Oklahoma storms, as viewed by NASA

Oklahoma storm of May 20, 2013, as viewed by NASA Goddard’s Aqua satellite.

Residents of Moore got several minutes of warning before the tornado struck, saving perhaps hundreds of lives.

Can the U.S. afford to keep cutting resources from NASA and NOAA?  Seriously?

Detail satellite view of the massive storm over Oklahoma: bit.ly/118knh2—
NASA Goddard Images (@NASA_GoddardPix) May 21, 2013

 

Disaster strikes the stick family on the mini-van next door . . .

Bumper sticker memes tend to age very quickly, quickly past ripe and right on into overripe. Remember “Baby on Board?”

My favorite response was one that said “Ex-husband in trunk.” A tie flapped out of the trunk compartment, as if caught in a sudden closing on a squirmy piece of cargo.

I’m tired of the stick families, now.  And so, I was happy to see this in the parking lot.

Parking lot/bumper sticker humor — what happened to that nice stick family that used to live on the mini-van next door?  “We ate your stick family.”  Who knew zombies eat like beavers?  Photo by Ed Darrell

Presidents and umbrellas, continued: Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth

This is just so odd that it merits our attention, so long as we’re talking about presidents and umbrellas.

In 1864, John Wilkes Booth wrote to President Abraham Lincoln asking for money to purchase an umbrella.

Yes, Booth, the man who would eventually assassinate that same Abraham Lincoln.

Page 1 of John Wilkes Booth’s 1864 letter to President Abraham Lincoln

Booth to Lincoln, page 2

Booth to Lincoln, page 3

Booth to Lincoln, page 4

Booth to Lincoln, page 5

Booth to Lincoln, page 6

The letter is in the collection of Lincoln papers at the Library of Congress, described as “John Wilkes to Abraham Lincoln, Thursday, November 17, 1864 (Congratulations; request that Lincoln send him money to buy an umbrella).”

I have found no official transcript of the letter.

Of all the richochets of umbrellas in the history of the American presidency, this must be the strangest.

More:

• Abraham Lincoln Was Assassinated 148 Years Ago Today (huffingtonpost.com)
• April 26, 1865: Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth dies (thefreakaccountant.wordpress.com)

Remedial economics, remedial U.S. history

I should set a threshold — five e-mails, or a dozen Facebook posts, and a response will be given.

But then some idiot would work to make the threshold.

You’ve seen this, of course:

“5 Truths You CANNOT Disagree With”

It was past the threshold, so I responded:

More truths:

1. You cannot legislate poverty away by laws that send all the wealth generated by the working poor, to the rich.
2. What one person receives without working for in capital gains, or productivity increases, another person worked for, without receiving. It is unjust to give the benefits of the sweat of one woman, to another man.
3. Government subsidies create wealth in nations; most great enterprises have found their roots in government funding, from irrigation in Babylon, to farming along the Yellow River, through Columbus’s voyage of (accidental) discovery, the Transcontinental Railroad, and settlement of America.
4. When opportunities exist for the poor, hard work makes much wealth. A society is wealthy, and an economy is sound, when the poor spend money. Rich guys spending money doesn’t work — there are not enough rich guys.
5. When the rich tiny percentage of the people get the idea that they do not have to work, but that the work of others is ALSO their property and the poor will take care of them, then we have conditions for financial collapse (see the Panic of 1908, or 1837, or the Great Depression — or any other); those conditions often lead to revolution, sometimes violent (see Russia in 1917, Germany in 1922, Shay’s Rebellion, the French Revolution — when the rich get the rewards the hard-working man created, it is the beginning of the end of any nation. Some smart nations fix those problems when they occur.

When hard work no longer gets you ahead, and when hard work no longer will feed, clothe and educate your family, you may get angry.

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable,” John Kennedy said. He was pretty smart for a young, rich guy.

(Links added above, other than the YouTube video; I hope the JFK Library has video of Kennedy actually saying that.)

People who post these “5 truths” without irony must have slept through ALL of economics in high school, and forgotten everything they may have ever learned about American history in the 20th century.  Income distribution is a serious issue — maldistribution and misdistribution of wealth leads to trouble, either economic calamity, or violent revolution, or both.

It’s fun to say that no person should get ahead on the earnings of another person; it’s more realistic when we understand that a system rigged to give financial players yachts, and working people debt, is the unfairness that those worriers should worry about.

Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy waves to a crowd in front of Cobo Hall, in Detroit, during the 1960 American Legion Convention. Image from Walter Reuther Library

More:

• Especially in light of its being a John Kennedy quote, this little history of the “Peaceful Revolution” is stunning
• Peaceful Revolution (monicakupfer.wordpress.com)
• The French Revolution: Crash Course World History #29 (tarpon.wordpress.com)
• “Income Inequality Matters,” at ThinkMarkets
• “Martin Luther King, Jr., and his war on poverty: He lost,” John Hively’s Blog
• See especially these posts at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
  • “Income inequality: The snake that threatens to choke the U.S. economy”
  • “Taking from the poor to give to the rich, 2000-2007″
  • “Barbara Ehrenriech wonders, what’s the real poverty rate in America?”
  • “No, race is not the cause of our economic and education woes”
  • “Fatal flaw in America’s politico-economic system, that schools could fix, but won’t”
  • “How wealth inequality crowds out America’s success”
  • Tax hoaxes from the right wing

Presidents and umbrellas

A few photos from history:

President Dwight D. Eisenhower:

Two Countries, One Umbrella – President Dwight D. Eisenhower with Indian President Rajendra Prasad, in India, December 11, 1959 (anyone have the year?) 

