The Space Invaders have struck! From Anne Galloway.

One bad bird

Reported today by the Gothamist, Galan, a hawk hired to patrol Bryant Park for pests reportedly mistook a Chihuahua for a rat, and attacked it yesterday. The falconer, Thomas Cullen, said this kind of thing had never happened before. Cullen’s “bird abatement” program employs a cast of 35 falcons and hawks to keep birds and rodents at bay in various locations around New York City, particularly at the airports, where the birds of prey have helped avoid as much as $2.4 million of damage caused by mid air collisions with seagulls. For Galan, however, it looks like early retirement. This isn’t the first time he’s been mischievous. During one partol he apparantly “ended up atop a nearby 18-story building” and could only located by his radio transmitter. According to Cullen, “Galan will no longer be flying in Manhattan.”