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The annals of “I’m not antivaccine,” part 17: More Nazis versus freedom!

oracknows — Tue, 05 May 2015 06:30:52 +0000

The annals of “I’m not antivaccine,” part 17: More Nazis versus freedom!

Every so often, real life intrudes on blogging. So it was last night when I had to go to a work-related meeting and didn't get back until late. Still, that means today's a perfect opportunity to do what I'm usually not very good at: A brief post. I've related time and time again how when antivaccinationists claim to be "pro-vaccine safety" or "pro-freedom" (the latter of which is the newest favorite meme used by antivaccine advocates to argue that they aren't antivaccine, or, as I call it, an antivaccine dog whistle), they're either deluding themselves or lying. I've pointed out how sometimes, in a perverse way, I almost respect antivaccinationists who actually come right out and say they're antivaccine, because at least they're being honest with themselves and the world. None of that stops me from deconstructing their nonsense, but you do have to sort of respect the honesty about that point, at least, even as you're ripping apart the intellectual dishonesty of their arguments against vaccine.

In the wake of the Disneyland measles outbreak earlier this year, several states are considering measures to tighten up the process for getting nonmedical exemptions to school vaccine mandates. The largest of these is, of course, California, with its SB 277, which would eliminate nonmedical vaccine exemptions. Not surprisingly, there's been a backlash among the antivaccine movement and its fellow travellers, such as conservatives who mistakenly conflate freedom with the freedom not to vaccinate their children.

Apparently, this backlash is leading to attempts at legislation:

Rep. David Sawicki, R-Auburn, is asking Maine lawmakers to approve a bill that would make it illegal to discriminate against any person who decides to forgo certain vaccinations.

Sawicki is the sponsor of LD 950, An Act to Prohibit Discrimination against a Person Who Is Not Vaccinated.

Sawicki said Monday that his bill is simple, in that if a person or the parent of a child decided against vaccinations for any reason, he or she could not be discriminated against by a school, employer or any other entity.

While Maine already allows for a “philosophical exemption,” Sawicki said his measure strengthens that and would make it difficult for the state to ever rollback that exemption.

“We are naturally born with a genius immune system, endowed by our creator, that has enabled the human race to grow and thrive over the eons,” Sawicki told the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee on Monday. “The immune system we are born with today has evolved and improved over the centuries as our environment and way of life has changed, and we have adapted. On the other hand, the existence of the vaccine business, relative to the existence of human beings, is but a tiny blip, 50 or so years.”

Sawicki said Mainers concerned that unvaccinated children might spread illness and disease in public schools shouldn’t worry if their children are vaccinated against the diseases they are worried about and they believe in vaccines.

The stupid, it burns.

I mean, seriously. Our immune system was so great that our children died like flies due to epidemics of infectious diseases and, as recently as 100 years ago, the deaths of children from diseases that are now preventable with vaccines were not uncommon and as recently as 60 years ago people lived in fear of polio. As for unvaccinated children being a threat to the vaccinated, once again, Mr. Sawicki apparently needs to be educated that no vaccine is 100% effective. Vaccinated children have less to worry about than unvaccinated children when coming in contact with the unvaccinated, but less is not "nothing." That's leaving aside the concept of herd immunity, which acts as a brake on the spread of disease.

Meanwhile, another legislator speaking in favor of the bill, Robert Foley, made the same argument, asking "“I know there are those who will argue that my choice not to vaccinate or to vaccinate under a different protocol somehow impacts their child’s health. But I ask you, how does my not vaccinating my child impose any risk to your child that you’ve chosen to vaccinate, if the vaccinations prevent the disease in the first place?”

See above for the answer.

Of course, Sawicki can't resist the usual analogy made by antivaccine activists:

He also said the idea that people could be forced to take a vaccine they don’t want conjured visions of “the horrors of Nazi Germany, forced sterilization, interment, execution and involuntary medical experimentation.”

Yes, because requiring children to be protected against vaccine-preventable diseases is just like forced sterilization, interment, execution, and involuntary medical experimentation. Does Sawicki realize just how offensive his analogy is, particularly to Jews?

