Arizona measles outbreak reaches 'critical point': Health officials believe the Phoenix-area woman recently diagnosed with measles may have exposed as many as 195 children to the disease at the Phoenix Children's East Valley Center on Jan. 20 and 21. Maricopa County officials were in the process of contacting the children's families Tuesday. A hospital official told 12 News that the woman was not an employee and it was not known why she was at the facility.

Arizona measles outbreak reaches 'critical point': Health officials believe the Phoenix-area woman recently diagnosed with measles may have exposed as many as 195 children to the disease at the Phoenix Children's East Valley Center on Jan. 20 and 21. Maricopa County officials were in the process of contacting the children's families Tuesday. A hospital official told 12 News that the woman was not an employee and it was not known why she was at the facility.

Andrew Sullivan writes a goodbye to readers!? Enough blogging!?

Andrew Sullivan writes,

I want to spend some real time with my parents, while I still have them, with my husband, who is too often a ‘blog-widow’, my sister and brother, my niece and nephews, and rekindle the friendships that I have simply had to let wither because I’m always tied to the blog. And I want to stay healthy. I’ve had increasing health challenges these past few years. They’re not HIV-related; my doctor tells me they’re simply a result of fifteen years of daily, hourly, always-on-deadline stress. These past few weeks were particularly rough – and finally forced me to get real.

We’ll have more to say – and we’re sure you will as well – in due course. I particularly want to take some time to thank my indispensable, amazing colleagues in a subsequent post. For the time being, auto-renewals have been suspended and the pay-meter has been disabled. While we’re in this strange, animated suspension, I just wanted to take one post to thank you personally, the readers, founding members and subscribers to the Dish.

And this

You were there before I met my husband; you were there when I actually got married; and when I finally got my green card; and when Dusty – who still adorns the masthead – died. I can’t describe this relationship outside the rather crude term of “mass intimacy” but as I write this, believe me, my eyes are swimming with tears.

How do I say goodbye? How do I walk away from the best daily, hourly, readership a writer could ever have? It’s tough. In fact, it’s brutal. But I know you will understand. Because after all these years, I feel I have come to know you, even as you have come to see me, flaws and all. Some things are worth cherishing precisely because they are finite. Things cannot go on for ever. I learned this in my younger days: it isn’t how long you live that matters. What matters is what you do when you’re alive. And, man, is this place alive.

And finally

When I write again, it will be for you, I hope – just in a different form. I need to decompress and get healthy for a while; but I won’t disappear as a writer.

But this much I know: nothing will ever be like this again, which is why it has been so precious; and why it will always be a part of me, wherever I go; and why it is so hard to finish this sentence and publish this post.

This is a majorly big deal in my life. I have loved Andrew Sullivan and hated him.. but each time I wanted depth and perspective on any given issue, I would stop randomly clicking headlines and simply go to his website for that missing piece of the larger puzzle. Sullivan has been wrong on some things.. right on some things. But his blog and opinion was always an evolving work in progress.. he brought with him site intelligence and the highest degree of analysis that could be found online..

His live blogs of the State of the Union speeches each year could not be missed..

And to a degree, his little comic logo even inspired the CoalSpeaker’s emblem that rests atop this page.

Indeed, Andrew Sullivan and his site has meant a lot to me..

I certainly hope he’s not gone for good. And as a fellow blogger, I can say this.. when you do this type of thing, you never go for good. I sense we’ll see and hear from Sullivan soon.

But..go he must.

I will miss him.

Andrew Sullivan writes a goodbye to readers!? Enough blogging!?

England Earthquake: 3.8 'Earth Tremor' Hits Leicester, Midlands

A 4.2-magnitude earthquake struck Leicester, England, on Wednesday. (Page 1)

Also Kansas near a frack well..

And a 5.7 in Northern California..

And 6.2M earthquake in the West Pacific occurred exactly at 300 miles depth….

England Earthquake: 3.8 'Earth Tremor' Hits Leicester, Midlands

Facebook click porn

I’m not a firm believer in the humanity of people.. Proof in the pudding comes from the endless supplies of Facebook posts on a daily basis about bad parenting and suffering children.. It getting rough to surf around my least favorite social network these days..

The latest this morning came with a story if a woman from West Virginia putting feces in her child’s IV in a hospital causing his fever to spike and also resulting in children and youth taking him..

I am constantly reminded by commenting friends on these stories..
I’m inundated with links on my news feed of horrible things happening to the most innocent..
And then after comments are made or ‘like’ is clicked people move on to the next heartbreaking tragedy..

