Evening Update: Rockets Fired From Gaza

Two Rockets Fired From Gaza Hit Southern Israel

Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip Thursday night, landing in open areas in the Eshkol region of southern Israel.

The rockets were the second salvo this week. On Wednesday, two rockets fired from Sinai hit Eilat, one causing light damage in a residential area.

Rocket fire from Gaza tailed off after Operation Pillar of Defense in November, but the last several weeks have seen a number of strikes.

What Is The REAL Euro End Game?

The Business Insider article later points out that media reaction to the Cyprus situation generally has been that "authorities are 'stupid' and 'have shot themselves in the foot'."

But Business Insider then raises the question, "What if they're not stupid?"

We've raised this question as well, though in a different context. We do believe that those running the eurozone are following a kind of program and it is one intended, in fact, to deepen the crisis rather than to alleviate it.

We base this on comments reported over the years in which top Eurocrats stated clearly that the only way to achieve a full-on political union was via a deep economic crisis. We've amply documented those comments.

From this vantage point, the Cyprus shock and subsequent statements are not only deliberate but have contributed to spreading uncertainty throughout Europe. Now people no longer trust their banks, contributing to their destabilization.

If you have a bank crisis, the last thing you want to do is further destabilize trust and confidence in the system. But Brussels Eurocrats have done just that.

One is left with two choices. Either this strategy was a deliberate one or it was a mistaken one. If it was a mistake, why is Brussels declaring that this sort of approach shall be banking policy going forward?

Conclusion: Nope ... Don't think it was a mistake. If one accepts that line of thinking, the ramifications are serious and deep from a sociopolitical, economic and investment standpoint.

Yellowstone's Volcano Bigger Than Thought

Yellowstone's underground volcanic plumbing is bigger and better connected than scientists thought, researchers reported here today (April 17) at the Seismological Society of America's annual meeting.

"We are getting a much better understanding of the volcanic system of Yellowstone," said Jamie Farrell, a seismology graduate student at the University of Utah. "The magma reservoir is at least 50 percent larger than previously imaged."

A clearer picture of Yellowstone's shallow magma chamberemerged from earthquakes, whose waves change speed when they travel through molten or solid rock. Farrell analyzed nearby earthquakes to build a picture of the magma chamber.

The underground magma resembles a mutant banana, with a knobby, bulbous end poking up toward the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park, and the rest of the tubular fruit angling shallowly southwest. It's a single connected chamber, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) long, 18 miles (30 km) wide, and 3 to 7 miles (5 to 12 km) deep.

Previously, researchers had thought the magma beneath Yellowstone was in separate blobs, not a continuous pocket.

The shallowest magma, in the northeast, also matches up with the park's most intense hydrothermal activity, Farrell said. The new study is the best view yet of this zone, which lies outside the youngest caldera rim.

Additional molten rock, not imaged in this study, also exists deeper beneath Yellowstone, scientists think.