Then, of course, there's the "informed consent" trope, which, as I have argued many times before, is really misinformed consent, in which the benefits of vaccination are vastly understated while the risks are massively overstated, to the point where nonexistent "risks" of vaccines, such as autism, are stated as though they are facts.

Same as it ever was...

oracknows Tue, 05/05/2015 - 02:30

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Orac, there's also the impact of the unvaccinated on those who have legitimate medical reasons that they cannot be vaccinated. I suppose Reps. Sawicki and Foley are fine with discriminating against the disabled and medically fragile.

Which brings to mind another group for whom that Nazi comparison is especially insulting: people with disabilities, who are often at increased risk of complications from diseases and who were also targeted by the Nazi programs.

Orac said:

Does Sawicki realize just how offensive his analogy is, particularly to Jews?

As a Jew myself I can confirm that this is indeed offensive.

I guess the 400 people a day who die from measles lack a God-given genius immune system.

Sawicki is the sponsor of LD950

Because LD50 is nowhere near toxic enough for modern politics.

The immune system we are born with today has evolved and improved over the centuries as our environment and way of life has changed, and we have adapted.

Centuries? Is this guy by any chance a creationist?

The Mainers who elected this oaf don’t seem all that “evolved”. Sawicki rather makes his own case for forced sterilization--only half kidding there. Besides we’ve done that here--no need to blame Nazis.

I guess the 400 people a day who die from measles lack a God-given genius immune system.

They're probably all pagans anyway.

Nothing like bringing every ignorant antivaxx trope into politics.

Delphine @#3. To be fair, those 400 are not pale Americans. /snark

LW: I don't think a creationist would use the word "evolved", refer to a small 'c' "creator', or aver that humans have been around for over a billion years ("eons"). If anything, Sawicki seems to think natural selection works awfully fast, as our immune system has allowed us to adapt to the environmental changes of the mere centuries since modern civilization and industrialization. I mean, we don't get smallpox anymore, right? ;-)

if there were more fundies in Maine, some wag could start circulating rumors Sawicki was a minion of hell sent to undermine true Christianity.

If it's any consolation, The Bangor Daily News seems to have run this story as 'quote without comment' click-bait for a liberal reader base they figured would be appalled by this dude, who is getting torched in comment after comment...

Quite the charmer, that Sawicki. He's a telemarketing management consultant, specializing in instituting trainng programs that "help his clients’ call center employees adopt new behaviors and sales techniques" that "often" lead to "sales performance improvements of over 50%".

Since the Democrats took control of the Whitehouse and Senate in 2008 we have seen them pursue a relentless agenda of big government control over too many aspects of our personal lives. Obamacare is an abomination that now has the federal government in control of our very bodies by virtue of healthcare regulations. What used to be a private relationship between you and your doctor is now a government controlled “benefit” where unelected government bureaucrats have a seat with you in the examination room, guiding how and what type of treatment your are allowed. For the first time in my life we have a president who actively ignores the religious freedom of American citizens by signing a bill that requires employers, including religious organizations and Catholic hospitals, to pay for birth control measures that directly conflict with their deep moral convictions... I believe big government is the antithesis of a vibrant free market economy. Why am I running? To champion free market principles and push forcefully back against a big government that’s out of money and out of control.

But he's for the legalization of marijuana, so at least Tim ought to find some thing to like in his vision of free-dumb.

I always get twichy about the unelected bureaucrats making decisions thing.

Really, it isn't like unelected MBA's at insurance companies desperate to tweak the bottom line just enough for this quarter so their investors don't flee to whomever they think will make them money this week haven't been in the examination room guiding how an what type of treatment you are allowed? Or how about your unelected employer deciding what medical care you are allowed, as men always ignore that birth control pills sometimes are used for medical necessity.

Last I checked we are still allowed to pay full price if no insurance on earth no matter who runs it won't pay for it.

Orac, there’s also the impact of the unvaccinated on those who have legitimate medical reasons that they cannot be vaccinated. I suppose Reps. Sawicki and Foley are fine with discriminating against the disabled and medically fragile.

