It really brings it home

What a tornado can do to a community. The before and after shots (Google map style) of Joplin.

Stating the obvious

Bush Policies Dominant Cause Of National Debt

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has updated and refined a widely cited chart, laying out the origins of the country's current fiscal trajectory. And as before, the lion's share of the problem comes from ongoing George W. Bush-era policies -- particularly deficit-financed tax cuts, which eliminated Clinton-era surpluses and left the Treasury poised for a huge hit when the financial crisis and economic downturn further eroded federal revenues.

By the end of the decade, CBPP projects that, on the current trajectory, the Bush tax cuts, exacerbated by the economic downturn, combined with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will account for the significant majority of public debt as a share of GDP.

Without those factors, and without the need for stimulus measures under President Obama, CBPP projects that the debt-to-GDP ratio would have dropped under both Presidents Bush and Obama.

Speaking of emissions

Having Palin talk about loving the smell of exhaust reminded me of this story....

Thank you for your service

Because of this

Storm suspends work at Japan Fukushima nuclear plant

The operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant has suspended some of its outdoor work due to a tropical storm, just days after it admitted it was not prepared for harsh weather.

Heavy rain and strong winds are hitting north-east Japan, which was devastated in the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

There are fears that more radioactive material from the Fukushima plant could drain into the land and sea.

Japan's Meteorological Agency has warned of mudslides and floods.

Typhoon Songda weakened to a tropical storm over south-west Japan late on Sunday, but strong winds and rain have continued to pound the north-east of the country.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which runs the nuclear plant, said it was on alert to ensure that contaminated water in reactor buildings did not flow out.

I am impressed by this:

Switzerland Plans To Abandon Nuclear Power

The Swiss government announced last week a proposal to phase out nuclear power as an energy source for electricity generation and to look more towards energy efficiency and renewables.

Under the proposal, existing nuclear power stations will be decommissioned at the end of their operational lifespan and will not be replaced by new reactors. This would see Switzerland being nuclear free by 2034.

And this:

Germany: Nuclear power plants to close by 2022

Germany's coalition government has announced a reversal of policy that will see all the country's nuclear power plants phased out by 2022.

The decision makes Germany the biggest industrial power to announce plans to give up nuclear energy.

Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen made the announcement following late-night talks.

Chancellor Angela Merkel set up a panel to review nuclear power following the crisis at Fukushima in Japan.

There have been mass anti-nuclear protests across Germany in the wake of March's Fukushima crisis, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.

Because loss of life and land is a reality and mistakes and disasters are inevitable, these are intelligent actions by these countries. How many of them do we need to learn it takes only one mistake to forever devastate a region and destroy communities?

Boy, I otter....

This should take care of any geology majors in Italy...

Seismologists Tried for Manslaughter for Not Predicting Earthquake

Earthquake prediction can be a grave, and faulty science, and in the case of Italian seismologists who are being tried for the manslaughter of the people who died in the 2009 L'Aquila quake, it can have legal consequences.

The group of seven, including six seismologists and a government official, reportedly didn't alert the public ahead of time of the risk of the L'Aquila earthquake, which occurred on April 6 of that year, killing around 300 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

But most scientists would agree it's not their fault they couldn't predict the wrath of Mother Nature.

"We're not able to predict earthquakes very well at all," John Vidale, a Washington State seismologist and professor at the University of Washington, told LiveScience.

Even though advances have been made, the day scientists are able to forecast earthquakes is still "far away," Dimitar Ouzounov, a professor of earth sciences at Chapman University in California, said this month regarding the prediction of the March 11 earthquake in Japan.

Things that make my teeth curl

From Representative Virginia Fox: House passes amendment to defund medical schools that teach abortion. As well we know, anything to do with sex, Republicans are ready to deny it, define it, legislate, regulate and tax it. That includes the Catholic church.

Ed Schultz apologizes, Beck never will.

Ignoring these at our peril: Evidence Climate Change is Misunderestimated and bees.

Because science is hard and scary and denies faith and God and stuff: Nobel laureate: freedom of information laws in UK used to harass scientists

Cops shooting because they can: an eighth grader, a woodcarver.

Atheists more Christian in behavior than Christians

High School Student Stands Up Against Prayer at Public School and Is Ostracized, Demeaned and Threatened. When a high school atheist tried to stop prayer at his graduation, he was harassed and kicked out of his house. But the atheist community stepped in.

Proving again why we must have a clear separation of church and state. And no public prayer in schools. Or else include EVERY type of prayer imaginable.... reformed Druid, Pastafarian.....

If cats reported the news

No. Not for a long time, kitty. Oil in your seafood from the Gulf or radioactive isotopes in your fish from the Pacific?... neither one, thank you.

Dr. Susan Shaw - Marine Environmental Research Institute from Blackbird Media on Vimeo.

Schwarzenegger's scandal and his actual screwing of California. Thanks, Ahnuld. And speaking of sexual oopses .... 19 best unintentionally sexual church signs (h/t to Marcellina of The Practice Room)

Research Suggests Weight Gain Is Contagious

Congress to vote on extending Patriot Act

Threatening kids who want to debate the Constitution?

Partisan teachers:

When it comes to grading, Republican and Democratic professors at one unnamed elite university put their ideologies into practice, a new study finds: Republicans welcomed inequality, handing out more very high and very low grades, and Democrats’ grades grouped more tightly around the average.

Republicans also gave black students lower grades than their colleagues. In both cases, the researchers stressed, there was no way to know which approach better reflected students’ performance.

The reason behind the Rapture prediction. And after apologies, Camping is now giving another date....