Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog

Quoting PensacolaDoug:


Some people use the word "granite" when they really mean "granted".

i thought i took that marble for granite :P

Quoting Neapolitan:
As history shows, Dubya took the budget surplus handed to him by Clinton and blew it up into a debt-heavy mess, adding $5 trillion to the national debt.

$5 trillion.

When Obama took the reins from Bush, he was handed a bloated government and a ruined economy that was shedding about 500K jobs each month.

Why?

There are lots of reasons, of course, but the two primary ones are Bush's very expensive wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and his absolutely insane tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. And adding to that mess, a reckless Wall Street allowed to run amok under the constant lie of an "unregulated free market", and a White House that looked the other way, nudge nudge, wink wink. (FWIW, much of the "exorbitant" government spending under Obama has gone to things such as stimulus projects and federal unemployment benefits--two programs necessitated by Dubya's malfeasance.)

And those, my friends, are irrefutable facts.

Anyway, were I a GOP Presidential campaign manager, I wouldn't be sleeping too well these days:

I'm not arguing that what Bush did was good, they both have sucked nuts. We need a freaking president that will reign in spending, and actually make congress freaking do their jobs instead of going on recess every other week.

Mine was a typo. I caught my error and tried to fix it before anyone could quote but I was too sloooowwwwww. LOL!

Quoting TomTaylor:
Yep, just as some people spell the word "people" as "peolpe." We all make mistakes Doug, I was just trying to point out that SPL continually makes the same mistakes. In other words, he isn't learning from his mistakes.

SPLbeater is a moron! telling people to shut their traps and such because they are trying to prove a point. anyway these model runs are getting interesting for virginia again, not getting my hopes up considering this last snow, but interesting none the less

Anyone know what dyslexic atheist says?

Quoting hurricanehunter27:
Have to completely disagree with you on Obama being able to revive the economy. Most of his debt adding as far as trying to save the economy came in the form of bailouts in his first year of office. The bailouts were poorly executed. Most of his debt now comes from entitlement programs and the typical military spending. The only thing that is helping the economy currently is just the natural trend of things. Companies are tired of doing nothing and feel that they are now in a safe enough positions to expand and hire.

Good point. Maybe it would be better phrased if I said that a fair portion of the debt he added was in attempt to revive our economy.

And yeah you say that the economy naturally recovers, but anything could have really happened. Economies can collapsing too.

Quoting VAbeachhurricanes:


It was completely unnecessary, period.

Maybe.

Quoting TomTaylor:
Good point. Maybe it would be better phrased if I said that a fair portion of the debt he added was in attempt to revive our economy.

And yeah you say that the economy naturally recovers, but anything could have really happened. Economies can collapsing too.
Maybe.

We should model our economy after Germany, they have been thriving while everyone around them have been collapsing.

Quoting PensacolaDoug:
Mine was a typo. I caught my error and tried to fix it before anyone could quote but I was too sloooowwwwww. LOL!

lol, I'll admit mine wasn't a typo, but I will remember this so that hopefully I won't make the same mistake in the future.

Quoting Neapolitan:
As history shows, Dubya took the budget surplus handed to him by Clinton and blew it up into a debt-heavy mess, adding $5 trillion to the national debt.

$5 trillion.

When Obama took the reins from Bush, he was handed a bloated government and a ruined economy that was shedding about 500K jobs each month.

Why?

There are lots of reasons, of course, but the two primary ones are Bush's very expensive wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and his absolutely insane tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. And adding to that mess, a reckless Wall Street allowed to run amok under the constant lie of an "unregulated free market", and a White House that looked the other way, nudge nudge, wink wink. (FWIW, much of the "exorbitant" government spending under Obama has gone to things such as stimulus projects and federal unemployment benefits--two programs necessitated by Dubya's malfeasance.)

And those, my friends, are irrefutable facts.

