Bengfort.com

I present to you now, our Twitter conversation during the Superbowl. Lame you say? Probably, but I have also embedded the Hulu ads that sparked such color commentary, making the twitterathon much more understandable. At the very least, our twitter shame will be kept for posterity, here, in the form of a blog post. Enjoy, and comment!

jacib
@AzmatZahra Solution: www.hulu.com/adzone All of the commercial entertainment without the inconvenience of football interruptions.

AzmatZahra
@jacib Genius!

bbengfort
Superbowl food because I love my wife. Also veggie burgers and wine. http://tweetphoto.com/10733673

The Dockers No Pants Commercial:

jacib
Dear Dockers: No Roman man ever wore pants. Just saying. Now go sell your pants, minus the misogyny, thank you.

bbengfort
@jacib stop ruining my chances for free pants! Men wear pants, dockers will send me a pair. Well, probably not anymore. Should I take so …

jacib
Uh oh, the Dockers site is failing under the onslaught of free-pants seekers. Maybe it should have worn it’s pants, hmmmmm?

jacib
Dang it, in my fervor I made a grammatical error. “Its.” There, now all is right with the world.

bbengfort
@jacib at least you’re battling the server overload for the pants.

jacib
People who wear pants: everyone. People who didn’t: Gladiators. Jesus. Goliath. (All Bible people.) Alexander the Great. Caesar.

Dodge Charger: Because I’m a Man:

bbengfort
Damn you dodge… Don’t you have women on your ad board? You’re killing those of us with wives….

jacib
I may be tweeting a lot. These commercials…it’s like shooting feminist-principle fish in a miniscule pail.

bbengfort
@jacib stupid targeted advertising. For the rest of you only reading the tweets, remember I’m sitting next to her.

FloTv: Injury Report

jacib
“Change out of that skirt, Jason.” Can we at least get NEW ideas on how to exacerbate the differences between the sexes?

bbengfort
A flotv will also get me out of my skirt and into pants? Sweet! Theme anyone?

bbengfort
Ach aye, but what if I want I want to feel the breeze between me balls?

jacib
@bbengfort From personal experience, running in a kilt is fast and comfortable. The garb of warriors, it is.

FloTv: Moments

jacib
See, FLOTV, when you try you can do so much better…that was a great second try! Still, “Jason’s girlfriend removed his spine”?

bbengfort
I love my sisters who aren’t tweeting because “some of us are trying to watch the game!”

devibengfort
we can watch the game guilt free because work and class is canceled tomorrow

devibengfort
@bbengfort we’re eating guacamole and chips… vegetarian and delicious, but not entirely healthy

bbengfort
@devibengfort healthy enough! Nice one, at least the snowpacolypse is good for something!

bbengfort
*urp – jaci just put product naming in context. Flotv and iPad together.

jacib
I can’t take credit…it was in the Jezebel comment party thread. http://jezebel.com/5466226/super-bowl-comment-party

tgjbhanna
@bbengfort real men do not wear pants.

bbengfort
@tgjbhanna I’ll remember that the next time I stay with you….

jacib
Strange, isn’t it, how many made-up rules there are for real men?

devibengfort
I also made a grammatical error. Work and class ARE canceled tomorrow, not is

Motorola: Megan Fox

jacib
And then, Megan Foxx in a bathtub, for the perfect dose of misandry. Men are stupid. Boobs.

bethanini
Real men wear plaid. Also, antifeminist advertising bringing out the “man” in me- at least I can burp and fart freely

jacib
@bethanini Ah ha, the tweeting is addictive…even if you are trying to watch the game! (Though admittedly I’m not.)

[WHOOPS! NCIS commercials don't appear on Hulu because they are CBS commercials!]

devibengfort
And now because of superbowl commercials, I’m going to smack people on a regular basis for a variety of reasons.

bethanini
@jacib Haha well Ben made me feel like I was missing something!