Indeed, I do not see how this bill, if it becomes law, does not put the state in conflict with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The latter is a Federal law, so I see two possible outcomes. One is that the courts will nullify the state law as being in conflict with the Federal law. The other, which is a "be careful what you wish for" outcome, is that any school district in the state which has a medically exempt student in its boundaries will be required to pay for an out-of-district placement for that student, at a likely cost of tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars per affected student. Which is money the school districts (and taxpayers--Maine is one of the poorest states in the northeastern US) don't have.

I used to believe that people from Maine were relatively sane....this is beginning to make me re-think that particular opinion.

@ Lawrence:

Isn't Ginger Taylor from Maine?

Oh, for the uninitiated:

Ginger Taylor has a blog ( adventuresinautism.blogspot.com), works the Canary Party's facebook page, contributed and essay to' Vaccine Epidemic' and appears to be generally 'difficult' - not the best descriptor but I'm feeling generous today.

sadmar quotes: "What used to be a private relationship between you and your doctor is now a government controlled “benefit” where unelected government bureaucrats have a seat with you in the examination room, guiding how and what type of treatment your are allowed."
Yes, I remember that private relationship. It mostly consisted of "you can't pay the doctor, the doctor doesn't treat you".
Oh for the good old days.

Sawicki's Nazi analogy not only offends me as a Jew, but also as a polio survivor.
I hope he's an outdoorsman; when he gets bitten by a rabid wild animal we can all see how fast he howls for his rabies vaccine.

Lawrence @13 --

I used to believe that people from Maine were relatively sane

Well, they did elect Paul LePage to the governorship; Charlie Pierce refers to him as "human bowling jacket Paul LePage".

#9 Yes, of course. The thinly veiled bigotry of the anti-vax movement is not so thinly veiled after all. It's just a bunch of browns dying, no big whoop.

Ugh. To clarify, 61% of the electorate voted for someone other than LaPage. (I include myself in that group.) You don't need a majority of the vote to win the governorship in Maine.
Sawicki's an idiot.

@Denice

Yes, Ginger is from Maine.

Ginger Taylor and Laura Condon spend a lot of time (and NVIC funds) in Maine and NH, respectively.

Idiots, the both of them.

Damn, I had forgotten that was where they were from.....

“We are naturally born with a genius immune system, endowed by our creator, that has enabled the human race to grow and thrive over the eons,”

Yep, Creationist, or at least pandering for creationist votes.

"On the other hand, the existence of the vaccine business, relative to the existence of human beings, is but a tiny blip, 50 or so years.”

Apparently vaccines were only invented in the 1960s. Creationism compensates for any amount of knowing jack-sh1t.

We are naturally born with a genius immune system, endowed by our creator, that has enabled the human race to grow and thrive over the eons,”

Too bad that same creator also endowed pathogens with genius immune evasion mechanisms which have allowed them to sicken and kill humans over the eons. Honestly, you've got to wonder whose side the guy* is on.

*When someone invokes the "creator" in American politics it's safe to assume they're referring to the emphatically male Abrahamic god.

On the other hand, the existence of the vaccine business, relative to the existence of human beings, is but a tiny blip, 50 or so years.

I am even more impressed with Edward Jenner now. Fancy inventing vaccination 140 years after you died.

Although, that will probably not be difficult for a creationist to accept.

All I have to say is... Nope.

Just a quick question:

Does a genius immune system give you immunity to geniuses?

@ John

Does a genius immune system give you immunity to geniuses?

The way the creationists' genius immune system is interfering with their thinking, my guess would be it's monopolizing all the genious-ness of their body.

To be fair, our immune system is a genius, the way it's usually able to differentiate between true threats and harmless stuff (although it's basic modus operandi could be summed up as "tear down first, question later").

But anti-vaxers seem to think that if you are a genius, you don't need to go to school. With their obsession on "natural" immunity, they prefer their genius to lose time re-inventing the wheel all by itself.

