Discussion Categories

Bidding Wars For US Homes Collapse To Eight-Year Low

usissuescom Discussion Categories , , ,

[Their graph shows 4 cities on the west coast, NYC, and Chicago as the places where home prices are down (all the others are up). I have to scratch my head and ask, “Why would anybody with a choice want to buy a home there anyway?”]

From Zero Hedge – Re-Blogged From Silver Doctors

Is a downturn in the housing market imminent?

Bidding wars for homes in Seattle, San Jose, and San Francisco have crashed in the past year, reflecting an alarming national trend, according to a new report from Redfin.

The report found that the national bidding-war rate in August was 10.4%, down from 42% a year earlier. The rate printed at the lowest level since 2011.

At the start of 2018, the national bidding-war rate was 59%, then plunged as homebuyers became uncomfortable with sky-high housing prices, increasing mortgage rates, and economic uncertainty surrounding the trade war. The housing market started to cool in late 2018, as the competition among homebuyers collapsed by 4Q18, this is an ominous sign for the national housing market that could soon face a steep correction in price.

Continue reading →

Advertisements

Goodbye, America

usissuescom Discussion Categories , , , ,
By James Robbins

How is America to be defined? By its failures or its triumphs? Today, there seems to be an obsession with the former and a dismissal of the latter. Is this dark vision of the freest and most prosperous nation on earth an accurate narrative or a cynical distortion? James Robbins, columnist for USA Today and author of “Erasing America,” considers that question in this video. How we view America’s past will very much shape America’s future.

Please view the VIDEO.

CONTINUE READING –>

Public Radio: Things Ill-Considered

usissuescom Discussion Categories , , ,

By Kip Hansen – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Public Radio is the United States’ sort-of-analog of the United Kingdom’s BBC.  While there is a National Public Radio,  the various stations in the network are independently owned, usually by public bodies like universities — and subscribe to content from NPR and other content producers such as American Public Media, Public Radio International, Public Radio Exchange and WNYC Studios. Many also produce their own programs locally.  Almost all public radio stations in the US have always been far-left of center on political and social issues, they have recently begun to mirror the BBC’s editorial policy of broadcasting any and all alarmist climate change stories without any attempt to verify any information offered as factual, as long as it is in line with the “climate change as catastrophe” meme.

The most recent example came as a real surprise to me last month, when a segment was aired about the threats of sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay area of California.    The public radio host was interviewing an advocate/activist from some California-based environmental group about sea level rise in San Francisco Bay.

FEATURED_IMAGE_NPR

Continue reading →

Greenpeace Fanatics Shut Down Oil-Rich Houston Shipping Lanes

usissuescom Energy Policy, Discussion Categories , , , , ,

This kind of solar storm could be devastating in today’s world…”The Carrington Event” of 1859

usissuescom Discussion Categories , , , ,

By Paul Dorian – Re-Blogged From Perspecta Weather

Overview

The sun continues to be very quiet and it has been without sunspots this year 69% of the time as we approach what is likely to be one of the deepest solar minimums in a long, long time. In fact, all indications are that the upcoming solar minimum may be even quieter than the last one which was the deepest in nearly a century.  In addition, there are now forecasts that the next solar cycle, #25, will be the weakest in more than 200 years. Even weak solar cycles, however, can produce significant solar storms. In fact, it was this same time of year back in 1859 when a super solar storm – now known as the “Carrington Event” – took place during another weak solar cycle (#10).  The event has been named for the British astronomer, Richard Carrington, as he observed from his own private observatory the largest solar flare which caused a major coronal mass ejection (CME) to travel directly toward Earth.  Fortunately, solar storms of this magnitude are quite rare as it would very likely have a much more damaging impact on today’s world than it did in the 19th century.

 

A modern solar flare recorded December 5, 2006, by the X-ray Imager onboard NOAA's GOES-13 satellite. The flare was so intense that it actually damaged the instrument that took the picture. Researchers believe Carrington's solar flare was much more energetic than this one.

A modern solar flare recorded December 5, 2006, by the X-ray Imager onboard NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite. The flare was so intense that it actually damaged the instrument that took the picture. Researchers believe Carrington’s solar flare was much more energetic than this one.

Continue reading →

Revisiting Day One of the Cenozoic Era

usissuescom Discussion Categories , , , ,

By David Middleton – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Cenozoic Era: The Era of New Life

Figure 0. Cenozoic stratigraphic column. (ICS Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy)

Who would have ever guessed that details about the first day of the Cenozoic Era might have been preserved the stratigraphic record?

Sep 09, 2019
Rocks at Asteroid Impact Site Record First Day of Dinosaur Extinction

AUSTIN, Texas — When the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs slammed into the planet, the impact set wildfires, triggered tsunamis and blasted so much sulfur into the atmosphere that it blocked the sun, which caused the global cooling that ultimately doomed the dinos.

That’s the scenario scientists have hypothesized. Now, a new study led by The University of Texas at Austin has confirmed it by finding hard evidence in the hundreds of feet of rocks that filled the impact crater within the first 24 hours after impact.

Continue reading →

Who Caused Three Mile Island?

usissuescom Discussion Categories , , , ,

After five major investigations, the real reason for the Three Mile Island accident has remained a mystery. REASON’s reporter has found the missing link.

By Adam Reed – Re-Blogged From Reason (August 1980 Issue)

Three Mile Island, March 28, 1979. Because of maintenance procedures elsewhere in the building, several indicators on the main control panel of the TMI nuclear power plant are temporarily inoperative. In compliance with an order from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, identifying cardboard tags hang from the inactive indicators. These tags are large enough to obscure several other parts of the control panel.

It is 4:00 A.M., and an indicator on the control panel shows an unexpected pressure transient. The plant operators check the auxiliary feedwater valves. Although a control panel light indicates that they are closed, that light is covered by one of the maintenance caution tags hanging from another control. The operators react to the pressure transient on the assumption that the valves are open. As a result, there is an increase in heat, which causes activation of the emergency core cooling system, which functions perfectly.

Continue reading →