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Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us

Sott

Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war· Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years· Threat to the world is greater than terrorism
Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New YorkSunday February 22, 2004The Observer

Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

LINK to full story

posted by ... @ 2:21 PM 0 comments

At least three injured as fire burns near Fort Worth

(Fort Worth, Texas-AP) July 27, 2005 - Some injuries are now reported from a raging fire at a chemical business in Fort Worth, Texas.
Hospital officials say at least three people have been hurt. There's no word yet on the extent of their injuries.
Explosions have been seen in part of the burning facility. The fire could be seen engulfing several tanks and at least one truck trailer at a complex operated by Valley Solvents and Chemicals.
No word yet on what sparked the early-afternoon blaze. It's sending up billowing black smoke that can be seen for miles

posted by ... @ 2:17 PM 0 comments

Mysterious disease outbreak in China baffles WHO

17:13 27 July 2005
NewScientist.com
news service
Anna Gosline

The death toll from a hitherto rare disease has risen to 24 in southwest China, with more than 117 people feared infected. Chinese health officials report that the disease is caused by known bacteria from pigs, though the size and virulence of the outbreak has baffled the World Health Organization.

"It's never occurred in an outbreak this big before," WHO spokesman Bob Dietz told AFP. "We're accustomed to seeing only one or two cases. We're not accustomed to this large number of people getting infected. And we don't understand why that is."

The disease is believed to be caused by the pig bacterium Streptococcus suis. The first cases surfaced in June 2005 in two cities in China’s Sichuan province. All cases were either farmers that had butchered infected pigs or people who later handled the contaminated pork products, says the Chinese Ministry of Health. No person-to-person transmission has been reported.

High mortality rateThe first recorded human case of S. suis was in Denmark in 1968. Only 200 cases have been reported since then, excluding the current outbreak. Dick Thompson, a WHO spokesman in Geneva, says full laboratory reports on the 76 confirmed and 41 suspected infections will help experts to understand why this outbreak has grown so large and deadly. They will look for co-infection with other pathogens and attempt to solidify the diagnosis and extent of the outbreak, he told New Scientist.

Symptoms of the disease include high fever, nausea, vomiting and haemorrhaging. The high mortality rate is worrying – nearly one third confirmed cases have since died. A Chinese Health Ministry spokesman, Mao Qun’an told the paper China Daily that the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention are searching for more effective treatments.

According to investigations in China, the infected pigs are thought to have come from up to 300 different farms, which were then spread across 70 areas in and around the two cities of Ziyang and Neijiang. No cases have been reported outside these areas.

Sichuan is China’s second largest pork producing province. All 469 infected pigs have been buried and pork exports have been suspended from the areas invloved. The Health Ministry is urging people not to process or slaughter infected animals in an effort to contain the spread

posted by ... @ 11:59 AM 0 comments

Nearly all of Illinois declared drought disaster

SOTT

ReutersWed Jul 27
8:53 PM ET WASHINGTON -

The U.S. Agriculture Department on Wednesday declared virtually all of Illinois a disaster area eligible for low-interest loans because of crops withered by this summer's drought.

Only one county -- Alexander County in the southernmost tip of the state -- is not included in the disaster declaration.

"I am very pleased that USDA is able to offer this assistance to Illinois farmers and ranchers struggling due to the drought and look forward to visiting with them in the near future," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a statement.

Illinois has been gripped by drought ranked as "extreme" or "severe" in recent weeks by the U.S. Agriculture Department's weather experts. State rainfall from March through June was just 8.5 inches, about half the normal level.

On Monday, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, requested federal disaster aid. He said more than 117,000 farmers statewide have reported production losses, including 74,000 who estimated the drought would destroy at least one-third of their crops.

Last year, Illinois was the nation's second largest corn producer, harvesting nearly 20 percent of the record 11.8 billion bushel U.S. crop. [...]

LINK

posted by ... @ 11:55 AM 0 comments

Fireball Streaks Across Oregan Skies Tuesday

SOTT

7/19/2005Koin.com

PORTLAND -- According to the Cascade Meteorite Lab at Portland State University, a fireball streaked across the sky at 2:17 p.m.
The fireball was seen in Portland, Medford and most likely most places in between.

A fireball is a meteorite that has entered our atmosphere and is burning up. Most times it burns up totally before hitting the ground but once in a while we get a meteorite that lands on earth.