What’s at stake in TSCA reform

egrossman — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 17:26:51 +0000

What’s at stake in TSCA reform

When negotiations over legislation to reform the 39-year-old Toxics Substance Control Act (TSCA) broke down this past fall, among the major points that remained unresolved were how a revised TSCA would treat state and other local chemicals management regulations and how – and under what timelines – the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would prioritize chemicals for safety review. As of early this year, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate have issued statements about their commitment to produce a bipartisan bill. Chemical industry trade associations and environmental health advocates have similarly expressed “cautious optimism” that legislation will be produced that Democrats, Republicans and other stakeholders can support.

As we wait for introduction of a new TSCA reform bill, on which Senators Tom Udall (D-NM) and David Vitter (R-LA) are expected to take the lead, The Pump Handle has decided to take a look at some of what’s at stake and revisit why the outcome matters to those who care about protecting and improving occupational and public health.

State vs. federal law

There has been some debate about how the language in the last draft of the Chemical Safety Improvement Act and its companion House bill, the Chemicals in Commerce Act, would actually play out with regard to state and local laws. But it was largely interpreted – including by numerous state legislators and attorneys general – to mean that the new legislation would change TSCA in a way that would effectively stop states from regulating chemicals independently of EPA and do so both retrospectively and prospectively. What the draft bills essentially said was that states could not regulate chemicals about which the EPA has made any type of determination – even if the federal agency decided not to regulate a chemical.

Putting arguments about the competing authority of federal and state law aside, here’s a reminder of why passions are running so high on this issue.

According to Safer States’ “bill tracker,” there are now at least 169 state chemical regulation bills that have been passed in at least 35 states. These include numerous laws that address chemicals and chemical uses that are not regulated under TSCA. Among these:

Connecticut’s ban on use of bisphenol A in receipt papers;
Maryland, Minnesota and Vermont’s bans on BPA in infant formula cans, and
Maryland and New York’s bans on use of chlorinated flame retardants known as TCEP and TDCPP in children’s products.

Other laws that could be affected by a TSCA state-preemption provision include Maine and Washington’s laws regarding “chemicals of concern” in children’s products. These require manufacturers to report on such chemical use and under certain circumstances include chemical phase-outs and substitution with safer alternatives. Other states – among them Connecticut, Florida, New York and Oregon – are now considering similar bills.

TSCA preemption could potentially affect California’s Proposition 65 – the state law that designates chemicals as carcinogens, reproductive and developmental toxicants and posts warnings on products and facilities where these substances are used. Such a provision could also affect California’s Safer Consumer Products Regulations – part of the state’s so-called “green chemistry” policy – that aims to replace hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives. The state is in the process of designating the regulations’ first chemical-product combinations that would be targeted for possible phase-out unless safer alternatives can be found.

For those not following this California process closely, the three sets of products selected for the round of “priority product” designation are children’s sleeping products containing the flame retardant TDCPP and two with obvious occupational health concerns: wet spray polyurethane foams with diisocyanates and paint and varnish removers containing methylene chloride – a powerful respiratory and neurotoxin that’s also been linked to birth defects and cancer.

How long will it take?

Currently, TSCA makes it very difficult for EPA to restrict – let alone ban – the use of any chemical. For example, the same diisocyanates – known as significant factors in occupational asthma – that would be covered by the California “priority product” designation are subject to an EPA TSCA “chemical action plan” which is taking years to develop. EPA started the process in 2011 when it released its methylene diphenyl diisocyanate work-plan. The original public comment period on it lasted a year. It was then extended until April 2014. Then in March 2014, the comment period was extended again and now closes on April 1, 2017. In contrast, California’s first “priority product” list is to be finalized this year.

Another example involves nonylphenols and nonylphenol ethoxylates. These chemicals have adverse consequences for the environment and human health, including those occurring through occupational exposure. Nonylphenols and nonylphenol ethoxylates are toxic to aquatic organisms, have been found in human biomonitoring studies and appear to have estrogenic and endocrine system effects. These compounds are used in commercial and other cleaning products, to “cure” epoxies, and as surfactants in numerous other industrial and commercial products, including dust-control and deicing products.

