hmmmm.... Storm Chasers????

Decided to sit down and actually watch Storm Chasers last night and I thought a few comments and thoughts were in order.
Very interesting to see some of the storms and structure from April not to mention some great video. Was great to see more of Tony L. interacting and in front of the camera. I met Tony for the first time in 2006 in Denver and then again last year at the "Steve Miller OK party". I have certainly seen him many times on the road chasing and in my opinion what you see is what you get. He is a top notch guy with a passion for chasing.
I really enjoyed seeing him doing his thing in the heat of the battle and playing the game. Tim also did a great job, as always, and is someone who I respect very much.
I also thought that Brandon Ivy and Matt H. did a wonderful forecasting job despite not being able to check a battery before a chase. lol

Of course, a show is done by editing and can go many different ways depending on how you edit the video. One way for a docu-drama/reality type show such as Storm Chasers to go is to create "issues" between certain characters. Theses "issues" are usually done to keep the audience on the edge of their seat in hopes that they will not change the channel.
Some of the "issues" that a network/production company can and will use can be anything from "he said, she said" to actual verbal abuse from one character towards another.

No doubt Discovery used these "issues" with the situation between Sean and Reed regarding the TIV and the "Big Red Shoe"
Admittedly, and as I have said before and took much heat for, there is no doubt that one resembles the other. I think it would be safe to say that one is a direct copy of the other, at least in the reason for building it, which in some circles would/could be considered stealing.
Am I suggesting that Reed Timmer stole the idea to build "The Big Red Shoe" directly from Sean Casey??? Hmmmmmmmmmmm...........

The answer is hell yes he did. Much the same as stealing the idea of a probe coming from Tim S not to mention the RC plane idea being stolen from Verne Carlson.

There is no question that the word stealing brings thoughts of a really bad person to mind, this however is not one of those times, and the reason why or difference you ask? Well, before you come to tar and feather me or bring Doswells Spanish inquisition to hunt me down let me explain.........It is a fact of life that the wheel was invented once...everybody else just "refined" it. A simple fact when looking at Goodyear....they made it better.
In my opinion Reed took an idea that Sean had, worked angle and simply made it better.
There is certainly nothing wrong with taking an idea and making it better and then capitalizing on that idea financially or otherwise. It is actually how most business work and how most "new" products are built.
It is not a bad thing per say and although at times it may seem somewhat unethical, it's just the way the world works.

On a different note, it was interesting to see some "issues" between Joel and Reed start to show.
Again, it is hard to tell how much was acting for the camera and how much is real and unfortunately the viewers may never really know, especially if they are not involved in or with the chase community.

All in all not a bad couple of shows IMO.

More Money???

More and more money?

As has been the case with this nasty thing we call "our" government and the nasty stupid people we choose to call our leaders with all their wisdom, they have decided to support the $215 billion dollar bailout for the big three auto makers.

I for one am appauled at the mere thought of another "bailout" It makes me sick to think that our "government" is allowing or even trying to push this bailout through. For you common people like me, remember that we just basically shelled out $700 billion to bail out a few lenders and their bad habits, ballon payments and all that crap. One question for you......... WHAT HAPPENED TO THE $700BILLION? It did not help the economy like they thought it would and some of those same lenders who were begging to be saved are now in worse shape than they were before the big bailout. There was no real control over that money to start with, no one keeping an eye on where it was spent or going to excluding some half ass educated people on the oversight commitee who are due to release an update and info on where the money is actually going. Click on the link to read the report:

http://cop.senate.gov/documents/cop-121008-report.pdf

And now the 3 big auto makers have got their hands out much like the homeless guy standing on the corner this morning on my way to work begging for money, he held a sign saying, "why lie, I really want a beer"....so I gave him a few bucks. I mean at least the poor bastard was honest enough to tell the truth which is more than I can say for anyone of the big shots of the auto world, not to mention our own government and addminastration.

Speaking of elected and appointed officials, this pic tells it all.......

I am almost ashamed of any party affiliation right now, as most of you know I am a democrate but at this point even the Dem's are screwing up. The House Of Rep. voted in favor of the bailout.

I believe the bill is to be put to the Senate later today or tomorrow and we can only hope that this will not pass. And don't bitch that this is the fault of the Dems. or the Rep. The fault should be passed on to those greedy little bastards who received big balloon payments, all the while ripping off their own workers by paying them shit wages and stealing their hard invested money, the people who got rich off of $4.00 per gallon gas, the people who were and are in bed with the oil industry (Bush included) Not to mention all the stupid people in congress taking mega vacations and paying $700.00 for a toilet seat.

WTF is this world coming to?

Unemployment is at an all time high.....the old saying "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" has never been more true than it is today, and people wonder why things are they way they are.

Just like the first bailout did not work, this proposed bailout is not going to work either.

The big lenders and auto makers as well as our own government are going to keep asking for more and more money until the value of our dollar is nill. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not the solution.

We need something much like "The New Deal" to help out our economy and we need it now not tomorrow because it appears that even Obama is not going to help with this situation!

Our Tanked Economy?

After a very short national televised speach tonight the President informed all of us that the economy was in dire need of help along with a few choice words in which he informed us that if the 700 billion dollar bill was not passed our future would be in question. I would encourage all of you to do as much research/looking into this arising situation as possible.