If you saw the fireball, the lab would like to hear from you. You can call them at (503) 287-6733.

posted by ... @ 4:59 PM 0 comments

Meteor seen in Siskiyou Skies

From SOTT

Wednesday, July 20, 2005Siskiyou Daily

YREKA - At 2:20 Tuesday afternoon, callers began alerting Yreka police and the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Department to a "fire ball" that had come from the sky and believed to have landed near the city's corporation yard.

A golfer at the Rogue Valley Country Club in Medford, Ore. was getting ready to make a shot off the second tee, when he reported seeing a flaming object with "blue and red flames coming off of it," fall from the sky. That observer thought that the object had fallen somewhere near Shady Cove, Ore.

Callers also contacted the National Weather Service offices in Medford and Roseburg, Ore. to report the sighting.

posted by ... @ 4:48 PM 0 comments

Melting Greenland glacier may hasten rise in sea level

By Steve Connor,
Science EditorPublished:
25 July 2005

Scientists monitoring a glacier in Greenland have found it is moving into the sea three times faster than a decade ago.
Satellite measurements of the Kangerdlugssuaq glacier show that, as well as moving more rapidly, the glacier's boundary is shrinking dramatically - probably because of melting brought about by climate change.

LINK to story

posted by ... @ 3:23 PM 0 comments

Mysterious pelican deaths in US worry scientists

New York

The sudden death of at least 8,000 white pelican chicks and the ensuing departure of about 16,000 adult pelicans from three nesting islands in a US nature reserve is puzzling scientists.

Inspections at the Chase Lake natural wildlife reserve in the northern central state of North Dakota revealed that only about 500 chicks are left over from the 9,000 that were expected during the summer, while 2,000 adults remain from the original 18,000-pelican population.

Samples from the dead birds have been sent to a laboratory in Wisconsin and scientists hope that they will yield some answers, according to the Bismarck Tribune.

Shortly before chicks started dying in early July, a storm with unusually strong winds and rainfall swept over the refuge and may be to blame, scientists said.

Other nature reserves, such as the Waubay Refuge in neighbouring South Dakota and the Medicine Lake National Refuge in northeast Montana, have seen similar pelican deaths, which have been blamed on the West Nile virus.

Thousands of pelican chicks died at the Chase Lake refuge last year, when 30,000 adult pelicans flew away in the spring, abandoning their eggs and live young in the spring without apparent reason.

Despite these high losses, the pelican population is not yet endangered, according to biologist Marsha Sovada of the US Geological Survey's Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Centre in Jamestown, North Dakota.

North Dakota has recorded a 19.8 percent yearly increase in its white pelican population for years. Nationally, that number has been increasing by 3.4 percent since 1996.

posted by ... @ 12:23 PM 0 comments

Quake hits India; tsunami warning posted

July 24, 2005

NEW DELHI --A major earthquake of at least 7.0 magnitude hit India's southern Nicobar Islands on Sunday, prompting Thailand to issue a tsunami warning for the region devastated by December's earthquake and tsunami.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damages. No tsunami has been reported. The islands are in the Indian Ocean between India and Thailand.

The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., reported an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude hit near the Nicobar Islands. The quake was centered about 80 miles west of Misha, Nicobar Island.
The earthquake was of magnitude 7.2, struck at 9:12 p.m. and was centered in Nicobar, said I. B. A. Rao, a duty officer in New Delhi's Meteorology Department.

The quake also jolted the southern Indian state of Madras.
"There is nothing to worry about," India's Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said.

The region was the worst hit in India by the Dec. 26 tsunami that killed about 180,000 people in 11 countries.

Thailand's warning was for the Indian Ocean.
"There can be a local tsunami, but no such activity has been noticed in the region," said S. K. Bhatnagar, deputy director-general of India's Meteorology Department in New Delhi.

Samir Acharya, head of a nongovernmental organization in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said: "Everything is fine. I haven't heard of any damage."
"My driver ran up to my house and said some people had come out on the roads," said Acharya, who works with the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology.

posted by ... @ 11:54 AM 0 comments

Massive Dust Cloud Heads To U.S.

Saturday, July 23, 2005; Posted: 7:26 p.m. EDT (23:26 GMT)

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- An enormous, hazy cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert is blowing toward the southern United States, but meteorologists do not expect much effect beyond colorful sunsets.

