According to a Navy spokesperson I spoke with, the 11th hour decision to keep data flowing from the three weather satellites was due to critical feedback it received. A testament that our voices and concerns do very much matter. My full afternoon update ??
— Michael Lowry (@michaelrlowry.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 4:34 PM
===
Today's earthquake east–southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia is now estimated to be magnitude 8.8.
The white dots in this pic are the historic quakes in the region, along the Pacific plate as it subducts under the North American plate.
This quake is the most powerful on Earth since 2011.— Paul Byrne (@theplanetaryguy.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 9:58 PM
===
The energy released in a M8.7 quake is equivalent to that of a 169 megatonne nuclear weapon
— Paul Byrne (@theplanetaryguy.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 8:36 PM
===
Japan downgrades its last remaining tsunami alert but tsunami advisories remain in place for its Pacific coast. Follow AP's live updates.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) July 30, 2025 at 8:08 AM
===
Honestly, this 8.8-mag quake and tsunami seems a fabulous demonstration of the capabilities that the US, Japan, and others have marshalled to protect their citizens.
This doesn't just exist. It has to be built and maintained.— Paul Voosen (@voosen.me) July 30, 2025 at 7:01 AM
RepubAnon
I’m sure the Doggy Bros will try to defund this program, or privatize it.
Suzanne
100%. And I will note that part of maintaining it is growing the pipeline. Free or very low-cost public universities are how we make the people and research that make this possible.
Kirk
They have eaten our seed corn.
Scout211
Update for the California Coast.
Trollhattan
Enough energy to power 2, maybe 3 AI server farms.
mali muso
@Kirk: Worse…they didn’t even eat it, just burned it up. No benefit to anyone even in the short term. Just senseless waste, loss and sabotage of the future. :(
Trollhattan
@Scout211: Crescent City has a history with tsunamis. Lots of escape route signage. Hilo as well.
Sister Golden Bear
@Scout211: Here in the Bay Area, we’re still under a tsunami advisory until 1:30 p.m. Fortunately, the local area only got roughly a foot or so.
But there are specific areas that are more vulnerable due to terrain that magnifies the effects. E.g. Santa Cruz Harbor got hit hard after the huge earthquake in Japan that caused a major tsunami a few years ago.
Worth noting that tsunamis aren’t just a single wave—they’ve got the equivalent of aftershocks of an earthquake—so the biggest danger now is from swinging water levels and the strong currents they generate.
bbleh
Was kinda hoping maybe this was the long-awaited awakening of Cthulu, who then would storm up the Potomac to wreak vengeance upon the despoilers of the Earth, but I guess this’ll do …
HinTN
@Sister Golden Bear:
The recent damage to the pier was just from “regular old waves” amplified by the geography, right?
laura
Well this gal had planned to take the Golden Gate Ferry to SF today because the Mekons are playing tonight, but we’re going by train instead in case of service interruption. Stay safe and upland west coasters.
I hope Betty Cracker has a swell time today, playing hooky and going swimming.
WTFGhost
“…and no, Mr. Turnipresident, it still won’t disrupt a hurricane. But it might destroy a himicane.”
(That gives them a solid week before Trump figures out that “himicane” is an answer to an old children’s riddle, “why do they only give hurricanes female names?” back when they only gave them female-gendered names – “because they’re not called HIMicanes, they’re called HER-icanes”)
NotMax
On Maui,
WTFGhost
@laura: Giggles at thoughts of Tom Sawyer getting in trouble for going swimming, because he forgot which color thread his Aunt Polly used for his collar… is he tempting the nice Betty Cracker away from her duties, as well, promising to go bird watching while swimming? Poor Tom would probably spend half the time with his ornithology book, trying to look up different varieties of mosquitos and palmetto bugs.
sab
My satby rescue bonded pair is now fully integrated into the household of five other cats. Upstairs most of the time. Girl cat is my new favorite. Boy cat (big as an ocelot) sleeps on top of the fridge when he isn’t sleeping on the bathroom counter.
Both of them have realized that the pitbull is harmless and loves cats.
ETA We have a one storey house with a basement. Upstairs means in the house. Downstairs means in the basement
ETA Boy cat loves my husband. Girl cat still afraid of him for no reason other than he is large and male and loud.
Scout211
Sea lions jump into sea in a panic as earthquake strikes
lowtechcyclist
@bbleh:
OTOH, now Federal workers who are so inclined can proselytize to their co-workers about the glory of Cthulhu, Eater of Souls.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@RepubAnon:
The playbook (that’s used by plenty on the nominal left side of the aisle as well):
1-Usher in austerity to cut off resources to public goods and services
2-Induce a crisis or use a natural disaster/phenomena to distract public while deregulating and stripping away from social safety net
3-Privatize public goods and services
At it’s core, it’s always about stripping public assets to the private sector can replace it’s functions for profit.
