July 13, 2015

Bay Area ocean temperatures 5 degrees warmer

Nate Wells, 40, has surfed San Francisco’s Ocean Beach for 26 years and braved waters so cold his skin tingled and hurt. Surfing in Northern California typically requires a thick wetsuit, a hood and booties, but riding the waves last Friday, Wells wore a lightweight 3/2-millimeter suit and was hot and uncomfortable.

“The guy surfing next to me was wearing a heavy-weight 4/3 suit and he was flushed, red and sweating,” Wells, who grew up in the city and now lives in Lafayette, told SFGate. “I didn’t even need to wear my booties.”

Local surfers aren’t the only ones noticing the warmer ocean waters along the Bay Area coastline. Meteorologist Steve Anderson says his team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Monterey office has recorded temperatures that are on average 5 degrees higher than usual for this time of year over the past week.

This temperature pattern is extending from San Francisco to Monterey, while ocean temperatures throughout the rest of the state remain normal.

http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2015/07/07/why-are-bay-area-ocean-temperatures-5-degrees-warmer/

July 13, 2015

Fox News Host: God blessed America is because we know how to smoke a pork butt.

Fox News radio host Todd Starnes over the weekend delivered a sermon encouraging Christians to fight back against same-sex marriage and transgender equality.

Speaking to Abilene Baptist Church in Augusta on Sunday, Starnes began by saying it was good to be back in the South where it was easy to find Waffle House and Chick-fil-A restaurants, which he argued was “the official chicken of Jesus.”

“I believe that the reason that God blessed America is because we know how to smoke a pork butt,” Starnes said, turning to the recent Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized same-sex marriage.

“There is a war on religious liberty!” he bellowed. “And this war is not targeting people of the Muslim faith or the Jewish faith or the Hindu faith. This war on religious liberty is targeting people of the Christian faith.”


http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/watch-fox-host-deliver-unhinged-anti-lgbt-sermon-chick-fil-a-is-the-official-chicken-of-jesus/

July 13, 2015

Politico: The campaign might be lost even before the GOP picks a nominee.

PERSONAL NOTE: For all the talk of Sarah Palin and the financial crises in 2008, the ultimate outcome was decided by the end of 2007, and the above factors plus Obama's historic election made only served to make it a blowout.


The end of the 2016 presidential election is actually much closer than you might think.

In every game there are decisive moments that determine the ultimate outcome. We like to think that presidential elections are dramatic fall campaigns pitting party against party, but the truth is that the most decisive moments often occur long before the general election kicks off. If history is any guide, the outcome of next year’s presidential campaign will likely be determined before the Republican Party has even selected their nominee. That uncomfortable fact means that the longer and more divisive the Republican primary, the less likely the party will be to win back the White House in 2016.

In eight out of the last nine presidential elections these decisive periods of time can all be traced back to the run up to the general election—not the fall campaign. With the exception of the 2000 election—which was an outlier on every front—voters locked in their attitudes about the direction of the country, the state of their own well-being and the presidential candidates—and their political party—prior to the start of the general election. Once voters’ views solidified, subsequent campaign events or activities simply served to reinforce their initial perceptions about the candidate and party best prepared to lead the country.

In general, the job approval ratings of the incumbent president, regardless of whether they are running for reelection, serve as a proxy for the electorate’s mood and have historically been the most accurate predictor of election outcomes. And the public’s view of the state of the economy and its expectations for the future are the strongest drivers of the job approval ratings of the sitting president. Since 1980 there have been five presidential elections where the incumbent had a job approval rating near or above 50 percent prior to the start of the general election. In each of these elections, the incumbent’s party won the election. In the three instances when the incumbent president’s job approval fell below 40 percent prior to the start of the general election, their party lost each time.


http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/the-end-of-the-2016-election-is-closer-than-you-think-119947.html#ixzz3fjjrlvdP

July 12, 2015

Deadpool Comic Con Footage Leaked (VIDEO)

https://vid.me/DVtz

July 11, 2015

Could someone help me confirm my recollection of seeing movies in the 70's?

I was talking to someone about seeing Star Wars: A New Hope as a small kid in 1977 and, as I remember it, we had to wait until December to see it in Detroit (I'll never forget standing in the cold). I told the person who is a bit longer than me that movies did not debut nationwide at once, but rather "travelled" from one market to the next. Was I correct in saying this?

