The USGS probably needs you to provide information because they haven't been given very many of your tax dollars so they can't afford a dense network of sensors. What they have done is provided a means for people to submit their observations so they can at least get some data that probably gets used to judge where and how to deploy limited resources.
Well, you may have lost contact with thousands of other USGS employees, but I certainly haven't. At my USGS office (Water Resources Division) in DeKalb, Ill, today I received several email from Reston, Va, and Urbana, Ill. I also checked the national streamflow map displaying current flow levels in all 50 states (http://water.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/daily_flow), examined river levels in North Dakota, and copied a study location description from Wisconsin, all using my web browser to pull information from computers in other states.
I didn't have any trouble logging in on a workstation in another city 150 miles away to do my work today. If you can't connect with Rolla, you need to talk to your sysadm.
The USGS is still connected internally, it's just the external connection that's been cut.
It works both ways. Thousands of USGS employees have lost access to important web sites like the National Weather Service.
Also, those 7,000 (IIRC) real-time river-monitoring stations aren't available to emergency services managers and other officials who need the data to respond to floods and other natural hazards.
Red Star/White Star (1972) is an example of a wargame developed for the Army which was later released commercially by it's designer. IIRC Check Six! was an aerial combat simulator that followed the same route from the Air Force.
Of course, these were mere paper and cardboard games that relied on content ratehr than graphics.
I thought Yoko Kanno's soundtrack to Vision of Escaflowne was her best. I liked Brainpowerd, too. She seems quite talented in that she can write good music in so many styles -- c'mon, what other anime sondtrack uses bagpipes?!
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The USGS probably needs you to provide information because they haven't been given very many of your tax dollars so they can't afford a dense network of sensors. What they have done is provided a means for people to submit their observations so they can at least get some data that probably gets used to judge where and how to deploy limited resources.
Well, you may have lost contact with thousands of other USGS employees, but I certainly haven't. At my USGS office (Water Resources Division) in DeKalb, Ill, today I received several email from Reston, Va, and Urbana, Ill. I also checked the national streamflow map displaying current flow levels in all 50 states (http://water.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/daily_flow), examined river levels in North Dakota, and copied a study location description from Wisconsin, all using my web browser to pull information from computers in other states.
I didn't have any trouble logging in on a workstation in another city 150 miles away to do my work today. If you can't connect with Rolla, you need to talk to your sysadm.
The USGS is still connected internally, it's just the external connection that's been cut.
It works both ways. Thousands of USGS employees have lost access to important web sites like the National Weather Service.
Also, those 7,000 (IIRC) real-time river-monitoring stations aren't available to emergency services managers and other officials who need the data to respond to floods and other natural hazards.
Red Star/White Star (1972) is an example of a wargame developed for the Army which was later released commercially by it's designer. IIRC Check Six! was an aerial combat simulator that followed the same route from the Air Force. Of course, these were mere paper and cardboard games that relied on content ratehr than graphics.
I thought Yoko Kanno's soundtrack to Vision of Escaflowne was her best. I liked Brainpowerd, too. She seems quite talented in that she can write good music in so many styles -- c'mon, what other anime sondtrack uses bagpipes?!