ISIS fighters couldn’t convince a beloved Syrian archeologist to give up the location of valuable antiquities, but they can blow up everything still nailed down—and according to reports, they are: on Sunday operatives exploded a 2,000-year-old temple in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Palmyra. http://gawker.com/archeologist-b...

The group reportedly placed explosives around the ruins of the temple of Baalshamin, which dates back to 17 AD, destroying the inner area, called a cella, as well as some exterior columns. The temple was, according to the BBC, one of the best-known buildings located in the ancient ruins of the city, which is a Unesco World Heritage site. From the BBC:

Emma Loosley, a professor at Exeter University who lived near the ancient city for three years, said the temple’s cella was “pretty much perfect”.

“I can’t think of another temple as beautifully preserved as the temple of Baalshamin, and what was special about Palmyra was that it was a unique culture,” she told the BBC.

“It had its own gods, its own form of art and architecture that you don’t get anywhere else.”

According to the New York Times, watchdog groups are in agreement that ISIS fighters destroyed the building but disagree on when the actual demolition took place. The Syrian Observatory says the building came down last month; Maamoun Abdul-Karim, the head of Syria’s Directorate of Antiquities and Museums, tells Reuters the explosion occurred Sunday.

The terrorist group has destroyed a number of historical sites around Palmyra since overtaking the city in May—according to the Times, they’ve also blown up two tombs and smashed half-a-dozen ancient statues with sledgehammers.

Even so, some of the city’s history is safe—for now. Immediately before the invasion, many of the city’s smaller artifacts were smuggled to a safe location, the exact coordinates of which Khalid al-Asaad, the city’s long-time chief of antiquities, reportedly died last week to protect.

Image via AP. Contact the author at gabrielle@gawker.com.

Deadspin 32 Paragraphs About 32 Teams: A Thinking Fan’s Guide To The NFL Season | Gizmodo How Much Has Global Warming Worsened California’s Drought? Now We Have a Number | Jezebel You Should Probably Think Twice Before Insulting Nicki Minaj Online | Lifehacker The Best Weather App for iPhone |

At least two people in a pool of 37 million Ashley Madison users outed as potential adulterers this week have committed suicide, police say, though it’s reportedly still unclear whether their deaths were a direct result of the hack.

Toronto police said in a press conference Monday they’re investigating at least “two unconfirmed reports of suicides associated with the leak of Ashley Madison’s customers’ profile.” Via the AP:

Toronto Police acting staff-Supt. Bryce Evans said the hack is having an “enormous social and economic fallout.”

“This hack is one of the largest data breaches in the world,” Evans said. “This is affecting all of us. The social impact behind this leak, we’re talking about families, we’re talking about children, we’re talking about wives, their male partners.”

It’s not clear if that number includes Capt. Michael Gorhum, a Texas police chief who took his own life last Thursday, apparently after news broke that his official email address had been listed in the hack.

In the meantime, cops are busy with other issues stemming from the hack—Evans said his office has confirmed that some users have already been contacted by criminals trying to extort them. And, the AP reports, there have been other, unconfirmed reports of hate crimes linked to the data dump.

Image via AP. Contact the author at gabrielle@gawker.com.

Mid-day FINANCIAL PANIC report: after dropping 1,000 points this morning, the Dow shot up 600 points, then down another 400 points, and then up again, and now it’s down less than 300 points on the day. Also diamonds are cheaper now, which is nice.

The great leaflet-inspired standoff is over: North and South Korea have reached an agreement to deescalate tensions along the DMZ. As part of the deal, the South has promised to stop broadcasting propaganda over the border, and the North has expressed “regret” over the mine explosion that injured two Southern soldiers.http://gawker.com/north-korea-re...

Contact the author at taylor@gawker.com.

George and Amal just won’t quit.

George Clooney, husband of Amal, and his business partner Rande Gerber, husband of Cindy Crawford, are currently on a working vacation in Ibiza, Spain, to launch their tequila: “Casamigos Tequila.” According to the “Our Story” section of the Casamigos Tequila webpage, Clooney and Gerberare never intended to release this tequila to the public. This seems crazy to me. Make a whole tequila just for yourself? What:

The tequila was made just for us. We worked on the creation of Casamigos with our master distiller in Jalisco, Mexico for years, and held many blind tastings until we knew we got it right. We’ve been drinking our tequila with friends and family for over five years now. It was never intended to be released to the public. It’s all we serve at our homes in Mexico, so it’s literally our house tequila.

Also this seems crazy:

“Our idea was to make the best-tasting smoothest tequila around. So we did.” —George Clooney and Rande Gerber talking at once. Yeah right.

Anyway:

These two!

(Amal wore a dress.)

Contact the author at kelly.conaboy@gawker.com.

Freshman women at Old Dominion University were given a very special welcome last week when they arrived on campus: Large banners that read “Rowdy and fun/Hope your baby girl is ready for a good time,” “Freshman daughter drop off,” and “Go ahead and drop off mom too.” Photos of the helpful offers to fornicate with women across multiple generations in the university community have since gone viral.