Focus on Family: Tebow

bethanini
Also, the Tebow commercial that aired must not have been the one they were talking about- it really didn’t seem inflammatory to me at all

bethanini
Didn’t even register as anti-abortion. I thought it was just a commercial about Tebow and his family. Silly me.

jacib
@bethanini That was it–it was just the Focus on the Family went subtle (perhaps to make the feminists seem hysterical?).

E*Trade: Milkaholic

jacib
Yes…babies are totally gender-inscribed…baby girls are jealous bitches, baby boys are tiny playas…also, “milkaholic”?

tgjbhanna
@jacib ahh boobs! And babies! Tv has it all!

bbengfort
Just remember it takes tight, spandex PANTS to kick an offsides kick in the third quarter… Bold.

jacib
@bbengfort It could be done in a nice short kilt…hopefully with appropriate underthings, though. Even I am not that progressive.

Census: Snapshot

jacib
Commercials I like count: 1 (census), 2 (Google–so cute!)

Google: Search On

bbengfort
Google… Awwww!

devibengfort
darn, we were wondering what the heck was going on with the census commercial that we didnt even see the google commercial

Kia: Big Game

jacib
Kia–so close! But we had to add girl in bikini, girl in da club…kid toys are so baller.

Doritos: Hands off!

bethanini
Tim’s favorite: Toddler bitch-slapping Mom’s boyfriend, also, Budweiser commercial with Stripes theme music

tgjbhanna
@jacib men have to have rules. It makes the women think they are in control.

bethanini
Of course, Tim missed Megan Fox commercial…

bbengfort
@jacib do you need an O2 tank, my dear, up there on your high horse? (don’t worry, I was given permission to tweet this)

jacib
@devibengfort Check www.hulu.com/adzone…it should post there in time.

jacib
@bethanini Ditto…if you dare! Boobs!

Denny’s: Chicken Warning

bbengfort
Just got confirmation of my free pants entry from dockers. Better get a size up because of my free Grand Slam from Denny’s on Tuesday!

tgjbhanna
@bbengfort trousers not pants. Forever in blue jeans.

jacib
Air Force Reserve commercial loses for being dorky. The military isn’t using it’s resources…

bbengfort
@tgjbhanna wow, I can’t believe you just Britished me! I could go for a pair of khakis, but I am a computer nerd.

sworah
Was there something going on today? I’ve been asleep nearly the whole weekend. Also, Megan Fox is a skanky whore.

bbengfort
@jacib Megan Fox, not Foxx, she’s not a porn star. And she is the next angelina, she already fought alien machines!

bbengfort
@sworah chris! Don’t talk about Megan that way!

jacib
@sworah Is that why I accidently put that extra “x” in her name? Whoops.

bbengfort
@sworah marry Megan, she won’t rip your spine away, forcing you to buy a flotv to get your pants back. I’m sure of it.

Vizio: Foundry

jacib
3 (VIZIO)

bbengfort
@jacib you like the boring commercials. Also, that was a tv, not a cell phone? What the what?

Emerald Nuts + Popsecret = Awesomer

jacib
AWESOME + AWESOME = AWESOMER. AWESOMER = FAIL.

sworah
@bbengfort If I even marry a woman like Megan Fox it would be because I first had a frontal lobotomy.

sworah
@bbengfort Also, I could buy a blow up doll that had more brains and less plastic that Megan Foux

bbengfort
@sworah or because you won the genetic lottery. Can you imagine your kids? Hot, crazy geniuses.

bbengfort
@sworah you could put that doll in a kiln and it wouldn’t be as hot as Megan. For clarification: you genius, her hot, both crazy.

sworah
@bbengfort The problem is, when you combine her IQ and mine in a meaningful way, you get #DIV0! As the result.

devibengfort
@sworah that’s a lot of hate for one person!

Budweiser: Fence

jacib
4 (Budweiser)

bbengfort
@sworah hopefully genetic IQ is a Max function or my kids are screwed.

sworah
@devibengfort the idea of mating with an individual like Megan Fox to me is probably similar to your thoughts of mating with an orangutan.