Maine has designated nonylphenols and nonylphenol ethoxylates as “priority chemicals” under its Safer Chemicals in Children’s Products law. While this does not restrict their use, it requires manufacturers to report to the state the names of products that contain these compounds. EPA’s action on nonylphenols and nonylphenol ethoxylates has languished. The agency released its “action plan” for the compounds in August 2010. This past September, EPA proposed a Significant New Use Rule for these compounds – a TSCA provision that would require manufacturers to notify EPA of any new uses – the comment period for which closed on January 15. Chemical manufacturers and companies that use these chemicals in their products are objecting to this proposal in part because they say EPA is attempting to address ongoing rather than new uses of these compounds. Whatever EPA’s response to these comments, it’s likely – if EPA’s past performance is any indication – that any action on these compounds will be further delayed.

EPA’s past performance with the TSCA “action plan” timelines also illustrate another objection that’s been raised to the draft TSCA reform bills most recently considered: the lack of effective deadlines under which EPA would be required to act on chemicals of concern, including chemicals with well-recognized health risks. Other issues that remain unresolved include consideration of vulnerable populations and handling of confidential business information.

Word among those following TSCA reform closely and those involved in these discussion on Capitol Hill, is that new legislation is expected this spring. In the meantime, at least 24 states have 71 new chemicals management bills under consideration.

Elizabeth Grossman is the author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health, and other books. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including Scientific American, Yale e360, Environmental Health Perspectives, Mother Jones, Ensia, Time, Civil Eats, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Salon and The Nation.

egrossman Mon, 02/02/2015 - 12:26

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Eruptions Word of the Day: Peperite

eklemetti — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 01:57:04 +0000

Eruptions Word of the Day: Peperite

Continuing my series where I try to define words of volcanic interest, the new Eruptions Word of the Day is a favorite of mine, mostly because my undergraduate thesis on Vinalhaven Island in Maine ended up dealing with a lot of these types of deposits ... so, without further ado, the word is peperite!

Now, what exactly is a "peperite"?

Well, a picture is worth 1,000 words, right (so that will save me some time):

Peperite in the Vinalhaven Diabase, Vinalhaven Island, Maine. Image by Erik Klemetti. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Let's make some observations:

The rock is full of red-to-black clasts of various sizes and shapes.
The clasts are almost all basaltic andesite in composition.
Some of the clasts look like they have a "chilled" margin, where hot molten material came into contact with colder material.
Some of the clasts look like you could piece them back together - as if they were shattered.
The material between them (the matrix) is mostly light grey/tan, looks to be fine grained.
On closer inspection, the matrix looks like mud or sand.
In some spots, the matrix looks "baked", like it was exposed to high temperatures.
In other spots, the matrix looks like it was squeezed into cracks and open spaces in the basaltic andesite clasts.

So, what does this suggest?
First off, it looks like sediment (the muddy matrix) is mixed with magma (basaltic andesite clasts). The chilled margins on the clasts and the baked areas of the sediment suggest that the magma was still hot and the sediment was cool (relatively speaking). This is supported by shattered clasts of basaltic andesite in the deposit (thermal shock). The sediment looks to have squeezed its way into spaces between clasts, so the sediment was likely not solid - unconsolidated sediment - and like wet, as mud should be. First order conclusion: It appears that hot basaltic andesite magma interacted with wet, unconsolidated muddy sediment.

And there you have it: peperite - magma interacting, sometimes explosively, with wet, unconsolidated sediment, producing a mixed rock with magmatic clasts and a sediment matrix.

The image above is from Vinalhaven Island in Maine, where the Siluro-DevonianVinalhaven Diabase, a thick basaltic andesite sill intruded the Seal Cove Formation (a sedimentary unit). Along the contact in places you find these peperites where the sill intruded into this wet sediment. This likely means that the sill was being intruded fairly shallowly in the crust as sediment begins to compact and loose pore water quickly as it is buried. Peperites have been recognized in locales all over the world and has been interpreted as one of the steps towards explosive hydrovolcanism - and experiments have been tried to recreate a peperite in the lab. There is some evidence that even lava flows on the surface can form peperite deposits as well. However, the thing to remember is that when you find peperites in the rock record, what you are seeing is evidence of shallow emplacement of magma in the crust where it can interact with wet, soft sediment - a current analog might be if magma intruded underneath Mono Lake in California or in the shallow seas along an oceanic arc like the Marianas or Tonga (think about the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha`apai eruption).