ODU’s administration responded to the signage on August 22, issuing the following statement:

“Messages like the ones displayed yesterday by a few students on the balcony of their private residence are not and will not [be] tolerated. The moment University staff became aware of these banners, they worked to have them removed. At ODU, we foster a community of respect and dignity, and these messages sickened us. They are not representative of our 3,000 faculty and staff, 25,000 students, and 130,000 alumni.

Ours is a community that works actively to promote bystander intervention and takes a stand denouncing violence against women. The ‘It’s on Us’ video is just one example of ODU students’ leadership on this topic.

In addition, the University ensures all students receive education on the prevention of sexual harassment and relationship violence.”

Ellen Neufeldt, Vice President of Student Engagement and Enrollment Services signed her name to this statement.

That same day, Old Dominion’s Student Government Association also issued their own verbal condemnation of the incident. They filmed a video directly addressing the banners and stated:

“An incident occurred this weekend that does not reflect the University’s commitment to the prevention of Sexual Assault and Dating Violence. Not only do these actions taken by a few individuals undermine the countless efforts at Old Dominion University to prevent sexual assault, they are also unwelcoming, offensive, and unacceptable. Over the past year, our community, partners, faculty/staff, and student leaders have stood side-by-side to inform and educate our campus on Sexual Assault prevention. This issue is not new, rather, it is one that continues to be prevalent around the world. It is very important for all of us to take action and be part of the solution! These actions do not reflect the students’ views at Old Dominion University. We encourage YOU to continue to raise awareness, hold each other accountable, take care of one another, and be responsible citizens of the Monarch Community.”

At roughly 9 p.m. on the same day, university president John Broderick sent a message to the university community—also posted to ODU’s Facebook page—emphasizing his outrage over the banners. He concludes with the suggestion that disciplinary action may be taken, though it’s unclear how this behavior will be assessed in the context of the school’s code of conduct:

“I said at my State of the University address that there is zero tolerance on this campus for sexual assault and sexual harassment. This incident will be reviewed by those on campus empowered to do so. Any student found to have violated the code of conduct will be subject to disciplinary action.”

The tipster who sent us a link to one of the originating Facebook post complained that the homemade signage was draped across the balcony of a house where members of a fraternity live. While the house responsible was unidentified in the post, a source on campus told us that several members of Sigma Nu live there. For comparison, here is a photograph from the chapter’s Instagram account (which they’ve since made private). The photo is also used as the header photo in the fraternity’s official Twitter account:

Sigma Nu’s official “vision” is “Excelling with Honor,” their values “Love, Honor, Truth.”

I called the number listed on the Sigma Nu chapter’s Facebook page, hoping to get a statement from the brotherhood. But when I asked if I had reached the chapter’s residence, the individual who answered the phone replied, “No.” Fred Dobry, Sigma Nu’s national Director of Risk Reduction suggested that Sigma Nu members who live in the house were not responsible for the banners outside of their house. He tells Jezebel,

Sigma Nu Fraternity is investigating this matter, and based on what we know at this point, Fraternity members at ODU are not responsible for these offensive banners. While four members of the ODU chapter live in the building where the banners were displayed, initial information indicates individuals not associated with Sigma Nu Fraternity are responsible for the banners. Our investigation is continuing.

Reporters who physically visited the house were also given the dodge. Here’s the Virginian-Pilot:

On Saturday afternoon, spray paint that matched the signs was visible on the driveway of a house in the 1500 block of W. 43rd St., presumably where the paint bled through the banners. The house, across the street from campus, appeared to be the same one pictured in the photograph that circulated on the web.

A man at the house Saturday who declined to be identified said the signs were never hung there. When a reporter pointed out the spray paint on the driveway, he admitted the signs were made there but insisted they were hung at a different house on the street.

A half hour later, the wayward spray paint in the driveway was covered by plywood.

Despite the chapter’s silence, on August 23, Jezebel received email confirmation from ODU Interfraternity Council President Michael Faust that “several fraternity members”—the chapter was not named—were responsible:

“...in response to the incident that occurred on Friday, August 21 in which several fraternity members placed highly offensive banners off their balcony, I would like to make a point that this was an embarrassing, unacceptable action that the general Greek community strongly denounces. The actions of these few fraternity members do not represent the values that they pledged to uphold. The Interfraternity Council’s judicial board will review this incident.”

ODU student Mary Coleman, who originally posted the image to Facebook on Saturday afternoon, wrote in an email: “I feel very strongly about how the attitude towards sexual assault on campuses is met with a slap on the wrist.” She suggests that campus efforts do not reflect the media’s burgeoning focus on systemic sexual violence: “As a woman, it’s frustrating to see the media bring awareness to the issue and then witness something related in your own community/school and see that nothing is changing.”

Coleman’s original post inspired a thread of comments, including a response from the ODU Facebook account. One of the first people to share the photo, with the caption “Gotta love ODU,” was Norfolk police officer Ryan Shepherd.

