The ancestry of every county in the US

Daily Mail - UK

The ancestry of every county in the US in one map. Surprising. Germany predominates?

New island formed off Pakistan

The coast of Pakistan had a 7.8 earthquake Monday. Half an hour late in the town of Gwadar  people were astonished to see something in the ocean - an island. It is less than 300 feet long and sticks up 50 feet. Brave souls have already landed on it and walked around.

BBC

Mega bird migration

Watch the bird migration at night.

The weather radar that detects rain can also detect birds. When there is no precipitation the operators set the radar in a very sensitive mode that detects birds. I don't know how to directly access the radar. But Cliff Mass of U of W captured the bird activity on Saturday, September 7. The birds mostly fly at night to avoid predators. He has a series of radar captures from the new Langley Hill radar near Ocean Shores, Washington, showing little activity before sunset, heavy activity at night, then a sharp drop at sunrise.

Cliff Mass describes this at his CM Weather Blog.

Here are a radar image before sunset and one only an hour later, after sunset. It's amazing the leap in activity. Images from Cliff Mass.

U Cal says deny care to nonbelievers of Obamacare

An official of the U Cal San Francisco medical school says that "nonbelievers" in Obamacare should be denied medical care. Stephanie Handler is in the development office of UCSF. She cannot handle policy disagreement, because this is war for her.

How does UC President Janet Napolitano feel about her employee's action?

Thomas Lifson at American Thinker

In Kenya Muslims targeted Christians

Seattle Times and New York Times explained all about the group that killed about 70 in the attack on the mall in Kenya. But in all their detail they didn't notice that the attacking group is Muslim. And in their attack they told Muslims to leave and killed Christians and non-Muslims. Reported by CNN

And Al-Shabbab, the attackers' group, claims their attackers escorted Muslims out safely. CNN

Our trusted news source just didn't notice. Inconvenient facts.

Now behind a pay wall Seattle Times. The story is titled "Why Somali militants attacked Kenya mall" and leaves out a primary reason.

Stupid and clever

Great quote from G. K. Chesterton:

“The whole point of the Eugenic pseudo-scientific theories is that they are to be applied wholesale, by some more sweeping and generalizing money power than the individual husband or wife or household. Eugenics asserts that all men must be so stupid that they cannot manage their own affairs; and also so clever that they can manage each other's.” --G. K. Chesterton

Found at Shoreline-LFP Patch.

Clinton terrorist

A recent employee of William J. Clinton Foundation has been arrested in Egypt for inciting violence. But don't worry. Working for Clinton didn't cause him to be this way. He was a jihadist before Clinton hired him.

Why did Bill Clinton hire a Muslim jihadist to represent him?

Andrew C McCarthy at PJ Media explains.

He quotes Washington Free Beacon:

A senior Muslim Brotherhood official who, until recently, had been employed by the William J. Clinton Foundation was arrested in Cairo on Tuesday and charged with inciting violence.

Gehad el-Haddad served as one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s top communications officials until Egyptian security forces seized him as part of a wider crackdown on officials loyal to ousted former President Mohamed Morsi.

Before emerging as a top Brotherhood official and adviser to Morsi, el-Haddad served for five years as a top official at the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit group founded by former President Bill Clinton.

El-Haddad gained a reputation for pushing the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamist agenda in the foreign press, where he was often quoted defending the Brotherhood’s crackdown on civil liberties in Egypt

Climb stairs for exercise and views

The Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle is up and down from sea level to 456 feet in a compact area just north of Seattle Center and the Space Needle.

Neighbors have built a web page of the 121 public stairs. QA Public Stairs. It is very well done.

More sources

Seattle All Stairs

Public Stairs

A book - Seattle Stairway Walks - by Jake Jaramillo - Mountaineers Books

Raising Costa Concordia cruise ship

Today they are going to raise the Costa Concordia that sank off Giglio Island, Italy, after hitting rocks when passing close for the captain to show off in January, 2012.

Telegraph (UK) has detailed sketches of how they are doing it. Needless to say, their process is very elaborate, since the ship is 950 long and is 114,000 tonnes - twice the size of Titanic.

More after the first day's effort. Daily Mail (UK).

