Rising tides...

Hampton beach New Hampshire… sand sculpting…

Wired:

From Maine to Florida, the Atlantic seaboard has experienced higher tides than expected this summer. At their peak in mid-June, the tides at some locations outstripped predictions by two feet.

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The change has come too fast to be attributed to melting ice sheets or anything quite that dramatic, and it’s a puzzle for scientists who’ve never seen anything quite like it.

“The ocean is dynamic. It’s not uncommon to have anomalies like this but the breadth and the intensity and duration were unique,” said Mike Szabados, director of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s tide and current program.

The unexpected tidal surge is subsiding, has reduced its reach from the entire coast, and is now concentrated just in the mid-Atlantic states.

NOAA is rushing to study the data in an effort to understand what happened. Szabados’ office is already putting the finishing touches on a report that will be released next month on the wind and current patterns that appear to be correlated with the tidal surge.

Szabados said that two main factors appear to have contributed to the extra high tides. First, there were steady winds out of the northeast throughout this anomaly. Second, the ocean current running from Florida up along the coast weakened. While the associations between these phenomena and the tides are provocactive, it’s too early to tell how fully they explain this unexpected tidal event.  ….

Call Obama.  It’s his problem.

[A]merica, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.

The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment—this was the time—when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

GOOD LUCK!

***

UPDATE, 7:38 pm on the Pacific Ocean…

Tidal Action!

From the Press Gag-gle today…………

Jon.

Q Back to today’s news, on clunkers — the problem as I understand — I talked to some state auto dealership associations which represent numerous dealerships. According to talking to some of these folks, what’s been a success so far is creating demand. But what has not been successful is trying to get the claims from the dealers to the government for the money that they’ve had to expend to buyers. In other words, they’re saying they’re going on the computer system and trying to submit the claims and are getting kicked off from the system a third of the way, and this is happening apparently all week, all around the country, in different dealerships. They’ve put this money out. They’re hearing that the system or the program has been suspended –

MR. GIBBS: Well, the program hasn’t been suspended. Let’s –

Q It was last night. So they’re worried — but they’re worried about getting their money back, because they’ve put out hundreds of thousands of dollars if they’re a large dealership. If they’re capital-weak, then that could be a real problem. What’s being done to fix that?

MR. GIBBS: Well, first and foremost, the program, as we said last night, was not suspended. And as I said this morning, the program was not suspended. The administration is comfortable and confident that the previous money that was allocated through the supplemental appropriations is enough to cover those transactions and to continue operating the program.

We think the program has been so successful that the President and staff here talked with Capitol Hill about extending that program — I know some of that request came — members of the Michigan delegation were very interested in that last night, and the House has voted to add an additional — or to move $2 billion from the Recovery Act energy efficiency programs into additional money for the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles.

I’m sure they’re looking at whatever problems the site may be having. Obviously with something that’s enormously popular there may be traffic problems on the computers. But we’re confident, and I think dealers can be confident, that the money is there to reimburse them for the rebates and the incentives that have drawn thousands and thousands of customers that haven’t been there for quite some time into their showrooms to purchase cars.  [we're all so confident! ---Mcat]

Q It seems, though, that what may have prompted whatever happened last night — I think it was the Transportation Department’s statement or calls to members of Congress — I think — what I’m hearing is that what prompted that was that the government began to wonder if they had any idea how much they were on the hook for, basically.

MR. GIBBS: Well, again, as I talked to our guys here today, there were surveys by the dealers association. They felt that the obligations were getting toward the upper band of money that had been allocated. We feel confident, which is why I said so this morning, that there is enough money — but to extend a popular program that we think is having, again, benefit for many involved, that moving that money from the recovery to this makes a lot of sense.

Look, I’ll tell this to dealers: Again, we feel confident, I think they can feel confident heading into the weekend, and hopefully if we can get the Senate to act, I think it’s likely — more likely that it’s going to be the beginning of next week. But I think they can feel confident heading into the weekend with a strong bipartisan vote in the House for additional money to ensure the continuation of the program.  [still confident!  Really confident!  ---Mcat]

Q Robert, isn’t there a — excuse me, but isn’t there a chance of an interruption, though, before the Senate acts?

MR. GIBBS: An interruption — again, we feel comfortable that there’s money to cover the transactions and we’re hopeful that the program, because it’s popular, because we think it is having such an important impact, will be extended even further.

Q So if there’s a run on dealerships between now and the weekend –

MR. GIBBS: “It’s a Wonderful Life” on GM dealers — we’re coming to get our — look, we hope a lot of people go this weekend to look at buying a new car. We think that’s, again, we think that incentives are good for them, we think they’re good for the economy, and we feel confident that there’s money to cover those transactions.

Q Thank you, Robert.

Got it?

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