Twitter’s response to these signs has ranged from amusement:

Don't be selfish, bring granny too #odu https://t.co/Y9Jn4PBGxK

August 22, 2015

To bewilderment:

bruh what? #ODU smh https://t.co/bZAhdGmQ2E

August 22, 2015

To outrage:

"We're the driving force of college rape culture and we should be banned from campus" #ODU #RapeCulture pic.twitter.com/fob5fBXMkL

August 22, 2015

what a terrible way to rep odu...... pic.twitter.com/kUsxmOWJNZ

August 22, 2015

This isn’t the first time, of course, that frat boys have shown their asses in such a fashion. In 2010, DKE pledges at Yale walked around campus chanting, “No means yes/ Yes means anal,” which Anna North described at this website as a “transparent plea for attention.” Texas Tech frat boys put up a similar sign last year. Over the summer, a Sigma Nu member at the University of Central Florida was caught on video chanting “Let’s rape some sluts,” only months after being accused of sexual assault by a fellow UCF student.

We’re currently awaiting statements from Sigma Nu Fraternity and ODU’s Interfraternity Council, and will keep you updated as things continue to develop.

Contact the author at rachel.vorona.cote@jezebel.com.

Top Image from Facebook. Embedded Images and Screengrabs from Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Good dog.

Contact the author at kelly.conaboy@gawker.com.

Earlier this summer, Twitter suddenly and unilaterally disabled the U.S. version of Politwoops, a website which tracked tweets that had been deleted by American politicians. At the time, Twitter believed the site was violating the lawmakers’ privacy. (“Honoring the expectation of user privacy for all accounts is a priority for us,” a spokesperson told Gawker in June, “whether the user is anonymous or a member of Congress.”) Now Twitter has gone even further and disabled the Politwoops of thirty more countries, as well as a similar website for diplomats and embassies called Diplotwoops. The effect of doing so is clear: Twitter has made government officials significantly less accountable to the public for what they say and do online.

The Open State Foundation, which is based in Amsterdam and administered Diplotwoops and the non-U.S. Politwoops sites, announced Twitter’s decision on Sunday:

Twitter said that its decision to suspend access to Politwoops followed a ‘thoughtful internal deliberation and close consideration of a number of factors’ and that it doesn’t distinguish between users. Twitter wrote: ‘Imagine how nerve-racking—terrifying, even—tweeting would be if it was immutable and irrevocable? No one user is more deserving of that ability than another. Indeed, deleting a tweet is an expression of the user’s voice.’ ...

Arjan El Fassed (director of Open State Foundation): ‘What elected politicians publicly say is a matter of public record. Even when tweets are deleted, it’s part of parliamentary history. These tweets were once posted and later deleted. What politicians say in public should be available to anyone. This is not about typos but it is a unique insight on how messages from elected politicians can change without notice.’

As El Fassed notes, Politwoops and Diplotwoops have repeatedly helped journalists and voters keep track of politicians’ inconsistent statements about matters of public concern. In one particularly vivid example, the site caught several American lawmakers deleting tweets in which they had congratulated the American POW Bowe Bergdahl upon his return from Taliban captivity in Afghanistan. The lawmakers tried to erase their support for Bergdahl after soldiers in Bergdahl’s unit began accusing him of desertion. Few if any people would have noticed such deletions without Politwoops. Which means that, in the service’s absence, elected officials across the world will have an easier time disappearing their public statements with little or zero notice

You can read more about Twitter’s decision to permanently disable Politwoops here and here.

Email/chat: trotter@gawker.com · PGP key + fingerprint · DM: @jktrotter

On Friday, three days after Gawker ran Dee Barnes’s essay “Here’s What’s Missing From Straight Outta Compton: Me and the Other Women Dr. Dre Beat Up,” the New York Times ran a piece that included an official apology from Dr. Dre addressed to “the woman I’ve hurt.” Barnes’s response to Dre’s apology is below.

Bravo, Andre. Humility is true self-knowledge.

On Friday, the New York Times printed the following statement from Andre “Dr. Dre” Young:

I apologize to the women I’ve hurt. I deeply regret what I did and know that it has forever impacted all of our lives...Twenty-five years ago I was a young man drinking too much and in over my head with no real structure in my life. However, none of this is an excuse for what I did. I’ve been married for 19 years and every day I’m working to be a better man for my family, seeking guidance along the way. I’m doing everything I can so I never resemble that man again.

I hope he meant it. I hope he represents these words in his life. I hope that after all these years, he really is a changed man.

Dr. Dre has matured, and the women he’s hurt, including myself, have endured. I’m proud to be able to say goodbye to the man who at one point was straight outta fucks to give, as he consistently dismissed and disrespected any mention of his assault history. Goodbye to the man who didn’t deny it and even bragged, “I just did it, you know. Ain’t nothing you can do now by talking about it. Besides, it ain’t no big thing–I just threw her through a door.”

Goodbye to a general public that accepted these indiscretions without so much as a second thought. When news of the apology broke, my social media feeds were immediately flooded with responses ranging from good to bad to ugly. I saw comments like, “That was the worst apology,” “Fake apology,” and, “He did not have the decency to state your names and do it face to face after all those years—that’s the least he could do.”

I understand people’s apprehension. The stakes are high now and money talks, loud. Is this is a PR move by Universal, which released Straight Outta Compton? After all, the film just crossed the $100 million mark its second weekend in theaters. Is it damage control by Apple, which can no longer ignore that if you take the “Beats by Dre” logo and remove the “S,” you get a double entendre describing several woman he just apologized to? Is Dre himself really remorseful or just saving face? To me, the answers to these questions matter less than the fact that Dre stepped up and performed his social responsibility by finally taking accountability for his actions. Who cares why he apologized? The point is that he did.