Another example of a peperite, courtesy of Highly Allochthonous.

And from where is the name "peperite" derived? It comes from the type locality of peperites, ~~Peper~~ Limagne d'Au- vergne region of central France, where the rocks reminded George Scropes in 1827 of ground pepper.

eklemetti Sun, 08/01/2010 - 21:57

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Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai

Eruptions Word of the Day

http://www.aip.de/thinkshop/posterpaper/mukherjee1.pdf

http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/8/12/7736/pdf

Interesting articles on the Sun/earthquake interface...

Looks nice. I'd like to have one in my aquarium.

Ah, one of the 'good rocks' of Home! : )

I've heard mention of the Sun-EQuake connection before, but it was only from the ... "excitable" community.

This should make for a good read later. Thanks.

Ref the word of the day, this one caught my attention. It's always a good thing when you learn something new and unique.

Is there a relationship between clast size and violence of the interaction?

@Paaerby from last thread: thanks for the references. I will have to get to them eventually. As for the wobble issue, I am not sure I was referring to it having anything to do with quakes or eruptions. I think it is an interesting feature that happens, but I don't know of any relationship to quakes or eruptions. It may or may not and I don't think we even have an idea what the wobble (or wobbles)do to the magnetic field or the earth itself. I can see why there would be some angst about it if it stopped. That is probably just because we don't have a full understandin of it. I would suppose it has done that before when no one was able to notice.

I find this stuff interesting rather than scary or having some kind of import about what is going to happen.

OOPS! That is supposed to be "Passerby" above! I think my computer is playing games with me. :-}

Seems like peperites (fairly mafic magma intruding wet sediments at shallow depth) ought to have some connection to maar formation (often fairly mafic magma interacting with wet sediments at shallow depth) Are there cases where the presence of peperites could be used to infer the likely former presence of a maar at the surface, a volcanic landform which can sometimes be rapidly destroyed by other geological processes?

(OT) Regarding mixing of magma... "Eruptive characteristics of Oregon's Mount Hood analyzed" http://www.physorg.com/news199976527.html

@8 - I'll have more to say about Hood in the nearish future (especially considering I helped collect some of the samples used in that study!)

Where is Peper in France?

Google maps seems to have never heard of it! If anyone can help out here I would appreciate it.

VMJC - Thanks for catching that mistake, I misinterpreted the origin. It is now fixed!

Wikipedia explains the name to be because of the look of the stone (black pepper) and the original region to be Limagne region of France.

Lacustrine means 'lake environment'. In this case, it refers to limestones that formed in

Perpite originates from the Gergovie Volcanic Complex.
The Gergovie plateau is a plateau of the Massif Central Auvergne.

A quickie look at Wikipedia for peperite affords a reference to the LeMagne Trench.

Further lookup on Wiki gives us the LiMagne Plain in the Massif Central (Central France).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MC_Limagnes.jpg

Volcanism accompanied the rifting and continued into the Pleistocene. The sediments deposited in the basin are affected by numerous intrusions. The area was the first where peperites were described, from a basaltic intrusion into lacustrine limestone.

The reference can be read through Google Books.

gitelink.com/auvergne/departments.htm

'The "Puy de Dome" in the middle - largely mountainous, but with a large fertile agricultural plain, the Limagne, in the middle, to the east of Clermont Ferrand. '

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gergovie_plateau

Type locality would be the plain or town of Gergovie, located in the commune (county) of La_Roche-Blanche
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Roche-Blanche_%28Puy-de-D%C3%B4me%29.

Sedimentation episodes that formed the limestones mentioned above, but truncated to point to general locale first.

Clarification of the LiMagne Plain and Gergovie volcanic complex:

Morphostructural evolution of the Gergovie Lower Miocene volcano-sedimentary system : geodynamical implications on the late-tectonic Limagne rift (Massif central, France).
Canadian J. Earth Sci. (2008). 45(6):641-650.

