Considering this is terrorism and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is connected by birth to a dangerous part of the world, he should have very little contact with anyone, except, his attorneys.

One has to consider where the impetus to this crime began. It began with Dzhokhar's brother while traveling to his home to visit with his family. He came back with a purpose other than living a productive and happy life. 

Dzhokhar carries with him a love for his brother enough to be influenced to carry out a heinous crime. I am confident there are others looking at his trial sentence and calling him a martyr. There are all sorts of heinous thoughts revolving around him. He needs to be a prisoner and not a martyr to issue instructions to the outside world.

It was heinous. 

It was random. 

It was terrorism.

Three people, one being a child, died. That child didn't have a chance to say he loved life and wanted it for as long as he could have it. Martin was innocent, he loved his family and he won't ever have a chance to see his life unfold.

Avian flu USA.

There is a common denominator causing the spread of the contagion. I guarantee you it is the trucks coming and going from the farms that are carrying the virus. It was the large commercial transportation found to be the culprit with the virus and bacteria to bee colonies. 

Each farmer needs to have their own straight truck or have a contract with a local transporter that will respect the need for maintaining decontamination from virus and bacteria.

The microbes can be colonized on the TIRES as well as the cargo compartment. Eggs and poultry are considered non-exempt freight. They are perishable. So, independent transports is going to be involved. The independents have to be oriented to the reality of contamination of this virus. The best place to educate independent truckers is at the brokerages, especially any brokerages that transport poultry. 

The poultry farmers have to become their own best friend by demanding every truck or car that comes and goes from their farms are decontaminated. It is not that difficult. Tanker freight have to scour out their trailers between cargo loads. The truck stops have wash areas with hoses inside concrete block buildings so the trucks simply drive the tanker trailer and cab into the building and throw some quarters or credit cards swipes to start up the hoses. It is not that big a task. 

This is all the equipment farmers need in their own garages. Every time a car or truck is leaving and returning their tires and cargo areas are disinfected.

As is possible have a scheduled wash down of the entire vehicle including inside the cab. Boots and shoes can carry the contagion, too. It will come under control as soon as the folks involved realize the dangerous potential to simple everyday activities.

This is the Asian Pacific adn it's Third World cultures. Human Trafficking Is an option in the depths of poverty.

May 15, 2015

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) (click here) " More than 1,000 people fleeing persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh came ashore in different parts of Southeast Asia on Friday, becoming the latest migrants to slip into countries that have made it clear they are not welcome.

Weak, hungry and dehydrated, most of the migrants were crammed onto three boats that Indonesian fisherman towed ashore, while another 106 people were found on a Thai island Thursday and brought to the mainland, authorities said.
Myanmar, in its first official comments as the crisis escalated in the past two weeks, indicated it won't take back migrants who claim to be Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority who are denied citizenship in Myanmar and are effectively stateless.

"We cannot say that the migrants are from Myanmar unless we can identify them," said government spokesman Ye Htut. "Most victims of human trafficking claim they are from Myanmar is it is very easy and convenient for them."
Another official, Maj. Zaw Htay, said that Myanmar "will not attend a regional meeting hosted by Thailand if 'Rohingya' is mentioned on the invitation." Even the name is taboo in Myanmar, which calls them Bengalis and insists they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though Rohingya have lived in the majority-Buddhist country for generations.

Thailand has convened a meeting of senior officials for May 29, but the Myanmar officials' comments show the difficulty in resolving what has become a spiraling humanitarian crisis....

The USA Helicopter has been found. The winds in the mountains have proven treacherous.

May 15, 2015

...A Reuters correspondent (click here) flew on a Nepali military helicopter along the Tamakoshi river that runs by the town of Charikot, in the mountainous Dolakha district worst hit by Tuesday’s 7.3 magnitude quake that killed nearly 100 people.
The river winds through rugged Himalayan terrain in an area whose tallest peak soars over 7,000 meters (23,000 ft). Hillsides are cloaked with dense forest that would make it hard to sight the chopper that went missing after the crew was heard over the radio saying the aircraft had a fuel problem.
In Koshikhet village, a U.S. civilian team was using a drone to search for the missing Marine Corps UH-1Y, or Huey as the model is better known, which was carrying six Marines and two Nepali soldiers.
“We are using infrared vision to look for hotspots and any signs of life,” said drone operator Shepherd Eaton, from GlobalMedic, a U.S. aid agency that specializes in search and rescue....

