Brimstone Pit, Pacific Ocean (National Geographic) - "The prehistoric bout of volcanic activity that slowly ripped Greenland from Europe triggered a deadly global warming event, a new study says (map showing Greenland and Europe today).

      The event, which happened about 55 million years ago, has similarities to today's climate changes, which have been linked to human generation of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels.

      "It was a real event, and it obviously provides some interesting lessons for what's happening now," said geochronologist Michael Storey of Roskilde University in Denmark. Geochronologists date rocks, sediments, and fossils as a way of chronicling Earth's history.

      Acidic Oceans

      The ancient climate change made the oceans much more acidic, killing many deep-sea species, the researchers report.

      (Related: "Acid Oceans Threatening Marine Food Chain, Experts Warn" [April 26, 2007].)

      During the event, sea-surface temperatures spiked 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) in the tropics and more than 11 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) in the Arctic.

      "It seems like a cause-and-effect situation," Storey said.

      He and his colleagues dated volcanic ash from the beginning of the eruptions to the start of the global warmup known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Their results will appear in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.

      Warmup

      James Zachos is an earth and planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who is an expert on the PETM. .."

     Mark up another point for rational thinkers who realize the history of the earth has a lot more wisdom than wildly pointing fingers without looking at trends.

     NEW YORK (Reuters) - "The dollar was broadly unchanged on Monday, losing earlier gains and within sight of a record low against the euro, with near-term prospects for the U.S. economy decidedly negative.

      After last week's soft U.S. gross domestic product growth data, investors had lifted the euro to a lifetime high above $1.3680 and could push it past $1.3700 if Friday's U.S. payrolls number is below forecast.

      "The next major body blow for the dollar, I suspect, will likely be weak labor reports," said Stephen Jen, global head of currency research with Morgan Stanley in London. "The timing is not yet ripe ... for investors to be long dollar, despite valuation and market positioning," he said in a note.

       The euro was down 0.1 percent from late on Friday against the dollar, trading at $1.3640. It had hit a lifetime high of $1.3683 on Friday, according to electronic platform EBS..."

      New Orleans (MSNBC) - "As the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina were receding, presidential confidante Karen Hughes sent a cable from her State Department office to U.S. ambassadors worldwide.

      Titled "Echo-Chamber Message" -- a public relations term for talking points designed to be repeated again and again -- the Sept. 7, 2005, directive was unmistakable: Assure the scores of countries that had pledged or donated aid at the height of the disaster that their largesse had provided Americans "practical help and moral support" and "highlight the concrete benefits hurricane victims are receiving."

      Many of the U.S. diplomats who received the message, however, were beginning to witness a more embarrassing reality. They knew the U.S. government was turning down many allies' offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina's victims..."

     This is very, very peculiar.  Something smells very fishy, and it's not the stagnant floodwaters.

     NEW YORK (Reuters) - "The United States may have no military equals, but the challenges to its financial power have become impossible to ignore.

      A stark reminder came on Friday when the weakening dollar slumped to a record low against its main rival, the euro, after the U.S. economy recorded its fourth consecutive quarter of below-trend growth.

      The strength of the dollar is more than just a matter of bragging rights. Experts say the consequences of its long-term decline could have deep significance -- for average Americans and for the country's position as an unrivaled global power.

      Over time, the forces behind its decline could further marginalize the United States on the world stage, lower its standard of living and tie its hands in responding to crucial security issues or financial crises.

      "We can no longer view ourselves as king of the hill," said Leo Melamed, chairman emeritus of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and founder of the world's first market for financial futures. "There are a lot of other potential kings now vying to take our place..."

More: 

U.S. Dollar slumbs and this time it's different

Have healtheir U.S. mortgage lenders hit bottom?

Fed's Yellen says U.S. economic downturn possible

U.S. Treasury's Kimmitt declines dollar comment

• Fire started Friday when lightning struck tank of highly flammable naphtha
• Hours later, fire spread to second tank, holding diesel fuel, which exploded
• Company spokesman says it could take a day for fire to burn out
• No injuries reported, no evacuations; nearby highways closed as a precaution

     WYNNEWOOD, Oklahoma (AP) -- "Flames and smoke poured into the sky Saturday over an oil refinery where lightning set off a fire and an explosion that was felt miles away, authorities said.

