Paul Krugman does a book review of Thomas Piketty's new book Capital in the Twenty-First Century.      

This book is going to become a classic in the study of economics.  He has done some ground breaking work on inequality.

The big idea of Capital in the Twenty-First Century is that we haven’t just gone back to nineteenth-century levels of income inequality, we’re also on a path back to “patrimonial capitalism,” in which the commanding heights of the economy are controlled not by talented individuals but by family dynasties.

It’s a work that melds grand historical sweep—when was the last time you heard an economist invoke Jane Austen and Balzac?—with painstaking data analysis. And even though Piketty mocks the economics profession for its “childish passion for mathematics,” underlying his discussion is a tour de force of economic modeling, an approach that integrates the analysis of economic growth with that of the distribution of income and wealth. This is a book that will change both the way we think about society and the way we do economics.

This article is 7 days old but it is worth the read about a virus epidemic in pigs.  Most effected are the corporate pig farms.  It is going to cause a shortage of pork and bacon and the prices will be going up.  We are at a 60 year low in the production of beef because of the drought.  

The U.S. is both a top producer and exporter of pork, but production could decline about 7 percent this year compared to last — the biggest drop in more than 30 years, according to a recent report from Rabobank, which focuses on the food, beverage and agribusiness industries.

FBI’s review of Tsarnaev faulted; communication gaps unearthed
By Matt Viser and Bryan Bender, The Boston Globe, April 11, 2014

WASHINGTON — An Obama administration review of the Boston Marathon bombings released Thursday revealed communication gaps within Boston’s Joint Terrorism Task Force — a group that relied on office conversations and sticky notes to relay intelligence — and portrayed the FBI’s initial review of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 as somewhat cursory.

It paints yet another damaging portrait of law enforcement agencies’ missed opportunities to scrutinize Tsarnaev as he became radicalized in the two years before he and his younger brother allegedly planted two bombs at the Boston Marathon.

The 32-page report, the result of a yearlong investigation to determine whether official lapses allowed home-grown terrorists to escape detection, documents in the greatest detail yet how the FBI and other intelligence agencies handled warnings from Russian intelligence officials that Tsarnaev — along with his mother — was becoming a radical Islamist who needed to be monitored [....]

and she handled it very well.

There is other changes that are going on in the tropical oceans then just heating up.  The Pacific Ocean has increased CO2 by 65% since 1998.  The Kelvin Wave is very acidic and will effect fishing along the California and Alaska coast.

This is a good article with easy to understand charts.

We have reached 400 p/mil of CO2 in the atmosphere in March.  That CO2 is being absorbed in the water. That absorption rate increase corresponds to the increase rate of CO2 in the atmosphere during the same time period. The small shell fish in the ocean admits 25% of the oxygen that goes into the atmosphere and they are in trouble with the increased acid in the ocean.  

Moreover, the oceans collectively are the largest carbon sink on the planet, absorbing more than 25 percent of fossil fuel emissions annually, NOAA points out. That varies regionally, however. The tropical Pacific, which is responsible for 70 percent of annual variability in global oceanic uptake of CO2, is actually emitting CO2 into the atmosphere at an increasing rate. Hence changes taking place there can affect the global carbon system.

By Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Timothy Williams, New York Times, April 9/10, 2014

As classes began at a high school in suburban Pittsburgh on Wednesday morning, a 16-year-old student walked through the hallway stabbing and slashing students with two large knives, the authorities said.

By the time the student was tackled by an assistant principal, he had stabbed 20 students and a security guard and sent students running from the school, officials said. At least four of the students had serious wounds to the abdomen and torso but were expected to survive.

The suspect, Alex Hribal, was treated for cuts to his hand at a hospital before he was taken into custody. He was charged on Wednesday with four counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated assault and one count of possessing a prohibited weapon on school property, according to The Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

The attack at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pa., a suburb about 20 miles east of Pittsburgh, began shortly after 7 a.m., officials said. The teenager stabbed students with two knives that were 8 to 10 inches long, the police said [....]

I have been following this weather and climate writer for the last year.  I have gained much knowledge about the changes that are occurring in out climate.  We now have a super El Nino headed on it's way to the Americas.  The truth is scientist don't really know how this extreme warmth will effect our weather but we are in for a record year. 

He writes with plenty of references that can be followed from the scientific community also with current charts.  You may want to look at some of his past blogs on this subject. That will help you understand some of the technical terms and charts. 

Record global temperatures, extraordinarily severe storms for the US West Coast and telegraphing on through the Central and Eastern US, a disruption of the Asian Monsoon and various regional growing seasons, record heat and drought in Northern Australia, severe drought and fires in the Amazon, the same throughout Eurasia and into the Siberian Arctic, another potential blow to Arctic sea ice. These and further extreme impacts are what could unfold if the extraordinarily powerful Kelvin Wave now racing toward the Pacific Ocean surface continues to disgorge its heat.

Associated Press, April 8, 2014

NAIROBI, Kenya  — A Kenyan official says at least 3,000 people have been arrested during four days of security operations following a wave of terror attacks.

Police spokesman Masoud Mwinyi said Tuesday that most of those arrested were scrutinized by security agencies and released, but that 447 are being held in custody under anti-terrorism laws that allow police to hold suspects longer than 24 hours.

Human rights activists have criticized the operation, saying only Somalis are being targeted [....]

This has grown into one of the worst outbreaks of this disease and it is growing.  From what I have read that they think it came from eating fruit bats that are a delicacy in that part of Africa.  Bats are a vector for Ebola.  This is a good read because it follows up with a description of the virus and how it works. 

April 3: Ebola “has a case fatality rate of up to 90 percent,” the organization said. 83 dead. 127 confirmed cases.

On Sunday, after the number of dead topped 90 and Mali and Ghana recorded their first suspected cases of the disease, trouble began in remote villages.

The migratory pattern of the outbreak, which aid workers call “unprecedented,” has baffled doctors. Outbreaks before this have stayed in remote pockets of the country, but this iteration shot hundreds of miles from southwest Guinea to the coastal capital of Conakry.

I cannot imagine the repubs in the House adopting this!

But, at least the Senate did its job!

I guess Harry Reid struck a nerve.  Also all the liberal and progressive have been hammering away at the Kochs on the internet in blogs and articles.  They can't hide anymore.  More and more people are starting to learn who they are.  Here is a little of the WSJ rant that Charles Koch wrote.  It is more self serving and justifying then anything else.  

I have devoted most of my life to understanding the principles that enable people to improve their lives. It is those principles—the principles of a free society—that have shaped my life, my family, our company and America itself.

Unfortunately, the fundamental concepts of dignity, respect, equality before the law and personal freedom are under attack by the nation's own government. That's why, if we want to restore a free society and create greater well-being and opportunity for all Americans, we have no choice but to fight for those principles. I have been doing so for more than 50 years, primarily through educational efforts. It was only in the past decade that I realized the need to also engage in the political process.