Pope Francis is coming to the USA in September. His topic is "The Family."

May 13, 2015
By Tierney McAfee

Minding your manners could save your marriage, according to Pope Francis.(click here)
Using the phrases "May I?," "Thank you" and "Pardon me" is the "key to building a happy family life," he told a crowd during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday.

"These simple phrases are not so easy to say or to put into practice," he said, according to aleteia.org. "But when they are ignored, their absence can cause cracks in the foundation of the family, which can lead to its collapse."...

What in God's name is this monstrosity doing in the North Pacific?

This is a very expensive joke on the people of Seattle and those that make a living in the North Pacific.

There is no alternative for finding bountiful amounts of fish except the North Pacific. This is absolutely unconscionable.

Seattle is under siege. This is not the statue of liberty, this is the rig of doom to the North Pacific fishing fleet.  

Shell’s Polar Pioneer enters Elliott Bay with Seattle in the background. (Steve Ringman / Seattle Times)

May 14, 2015
By Coral Garnick

Activists in kayaks (click here) Thursday hit the waters of Elliott Bay as an “unwelcome party” for the Polar Pioneer, a Shell drilling rig on its way to Seattle’s Terminal 5.
The rig left Port Angeles about 1:45 a.m. and entered Elliott Bay about 3 p.m.
People opposed to the Port of Seattle serving as a base for Shell Oil’s Arctic fleet began gathering about 1 p.m. at Seacrest Park on the West Seattle waterfront in anticipation of the drilling rig’s imminent arrival....

It is too late for the Alaskan Governor to raise an objection because this is blatantly a national security issue that will rob still yet another GULF from being a productive place to provide food for the USA. Has Washington, DC gone mad? First they destroy the Gulf of Mexico from producing healthy seafood and now they are going to rob the country again. I don't think so! 

North Pacific License Limitation Program (LLP) (click here)

This is the worst joke I have ever witnessed in my life. 

My god, they are still cleaning up Prince William Sound Bligh Reef from the idiotic petroleum industry. This isn't funny. 

To begin there is a new city government in Seattle. It needs to legislate this piece of petroleum garbage out of its ports. There is going to be oil leakage every time this garbage barge goes north and comes back to Seattle. This is so offensive to the waters of the north, there is no sense to even thinking about allowing it anywhere near the North Pacific. 

This is the current of the North Pacific and the South Pacific. When there is an oil spill in the North Pacific it is going to drift all the way to California and effect the fisheries there and kill that ecosystem, too.

 ...There are five major (click here) ocean-wide gyres—the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Indian Ocean gyres. Each is flanked by a strong and narrow “western boundary current,” and a weak and broad “eastern boundary current” (Ross, 1995).... 

The idea of putting oil rigs in the North Pacific is complete stupidity. It is a national security issue and should be stopped IMMEDIATELY. This will effect every fishery between the well to the Canadian west coast, down to California and the west coast of Mexico. It will destroy fisheries and it will destroy tourism.

It wasn't enough to destroy the Gulf of Mexico fisheries, now the entire west coast of North America is in the debris zone of one oil spill. This is pure stupidity.

THERE NEEDS TO BE A COURT INJUNCTION IMMEDIATELY FROM ANY OF THESE ACTIVITIES IN THE NORTH PACIFIC !!!!

Here is a hypothetical. Actually, that isn't hypothetical at all.

Knowing what a complete disaster the Iraq War is, would you recommit today?

And I have two follow-up questions.

1. Is George W. Bush and Tony Blair responsible for the rise of Daesh?

And.

2. Is Daesh worse than Saddam Hussein?

To All Subway and Rail Management, including Cargo/Freight.

The jobs with these utilities are excellent jobs. I sincerely doubt there is an employee that does not take their responsibilities seriously. Kindly consider, when bringing attention to the timely arrival and departures of these rail services that there is a vital human being, not easily replaced, in the engineer's seat. The demands of management to comply with 'late' arrivals and departures can be more of a threat then a reminder to the responsibility of the staff.

If I may? I have a suggestion.