Anyway, were I a GOP Presidential campaign manager, I wouldn't be sleeping too well these days:

I just love the common misconception that wall street took a large role in bring down our economy. I believe this misconception comes from the Great Depression and the Wall Street crash. Wall Street at the time played not to major of a role in the economy of the 1920 and 1930. The real damaged was caused by dropping crop prices and hundreds of farms across the US defaulted on loans. This caused bank-runs and entire banks to go broke overnight. It was not wall street that caused The Great Depression but banks making irresponsible loans. Its rather scary how similar today's economic troubles are to those 80 years ago. Its true that Bush got us into this mess but Obama has done nothing to help but increase are debt. Its interesting but some times the best thing for the government to do is do nothing at all. IMHO

Quoting VAbeachhurricanes:


We should model our economy after Germany, they have been thriving while everyone around them have been collapsing.

They will have the Fourth Reich in no time (but not evil like the third one was....)

RE:655

There is no dog.

Quoting VAbeachhurricanes:


Why would you ever choose not to use proper grammar? To look not as intelligent?

That's what I'm saying. I'm just trying to help this guy but apparently he doesn't want it.

Quoting WxGeekVA:


They will have the Fourth Reich in no time (but not evil like the third one was....)

The First Reich was pretty epic, another Reich like that might keep Germany from destroying the world again.. Unfortunately, all 3 Reichs ended in major wars. First (1, 2), Second, Third

Quoting PensacolaDoug:
RE:655

There is no dog.

Bad joke Eel:

Banks sitting on the bailout cash, Federal reserve secretly paying banks not to lend, http://www.businessinsider.com/government-paying- banks-not-to-lend-2011-8

Trillions of bailout money went overseas as well, though it's impossible to quantify, GM for example used billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars to build manufacturing plants in China.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20090509/AUTO0 1/905090337/1025/GM-plans-to-shift-overseas-produc tion

Of course, both Bush and Obama are/were nothing but puppets to Wall Street financial sector and the plutocrats controlling them in this 2-party oligarchical duopoly which we're living under.

Quoting RTSplayer:


No, it's not.

A normalized supply/demand curve presents with demand going down as supply goes up.

Look around. Your energy company has you by the balls. Either you pay the bill, or it gets cut, you don't really have much of an option,since most of the price is things you do anyway: cooking, hot water for bathing, washing clothes.

Same thing with Gasoline. You have to drive to work and grocery no matter what anyway right? So the price doesn't effect those decisions at all. Either you buy it or you're screwed.

That doesn't fit a supply/demand curve at all.

Paying the bill has nothing to do with supply and demand. The point is if there was an abundance of energy (the supply) it would be cheaper than it would be if there was a shortage of energy. When that energy supply becomes limited, or the process of attaining that energy becomes strained limiting the supply (i.e. things start geting heated with Iran), then prices will go up. Same thing happens with demand. I know you think demand is constant but it isn't because people use less energy and they seek out alternative forms of energy when one form (let's say oil) becomes too expensive. There are oil companies, hydroelectric companies, solar companies, etc. they aren't all one corporation. If the oil company starts making oil too expensive, they will begin to lose customers to the other energy companies.

The price absolutely effects my decisions. I can easily skateboarding or bike to my local grocery store and would certainly do it if I felt the price of gas was too high.

Quoting hurricanehunter27:
His stimulus package did nothing to stimulate the economy in the first place. Even though its political suicide the best course of action would be to do nothing. The US economy goes up and down and would do the same with or without government interference.

Political suicide? It would have been economic suicide. Had the government not stepped in, the liquidity market would have frozen solid. Most major businesses rely on the liquidity market for short term loans to fund operations. Without those loans, they can't write paychecks, pay the bills etc. . Had that actually come to pass it would have made the Great Depression look like a time of roaring prosperity.

But that isn't even the best part. Had such an event occurred, it would have sparked world-wide panic. Markets all over the globe would have collapsed in short order.

Now you're the POTUS, and your economic adviser has just red-phoned you from the Fed saying that the liquidity market is about to seize up, and describes the potential scenarios that would result from that, including putting most of population out of work. Let's see you have the brass ones to say, "Nah, we'll let it sort itself out.".

