Pack An Umbrella

The bad news is that we now have a Tropical Storm Stan. It is currently over the Yucatan peninsula, and expected to re-emerge into the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow.

The good news is that even if Stan does eventually strengthen into an actual hurricane, it is on track to hit central Mexico, thus killing only Mexicans. While this may sound bad, it has the upside of reducing the available pool of illegal immigrants coming into the United States.

Meanwhile, some scientists are warning that the United States may be in for far more catastrophic storms like Rita and Katrina during the coming decades. There is disagreement over whether this is due to manmade global warming or other natural causes. For example, over the last century, several longterm cycles of stronger hurricanes have been documented. The latest cycle of bigger, more intense storms appears to have started in 1995 and will likely last 20-30 years.

On the other hand, recent findings indicate that greenhouse gasses in the Earth's atmosphere have increased 20% since 1990 alone.

Whatever the reason, Kansas is looking better all the time.