Japan’s earthquake shifted balance of the planet

Last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan has actually moved the island closer to the United States and shifted the planet's axis.

The quake caused a rift 15 miles below the sea floor that stretched 186 miles long and 93 miles wide, according to the AP. The areas closest to the epicenter of the quake jumped a full 13 feet closer to the United States, geophysicist Ross Stein at the United States Geological Survey told The New York Times.

The world's fifth-largest, 8.9 magnitude quake was caused when the Pacific tectonic plate dove under the North American plate, which shifted Eastern Japan towards North America by about 13 feet (see NASA's before and after photos at right). The quake also shifted the earth's axis by 6.5 inches, shortened the day by 1.6 microseconds, and sank Japan downward by about two feet. As Japan's eastern coastline sunk, the tsunami's waves rolled in.

Why did the quake shorten the day? The earth's mass shifted towards the center, spurring the planet to spin a bit faster. Last year's massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile also shortened the day, but by an even smaller fraction of a second. The 2004 Sumatra quake knocked a whopping 6.8 micro-seconds off the day.

After the country's 1995 earthquake, Japan placed high-tech sensors around the country to observe even the slightest movements, which is why scientists are able to calculate the quake's impact down to the inch. "This is overwhelmingly the best-recorded great earthquake ever," Lucy Jones, chief scientist for the Multi-Hazards project at the U.S. Geological Survey, told The Los Angeles Times.

The tsunami's waves necessitated life-saving evacuations as far away as Chile. Fisherman off the coast of Mexico reported a banner fishing day Friday, and speculated that the tsunami knocked sealife in their direction.

No Way

There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Obama had the CIA create the disaster in Chile, to put TV focus on Chile, and not on the political races. During that blackout, there has been quite a "swing" in the political races. Democrats have made tremendous gains during this time.

This can be attributed to "early voting arranging," and other "alterations" in changing the results.

Arrangements had been made to have Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Reid be the last two rescuers out, but the rescue schedule, according to Obama, "due to Democratic efficiency," was executed  much faster than originally anticipated. Obama thought it would be a "political coup" to have Nancy shown to the world as the brainchild of the entire operation, and the rescue "facilitator."

Air Force One was on its way to Chile with many incumbent Democrats office holders on aboard, but was diverted back to Washington when Obama's plans were shattered by an efficiently run rescue operation, orchestrated by the Chilean Government.

As Air Force One was navigating a slow 180 degree turn, to head them North, Obama was overheard saying, "They are really good, I wish I was Chilean, hey, maybe I am."

Some Thoughts on Socialism

I have been wondering how Socialism has so quietly entered our nation. There is not one person in the last fifty years who has been at the helm of the Socialist Ship. It has somehow just slowly entered port, anchored, and is gradually sending their crew ashore. I remember one comment that Norman Thomas made when he quite running for President as a Socialist. "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." We are getting close.

Why do the socialists, instead of using economic methods to solve an economic question, organize themselves into a political party? To answer this question, we must first see what the State is and what relation it holds to the economic conditions. Gabriel Deville defines the State thus: "The State is the public power of coercion created and maintained in human societies by their division into classes, a power which, being clothed with force, makes laws and levies taxes." As long as the economically dominant class retain full possession of this public power of coercion they are able to use it as a weapon to defeat every attempt to alter the economic structure of society. Hence every attempt to destroy economic privilege and establish Industrial Democracy inevitably takes the form of a political class struggle between the economically privileged class and the economically exploited class.

Robert Rives La Monte

Being old, I am not concerned about myself, but I look down at little Brooklyn Jean Dilts, who is in her early months of life, and I wonder what is ahead for her. Will she ever really know true freedom, or will she be dependent upon the government to arrange her life for her.

Is it possible that in my lifetime I will see an end to life as we once knew it. Life in the 30's, the war of the 40's, the turmoil of the 50's and 60's, and into the end of the century. Is it possible that all of the technical advances, and there have been many, will eventually make it easier for a new way of life to come about?

If you wanted to communicate with someone in the 30's, you perhaps had to somehow, see them personally, ride a bike, a horse, walk. Now you can communicate with the world, and never move an inch. Does all of this technology leave us without the ability  to reason and think. If a question arises, Google it. I remember walking to the library at times to answer questions.

I hope there is an awakening before it is too late.

The Bridge Builder

I was asked to post this again ... one of my favorites. I first heard it back in the mid 40's, probably 1944 at the Great Lakes Naval Station in Chicago. We were visiting my Brother Dean Shannon Dooley, who had graduated from DePauw University, and was going through a V-12 Program at Great Lakes. This poem was a part of the Sermon delivered by the Chaplain that Sunday morning. We also heard Eddy Peabody, the Banjo King play at the service.

THE BRIDGE BUILDER


An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim-
That sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned, when he reached the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You are wasting strength in building here.
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way.
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head.
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."

-WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE

Great time to be alive

Strange world we live in. Saturday afternoon in Ohio, a little before one, watching the weather channel.

Earthquake in Chile, apparently not as bad as the one in Haiti, but an 8.8,that seems bad, but the death count is low. The Tsunami is scheduled for Hawaii around 4, so don't want to miss that.

Watching some coverage of the blizzard in the Eastern part of the US. We are hopefull, here in Ohio of setting a new snowfall record for February.

Wow, the 8.8 is one of the 5 highest ever in recorded history. Are we living in a great time, or what.

OK, 11:05, Hawaiian time is now the time for the Tsunami.

People in Haiti are complaining that many of the TV crews are leaving for Chili and Hawaii.

Rumor has it that the networks are scrapping the bottom of the barrel to come up with crews to send out, with the Olympics, Haiti, blizzard, they are thin on personnel to send out for disasters.

One NBC exec was quoted as saying, "I wish these damn disasters could be scheduled a little better, why couldn't we have an earthquare and a Tsunami in Iraq or Iran or Afganistan, we've already got crews there. I just gave a graveyard shift janitor a camera and made him a camerman to go out with a weatherman to cover Chili. When I mentioned Chili, he thought he was going to Mexico. "

The weather channel just announed that March is going to be colder than usual, and people in Hawaii are moving inland.

And, In Canada, Wiinter Olypics, it is now raining and foggy. I remember I was in Reno when they had the '60 Olympics out there, same problem, Warm, no snow. A reporter interviewed one of the officials, asking him about the gigantic parking lot of ice, made over the Truckee River. "What will happen if this warm weather and rain continues?"

"Well, we will get to see about 5000 cars floating down the Truckee Riiver."

And if all of this is not bad enough, we have politicians in Washington. And they think an 8.8 can do damage.