Quoting PensacolaDoug:
RE:655

There is no dog.

ah ha

Gotta love those kinds of jokes. The funniest part about them is how silly/not funny they are lol

Quoting hurricanehunter27:

Bad joke Eel:

That face on the eel is priceless!
LOL.

The eel is staring into your soul...

Quoting Xyrus2000:


Political suicide? It would have been economic suicide. Had the government not stepped in, the liquidity market would have frozen solid. Most major businesses rely on the liquidity market for short term loans to fund operations. Without those loans, they can't write paychecks, pay the bills etc. . Had that actually come to pass it would have made the Great Depression look like a time of roaring prosperity.

But that isn't even the best part. Had such an event occurred, it would have sparked world-wide panic. Markets all over the globe would have collapsed in short order.

Now you're the POTUS, and your economic adviser has just red-phoned you from the Fed saying that the liquidity market is about to seize up, and describes the potential scenarios that would result from that, including putting most of population out of work. Let's see you have the brass ones to say, "Nah, we'll let it sort itself out.".

Exactly, it's not the type of risk any wise person would take.

Quoting Xyrus2000:


Political suicide? It would have been economic suicide. Had the government not stepped in, the liquidity market would have frozen solid. Most major businesses rely on the liquidity market for short term loans to fund operations. Without those loans, they can't write paychecks, pay the bills etc. . Had that actually come to pass it would have made the Great Depression look like a time of roaring prosperity.

But that isn't even the best part. Had such an event occurred, it would have sparked world-wide panic. Markets all over the globe would have collapsed in short order.

Now you're the POTUS, and your economic adviser has just red-phoned you from the Fed saying that the liquidity market is about to seize up, and describes the potential scenarios that would result from that, including putting most of population out of work. Let's see you have the brass ones to say, "Nah, we'll let it sort itself out.".

All too true. Obama was handed the controls of a jet airplane that was in a steep nosedive and picking up speed; simply removing his hands from the yoke and the throttle and saying, "I think if we wait a while longer, it'll level out on its own" is absolutely the most unwise thing he could have done.

Marine Corps Band NOLA marches final parade of Mardi Gras 2012



It would be appropriate for Marine Corps Band New Orleans to complete its last march of the 2012 Carnival season with a nod to its own, the Marine Corps Hymn.The Algiers-based band completed its 14th parade of the season in its traditional place, just ahead of Rex.

Also known as the Marine Forces Reserve Band, it marched its last block of the Uptown route on Canal Street about 2 p.m., for a break before performing tonight at Rex's ball.

Bandmaster Master Sgt. Kevin Hunter, a Morgan City native, estimated each of the parades was seven miles long and thought for a moment of how many miles his Marines have marched this season.
Let's call it 150 miles, and probably another 200 in training,Hunter said.

The band played strong all the way to the end, said CWO2 Bryan Sherlock, who reported to New Orleans in January for his assignment as band officer.
Created in 1978, the band calls Marine Corps Support Facility in Algiers its home. Sherlock said residents around the 29-acre installation got to see the Marines prepare for the season.

Producers of the HBO series Treme recently tapped the band to perform in a Carnival scene, Hunter said.
It's kind of special, for how much we're appreciated in the area, Sherlock said.

Purim begins in the evening of Wednesday, March 7, 2012, and ends in the evening of Thursday, March 8, 2012.

Shalom..

..Beware the Ides of March

Quoting Patrap:
Marine Corps Band NOLA marches final parade of Mardi Gras 2012



It would be appropriate for Marine Corps Band New Orleans to complete its last march of the 2012 Carnival season with a nod to its own, the Marine Corps Hymn.The Algiers-based band completed its 14th parade of the season in its traditional place, just ahead of Rex.

Also known as the Marine Forces Reserve Band, it marched its last block of the Uptown route on Canal Street about 2 p.m., for a break before performing tonight at Rex's ball.