Bridgestone: Your tires or your life

jacib
5 (NCIS) I knew it was Abby from the moment I saw the boots!

bbengfort
NUTS!!!! Jaci is unavailable Tuesday, who wants to go to Dennys with me?

tgjbhanna
@jacib mom likes bud com. Too

jacib
@sworah Dang, Chris, what are you trying to say about my husband?!? WANNA RUMBLE, BIYOTCH!?!

jacib
It’s a good thing there’s enough football in this commercial program that I can catch up on twitter and the Jezebel comment party…

bbengfort
@jacib wait… What? Did you just say you’re the brains and I’m the Megan? Awesomer.

Audi: Green Police

jacib
(5) Audi

bbengfort
@jacib you’re on 6

jacib
Oops…(6)

tgjbhanna
@bbengfort green police was good!

jacib
@tgjbhanna Agreed.

bbengfort
Now I’m confused, a dodge or a green audi makes me a man? Help, I need a woman to tell me!

bethanini
Yikes…game over! DAGGER

Bud Light: Book Club

bbengfort
Where can I find the hot chick book club with bud light?

jacib
You mean, all I need is beer and men will want to talk about books? So, Plato, Dante, and Billy Shakespeare walk into a bar…

GoDaddy: Spa

bbengfort
@jacib timeout, godaddy doesn’t host us, we have our own server, I just bought our domain registration with them.

jacib
Oh my, GoDaddy. I can’t believe I let my husband use you as our host.

bbengfort
Whoops, I managed to get my tweet out before jaci! Thanks ubertwitter! Sorry to confuse you, twitterverse.

jacib
twitter, honestly, PUT YOUR PANTS ON.

jacib
If I’ve learned anything from SB44, pants solve everything…even giant whales in nets held up by birdies (i.e., twitter overcapacity).

bbengfort
I leave you with this: awesome + awesome = awesomer. Indeed.

jacib
I drive a Dodge Stratus: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/family-dinner/2908 (For those now considering a Dodge Charger.)

jacib
That was my most awesomest Superbowl ever. Thanks, twitter. Goodnight, friends. Let’s do this again, next year.

AzmatZahra
Dear #SuperBowl & #Snowpocalypse, I hate you. Thank you for depleting earth’s best resources, thus my drinking dt pepsi instead of diet coke

sumac715
I checked my phone after the game and I had 55 texts from Twitter and Facebook????

So I figured out how to combine two of my New Years’ Resolutions; read more, and blog more, thus- a book review blog! I felt for a while like my ideas were stagnating because living in DC doesn’t have as many cultural quirks as living in Italy did (I’m pretty sure we’re all familiar with the American culture) so I decided that my blog needed a theme. Thus, I’m going to review a few of the things I read, and maybe throw in a movie or two if I’m impressed (or entirely unimpressed).

The first book up is World on Fire by Amy Chua.

In World on Fire, Amy Chua contends that the two main forces of globalization aggressively pursued by Western countries, namely, market liberalization and democratization, contribute to and in some cases bring about serious ethnic conflict and global instability. This is due to the two policies’ simultaneous effect of increasing inequality and subsequently hatred for market-dominant ethnic minorities, while at the same time empowering the poor majority to react, often resulting in violence or severe oppression of the minority. Chua explains it thus, “The global spread of free market democracy has thus been a principal, aggravating cause of ethnic instability and violence through the non-Western world. In country after country outside the West laissez-faire markets have magnified the often astounding wealth and economic prominence of an ‘outsider’ minority, generating great reservoirs of ethnic envy and resentment among the impoverished ‘indigenous’ majority…democratization, by increasing the political voice and power of the ‘indigenous’ majority, has fostered the emergence of demagogues who opportunistically whip up mass hatred against the resented minority. As a result, in its raw, for-export form, the pursuit of free market democracy outside the West has repeatedly led not to widespread peace and prosperity, but to ethnic confiscation, authoritarian backlash, and mass killing.” (187-88) Chua proceeds to describe a series of examples in which a program of market liberalization in combination with democratization, usually backed by the West, has led to either severe ethnic conflict or political backlash. From the Philippines and Yugoslavia to Nazi Germany and even Anti-Americanism, Chua applies her framework to conflicts both past and present.