Before approaching employees about any tardiness of arrivals and departments ask A QUALIFIED STATISTICIAN to run the numbers. The history, both recent and historic, should be explored to ACCURATELY find the problem. If recent history shows there is a systemic problem, then there is more to the picture than is obvious at first glance. 

When trend lines are examined there can be a determination of future demands to predict the rail needs. In the case of human transportation there is always and chronic population growth. That population growth has to be evaluated along with short and long and future trend lines. Then the picture will clear up. If there are more people boarding and leaving at any given time at the station the time of arrival and departure is going to be different. Five seconds longer will result in one minute after twelve stops. One minute an hour will result in 8 minutes in an average day shift. That is an extremely conservative picture to the way people are using the rail services.

The management of human transportation can't be taken lightly. My understanding of this particular section of the rails is that the curve is taken at 50 mph while the track leading into the curve is rated at 100 mph. That is pushing it. The rail management when permitting 100 mph needs to STEP DOWN the rate of speed into the corners and out of those same corns. Please don't 'leave it up to the judgement of the engineer'. If he or she is feeling the pressure to 'catch up' with any tardiness they will seek to maintain legal high speed into a slower section of track.

Rail management has to be the buffer of the demands of outside forces upon the employees. Employees receive plenty of pressure from the passengers. I am familiar with rail travel and some folks really can be rather upsetting. But, I have never witnessed any conductor become intolerable or upset. The employees of any rail services I have experienced are among the most nice and patient with people as they ask for tickets or issuing one on the train. That demeanor doesn't come easy. Please protect them from politics and harsh treatment by the outside world.

Those are my suggestions. Rail management has to be diplomats as well as managers. 

The funding needed for public service has to meet the demand to maintain safety. Cutting funding to these vital services is to FORCE the utility to improve performance. Improving performance within rail services can take many forms, including more frequent trips within a time span and/or cutting personnel, etc. All those changes are fine if it doesn't effect safety. There have been more than one Amtrak derailment that have effected passengers with injury or otherwise. Those injuries and otherwise MATTER MORE THAN FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS.

"They started this yesterday and the funding of Amtrak. Look, the guy driving the train was going to fast."

Let's think about that 'idea' from Speaker Boner. 

To begin he isn't the manager of Amtrak. I am sure he doesn't get daily updates as if it were a PDB. Homeland Security carries that responsibility and I am sure the department can speak to any aspect of rail safety that impacts the national security of the USA. 

Speaker Boner isn't even interested in mentioning THE FACT there were eight people that died ON OUR PUBLIC PASSENGER SYSTEM. That doesn't matter to him. The dynamics that played out yesterday is a problem that can be PREVENTED. 

PREVENTED. 

PREVENTED. 

I have no respect for a House Speaker that is this out of touch with the reality and needs of the people of the USA. He is more than insensitive, he is completely disinterested. 

An Amtrak employee that has worked in a great job for five years is not going to put his life on the line nor anyone else's. I do not believe this was pathological. I think this was a man that misjudged exactly where the corner was in his handling of the train. It is my assessment he misjudged the location of the curve because he doesn't normally travel at 100+ mph along the stretch of straight track. He wasn't compensating for a faster speed and where exactly he was in his transit along the rail. It was a profoundly unfortunate incident, he was alone in the lead engine and he had to have been under some kind of stress to improve his performance. 

The driver of the Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 misjudged where he needed to brake the train because of the anticipated CUTS IN GOVERNMENT FUNDING that placed completely Amtrak in the path of bankruptcy. 

John Boehner you are a horrible man. You have no interest in the well being of the people of this country. You play with power regardless of how that effects citizens of this country and that, sir, is pathological.

The Republicans you lead are even worst then you. 

In this instance of human behavior and a subway in Australia a mother nearly losses her child because there is a small incline toward the tracks. The carriage began to roll unexpectedly to the mother. The on coming subway could not stop, but, more likely didn't even see the carriage fall from the platform. Irregardless, this is a human event when she approached the technology of transportation. The baby's life was in danger in seconds and not minutes, not hours. 

There are many odd things that happen everyday on Earth when the humanness of people are matched to other properties of daily living. That doesn't mean anyone intended to have unfortunate things to happen. It does mean there are some aspects of living that is dangerous and dealing with subways by a new mother was never given a thought. I wish she was protected from the trauma of the event, but, it is unrealistic to expect every danger in life will be averted.