      No injuries were reported and there were no immediate evacuation orders in the south-central Oklahoma town, said Mike Hancock, a spokesman for Wynnewood Refinery Co.

      Flames and smoke boiled hundreds of feet into the air from two 80,000-gallon tanks in the Wynnewood Refinery complex, officials said.

      Firefighters doused the area surrounding the tanks Saturday, Hancock said.

      "Tank fires are pretty pesky fires. They're easy to keep contained, but they're hard to fight," Hancock said. "It's hard to estimate how long it will be. It can take a day or so to burn the product."

      The fire started Friday when lightning hit a tank containing naphtha, an unrefined form of gasoline, fire Chief Ken Moore said. City and company fire crews sprayed foam on the blaze and transferred naphtha out of the tank, but hours later the explosion -- felt by residents of communities several miles away -- spread the flames to a second tank, authorities said.

      Moore said the explosion may have followed the collapse of the first tank. "This allowed some of the (naphtha) to flow out and flow around the second tank," he said late Friday..."

• High school senior wrote about shooting, stabbing, drugs, sex
• Class was told to write whatever came to mind, without censoring their thoughts
• Allen Lee says his essay exaggerated for creative effect and was "just junk"
• Lee, a straight-A student, charged with disorderly conduct; could get 30 days

     CARY, Illinois (AP) -- "A high school senior was arrested after writing that "it would be funny" to dream about opening fire in a building and having sex with the dead victims, authorities said.

      Another passage in the essay advised his teacher at Cary-Grove High School: "don't be surprised on inspiring the first CG shooting," according to a criminal complaint filed this week.

      Allen Lee, 18, faces two disorderly conduct charges over the creative-writing assignment, which he was given on Monday in English class at the northern Illinois school.

      Students were told to "write whatever comes to your mind. Do not judge or censor what you are writing," according to a copy of the assignment.

      According to the complaint, Lee's essay reads in part, "Blood, sex and booze. Drugs, drugs, drugs are fun. Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, s...t...a...b...puke. So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P90s and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did."

      Officials described the essay as disturbing and inappropriate.

     Beware; the Thought Police are here.  As a former resident of Illinois, I can attest to the neo-fascist ideology that rules that city-state of Chicaginois.  While what the kid wrote was obviously inappropriate, the action should have ended at the Teacher failing him or at most; referring him to a counselor. 

      To arrest someone simply on an expression on their freedom of speech is outrageous.  It seems that in certain areas of America right is wrong and wrong is right.

     CHICAGO (Reuters) - "The U.S. economy is riding four straight quarters of subpar growth, creating a dilemma for the Federal Reserve as concerns about a possible recession rise even as price pressures stick around.

      Economists contend it is difficult for the United States to bump along in first or second gear for too long without "the big engine that could" slipping into neutral.

More: 

Dollar sinks to record low

     SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - "Brent Tenney says he feels pretty safe when he goes to class at the University of Utah, but he takes no chances. He brings a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic with him every day.

      "It's not that I run around scared all day long, but if something happens to me, I do want to be prepared," said the 24-year-old business major, who has a concealed-weapons permit and takes the handgun everywhere but church.

      After the massacre at Virginia Tech that left 33 dead, some have suggested that the carnage might have been lower if a student or professor with a gun had stepped in.

      As states and colleges across the country review their gun policies in light of the tragedy, many in Utah are proud to have the nation's only state law that expressly allows the carrying of concealed weapons at public colleges.

     NEW YORK (CNN) -- "Economic growth slowed to the slowest pace in four years in the first quarter, as the government's key measure of the U.S. economy came in far weaker than expectations.

      The reading showed the U.S. economy growing at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the first three months of the year, according to the Commerce Department. The report was the initial reading on gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity.