In a purely informational sense, Chua’s book is an enjoyable, interesting and pleasant read.  After an emotional and attention-grabbing introduction describing the death of a beloved Aunt, purportedly due to the consequences her thesis describes, Chua segues into the deeper context of her argument. Her first two sections come across as a sort of history lesson through a series of descriptions, references and loose figures. Like a good history textbook, Chua begins her chapters with a humorous or enlightening anecdote, followed by some background information, a brief description of the current setting, and finally a reiteration of the issues. The book continues this way both throughout the globe and throughout time, her arguments getting progressively less robust, increasingly more flexible and even extrapolating to places that have only one or two of the three characteristics her thesis describes (market dominant ethnic minorities, economic liberalization, and democratization). In this way, her third section seems like the tagline for an infomercial- “But wait, there’s more!”- as she attempts to reconcile her thesis with intra-city conflicts in the United States, anti-Americanism, Nazism, and the current crisis in the Middle East. What Chua doesn’t realize is that the further she extrapolates and attempts to convince readers of her argument’s global (and national, in the case of the United States) relevance, the further she alienates those who were sold to her argument in the first place.

This argument by itself seems simplistic and logical. It makes sense that in countries where the vast majority of the population live in dire poverty, and those that do hold most of the wealth are of a noticeably different skin color, culture or ethnicity, ethnic conflict would result. It also makes sense that the greater the inequality between these peoples the more conflict and hatred there would be, and if free markets do in fact exacerbate these inequalities it might even be a direct consequence. While it is much less obvious, it also makes sense that a form of government that empowers the angry majority without protecting the rights of the minority can and often does lead to civil conflict or oppressive majoritarian policies. The way Amy Chua frames her book it seems like she is simply trying to describe a phenomenon rather than prove a thesis, much as a history book might say what happened in a particular era and offer several plausible suggestions as to why this might have occurred. The anecdotal and descriptive style of writing leaves no room for alternative interpretations; each example is specifically framed for her argument, and there are no competing explanations or variables that she is including or comparing against. If the point of the book is that she is simply trying to prove that these effects of occur, the lack of scientific methodology severely undermines her claim. A better approach might be to gather a set of recent conflicts or transition governments and see how the variables of market-dominant minorities, the gini coefficient, perceived ethnocentrism, and democratization (including the various levels of democratization, considering that “democracy” is debatable in many of the examples she gives) affect the outcome. This would make her results much more scientifically robust and offer solid proof.

It seems, however, that instead of trying to prove her thesis she is merely trying to describe a phenomenon that is the most likely explanation for several events throughout the world. She transitions easily from example to example, reiterating her point of view and showing how each scenario fits in the context of her argument. Given that her information is accurate, her conclusions seem logical, and aside from a few very interesting history lessons it seems no major ideological breakthroughs are made. Perhaps it is simply the mark of a great writer, but Chua’s observations and conclusions seem obvious. She is not trying to prove a hypothesis as much as she is saying something is true and providing anecdotal examples as supporting evidence. The question then becomes what the point of her writing this is. If it is not to methodologically prove the relationship between free market democracy and ethnic conflict for sheer academic value, then what is it? To raise awareness? To explore possible solutions? To disprove prior theories?