Bandmaster Master Sgt. Kevin Hunter, a Morgan City native, estimated each of the parades was seven miles long and thought for a moment of how many miles his Marines have marched this season.
Let's call it 150 miles, and probably another 200 in training,Hunter said.

The band played strong all the way to the end, said CWO2 Bryan Sherlock, who reported to New Orleans in January for his assignment as band officer.
Created in 1978, the band calls Marine Corps Support Facility in Algiers its home. Sherlock said residents around the 29-acre installation got to see the Marines prepare for the season.

Producers of the HBO series Treme recently tapped the band to perform in a Carnival scene, Hunter said.
It's kind of special, for how much we're appreciated in the area, Sherlock said.

give me goose bumps

Quoting presslord:


give me goose bumps

Dat they did today, and starting at 7:30 Pm on PBS here, they Play at the Rex Ball for the Court there, and when the the meeting of the Courts with Comus, they will close out Mardi Gras and Carnival officially with the Rex Theme song.


Rex motto

"Pro Bono Publico - for the public good,"




Check out this sneak peak into this treasured Mardi Gras custom: the meeting of the courts of Rex and Comus, and the annual grand finale of the celebration of Carnival.

You can hear the Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra playing the traditional Grand March from "Aida" to honor the great ritual. Then, as the formal ceremony subsides, the band picks up the beat to get the crowd moving and dancing all night long!

Jimmy & His Orchestra have been part of the New Orleans Mardi Gras for over 35 years. They play the fanfares and grand marches, classic jump blues and swing as well as 60's rock and roll along with the hits of today!

WARNING: This post contains information relevant to weather.



I'm worried about a bad fire season in the Southwest... Clearly precip is expected to be well below normal, and temperatures are expected to be above normal. Very dangerous combination, and there have already been many red flag warnings lately.

Quoting MAweatherboy1:
WARNING: This post contains information relevant to weather.



I'm worried about a bad fire season in the Southwest... Clearly precip is expected to be well below normal, and temperatures are expected to be above normal. Very dangerous combination, and there have already been many red flag warnings lately.

yes, and florida is already super dry and according to this it doesnt look good for the future

So it appears that El niño is forming rather quickly.That obviously means for the 1,000,000,000 time that the season will be....boring.I expect el niño to be with us by the fall.

Quoting Xyrus2000:


Political suicide? It would have been economic suicide. Had the government not stepped in, the liquidity market would have frozen solid. Most major businesses rely on the liquidity market for short term loans to fund operations. Without those loans, they can't write paychecks, pay the bills etc. . Had that actually come to pass it would have made the Great Depression look like a time of roaring prosperity.

But that isn't even the best part. Had such an event occurred, it would have sparked world-wide panic. Markets all over the globe would have collapsed in short order.

Now you're the POTUS, and your economic adviser has just red-phoned you from the Fed saying that the liquidity market is about to seize up, and describes the potential scenarios that would result from that, including putting most of population out of work. Let's see you have the brass ones to say, "Nah, we'll let it sort itself out.".

I was mainly speaking from the stimulus package standpoint, the bailouts were necessarily but the stimulus was not.

Quoting MAweatherboy1:
WARNING: This post contains information relevant to weather.



I'm worried about a bad fire season in the Southwest... Clearly precip is expected to be well below normal, and temperatures are expected to be above normal. Very dangerous combination, and there have already been many red flag warnings lately.

I will be sure to keep you and everyone else updated then, We already have had 2 wildfires this year just south of me.

Quoting MAweatherboy1:
WARNING: This post contains information relevant to weather.



I'm worried about a bad fire season in the Southwest... Clearly precip is expected to be well below normal, and temperatures are expected to be above normal. Very dangerous combination, and there have already been many red flag warnings lately.

Becareful, you don't want to drive certain people crazy by NOT posting enough about Climate problems. One would think the site name will soon change to: "ClimateUnderground-theearthwillburnin40years".

Quoting Jedkins01:



Becareful, you don't want to drive certain people crazy by NOT posting enough about Climate problems. One would think the site name will soon change to: "ClimateUnderground-theearthwillburnin40years".