This is how click porn is done on Facebook now: Offer up the worst of the worst for people to sink their teeth into ,just for clicks on a news story or website. Leaving the Facebook user with a lack of hope by noon..

I for one am ready to check out..
I already have no hope in my fellow humans, and I really and getting cost ed by all of the evidence that adds to my anger at people..

Maybe a little zoning out from Facebook is necessary.. Perhaps it’s time to click off and tune out. Or just filter things a hit better than I previously have..

Otherwise the constant flow of horrid news stories of children facing awful consequences at he hands of care givers or supposed parental figures will continue to obscure the beauty that exists in life.

At least I think there’s still some beauty and goodness.
If not that at least there’s mystery.
And obviously misery too..

Latest ISIS beheading video released by campaigners in Syria

Latest ISIS beheading video released by campaigners in Syria

The evil bear watches..

It’s amazing to see a beautiful handmade blanket turn wicked with a simple iphone camera trick..

Astronomical discovery: 'Super Saturn' with rings 200 times as large

Amazing to think that if this would be closer it would dominate earth’s night sky..

Astronomical discovery: 'Super Saturn' with rings 200 times as large

If you believe that they put a man on Mars…

We have had squirrels and garbage cans, Obama’s face and more.. but now may be the biggest shocker for people staring closely at Mars rover images.. 

This picture seems to show a man repairing the probe on the red planet.. At least that is what some are wildly saying online..

Men on Mars?
Or a rover still on earth and faking out the entire population of the globe?

The picture was released by NASA—something strange to do if you would want to hide such an occurrence. 

Shadows, Dear Watson, just shadows.
And really.. with the temperature, you really think EGON from GHOSTBUSTERS would survive without a helmet?

Wiig, McCarthy headline all-female 'Ghostbusters' cast

Director Paul Feig took to Twitter on Wednesday to reveal his all-female leads in the upcoming “Ghostbusters” reboot.

I think this is going to work out just fine..

Wiig, McCarthy headline all-female 'Ghostbusters' cast

Gov. Tom Wolf vows to support state Senate's medical marijuana bill

Gov. Tom Wolf gave an impromptu audience Tuesday to parents of children who are suffering daily from debilitating seizures and vowed to sign a medical marijuana bill that senators are writing.

Pennsylvania already seeing the difference that a Governor’s race can make..

Gov. Tom Wolf vows to support state Senate's medical marijuana bill

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama participate in a delegation receiving line with the new Saudi Arabian King, Salman bin Abdul Aziz, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. The president and first lady have come to express their condolences on the death of the late Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

And the real reason the photo is poignant: Michelle Obama refused to wear a headscarf..

The ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS THIS:

Under the kingdom’s strict dress code for women, Saudi females are required to wear a headscarf and loose, black robes in public. Most women in Saudi Arabia cover their hair and face with a veil known as the niqab. But covering one’s head is not required for foreigners, and some Western women choose to forego the headscarf while in Saudi Arabia.

As a delegation of dozens of Saudi officials — all men — greeted the Obamas in Riyadh, some shook hands with Mrs. Obama. Others avoided a handshake but acknowledged the first lady with a nod as they passed by.

I think I can eat an entire box of CINNAMON LIFE in one sitting.. Really.

You really don't appreciate the importance of MAGENTA until it's all gone..

This is an obvious scene of fear and panic.. Times Square, empty during the Blizzard of 2015 that became the Fizzler of the new year.. I am amazed that the city that never sleeps wouldn’t venture out to enjoy a kiss under the lights during the snow.. or hot coffee and snowball fights on a city street.. I am sort of sad seeing this. If you go through the annals of history when big storms actually hit, the entire city was out and about, doing the same thing they’d be doing if it was sunny and warm..

But this year, with this new found generation if wimps, we hide and ‘hunker down.’  We play video games and stare at the endless supplies of bread and milk purchased in near empty stores.

Don’t get me wrong, weather can be dangerous during storms. Blizzards can also be horrendous with massive power outages and winds that can kill. 

But this storm was not that. At least not for millions of people who were told their lives were about to end and their island would be disconnected from the United States, sent out to drift, and subject to alien spaceshifts playing target practice on big buildings in the Atlantic Ocean. Okay. Maybe that is not what was said.. but what was said obviously led to fear and panic..

In New York State, the travel ban imposed by the Governor would say that you get a $300 fine if you get in your car. Sheesh..

