"Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth’s Axis"

By Alex Morales

"March 1 (Bloomberg) -- The earthquake that killed more than 700 people in Chile on Feb. 27 probably shifted the Earth’s axis and shortened the day, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist said.

Earthquakes can involve shifting hundreds of kilometers of rock by several meters, changing the distribution of mass on the planet. This affects the Earth’s rotation, said Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who uses a computer model to calculate the effects.

“The length of the day should have gotten shorter by 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second),” Gross, said today in an e-mailed reply to questions. “The axis about which the Earth’s mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters or 3 inches).”"

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"Top Climate Scientist Phil Jones Admits Sending 'Awful' E-Mails"

"Leading climate scientist Phil Jones admitted to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Monday that he had "written some very awful e-mails," including one in which he rejected a request for information on the ground that the person receiving it might criticize his work.

In a written submission to the committee, leading physics organization the Institute of Physics said that, assuming the e-mails were genuine, "worrying implications arise for the integrity of scientific research in this field and for the credibility of the scientific method as practiced in this context.""

Videos Here

"Are the network nightly news programs nearing the end?"

"Two Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon jets were scrambled...

...to assist an American Airlines passenger plane shortly before it landed at London's Heathrow airport on Tuesday after a woman attempted to gain access to the flight deck."

"She needs at least two cigarettes a day"

"A Chinese woman is seeking assistance in order to help her nicotine-addicted pet dog quit smoking. According to Mrs Li of Beijing her cocker spaniel Treasure is addicted to smoking. "She needs at least two cigarettes a day," she comments..."I have to light one in the ash tray and let her stay beside it to suck the smoke." Treasure also loves cigarette butts. "She eats all the butts, swallows down the tobacco and then spit out the rest," says Mrs Li."

Picture: QUIRKY CHINA NEWS / REX FEATURES

An FDR lesson Obama missed

By Wesley Pruden

"Barack Obama is trying to be the new FDR before the concrete settles around his image as the new Jimmy Carter. History will ultimately decide, but last week's celebrated health care summit made him look more like Mr. Jimmy than FDR.

The president was full of self-righteous talk, mostly about himself, and he twice felt it necessary to remind everyone that he's the president, recalling Richard Nixon's bizarre reassurance that he was not a crook. Some things are self-evident, and if they're not, such things are usually not true. We can stipulate that, like it or not, he's the president."

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"Chilean soldiers patrol the streets to stop looting...

...and keep the order, as a building burns in the background after a major earthquake in Concepcion March 1, 2010."

REUTERS/Jose Luis Saavedra

"Coyote Found Frozen Dead In His Tracks"

Global Warming Update

Rodham’s Revenge

By Monica Crowley

"President Obama just completed his annual 90 minute physical and his physicians noted that he was fine health but made two recommendations: one, that he quit smoking, and two, that he “moderate” his “alcohol intake.”

Huh? The leader of the free world is smoking and boozing? Can carousing be far behind?

People handle stress in different ways. Some people sleep a lot, others have insomnia. Some people overeat, others stop eating. Some develop tics or rashes. Some exercise all the time, other become catatonic couch potatoes. Some develop heart conditions, other respiratory illnesses. And some people develop bad habits. The Bama seems to have fallen into that last category, although he did already smoke and drink before he became president. One wonders if those habits have gotten worse since assume the responsibility of the office."

"The Smartest Guys in the Room?"

By Carol Peracchio

"It's simple. Mr. Klein is really, really angry -- at conservatives. And he's using the only weapons he has -- words -- to lash out like an animal caught in a trap. And the trap Mr. Klein and his fellow journalists are in is obvious.

They got suckered by Barack Obama and the Chicago crowd, and we didn't. Mr. Klein, MS-NBC, the New York Times, and even some conservatives like Peggy Noonan and Christopher Buckley fell for a slick operator. Despite the Ivy League educations and all the access to information, the mainstream media behaved like a high school girl infatuated with the class bad boy. Allow me to illustrate.

How many parents have experienced the horror of meeting their teenage daughter's first love and knowing instantly that this relationship will lead to nothing but tragedy? It's a no-win situation for the parents. If they attempt to explain what a cad their daughter is dating, the lovesick girl won't believe it. If they forbid her to see him again, the teen will most likely defy her parents and may even marry the fellow."

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Manhattan Madam Running for Governor

How Ironic...

"U.S. soldiers from the Second Stryker Cavalry Regiment rest...

...next dogs trained to sniff for explosives at the Diyala media center in Diyala province August 6, 2008."

REUTERS/Andrea Comas

The Pentagon is No Longer Part of the Government

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