Expensive delay for Seattle tunnel

Work on the tunnel in Seattle to replace the ugly Alaska Way Viaduct (elevated) is stopped. Big Bertha, the huge drilling machine, is idle; it hasn't moved one foot in over two weeks. Three? It is some union battle over dirt that is near water.

How much is it costing every day? Who is paying the bill?

I called my three legislators. I got two courteous promises to investigate and get back to me and one never-responded-to message. The courteous "get back to you" calls have never come, despite several days and follow-up calls from me.

I called Governor Inslee and was told "He is working with the key parties, buts I can't tell you anything." Q: How much is it costing per day? A: Ask Office of Financial Management (OFM).

OFM: How much does it cost? Ask Labor Relations.

Labor Relations: Why would anyone send you to us about costs? Call Dept of Transportation (DOT).

DOT: Call the Seattle project office. Seattle office: Voice mail.

So after several days, no one has any idea about how much it is costing us taxpayers.

Seattle Times about the source of the dispute.

… The ILWU signed a contract in April with tunneling firms that included the four waterfront jobs, but an arbitrator said in July the building-trades pact takes precedence.

Testimony at the NLRB resumes Tuesday. The record will be forwarded to Washington, D.C., where the five-member board would issue a ruling within weeks, said regional director Ronald Hooks.

The board will be urged to act promptly, because of the stoppage, he said.

Between 20 and 30 longshoremen a day have walked the picket line at T-46, said Cam Williams, president of ILWU Local 19 in Seattle.

Why didn't the unions accept the decision of the arbitrator?

Danny Westneat observes that Governor Inslee doesn't have the guts to tell a union to get out of the way. Westneat thinks the Longshoremen will compromise. Longshoremen compromise? Seattle Times

The shameful record of Eliot Spitzer

Conrad Black looks over the record in elected office of Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace as Governor of NY. As New York's Attorney General he harassed innocent people and caused them great expense and ruined careers. He lost the big cases; they had little merit. And, even today, he is resisting the release of his emails; he has a lot to hide.

Good news. He was rejected Tuesday in his bid for a renewal. The voters of NY City rejected him for the office of controller.

NY Sun (Conrad's article is mostly about our president; Spitzer is farther down the page.)

Is Obama administration most corrupt ever?

The liberal establishment Huffington Post asks the question! Ariana's crew is way, way off the farm.

Original sources: -1- World Bank's Worldwide Governance Index

The US has dropped since the last report during President George W Bush's term.

-2- World Economic Forum's  The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 (pdf)

That report rates 144 countries, on a wide range of factors concerning global economic competitiveness; and the U.S. scores below all other industrialized countries (of which there are about thirty) on most of the corruption-related factors. (Furthermore, that rating has likewise declined while Obama has been in office.)

Quoiting Huff-Post on the latter report:

[Competitiveness, of course, includes corruption.] On "Diversion of Public Funds [due to corruption]," the U.S. ranks #34 (down from #28 in their 2009-2010 report). On "Irregular Payments and Bribes" (which is perhaps an even better measure of lack of corruption) we are #42 (not rated in 2009). On "Public Trust in Politicians," we are #54 (down from #43 in 2009). On "Judicial Independence," we are #38 (down from #26). On "Favoritism in Decisions of Government Officials" (otherwise known as governmental "cronyism"), we are #59 (down from #48). On "Organized Crime," we are #87 (down from #72). On "Ethical Behavior of Firms," we are #29 (down from #22). On "Reliability of Police Services," we are #30 (down from #21). On "Transparency of Governmental Policymaking," we are #56 (down from #31). On "Efficiency of Legal Framework in Challenging Regulations," we are #37 (down from #35). On "Efficiency of Legal Framework in Settling Disputes," we are #35 (down from #33). On "Burden of Government Regulation," we are #76 (down from #53). On "Wastefulness of Government Spending," we are also #76 (down from #68). On "Property Rights" protection (the basic law-and-order measure), we are #42 (down from #30)

The U.S. is down on 19 of these WEF factors, up on 2, and unchanged on 1, during the period while Obama has been in office. This overall finding, of declining U.S. performance, is entirely in line with the similar findings from the World Bank: Corruption in the United States is increasing significantly during Obama's Presidency.