It should change its name to Climate/Global Warming/Religion/Politics/An occasional weather related post Underground :)

Quoting Jedkins01:



Becareful, you don't want to drive certain people crazy by NOT posting enough about Climate problems. One would think the site name will soon change to: "ClimateUnderground-theearthwillburnin40years".

I dunno. I think it should be called Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog. That way he could write about anything he wanted to, whether that be hurricanes, or climate change denialism, or weather in general.

Oh, wait-- ;-)

Quoting washingtonian115:
So it appears that El niño is forming rather quickly.That obviously means for the 1,000,000,000 time that the season will be....boring.I expect el niño to be with us by the fall.

Link

Return Frequency for Hurricane Landfall based on ENSO Phase
Based on Landfalling Hurricanes from 1851-2006

I know there are generally less storms in El Nino years but there are a few landfalls albeit not as many as other ENSO phases. Thought this was interesting. :)

Quoting washingtonian115:
So it appears that El ni�o is forming rather quickly.That obviously means for the 1,000,000,000 time that the season will be....boring.I expect el ni�o to be with us by the fall.

I'm sorry, but that statement is total crap.

Let me get this straight, and please correct me, you think the last few seasons where 'boring'? What's your definition of exciting then? 2004 and 2005 like hurricane seasons? Death, destruction, chaos? Even if the lack of US landfalls doesn't perk your interest, there has still been quite a few places besides the United States that has been hit bad. 2010 & 2011 had 19 named storms both. 2009 was a normal hurricane season.

Sorry for the pre-season rant and I mean no disrespect.

Quoting MAweatherboy1:

It should change its name to Climate/Global Warming/Religion/Politics/An occasional weather related post Underground :)

wunder blog is good

Quoting MAweatherboy1:

It should change its name to Climate/Global Warming/Religion/Politics/An occasional weather related post Underground :)

i dont know whats worse, spending a day on a blog that is full of political and globalwarming(which it aint) conversations, or throwing my guts up!!

Quoting VAbeachhurricanes:


Gas and Electricity are maybe the most inelastic things on the market. I don't know how you release the grip since the start up costs for those businesses are astronomical.

Doesn't matter, I had a complete lapse anyway and chose a bad choice of words, so my post is complete nonsense.

Not that my line of thought was wrong, but lately I've been having this problem of not concentrating or something.

Ok...

What I MEANT to say is that Price is supposed to go down as Supply goes up, and Price is supposed to go up as Demand goes up.

In the energy market this really doesn't happen. The energy companies set the price.

People aren't driving that much more than in the past, and population has not quadrupled since 1998, but the price of gasoline has, or nearly so.

I don't get to go to the gas station and somehow hijack the system and get a lower rate, and I don't get to use less gasoline in general, since a certain portion of it is the bare minimum cost of transportation for normal requirements in modern life.

Same for electric bill, 1/3rd of it is water heating, and of the remainder, the majority is stuff you need anyway. So like I said, they got you by the balls.

Quoting CybrTeddy:


Sorry for the pre-season rant.

oh dont be sorry, there is usually enough political ranting to cover you up, lol

4.0 magnitude Missouri, New Madrid region, earthquake rattles 9 states
Posted on February 21, 2012
February 21, 2012 – EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. — Residents got an early morning jolt Tuesday after an earthquake rumbled at least nine states, causing minor damage and a big stir in the town of East Prairie, near the quake’s epicenter. “I live on a main highway and five miles from the reported epicenter,” Rhonda Brack, a manager at Tasters Restaurant in East Prairie, told msnbc.com. “It sounded like a semi-truck and it rattled my windows and it rattled my house.” She said the magnitude 4.0 earthquake has been the hot topic of conversation since the popular breakfast and coffee house opened up at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. “We’re no strangers to quakes, but this one was different,” Brack said. “We had one four years ago and that one rolled. This one was straight underneath us and lasted for 30 seconds or so. It reminded you of lightning.” U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist John Bellini said the rural farming community of East Prairie is known for its seismic activity. “It’s a normal event that occurs from time to time,” Bellini told msnbc.com. “It happens every two years or so. They have many that are small but no one can really feel them. Once in a while you will get one like this one that is wider and stronger.” Bellini said several people in Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee also reported being awakened by the temblor that happened at 3:58 a.m. GMT. A few residents of North Carolina, Alabama, Indiana and Georgia also experienced some shaking. East Prairie City Administrator Lonnie Thurmond told The Associated Press he’s heard reports of cracks in sidewalks and walls, some broken windows, and minor household damage such as rattled shelves and things falling from cabinets. Adam Rhodes said he was awakened by the earth’s trembling and then carried on with this morning routine before heading into work at Creative School Zone in East Prairie. -MSNBC

