We're wilting

The drought will continue ... at least through September?  uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


Texas Wilting Under Extreme Heat

By TOM FOWLER and MEGAN RYAN

Extreme heat continued across Texas on Tuesday, leading to a second straight day of record power use and the declaration of a Level 1 energy emergency by the state's electric grid operator.


No immediate relief is in sight for cities suffering with record highs, heavy water usage and a mounting heat-related death toll. The situation is dire for Texas farmers and ranchers as well, with the combined effect of heat and drought ruining crop production and stressing livestock herds to the limit.

In Texas, with all due respect to poet T.S. Eliot, August is the cruelest month. Anyone looking for a true wasteland need only survey the Texas landscape, about 90 percent of it covered on a map by an overlay of deep red indicating extreme drought, these days accompanied by unprecedented heat.

Last August saw an all-time record for electricity usage, with the high mark coming at 67,775 megawatts on Aug. 23. But Tuesday's demand topped out at 5 p.m. with a reading of 67,929 megawatts, exceeding Monday's previous record of 66,867 megawatts.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the power grid for about 85 percent of the state, warned Monday of high demand for the entire week. But around 2:40 p.m. Tuesday, ERCOT went a step further, activating the first of a four-stage warning system as surging demand sucked power reserves below a key safety margin.

Calling on consumers to conserve electricity, ERCOT began bringing all available power plants online and tapping neighboring power grids — including about 130 megawatts from Mexico.

One megawatt is enough to power about 200 Texas homes during hot weather when air conditioners are running for long periods of time. Whether consumers are responding to the call for conservation is unknown, said Kent Saathoff, ERCOT's vice president of system planning and operations.

"We certainly hope so," he said.

Cooling centers available


In Houston, the hottest summer on record continues. The National Weather Service extended a heat advisory for Houston and other cities in Southeast Texas until 9 p.m. Thursday. Though the temperature reached "only" 100, the heat index made it feel 10 degrees worse - a scenario repeated day after day.

Chris McKinney, a meteorologist for the Houston-Galveston weather service office, said those who can should limit outdoor activities as much as possible. If staying indoors is not an option, then frequent water breaks, light clothing and extended shade are recommended to avoid heat-related illness.

Eight cooling centers are available across Houston. They are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also is welcome to cool down in any library, multi-service center or public center as long as the facility is open, said Kathy Barton, chief of the Office of Public Affairs for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services.

Warmest June ever

From a climate perspective, with June and July gone, summer is now about two-thirds over. Houston's average temperature for those two months has been 86.7 degrees, warmer than any June-July period on record.

After this June finished as the warmest on record, July ended as the third warmest in the city's history.

The heat has been driven primarily by a large high-pressure dome, which meteorologists explain has largely kept rainy weather at bay and turned up the heat with ample sunshine.

Forecasters say there's little break in the pattern through the weekend, with high pressure remaining dominant until at least then.

As bad as it's been here, it's been worse in Dallas, where a health official says 12 people have died from the heat this summer, already three more than last year's total with the hottest month just under way.

Dallas County Health and Human Services spokeswoman Blanca Cantu said Tuesday that officials are encouraging residents to check on family members and neighbors.

Temperatures are expected to reach record triple-digit highs this week in several big Texas cities, including Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. Water consumption and electricity usage are soaring as a result.

Drought grinds on

ERCOT's Saathoff said the state could continue to break demand records throughout the week, although thunderstorms or additional cloud cover could greatly reduce the load on the grid in some areas, he said.

"We're concerned particularly for the rest of this week, as temperatures are forecast to be at about the same levels," Saathoff noted.

Though power supply is less of an issue in rural areas where residents don't feel the "heat island" effect created by population density and tons of concrete, the suffering has been worse. Heat and drought destroy their livelihood.

About 70 percent of Texas rangeland and pastures are classified as in very poor condition, which means there has been complete or near complete crop failure or there's no food for grazing livestock.

Crop and livestock losses could be the worst the state has seen - perhaps twice the previous single-year record of $4.1 billion set in 2006, said David Anderson, an economist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service.