The massive asteroid strike can’t happen soon enough.
sab
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: The thing is, private sector won’t fund public good, so public services privatized will inevitably degrade.
See UK for evidence.
Kristine
@Trollhattan: I recall the tsunami signage in Cannon Beach OR. It’s a beautiful place, but I took a photo of it from the Ecola State Park and my god it is so tiny and right on the beach. Not sure how big a wave it could survive.
Steve LaBonne
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: The asteroid’s gotta get paid first.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@sab:
You’re preaching to the choir. It’s just more trickle-down, Reaganomic crap that a large chunk of “our side” firmly believes in and peddles nonstop under all kinds of different labeling.
They always lead off with “it saves money” or “it’ll be more efficient than those slothful gubmint workers” when outsourcing services and it *always* costs the governmental entity more than if they simply staffed up internally.
The outsourcing mindset is “I don’t have to worry about this, vendor X will solve this problem for me” which almost certainly means getting screwed. You need to get every detail into the contract, and spend almost as many hours riding them to deliver on everything to your substantive satisfaction.
Outsourcing firms throw (relatively) cheap bodies at tasks, they deploy resources stupidly and haphazardly according to their profit motive, and they live in a world where running up the bill, not delivering a working system, is the end goal.
I’ve been following blogger Trenz Pruca for a gazillion years and he once summed it up perfectly:
The outsourcing of governmental *services* is the road to tyranny. Every time you contract away the public good to a for-profit company democracy dies.
It’s about blatantly drumming up (creating an environment) of public frustration to push for further cuts and eventual privatization.
Miss Bianca
@laura:
The Mekons! Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long, long time…they are still together and playing?!
laura
@Miss Bianca: yes they are and I am stoked. If there’s a small to moderate temblor in the city tonight, it’s just me shaking my old fat ass
New album too: mekons.bandcamp.com/album/horror
satby
@sab: You did a great job letting them acclimate!
JetsamPool
@Sister Golden Bear: The tsunami wave train is ongoing and will continue for some hours yet.
The coverage I’m seeing now emphasizes the danger of currents generated by wave train.
Mr. Bemused Senior
This is what people ignore all too often. The decision about whether to employ outside resources must include allocating internal people to specify the requirements carefully and ride herd on a contractor.
This is a slight exaggeration. A reputable contractor cares about results, if only for its own reputation. Yet there are always people who are willing to take your money and fail to deliver. Watching out for that is part of the price you have to pay.
One more point: choosing to use outside help gives up on growing internal resources. This may be justified but is also often overlooked
[ETA yes, I’m a consultant.]
Trollhattan
@Scout211: Whatever sealionese is for “Oh, Fuck!” it’s memorialized on that video.
Belafon
dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/30/2335803/-Trump-administration-steps-up-its-heinous-war-on-trans-peopl…
Citizen_X
@Scout211: Headline nitpicks: They may be “frantic,” but “panicking?” It actually looks like a pretty orderly evacuation. I don’t see anyone going in the wrong direction, big bulls smashing others out of the way, or anything like that.
I mean, schoolteachers could use it as an example. “You don’t see the sea lions running into each other, do you? Think of that next time we do a fire drill.”
Cheryl from Maryland
@lowtechcyclist: If I weren’t retired, I would do it. I did Tarot card readings for fun during lunch hour at my Federal job until I predicted TWO DIVORCES (was vague, as in “this card heralds potential issues in your personal life”) and was asked to cease and desist by my peers. Supervisors never knew.
Soprano2
I know this to be true from my own experience, but it’s hard to convince John Q. Public that this is true because they’ve been fed a steady diet of the idea that public employees are lazy and wasteful. Nothing is more wasteful than a contractor making sure they get every penny of the contract, plus maybe they can go over and get a change order! They don’t try to save any money unless they know they can’t get any more out of you, and how much they even care about the result depends on the contractor.
There are times when a contractor is the right decision – a one-time project that needs expertise that you don’t have in-house, for example, or if you need to get something done fast. We’ve contracted out a lot of repairs because it’s a lot faster for the contractor to do them than for us to do them. It’s probably more expensive, it’s a trade-off.
ETA – I just thought of a hilarious example of how a contractor isn’t always all they think they’re cracked up to be. For three years we’ve had one developing an algorithm for our cleaning program so we can get more order to it than we’ve had previously. They had to do some tweaking, but said in July it was ready to implement. In the initial implementation meeting where we actually did some stuff, we found at least two things they had done that needed to be fixed! It was funny, in a sad kind of way.
Geoduck
What would be a better topic for round the clock coverage? It’s the one thing the Shiatgibbon doesn’t want discussed.