Since Noel transitioned to an extratropical storm, the National Hurricane Center stopped issuing advisories on it and refers people to their local weather stations.

Fortunately the Canadian Hurricane Centre is picking up the slack and issuing reports on not-hurricane Noel:

AT 9.00 PM ADT [7PM CDT]… POST-TROPICAL STORM NOEL WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 32.6 N AND LONGITUDE 72.0 W… ABOUT 235 NAUTICAL MILES [270 miles] OR 440 KM SOUTHEAST OF CAPE HATTERAS. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE ESTIMATED AT 75 KNOTS [86 mph]… 139 KM/H… AND CENTRAL PRESSURE AT 978 MB. NOEL IS MOVING NORTH NORTHEAST AT 24 KNOTS [28 mph]… 44 KM/H.

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My Mother has always used Pioneer Baking Mix for biscuits and pancakes. I don’t argue with her choices, and for years it meant going to Winn-Dixie to get a box for her, as that wasn’t where she normally shopped.

Then, for whatever reason, it stopped being sold at Winn-Dixie and was only available at Wal-Mart.

So, yesterday, November 1^st, the day after Halloween, I made a trip to get her a box and was assaulted by the bloody damn Christmas decorations as I entered the store. I was expecting an after Halloween “let’s get rid of the orange and black stuff” sale, and nearly ran into a ten-foot faux-fir tree blocking the entrance.

This is what the War on Christmas™ really looks like, and where it is waged.

The GOP doesn’t create droughts. I know that every time we have a major disaster in the economy and widespread drought the GOP seems to be in charge, but it’s just a coincidence. They could have helped by doing something constructive about greenhouse gases a long time ago, but they don’t believe in science or facts, so you can’t really blame them because mental incompetence is a valid defense.

Remember, the last time it was a “dust bowl”, out on the plains, and this time it’s the hills in the South. It’s different.

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CBS is noticing the effects: Fuel Fraud Latest In Army Contracting Woes

(CBS/AP) The delivery of aviation gas to the giant U.S. air base at Bagram in Afghanistan is the latest case of fraud to hit a contracting system overwhelmed by war and practically begging to be ripped off, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports exclusively.

So far two former employees of Kellogg, Brown and Root have been arrested for their part in a scheme worthy of Tony Soprano.

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Position: 29.2 N 73.8 W. [10AM CDT]
Movement: North-Northeast [040°] near 17 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 80 mph.
Wind Gusts: 95 mph.
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 345 miles.
Hurricane Wind Radius: 75 Miles
Minimum central pressure: 981 mb.

TS Noel is about 425 miles South-Southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

The storm’s wind field has more than doubled overnight as it transitions into a Nor’easter, an extratropical storm named for the strong winds that flow toward it out of the Northeast. It is currently forecast to hit around the Maine-Canada border late Saturday after grinding away at the US coast all the way north with wind and waves.

…Some of the Cats…

He’s making it up, right?

[Editor: Ringo, Income, Property, and Sox at the door, but Sox’s stories aren’t succeeding when Ringo is laughing and Property keeps asking her mom if that’s true. Property may be smaller than her brothers but she has enough tail for three cats.]

Friday Ark