Incredible Views Of Sandy

Unbelievable satellite image of Hurricane Sandy!  I am not sure I have ever seen such a large mass as this.

There are more pictures and incredible videos here and here.

Is It Hot Or What?

Today in Los Angeles, we hit the hottest day EVER since recording the weather started in 1877. It was 113 degrees in Los Angeles (apparently it hit 112 in June 1990, but I'm not having any recollection of that heat wave). In all my life, I've never had to deal with that kind of weather in Los Angeles. Sure, in Vegas, in Palm Springs, and other places in say New Mexico and Airzona. Even in the Valley it's been that hot, but NOT in the city of Los Angeles, proper. Right now, as I am post this at about 4:15 p.m., it's still 105 degrees! I need to go to the market and I just can't stomach the idea of actually stepping out at this time. I can't even imagine that at the late time of 7 or 8 p.m. it will be under 100. Who knows ...

Who Doesn't Love A Good, Old Fashioned Snowball Fight?

This is sooooo funny! I've had the pleasure of snowball fighting as a kid, when I spent a year in Baltimore, MD back when I was six (my family didn't put me in kindergarten because my sister was a year younger than me, and they didn't want to have us separated re: school [assholes]) and making a real snowman!

Also, as a teen, I participated in my religious affiliation group's yearly retreat to the Big Bear area in the winter.



H/T to AMERICAblog.

Pago Pago Tsunami Pictures

I found these pictures browsing an Hawai'ian newspaper, the Honolulu Star Bulletin. I read a few other state newspapers online.

These series of photos show the tsunami waves hitting the FBI offices in Pago Pago recently.

Eeerie to view.

A Moment Of Silence For The Katrina Victims, Past And Current

Three years later, and is NOLA fixed yet?

Just as we can't forget 9/11, America must never forget what it's own government failed to do for its citizens this day in 2005.

Endangered Species vs. Endangered Development?

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - The state of Alaska will sue the U.S. government to stop the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species, arguing the designation will slow development in the state, Gov. Sarah Palin said on Wednesday.

Palin said the state will file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington challenging U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's decision to grant Endangered Species Act protections to the polar bear.

The Republican governor has argued that the ice-dependent polar bear, the first mammal granted Endangered Species Act listing because of global warming, does not need additional protections.

"We believe that the listing was unwarranted and that it's unprecedented to list a currently healthy population based on uncertain climate models," said Alaska Assistant Attorney General Steven Daugherty.

Even though Kempthorne enacted a rule aimed at precluding any new restrictions on oil and gas operations as a result of the listing, the Palin administration believes a wide variety of other development activities in Alaska would be hampered if the listing goes through, Daugherty said. Any development or activity requiring federal permits or using federal funds would have to engage in a "consultation" process to ensure that polar bears are not harmed, he said.

That consultation, mandated by the Endangered Species Act, "is long and time-consuming process," he said. "It's just, basically, a big time-and-money-waster."

The date for filing the lawsuit is unknown, Daugherty said. The state Department of Law on Wednesday was drafting its 60-day notice of intent to sue, he said. (Editing by Vicki Allen)

Of course, God forbid, we endanger development in the sparsely populated Alaska over endangered natural habitat wildlife! Typical Republican agenda -- corporate interests over all else.

I'm so sick of the mantra. I'm ready to put all Republicans on some thin sheet of ice near a polar icecap and wait for them to start yelling "uncle."

How Different The Relief Aid Is

MIANYANG, China — With the death toll from this week’s earthquake rising rapidly, China has departed from past diplomatic practice, seeking disaster relief experts and heavy equipment needed for rescue operations from neighbors it has long shunned as rivals or renegades.

Officials on Thursday asked a longtime rival, Japan, to send 60 earthquake rescue experts, the first such team China has accepted from a foreign country during the current crisis and one of the few official relief missions China has ever accepted from abroad. This week it also accepted help from at least three private relief teams from Taiwan, the self-governing island with which China has long had tense relations.

Quite a difference from this:

As the urgency intensifies to get food, water and medicine into the worst-affected areas of Burma 11 days after the country was hit by Cyclone Nargis, the country's military government continues to baffle the world by stonewalling international disaster relief.

The government has taken pains to appear on state television as the sole source of humanitarian relief, even appropriating donations from others so that soldiers can hand out the aid. The United Nations warns of a second catastrophe unless a huge aid effort is begun immediately, and Buddhist monks and other Burmese citizens are quietly tending to the sick and hungry.

The junta's bewildering resistance stems from its fear that outside influence would weaken its control and from a distorted desire to maintain the impression that it is compassionate in the eyes of Burma's Buddhist majority, scholars say.

"The regime is trying to control the aid distribution because they want to be the ones to offer it ceremonially, partly to show they have legitimacy," said University of Wisconsin anthropologist Ingrid Jordt, who has lived in Burma as a practicing Buddhist nun.

"They are the patrons, the distributors of largesse," said Bruce Matthews, a Burma expert and professor emeritus of religion at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. "What anybody gets is what the military wants you to get.

Theoretically, they are Buddhists. They care about their Buddhist image."

Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away

I've been listening to the rain for about an hour, now. I have all the windows open. We don't get a whole lot of rain here in Los Angeles.