Nature: familiar, great, and terrible

[bodlon]

The thing about living in the Midwest -- especially this sort of middle of the Midwest bit -- is that tornadoes are a part of life. We've got sirens, I grew up doing drills at school, and they're the single most common thing I have to evacuate for at work.

Over the course of any given summer, the National Weather Service issues so many watches and warnings here that it's easy to get cavalier about it when the sirens go off. And maybe a lot of times the worst most of us see is something that acts like a nasty thunderstorm, maybe with some epic hailstones, and a fallen branch or two.

Joplin wasn't so lucky last night. The death toll is up to 116 at the last count I've seen, the high school and the hospital got nailed. Like the photos from the last nasty round of tornadoes in the South, the pictures out of Joplin are harrowing.

Please keep these folks in your thoughts, and help if you can.

~*~

- Lupa over at Therioshamanism shares a really great thought about human beings and our relationship to nature.

- Why, is that a Torchwood: Miracle Day trailer with actual characters and show footage in it? I do believe it is. Excitement!

- Chris Colfer talks about his encounters with anti-gay fans of Glee. Ah, if only I thought I'd be home tonight in time for the full Piers Morgan interview.

- An article from The Prospect about the CDC zombie preparedness thing, and how it reflects the Obama administration's positive paradigm shift. I'd like something a little meatier than this (no pun intended), but it's an interesting line of reasoning.

- Assuming all of my beets come to delicious fruition, I now have a more comprehensive plan than "make more borscht."

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com