"According the model, a hurricane with wind speeds of about 100 miles per hour — making it a 'weak' Category 2 storm — might cause on the order of $35 billion in damage if it were to pass directly over Manhattan.... Although far from the most likely scenario, this may represent a reasonable-worst-case estimate of what could happen if Hurricane Irene took exactly the wrong turn at exactly the wrong time.... Keep in mind that New York’s annual gross domestic product is estimated to be about $1.4 trillion — about one-tenth of the nation’s gross domestic product — so if much of the city were to become dysfunctional for months or more, the damage to the global and domestic economies would be almost incalculable." READ MORE

"On a street of brownstones in Park Slope, Brooklyn—a run-down neighborhood politely described at the time as being “in transition”—one plane, a state-of-the-art jetliner, gouged long-lasting scars. The tail slammed down in an intersection. White-hot engines, smoldering cargo and badly burned bodies fell nearby. A stream of jet fuel touched off a fire that grew to seven alarms and destroyed 10 buildings and a church. Two men selling Christmas trees on a corner and a man shoveling snow were killed." READ MORE

While there's much that's different, the similarities between Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Haiti are as impossible to ignore as they are uncomfortable to consider. New Orleans rapper Kidd Kidd makes the connection himself at the end of his new video, "From Here."

I subscribed to that Mine magazine thing, a project of Time Inc. which unfortunately is not a trade publication about ore extraction. It is instead a magazine that assembles bits of other magazines to make a magazine that speaks to you, about your needs! I tried it out because Farhad Manjoo earnestly liked it. And here is what I got. READ MORE

This account of the launch party for SeattlePI.com, which is the website that used to be a newspaper in Seattle, is so horrifying. For just one thing, it's disturbing to find out that the editor of their site's most popular blog ("by a factor of 10") has a day job! What the fuck! They can't pay him a living wage? (Secondarily, his day job is installing software for a military contractor. Which means he works for Skynet.) Anyway, everything else about this party is so much worse!