Debate poll #1 - Who won the debate?

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This debate should lead to some interesting analysis by the pundits afterwards. What a cat fight.

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I'm trying to keep the threads short so that they will load more quickly in your browser.

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One hour into the debate and we're already at the fifth thread.

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Will this debate change what the voter's think?

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This is turning feisty among the candidates.

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It's moving fast folks.

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We are only a few minutes away from the start.

Hurricane Harvey most extreme U.S. weather event of last decade

Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Hurricane Harvey was the most extreme weather even to affect the United States during the last decade, according to a new list published this week by the periodical Weatherwise.

To compile the top-ten list, retired meteorologist Douglas Le Comte, who previously worked for the NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, analyzed the cost of destruction caused by each weather event, as well as death and injury tolls. Le Comte also considered the size of each disaster, as well as the meteorological rarity of the different weather events.

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought unprecedented rainfall totals to Houston and the surrounding region. The heavy rains lasted more than a week and triggered flooding across an area of southeast Texas roughly the size of the Netherlands.

According to Le Comte's analysis, the category four storm was the wettest on record and the second most expensive in U.S. history, causing $125 billion in damages. At least 68 people were killed, mostly by drowning.

Read more: https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2020/02/18/Hurricane-Harvey-most-extreme-US-weather-event-of-last-decade/9931582043265/?ts_=20

Texas history: J. Frank Dobie: 'Earth Rhythms and the Southwestern Tempo'

This week, we share another literary gem from “The Essential J. Frank Dobie,” collected and edited by Stephen L. Davis. The 2019 Texas A&M University Press book will go into a second printing soon.

This excerpt from the writings of “Mr. Texas,” first published as part of a column in The Dallas Morning News on Dec. 12, 1943, takes on the notion of a Southwestern tempo of life:

On my way to England, I flew over the ocean without seeing it, and realized again the distinction between transportation and travel. The other passengers inside the clipper plane played cards or chess, read magazines and books, and talked above the roar of the propellers as the fog of clouds cut off all vision.

In the days to come, when air travel is as common as automobile travel, I doubt that people will experience novel and pleasurable sensations from being in the air. Like other kinds of transit, airplanes will be valued chiefly for transporting a person from where he is to where he wants to go. No amount of advertising will make air travel capable of transporting a person outside of himself. And that is the only kind of traveling worth calling by name.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/entertainmentlife/20200217/texas-history-j-frank-dobie-lsquoearth-rhythms-and-southwestern-temporsquo

Note: I'm biased about J. Frank Dobie since he is a fellow Southwestern University alum and was raised in the same county (Live Oak County) as I was.