The leading edge of the cloud -- nearly the size of the continental United States -- should move across Florida sometime from Monday through Wednesday.

"This is not going to be a tremendous event, but it will be kind of interesting," said Jim Lushine, a severe weather expert with the National Weather Service in Miami.

He said the dust could make sunrises and sunsets spectacular.
It might not have much effect on the rest of the country, said Scott Kelly, a meteorologist with the weather service in Melbourne.

"Maybe south Texas or Mexico if that dust cloud keeps moving westward, but nothing north of Florida, unless a weather system can dive southward and pull that air northward," he said.

Such dust clouds are not uncommon, especially at this time of year. They start when weather patterns called tropical waves pick up dust from the desert in North Africa, carry it a couple of miles into the atmosphere and drift westward.

If the dust is concentrated enough, it could create some problems for people with respiratory problems, said Ken Larson, a natural resource specialist with the Broward County Environmental Protection Department.

"If somebody is subject to a respiratory condition, if they see hazy skies, they might want to take a little more precaution, not participate in strenuous activity and stay indoors," Larson said.

posted by ... @ 10:57 AM 0 comments

Strong Quake Hits Near Tokyo; 27 Injured

By Associated Press
July 23, 2005, 11:00 AM EDT

TOKYO -- A magnitude-6.0 earthquake shook the Tokyo area Saturday, injuring at least 27 people, rattling buildings across the sprawling capital and temporarily suspending flights and train services.

The earthquake struck at 4:35 p.m. (3:35 a.m. EDT) and was centered about 55 miles underground in Chiba prefecture, just east of Tokyo, Japan's Meteorological Agency said. There was no danger of tsunami, the agency said.

The quake was the strongest to hit the capital since 1992 as measured on Japan's sliding scale of tremor intensity, the Kyodo News agency reported.
The quake injured at least 27 people, including five people hit by a falling signboard at a supermarket in neighboring Saitama prefecture, Kyodo said. There were some 50 cases of people briefly trapped in elevators.
The Meteorological Agency gave the quake an initial reading of magnitude 5.7 but later upgraded its strength.

Power in eastern Japan was not disrupted but Tokyo's main international airport in Narita briefly closed its runways. Bullet trains between Tokyo and western coastal areas also were suspended, but air and train services resumed later in the evening.

Tokyo has not suffered a major earthquake since a 1923 temblor that killed 140,000 people, but many experts say the capital is overdue for another strong quake. A government report last year said a powerful earthquake under Tokyo could kill as many as 12,000 people and destroy 850,000 homes.

Japan sits at the juncture of four tectonic plates, or moving slabs of the earth's outer crust, and is one of the world's most quake-prone regions.
A magnitude-5 quake can damage homes and other buildings if it is centered in a heavily populated area. A magnitude-6.8 temblor struck the northern Japanese prefecture of Niigata last October, killing 40 people and injured more than 2,700.

posted by ... @ 9:09 AM 0 comments

Plague of locusts threatens Italian vineyards

I had no idea that swarms of locusts could move that fast.

By John Phillips in Rome
Published: 23 July 2005

Freak swarms of locusts devouring vineyards in and around the northern Italian province of Alessandria, sometimes moving at speeds of up to 30mph, are threatening this year's production of a venerable wine.

The centre of the locust invasion is the town of Cerrina on the border between the provinces of Alessandria and Asti, the home of the famous Barbera label as well as sparkling Spumante wine.

LINK

posted by ... @ 12:04 PM 0 comments

Strange weather disrupts marine ecosystems along Pacific Coast

TERENCE CHEA
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - Marine biologists are spotting ominous signs all along the Pacific Coast this year: higher nearshore ocean temperatures, plummeting catches of groundfish, an explosion of dead birds on coastal beaches, and perhaps most disturbing, very few plankton - the tiny critters that form the basis of the ocean's intricate food web.

From California to British Columbia, unusual weather patterns have disrupted the marine ecosystem, scientists say. The normal northerly winds failed to show up this year, preventing the usual upwelling of colder water that sustains the plankton, and in turn, many other species from anchovies to cormorants to whales.