THE ONE aspect of this video loop PROVES people have frailties. It is when people in a capitalistic society are forced to be vigilant to their employment to support their families to extremes for the sake of profiteers or overbearing and incapable government that the 'room for error' becomes ridiculously stupid and validates a human being isn't a machine.

I am going to some news information, but, am still paying attention. Okay? This man is an interesting man to me.

Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen.(Photo: Getty Images)

May 13, 2015

SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (click here) has donated $390,000 to start his initiative that would create new state criminal penalties for persons trafficking in body parts of endangered species.
The Seattle Times reports that billionaire Paul Allen's Initiative 1401, launched last month, would ban trafficking in body parts from 10 frequently poached endangered species: elephant, rhinoceros, tiger, lion, leopard, cheetah, marine turtle, shark, ray, and pangolin - also known as the scaly anteater.
Allen is the only major donor to the effort so far.
The initiative must submit 246,372 signatures from registered Washington voters by July 2 to qualify for the November ballot.

It is long overdue that endangered species had a champion to end their deaths and potential eradication of a species into being extinct. There are penalties that accompany the damage to an endangered species, but, the enforcement of such policies to it's HABITAT is fuzzy. People causing these problems should be arrested, charged and penalized. Absolutely.

Part of the problem in protecting these species and the threatened species is cuts in spending to support and/or increase the personnel that carry guns and can arrest the offenders. Most of the people in service to the USA that can arrest people that disrespect our lands and programs are armed. They never know exactly what they are walking into when investing people that break the laws, even in the deepest woodlands.

I think it is fantastic to have a corporate partner in these activities to protect the species of flora and fauna alike. Welcome.

The Philadelphia train cash was an international event.

I understand there is a missing person. It is a gentleman. 

1. Look at an enlarged snapshot of the entire debris scene.

2. Find the vector. 

3. Then take his body weight and apply it to the vector.

4. In that disbris field and vector is a search area.

5. If not found in the suspected debris zone, then draw concentric circles from the debris SPOT and work the search area. 

6. If he is not found, then begin to ask residents if they had any contact with him. A neighborhood search can start at anytime, but, the vector should provide a valid starting point.

7. People move. The Vector Spot is a beginning. I didn't see any fire. There was no fuel. So, he is somewhere if he has a predictable life. The debris field was very dangerous. He may have become involved with the infrastructure with it's own vector.

8. My sympathy to the family who is in distress over this fact.

9. The deferred infrastructure replacement is not accurate. There is a Climate Crisis with very powerful storms and effects. The infrastructure is deteriorating at an accelerated rate. Replacement needs to take place now. The old infrastructure was never engineered for the today's winds and water and the frequent assault of same.

The arguments in Congress today, the day after tragic deaths on a rail disaster, is disgusting.

Mr. Joseph H. Boardman is the President and CEO of Amtrak. I am quite confident he is as disgusted as anyone at these events.

The American people have a right to safe and reliable public transportation. We know there are Americans that use the rail systems to move around the country and to see family and friends. There is no argument to that fact. Americans like the rails and they want them to be safe.

I beseech Mr. Boardman to make testimony before Congress, both the House and Senate to prove the upgrades Amtrak needs to provide safe transportation for the citizens of the USA. While the Republicans point fingers, the FACT of the matter is there is no reason for this to have happened. Amtrak has needed upgrades for a long time.  

We know for a fact Acela is an excellent rail service. It is a more modern train than the usual Amtrak passenger rail. 

The idea anyone in Congress today is actually pointing fingers when the train system is one of the world's most oldest systems on the planet is disgraceful. There is no respect for anyone that doesn't care about the American people.

THERE EXISTS WITHIN THE TECHNOLOGY THAT COULD HAVE PREVENTED THE CRASH LAST NIGHT. 

THERE EXISTS WITHIN THE TECHNOLOGY THAT COULD HAVE PREVENTED THE CRASH LAST NIGHT. 

THERE EXISTS WITHIN THE TECHNOLOGY THAT COULD HAVE PREVENTED THE CRASH LAST NIGHT.