Abstract: The Gergovie plateau is a Lower Miocene topographically inverted volcano-sedimentary system located in the monogenetic volcanic field of the Limagne rift Tertiary basin. It is composed of three east-west aligned maars partly covered by a basaltic lava flow. The eruption of the central maar (maar 1) occurred at the Oligocene-Miocene transition, during the first volcanic phase.

This phreatomagmatic structure was almost totally cut through by the opening of a second maar (maar 2) during the next eruptive phase. The basaltic lava flow at the summit and the eastern maar (maar 3) were placed during a third and last eruptive phase during the Middle or Upper Burdigalian (similar to 19-16 Ma).

Between these periods of volcanism, three fluvial to fluviolacustrine sedimentation episodes, separated by two erosive stages, followed one another. A bedrock thickness of 100-300 m was eroded from maar 2 during the upper Aquitanian and (or) the lower Burdigalian (similar to 22-19 Ma). This erosion is partly due to a volcano-tectonic uplift in the southern Limagne.

The complex morphostructural evolution of the Gergovie plateau demonstrates the north-south geodynamic differentiation of the Limagne rift during the Lower Miocene, since the northern part of the basin corresponded to a relatively calm lacustrine sedimentation area. More generally, the Miocene volcanic field in the South of the Limagne gives an opportunity to study interactions between volcanism, tectonics, and erosion during the late passive rifting activity phase.

Above post also made to answer Mike Don's question.

Is "Peperite" an internationally recognised term? The International Union of Geological Sciences Subcommission on the Systematics of Igneous Rocks* refers to "Peperite" as a "local term" but does not give the locality, nor a recognised scientific name other than "a tuff or breccia" (formed by the intrusion of magma into wet sediments). Obviously, there is a need for a specific name for this type of rock as "Vinalhaven Island peperite" is far more succinct than "the tuff (or breccia) formed by the intrusion of magma into wet sediments found at Vinalhaven Island, Maine". However, the name is not officially recognised by the International Union of Geological Sciences?

* Le MaÃ®tre, R. W. et al. (Eds.). Igneous Rocks: A Classification and Glossary of Terms: Recommendations of the International Union of Geological Sciences Subcommission on the Systematics of Igneous Rocks p.126, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002

space.com northern lights show sun waking up http://www.space.com/scienceastronamy/sun-eruption-aurora-activity-1008…
and found this also shift an pole reversal http://survive2012.com/index.php/geryl-pole-shift.html

@leon [16]

Dunno how wakey wakey the sun is...

http://i37.tinypic.com/f5gqu.png

A CME does not make a highly active sun. They happen all the time. We just happen to have been in the bore sight of this one.

And now that some sources are starting to use the Solar Dynamics Observatory with it's much greater resolving power, you have to wonder just how skewed the reported and official sunspot numbers are going to be. This was not available for most of the observations (1749 to 2010.) How do reconcile the Sunspot Number with new equipment with old data? In fact, there are some people who take exception to some of the "sun specks" that have been reported as full on "spots."

www.landscheidt.info

Either way, the plot that I made uses the SIDC count, which is accepted as the internationally recognized "official" count. And with that, you can see that cycle 24 is a bit behind the power curve.

BTW, the first of 2 CME's hit at 1730 UT today. Iceland's earthquake count responded with indifference. So far, it looks like that idea presented in the paper www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/8/12/7736/pdf is worth a good airplane or two.

(The author didn't really present anything to support his argument other than cherry picking a quake here or there... and you know how plentiful they are)

@17 lurking, thanks for that yeah looking at one of your links above i came across 'A massive winter heading for the Northern hemisphere?/planetary theory moves' which is linked to solar activity being low and your graphs shows this, so does the PDO. were we going in to a La'nina and a continued one, according to this site-Joe Bastardi from accuweather.com is an avid follower of this site is also predicting the same cooling trend.he also adds the possible cooling effects that could result from impending volcanic eruptions,and to expect conditions similar to the little ice age[1250-1850] http://www.landscheidt.info/?q=node/189 and looking at my weather world temp map [weatheronline he right you clearly see the drop happening except the Atlantic which will do in the near month or so when the hurricanes carry all that heat and spread that all out.so much media on global warming when in fact we just coming or have already come out of a strong El nino moving to La nina phrase. 'global warming v global cooling' we have to see who right

Not really a strong El Nino either. The press tends to like to toss "strong" "above normal" "greater than expected" and other such modifiers to various things.

