Post
by ^Rhino! » Tue Mar 25, 2014 9:40 am
Realizing that the government can't protect you from everything that can go wrong is the first step towards self-reliant awareness.
Folks ask me why I live in Columbia as opposed to Jefferson City, when I work in Jefferson City. Jefferson City, the state capital, has several strikes against it for me. First off, it's a political town. People actually have been judged as to their political beliefs and affiliations by the variety of roses they maintain in their garden. Lots of rumormongering and backstabbing as people work up the ladder of political careers. The second reason is that Jefferson City's major intersection south of the Missouri River, the junction of US Highways 50,54, and 63 is in a flood zone. It flooded during the 'Great Flood' of 1993 and people were stuck on one side of the city or the other, unless they wanted to try to negotiate traffic on High Street.
Columbia is better. We have live music venues, a symphony, college football that's worth a look, and much better pizza and barbecue. I live in a quiet luxury apartment development on the north side of town, adjacent to an 8-mile walking trail that follows Bear Creek. We have damn good Thai food cooked by native Thais. Downtown, we actually have Albanian cuisine! The burgers are heavenly.
Now, back to the landslides: I've been investigating them for nigh on 20 years, determining causes and potential remediation measures. The big hurdle in remediation is COST. A simple highway landslide can cost upwards of a million dollars to fix. Still, you're fighting the force of gravity. This landslide in Washington state I'd estimate you couldn't approach for under a hundred million to move the million cubic yards of dirt involved. Even then, where would you put it? Dewatering the entire slide area would still cost tens of millions of dollars.
I don''t worry much about earthquakes, even though the New Madrid fault zone is located in southeast Missouri. California has nearly twice the 'g' we do, the ground motion effect attributed to shear waves. The 'g' in columbia is less than 0.1. Even in New Madrid, it's 0.45. California in the San Francisco area is about 0.7. Japan was REALLY asking for trouble, building a nucllear reactor at Fukushima Daiichi. The g there is about a 2.0. And as the record showed there, if the earthquake didn't get you, the tsunami sure could.
Rue Morgue - '08, '09
Black Rock Beacon - '2010, 2012-2016
(lux, veritas, lardum)
Bacon is forever. Veni, vidi, pertudi. (We came, we saw, we DRILLED.) - BRC Div. of Geology 2009-2015
I'm here until the serendipitous synchronicity is ubiquitous.
Maybe at some point the cougar could have become exposed to radiation or something, if comic books have anything to say about it you should be on the lookout for super powers. Try keeping track of how high or far you can jump, or how well you can see at night over the next few days.
As regards the finger, soap and water is your friend there so as long as it's not oozing I would not keep a bandage on it at all. Wash that finger thoroughly and frequently. This is an evidence-based recommendation; nothing has proven better for this type of wound than soap & water, ever. There is finger-sized tubular bandage you can get at most big pharmacies, if you want to protect it; discard & replace every time you wash, which should be, pretty frequently! Also: update your tetanus shot if it has been more than 5 years. Yes I know they are supposed to be good for 10 years but, this is the type of wound that tetanus really loves. 