The wild west Republicans have to be put to shame for the problems they cause in the country. They turn their backs on the American people all the time for the sake of their political cronies. Enough. The future dictates that a First World country care for their people. The USA is not poor. The wealth within the borders of the USA is more than embarrassing for the NEGLIGENCE of it's people by the government.

It doesn't matter what the NTSB finds as the cause, except, for the lawyers to that will seek relief for the victims and families killed and injured. The TRUTH of the matter is Congress did NOTHING to protect citizens when they ride Amtrak. Congress has DELIBERATELY attempted year after year to force the necessary public rail service into bankruptcy. 

The deaths from this derailment are on the hands of those in the US Congress that have deliberately opposed the modernization of the trains and rails and PLAYED THE MARGINS that whittled away at safety and passenger COMFORT.

Mr. Boardman needs to come forward with a plan for Amtrak's modernization and a path forward to bring about that modernization. It is the PLAN for modernization that needs to be made law through legislation in the US House and Senate to prevent funding cuts that cost Americans their lives. The citizens now dead should be alive today, but, Congress laughed at the funding and modernization and this was the result. It is shameful and friends and allies should take note the degree of negligence the federal government carries against their well being.

The USA is in dire repair and allies count on this country to assist in their national security. Well, the allies of the USA need to look at the disrepair of American infrastructure and ask what kind of friend and ally this country actually has become.

The hideous bickering that has occurred on Congressional chambers today has to be eliminated with appropriate legislation to sculpt a path forward. The modernization should be dedicated to the men, women and children that have lost their lives because of the disrepair of the railroad. 

How much is it going to cost the American people when the lawsuits are filed? All that could have been prevented! There is absolutely no reason to postpone necessary modernization of Amtrak.

Amtrak. "The American Rail Track." Disgraceful what has happened to it.

EFF states "The USA Freedom Act" should be strengthened to meet the courts opinion.

May 12, 2015

By By WCAX News

WASHINGTON, D.C

 President Barack Obama (click here) is now formally backing the USA Freedom Act authored by Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont.
The bill up for a vote this week in the United States House would end the government's bulk collection of Americans' phone records and would require court approval for more restrictive surveillance.
Leahy has long argued the NSA program is overreaching and ineffective and notes the federal courts agree.
"The highly respected appeals court, the second circuit confirmed what we've known for some time. The NSA's bulk collection of Americans phone records is unlawful, it's not essential and it must end," said Leahy.
The White House has previously defended the NSA's data gathering activities, but now says the Leahy bill strikes an appropriate balance between national security needs and privacy concerns.

May 12, 2015
By David Green and Mark Jaycox

...Congress must demand more for themselves and for the public (click here)

The Second Circuit decision has changed the playing field. Members like Senators Leahy and Mike Lee and Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner, Robert Goodlatte, and John Conyers should be applauded for working incredibly hard to get the USA Freedom Act through Congress. Yet as a result of the Second Circuit decision, the USA Freedom Act's modest changes appear even smaller compared to the now judicially recognized problems with the mass collection of Americans’ records. We've supported the USA Freedom Act through all three iterations, more reluctantly each time, but with this new court opinion, we’ve decided that Congress can significantly strengthen the bill if we are to support it.

The Second Circuit aptly compared the current debate to the troubled times of the 1970s. Two years ago, Senator Leahy mentioned that his first vote in the Senate was for the Senate resolution that created the Church Committee. The Church Committee investigated the intelligence community for three years and ushered in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978—one of the most robust surveillance reform bills ever. In that same speech, Senator Leahy vowed to "recalibrate" a failing surveillance system via the USA Freedom Act.

We urge Senator Leahy and others to draw upon the vigor of that first vote to push for a stronger reform bill. The Second Circuit’s decision mandates that we not settle for less and that we strengthen the USA Freedom Act so it better protects our rights and freedoms.

This system is receiving water vapor from the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone.

May 13, 2015
1020.18z
UNISYS West and North Hemispheric Water Vapor Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)

To the left of this image at the bottom corner is an air mass moving from west to east. It is a sizable air mass with what appears to be a significant amount of water vapor. As long as the system continues to receive water vapor there will be concern about severe weather. The water vapor system over Lower North America is stationary because there is little moving it except Coriolis. 

This article is suggested reading by NOAA. They crunched the numbers from recent years in order to validate the potential for the next year or more.