Recently, a phenomena known as El NiÃ±o "Modoki" or Central-Pacific El NiÃ±o has been discovered. And, as regular as clockwork "the new El NiÃ±o leads to more hurricanes more frequently making landfall in the Atlantic." And yet 2010 is another year with a very late "first named storm." On average, from 1995 to 2008, the First Named Storm occurred by 16 Jun. In 2009, it formed 11 August. In 2010, 25 June saw the formation of Alex which immediately headed for the speed bump known as the Yucatan. The season so far seems a bit anemic to me. It doesn't mean that it wont become worse later in the year, but the predictions of a highly active season seem to be as wrong as it is every year.

So, when you see a headline like

"El Nino Modoki a Climatic Hybrid for 2009-2010
Winter Weather Forecast Predicts Hurricanes, Rain, and Flooding"

You have to sit back and think to yourself "Okay..."

but 1998 was record El Nino and 2007 2nd strongest El Nino i need more time on this i get to this later very complex stuff

Tough things about records. They only apply for the period that the data was being collected.

That's right back to that tree in the forest thing.

With ENSO (also referred to as the El Nino / El Nina thing or any variety of Multidecadal Oscillations), some weather guessers/analysts/prognosticators have noted what appears to be a step pattern to the heat flow as it progresses further and further north.

I dug around trying to find the link, but was unsuccessful. I ran across it while reading some of Bob Tisdale and Anthony Watts' post at Watts Up with That.

bobtisdale.blogspot.com/2009/04/misunderstandings-about-pdo-revised.html

wattsupwiththat.com/2009/04/28/misunderstandings-about-the-pacific-decadal-oscillation/

Alternatively, Passerby posted a fascinating link that references El Nino/El Nina as it relates to Earth's rotational momentum:

http://www.examiner.com/x-17371-Raleigh-Climate-Examiner~y2009m8d30-Atm…

Passerby: Thanks for that info. Only just got back to checking this topic, hence delay in reply, sorry.

Impossibly kindly and want upon the significance of brio

There is an exception to every rule

I went to the physician and he mentioned that he doesnât do that kind of factor. Iâm just a little over 200 pounds it wasnât like i was asking for bypass surgery but i he couldnât do something for me. So which type of physician do you imply, i just have to have somewhat guidance/help and i was turned away, so iâm so confused now.

Shish Boom Bam

awild — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:27:12 +0000

Shish Boom Bam

While googling about for the latest CD by the Rustic Overtones (Light at the End), I discovered that copies of Shish Boom Bam are now selling for as high as $350. Shish is the crappy old recording from 1994 when I used to play trumpet with the band, back when R.O. were all rosy-cheeked teenagers. Apparently the green jewel case is something of a collector's item. Now I can't even remember where I've put my single remaining copy.

awild Thu, 04/17/2008 - 09:27

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A Tribute to Two-Toned Lobsters and Friends

zooillogix — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:24:00 +0000

A Tribute to Two-Toned Lobsters and Friends

Two-tone lobsters are rare, only about 1 in 50 million share this mutation. They would be wise to increase the frequency of this variation however as it inevitably saves the little guy from the pot. Lobster shells have three primary pigment colors, red, yellow and blue. Occasionally lobsters lack one or more of these colors and because the two sides of a lobster shell develop independently, startling two-tone specimens are possible. Their less fortunate plain-Jane family members turn red in the pot because the heat frees the red pigment molecules, uncoiling them from the dark protein chains that typically keep them under wraps.

Blue lobsters are more common than two-toned lobsters. Their frequency is about 1:1 million

White lobsters actually taste like coconut!

Two-tone lobster video

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zooillogix Tue, 06/05/2007 - 08:24

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