A blog about New York City, my books, and my cats. Mostly.
I’ve been going through the pictures of my cats, looking for ones to use if I re-do (my friend Jackie re-does) the banner here. I found so many shots I loved, the trick is finding the most graphically simple and arresting. But this is a favorite just for sheer weirdness.
The feet, the toe stretch! Oh wait, I have an idea … see below.
Is this funny? No, it’s funnier in context. Well, it was a thought.
From Analyzing Evacuation Versus Shelter-in-Place Strategies After a Terrorist Nuclear Detonation, a paper by Lawrence M. Wein, Youngsoo Choi, Sylvie Denuit.
“We superimpose a radiation fallout model onto a traffic flow model to assess the evacuation versus shelter-in-place decisions after the daytime ground-level detonation of a 10-kt improvised nuclear device in Washington, DC. In our model, ≈80k people are killed by the prompt effects of blast, burn, and radiation. Of the ≈360k survivors without access to a vehicle, 42.6k would die if they immediately self-evacuated on foot. Sheltering above ground would save several thousand of these lives and sheltering in a basement (or near the middle of a large building) would save of them. Among survivors of the prompt effects with access to a vehicle, the number of deaths depends on the fraction of people who shelter in a basement rather than self-evacuate in their vehicle: 23.1k people die if 90% shelter in a basement and 54.6k die if 10% shelter. Sheltering above ground saves approximately half as many lives as sheltering in a basement. The details related to delayed (i.e., organized) evacuation, search and rescue, decontamination, and situational awareness (via, e.g., telecommunications) have very little impact on the number of casualties. Although antibiotics and transfusion support have the potential to save ≈10k lives (and the number of lives saved from medical care increases with the fraction of people who shelter in basements), the logistical challenge appears to be well beyond current response capabilities. Taken together, our results suggest that the government should initiate an aggressive outreach program to educate citizens and the private sector about the importance of sheltering in place in a basement for at least 12 hours after a terrorist nuclear detonation.”
The basement in my building is not finished, it’s like something from the 19th century, dirt floors, etc. In fact, I’m going to take pictures just so you can see, the old technology, etc. But for 12 hours I can manage.
My cats however, would be all, “What? The basement? Seriously? We’ll wait for you here.”
I was cleaning up Echo’s web server and I found some old photographs my friend Kevin had taken at the party for my book, Waiting For My Cats to Die. Instead of the regular cocktail party I made it a benefit for City Critters, the cat rescue organization where I got Finney and Buddy.
I hired the Loser’s Lounge to perform, and among the singers were two of my favorites: Ellen Foley and …
… my friend Lianne Smith! Good times!!
Except that was 2001 which very soon went to hell in a handbasket in the biggest way possible, all year long. My mom died a month later, then Beamers died a couple of months after that (Beamers was the cat of my dreams), and then 9/11. So fuck you 2001! Except for this night. This was fun.
Every time I write a new book I start a blog. I can’t maintain all these blogs anymore, plus a couple of websites, and then there’s the new book about singing coming up. I don’t want to start yet another blog.
Here’s what I’m thinking of doing.
Currently my main web page, www.stacyhorn.com, takes you to a web page with links to pretty much everything I do. I’m thinking of doing away with that page and having www.stacyhorn.com take you here instead, to the blog I update every day.
– I’ll change the look of this a little bit, but not much. I will spruce it up a little but overall I like a clean, spare design. I think I’ll take out Satan’s Fur Puppets in the banner and put my name, and maybe add my face with the cats. Or maybe I’ll do a new banner altogether.
– I’ll replace the bio here with the one that’s on the web page.
– I’ll add links here to my other blogs which I only update sporadically. I’d like to get rid of them altogether, but people still access all the information on The Restless Sleep blog for instance and there’s a lot of useful important information there. It helps people solve murders (hopefully) so it would be wrong to take it down.
What do you think? Any other suggestions to do to this blog if i’m going to make it my main page?
(The picture is of someone taking a class at the trapeze school on the West Side Highway.)
I feel for him having to walk around in this get-up, although it’s for a good cause.
From the website explaining what he’s doing: “The Bag Monster® is a costume worn by your volunteer to visually show the impact single-use plastic bags have on our environment. These flighty bags end up in trees, along roadsides and washed up on sea shores. Each costume is decked out with 500 plastic bags, the average amount an American uses in one year.”
When I walked by he was filling the parking meter. I feel guilty because I always take bags at the supermarket — I use them to dispose of kitty litter. I don’t know what else to use.
