Raiders of the Lost Cattleprod

Magnitude 3.9 - CRETE, GREECE
Magnitude 4.3 - HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
Magnitude 4.4 - HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
Magnitude 4.9 - PAKISTAN
Magnitude 5.1 - FIJI REGION (2)
Magnitude 5.1 - FIJI REGION
Magnitude 5.1 - MOLUCCA SEA
Magnitude 5.1 - SOUTHERN IRAN
Magnitude 5.2 - NEW GUINEA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Magnitude 5.2 - PAKISTAN (2)
Magnitude 5.2 - PAKISTAN (3)
Magnitude 5.2 - PAKISTAN
Magnitude 5.3 - NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Magnitude 5.4 - SICHUAN-GANSU BORDER REGION, CHINA
Magnitude 5.6 - NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
Magnitude 5.6 - PAKISTAN
Magnitude 5.9 - VANUATU
Magnitude 6.8 - KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION

Earthquakes can 'spark eruptions' [Well, duh.]

All within the last twenty-four hours. Things are kinda heating up, aren't they?

***

And now for a world government

I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible.

A "world government" would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force.

So could the European model go global? There are three reasons for thinking that it might.
...
Barack Obama, America's president-in-waiting, does not share the Bush administration's disdain for international agreements and treaties. In his book, The Audacity of Hope , he argued that: "When the world's sole superpower willingly restrains its power and abides by internationally agreed-upon standards of conduct, it sends a message that these are rules worth following." The importance that Mr Obama attaches to the UN is shown by the fact that he has appointed Susan Rice, one of his closest aides, as America's ambassador to the UN, and given her a seat in the cabinet.

A taste of the ideas doing the rounds in Obama circles is offered by a recent report from the Managing Global Insecurity project, whose small US advisory group includes John Podesta, the man heading Mr Obama's transition team and Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution, from which Ms Rice has just emerged.
...
The world's most pressing political problems may indeed be international in nature, but the average citizen's political identity remains stubbornly local. Until somebody cracks this problem, that plan for world government may have to stay locked away in a safe at the UN.