Are we not able to endure any challenge anymore?

Last night during the brief snow that hit my part of Pennsylvania, I took my dog for a walk and noticed several yards were covered in footprints, sleigh paths, and tunnels. It was amazing to see the work of children playing their hearts out on a cold and school-less winter day. 

But that is not the scene in the trendy Big Apple. At least not according to the evidence supplied by this photo..
This photo shows an opposite era than one in the past. Now we hide behind walls and computer screens. We live blog our reactions, and we Tweet about weather.

But we don’t get out and enjoy it. Play in it. Live in it.

Live a little.
It’s snow.
And obviously, it’s not the big storm promised..

I love the energy of Times Square. I think a lot of people missed out on that energy by hiding away from flakes as they fell …

BUT THEN.. Just when hope is lost.. and image comes across a wire like this: People acting like children in the snowy city:

And this:

The only problem for America: Our handstand friend is from Liechtenstein. 

Am I missing something here?

While the panic ensued and bread and milk vanished from store shelves about the blizzard that turned into the fizzard, there was something mightily amazing happening well above our heads in outer space..

There was a frighteningly close  shave experienced by the planet Earth.

On Monday, asteroid 2004 BL86 was traveling at 35,000 miles .. it passed around 3.1 times the distance of the Earth to the moon. And when it did, there was quite an amazing sight: The asteroid HAS ITS OWN MOON!
This asteroid was discovered in 2004.. the passby it had yesterday was the closest it will be until 2027..This asteroid was so big, obviously, that a moon was gravitated in for the wild ride..

The other obvious aspect of this story: This was exceptionally close.. at least we knew about it since 2004.. If it would have now–or does in 2027–it would be equal to several Hiroshima bombs.. It would be a mass extinction event.. But last night we were safe. Instead we panicked in big cities and bought every crumb of bread and ounce of milk that stores had..

At some point we need to realize that the real threat–and yet ironically the place we should be trying to reach–is space. This one let us live. But it’s the other asteroids floating and whirling in space that we don’t know about which keeps people awake at night..

The Lizard Squid took down Malaysian airlines this weekend.. And last night they took down Facebook and Instagram.. However, Facebook denies the attack took place but a major outage did take place//

THE GREAT FIZZLE OF 2015!

THE GREAT BUST OF 2015! The blizzard fizzle..  

The storm, though large for some, failed to live up to the predictions some said..

The Weather Channel went wall-to-wall on coverage for the storm they called Juno.. other networks had their reporters out ready with yardsticks..but each time they did a live report, the snow was vacant and the streets were covered in a simple slushy mess..

Parts of Long Island had a long duration wind storm, and Boston seemed to be the hardest hit of the big cities when speaking of snow totals.. But 6000+ flights later, you sure wonder if the threat was big or if the hype simply took over ..

After all, forecasters have to pick now from dozens of computer models where as, in those ancient days of the 20th century, they’d get guidance from a model and forecast it themselves.

There was science then. Now there’s computer runs… The runs tell the tale correctly: There was a storm on a certain date. They can pinpoint patterns and systems.. but forecasters need to begin doing their jobs again and picking a model for guidance and coming up with their own story.. One forecaster even Tweeted an apology to policy makers in big cities over the forecast being so wrong.

While the major metropolitan areas–with people well-stocked with bread, milk, and liquor–were spared, the real blizzard will take place but not in the big cities.. Maine and Nova Scotia will be getting hit hard.. But will the media care? Will they report? Will they decide?

The bust was a gust,
But hype they must!
Fear gets ratings.
And empty store shelves..
Stock boys must be hating.

Mutley the dog is not scared of snow. But he was quite alarmed at his own shadow tonight.

A snowy scene somewhere near an abandoned mine in the coal region of Pennsylvania, as a blizzard of 2015 forms 200 miles away…

A moment captured in time.. as we prep and shop for every last loaf of bread across the Northeast, perspective is key. 

Here’s some images of a storm past. Namely the great blizzard of 1888.. While  I was alive for 93, 96, 03, and 07’s massive blasts, I surely wasn’t present for the 1888 monster–at least not in my current human form. And neither were you.. but the images are striking, and somewhat haunting. The one I chose to push through with the link for this story shows people silently staring at the camera as they attempted to slowly dig out of the monster that befell them.. Amazing images indeed. 

I trust within the coming days we will see even more amazing images–but modern and new as the blizzard of 2015 descends on 30+ million people strong.