Raw Story is carrying the article, Ohio stiffens regulations after concluding that fracking caused earthquakes.

Ohio state regulators announced tough new regulations on Friday after concluding that the injection of wastewater underground as part of the controversial gas-drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” had almost certainly caused a dozen earthquakes near one well.

This story was published Friday, March 9, 2012.  I scooped them by more than a year with my previous post EPA to natural gas companies: Give details on ‘fracking’ chemicals published on December 30, 2010.

I added the following to the article about the EPA:

To add to the worries enumerated in the above story, I recall the troubles that came to light many years ago in Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado. There was a sudden rise in minor earthquakes that was attributed to the pumping of industrial waste into underground storage. The threat was so serious that such pumping was halted. I’m off to track down the story of the earthquake in Indiana, Indiana earthquake strikes in rare location, to see if it is near any natural gas wells that have been subject to fracking

After writing the above paragraph, I did the research and added the results to the end of that post.

That link above to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal showed that the U. S. Army knew about this hazard in 1966.  Why should it be a surprise to Ohio almost 50 years later?

There is nothing to see here, just something to listen to.

At least she tells you what she is running for. If you still don’t know who Elizabeth Warren is, maybe the picture below may help. When we collect nomination paper signatures for her, it helps many people to connect.

Truth Out has published this paean, Dennis Kucinich: Conscience of the Congress.

Here is something I didn’t know about Dennis Kucinich:

That populist passion caused him to rouse the ire of the banking elite that insisted that the city divest its municipal power plant to benefit a huge private power company.

When Kucinich refused to play ball with the downtown banking interests they pulled the plug on Cleveland finances and temporarily derailed his career. But 14 years later the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which has savaged him since his mayoral days, ran a headline conceding “Dennis Was Right” as it belatedly acknowledged that his refusal to sell the plant had provided needed competition to private power, resulting in lower energy costs for consumers.

I wonder if The Cleveland Plain Dealer called the municipal power plant socialist when they were against it, but they changed that to populist when they were for it.

It’s amazing how not running for re-election can free you up to say what you really think. Who knew Barney Frank had been holding back?

The Republican’s may be able to strike these words from the official record, but I defy them to strike these words from the web.

The headline writers at The New York Times must be channeling the book 1984 when they came up with headline Ignorance Is Strength for Paul Krugman’s op-ed piece.  The take-away paragraph from the piece is:

So whenever you hear Republicans say that they are the party of traditional values, bear in mind that they have actually made a radical break with America’s tradition of valuing education. And they have made this break because they believe that what you don’t know can’t hurt them.

Thanks to Art Bushkin for posting this on his Facebook page.

The Christian Science Monitor, in the article New Obama campaign video: what it may say about his reelection strategy, was nice enough to include a link to the following trailer:

Elizabeth Warren even gets to say a few words in the trailer.

Time magazine has the story, Einstein Was Right All Along: ‘Faster-Than-Light’ Neutrino Was Product of Error.

Today, the CERN team announced that the GPS system used to adjust the mechanism that timed the neutrinos’ journey had a loose fiber optic cable. When it was fixed — and its mistaken readings scrubbed from the data — the 60-nanosecond difference disappeared.

That did not come as much of a surprise to generations of physicists and students who have come to see Einstein’s word as law. And, according to Ars Technica, it did not come as a surprise to Sergio Bertolucci, CERN’s head of research. When asked before the glitch was discovered if he believed the neutrinos really did get to the Apennine Mountains so fast, he said he had his doubts, “because nothing in Italy arrives ahead of time.”

It’s good to know that I don’t have to relearn everything I have known about physics since my college days, if you can believe what you read in Time. I stopped reading Time when I realized they cared more about the aesthetics of the pages of the magazine than they cared about the truth of the magazine.  In the case of these two article I quote today, you see that Time articles must have some breezy humor in them.  That makes me suspicious that style is still more important to Time than substance.

Time magazine web site has the story, The Higgs Boson: Have Scientists Found the Mystery Particle?

“I don’t think there’s any place for the Higgs to hide,” Fermilab physicist Rob Roser told the Associated Press. “We’ll know the answer one way or another by the end of 2012.”

The article does have a nice layperson’s explanation of the Higgs, if you can believe what you read in Time. I stopped reading Time when I realized they cared more about the aesthetics of the pages of the magazine than they cared about the truth of the magazine.

I have heard the comment that Democrats complained about Bush’s deficits, but they are not complaining about the deficits that Obama is incurring.

Perhaps I can put this in other words that make sense of what the Democrats say and nonsense of what the Republicans say.

Democrats complained that Bush was spending the economy’s rainy-day funds while the sun was shining. Republicans are now complaining that Obama is spending what little rainy day fund that George Bush didn’t give away while the rain is pouring down around us.

To me the seeming Democratic inconsistency makes complete sense when you use the right words to explain their policy.  It is the Republican inconsistency that is absurd when viewed in the right framework.

If you don’t like the analogy above, you might ask when would be a good time to sock money away if you are worried about losing your job? Would it make sense to spend every nickel while you have a job and then be left to starve when you lose your job? Or would it make more sense to save money when the income is rolling in and then tap your reserves when the income stops flowing for a while?

Spending all you have and saving nothing is not always the right policy, but sometimes you have no other choice. So reserve that policy for the times when you have no other choice.

Is it really that hard to understand? I suppose it is hard to understand it when the money is rolling in and you can’t imagine it ever stopping. When the money stops rolling in, then it is easy to see what you should have done, but by then it is too late.

Is it asking too much for the American people to have a teensy-weensy amount of foresight?

In the video below, Jon Stewart says:

With threats and taunts mounting, can we get a responsible party to break up this Iranian-Israeli schoolyard fight before someone gets hurt?

People, that’s all I am saying.   Maybe Jon Stewart can get it across better with some humor.

If the embedded video above does not work, here is the direct link which does work.