Consumers will eventually see the cost of the drought passed on to them, although it's hard to put a number on it since processing, marketing, transportation and other costs also play a big role in retail prices, he said.

And the situation isn't likely to improve soon: Forecasters predict the drought will persist across Texas through September.

Original.

What jobs?

Our government, at the prodding of our "business leaders" have made it easier than ever to replace highly-paid American workers with much-cheaper foreign workers, through the tool of the H1B visa system. 

Presently, it is estimated that there are 200,000 H1B visas issued EACH YEAR, and BUSINESS WANTS TO DOUBLE THAT NUMBER.  How many foreign workers are already in the country on an H1B visa?  Who knows?  The government, incredibly, does not keep such information.  How convenient.

And how convenient it is for American business "leaders" who can bring in cheap workers, skilled or unskilled, and force the high-paid American workers to train them and then fire the American workers.  At present, the H1B visa system does not require American companies to hire Americans first, or even try to. 

So, since there is no legal mechanism to prevent American corporations from firing Americans and replace them with cheap foreigners, what do you think they will do?  After all, if all you care about is the "bottom line," what would you do? 

The law has to be changed.  The "best and brightest" are already in this country, and they are American workers.  Sure there are some highly-degreed foreign workers who come to this country, but there are far too many stories where the foreigners who come in on an H1B visa know next to NOTHING about the job that they get hired for, and the Americans have to train them, and then get fired.  And if you don't train them well enough, well, the company might just withhold your severance package.  And there is no law to prevent that either. 

The law is tilted towards the company's favor, which is no surprise.  What is totally disgusting is the charade many politicians conduct when they moan about Americans losing their jobs, especially when those same politicians made it oh so easy for corporations to do exactly that. 

President Surrenders

Surprise!  Not. 

So, what must we do to get Obama to NOT seek a second term?  Hope is about the only thing we have, because we sure didn't get much change, except for the worse.  A weak health care bill, a weak wall street reform, caving to Republicans at every turn.  What a total, bad joke.  If Obama is a true Democrat, the Democratic Party is dead.  Surely we can do better than Obama. 

The President Surrenders

by Paul Krugman

A deal to raise the federal debt ceiling is in the works. If it goes through, many commentators will declare that disaster was avoided. But they will be wrong.

For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.

Start with the economics. We currently have a deeply depressed economy. We will almost certainly continue to have a depressed economy all through next year. And we will probably have a depressed economy through 2013 as well, if not beyond.

The worst thing you can do in these circumstances is slash government spending, since that will depress the economy even further. Pay no attention to those who invoke the confidence fairy, claiming that tough action on the budget will reassure businesses and consumers, leading them to spend more. It doesn’t work that way, a fact confirmed by many studies of the historical record.

Indeed, slashing spending while the economy is depressed won’t even help the budget situation much, and might well make it worse. On one side, interest rates on federal borrowing are currently very low, so spending cuts now will do little to reduce future interest costs. On the other side, making the economy weaker now will also hurt its long-run prospects, which will in turn reduce future revenue. So those demanding spending cuts now are like medieval doctors who treated the sick by bleeding them, and thereby made them even sicker.

And then there are the reported terms of the deal, which amount to an abject surrender on the part of the president. First, there will be big spending cuts, with no increase in revenue. Then a panel will make recommendations for further deficit reduction — and if these recommendations aren’t accepted, there will be more spending cuts.

Republicans will supposedly have an incentive to make concessions the next time around, because defense spending will be among the areas cut. But the G.O.P. has just demonstrated its willingness to risk financial collapse unless it gets everything its most extreme members want. Why expect it to be more reasonable in the next round?

In fact, Republicans will surely be emboldened by the way Mr. Obama keeps folding in the face of their threats. He surrendered last December, extending all the Bush tax cuts; he surrendered in the spring when they threatened to shut down the government; and he has now surrendered on a grand scale to raw extortion over the debt ceiling. Maybe it’s just me, but I see a pattern here.

