Boom Boom in Japan

Mt. Kirishima on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu started erupting yesterday. The pictures are quite dramatic.

I've never been to that part of Japan but it's all still interesting. I've noted the location of the volcano on the map below:

Perspective

Someone posted this yesterday and I just want to hold on to it for reference.

Time Magazine – March 31, 1980:

“National opinion polls continue to show Carter leading Reagan by an apparently comfortable margin of about 25%. They also show that more moderate Republicans like Ford would run better against the President. This suggests that Reagan is not the strongest G.O.P. choice for the November election and that he clearly faces an uphill battle.”

“Party operatives are plainly unhappy with his selection. In Massachusetts, where both Bush and Anderson defeated Reagan, party leaders are not yet reconciled to the Reagan candidacy. Says one: “There’s a vacuum of leadership at the national level; and what appears to be the Republican Party’s response? A 69-year-old man who has done virtually nothing for years”

“Reagan has a history of committing rhetorical blunders that drive away voters. His quest in 1976 was damaged when he suggested vaguely, without proper research and consideration, that $90 billion in federal programs should be turned back to the states. He then spent months explaining that the affected programs would not be eliminated, only transferred. As Governor, Reagan was outraged by student unrest and once proclaimed: “The state of California has no business subsidizing intellectual curiosity.”

“Worse perhaps than the verbal gaffe is Reagan’s relentlessly simple-minded discussion of complex problems. He is aware that he is charged with this failing, and in his 1967 inaugural address on becoming Governor of California, he asserted: “We have been told there are no simple answers to complex problems. Well, the truth is there are simple answers, just not easy ones.”

Electoral College:

Reagan: 489
Carter: 49

Earthquakes in Arkansas

Someone posted that about 40 minor earthquakes have occured in the last three months centered around the town of Guy, Arkansas. It may be nothing, but it could be a contributing factor to the bird and fish kills.

Cincinnati, Arkansas, which had the tornado that killed several people, is just off the north edge of this map. It's about 10 miles NW of Prairie Grove (up by the little man at the top of the zoom bar).

Earthquake Last Week

On Dec. 30, I felt my first earthquake since a minor tremor ran through Hartford, CT over eight years ago. The earthquake was a 3.8 mag centered about 5 miles SE of Greentown, IN.

Not a huge quake by any stretch of the imagination but it did strike up some old feelings when it passed through. We we still waking up when it hit just before 8 am. It took a second to realize that it was not the wind shaking the house and a bunch of old memories of Japan and California came rushing back.

It's not something I care to repeat as houses in this area are not well equiped to handle earthquakes but it made for an interesting memory rush over the Christmas holidays.