Ok, won't quote myself again, but in the El Nino tropical storms or higher landfall rates category, there's a higher frequency of return than in the other phases for here the TX/LA border. And the least frequency is during La Nina. That may explain some things. Hmmmm? Learned something new today. I like that. :D Lol.

Video of "Solar Tornadoes" ... vortexes on the sun's surface.

http://www.space.com/14620-sun-tornadoes-nasa-vid eo-sdo.html

The sound (added) is a bit hoakey, but the video is interesting.

AP: Radiation contamination detected 400 miles from Fukushima coast — Levels up to 1,000 times above normal — IAEA says safe to drink

Published: February 21st, 2012 at 5:11 pm ET By ENENews

Title: Radiation detected 400 miles off Japanese coast
Source: Associated Press
Author: BRIAN SKOLOFF and MALCOLM RITTER
Date: Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Radioactive contamination from the Fukushima power plant disaster has been detected as far as almost 400 miles off Japan in the Pacific Ocean, with water showing readings of up to 1,000 times more than prior levels, scientists reported Tuesday.

“We’re not over the hump” yet in terms of radioactive contamination of the ocean because of continued leakage from the plant, [Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts] said in an interview before Tuesday’s talk. [...]

The ship sampled water from about 20 miles to about 400 miles off the coast east of the Fukushima plant. Concentrations of cesium-137 throughout that range were 10 to 1,000 times normal [...]

The highest readings last June were not always from locations closest to the Fukushima plant, Buesseler said. That’s because swirling ocean currents formed concentrations [...]

The water’s cesium-137 concentration has been so diluted that just 20 miles offshore, “if it was not seawater, you could drink it without any problems.” -International Atomic Energy Agency’s Hartmut Nies

Come on Nea why don't you just come clean on the millions of dollars the Doc. is receiving from AL Gore and John Kerry. Those two commies that went all the way over to Vietnam to get this all started. Instead of doing like so many chicken hawks who won't be named. You know the 5or 6 deferment types or I'll pretend I was in the national guard maybe nobody will notice.

Note the severe weather shade for friday.

Quoting gordydunnot:
Come on Nea why don't you just come clean on the millions of dollars the Doc. is receiving from AL Gore and John Kerry. Those two commies that went all the way over to Vietnam to get this all started. Instead of doing like so many chicken hawks who won't be named. You know the 5or 6 deferment types or I'll pretend I was in the national guard maybe nobody will notice.

thank god for jane and her protesters or we'd still be over there now they sell shirts to jc pennys

Quoting VAbeachhurricanes:
I never realized that borrowing 15 trillion dollars with no plan to pay it back is a good thing. Guess I don't know anything.

Check the news.

President Obama recently presented Congress with a budget designed to eliminate our debt accumulation over the next few years and then we could start paying down the debt.

And review your history.

President Clinton put us on track to pay off the national debt and left a surplus when his second term was over.

The guy in the middle knocked us off track.

--

Interestingly, when Clinton was president there were serious discussions as to whether the US should fully pay off its debt or not. Most economists agreed that it was not a good thing to fully eliminate US debt, that US bonds are highly desirable to keep the world's economy functioning smoothly. US bonds are considered the safest place for other governments to park their extra funds.