What do Michael Moore & Drudge have in common? They both watch Weather...

The various earth sciences, after years of being considered geeky and second cousins to the REAL sciences (biology, physics) have finally come around and realized that Earth Science is HOT, HOT, HOT and exciting to watch, pay attention to and has the POWER to MESERMIZE us all.

I mean we live on this hot, blue planet with a jet stream and atmospere constantly swirling around like a big blue and white lava lamp... in dark reds and oranges if you like enhance IR imagery. Bubbles in the flow get stuck and quickly become wild storms, filled with fury that travel across our land.. tornadoes, twisters, cyclones, hurricanes, hail, rain and the ever popular derechos.

One moment you are out at the beach... a sunny day, a pretty girl in a not much bikini.. a guy with a tan and the breeze is blowing across your young, hot bodies ... baking in the sun when all of a sudden.. out on the horizone, faster than you can save "Save Me Superman!!" a storm forms. Big, tall, white clouds reaching for the sky.. higher and higher and taking over the whole horizon while you lay there baking in the tropical breeze.

If you have lived in Miami in the summer... you may be a Redneck because the rich people go north... the ones faint of heart who will go anywhere to get away from Miami in the August. But.. if not.. if you are a poor working folk of any color... you know those storms can unleash a wild fury upon your world.

You learn to respect those storms for what they are... Severe Thunderstorms capable of producing large hail and winds in excess of 55 miles per hour... etc, etc.. etc.. whatever they say on the weather warning scroll that many of us know by heart.

Those were the storms we lived for at seventeen.. at the pool at the JCC.. hanging out on a summer afternoon.. waiting in the pool til the LAST minute before jumping out as the whole western sky turned a dark shade of blue-black-purple and gray and lightning began rolling in from the Glades. We were hooked.

Sorry.. I don't think Weather is Geeky.

I think weather is as exciting as anything you will see some computerized, movie company spend a fortune trying to simulate.

How many people watched the War of the Worlds and thought those early storms were one of the best parts?

Come on.. you know you did. The rest was good, fun.. but those wild storms forming just out and beyond the neighborhood there... everyone standing around with their babies, their bikes.. their pets... watching the storms form, the winds pick up ...the electricity in the air.. wow.. come on ...those were awesome.

And, we are mesmerized by it's power to destroy... as well as to bless this country with rich, long, fertile growing seasons. Rain... let it fall.

If it doesn't fall... you get people wishing for it, praying for it.. begging for it.
Movies where people will do anything..even pray for the Rain Man to come and put a spell on their city and make it rain.

Wasn't that Burt Lancaster? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049653/ Was this not considered one sexy, hot movie in it's day?

Was Leap of Faith one of Steve Martin's best moments ever on the screen?http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104695/ Unreal performance, script, staging of musical numbers and of course... the much waited for rains.

The Wizard of Oz.. a title I don't need to even link to..you all see it in your head. Twister.. the movie...

Weather is sexy. Weather is happening. Weather is HOT.

CNN and MSN and FOX.. have found out ...what most of us already knew but didn't talk about in public for fear of seeming nerdy..

Weather is Hot. Weather is Sexy. Weather is exciting. Weather Sells.

Lex Luthor figured this out.. why do you think he was forever trying to control the world's weather? Just to impress Lois Lane? Well, maybe cause am sure if there was ever a weather chaser girl in Metropolis it would sure as hell have been Lois.

Nope.. it's the money honey and the economics is all about weather... whether wheat grows, whether troops can move in and around Iraq, weather rain will mess up D-Day...Normandie, weather the space shuttle takes off. The whole hurricane hunter program was an outgrowth of the US troops having to deal with those crazy typhoons in the Pacific during WW2.

Fire... racing through Chatsworth, a place I know like the back of my hand... fire racing through mountain passages. CNN is trying to figure how to cover that one like they never did before but luckily... the SANTANA winds are dying down. Thank God.

Lived in L.A. My ex-husband was from Northridge. We would spend the weekends by his parent's spread out in the North Valley.. West Valley. The little Miami girl would wake up, go down to the cul de sac, get the paper and stare up at those moutains. Hills really compared to mountains but to a Miami girl.. they were moutains and they were beautiful. Every morning the sunrise hit them just a little differently, can still see the shadows moving across them. Sigh.. fire in Chatsworth...

Oh gosh.. Topanga Canyon.. the most beautiful ride down to the sea is through Topanga Canyon down to Malibu.. twisting and turning through Topanga Canyon.

So... finally the world has caught up with us trackers and chasers and they are standing around staring at the news and talking about Loop Currents, and Santana Winds and waiting to hear the next tidbit of news about weather, about earth science.

Oceanography = El Nino/La Nina, Loop Current, Gulf Stream
Geology = Earthquakes, Volcanoes..

Boring? No.Sexy and exciting and dramatic? Yes.Economically important? Yes.Newsworthy?? YES YES YES very very very YES!

Drudge watches the earth.. he knows that it may be tomorrow's hottest news story.
Quakes in Oregon.. clusters of quakes in California, a volcano beginning to puff into the air like an exhaust value broken from the earth below.

Drudge watches.. he's no dummy.

Got news for him.. Michael Moore watches... watches the eye of storm as it passes over him in Aventura.. he watches.....he knows this is a brewing story.

What do Drudge and Michael Moore have in common? They stay in tune to what is happening in the world around them..

They know where the story is.. follow the story like a good reporter..
The Story in 2005.. is weather.

Example. Lots of people have been upset about Iraq, about the troops not coming home so soon like Mr. President promised. But.. they didn't know what to say.. I mean..what can you say? Wait two more years til we change Heads of State and hope your man wins? Nah..now we have a REASON that unites American's against the war. Suddenly, there is misery and pain and problems in the Hurricane Region and Americans all over begin to wonder why we are paying a fortune to save Iraq when there are so many in need in Hurricane Lands.. American Lands..and no matter what spin they try to put onto it.. Money only goes so far.

Money can go here.. money can go there...money can't go everywhere.

Somewhere the buck has to stop and you run out of money..

Suddenly, people have a reason.. up close and personal in Louisianna, Mississippi and all those dysfunctional places (read notherners calling them dumb southern places in big words... did I not say THAT would happen.. ).

Money makes the world go round and weather tells you who has got it and who needs it..

Weather tells the story of power, politics and the changes that we all face when your worse case scenario really happens.

Andrew.Camille.Katrina.THE BIG ONE going shake, rattle and roll.Chatsworth or parts of LA going up in flames.

Hey ...you boring northerners... you got Winter coming.. Winter of what is left of 2005.. Hang on to your hats.. it's going to be a bumpy ride.

And... lastly... a very interesting link for you to think on.. and think where you want to live, invest, spend your summers.. a list from Hurricane City highlighted on MSN..which I may blog on later.. depending on if I get stuck with more time today than I would prefer to get stuck with...

A list that Jim has spent years putting together of facts on hurricane cities.Notice the list is on the MONEY pages...

MONEY $$$Not news of the wierd, not news on the back burner.

MSN shows Jim's page from www.hurricanecity.com on their MONEY site.

Think about it... think on the power of weather and earth sciences.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Insurance/Insureyourhome/P127816.asp