Marcellus News for Pennsylvania Oct. 31

I've decided to go with daily updates with the latest news.

Shale Gas Fuels Legal Boom

The natural-gas boom in Pennsylvania is stoking legal battles over who owns gas that was worthless until a few years ago but now holds the promise of great wealth.

Residents call for gas drilling regulations

Tapping into the natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formations in Pennsylvania is a good idea, said area residents who attended a public forum Saturday morning in Middletown.
But the gas drilling industry should be regulated to minimize its impact on the environment, said the residents at the forum hosted by state Rep. Steve Santarsiero, D-31.

PGC: Shale, storms will affect 2011 hunt

"This year it's going to be a little more important than just finding out where the food and bedding are. It's also going to be what else is going on. Marcellus shale drilling is now in full swing throughout much of Pennsylvania. A lot of prime hunting areas in the Big Woods area of north-central Pennsylvania, and in the northeast and down through southwestern Pennsylvania are under production for natural gas. There are a total of 148 permits issued for drilling Marcellus shale on state game lands; of that number 50 have been drilled.

Climate Drumbeat Continues

Here in SE Penn, we had a bit of snow on Saturday October 29.

This of course is the same record-setting storm that dumped over 30 inches of the white stuff in western Mass.  Once again, any single extreme event cannot be attributed to climate change, but we have been having quite a few around the globe the past few years.  Western Massachusetts has had tornado producing storms and flooding from Hurricane Irene this year as well.  I imagine a destabilized climate regime to be like the change of seasons in New England, greatly contrasting air masses leading to unstable moisture laden air and storms, but on a global scale. And for those who cannot connect heavy snow with global warming I would point out that in the spring in New England we have had some our heaviest snowfalls as the seasons change.

Let's not forget the ingoing flooding in Thailand and ongoing drought in Texas.  By themselves they mean little on a global scale and there is always drought and flooding at any given time - but record breakers all over?

What we do know is that it is warming, and a Koch brothers financed dissection of the data has confirmed it.  The spin has already started to discount this research, in some cases it is verging on hysteria.

Update:
Climate experts: Expect more extreme weather

Freakish weather disasters — from the sudden October snowstorm in the Northeast U.S. to the record floods in Thailand — are striking more often. And global warming is likely to spawn more similar weather extremes at a huge cost, says a draft summary of an international climate report obtained by The Associated Press. The report from the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be issued in a few weeks, after a meeting in Uganda. It says there is at least a 2-in-3 probability that climate extremes have already worsened because of man-made greenhouse gases.

Strange, stupid and surreal Sunday, Oct 30

This is why monopolies are illegal...I think.

OK, first of all its friggin' Taco Bell and secondly they don't even use real meat, so don't ya think using a molotov cocktail to make a complaint is a tad bit excessive..

But it seems people everywhere are taking to fire to solve fast food issues. But pizza sucks in Florida anyway and c'mon, Domino's and Papa John's?  Again a tad bit excessive.

I guess Craig Ferguson and Sean Connery are screwed.

And some wonder why people hate the financial services industry.

"Experts say that consuming 2 ounces of black licorice per day for two weeks can set the heart stuttering in susceptible individuals."  If you eat that much licorice (yech) you're asking for trouble.

Bet they don't make a James Franco movie about this guy.

Sad, pathetic or both? You decide.

Wouldn't the old be tough and stringy? I foresee a lot stews and slow barbecue.

Why wouldn't a Harvard psychiatrist study zombie brains, another worked on alien abductions.

Sitrep* on wealth and fairness

*sitrep, military-speak for situation report

The Congressional Budget Office reports the obvious, the richest 1% have been getting richer while everyone else has been stagnant:

Between 1979 and 2007, the top 1 percent of Americans with the highest incomes have seen their incomes grow by an average of 275 percent, according to the CBO study (PDF).

In comparison, the 60 percent of Americans in the middle of the income scale saw their incomes increase by just 40 percent during the same time period, according to the study, which was based on a combination of IRS and Census data.

 Meanwhile, people like Herman Cain and Rick Perry float tax plans that will punish the poor and help that 1%.  They and others like Ron Paul also want to strip the government to regulate business, presumably including safety of the food supply.  At the same time the present system shows it is not strict enough:

The death toll linked to Listeria-contaminated cantaloupes in the United States has climbed to 28, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

Whole or pre-cut Rocky Ford-brand cantaloupes from Colorado-based Jensen Farms have been traced as the cause of what has become the deadliest U.S. food-borne Listeria outbreak in a quarter century.

The way higher ed operates has gotten a pass (IMHO it is a systems of cronyism that awards the haves at the expense of the have-nots), except in terms of the cost:

In-state tuition at public colleges shot up 8.3 percent this year to an average of $8,244, according to an analysis by the College Board. Tuition at private four-year colleges jumped a more modest 4.5 percent, to an average of $28,500.