I know what it’s like to speak out and have your intentions criticized. While my essay about my experiences with Dre and N.W.A. received a lot of positive support, I was also repeatedly asked, “Why now?” To be clear, I spoke out after a Rolling Stone interview promoting Straight Outta Compton—released August 12, 2015, just two days before the movie’s opening weekend—named me as the TV host assaulted in a 1991 “incident.” This is the first time Dre supposedly “apologized” in public to the women he hurt. He vaguely acknowledged his “fucking horrible mistakes.” But he didn’t actually apologize: “I would say all the allegations aren’t true–some of them are.” And that is why I spoke out. That is “why now.”http://gawker.com/heres-whats-mi...

Then last week, the L.A.Times published an article about an early draft of the Straight Outta Compton screenplay that included a depiction of my brutal encounter with Dr. Dre, in which my character throws a drink in his face after being confronted. It’s only after the drink is thrown that the Dre character retaliates with physical violence. That is a fabrication intended to excuse his actions.

I’ve also received harshly worded comments stating that the biopic is not the Dr. Dre story, it’s N.W.A.’s. But when other members of the group publicly condoned the assault, their confirmation made it officially an N.W.A. issue. Eazy E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella verbally bashed me after Dre did it violently. It was nothing short of character assassination.

In 1999, eight years after the incident, Dr. Dre added insult to injury by producing and releasing the Eminem single “Guilty Conscience.” This song was no “fucking mistake.” Em’s rap brought up Dre’s violent past while accusing him of hypocrisy: “You gonna take advice from somebody who slapped Dee Barnes?” Eminem also rapped: “Mr. Dre, Mr. N.W.A., Mr. A.K. coming Straight Outta Compton, y’all better make way. How in the fuck are you gonna tell this man not to be violent?”

The story goes that Dre “fell out of his chair laughing” when he heard the reference. I have been routinely accused of “living in the past” and of not letting this go, but it was Dr. Dre himself who was living in the past and couldn’t let it go so he created a permanent reminder of the “Dee Barnes incident.” And Eminem is not the only one; there are numerous songs that mention the incident, enough that essentially turned me into a, uh, punchline. Of the women assaulted by Dre, I was the only one to press criminal charges against him. I’m also the only one whose name later came up in one of his songs. “Guilty Conscience” and the other songs containing the reference are products of clear and obvious misogyny on a cultural level and for what? Jokes?

The hypocrisy of it all is appalling. This is bigger than me, and bigger than hip-hop. This is about respect and awareness. As a result of speaking on my personal experience with violence, I have been vilified. Women survivors of violence are expected neither to be seen nor heard, and the pressure increases when it involves celebrities. No one wants to see their heroes criticized. And if they are African American, the community at large becomes suspicious of an underlying motive to tear down a successful black man. Excusing pop culture icons from scrutiny over their history of violence against women because they are elevated to “hero” status is wrong on so many levels. Creating notable, brilliant art does not absolve you of your faults. In the past, great art was enough to exalt men of their bad behavior, but in 2015 it’s no longer the case. Survivors have a right and an obligation to speak up (#NoSilenceOnDomesticViolence). We are too loud, too correct, too numerous to be ignored.

Dee Barnes is currently writing her memoir, Music, Myth, and Misogyny: Memoirs of a Female MC. She is looking for a publisher. You can follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

[Dee Barnes image courtesy of Dee Barnes; Dr. Dre image via Getty. Collage by Tara Jacoby.]

Whenever a hurricane threatens land, almost all of the focus is on preparing for the strong winds. It’s not always the wind that gets you—it’s the water. The storm surge in a hurricane is arguably the greatest threat with these landfalling terrors, and it’s one that too many people seem to ignore until it’s too late.

Storm Surge

A storm surge is an influx of sea or lake water pushed ashore by the strong winds in a storm. The vast majority of storm surges are tiny—usually a foot or two, if that—and only affect the immediate coastline with something locals would probably consider nuisance flooding. Stronger storms can create a storm surge great enough to destroy homes and businesses near the coast, and historic hurricanes like Katrina or Camille can generate a devastating storm surge that pushes the ocean miles inland and destroyed thousands of structures, potentially killing hundreds of people along the way. Not only that, but localized features like bays or concave/angled coastlines—not to mention high tide—can make the storm surge even worse.

The depth of a storm surge is relative to the elevation of the land affected by the flooding. If Hurricane Skittlebip pushes a 15-foot storm surge inland, the water will be 15 feet deep where the coastline is at sea level. If a parking lot a few thousand feet from the coast is 5 feet above sea level, that 15-foot storm surge would only (“only”) be about 10 feet deep at that point.

Coastal areas that have shallow elevation changes between inland areas and the shoreline can see the ocean push an incredible distance beyond the coast. Some parts of Mississippi saw the storm surge reach more than ten miles inland when Hurricane Katrina roared ashore back in August 2005. These surges can also move through bays, rivers, and any body of water connected to (or near) the coast.

How It Happens

The next time you drink a cup of water (or coffee, or whatever), gently blow across the top of the liquid. If you look closely, you’ll see the liquid starting to pile up on the opposite side of the cup—it won’t be much, but it’s a noticeable change in height.

