July 22, 2014

Let's think good thoughts for California, send them good vibes (drought not going away)

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA





http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/sdo_summary.html

July 22, 2014

Typhoon Matmo continues towards Taiwan, Invest 91E moves west; Tropical Depression Two moves west

Typhoon Matmo:



Last Updated 7/22/2014, 2:00:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time)
Location 21.9N 237.3E Movement NW at 17 mph
Wind 100 MPH


Invest 91E:



Last Updated 7/22/2014, 2:00:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time)
Location 9.8 117.8W Movement W at 15 mph
Wind 30 MPH


Tropical Depression Two:



Last Updated 7/22/2014, 5:00:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time)
Location 12.2N 46.4W Movement W at 16 mph
Wind 35 MPH Pressure: 1012 MB

Sorry, maps are not displaying well from WU right now.

July 21, 2014

Typhoon Matmo advances towards Taiwan, Invest 91E moves westward, Atlantic and Caribbean are quiet

Last Updated 7/20/2014, 8:00:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time)
Location 16.7N 232.8E Movement NNW at 13 mph
Wind 80 MPH




Last Updated 7/20/2014, 8:00:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time)
Location 9.5 110.7W Movement W at 15 mph
Wind 30 MPH

July 21, 2014

How is the drought ? How are water restrictions doing ?

All the best to California ! Hope the drought ends ASAP.

Steve

July 20, 2014

Black Republicans, I don't get it

this thread for reference: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5267123

Do they not understand the fundamental racism of conservatives and Republicans ? Please educate me, DU'ers. Thank you.

Steve

July 20, 2014

Krugman: Always Inflation Somewhere

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/always-inflation-somewhere/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto



Whenever you point out that the hyperinflation the usual suspects have been predicting for the past 6 years hasn’t materialized, you get a rash of comments declaring that yes it has, the government is just lying about the statistics. One answer — aside from come on, how do you think that works? — is that independent measures, like the Billion Price Index, aren’t very different from the official index. Still, people will point to the price of something that has gone up as evidence that we have lots of inflation.

Not that I think such people can be budged, but it is important to realize that relative prices are always shifting around, and that some prices inevitably go up more than the average. As the figure shows, if you go back to the beginning of the Great Recession, food prices have risen more than the overall CPI (although hyperinflation it isn’t), but car prices have risen more slowly (and high-tech stuff has, of course, gotten much cheaper).

And what about Shadowstats, which claims that inflation is much higher than the government lets on? A subscription costs $175 — the same as 8 years ago.

July 20, 2014

"...Roosevelt called President Hoover a 'fat, timid capon' "

http://bit.ly/1p5a7jg



The good old days of politics, eh ? Nonetheless, I'm very glad FDR won.

July 20, 2014

Typhoon Matmo moves towards Taiwan, Tropical Storm Wali goes ‘poof', Rammasun dissipates

Last Updated 7/19/2014, 2:00:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time)
Location 12.1N 230.1E Movement NW at 9 mph
Wind 80 MPH

July 19, 2014

U.S. Senator (Sessions) blasts Microsoft's H-1B push as it lays off 18,000 workers

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9249837/U.S._Senator_blasts_Microsoft_s_H_1B_push_as_it_lays_off_18_000_workers

Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- On the floor of U.S. Senate Thursday, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) delivered a scalding and sarcastic attack on the use of highly skilled foreign workers by U.S. corporations that was heavily aimed at Microsoft, a chief supporter of the practice.

Sessions' speech began as a rebuttal to a recent New York Times op-ed column by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffett and Sheldon Adelson, a casino owner that has chastised Congress for failing to take action on immigration reform.

But the senator's attack on "three of our greatest masters of the universe," and "super billionaires," was clearly primed by Microsoft's announcement, also on Thursday, that it was laying off18,000 employees.

"What did we see in the newspaper today?" said Sessions, "News from Microsoft. Was it that they are having to raise wages to try to get enough good, quality engineers to do the work? Are they expanding or are they hiring? No, that is not what the news was, unfortunately. Not at all."


I'm a bit surprised that Sessions, a Republican Senator, is doing this. Anyone know why ?

July 19, 2014

Court Finds Oklahoma Cannot Ban Gay Nuptials

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/us/gay-marriage-oklahoma-federal-court.html?_r=0

DENVER — A federal appeals court here on Friday struck down a second conservative-leaning state’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, ruling that Oklahoma could not deny gay couples their “fundamental right” to wed.

The 2-to-1 decision came less than a month after the same panel of judges for the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit decided that Utah’s ban was unconstitutional. It was another legal victory for gay couples as a range of legal challenges to state bans on same-sex marriage edges toward the United States Supreme Court.

In a related development Friday, the Supreme Court said Utah is not required to recognize the marriages of about 1,000 same-sex couples there while state officials pursue appeals.

Lawyers for the Tulsa County court clerk, who was the lead defendant in the Oklahoma case, argued that limiting marriage to one man and one woman sought to reinforce traditional family bonds and encourage the raising of children by their biological parents. The majority rejected that view.