      The growth pace was down from the 2.5 percent gain seen in the final reading of growth in the fourth quarter. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast GDP would slow to growth of 1.8 percent in the quarter.

      Among the biggest factors in the weak growth was a slumping U.S. housing market, which subtracted almost a percentage point from growth.

      The report also showed growing inflation pressures in spite of the the slower growth, a factor that could limit the Federal Reserve's freedom to cut interest rates in an effort to stave off a slowdown or recession.

      The so-called price deflator in the report, which measures all prices in the economy, grew at a 4.0 percent annual rate, up from only a 1.7 percent increase in the fourth quarter. Economists, aware of higher food and energy prices in the quarter, had been forecasting an increase but were looking for only a 3.2 percent rise in prices.

       The mostly closely watched inflation reading in the report is known as the core PCE deflator, which measures prices paid by consumers for goods other than food and energy. The Fed is believed to prefer to see that rate in the range of 1 to 2 percent. But that came in at 2.2 percent, up from a 1.8 percent rise..."

More: 

Rising Gasoline prices do nothing to dent demand

Poor U.S. economic growth sends dollar to record low

     Little do they tell you that when inflation and debt levels are thrown in, it's the lowest it has been since 1930.  Lower than during the great depression.  Back then 80% of the population was involved directly or indirectly with agriculture.  Now, it is less than 2%.  When people become wise to this situation, I seriously worry for the outcome.

"Problems that might have been solved in the post Cold War euphoria are now producing echoes of the Cold War"

     MOSCOW, Russia (BBC) -- "Russian hostility to the American plan to station anti-ballistic missiles and their radar in Poland and the Czech Republic is an indication of the wider unease in relations between Moscow and Washington.

      The issue also threatens repercussions in other areas of arms control, with Russia talking of pulling out of its 1987 treaty with the United States banning intermediate range nuclear forces (the INF treaty).

      It shows that the effort to solve one problem, the potential threat to the United States from new generations of missiles from countries like North Korea and Iran, is producing a whole new set of diplomatic difficulties.

      The result of the confrontation - reflected in other arenas such as trade and economics - is that problems that might have been and in some case actually were solved in the post Cold War euphoria are now producing echoes of the Cold War itself.

Conventional forces treaty

      President Putin, in his annual speech to parliament on 26 April, broadened the Russian criticism of the West over defence by declaring that Russia was freezing and might end its commitments to force reductions under the Treaty on Conventional Weapons.

      This treaty, originally signed in 1990, was modified in 1999 to take account of the break-up of the Soviet Union. Russia has ratified the modified version but the United States and other Nato countries are linking their ratification to the withdrawal of Russian forces from Moldova and Georgia, a linkage that Russia rejects.

      Cold War-style linkage is back in the diplomatic armoury.

Gates mission

      In a late effort to patch up their differences, the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates went to Moscow on Monday for what looked like unsuccessful talks with Mr Putin.

      Later in the week, Nato foreign ministers will meet the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

      The Americans are hoping to base ten interceptor rockets in Poland with accompanying radar in the Czech Republic.

      In the absence of a Nato agreement on this system, this is a bilateral matter between the US and the two Nato members.

      The system is designed to intercept missiles that might fly over Europe on their way to the United States or be aimed at targets in Europe.

US position

      This is how the US Deputy Secretary of Defence Gordon England described the proposed system in a speech in March:

      "This European site is about enhancing the defence of the homeland, and providing defences for our forward-deployed forces and our allies, especially against emerging threats from Iran and the Middle East."

      "Unfortunately, leaders from the Russian Federation have expressed some reluctance - in remarkably strident language. The United States has been - and will continue to be - transparent with Moscow about missile defence plans.

      "The facts should speak for themselves: the systems are not designed to counter - are not capable of countering - Russia's missile capabilities, and in addition, they include no offensive capabilities."..."

     NEW YORK (CNN) -- "Gasoline prices, already above $3 a gallon in some states, could charge higher this summer and hit $4 a gallon in some locations, according to one industry expert.