For those of you who do not know or have not been watching tv (short version)....basically the goverment wants 700 billion dollars to help buy out these morgage companies and lenders because of the bad decisions they have made, and they want us to pay for those bad decisions by taxing us accordingly or face the consequence. Only problem is, at this point, we have to do something for their stupid mistakes or our economy will go in the tank and we will go into a nasty recession. I will not go into all the mistakes these lenders made as it would take way too long but I can say that while these lenders were filling there pockets they were also filling others as well. Case in point please see the picture below

"The money from Freddie Mac to the firm of Rick Davis is on top of more than $30,000 a month that went directly to Davis for five years starting in 2000.
The $30,000 a month came from both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the other housing entity now under government control because of the nation's financial crisis.
Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, reported early Tuesday evening that Davis' lobbying firm remained on the Freddie Mac payroll. The New York Times reported all the payments, posting an article on its Web site Tuesday night revealing the $15,000 a month to the firm of Davis Manafort. The newspaper quoted two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.
On Wednesday, the campaign of McCain's Democratic presidential rival, Barack Obama, accused Davis and McCain's campaign of not telling the truth about Davis' continuing financial relationship with Freddie Mac.
Campaign spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said it was troubling that Davis' firm "continued to be compensated by Freddie Mac until as recently as last month, but that the firm did little work and apparently was being paid simply to provide access to the McCain campaign."
McCain' vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, said her understanding was that Davis had recused himself from the firm's business.
"I don't know how long ago, a year or two ago that he's not benefiting from that," she said when questioned about the payments during an interview Wednesday with "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric. "And you know, I was ... I would hope that's not the case."
Asked about potential conflicts of interest, Palin said: "Again, my understanding is that he recused himself from the dealings with Freddie and Fannie, any lobbying efforts on his part there," she said. "And I would hope that's the case because, as John McCain has been saying, and as I've been on a much more local level and also rally against, is the undue influence of lobbyists in public policy decisions being made."
McCain's campaign said McCain campaign said the $15,000 a month went to Davis' firm, not to Davis.
"Mr. Davis has received no salary or compensation ... no profit or partner distributions ... neither has Mr. Davis received any equity in the firm based on profits derived since his financial separation" from the firm in 2006, the campaign said in a statement posted on its Web site.
In that statement, the McCain campaign mischaracterized the Times report, alleging that its story said Davis was paid by Freddie Mac. In fact, the newspaper said Freddie Mac paid Davis's firm.
A person familiar with the contract says the $15,000 a month in payments to Davis' firm started around the end of 2005 and continued until the past month or so. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae paid Davis $30,000 a month after recruiting him to run a newly created group, the Homeownership Alliance. The five years of payments followed McCain's failed bid for the presidency in 2000.
The connection between Davis and the housing giants that figure centrally in the global financial crunch emerged after the McCain campaign unleashed a sharp attack on Obama.
McCain has tied Obama to Fannie and Freddie's troubles and has called on Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines — both Obama supporters and former Fannie Mae executives — to return large golden parachute payments they received from the corporations after leaving.
McCain's campaign released a television ad that says Raines is among those advising Obama on housing policy.
Obama's campaign released a statement from Raines, who says he is not an Obama adviser.
Robert McCarson, a former spokesman for Fannie Mae, criticized the McCain campaign's attack on Obama, given the five years of payments to Davis.
"It's either idiocy or hubris" on the McCain campaign's part, McCarson, a Democrat, said in an interview."

CAN WE SAY THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS??????

Extreme Chase Tours

Well we finally ended the tour...what a hell of a couple weeks. We filmed 36 tornadoes in 2 weeks and the great thing is most of them were in Kansas and Oklahoma! Although sometimes I felt like a ping pong driving back and forth from Wichita, Hill City and Tulsa. But it was a great run and we had a lot of fun.
Many congrats to all those who got some great video, I know Randy got some stuff that is crazy....he actually got hit by the Hoxie tornado(s) and got his windshield sucked out all the while Lisa was being sucked under the truck by the tornado! Some really crazy stuff!
A lot of posts on ST about this kind of stuff...and as usual the "old" bastards are still screaming about it giving storm chasing a bad name and look. Of course, it is still as much of a load of shit today as it was last year and the year before. While it is probably true that some day a chaser will die from a tornado directly or otherwise, so is it true that people will die this year in a plane crash, walking down the road, riding a bike or many various other things we do every day.
The "stormchase community' in my opinion is filled with so much crap these days and it looks like it will not change any time soon which is no wonder why I try to keep keep a low profile however, for those that got to see our show Tornado Hunters....I will not change the way I chase and make no apologies for how I chase or the person I am!
As for Doswell and company, bitching about it does not help, if the old bastards really think chasing is going to hell in a hand basket why not help by "mentoring" and the like instead of hammering and criticizing everyone?
Seems to me that this would help a lot

May 13th Severe Weather and Moderate Risk???

If you are into weather, a chaser, forecaster or even an meteorologist and have never question the forecasting abilities of the "boys" down in Norman now would be a GREAT time sto start!
Let me just start off by saying that they blew the outbreak on the 10th not to mention all the moderate risks they have thrown out this year and ZERO tornadoes.
You have to wonder if the government is still doing random piss tests because these guys are smoking for sure! Take today for an example: Morning run placed the Moderate risk with a hatched area for tornadoes across most of Eastern Oklahoma....by 16z it was obvious (via RUC)
that the risk was very low as 850 winds stayed SSW. Not to mention the CAPE value shrinking further to the South throughout the day and was present with the 18z sounding.
Had any of those "forecasters" taken a look at the WRF 4km they would have seen the convective mode and probably would have ended with a slight and not a moderate with 5% for tornadoes! Speaking of which 1 tornado reported today....IN MISSOURI, NOT EVEN IN THE MODERATE RISK AREA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So much like everyone else, we dove south and caught the storm on I-40...were displayed with a wonderful wall cloud and some great structure but much like most events this year it did not last. The storm to the south pushed out and the FFD pulled around our storm. Got some good pics and video that I will try to post later but that's about it. Finally let the storm run over us south of 40 on 69hwy but not much left of it at that point.
Looks like this might be our last run for a good week or so.