Now, imagine that happening over hundreds of square miles of ocean, and instead of your gentle, minty breath, it’s a huge area of winds that are raging at more than 100 MPH. This is how a storm surge takes shape. Lower air pressure can account for a small amount of the rise in water levels, but the overwhelming majority of the surge is from the wind. Large, intense storms can push vast amounts of water out ahead of them, and as the ocean gets more shallow nearer to the shoreline, the water begins to pile up and grow in height.

A storm surge is like a slow-motion tsunami. If you saw those horrifying videos of the tsunami in Japan back in March 2011, storm surges don’t happen with the same speed and ferocity, but they can cause just about as much damage. Water is powerful. While it doesn’t smack the coast all at once like a tsunami, a storm surge can come up pretty quickly, and people in the path of such disasters don’t have much time to react once it begins

The video above shows the storm surge on Coney Island during Hurricane Sandy back in October 2012. The video starts around 6:00 PM and ends around 8:00 PM when the power went out and it was too dark to see anything. In that short period of time, the water on the roads rose from general, navigable ponding to a flood that engulfed cars on the street below. The surge can rise even faster in stronger storms, and with water pushed around by powerful winds, buildings can easily float away or shred apart like they’re made of paper.

Hurricane Katrina

This week marks ten years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the northern Gulf Coast, creating the largest natural disaster in American history. The storm was the worst to crash into the country since a category four hurricane destroyed Galveston, Texas, back in 1900, killing between 6,000 and 12,000 people. A death toll of that magnitude is unimaginable in this day and age, but in the grand scheme of storms, the fact that 1,833 people lost their lives in Hurricane Katrina is pretty unimaginable on its own.http://thevane.gawker.com/certain-death-...

The level of death and destruction seen in Katrina’s wake wouldn’t have been nearly as high if it weren’t for the flooding caused by the storm. Almost half of the people who died in Louisiana during Katrina drowned in the storm surge. According to a 2008 medical study, 971 people in Louisiana died as a result of Hurricane Katrina (that number, which fluctuates based on the source, has since been revised to around 1,500). Out of those 971 victims included in the study (800 of whom had listed causes of death), 387 (43%) were confirmed to have died by drowning, while only 246 (25%) of the victims died from injuries sustained during the storm (both wind/water-related as well as events like shootings, suicide, heat, and illnesses).

That’s in Louisiana alone, where the effects of the rising waters were exacerbated by New Orelans’ below-sea-level location and fragile system of levees. Louisiana actually escaped the worst of the hurricane’s storm surge. The storm’s eye passed over extreme eastern Louisiana—east of New Orleans-coming ashore on the southern coast of Mississippi. The worst storm surge almost always occurs in the right-front quadrant of a tropical cyclone’s eyewall, where the direction of the strongest winds match the storm’s forward motion. Pass Christian, Mississippi, recorded a 27.8-foot storm surge, which is the deepest storm surge ever measured in the United States. It was in this part of the state that the storm surge reached more than ten miles inland, demolishing just about everything in its path.

When it made landfall, Hurricane Katrina was only a category three storm with winds of about 125 MPH. That’s not as strong as storms like Charley the year before (category four) or Andrew thirteen years prior (category five), but a confluence of factors led to the storm turning into a nightmare even though it was relatively weaker than its historical counterparts.

Less than 24 hours before landfall, Hurricane Katrina strengthened into a monstrous category five storm with winds of 175 MPH. Meteorologically, it was the perfect storm—save for a few bumps and rainbands, Katrina was perfectly symmetrical on satellite imagery, with an incredible buzzsaw presentation and an enormous, dramatic eye smack in the middle.

While Katrina’s maximum sustained winds weakened dramatically in the hours leading up to landfall, it didn’t matter when it came to the storm surge. The storm’s large, intense wind field scooped up an incredible amount of water from the Gulf of Mexico and sent it on a collision course with the northern Gulf Coast. The winds weakened faster than the water could catch up. The damage was already done. Katrina made landfall with the winds of a category three hurricane and the storm surge of the record-breaking category five hurricane it was just hours before.

Hurricane Sandy

The worst storm to make landfall in the post-Katrina era was Hurricane Sandy, an unprecedented storm that roared ashore in New Jersey under extremely strange circumstances. The confluence of several weather features came together to make marginal category one hurricane one of the worst storms in American history, and one which was immediately assigned a fake name—“superstorm”—to account for its unusual ferocity.

Even though Sandy came ashore with winds that were barely at hurricane strength, its wind field was gigantic. Near landfall, tropical storm force winds (39-73 MPH) extended nearly 500 miles away from Sandy’s center of circulation, and hurricane force winds (74+ MPH) extended nearly 200 miles from Sandy’s center. That is an unbelievably large wind field that covered most of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast at one point.

While we usually see devastating storm surges with intense storms like Katrina or Andrew, it’s pretty unusual to see such a widespread, destructive influx of seawater like we saw in a relatively weak storm like Hurricane Sandy. What Sandy lacked in strength it more than made up for in sheer size. The storm had a minimum air pressure equivalent to a category three hurricane, but instead of translating that energy into wind speeds, it used that energy to expand into this gigantic, sprawling storm. It was this enormous wind field that allowed Sandy to create such a devastating storm surge in New Jersey and New York which directly killed dozens (if not more than one hundred) people.

