Sofa King Smart

In the past ten years, we’ve seen the major annihilation of large populations of people and their homes and possessions by the ocean.
The tsunamis of late 2004 devastated more than 15 countries worldwide and killed more than a quarter of a million people. Although those tsunamis were created by earthquakes offshore, the Earth can use the ocean and weather to deliver an equally powerful “punch.”

–In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged the United States and caused untold amounts of property damage and killed almost 2,000 people.

–In the Spring of 2008, Cyclone Nargis struck the country of Myanmar, and the death toll (still emerging) could reach over 100,000.

Obviously, there have been many hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones before and in-between those mentioned above, but these account for two of the most publicized recently by the American media (where this blogger is located).

As people stand around the water coolers and breakrooms of America, a common question always seems to rise: what’s the difference between a hurricane, a typhoon, and a cyclone?

I must say that my memory is a little shaky on the matter, and I have likened a cyclone to a concentrated tornado funnel cloud that originates out at sea–sucking up water from the ocean and spewing it down as very turbulent rain and wind. On the other hand, I remember learning that a hurricane and a typhoon are roughly the same thing; namely, they are large tropical rotating storms that form at sea and, when they hit land, they destroy all in their paths.

I guess I’m kind of right and kind of wrong–a cyclone is the same as the other two, it’s just a bit more generalized term and can be tropical or polar (warm or cold).

According to the NOAA’s National Weather Service, the definition of a cyclone is “A large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.”

So, in comparison, what is a hurricane? NOAA defines a hurricane as “A tropical cyclone in the Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, or eastern Pacific, which the maximum 1-minute sustained surface wind is 64 knots (74 mph) or greater.”
and, a typhoon is listed as “A tropical cyclone in the Western Pacific Ocean in which the maximum 1-minute sustained surface wind is 64 knots (74 mph) or greater.”

I have to say that I feel very sorry for the people of Myanmar, and I will write a post about those opinions very soon (I just have to come up with something worthwhile for you to read).

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Tags: compare, cyclone, cyclones, death toll, how does, hurricane, hurricanes, katrina, myanmar, nargis, storms, tornado, tsunamis, typhoon, typhoons, vs, weather, what is

10. Beta vs. VHS

9. Yak Recipes

8. Yeast Infections

7. How to Make a Better Bomb

6. Aardvarks

5. Concrete

4. Gary Coleman

3. Erectile Dysfunction

2. Mesothelioma

<1. Hitler

#10. Beta Vs. VHS.  Lesson learned: Be up-to-date.  People visit blogs because they are modern–  VCRs are sooo yesterday, and the whole Beta/VHS controversy is moot because NEITHER format is relevant in regards to today’s technology. <<obviously, this applies to other controversies, ie. the feather quill vs. pen debate, or which is better, filtered or unfiltered cigarettes?>>

#9 Yak Recipes. Lesson learned:  Blog about something people need.  Unless you live in Mongolia, you’ve probably never seen Yak meat, much less needed to learn how to cook it.  <<side note: spin discarded Yak hair into yarn for a lovely, itchy parka, or collect Yak milk into a goat’s bladder and sip for a tasty treat.>>

#8 Yeast Infections. Lesson learned:  although the daily search for keyphrases “yeast infection”  or “treat yeast infection because of antibiotics” ranks in the thousands, do you really want to be known as the Yeast Infection guy or gal?  Although this infamous scratching fest deserves its place on the World-Wide Web (www, get it ? ;), it doesn’t warrant a personal blog–unless that’s your bag.

#7 How to Make a Better Bomb. Lesson learned: it’s good to be DUGG by the online community, not FLAGGED by the Dept. of Home Security.  I doubt that having Timothy McVeigh as an RSS subscriber is anything to brag about.  Plus, how do you monetize this blog without subverting the Google Adsense TOS?  Stay away!

#6 Aardvarks.  Lesson Learned: just because it comes tops in the Dictionary doesn’t mean anybody gives a crap.  Have you EVER typed “aardvark” into a search engine?  Neither have I.

#5 Concrete. Lesson learned: sorry, just fell asleep–what were we talking about?  Concrete is boring, and does not make for provocative reading material.

#4 Gary Coleman Lesson learned: how many times can you type “What’chu talkin’ about, Willis?” before your own interest diminshes? Although celebrities (even has-beens) can be fun to poke fun at, try and diversify–don’t put all your blog eggs into one, tiny hopeless basket with growth problems.

#3 Erectile Dysfunction  Lesson learned: unless you’ve suffered from this repeatedly, what can you possibly blog about on this?  the causes? the treatment? Save that for WebMD.  They’ve got pills (labeled Cialis and Viagra) for this, you know.  End of problem (and, hopefully, blog)!

#2 Mesothelioma  Lesson learned: unless you’re trolling for internet scammers or personal injury lawyers, this won’t provide much quality traffic.   There’s a reason why Oklahoma City mesothelioma lawyers (like the blatant keyword phrase?) pay out high adword rates, because most people don’t look up mesothelioma–but the payoff for one client is too great for them to resist.  A blog about mesothelioma, though, seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it?  Especially when you see the adsense around the text.

#1 Hitler  Lesson learned:  although a controversial figure makes for great material, a blog’s personal nature will end up seeming like a fanpage rather than its real intent. I’m going to just go out on a limb here and say that, frankly, Adolf Hitler was a real a$$hole.  I know some people reading this might be offended, but I just don’t care.  I really dislike Hitler!

 

There, I hope that little list helped in finding some focus for all of you just starting out blogging (like myself).  With a little work, and a lot of mesothelioma adsense revenue, we all can find our unique niche in the blogging world.

Sincerely,

The Jerk

http://sofakingsmart.com

 

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I think we’ve got some weird sense of priorities in our western media.  I’m not saying I’m perfect, but it’s things like this that burn me up.  Over the weekend at the Kentucky Derby, a horse name Eight Belles was injured and needed to be euthanized.  Also over the weekend, a cyclone hit Myanmar (also known as Burma) and at least 4,000 humans died as a result (with the toll rising as I write this).

Now, I ask you to do something.  Look to the left at the photo of Yahoo news and tell me which news made the “featured” news and which one is buried in the small print?

, but I think this is a good reason folks in faraway places despise us.  Are we more interested in reading about a horse that had to have the eternal sleeping juice, or should we, perhaps, give a bit more of our compassion to those nameless, faceless Myanmar citizens?

I don’t know if it’s a chick or egg type of syndrome in mainstream media and western culture.  I mean, I could blame those of us who connect to the “real world” through media outlets for concentrating our concerns on the exploits of an injured horse over the cries of a devastated country most of us can honestly say we never heard of, or I could blame the media for continually shoving one story in front of us that seems to be a relative molehill next to a mountain.

Or, I could blame myself for sitting here, drinking my coffee while everyone else is “shaking things up.”

Tags: burma, death toll, derby, Eight Belles, euthanization, Kentucky Derby, kentucky derby winners, myanmar, Myanmar cyclone