America's Debt Burden

"Has our pride been so broken, that we lunge with pathetic joy for every new silver tongued demagogue who pretends to care for us every tiny little bit?"

Armageddon Homes

Not everyone has the amount of time or money here, but these home owners are ready.

When the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse approach, to where will you retreat? If this seems like a relevant question, it’s likely you’re the type who—for reasons too complex to get into here—enjoys imagining disaster scenarios. But it’s only fun if you survive the apocalypse, and that requires a well-fortified home base.

When it comes to major emergencies, conventional houses’ traditional nods toward protection—such as fences, security-alarm systems, and gated communities—are for chumps. If you plan to survive a wide-scale disaster, you’re going to need a shelter fit for holding off the beasts and roaming marauders, not to mention the coming of hell and/or high water.

It’s impossible for any one structure to be impenetrable to every potential crisis, so emergency-minded homebuilders and buyers have to pick some favorites and hope they choose correctly.

The best disaster-ready homes are the ones that cover as many dangerous scenarios as possible and allow for ongoing survival, such as self-sufficient structures capable of generating their own power, and growing or catching food. On the other end of things, bomb shelters and panic rooms are limited survival plans, in that you must be able to leave the structure and return to a livable outside world. If that’s not an option, once you exhaust the supplies, these spaces become literal dead ends. With that thought to warm your heart, click ahead to see houses with differing styles of disaster preparedness.

From CNBC

Check out the rest of the slide show from CNBC.

Cosmic Wonders

Time Lapse Video, time to relax

Ocean Sky from Alex Cherney on Vimeo.

Weather Rumblings

Terrific video of a massive dust sprawl that hits Phoenix from seemingly out of the blue. Apparently, this wall of dust isn't that uncommon in the great west. Nevertheless, powerful display of God's power in and through nature.

These amazing pictures from the United States show a wall of dust moving through the city of Phoenix in Arizona. Sandstorms like this happen during the region's monsoon season, which is underway. They occur over desert land and can reach thousands of feet into the air, spurred by strong winds. The dense cloud dramatically reduced visibility, grounding flights at a major airport and leaving thousands without electricity.

In another part of the world, a 7.6 earthquake rattled the sea off the coast of New Zealand. Apparently, little to no damage was reported. Sure to give the residents a scare, considering the recent earthquake that left almost 350,000 people without water.

Powerful Earthquake Strikes off Coast of New Zealand, Tsunami Warning Canceled

A powerful magnitude-7.6 earthquake rattled New Zealand's remote Kermadec Islands in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It triggered a small tsunami that had New Zealand bracing for high waves.

The volcanic Kermadec Island peaks are a remote outpost that are generally uninhabited aside from a weather station and a hostel for visiting New Zealand scientists.

The 7:03 a.m. Thursday quake was 29.8 miles deep, the USGS said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, a U.S. agency, issued a warning for possible tsunami damage in the Keramecs, Tonga and New Zealand but canceled it about an hour later. It said a tsunami measured at 2.2 feet was measured at Raoul Island in the Kermadecs.

The Kermadecs are about 570 miles south of Tonga, the nearest major island, and are 736 miles northeast of Auckland, New Zealand.

New Zealand's Civil Defense office warned people to stay off beaches and stay out of the water as long until the tsunami passed.

Auckland regional Civil Defense controller Clive Manly told Radio New Zealand it was not expected to cause damage inland: "You can get quite extreme currents -- so it is a threat to boats -- but at this stage we are not anticipating damage to land."

Comic Relief

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