Life as an Extreme Sport

Category: …and everything else

Mostly everything else in a brain-academic way.

Come on, Irene (thoughts on disaster management & pets)

...and everything else

Yes, I am in the expected path of Hurricane Irene – I’ll get tropical storm winds for what looks like a sustained 12 hours, and possibly 24 hours. Philadelphia has already gone through the front rain shield of the storm, which was relatively mild; radar suggests it’s going to get progressively worse as the day goes on.

My on-going interest in disaster management means I’ve been watching this, the governors and mayors of various cities, with extreme interest. So far, my main conclusion is that no one wants a repeat of Katrina. Of course, this brings up a lot of fascinating questions about race, class, perceived value of location, and how much of that is in play versus simply, actually, learning.

The one thing, however, that is clearly and rather unequivocally a matter of “having learned” is how pets are being treated. A major issue in Katrina was that shelters were not set up, and would not take, pets. This, of course, led to a massive loss of pet life – and also human life, as people opted to stay behind with their pets instead of leave them to die afraid and alone.

And prior to Katrina, this attitude – I won’t leave my pets – seemed to baffle people involved in shelters and disaster management. The past few days, I’ve noticed with significant joy, that shelters in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia all take pets – and in fact, both Nutter (mayor of Philly) and Bloomberg (mayor of NYC) have emphasized that owners should not leave their pets alone, but bring them to the shelters with them. Likewise, the restrictions of pets on mass transit were lifted in NYC, before transit was shut down, and currently all taxis are required to accept pets.

In Philadelphia, Tara Murtha emphasizes, for Philadelphia Weekly’s PhillyNow,

If you need to evacuate your home, please do NOT leave your dog or cat behind to suffer or die alone. Philadelphia’s Office of Emergency Management has activated the local CART (County Animal Response Team) to organize accommodations for pets in conjunction with Philly’s Red Cross emergency shelters:

Roxborough High School: 6498 Ridge Ave.

Abraham Lincoln High School: 3201 Ryan Ave.

Bartram High School: 2401 S. 67th St

According to Red Cross Director of Communications Dave Schrader, all three shelters are prepared for you to bring your pets with you. Crate cats, leash dogs and bring dogs’ cages. “The pets do not come into the actual living quarters, but we worked out arrangements with pet agencies to take pets from the people who are coming,” says Schrader.

This is a welcome change that should help to save lives – both human and companion friends.

The End of the Shuttle Era

...and everything else, Politics, Tilting at Windmills

I took a nap rather than actually sleep through the night, in order to watch STS-135 (Atlantis) land for the final time. For the entire space shuttle program’s final time.

Atlantis Landing
The last shuttle landing, via NASA TV

The shuttle program is 33 years old. I grew up watching the shuttles, from the Enterprise OV tests to Challenger and Columbia and all the launches and successes between. And now this, the bittersweet end. A program that started because JFK realized the importance of manned exploration of the world beyond ours, fueled by a space race against those evil commie Russians, now ends with American reliance on the Russians to get to the ISS at all.

There might be a modicum of irony in that.

Yes, the shuttle program is expensive – but it’s the kind of expensive I want my tax dollars going to. It’s the kind of expensive that brings back miraculous and amazing technology, research, and discovery. So much of the world around us has come from NASA – yes, more than just Tang. Whether you realize it or not, the space shuttle program has touched your life, immediately and directly.

And now it’s gone.

Sure, there’s talk of privatization, but that’s still several years off at the very least and optimistic. And NASA says that they will shift their focus to manned space exploration, to Mars and beyond. And of course, Voyager and Voyager2 are still out there, still threatening to become V’ger, and there are the Mars rovers and the list of what NASA is doing is still impressively long.

But it’s not the same, and I have my doubts about some of these things ever happening, like a manned voyage to Mars. Right now, our country doesn’t value science, exploration, or discovery. We have managed to lose that adventurous spirit that defined everyone who came to America looking not just for something more and something better, but for the answer to the simple question: what’s beyond that horizon?

Religion and politics have split us asunder in the last twenty years, and a casualty of that war is our national curiousity, our pride in scientific advancement pushed by brilliant American minds, and now, our shuttle – and space – program.