Postby Technomancer » Thu Sep 18, 2003 8:08 pm
Neither would I, at least not now. The comparisons were made earlier, when Isabel was a much stronger storm (it was enormously lucky that the storm weakened so dramatically). In any event, the conditions that made Hazel so devastating here can't be repeated due to changes in building codes and zoning laws, not to mention the meterological effects that served to increase Hazel's damage.
We'll probably get a fair bit of rain though (projected to be ~50 mm in the Hamilton-Niagara region). Although up here it was the flooding that did most of the damage in back '53.
The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
Neil Postman
(The End of Education)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge
Isaac Aasimov