Advances in Forecasting

The public’s lack of knowledge about the threat of storm surges seems to be, in part, a failure of communication. We’re so focused on relaying wind speed information that storm surge forecasts fall by the wayside; it’s almost like they’re included as an afterthought in forecasts and news stories. “The storm has 140 MPH winds, it’s moving west, you’ll see 10 inches of rain, oh, and by the way, the sea will rise 21 feet and engulf every home within five miles of the coast.”

Last year, the National Hurricane Center (easy-to-remember link: hurricanes.gov) launched a new product to better relay storm surge forecasts and information to the public. This new Potential Storm Surge Flooding Map will show which areas could see a storm surge in an approaching storm, and how high above the ground that storm surge could reach if current forecasts hold true.

In the above map for a hypothetical hurricane threatening Fort Myers, Florida, areas shaded in red could see a storm surge up to nine feet above ground level, while the surge could potentially reach up to three feet above ground level in areas shaded in blue.

This year, the National Hurricane Center will begin experimenting with storm surge watches and warnings that will be issued alongside existing hurricane and tropical storm advisories. A storm surge warning would be issued up to 36 hours in advance of a potentially life-threatening inundation of water along the coast, and a storm surge watch would be issued up to 48 hours in advance of the anticipated surge of water.

This product, along with the experimental inundation maps introduced in 2014, will be incredibly helpful in relaying useful information to coastal residents in advance of any storms that threaten land in the future. Knowledge is power when it comes to severe weather safety, and the more people know about and are aware of the threat of storm surges, the more they’ll pay attention the next time a storm makes landfall.

Luckily, we haven’t had a chance to use these products yet, and hopefully we won’t for a long time to come.

Don’t Stick Around

It’s horrifying to hear people brush off the threat of a hurricane when one is churning their way. Even systems as “weak” as a tropical storm can cause lots of damage—ask Texas how well they fared during Tropical Storm Allison. It’s pretty common for coast-dwellers in the southern United States to shrug off even a formidable hurricane as “nothing much” or just a little bit of wind and rain. People right on the coast brag about having hurricane parties and go toe-to-toe comparing moxie by how strong the storm has to be before they’ll give up and leave.

A solid number of people who fail to evacuate before a storm stay because they can’t leave, a result of finances, lack of transportation, or the inability to get time off from work to do so. That’s a major problem that local officials and organizations attempt to solve (when the system works, anyway), but it isn’t always effective.

However, there are countless stories of people who don’t evacuate before major storms like Katrina simply because they thought they could ride it out, only to realize that the storm is much worse than they imagined. Structures surviving strong winds and heavy rain is one thing, but there’s usually one constant in the regretful stories told by people who stayed on the coast and survived: storm surge.

Storm surge is one of those overlooked hazards that’s usually too late to escape once it begins. If your house catches fire or you have a medical emergency, you can pick up the phone and help will be there within minutes in most cases. We’re lucky to have near-instant help from emergency personnel when something bad happens.

During a hurricane, you don’t have that luxury. Once the winds pick up and the water starts rising, you’re on your own until the storm is over.

If you ever find yourself on the wrong end of an approaching hurricane, don’t underestimate the power of the storm. Even if you’re a few miles away from the ocean, depending on the elevation profile of the coast, an intense storm could push a surge pretty far inland. A hurricane’s storm surge can cause more damage than the wind itself, and it’s harder to escape rising water than it is to find safety from flying debris.

[Images: AP, NHC, NOAA, NASA, NHC | Video: YouTube]

Email: dennis.mersereau@gawker.com | Twitter: @wxdam

If you enjoy The Vane, then you’ll love my upcoming book, The Extreme Weather Survival Manual, which comes out on October 6 and is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

There. See? He meant Asians. Asians are the bad immigrants. Good luck, Jeb!

Chance is the ultimate boot for fall, according to Kristin Cavallari, who wrote in the caption of an Instagram post today, “Chance is the ultimate boot for fall.”

She added, “Fringe fringe fringe [fire emoji] get it at@Nordstrom .com search Kristin Cavallari.”

Let’s take a closer look at this Chance boot, courtesy photos posted on Nordstrom.com (search Kristin Cavallari).

“Fringe,” said Kristin about the boot she designed for Kristin Cavallari for Chinese Laundry (for Nordstrom.com).

“Fringe,” she called out again from her rope swing, kicking her heels out over a glassy lake.

“Fringe,” she said a third time, looking over her shoulder, her spell complete.

According to Nordstrom.com, these Chance boots cost $344.95.

Fire!

This has been 500 Days of Kristin.

[Photos via Getty and Nordstrom]

The most recent Ashley Madison data dump promises to reveal plenty of incriminating information on its widely reviled CEO Noel Biderman. But so far, nothing we’ve found in this newest leak has been quite as imminently painful as Biderman’s 100-page, Ashley Madison-themed screenplay: In Bed With Ashley Madison.