This is above the rate of inflation, but then so the salaries of the top administrators are way above that of faculty and staff - and the number of these administrators and their salaries keep growing.

Even the Vatican has chimed in on the economic stresses in the world (not surprising if you know Catholic Social teaching).  As Andrew Sullivan says, this has not gone down well with those who can't  reconcile modern American Republicanism with their supposed strong faith:

You knew the Church's effective endorsement of Occupy Wall Street would prompt a sudden outbreak of heterodoxy on the theocon right, didn't you? I mean any Catholic challenge to Randian orthodoxy in the GOP must be smacked down quickly, right? And, sure enough, the theocon blogosphere rises as one in dissent.

But some are saying us Gen Xers like yours truly are happy and balanced. Well there's my personal world and the greater world so I guess it depends on which you are looking at.

Off for the weekend

Leaving tomorrow for a field trip to the Potomac Corridor.  No new posts until next week

Best report on OWS

From John Oliver on the Daily Show
                       

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The 99%
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

In short, a mixed group including many wackos with an odd way of doing things are bringing attention to what many think, but are too busy to say.

Strange, Stupid and Surreal Sunday Oct. 16

***sigh*** more misuse of 9-1-1, what were they doing in a corn maze with a three-week old in the first place?

The Teabaggers know we can't let the commies contaminate our precious bodily fluids.

Yet another fine moment in Philly sports fandom - yeah cancer!

Guess the bankers can't even hide in the tundra.

Steven Seagal is keepin' busy.

Good Lord this is terrible.

Remember the old Simpsons when Bart was caught shoplifting and the store detective said he would grow up to "steal quarries and stadiums"?  Well don't laugh, infrastructure theft is real.

M..yes, Bigfut ees really from Mother Russia.

Delaware being occupied

An Occupy Delaware group has sprung up and this one has some real blue-collar origins:

Some who arrived at the United Auto Workers hall in Newark on Wednesday were unemployed, others were underemployed and those who had jobs like Von Spalding of Dover talked about the difficulties of supporting a family with current wages.
Spalding said he felt he needed to do something, so he attended a meeting in Newark this week to join the nascent Occupy Delaware group, a gathering modeled after the larger Occupy Wall Street movement spreading across the nation.

The reason why there is a UAW hall in Newark, DE is that there used to be a Chrysler plant in town. That closed recently and has been bought "as is" by the University of Delaware, who is marketing some vague economy defying plans for the property.
Funny thing is Newark is also a college town and one would expect an Occupy group to start up on campus (compare to Boston), but UD students have been accused of being among the most politically apathetic in the country.  I don't know about that, I saw some blazer and tie wearing College Republican fratties cheering for Christine O'Donnell outside the debate in campus last year. Seriously though, any involvement by UD students has been below the radar compared to other locations, I'll see if I can find it.

The whole occupy thing...

I've been trying to get a post with my thoughts on Occupy Wall Street out, but with my obligations and the constantly shifting story I keep finding myself behind the curve. But I should since it ties in with the whole supposed point of this blog. So I'll get one with my impressions to date out tonight.

Someone who I often find myself simultaneously agreeing and disagreeing with, Thomas Friedman, disclosed that he himself is unsure what it all means, but points out two possibilities:

When you see spontaneous social protests erupting from Tunisia to Tel Aviv to Wall Street, it’s clear that something is happening globally that needs defining. There are two unified theories out there that intrigue me. One says this is the start of “The Great Disruption.” The other says that this is all part of “The Big Shift.” You decide.

Disruption, said Gilding. “Our system of economic growth, of ineffective democracy, of overloading planet earth — our system — is eating itself alive. Occupy Wall Street is like the kid in the fairy story saying what everyone knows but is afraid to say: the emperor has no clothes. The system is broken....Not so fast, says John Hagel III, who is the co-chairman of the Center for the Edge at Deloitte, along with John Seely Brown. In their recent book, “The Power of Pull,” they suggest that we’re in the early stages of a “Big Shift,” precipitated by the merging of globalization and the Information Technology Revolution. In the early stages, we experience this Big Shift as mounting pressure, deteriorating performance and growing stress because we continue to operate with institutions and practices that are increasingly dysfunctional — so the eruption of protest movements is no surprise.

Andrew Sullivan thought this picture looked like a South Park parody, but it may actually express many peoples frustration and uncertainty, in a crude sort of way:

Sunday's Strange, Stupid and Surreal, Oct. 9

Blowing up Ikea?-Well it was bound to happen, but who would've thought Poles would be the ones?

Amish breaking bad.

Some would say this is why women shouldn't be in politics, or at least "lobbyists in stiletto heels."

Oops...big oops!

UFOs in KC. Could they be there to pick up Chupacabras? No because they're being shot dead in Mississippi.