That question is exactly what the reader has in mind after two hundred pages of this message being reinforced. In logical terms, it seems that she spends her entire book defending a premise without drawing a conclusion.  In fact, some of the logical conclusions that could be drawn she rather obviously avoids discussing, even in the most narrow of terms. It seems that in her avoidance of drawing judgments from her work, either because of her reluctance to make broad claims or timidity in saying anything controversial, she discredits or completely diminishes the value of her work. Even one of her most obvious answers, that the United States should stop promoting simultaneous intense market reform and immediate democratization in countries with market-dominant ethnic minorities, she refuses to say directly. Instead, she states, “First, the best economic hope for developing and post-socialist countries lies in some form of market-generated growth. Second, the best political hope for these countries lies in some form of democracy, with constitutional constraints, tailored to local realities. And third, avoiding ethnic oppression and bloodshed must be a constant priority. But if these goals are to be achieved- if global free market democracy is to be peaceably sustainable- then the problem of market-dominant minorities, however unsettling, must be confronted head-on.” (263-264) She then goes on to state feeble policy recommendations that may help remedy these problems, most on the part of the corrupt and often unstable governments that have very limited incentive to do so. By the end it almost feels as if she herself does not believe there is a good solution, and just spent the entire book discussing the problem.

In the end, Amy Chua’s book is a delightfully informative, logically sound (for the most part) and enlightening read. Like many other books, it does well in debunking the neoclassical myth that free market democracy in the purest sense is the answer to all the world’s problems and an invincible catchall policy. This, however, is not a new concept, and in the absence of any further conclusion or salient recommendation Chua’s book fails to be anything but mildly thought-provoking.

If you wanted to compare two strikingly different things, try comparing an auditorium full of well-heeled, well-connected DC-ites sitting comfortably in the plush seats of the Sydney Harmon Opera house to a group of malnourished, poverty- stricken people of Sub-Saharan origin having giant parasitic worms being pulled from festering boils on their skin.

Quite a contrast, don’t you think?

Yet this was the dichotomy presented at a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation event that I attended as a VZ representative this past Tuesday. The event was a multi-media presentation entitled “Living Proof,” an awareness campaign that health care investments and initiatives in developing countries are working, and that there should be more.

 The presentation was more like a theater production, complete with auditorium style seating at an opera house, complex lighting sequences, projected stage back drop, and of course the stars themselves, Bill and Melinda Gates, who gave the presentation. There were video clips, photographs, moving charts, lighting gimmicks, dumb jokes, even a singing performance by an African a capella group “Vocal Motion” to complete the performance effect.

 While I don’t mean to disparage the importance and solemnity of the subject of health care in developing countries, nor pretend that I was not moved by the touching video clips and human stories presented that night, the high tech and “performancy” nature of the presentation was more distracting to me then impacting. Perhaps I’m the only one though, because I wasn’t expecting it. Perhaps the congressmen and the common, the former with power over funding, the latter with the power over public opinion, need high tech gimmicks in order to have a lasting impression, and therefore motivation to act. Perhaps with my theater production experience, I was distracted by the obvious tricks of the performance trade. I saw Bill and Melinda reading from prompters, I admired their tag-team performance, I wondered if it was worth it to pay for the travel, lodging and stipend of five African singers for a two minute performance. I couldn’t stop trying to calculate the budget for this production, er presentation, in my head.

 I did learn a lot from the presentation, but it registered to me as a show, not as a serious issue that needs government and popular support. Hopefully I was the only one who felt that way, because the issue of health care investment in developing nations is indeed critically important.

 I learned that diseases like smallpox and polio have been almost completely eradicated from the planet as a result of global health investment and initiatives. Child mortality has dropped by more than half since 1960. Vaccinations are the ultimate prevention tool, and more diseases can be eradicated through the development and distribution of vaccines. I learned that there is still a lot that needs to be done. For example, maternal and newborn health has not had any significant improvement in the past few decades, and 4 million newborns and .5 million mothers (during childbirth) still die every year.

There is no need for a song and dance routine to convince me of the importance of something, but perhaps it is necessary for others.

I’m sorry I haven’t updated you guys on the flood situation which has gotten progressively worse in North Dakota, and Lisbon in particular. I have been hugely busy and cut off from home and dog by the rising waters- so blogging hasn’t been the highest priority lately! I’m sorry to say that CNN and the major news networks have gotten pretty bored of covering the flood here- but in fact, it has been quite exciting.

