But first, this government shutdown.  From the  New York Times  this morning: Each department identifies people critical to protecting life and property, and they keep working during a government shutdown. Think federal law enforcement officers, air traffic controllers and T.S.A. officers at airports. Not all agencies rely on appropriations for funding. That is why some government services continue uninterrupted. Mail is still delivered, and Social Security and Medicare payments continue.   Many of the people who keep the government running will be working without pay until the government reopens. Afterward, the law says, they must receive back wages . Further: Big difference about whether a federal worker is furloughed or fired ( same as layoff) . If furloughed, you WILL get back pay for those days not at work when you return.. If fired, you are fired. President Trump and Congressional members still get paid during a shutdown . This is the first stoppage since Janua...

But before going into my topic of the day, I wondered why that huge  (#6 on all-time list ) earthquake did not produce a gigantic tsunami ( from the  Star-Advertiser ): The most recent event had an estimated magnitude of 8.7 or 8.8 on the scale scientists use to measure the strength of earthquakes.     By contrast, catastrophic tsunamis in the past, including a wave that struck Indonesia in 2004 and another that hit Japan in 2011, were generated by a quake of about magnitude 9.   That might sound comparable to Wednesday’s quake, Melgar said, but it is significantly bigger. That’s because the earthquake scale is logarithmic: A magnitude- 9 event possesses about 10 times as much energy as a magnitude-8.7 event, and about three times as much energy as a magnitude-8.8 event.   Also, current models suggest that Wednesday’s earthquake occurred across a stretch of seafloor that was hundreds of miles long. The longer the quake, the more energetic the...