No doubt you’ve already been following this, but the big one (or at least “a” big one) has hit Japan, though it appears that Tokyo has been spared. Still, the magnitude 8.9 earthquake with accompanying tsunamis that may hit as far away as the US west coast has caused a great deal of damage already. Hopefully all this shaking hasn’t awakened Godzilla. The video of fires and little Japanese cars being swept away are definitely Godzilla movie-like. And now there’s a fire at one of their nuke plants. No doubt it’ll be a while before we find out the extent of the carnage, but I predict that gas prices will increase. Not to be self-centered or anything, but gas prices could just be the start (not that they aren’t already too darn high; that Chevy Volt is looking better and better), because, if I remember correctly, as a hedge for the inevitable major earthquake, Japan has invested a ton of money in the US and around the world, with the idea of cashing those investments back in order to rebuild and recover (the kind of forward thinking that we’d never do here in the US, where we’d “invest” in tax cuts for the rich, no strings attached). So, look for the Japanese to sell whatever they own to the Chinese.
No tsunamis here, but there’s a lot of rain, snow melt, and the inevitable flooding. I hear the sump pumps a’running, so that’s good.
Speaking of Godzilla, something or other came crashing down rather noisily in the middle of the night, which scared the dogs. I figured it was probably cat related, but when I got up to have a look, I couldn’t see anything that looked like it’d collapsed or gotten knocked over. This has me worried, because I’d much rather see a shelf that fell down or something than not know if a part of the house that I can’t quite locate from the inside (say, a piece of the roof or a chimney or something) fell down. I’m really too physically, emotionally, and financially bankrupt to deal with it at this point in time.
On the bright side, SU beat St. John’s yesterday, and moves on to play UCONN tonight at 7:00 to earn the right to play the winner of tonight’s Louisville-Notre Dame game for the Big East Championship on Saturday. It doesn’t matter so much in the grand scheme of things (the “big” tournament is yet to come), but winning is always better than losing.
Oh well, time to make a fresh pot of coffee and wait for daylight to take a walk around the house and make sure nothing fell off.
What, too obvious?
OK. How ’bout…
No?
We just had a tsunamt warning for 8:08 PST on the EBS. Hawaii in minutes.
Yeah, the MSNBC just reporting that since Japan import so much energy, there may be more demand on oil since their nuke plants may have taken some bad shots. Tsunamis in Hawaii look light so far. They are saying NoCal coastal areas could get 2 ‘ waves and are trying to move the homeless away from the beaches.
That was one big fooking shaker. I couldn’t look last night. Dayum!
We have tsunami school closings.
We don’t get tsunami school closings here. Sue might. In fact, I’m pretty sure the ‘P’ stands for Pnami.
We don’t get many excuses. I think it is just a case of closing envy. Give the kids and the teaches a taste.
If a tsunami were headed for the east coast, Mayor Bloomy would take one of his “secret” weekend trips, Governor Christie would have a sudden urge to take his family to vacation in South Dakota (I’m sure he’s always wanted to visit Wall Drug) and teachers would be told to bring towels to school to dry the children whose parents could not afford to miss a day at work because America is a land of opportunity.
The New York City comptroller on Thursday rejected a $21 million contract to train and recruit teachers over the next five years, a move the city said jeopardized a popular program that attracted teachers from nontraditional backgrounds to the city’s schools.
The comptroller, John C. Liu, denied the contract for the New York City Teaching Fellows program on technical grounds, but said that it was wrong to use taxpayer money to train new teachers at a time when the city was warning of widespread layoffs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/nyregion/11teachers.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=nyregion
Well, what a coincidence. Granny and I visited Wall Drug on our honeymoon. And it was also Sturgis time, so the town was packed with some very colorful folks.
Is there an y other place to visit in South Dakota beside Wall Drug?
Olbermann has a post decrying the union busting in Wisconsin in which he calls Walker “the cross-eyed Koch-sucker.” I think that would make a nifty bumper sticker.
http://foknewschannel.com/the-suicide-of-the-republican-party/#more-116
I’ve made a gentle comment elsewhere about Walker’s vacant starebecause I thought maybe he might be cross-eyed. If you look at him though, the eyes look like vacant black holes and Blinky’s had more life in them.
Well, there’s Mount Rushmore. And the Crazy Horse Memorial. And of course the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead (you know, little house on the prairie). And Needles Highway. Oh, and Deadwood. And Badlands National Park. And the Black Hills. And Wounded Knee. And if anybody is at all interested in Paleontology, there are lots of fossils and dinosaurs and stuff (they’ve found at least one Tyrannosaurus Rex there, and a Triceratops, and Woolly Mammoths and Mastodons).
Oh, see, now, to me, Walker just looks like a fuckin’ dummy.
What is Needles Highway?
It’s a highway that runs through, like granite formations and stuff:
http://www.google.com/images?q=Needles+Highway&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&sa=X&ei=g3h6TeeOLcXo0gH50qXfAw&ved=0CC8QsAQ&biw=1036&bih=880
I almost didn’t get into my final Art History class because for some bizarre reason it was filled and I was put on a waiting list. Usually being on a waiting list means you’re fucked because you waited too long to register, probably because you started smoking pot with all the other art students and spaced it out. Surprisingly the instructor realized I was never going to get into the class, so he signed a few things and offered me a ticket to cut in front of all the other students on the waiting list. I was surprised by the offer but my friend who signed up two minutes before me didn’t get one when I got mine. I was at my friend’s place when we drifted out of our hazes and realized that we should register for Art History and used his computer to do so. I didn’t accept the cut but instead the instructor offered anyone during class yesterday who was put on the waiting list a chance to register, which was actually 3 people. Pretty cool. Now I can get back to procrastinating. Wait…where’s my lighter?
Oh yeah, :gate:
Didn’t like the looks or the necessity of the calendar, PJ?
I must say, like Ed Grimely, that Schama’s Power of Art series on Caravaggio was the best of the bunch.
No, been meaning to widgetize this theme for a while, and was using the calendar widget to see where things would show up.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell warned on Friday that GOP senators will not vote to increase the government’s borrowing limit unless President Barack Obama agrees to rein in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, laying down a high-stakes marker just weeks before the debt ceiling is reached.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/11/955341/-McConnell-moves-goalposts:-GOP-will-force-federal-default-without-benefit-cuts
From Forbes:
And not just Wisconsin, but also Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Florida, and the rest of the over-reaching state Republicans. Governors like Scott Walker, Rick Scott, and Jan Brewer are riding on the coattails of the Tea Party, but they’ve become blind to the dangers of their radical policies.
In Wisconsin, Democrats are already promising to step-up recall efforts. But the recalls are only a small part of what is likely going to be a huge anti-Republican backlash across the nation, as working Americans finally realize what that party actually stands for: an playing field heavily tilted toward the rich and powerful, toward corporate power, and against worker rights.
http://blogs.forbes.com/erikkain/2011/03/10/is-wisconsin-the-real-republican-waterloo/
NBC just reported they’ve “lost control” of two reactors at the nuclear facility 150 miles north of Tokyo. :omg:
That doesn’t sound good.
Pretty exciting tied game going on back East.
I’m watching my Buffaloes put up a losing fight against the Jayhawks
The oldest known wild bird in the U.S. is a new mother. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist spotted the Laysan albatross that’s at least 60 years old a few weeks ago. It was with a chick at Midway Atoll, a remote wildlife refuge 1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu.
A U.S. Geological Survey scientist first banded the seabird as she incubated an egg in 1956. She was estimated to be at least 5 years old at the time. The albatross has since worn out five bird bands.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/09/oldest-bird-us-mother-baby_n_833415.html