And Eric Zuess at Huffington has several more sources. Read it.

Hat tip to American Thinker.

ILWU Longshoremen leave AFL/CIO due to Obamacare

Breitbart

… In an August 29 letter to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, ILWU President Robert McEllrath cited quite a list of grievances as reasons for the disillusion of their affiliation, but prominent among them was the AFL-CIO's support of Obamare.

"We feel the Federation has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people by going along to get along," McEllrath wrote in the letter to Trumka.

The ILWU President made it clear they are for a single-payer, nationalized healthcare policy and are upset with the AFL-CIO for going along with Obama on the confiscatory tax on their "Cadillac" healthcare plan.

The Longshoreman leader said, "President Obama ran on a platform that he would not tax medical plans and at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, you stated that labor would not stand for a tax on our benefits." But, regardless of that promise, the President has pushed for just such a tax and Trumka and the AFL-CIO bowed to political pressure lining up behind Obama's tax on those plans.

(Link only.)

Steyn - Can't say anything about Islam

Mark Steyn observes that ten years ago the Muslims objected to saying anything less than full praise about Islam. Now the British establishment is doing their work. Chilling.

National Post of Canada

Our tax $ paid to known terrorists

The Palestinian Authority paid cash to convicted terrorists recently released from Israeli prisons. The same day the PA received $148 million from the US. So we know where PA got the cash.

We are paying bombers who target civilians. Why?

Breitbart

My favorite webcams - NW - Tropics - Arctic and

My favorite webcams:

Puget Sound: The Space Needle in Seattle
- Seattle Times

Mt Vernon, WA, Skagit bridge repair and detours. The temporary repair reopened about June 20.
- WSDOT

Anacortes, WA. Beautiful island city surrounded by water and islands. Cams to south and east; WS ferries and airport.
- Port of Anacortes

Mountains

Mt. St. Helens from Johnston Rid
ge - This generates a warning message. Select either standard or high-def, then you see a larger window.
- US Forest Service

St. Mary, Glacier National Park
- Glacier NP

Yellowstone live video at Old Faithful Upper Basin. The camera direction changes, because there is a lot to see in this small area.
- YNP

Hawaii Volcanos NP - active, very active volcano. Today it looks amazing at night.
- HVNP

Grand Canyon, Arizona
- Grand Canyon NP
Big Sky Fishing's maintained directory of Montana web cams (and a few others)

Arctic

Greenland - Icebergs in fjord at Hotel Arctic
- Hotel Arctic Via Watts Up With That "Good news from Greenland."

Tropics

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Villa Peñasco - Looking down along the beach on Pacific Ocean. Playa Grande resort is the prominent orange complex of buildings. Slow-frame video.
Villa Bellissima - Another view with Pacific beach on the right, Land's End is the last rock.

Thailand - Time zone difference makes these interesting when most of the others go dark.
Chaweng Beach on Ko Samui Island - Poppies Hotel (but very small image)
Cho Phraya River in Bangkok - Live around the clock.

This is for my own daily convenience. Recreated 9/5/13.

Obama denies he drew the red line

Now Obama denies he drew the red line on chemical weapons use in Syria. New York Times:

“I didn’t set a red line,” Mr. Obama said during a news conference here in Stockholm. “The world set a red line.”

You know what you said, Mr. President. Everyone knows of your red-line challenge. What do we call it when you say you didn't do what everyone knows you did?

Red Line Example: Law breaker Rep. Rangel says Obama should not have drawn the red line. CNS News

Can you see sunken ships on Google Earth/Maps?

Of course you can see sunken ships on Google Earth and Maps. But you have to know where they are?

First, here is the Google Earth image of one that I am going to walk past today on my epic walk of every foot of beach from Seattle past Shoreline, past Edmonds, past Lynnwood and now finishing Mukilteo. It is in the Harbor Pointe area of Mukilteo.

MyReadingMapped has several long lists of sunken ships with links to the location in Google Maps. And for fun they note which ones can be seen. This page is their first of two pages on singings in the Atlantic and shows hundreds.

I can spend hours on this; love it!

Via Google Earth Blog.

Image: Captured by me at Google Earth. Described in text. Click to enlarge.