David Lidsky's Blog, page 354

‘It’s very touching’: Hurricane scientist’s ashes released into Milton’s eye

The tribute to NOAA radar specialist and researcher Peter Dodge took place less than 24 hours before Milton made landfall in Siesta Key near Sarasota, Florida.

As an award-winning scientist, Peter Dodge had made hundreds of flights into the eyes of hurricanes—almost 400. On Tuesday, a crew on a reconnaissance flight into Hurricane Milton helped him make one more, dropping his ashes into the storm as a lasting tribute to the longtime National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration radar specialist and researcher.

“It’s very touching,” Dodge’s sister, Shelley Dodge, said in an interview Thursday with the Associated Press. “We knew it was a goal of NOAA to make it happen.”

The ashes were released into the eye of the hurricane Tuesday night, less than 24 hours before Milton made landfall in Siesta Key near Sarasota, Florida. An in-flight observations log, which charts information such as position and wind speed, ended with a reference to Dodge’s 387th—and final—flight.

“He’s loved that aspect of his job,” Shelley Dodge said. “It’s bittersweet. On one hand, a hurricane’s coming and you don’t want that for people. But on the other hand, I really wanted this to happen.”

Dodge died in March 2023 at age 72 of complications from a fall and a stroke, his sister said.

The Miami resident spent 44 years in federal service. Among his awards were several for technology used to study Hurricane Katrina’s destructive winds in 2005.

He also was part of the crew aboard a reconnaissance flight into Hurricane Hugo in 1989 that experienced severe turbulence and saw one of its four engines catch fire.

“They almost didn’t get out of the eye,” Shelley Dodge said.

Items inside the plane were torn loose and tossed about the cabin. After dumping excess fuel and some heavy instruments to enable the flight to climb further, an inspection found no major damage to the plane and it continued on. The plane eventually exited the storm with no injuries to crew members, according to NOAA.

A degenerative eye disorder eventually prevented Dodge from going on further reconnaissance flights.

Shelley Dodge said NOAA had kept her informed on when her brother’s final mission would occur and she relayed the information to relatives.

“There were various times where they thought all the pieces were going to fall in place but it had to be the right combination, the research flight. All of that had to come together,” she said. “It finally did on the 8th. I didn’t know for sure until they sent me the official printout that showed exactly where it happened in the eye.”

Dodge had advanced expertise in radar technology with a keen interest in tropical cyclones, according to a March 2023 newsletter by NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory announcing his death.

He collaborated with the National Hurricane Center and Aircraft Operations Center on airborne and land-based radar research. During hurricane aircraft missions, he served as the onboard radar scientist and conducted radar analyses. Later, he became an expert in radar data processing, the newsletter said.

Dodge’s ashes were contained in a package. Among the symbols draped on it was the flag of Nepal, where he spent time as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching math and science to high school students before becoming a meteorologist.

An avid gardener, Dodge also had a fondness for bamboo and participated in the Japanese martial art Aikido, attending a session the weekend before he died.

What’s the deal with those Strauss decals on MLB batting helmets?

Here’s how the Strauss logo wound up on MLB helmets during the playoffs and what it portends for the future.

If you’ve been watching the Major League Baseball postseason, you’ve probably been thinking what most of us have: What’s that Strauss decal on the players’ helmets?

Why it’s dangerous to have a company without hierarchy, according to pioneers of Google’s Startup Accelerator

In their book, Martin Gonzalez and Joshua Yellin explore why so many startups fail—and what those that succeed do right.

Many entrepreneurs are inspired by romantic conceptions of how great startup life can be, and are looking for an exit path from the typical culture of a big company. They dream about getting rid of bureaucracy, hierarchies, irrelevant policies, unfair inequalities, and all the other corporate irritations. The appeal of reinventing all this is especially strong for founders who see themselves as maverick disruptors. If you believe that it’s possible to reinvent a product, service, or industry, it’s easy to extend that thinking to reinventing the way people are managed. Many corporate practices can seem as outdated as a VHS machine in the age of streaming.

Why Russia is recruiting African women to make attack drones

Four women described long hours under constant surveillance, broken promises about wages, and working with caustic chemicals.

About 200 women ages 18 to 22 from across Africa have been recruited to work in a factory alongside Russian vocational students assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine.

What to do if you lose your phone

Here are steps you can take before and after your phone goes missing.

Phones hold so much of our digital lives—emails, social media and bank accounts, photos, chat messages and more—that if they ever get stolen or go missing, it can cause major disruption beyond just the loss of a device.

In some places, phone thefts have surged so much it’s now an everyday problem, with thieves on electric bikes snatching them out of pedestrians’ hands, swiping them off restaurant tables or pickpocketing them on the subway.

In Britain, where 200 phones are stolen every day in “snatch thefts,” the government has pledged to crack down on the crime and is meeting with tech companies and device makers to come up with solutions.

Here are steps you can take before and after your phone goes missing:

Women can climb glass cliffs and win. This is how we flip the script

Consider lessons from the many women capably striding along the edge of glass cliffs: how they’re often winning and actively rewriting the rules for future leaders.

President Joe Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris saw Google searches for glass cliff triple, and conversations around this loaded term are back in the headlines. But with Harris now leading in the polls, the vibe may be changing. 

How to use Passwords, Apple iOS 18’s new iPhone password management app

‘Passwords,’ Apple’s new password management app on iOS 18, is definitely worth checking out. Here’s why—plus four easy ways to get the best out of it.

Apple iOS 18, launched in September, is one of the most important updates to the iPhone’s operating system in the device’s history. Why? Because it lays the groundwork for Apple Intelligence, Apple’s artificial intelligence platform, which will power the phone in the years ahead. iOS 18 also adds several new features to the iPhone, including many that are great for productivity, privacy, and security. 

This AI can think like an engineer—and it just designed a spaceship engine

Noyron software harnesses the creativity and problem-solving of engineers to design advanced machinery autonomously.

Looking at all the stuff surrounding Lin Kayser in his Dubai office, it’s easy to assume he’s a rocket scientist working on a spaceship to escape Earth’s gravity. Drawings, plans, and prototypes seemingly stolen from an interstellar alien probe frame Kayser on Zoom. But the cofounder of Leap 71 is no rocket scientist—even if he looks like he could play one in a movie.

How food prices in the U.S. compare to rest of the world

Food prices in the U.S.—relatively speaking—are the cheapest in the world, and have been for a long time.

Though cynics may question her motives, Kamala Harris’s recent call to ban price gouging on groceries has received a lot of attention—and for good reason.

After Hurricane Milton, here’s how to improve evactuations during disasters

When millions of people are under evacuation orders, logistical issues arise.

As Hurricane Milton roared ashore near Sarasota, Florida, tens of thousands of people were in evacuation shelters. Hundreds of thousands more had fled coastal regions ahead of the storm, crowding highways headed north and south as their counties issued evacuation orders.