...4. Discussion and summary (click here)

The spatial distributions of super cell - tornado parameters show distinct patterns that reflect the geography and synoptic climatology of each region.   For example, MLCAPE is clearly greatest across the Great Plains in tornadic RM environments, with the largest values often 3000–4000 J kg–1or larger. By comparison, MLCAPE is typically <2000 J kg–1across the south eastern states in tornadic RM environments.Still, buoyancy can be large across the south eastern states in the more extreme events,such as the 27 April 2011 tornado out break across Mississippi and Alabama. MLCAPE for that event ranged from 2500–3500 J kg–1 for all of the Alabama grid-hour events, which is above the 90th percentile for significantly tornadic RMin this area (see Fig.3f)...

This is the citation:
Thompson, R. L., B. T.Smith, A. R. Dean, and P. T. Marsh, 2013:Spatial distributions of tornadic near-storm environments by convective mode. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor.,8(5),1–22

I appreciate the effort put into this article and it will be acknowledgment of the path, but, the next years going forward will carry greater volatility. Last year there were dual tornadoes that lasted for an extended period of time. Those tornadoes lasted hours. The damage could have been far worse if such an event or a faction of such an event occurred in more populated areas.

The high tropospheric feeder system extended across the entire of North America for this dual tornado system. Earth is having a terrible time getting rid of the heat. It is going to be a rough ride. Reading these articles is a way of PREPARING for what is coming, but, it is not a static situation. The potential to danger is exceptional. The need for expertise in weather prediction can't be understated if we are going to keep people alive.

In the most recent tornadoes we have witnessed not only a large upper tropospheric system, but, a feeder system pulling air masses from at least a half mile from the funnel on the ground which was able to topple a tractor trailer at that distance. It's getting rather worrisome. If the occurance with the tractor trailer was a one time incident I'd think differently, but, that fact has been repeated in two consecutive tornado events. The public is used to being able to watch these storms from a fairly short distance, that distance is extending. 

There are tornado outbreaks in recent years where their used to be a rare F4. To more clearly illustrate the heat increments is to realize that severe Midwestern tornadoes were spinning while a vortex increased to a Tropical Storm in the Atlantic. 

It has been my experience with these systems that the TRENDS start first as a marginal event but then becomes the majority of the outcomes. So, the idea tornado season and hurricane season will remain exclusively separate is unrealistic. 

The TRIAD of weather was obvious with significant snow storms in the upper region of the USA and of course in Canada along with the tornadoes and hurricane. These marginal episodes will most likely become common in the years to come. Once the Arctic Ocean's ice was lost, the vortex became unstable. Whether politicians want to admit it or not, the CO2 density (my opinion) over the USA is what is inviting all the turbulence. It is where the heat is highest nearly chronically. These system are generated by that heat. Welcome to America.
 

Japan needs to have a goal to shut down the Fukushima reactors. It is only a matter of time before a major quake delivers damage again.

May 12, 2015

A strong earthquake of upper 5 (click here) on the Japanese seismic scale hit Iwate Prefecture and surrounding areas at 6:13 a.m. on Wednesday, the Meteorological Agency said. No tsunami warning was issued.

The focus of the quake, estimated at magnitude 6.6, was in the Pacific off Miyagi Prefecture and its depth was about 50 km, the agency said.

No damage was reported to nuclear reactors in the region, including those at Tepco’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 power station. No nuclear plant in the country is currently active.

Hanamaki in Iwate Prefecture logged an upper-5 on the Japanese seismic scale, and many other locations along the Sanriku coast felt strong jolts. Moderate tremors were also felt in Tokyo.
The tremor rattled areas damaged by the 2011 quake and tsunami which killed more than 18,000 people and triggered the nuclear meltdown....

What ever possessed Japan to build four reactors? Every measure of safety was ignored.

Seismotectonics of Japan and Vicinity (click here)

Japan and the surrounding islands straddle four major tectonic plates: Pacific plate; North America plate; Eurasia plate; and Philippine Sea plate. The Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, beneath Hokkaido and northern Honshu, along the eastern margin of the Okhotsk microplate, a proposed subdivision of the North America plate....

Navy Secretary Mabus seeks to increase the quality of life to his sailors, including a 12 week leave for child birth.