Having read through all 100 pages of the script, in which the phrase “Ashley Madison” was uttered no less than 45 times, I wish I could tell you what it’s about. I cannot. The plot is largely nonsensical, entire pages exist as poorly concealed advertisements for Ashley Madison, and there is a brief, sexual interlude with a little person, a dildo, and a teddy bear.

I can, however, tell you that the story has something to do with a sort of female-Don Draper trying to land the Big Account. That account is, of course, Ashley Madison. It is also “inspired by actual events” and co-written by this guy.

But since I will never be able to do justice to what transpires on these godforsaken pages, allow me to present the best parts of the most beautiful disaster you will ever read.

Good, strong representations of women.

Good, strong representations of Jews.

More good, strong representations of Jews.

Brief interludes with unavailable men.

Pages and pages of unbearable banter follow.

Jokes?

Lots and lots of finance chatter, with special appearances by: Figures!

Reports!

And numbers!

And, of course, sex.

And more sex.

Sympathetic depictions of the homeless.

Subtle justifications for extramarital affairs.

As well as subtle advertisements for Ashley Madison in general.

They blend right in.

Like, you hardly even notice it.

At all.

[Note: Coincidentally, fictional Ashley Madison CEO (named Ashley Madison) wrote a book just like actual Ashley Madison CEO and aspiring screenplay writer Noel Biderman.]

There’s also this.

Until at long last, and in the final hours, Ashley Madison’s totally fictional and not at all real exec saves the day.

Almost none of the characters we are introduced to have recurring parts: Paul the Hobo makes a grand total of two appearances. The Orthodox Jewish executives make one. The S&M camgirl teddy bear, however, appears in three separate scenes. I do not know what any of it means.

Contact the author at ashley@gawker.com. Art by Sam Woolley, image via Shutterstock.

A pair of 85 year-old twins in New York City are seeking a crew of “12 to 16 hearty souls” to help them sail a boat around the world until they die, then throw their bodies overboard. Why not?

Tyga, a mostly pitiful rapper who only became famous because his cousin is the dude from the Gym Class Heroes, has managed to extend his time in our short lives by latching onto Kylie Jenner, the youngest sister to the Kardashians. Jenner recently turned 18; she was 17 when the two started dating. After months of stopping himself from rapping about having sex with his at-one-point underage girlfriend, Tyga finally broke.

Tyga’s new mixtape is called Fuk What They Talkin Bout, which I guess refers to the general public consensus that he perhaps should not have spent several months dating a 17-year-old. Tyga disagrees. Okay. Here are lyrics from a song on the mixtape called “$timulated,” which you can listen to here:

They say she young
She should have waited
She a big girl, dawg, when she stimulated

Sure.

It’s worth noting that at the moment Tyga begins to rap this portion of the song, the beat goes silent, a device used in hip-hop to denote that the rapper is about to say something important and triumphant. In this case, that thing is: you may have thought it was weird that my girlfriend was not 18 years old, but, actually, when we had sex, it was cool.

There was a short-lived controversy back in June when, on a leaked song called “Pleazer,” Tyga, in the midst of rapping about sex, said that he was “about to catch a felony for it.” Tyga maintained that the song was completed years before he started dating Jenner, implying that he would not brag about fucking his then 17-year-old girlfriend.

Alas.

[image via Splash]

Contact the author at jordan@gawker.com.

Ferguson, Missouri’s newly appointed municipal judge announced sweeping changes to the city’s court system on Monday, including the withdrawal of every arrest warrant issued in Ferguson prior to December 31, 2014, Reuters reports.

“These changes should continue the process of restoring confidence in the Court, alleviating fears of the consequences of appearing in Court, and giving many residents a fresh start,” said Judge Donald McCullin, who was appointed in June.

In March, McCullin’s predecessor resigned after the release of a damning Justice Department report that found the court engaged in “unlawful bias” against African Americans and used arrest warrants “almost exclusively” as a threat to compel payment of fines.http://gawker.com/justice-dept-f...

In addition to giving defendants new court dates and payment options, McCullin said he would reinstate driver’s licenses previously suspended by Ferguson’s Director of Revenue. From KSDK-TV:

If a defendant continually fails to appear on their scheduled court date, an arrest warrant may be issued and/or a request made to the Director of Revenue to seek a setoff of the defendant’s tax return. If an arrest warrant is issued for a minor traffic violation, the defendant will not be incarcerated, but instead released on their own recognizance and given another court date.

All active warrants more than five years old will be withdrawn. In addition, for cases in which the Director of Revenue has suspended a defendant’s driver’s license solely for failure to appear in court or failure to pay a fine, the license will be reinstated pending final disposition.

“At some point, we need an olive branch to move forward, and what I see is a good olive branch,” Patricia Bynes, the city’s Democratic committeewoman, told the L.A. Times. “This is a good segue into having a good conversation about moving forward and what’s reasonable to expect from the court.”

[Image via AP Images]

Today in a Los Angeles court, a judge overturned a divorce settlement agreement signed by Terrence Howard and his ex-wife Michelle Ghent, saying that Howard only consented to the contract under the pressures of “extortion or duress.” That duress was applied to the state of Howard’s dick.