      Pump prices were supposed to peak below $3 a gallon this May, then drop off before the summer driving season got into full swing, according to the Energy Department's price forecast.

      Well, we're not even out of April yet, and the nationwide average price for a gallon of unleaded regular has hit $2.87.
Behind high gas prices: The refinery crunch

      One big factor driving prices: gasoline inventories continue to fall. After a promising one-week boost in refining activity, the latest report Wednesday actually shows refining activity falling. And demand is already soaring, before the summer driving season is in full swing.

      What this means for prices is obvious, and to most drivers it is not good news.

      "More and more communities are going to see gasoline that approaches or exceeds $4 a gallon," said John Kilduff, an energy analyst at Man Financial in New York. "Where we're currently at with prices, that's a given."

      While geopolitical tensions have driven up the cost of crude oil, which accounts for about half the cost of a gallon of gas, refinery problems here in the United States are largely to blame for the price jump.

      Five states - California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Nevada - already have average prices above $3 a gallon, according to the motorist organization AAA. In California, the average price of gas has reached $3.35 a gallon.

      Kilduff said it will be in those states, and possibly New England and the northern Midwest, where prices have the best chance of hitting $4 a gallon, mostly as a result of localized refinery problems.

      And he thinks prices will have no trouble breaking the old non-inflation-adjusted record of $3.057 a gallon, hit in 2005 just after Hurricane Katrina."

     And there goes the U.S. Economy...

• Next state of nation address will be given by another head of state, Putin says
• Second term ends in 2008; he is constitutionally barred from running again
• Putin decries alleged increase in foreign funding for pro-democracy groups
• Opposition says Putin is strangling democracy through an array of measures

     MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- "President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made his clearest rejection yet of speculation that he would try to seek a third term, but gave no hint in his state of the nation address as to whom he sees as his preferred successor.

      Putin's second term in office ends in 2008, and he is constitutionally barred from running for a third. While many observers have suggested he would try to stay in office, Putin has consistently dismissed the idea and did so again Thursday.

      "The next state of the nation address will be given by another head of state," he said.

      He then acknowledged that many had expected this speech would be his opportunity to openly state which person he wants to follow him, but instead he drew a laugh by saying "it is premature for me to declare a political will."

      Russia enters a high-stakes political season this year with parliamentary elections in December, followed by presidential elections in March. Russian officials in recent months have complained that Western countries are trying to meddle in the political process by funding pro-democracy organizations, and Putin echoed those allegations.

• Six killed, dozens injured near Eagle Pass, Texas
• Three killed across the border in Piedras Negras, Mexico
• Storm dumps more than a foot of snow in Colorado foothills
• School, 20 homes, sewage plant trashed in Eagle Pass

    DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- "A massive spring storm plowed toward the Midwest early Wednesday after spawning a tornado that killed nine people along the Texas-Mexico border.

      Six of the victims were killed a few miles south of Eagle Pass, about 150 miles southwest of San Antonio. Four of the dead were apparently in one mobile home when the tornado hit Tuesday night, Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster said.

      The tornado destroyed an elementary school, more than 20 nearby homes and the Eagle Pass municipal sewer treatment plant. Nobody was in the school when the tornado hit, Foster said.

      "I'm out here on-site and I'm looking at what used to be an elementary school," Foster said by cell phone early Wednesday morning. "Six mobile homes are still missing."

      A local hospital received 74 injured patients, including four in critical condition.

      The National Weather Service has not confirmed that the destructive weather was a tornado..."

     Spring is here with a bang.

      A 35-mile stretch of U.S. 1 was initially closed to traffic, though portions of the highway were later reopened, said Tracy Smith, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

      The fire crossed state Route 177 and was threatening the small communities of Astoria and Braganza about three miles south of Waycross, Smith said..."

    NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Stock index futures pointed to a flat market open on Tuesday, with the direction of trading likely to be determined by corporate earnings and data on housing and consumer confidence shortly after the open.

      Shares of chip maker Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) rose 9.2 percent to $35.43 late on Monday after the bellwether company posted results that beat analysts' estimates. The gain turned S&P futures (SPc1: Quote, Profile, Research) positive.