May 12, 2015
By Meghann Myers

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus(click here) is set to unveil a host of far-reaching initiatives and policy changes aimed at improving quality of life and careers for sailors and Marines, a senior Navy official confirmed to Navy Times.
Mabus, in a speech to the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland on Wednesday, will announce plans to ease body fat restrictions, boost career flexibility, and push to recruit more women in the Navy and Marine Corps, while opening up the last jobs that remain closed to them.
Some of the initiatives aimed at retaining women include doubling paid maternity leave to 12 weeks, longer child-care hours, an updated co-location policy for dual military couples and opportunities like the career intermission program, which allows sailors to take time off to pursue educational or other personal goals....

Rail improvements in the USA has to go forward. The langing infrastructure is noticed across the USA.

May 12, 2015
By Richard D. Oxley

The U.S. Open remains on Tacoma's horizon, (click here) and while some are anticipating the action on Chambers Bay's green fields, others are looking forward to the green cash that will come along with the event. 

Seattle Time's economic columnist John Talton told KIRO Radio's Seattle Morning News that this is an opportunity for Tacoma. 

"You have an enormous number of big wigs who come to the U.S. Open and they are going to be coming to the Tacoma area for the first time in many cases," Talton said. "And this is where deals are done. The people who make decisions on deploying capitol worldwide, they're there." 

But while those green bucks are coming down the road, that road may pose a problem for the Tacoma region. Part of Highway 167 is under construction, for example. But more than that, the region's overall transportation system is behind the times, especially when it comes to rail, according to Talton. It's an obstacle for Tacoma to take part in the region's economic prosperity.

"Yes, we have a very backward transportation system," Talton said. "And because there's not enough rail service between Tacoma and Seattle, this is something that is keeping Tacoma from benefiting from the spillover effect that is happening in the Seattle area."...

The charasmatic movement begun by Daesh is causing casualities.

May 13, 2015
By Syed Raza Hassan

Gunmen on motorcycles (click here) opened fire on a bus in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi on Wednesday, killing at least 43 people, police said, in the latest attack directed against religious minorities this year.
Television channels carried pictures of a pink bus covered in bullet holes and lines of waiting ambulances. "There were six attackers. They boarded the bus and carried out the shooting," Police Superintendent Najib Khan told Reuters. He said all the passengers were from the Ismaili community, a minority Shi'ite Muslim sect in majority-Sunni Pakistan. A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban called Jundullah claimed responsibility....

The emergency response in Philadelphia was remarkable. It was obvious the emergency responders knew exactly what they were doing. The press was a bit annoyed they could not get information as soon as possible to the public and I appreciate that, Lawrence O'Donnell could not be more centered on bringing information to the public, but they had their hands full. I know this sounds odd,but, to realize the information was slow in coming to the public was to realize how busy the emergency responders were and putting their priorities straight.

1. INVESTIGATION STARTS (click here) AFTER AMTRAK TRAIN DERAILS IN PHILADELPHIA, KILLING AT LEAST 5

More than 140 people are taken to hospitals, and six are critically injured by the derailment whose scene Mayor Michael Nutter describes as “an absolute disastrous mess.”...

The infrastructure needs to be addressed. The rails along the eastern corridor is chronically in use. The trains and the rails rarely cool down. It is time to take the need for this type of transportation seriously and address the needs and safety of the people.

Sincerest sympathy to all those that have lost family to this accident.

...It's true: (click here) Compared with the high-speed trains of Western Europe and East Asia, American passenger rail is notoriously creaky, tardy, and slow. The Acela, currently the only "high-speed" train in America, runs at an average pace of 68 miles per hour between Washington and Boston; a high-speed train from Madrid to Barcelona averages 154 miles per hour. Amtrak's most punctual trains arrive on schedule 75 percent of the time; judged by Amtrak's lax standards, Japan's bullet trains are late basically 0 percent of the time.

And those stats don't figure to improve anytime soon. While Amtrak isn't currently in danger of being killed, it also isn't likely to do more than barely survive. Last month, the House of Representatives agreed to fund Amtrak for the next four years at a rate of $1.4 billion per year. Meanwhile, the Chinese government—fair comparison or not—will be spending $128 billion this year on rail. (Thanks to the House bill, though, Amtrak passengers can look forward to a new provision allowing cats and dogs on certain trains.)...