Is this just a strange year, or is this what global warming looks like? Few scientists are willing to blame the plankton collapse on the worldwide rise in temperatures attributed to carbon dioxide and other gases believed to trap heat in the earth's atmosphere. Yet few are willing to rule it out.
If these patterns continue, it could show that something in the atmosphere - and the Pacific Ocean - has permanently changed, with serious consequences for coastal birds, fish and marine mammals.
"These natural changes can teach us a lot about what might happen if global warming came along," said Francisco Chavez, an oceanographer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. "That global change is going to affect the ocean is a given. We just don't know how or what the effects will be."

It may be just an unusual year. Similar ecological signs have appeared during El Nino years, when increased sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific alter weather patterns worldwide. But scientists say the West Coast hasn't had El Nino conditions this year.

"There are strange things happening, but we don't really understand how all the pieces fit together," said Jane Lubchenco, a zoologist and climate change expert at Oregon State University. "It's hard to say whether any single event is just an anomaly or a real indication of something serious happening."

The Pacific Coast ecosystem depends on winds blowing south along the coast to push warmer surface waters away from shore. This allows colder, nutrient-rich water from the ocean bottom to rise and feed massive blooms of phytoplankton, which are eaten by zooplankton including krill, the staple of many larger species, from sardines to whales.
This year, the winds have been unusually weak, failing to generate much upwelling.

As a result, nearshore waters are 5 to 7 degrees higher than normal and Oregon's coastal waters have only produced about one-fourth the total mass of phytoplankton generated in most years, said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Newport, Ore.

"There are just a lot fewer of them, and that problem works its way up the food chain," Peterson said. "We're a little concerned because we haven't seen this before, so we can't predict when it's going to go away."
Also, researchers are spotting warm-water fish much closer to shore, as well as subtropical plankton species rarely seen so far north, Peterson said.

Seabirds are clearly distressed. On the Farallon Islands west of San Francisco, researchers this spring noted a steep decrease in nesting cormorants as well as a 90 percent drop in Cassin's auklets - the worst in more than 35 years of monitoring. The relatively rare birds, which feed mostly on krill, have since returned, but came too late for successful breeding this year, said Jaime Jahnke, a researcher with the Point Reyes Bird Observatory.

"We don't know what's going on," Jahnke said. "If this is the result of some kind of large climate phenomenon that we don't know about, it's important to document it and understand what's causing it."
On Washington state's Tatoosh Island, common murres - a species so sensitive to disruptions that scientists consider it a harbinger of ecological change - started breeding nearly a month late. It was the longest delay recorded in 15 years of monitoring, said Julia Parrish, a seabird ecologist at the University of Washington, Seattle.

More disturbingly, researchers have reported a sharp increase in dead birds washing up on the shores of California, Oregon and Washington.
Along Monterey Bay in Central California, there are four times as many dead birds such as Cassin's auklets, common murres and Brandt's cormorants than in most years, said Hannah Nevins, a marine scientist at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.

"Basically, they're not finding enough food, and they use up the energy that's stored in their muscles, liver and body fat," Nevins said. "It's a level of mortality that's significantly above our long-term average over the last seven years."

On the Oregon and Washington coasts, volunteers found one dead Brandt's cormorant every 1.3 kilometers, compared with every 50 kilometers in most years, and logged a sixfold increase in common murre mortality, Parrish said.

"The bottom has fallen out of the coastal food chain, and there's just not enough food out there," Parrish said. "We're seeing these stress signals. (The birds) are delaying breeding, they're abandoning their colonies and they're washing up on beaches. They're basically dying. They're way stressed out."

Fish appear to be feeling the effects, too. NOAA surveys show a 20 percent to 30 percent drop in juvenile salmon off the coasts of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia this June and July, compared with the average count over the previous six years.

And researchers counted the lowest number of juvenile rockfish in more than 20 years of monitoring in Central and Northern California - fewer than 100 caught between San Luis Obispo and Fort Bragg this year, compared with "several thousand" last year, said National Marine Fisheries Service biologist Keith Sakuma.

"This year was the worst year ever because the rockfish depend on the upwelling," Sakuma said.

Most scientists are reluctant to ascribe this year's weak northerly winds to global warming. Climate change is believed to be a gradual process, and what's happening this year is relatively sudden. Scientists also differ on whether global warming will increase or decrease the intensity of such winds.

Whatever the cause, it may be related to a weather pattern that brought record rainfalls to California and unusually dry, warm weather to the Pacific Northwest, said Nathan Mantua, a climate expert at the University of Washington, Seattle.

It's too soon to draw conclusions. Scientists can do little more than take notes, and wait.

