The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Victor Raymond:

The Birdland neighborhood of Des Moines has been evacuated. There's been a levee breach on the near northside, and North High School has already begun to be flooded. The last time this happened, in 1993, there was considerable damage to buildings in the "500-year" flood plain. Makes you want to drop a zero off that time estimate.

I'm on high ground, and the flooding in Ames has subsided for now. Some disturbing things to consider:

- The vast majority of arable land in Iowa is in high-yield crops. And the tiling from that only exacerbates run-off, which means that it is not just storms and weather, but land-use, that is causing the flooding. But try telling that to someone who wants to clear out a marsh so it can be used for biofuel production.

- Communities that learned from '93 have been MUCH better prepared, and those that didn't (like Iowa City) have been paying for that mistake.

But in Ames, things are quiet and relatively dry; we're 30 miles north and upstream from Des Moines, so we're not as affected by that either. The situation in Cedar Rapids is appalling, however. And 100 miles away, so I'm grateful to be elsewhere.

If you can, please donate to the Red Cross. I know they're going to be busy for awhile here.

Paul, Sean, Kip, et. al. -

If you think Latour is problematic, let's leave Baudrillard completely out of the discussion....

(Generally, I agree with Paul about Latour, particularly about the culture of science and what's useful about Latour's commentary)

I have no words. Damn, I'm going to miss you, Mike.

I hope Jim makes a full recovery.

Yay! I see many Xmas presents in the near future! Yay!

Jeez, Mike. Thank you. Good advice.

Oh, no. I hope things improve for you soon, Teresa.

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