July 11, 2015

Original Speedster 'Jay Garrick' Is Coming To Season Two Of THE FLASH

Comic Book Resources bring word from the San Diego Comic-Con that original Flash Jay Garrick is indeed set to make an appearance in season two of The Flash. Geoff Johns confirmed that it will happen during the DC Page To Screen panel (there were sadly no comments about reports that he's writing a solo Batman movie with Ben Affleck), telling those in attendence that the helmet showing up in The Flash was much more than just an Easter Egg. In fact, he's coming to the show!

"That's not an Easter egg, that's a story point," Johns said of its appearance. "We're going to see Jay." That's obviously huge news and something many fans suspected would happen in season two of The CW series. What kind of role he's going to play is a mystery at this point, but that helmet showing up definitely seems to be an indication that Jay Garrick will have his speed powers when we meet him (presumably from another timeline or dimension). What do you guys think?




http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=122675

July 10, 2015

Massive El Niño growing in California, say models

SACRAMENTO — There is growing evidence California could see an even stronger El Niño event this winter than the 1997 one that caused massive flooding across Northern California.

Stunning images from Japan's Himawari 8 Weather Satellite, just activated Tuesday, show what could

"Almost all models are showing consistency that we're seeing a stronger and stronger tendency for that to hold in place through the winter season. It could rival that of 1997," News10-KXTV Chief Meteorologist Monica Woods said.

In recent days, cyclones and typhoons, including one mammoth storm heading toward China with cloud cover the size of Texas, have helped shift the trade winds from west to east, pushing warm sub-surface water toward the coast of South America and making it all but certain an El Niño event will last at least through the fall.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/07/09/el-nino-california/29921633/

July 9, 2015

Amy Winehouse - Love Is A Losing Game (VIDEO)

July 9, 2015

HOLY CRAP! Sheriff's Department asked feds to send shooting suspect to S.F.

PERSONAL NOTE: Ross Mirkarimi is a LIAR and should resign NOW!

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has deflected blame in the release of a Mexican national now facing murder charges in the Pier 14 slaying by demanding to know why federal authorities returned him to San Francisco to face a 20-year-old marijuana charge in the first place.

The answer, it turns out, is that the Sheriff’s Department asked federal officials to do so.

Mirkarimi’s agency requested custody of Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez as he was completing a 46-month stint in federal prison in March in San Bernardino County, according to a Sheriff’s Department letter obtained by The Chronicle. Lopez-Sanchez had been deported five times to Mexico, and had been imprisoned for illegally re-entering the U.S.

The federal Bureau of Prisons alerted the Sheriff’s Department in March that Lopez-Sanchez was going to be released. Mirkarimi’s agency, realizing that Lopez-Sanchez was wanted on a $5,000 bench warrant related to a 1995 marijuana possession for sale case, asked prison officials March 23 to hold onto him and to notify San Francisco authorities “when the subject is ready for our pick-up.”....

Mirkarimi’s office did not immediately comment on the letter. However, in an interview Tuesday on KQED radio, the sheriff questioned why Lopez-Sanchez had been sent to the city.




http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Pier-14-killing-S-F-sheriff-asked-feds-to-send-6374031.php

July 9, 2015

Jimmy Carter Thinks Bernie Sanders Isn't Really A Threat To Hillary Clinton

Former President Jimmy Carter said he still sees former Hillary Clinton as “inevitably” becoming the standard bearer for her party in 2016, despite Bernie Sanders' recent surge in popularity as an Independent, because of her ability to get her hands on money.

“From what I can tell as a completely almost disinterested observer from south Georgia -- who's not involved in politics anymore -- there won't be any problem with Hillary getting the nomination because money dominates and she has an inside track to the massive amounts that are going to pour into the Democratic party side,” Carter told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.

Still, Carter, who spoke to ABC News in New York on Tuesday, said he suspected that Clinton -– or at least her team -- is concerned with the so-called “Bernie-mentum.”

“[Sanders] seems to be doing really well in Iowa and New Hampshire, from what I hear on the news. And I think maybe Hillary's getting a little bit concerned about it, or her people are. I think she'll react to it effectively,” the former president said.


http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jimmy-carter-thinks-bernie-sanders-threat-hillary-clinton/story?id=32310151