      The housing data comes a day after ratings agency Moody's Investors Service said that losses from risky subprime loans may go beyond original forecasts, sending the stock market lower and bringing the concerns about the shaky mortgage market to the forefront..."

     I wish those day-traders would make up their minds already.

     CACTUS, Texas (Fox) —  "Downed power lines, flattened houses and roads littered with debris kept many residents from returning to their homes Sunday in this rural Panhandle town hit hard by what appeared to be a group of tornadoes.

      At least 14 people were injured, one of them critically, during the storms late Saturday that knocked out power to about 20,000 customers in the region, officials said.

      About 50 townspeople were unaccounted for Sunday, Moore County Judge Rowdy Rhoades said. He believes all of them are safe and likely evacuated after hearing tornado sirens in this mostly poor city of 2,500.

     Seemingly out of nowhere.

• Billions of bees have mysteriously vanished since late last year in the U.S.
• Disappearing bees have also been reported in Europe and Brazil
• One-third of the U.S. diet depends on pollination, mostly by honeybees
• Some beekeepers are losing 50 percent of their bees to the disorder

     WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- "Go to work, come home.

      Go to work, come home.

      Go to work -- and vanish without a trace.

      Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why.

      The phenomenon was first noticed late last year in the United States, where honeybees are used to pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees have also been reported in Europe and Brazil.

      Commercial beekeepers would set their bees near a crop field as usual and come back in two or three weeks to find the hives bereft of foraging worker bees, with only the queen and the immature insects remaining. Whatever worker bees survived were often too weak to perform their tasks.

      If the bees were dying of pesticide poisoning or freezing, their bodies would be expected to lie around the hive. And if they were absconding because of some threat -- which they have been known to do -- they wouldn't leave without the queen.

      Since about one-third of the U.S. diet depends on pollination and most of that is performed by honeybees, this constitutes a serious problem, according to Jeff Pettis of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service.

      "They're the heavy lifters of agriculture," Pettis said of honeybees. "And the reason they are is they're so mobile and we can rear them in large numbers and move them to a crop when it's blooming."

      Honeybees are used to pollinate some of the tastiest parts of the American diet, Pettis said, including cherries, blueberries, apples, almonds, asparagus and macadamia nuts..."

• New mapping techniques show potential impact of rapidly rising sea levels
• A sudden surge in sea level could impact 1 billion people, study finds
• A sea level rise of just 16 feet would affect 669 million people
• A 100-foot rise in sea level would cover 3.7 million square miles of land worldwide

     SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- "More than 1 billion people live in low-lying areas where a sudden surge in sea level could prove as disastrous as the 2004 Asian tsunami, according to new research presented on Thursday.

      New mapping techniques show how much land would be lost and how many people affected by rapid sea level rises that are often triggered by storms and earthquakes, a U.S. Geological Survey-led team determined.

       E. Lynn Usery, who led the team, said nearly one-quarter of the world's population lives below 100 feet above sea level -- the size of the biggest surge during the 2004 tsunami that pulverized villages along the Indian Ocean and killed 230,000 people.

      "What we are suggesting is what kind of areas are at risk (in) a catastrophic event," Usery told a meeting of the Association of American Geographers.

      "The fact that there are that many people living at that sea level means there are probably a lot of people potentially in harm's way."

      The team also found that a 100-foot rise in sea level would cover 3.7 million square miles of land worldwide.

      A rise of just 16 feet would affect 669 million people and 2 million square miles of land would be lost..."

     We definately live in interesting times.

      SANTIAGO (Reuters) - "A 5.3 magnitude quake was felt in the Chilean capital, Santiago, on Sunday but there were no immediate reports of damage.

      The quake followed a strong temblor in the country's south on Saturday that caused power cuts, landslides and large waves off the nation's Pacific coast.

      The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake occurred at 6:22 a.m. local time (10:22 GMT), with its epicenter 54 miles (86 kilometers) north northeast of Chile's port city of Valparaiso, and 83 miles from Santiago.