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Weather in the news this week . . .
MASSIVE TYPHOONS HIT THE PHILIPPINES - Two
massive typhoons - the Pacific equivalent of a
hurricane - slammed into the Philippines this
week, causing widespread destruction, especially
in the northern parts of the country. On
Tuesday, Typhoon Kalmaegi came ashore and when
it left, over 200 people were dead and over 100
were still missing. Today (Sunday),
super-typhoon Fung-wong came ashore. Although
larger than its predecessor, with a rain band
over 1,100 miles wide (covering almost all of
the Philippines), there have only been two
reported deaths so far but 1 million people have
had to evacuate their homes to avoid flooding.
Current forecasts have it weakening but making a
looping right turn and then taking aim at Taiwan
by Wednesday. I've seen numerous FaceBook posts
about all of this and while the general info
seems correct, there are a bunch of fake
AI-generated images being circulated that depict
massive waves wiping away cities. The
devastation is real but the images are not.
Although the Philippines has not formally
requested assistance, donations to relief
agencies will be appreciated. Here's some more
info from CBS News: PHILIPPINES
TYPHOONS.
DUMAGUETE OUT OF THE PATH -
This is where we'll be next year for our
Philippines trip and it appears that Dumaguete
is far enough south that it wasn't impacted or
affected at all by the typhoons.
LOCAL WEATHER IN THE NEWS TOO -
As things stand right now, while it won't be
anywhere on the magnitude of what hit the
Philippines, we're going to get some rain on
Thursday. Forecasts right now - and obviously,
these can and likely will change as we get
closer - call for almost an inch of rain
starting around dawn with the heaviest periods
of rain in the afternoon, and then tapering off
through the evening. But something to be aware
of and to watch out for.
SEAT GURU HAS DISAPPERED -
For those of us who travel a lot - or plan a lot
of travel - Seat Guru has for years been an
oasis in helping guide us to the best seats on
any given airline and route. Best of all, it was
free. In 2007, Seat Guru was purchased by Trip
Advisor and while it remained operational,
people complained that it wasn't getting updated
very frequently as plane configurations changed
or new aircraft came on-line. But last week,
Seat Guru simply . . . disappeared. When you
click on the link, you're directed to go to Trip
Advisor for your travel needs. A good
alternative might be AeroLopa, which seems to
offer some of the same info as could be found on
Seat Guru, but without the opinions and comments
of people who had flown in specific seats
before. But it still looks good for seat
configuration when you're trying to decide where
to plop yourself when you're purchasing a
ticket. Here's the link: AEROLOPA
SEATING CHARTS.
TABLES & COMPUTERS ZOOM CLASS ON DECEMBER 3 -
Best of all . . . IT'S FREE!!! I like teaching
this one because (1) I'm really a math/science
nerd at heart, and (2) It can save you a trip to
the chamber. But it still amazes me how many
people simply don't understand what their
computer is telling them other than that they
have X minutes to go until deco. (And half the
time, they don't understand what deco is to
boot.) So the goal of this class is to give you
a better understanding of what the computer says
and why. And we'll start with that old nemesis,
the dive table, because that's the jumping off
point for the calculations made by modern dive
computers. We'll give you some
easy-to-understand concepts and then see how
those apply to dive computers. The goal is to
give you a better grasp on what your computer is
telling you and why and how you can use a dive
computer to not only maximize your time
underwater, but also to maximize your dive
safety. This is a Zoom-based class and usually
runs around 2 hours or so, 7-9PM on Wednesday
December 3. If you're interested in signing up,
call or e-mail and we'll get you the link. We've
already got people registered so this will
definitely happen.
GLOW IN THE DARK -
Ever wonder why marine animals have
bioluminescence? It seems that as many as 75% of
them do. And if you'd like to read some quick
factoids and see some short video about how all
of that works, click here (thanks to Tabby Stone
for the link): GLOW
OF THE OCEAN.
And thatll do it for now. Have a great week and
let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken |
