And now there is "C"

Clarissa? Claude? Carmen? Forming up south of Acupulco..up to 80% already...

beware the chicks

here's REAL science even DavidK can't dispute!


CNN) -- Apparently sexism isn't just a social problem -- if you're in the path of a hurricane, gender bias might actually kill you.
A study suggests people prepare differently for hurricanes depending on whether the storm has a male or female name.
"Feminine-named hurricanes (vs. masculine-named hurricanes) cause significantly more deaths, apparently because they lead to a lower perceived risk and consequently less preparedness," a team of researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In other words, a hurricane named "Priscilla" might not make people flee like a hurricane named "Bruno" would.
Dire forecast as climate change looms
The study analyzed death rates from U.S. hurricanes from 1950 to 2012.
It suggests that changing a severe hurricane's name from Charley to Eloise could nearly triple its death toll.
"For severe storms, where taking protective action would have the greatest potential to save lives, the masculinity-femininity of a hurricane's name predicted its death toll," the study said.
Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which left more than 1,800 people dead, was not included in the study because it was considered a statistical outlier. Neither was Hurricane Audrey in 1957, which killed 416 people.
The study does note that both of those very deadly hurricanes had female names.
Forecasters: Fewer storms in the Atlantic this year?
Questioning the data
But not everyone buys the team's hypothesis. Jeff Lazo of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research said the pattern is most likely a statistical fluke, according to National Geographic.
He notes that all hurricanes had female names until 1979 -- meaning the study included 29 years without male hurricane names.
That's significant because hurricanes have generally gotten less deadly over time, Lazo told National Geographic.
"It could be that more people die in female-named hurricanes simply because more people died in hurricanes on average before they started getting male names," Lazo said.
Study: Experiments back up the claim
But the researchers said they didn't just analyze death tolls from actual hurricanes, they also conducted a series of experiments to test their hypothesis.
In one experiment, participants predicted the intensity of 10 hurricanes -- five with female names and five with male names. The male hurricanes were deemed more intense -- regardless of the gender of the participant.
In another test, participants were asked to judge the risks of a hypothetical "Hurricane Alexander" and a "Hurricane Alexandra." Despite being told both had uncertain intensity, respondents considered Hurricane Alexander to be riskier.
A third experiment tested whether participants would be more likely to evacuate due to a "Hurricane Christopher" vs. a "Hurricane Christina." As expected, more people would flee their homes if Hurricane Christopher came barreling toward them compared to an impending Hurricane Christina.
Why name hurricanes anyway?
Giving hurricanes short, easy-to-remember names helps reduce confusion when two or more tropical storms are brewing at the same time, the National Hurricane Center said.
For decades, all hurricanes were given female names in part because hurricanes were unpredictable, the study said, citing the "Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons and Cyclones."
"This practice came to an end in the late 1970s with increasing societal awareness of sexism, and an alternating male-female naming system was adopted," the report said.
Each year's list of hurricane names is alphabetical, alternating between male and female monikers.
If you're trying to get your name on the hurricane list, don't bother. A U.N. World Meteorlogical Organization committee has already set up six years' worth of names. The lists repeat after each six-year cycle.
"The only time that there is a change is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity," the National Hurricane Center said.
This year's list of names include "Omar" and "Sally." It's unclear how people might prepare differently if caught in the paths of those storms.
Breaking down the climate report by region
Fast facts: Hurricane statistics
A look at the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season
CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.

Willard,
May have something to do with the fact that only for the last decade storms have had male names. Before that they were all female names.
Someone must have felt slighted

Quien tienes los juevos? .... La Gallina tienes!!

FYI, that hurricane study is already taking a ton of heat from scientists, professionals, skeptics, and critical thinkers. Once I find a link to the online uproar I will post it. Yesterday while listening to a science podcast they went line to line thru the story, pointing out flaws and subjective data collecting, debunking the study which basically showed no difference between male/female storms.

They chalked it up as another "Science" story that the mainstream media runs with because it's "exciting" but has no demonstrated truth to it.

You can listen at: http://www.theskepticsguide.org episode 465. Start at minute 31. Or search in iTunes.

Bullet points:

*Take out 1953-1979 when only women's names were used. The study says they were aware of that and say that their analysis primarily focused on the femininity vs. masculinity of the names. This gives me less confidence in the data. It's subjective.

*Post 1979, the women's name effect disappears, and they say they don't have enough data points during that period. Not enough data points in that period? Then why publish this?

*If you remove on data point from the study (such as Katrina) it goes the other way towards male names and changes the results of the study! This tells me there's a very tiny signal here in a ton of "noise".

*They build a subjective scale to measure the masculinity/femininity of the names, then test it on only college students for 3 of the 4 studies. These students/people will respond differently than people living in coastal cities. Doesn't mean we should throw that out, but let's try with "Hurricane Fluffy" vs. Hurricane Get The Hell Out" instead. Those would tease out a greater signal.

[Edited on 6-14-2014 by Ateo]

swell

I'm guessing he's talking about SoCal. I bet it's sending some serious swell to Cabo and that whole area, but it's not lined up for the Socal swell window yet. Just chiming in!

Bajajudy

Quote:

Originally posted by Ateo Quote: Originally posted by bajajudy Quote: Originally posted by huesos If this thing can turn minimally at this point, it will begin to throw swell that we can make use of. The swell is here. Last evening at high tide(and full moon) there was a lot of erosion happening in La Playita and there was water in the parking lot by the fish palapas. I'm guessing he's talking about SoCal. I bet it's sending some serious swell to Cabo and that whole area, but it's not lined up for the Socal swell window yet. Just chiming in!

Silly me...I'm thinking Baja

Safe travels to you and Rio, Tio