President John F. Kennedy

Aide holds umbrella for First Lady Jacqueline and President John F. Kennedy, inaugural night, 1961.

President Lyndon B. Johnson

President Lyndon B. Johnson arrives for church services in Honolulu, February 6, 1966, during Vietnam negotiations. To Johnson’s immediate right, Rep. Spark Matsunaga; on Johnson’s left, a Secret Service agent. National Archives photo

President Richard M. Nixon

Caption from The AtlanticWire: In 1960, Richard Nixon pledged to campaign in all 50 states. He was not even rewarded for this foolishness with nice weather in Hawaii.

My memory is that no other presidential candidate has campaigned in Hawaii since then.  Has any other candidate campaigned in Alaska?

Collection: NASA Great Images in Nasa Collection Title: Nixon and Paine at Apollo 12 Launch Full Description: Dr. Thomas Paine, NASA Administrator, shields First Lady, Mrs. Richard M. Nixon, from rain while the President and daughter Tricia, foreground, watch Apollo 12 prelaunch activities at the Kennedy Space Center viewing area. Following the successful liftoff, the President congratulated the launch crew from within the control center. Date: 11/14/1969 NASA photo, on Flickr

The image of Nixon in the rain was captured several times.

From the AtlanticWire: Even amid his staff and security, Nixon looks like a lonely man helpless against the elements. (AP photo?)

President Gerald R. Ford

Wally McNamee photo, University of Texas Center for American History.  UPI caption for their photos:  As Betty Ford holds the umbrella, a military aide rushes forward to assist President Ford as he trips and falls on the lower steps of the plane ramp following his arrival in Salzburg, Austria on June 1, 1975. (UPI Photo/Files)

President Ronald Reagan:

Undated photo of First Lady Nancy and President Ronald Reagan being sheltered on an airport in an unnamed place. Image from BigotBasher.

Reagan at the White House, in the rain:

White House staff shelter President Reagan’s waving. Freakout Nation image

President George H. W. Bush:

Barbara Bush held the umbrella for President George H. W. Bush in July 1989 (in Italy?). From The AtlanticWire.

President George H. W. Bush found himself in the rain again, in late 1989. AtlanticWire image

President Barack Obama:

President Barack Obama took the stage amidst a downpour at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Illinois, on Memorial Day. He announced that the event was being canceled because of the severe weather, and he told the crowd to seek shelter, May 31, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

More:

• Obama scandals: Now, umbrella-gate (tv.msnbc.com)
• Sometimes an Umbrella Is Just an Umbrella (balloon-juice.com)
• Under My Umbrella: POTUS Edition (itsspencerbrown.com)
• Presidents Look Like Doofuses in Rain (theatlanticwire.com)
• From the 2012 campaign: “30 pictures of President Obama’s rain-soaked speech,” (buzzfeed.com) (Warning: Cute kids loving on Obama in the mix)
• Journalists, especially those with a rightward tilt, complain about the sunshine, moments before the rain (buzzfeed.com)
• “Presidents don’t use rain delays,” Brooklyn Public Library account of FDR’s 1944 campaign visit to New York and Ebbetts Field in the rain
• “Even Obama’s umbrellas are a scandal now,” Post Politics blog

Long’s Peak in the Milky Way

I admire those who are able to capture a good image of the Milky Way in a photograph.

Here’s another one, with Long’s Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park as a foil.

The Milky Way rises over Long’s Peak (14,259 feet) as seen from 9,600 feet up Trail Bridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. Photo: Pat Gaines

Is it easier to get good photos at that altitude?

More:

• 6 How-to Tips for Memorable Landscape Photography (equipping4eministry.wordpress.com)
• Cottonwoods and Milky Way by Randy Halverson (500px.com)
• Rocky Mountain National Park – Colorado Trip Advice [Guide] (k99.com)
• On a personal note… My move to Colorado (solomondove.wordpress.com)
• Milky Way Over Crater Lake (neatorama.com)

 

Here’s the photo of Obama the GOP hope Americans never see

It’s a prize-winning photograph by “Scout Tufankjian, an independent photographer whose portfolio includes a book of photographs from Obama’s first run for the White House.”

Barack and Michelle Obama in Booth No. 3 at Lagomarcino’s in the Village of East Davenport, Iowa, during the 2012 election campaign

Photographs sometimes reveal truths, and sometimes those truths are wonderful, and smile-making.

Bill Wundram’s column discusses the photo, in the Quad-City Times (it’s worth the click to read it).

THE QUIETUDE of the soda fountain booth was a marked difference from a rousing Obama appearance a half-hour earlier at a curb-to-curb outdoor rally.

After the speech, the Obamas adjourned to the cool of Lago’s. Tom had  prepared for them to be seated in Booth No. 3.

“The Obamas were shaking so many hands before coming into our soda shop that I had to make three different chocolate sundaes for them.” Tom says. “They kept melting.”

You can see all the photos in this Sony contest in a slide show, here.

More:

• The Most Liked and Tweeted Photo of all Time – Part 2 (bagnewsnotes.com)
• Why the GOP may regret its Obama scandal obsession (tv.msnbc.com)
• GOP not satisfied by Benghazi email release (news.yahoo.com)
• GOP Seeks to Avoid Scandal Backlash (politicalwire.com)
• More photos from Tufankjian, at thebrightsurf