Silflay Hraka

It’s required of us, you know. Miss one day and the powers that be send over little guys in jackboots to trash the house. Ngnat calls them the Media Elves.

Commenters at the previous TOTSP have been trading charge and countercharge over which party, Terri’s husband or her parents, is likely to be benefiting financially from their position on whether she should live or die.

But the answer to the question “Which party is in it just for the money?” needn’t be one or the other. It could well be both. As long as they stay in the fight to the bitter end, both Michael Schiavo and Terri’s parents will be able to look forward to what will amount to a lifetime stream of funds generated by the case; book contracts, lecture fees, TV appearances, various media rights. Their behavior upon being faced with the possibility of such magnificent remuneration will be what finally puts the “Who’s in it for the money?” question to rest.

Two new hosts have volunteered for Carnival of the Vanities hosting duties this week;

New World Man, who wants us to decentralize the Supreme Court

Circuit splits would also occur less frequently, for two reasons. One is that splits are not a favorable situation, and there would be pressure that doesn’t exist today, when the Supreme Court is likely to step in and take care of it, to consider comity and ecumenism in circuit decisions. Two is that the Chief Justices, caucusing with their fellows on the Supreme Court, would bring back to their circuits a sense of the Court’s likely disposition. To the extent circuit splits occur less frequently, of course, the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court will be that much less necessary to exercise.

and fellow Triangle blogger Pratie Place, our regional expert on the history of giant cheeses.

On July 20 1801 the “Ladies of Cheshire,” dressed to the nines, assembled at a big cheese bee with pails of curds from “900 cows at one milking.” These had all, by the way, been Republican cows – the milk of Federalist cows was “scrupulously excluded.” During a day of hymn singing the curds were packed into a giant cider press.

The finished cheese was ungainly: more than four feet in diameter, thirteen feet in circumference, weighing 1,235 pounds, it would have sunk into muddy spring roads. Therefore it was decided to make delivery in winter, by sled and boat.

Truly, this a world of glory in which we live.

The Marburg virus has spread to another Angolan province, Cabinda, where 14 people have been put under quarantine, and possibly to Portugal as well.

Bad enough news as it is, but there’s worse, in that the disease appears to be spreading in Angola’s capital, Luanda. All previous cases had some connection to the province of Uige, where the outbreak was first reported.

Luanda provincial health director Vita Mvemba said in the capital: “One Portuguese citizen who has visited Uige was admitted on Sunday at the military hospital and one girl, about 12 years old, has been transferred from the Cacuaco Health Centre to the Americo Boa Vida Hospital.”

“The girl is from Luanda. She has been admitted with a fever for the last two days at the Cacuaco centre. Today, she started bleeding. That’s why we urgently had to transfer her to the Americo Boa Vida Hospital,” Mvemba said.

Here’s a map of the provinces reporting cases of Marburg thus far. I’ll update it as more cases appear, which hopefully they won’t. Provinces where Marburg cases have been documented are in red. Provinces considered at high risk for infection are in pink.

Background: Marburg in Angola, Hunting The Elusive Marburg, Mapping Ebola

8.2 earthquake in Indonesia. At the moment it appears to be in almost the exact same spot as the December 2004 quake.

The USGS advised officials in the area to move people inland, and Thai officials were among the first to issue a tsunami warning for the Andaman Sea.

No reports of injury or damage had been received from the region. The Dec. 26 quake that launched the massive tsunami was a 9.0, the USGS said.

Update: In, fact, it’s just to the south of the December quake, a geology.com produced map of which is over to the left. I’ve added the southernmost star to show the location of the new quake.

Geology.com also has a tsunami wave height map from the December quake.

The December quake was initially reported as a 6.8 on the Richter scale, and laster revised upwards, as many earthquakes are. The fact that this one is initially being reported as an 8.2 strikes me as a bad sign. The depth reported for the quake, 30 km, is the same as that of the December quake.

Update: An American Expat in SouthEast Asia is reporting that either a Tsunami is expected to strike Malaysia within an hour or that there’s not going to be one at all–though he’s unable to reach some areas.