Tag: Natural Disasters

Topic

Let’s Do Math! Republicans, Please Grab a Pencil

Trish
Former Pres. George W. Bush on one of his many breaks, which often involved falling off a mountain bike, falling off a Segway, strumming a guitar while New Orleans drowned, and choking on pretzels.

The Obama family is on vacation. That means it’s time for Republicans and tea partiers to take a break from obstructing legislation, nomination approvals, and any other work in Congress (including suing the president for taking appropriate executive action to counter their inaction) to express ginned-up outrage that the people’s business won’t be done if the president takes a few days off.

It’s also time for the rest of us to do some math, based on figures researched by Politifact’s Truthometer:

  • Number of vacation days, in whole or part, enjoyed by Pres. Obama at this point in his term, which on July 20, 2014 happened to be exactly six years and seven months: 92
  • Number of vacation days, in whole or part, enjoyed by Pres. George W. Bush at the same point in his term: 367

Let’s put these numbers in context.

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We’re Number One! But Did the Voters Cheat?

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The Florida sigil created by anthonybooyay

A recent pronouncement that Florida is the scariest of all 50 states leaves us conflicted. I mean, hey, we’re number one at something! But looking closely at the criteria used, you can’t help but find the competition rigged.

Realtors awarded this distinction, based on 15 things that incite fear, and placed Florida first in three categories: hurricanes, tornados, and shark attacks.

Here at the real estate search site Estately we know there are hundreds of worries when choosing where to buy a home, so to help house hunters make a more informed decision we’ve mapped out where Americans’ darkest fears are most readily found.

But do realtors know their natural disasters? If they did, they’d give Missouri the first place ranking for tornados. Joplin, anyone? Instead, Missouri was given first place in meth labs, an enterprise usually associated with Alaska, or since Breaking Bad, New Mexico.

Earthquakes didn’t make the list. If they had, Oklahoma, which thanks to fracking recently surpassed California in temblors, would excel. Mud slides, another California specialty, were also not even counted. The nearest California got to a category header was number two — for spiders. And number six for dentists.

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You Only Have to Be 25 Years Old to Be Part of the Problem

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50%

Of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere since the start of the industrial age was produced since 1990, according to a new report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The group urges major reforms to how energy is produced and consumed globally, including not exploiting every last fossil fuel deposit left on earth.

Nice Atheist Collects $125,000 Thanks to Wolf Blitzer’s Douchery

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Comedian Doug Stanhope helped raise $125,000 for the tornado victim who told Wolf Blitzer earlier this year that she wasn’t thanking the lord for sparing her and her child because she’s an atheist and doesn’t go in for that sort of thing. But before you go thinking Stanhope did it because he’s a nice guy…well, watch his explanation.

Watch the Earth Get Hotter Before Your Very Eyes

Trish

This video is posted by climatecentral.org, but was produced by NASA. It begins in 1880, the first year of the modern record of global temperatures, and shows how the world has heated up in the past nearly century and a half. Note though, how fast the change comes at end, as greenhouse conditions begin to take hold. Bluer shading indicates below normal temperatures while red tones indicate higher ones.