Fargo, Grand Forks, and Bismarck remain safe and mostly dry- these are the major cities, and I suspect that is the reason for the lack of national news coming out of this state. However, the flood has mostly wiped out the town of Catherine (a small time near us), and caused a lot of trouble in Valley City and Lisbon… so pretty much I picked the worst place to live in North Dakota!The guard has been deployed in pretty much full force to the area. It is hard to go anywhere without seeing HUMVEEs, Black Hawks, Soldiers, or LAVs with dirt in the back of them. So pretty much, still a war zone out here.

Back at Tim and Pat’s house- they have become an island- affectionately named Arrowhead Island. The Sheyenne has taken an oxbow that now goes over the road in front of the house and then back to the river through Grandma and Grandpa’s house. As a result, they and the neighbors are completely cut off from the road- and we have to take a boat to go back and forth one side to the other. Luckily, they managed to get most of the cars parked on the other side before the road became impassible (it is now a waterfall) so to get out you simply canoe or row to the other side, and grab your car to head out. The amount of mud is incredible!

The Sheyenne once again set a record, this time at 22.4 feet- a few feet above the previous record of 19.7 set a couple of weeks ago. As a result, the sandbag dike at the back of the house is now replaced with an earthen clay dike that completely surrounds the house thanks to the water coming in from all sides. The clay dike is at about 24 feet high- and the water is up against it, and leaking underneath slowly. Tim and Pat have been spending many sleepless nights checking on the water and resetting pumps to continually pump out the leakages that are occuring- I can’t imagine this has been any fun for them (or the dogs for that matter).

The water has started to go down- but not by much, and not very fast. We are hoping by the end of next week to have it down enough that the constant pumping can cease, but it is hard to tell when the road will come back or even when the water will be removed. It’s a pretty bad situation. Meanwhile, I have been working extremely hard for the end of the semester and have been spending most of my nights sleeping in my pickup because driving back to the flood is just unmanageable. Sleeping in the truck got tough after a while, and when Mike came for the weekend, at least I had a bed and a hotel room- and one of my classmates let me stay with him a night. Now I’m staying with Beci and Ben- the end of the semester is 3 weeks away, and it looks like I might be with them to the end!

And now, some pictures …

It’s April- it’s spring… right? Well, the past three days wouldn’t make you think it was… we have been pummeled by a snowstorm that layed us down with around 15 inches of snow, and it hasn’t stopped yet! So, this is North Dakota, and it snows a lot- sure, but these unseasonable snow storms are part of the dramatic weather that is affecting this region, and all of us are wondering a few things:

1. When will it stop snowing?
2. How will this affect the floods?
3. Why the heck did I give up alcohol for lent?

The snow is heavy and wet snow- so flood management personnel are going back and forth on whether or not this will delay the next flood crests, or if it will make things horribly worse. What it depends on is the temperature, which isn’t suppossed to go above freezing until the weekend, and when it does melt- everything is going to rise. Right now we are hearing predicted crests of 22 feet on the Sheyenne here in Lisbon (the last crest was 20.1) sometime next week. Of course, when they predict 22 feet, that means it will either be 20 feet or 25 feet according to the stats from last week.

So we have been pretty much burried here. There has been no travel (nor the ability to travel) since Sunday. I-29: the interstate I take to Fargo is still closed because of a frozen snowey lake on the roadway, but really there is not much other news- we are all just getting a little bit of cabin fever and trying to dig our way out.

Dad and I just got back from a Sunday afternoon lookey-lou and I thought it would be a good opportunity to update you on how the flood is going on in North Dakota. Actually, we did receive a bit of relief the past couple of days thanks to freezing temperatures and and lowering flood waters- but the fight isn’t over yet! Even though the “record crest occurred Friday at midnight”, we are looking at a severe blizzard tomorrow and more water coming from the south, as well as the release of dams and other hydrological problems- but for now, we are all sitting tight.