Did the president have any alternative this time around? Yes.

First of all, he could and should have demanded an increase in the debt ceiling back in December. When asked why he didn’t, he replied that he was sure that Republicans would act responsibly. Great call.

And even now, the Obama administration could have resorted to legal maneuvering to sidestep the debt ceiling, using any of several options. In ordinary circumstances, this might have been an extreme step. But faced with the reality of what is happening, namely raw extortion on the part of a party that, after all, only controls one house of Congress, it would have been totally justifiable.

At the very least, Mr. Obama could have used the possibility of a legal end run to strengthen his bargaining position. Instead, however, he ruled all such options out from the beginning.

But wouldn’t taking a tough stance have worried markets? Probably not. In fact, if I were an investor I would be reassured, not dismayed, by a demonstration that the president is willing and able to stand up to blackmail on the part of right-wing extremists. Instead, he has chosen to demonstrate the opposite.

Make no mistake about it, what we’re witnessing here is a catastrophe on multiple levels.

It is, of course, a political catastrophe for Democrats, who just a few weeks ago seemed to have Republicans on the run over their plan to dismantle Medicare; now Mr. Obama has thrown all that away. And the damage isn’t over: there will be more choke points where Republicans can threaten to create a crisis unless the president surrenders, and they can now act with the confident expectation that he will.

In the long run, however, Democrats won’t be the only losers. What Republicans have just gotten away with calls our whole system of government into question. After all, how can American democracy work if whichever party is most prepared to be ruthless, to threaten the nation’s economic security, gets to dictate policy? And the answer is, maybe it can’t.

Original.

August stargazing

Quit starting down at your smartphone and look up!

Stargazing Summary
Teapot-shaped Sagittarius and hook-shaped Scorpius highlight August's evening skies. They skitter low across the south during the night. Saturn and Spica remain teamed, as they have been all year, although they are preparing to disappear in the Sun's glare. Mars climbs a little higher from the Sun in the morning sky, while Jupiter enters the evening sky by month's end.


More stargazing information: http://stardate.org/nightsky
 
Radio Program Highlights
Hear StarDate every day on more than 360 radio stations nationwide.


Premium Audio: Listen to today's program today on-demand with a paid subscription to StarDate premium audio — http://stardate.org/store/premium-access/audio

August 1-7: Weather talk. The weather doesn't end when the air does. Space weather extends far beyond Earth's atmosphere, but it can have dangerous effects all the way to the surface. Listen in for details, plus a mission that'll look at the weather on Jupiter.

August 8-14: A powerful swan. Cygnus, the swan, soars gracefully through the Milky Way on summer evenings. The constellation is home to one of the mightiest stars in the galaxy, plus a giant nursery for new stars. Join us for details.

August 15-21: Back to the future. In a digital world, it's easy to forget the analog accomplishments of the past. But one observatory is trying to preserve that past -- by making it digital. We'll have the details, plus efforts to keep some classic telescopes going.

August 22-28: Following up. A small space telescope has discovered more than 1200 possible planets in other star systems. But it takes a lot of work on the ground to make sure that they really are planets. Listen in for details, plus much more.

August 29-31: Evening lineup. The Moon has a couple of bright companions in the evening sky this week -- the star Spica and the planet Saturn. We'll have details. And we'll also talk about an explosive stellar merger.

August Program Schedule: http://stardate.org/radio/calendars
Find an Affiliate: http://stardate.org/radio/affiliates

Coming Up In StarDate Magazine
In the September/October issue, we'll bring you skywatching information and charts for fall, along with new astronomy features, Merlin's answers to your cosmic questions, and the latest astronomy news.


Subscribe online: http://stardate.org/store/subscribe

Black Holes: From the Beginning
We've added a new section to the StarDate Black Hole Encyclopedia web site: the history of black holes. It provides a timeline of key discoveries dating from Isaac Newton in the 1600s to the discovery that there's a relationship between a host galaxy and the supermassive black hole in its center.


Find out more: http://blackholes.stardate.org/