You may remember back in May, when Howard’s attorneys filed court documents alleging that he was blackmailed into signing divorce papers with Ghent, which entitled her to a percentage of his earnings, including a part of his Empire salary. In those documents were transcripts of a secret recording in which Ghent threatened to reveal to the world that Howard has a small dick. Via TMZ:

In the docs filed by his attorney Brian Kramer, Terrence says he secretly recorded her saying, “I can make a good $2 million right now ... you want to see your little **** out there in front of TV?”

(Note: in this quote, the four asterisks refer to Howard’s penis.)

Ghent also allegedly told Howard she would reveal to the world that he gave her an STD. Whether that part is true remains to be seen, but the question regarding Howard’s dick was settled many moons ago, when he appeared full-frontal in the movie Get Rich or Die Tryin’. You can see his dick in this post, or watch the video below.

In that post, I wondered if Ghent could have successfully blackmailed Howard over the size of his dick when he willingly displayed it to the world in a major motion picture. It turns out, there was much more to it. Via the Daily News:

Howard’s ex was no Cookie Lyon, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas Trent Lewis said she was manipulative enough to scare him into thinking she would leak private details about him, including phone sex recordings with other women and a video of the actor dancing naked in a bathroom.

Via the AP, Howard’s lawyers also entered into evidence a recording of Ghent from 2011 in which she said she would “sell private information” about Howard if he didn’t send her money by the end of the day. In response, Howard ordered his accountant to wire her $40,000.

Ghent is no hero, but Howard isn’t a victim, either. Ghent’s attorneys told the court that Howard cheated on her while they were engaged, and revealed that in July, Howard separated from Mira Pak, the woman he married after divorcing Ghent.

Ghent’s lawyers also alleged that Howard physically abused Ghent, and spent time discussing Howard’s history as a domestic abuser, which, despite being well-known, has proven immaterial to his career. The AP reports that Ghent has an active restraining order out against him.

The lesson here, I guess, is that if you marry someone as shitty as Terrence Howard, don’t blackmail him on tape before you get his money.

[image via Getty]

Contact the author at jordan@gawker.com.

Following a complaint by a female student, Olympic and World Championship gymnastics coach Marvin Sharp was arrested in Indianapolis Monday morning on suspicion of felony child molestation, NBC News reports.

Sources: female student at Marvin Sharp's gym is victim of molestation & there could be more. pic.twitter.com/L4s0INBhku

August 24, 2015

While prosecutors say the investigation is ongoing and have not yet specified the allegations against Sharp, authorities reportedly raided the 48-year-old’s home and Sharp’s Gymnastics Academy. From WTHR:

Detectives took computers and other electronic devices to a special mobile lab, searching for what sources describe as child pornography. Authorities also raided his gym, removing other pieces of potential evidence.

It’s the same facility where Samantha Peszek and Bridget Sloan trained for the Olympics. Both won silver medals in Beijing in 2008.

USA Gymnastics, the country’s national governing body for gymnastics, said in a statement it “takes seriously any allegations regarding misconduct” and was cooperating with the investigation.

[Image via WRTV]

IndyCar driver Justin Wilson succumbed to a head injury sustained in a wreck Sunday at Pocono Raceway, the Associated Press reports. Wilson was 37.

During yesterday’s ABC Supply 500, Sage Karam crashed while in the lead, littering the track with debris. Wilson attempted to avoid James Jakes’ slowing car through the debris field when he was struck in the head by the nose cone that had come loose from Sage Karam’s car. Wilson was taken via helicopter to an area hospital with severe head injuries.

IndyCar made an announcement this evening at about 9:10 p.m. EDT at the request of Justin Wilson’s family. Mark Miles, CEO of Hulman & Company, the parent company of IndyCar, said he will remember Wilson as “one of the most well respected, highly regarded, and loved people in the entire paddock.”

Driver and team owner Ed Carpenter also paid his respects during the announcement, describing Wilson as “a great professional driver and extremely good at his craft” and “a friend among everyone in the paddock.”

Wilson died at Lehigh Valley Health Network Cedar Crest Hospital in the company of his family. Following IndyCar’s announcement, the family released this statement:

With deep sadness, the parents of Justin Wilson, Keith and Lynne, his wife Julia, and his brother Stefan share the news that Justin passed away today after succumbing to injuries suffered during the Verizon IndyCar event at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, August 23.

Justin was a loving father and devoted husband, as well as a highly competitive racing driver who was respected by his peers.

The family would like to thank the staff at the Lehigh Valley Health Network Cedar Crest Hospital, Pocono Raceway, Andretti Autosport, and the Verizon IndyCar Series as well as the entire racing community for the amazing outpouring of support from fans around the world.

The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Wilson Children’s Fund care of INDYCAR.

Wilson Children’s Fund

C/O INDYCAR

4551 West 16th Street

Indianapolis, IN 46222

Wilson was a native of Sheffield, England, who had moved to Colorado with his wife Julia and two young daughters, Jane and Jessica.

He was a prominent open-wheel racer for many years, competing for Minardi and Jaguar in Formula One. He moved into American open wheel series in 2004 with ChampCar and later IndyCar in 2008. Wilson had competed in six IndyCar races with Andretti Autosport this year.

This is the second time in four years that IndyCar has lost one of its most popular drivers due to an on-track incident. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Weldon passed away due to severe head injuries sustained in a crash in 2011.

Photo credit: AP Images

Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.