On Friday, NDSU closed for the entirety of next week. The administration is still discussing how the academics will be handled when we return, but they couldn’t justify opening the university when so many folks have evacuated. This leaves me in a precarious position both as a student and as an instructor- I have no idea how my school work is going to be affected, nor how I am going to handle missing 2 weeks of school for my own class! For instance, this Wednesday I had my seminar presentation scheduled- a presentation that each of us have only once a semester. It will be difficult to make this up since there are just as many students in the seminar as there are weeks of the school year; and my entire grade is based on that presentation!  Rumors abound that in the flood of ‘97 NDSU simply canceled the rest of the semester, giving students whatever grade they had when the school closed. However, in ‘97, the flooding happened much later (middle of April, not the end of March), and frankley, I can’t imagine that happening again without a major disaster occurring.

Minor disasters have been occurring around the area. Today a fixed damn around a school broke, and even after two hours of fighting the water, it simply couldn’t be stopped. As you might imagine, one crack in a dike quickly becomes a big one. Other people have literally lost loved ones (as in misplaced) because of the medical evacuations out of Fargo. A fellow parishioner at our church struggled to find his wife over the weekend because he was told she was medevaced to Minneapolis when in fact she was transferred to Bismarck. So the after affects of even the amount of flooding we have had so far are going to be far reaching.

As always, here are more pictures taken today during our lookey-lou, which are probably more interesting to you than my reporting! (Leave comments!)

Crest time is now approaching rapidly- and final preparations are being made as quickly as we can. I know many of you have seen the news on CNN and thought maybe that the flood has already happened- but in fact it hasn’t! Here is the deal- there are several “stages” that are determined by certain flood heights. For instance, on the Sheyenne in Lisbon, “Action Stage” is 11 feet- which means that it’s time to start building dikes. Actual flood stage- when the flood spills out of the river banks is a mere 15 feet. Moderate flood stage is what we have been in for the past few days both here in Lisbon and in Fargo- which is where you guys have been seeing most of the news out of. Moderate flood stage is 17 feet. What the predictions are talking about and what we are preparing for is the major flood stage- 19 feet in Lisbon (with a record river height set in 1897 of 19.3 feet). As of 9 AM this morning, the river level was at 19.19 feet. Similar numbers exist for Fargo, except they are much higher since the Red River is much bigger than the Sheyenne. Fargo is predicting a crest height of 45.1 feet- and their dikes are only built up to 43 feet (which is two feet above major flood stage).

The dike that protects our farm is at 19 feet- so you might imagine that we are overflowing right now- strangely enough, we aren’t. This morning we started moving sandbags into the garage of a neighbor and turned the heat up (to defrost them, they were frozen solid)- and we walked down to the river bank, and to our surprise the water was a foot below the dike! We suspect that this is because of an ice jam farther upriver, which means that when that jam looses we are going to get it. So as soon as our bags are defrosted we are going to raise the backup dike a few feet to try to protect ourselves that way. So far it is hard to know what is going to happen- the NOAA predictions keep showing that the river is supposed to decrease in height, but actual measurements have been going up– they have revised the forecast in light of that several times, but have still been inaccurate. Track the river heights for: Lisbon and Fargo at the NOAA Advanced Hydrologic Prediction service.

Fargo is definitely getting the worst of it, and NDSU has been closed for the entire week. No word if the campus has been closed or not, but hospitals and a few neighborhoods are being evacuated over there. Even if I wanted to get to Fargo, I can’t because the roads between us and Fargo are closed by floods over the roads that have frozen and won’t release. (I guess I could just say they are covered in ice, but that really doesn’t describe why they are closed!) So that is my update- if you have any specific questions, I recommend not listening to CNN- they tend to over-dramatize and underplay actual facts- so leave me a comment and I will do my best to answer more scientifically!

I’ll leave you with a few more pictures of the flood for your interest!

Well, God didn’t want to make it easy on us. This morning I woke up to find 4 inches of snow on the ground in addition to the flooding. On top of the snow, wind had picked up to around 20 miles an hour and the temperature dropped to 20 degrees: these are the makings of a blizzard flood! (Though locals note that this wasn’t actually a blizzard, just a good imitation of one.) This means a couple of very interesting things:

1. The river and the overpour over the dike has frozen- stopping the water from encroaching towards the house, and actually retreating it a little.
2. Created a new ice block farther upstream that has lowered the river levels here.
3. Delayed the crest- the predicted river heights have dropped significantly, only to rise again next week.

What this has given us is a respite, although an unwelcome one. If we had rain, we would have been in a world of hurt, but thanks to the snow, we have a delay before this melts to cause us the problems, but it has in essence slowed down the current problems. So now, instead of a nice balmy 50 degrees to do our flood prevention work in, we have to do it in below freezing weather with killer wind and frozen sandbags!

I have no idea what this means for school- which is now closed for pretty much the entire week. I’m getting further and further behind on school work, and I have comprehensive exam coming up. So if you notice any mental breakdowns in the future- you’ll know why!

The Hanna Farmstead was recently featured on WDAY 6 news at 10! Uncle John was interviewed, even though both Dad and a neighbor were out on the Dyke because John was the only person who didn’t steer clear of the reporter! (Let’s just call him the Hanna Family spokes-uncle!) Through a little bit of trial and effort on my part, and in my desire to bring you up to date news coverage on the flood, I have managed to obtain the video for you below:

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Just to be copyright-correct, I am providing a link to the WDAY 6 Fargo website where the video is embedded: http://www.wday.com/

Currently almost every river in North Dakota is flooding- and this has given me the opportunity to learn a lot about flooding that I didn’t know before. For instance, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) actually tracks river levels and determines flooding based on “stages”. Tim has been tracking this closely (and you can too- here: NOAA Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service for Lisbon, ND) and this has helped assist us determine dike heights and additional requirements for sandbag walls. This year we are setting records for stage height. Fargo is currently predicting a 41 foot flood stage when the river crests (a new term as well- meaning when the river reaches its high point)- this obviously is going to cause a lot of problems for those folks that lower than 41 feet above the river level! So what are cities to do?

Well, the answer is a giant call for volunteers. Almost all cities are recruiting volunteers to fill sandbags and build sandbag walls. This is the essential reason NDSU has been closed for 4 days (it has been closed up until Thursday), so that the student body can fill sandbags at the Fargo Dome. Almost all communities (including ours here on rural 32) are stepping up to stop the flood waters as best as we can. Cities are limiting water consumption as the floods cause lifts to break, and crews are out in force using mobile pumps to remove water. However, there is a slight dark side to the civic nature of fighting floods- the so called “lookey-lou”. Lookey-lou’s are criminals who drive slowly or stand watching the flood efforts or taking pictures. Almost every city has imposed a blanket ban on “lookey-lous”, claiming  they can arrest for citizens who do so, or instant conscription into sandbag filling teams. Hopefully then you can appreciate the great danger to myself as I took these pictures from the truck as we went to go get groceries- so that you can see how Lisbon prepared for the flood.

The national guard, the police, and almost every state government organization are out fighting the flood. They have even come up with some creative ideas to solve specific problems. For instance, here at 7052- our main issue is that ice floes are trapped in a corner of the Sheyenne river. This by itself is what is causing the backup of water that is steadily progressing towards the basement (and the run over of the river across the 19 foot dike). Ice floes in the region are a considerable problem- and communities have tried to break up the ice using several measures including:

1. Using heaving movers and excavators to dig out the ice (if they can find stable ground to not loose the machinery!)
2. Throwing dynamite out over the ice and exploding it (not effective)
3. Dismantling bridges in the way of the floes (difficult)
4. Using bombers from the Air National Guard to bomb the ice (true story)

Hopefully all this effort will pay off! The crest is expected on Friday, and that is the time when we determine whether we managed to do enough, or if all of our efforts were in vain!