"To me, it really points out how uncertain our speculation is about global warming's impact on these upwelling systems," Mantua said. "If we did see this next year, the notion that global warming plays a role in this carries more weight."

posted by ... @ 12:01 PM 0 comments

Thailand Detects 2nd Bird-Flu Outbreak in Less Than Two Weeks

July 22 (Bloomberg)

-- Thailand found a strain of bird flu deadly to humans, the nation's second outbreak in less than two weeks, after the government this month confirmed a resurgence of the illness among poultry.

Chicken in Kamphaeng Phet province, 360 kilometers (217 miles) north of Bangkok, tested positive for the H5N1 virus on July 21, the Livestock Department said on its Web site. The agency on July 11 reported bird flu in Suphan Buri province, about 100 kilometers west of Bangkok, its first finding of the virus since April.

LINK

posted by ... @ 8:44 PM 0 comments

Bird flu pandemic a real danger, Autralian Government Prepares

Bird flu pandemic
a real danger
Jul 22 16:35AAP


The federal government will spend almost $5 million to speed up development of a bird flu vaccine for Australia, Health Minister Tony Abbott said today.

Bird flu, which arrived in Asia in late 2003, has killed 56 people there and Indonesia confirmed its first three deaths from the virus on Wednesday.

Public health experts fear the avian flu virus is mutating and could develop the ability to spread easily between humans, with the potential to kill millions in a flu pandemic.

LINK

posted by ... @ 8:41 PM 0 comments

Bird-flu officials get fines, jail time

By CHUIN-WEI YAPStaff Writer

Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

BANGOR -- Four former top Maine Biological Laboratories executives received 1-year jail sentences, and fines ranging from $5,000 to $30,000, for a string of crimes that included smuggling a bird influenza virus from Saudi Arabia and covering up systemic abuses of U.S. health policy.

LINK to story

posted by ... @ 8:39 PM 0 comments

Hurricane Franklin or Tropical Storm Franklin

Sun-Sentinel
Posted July 21 2005,
5:12 PM EDT

The National Hurricane Center in Miami on Thursday afternoon reported that a ship in the vicinity of a strong tropical wave located just east of the central Bahamas has estimated that winds in the system were of tropical storm force.

Satellite and radar data from that area indicates the system has become better organized today, the center said in an e-mail advisory.
A U.S. Air Force Reserve unit reconnaissance aircraft is en route to determine if a tropical depression or tropical storm has developed. If so the storm will be called Franklin.

The most recent NHC report follows:

"A vigorous tropical wave is producing cloudiness and thunderstorms over central and southeastern Bahamas...the Turks and Caicos Islands...and adjacent waters of the western Atlantic Ocean. Thunderstorm activity has continued to increase and become better organzied...and surface observations...satellite imagery...and radar data suggest that a broad surface low pressure system may be forming over the central Bahamas. Upper-level winds are expected to gradually become more favorable...and a tropical depression or a tropical storm could form later today or tomorrow as the system moves generally west-northwestward at 10 to 15 mph. An Air Force Reserve unit reconnaissance aircraft will investigate the system this afternoon.
Also:

"A tropical wave is producing a large area of cloudiness and thunderstorms over the western caribeban sea and adjacent land areas of Central America. This system is expected to move west-northwestward over the Yucatan Peninsula...Belize...Guatemala ...And Honduras during the next day or two...bringing locally heavy rainfall to those areas. The wave may emerge over the Bay of Campeche in 2 or 3 days...at which time some additional development of the system would be possible. The latest news and advisories about Hurricane Franklin or Tropical Storm Franklin will be posted here if it forms during the 2005 hurricane season.

posted by ... @ 5:11 PM 0 comments

Wildfire Forces Evacuations Near Denver

From SOTT

By P. SOLOMON BANDA
Associated Press July 21, 2005
KIOWA, Colo. -

A fast-moving wildfire forced the evacuation of about 50 homes near Denver on Wednesday as flames blackened a landscape of rolling grasslands and ponderosa pines.

Deputies went door-to-door warning residents to leave a cluster of houses about 25 miles southeast of Denver. Two air tankers were dropping fire-retardant on the 800-acre blaze.

"It's doubling in size every two hours," Elbert County Sheriff Bill Frangis said. One firefighter suffered a heat-related injury, and one horse was burned, he said.

Fire crews worked quickly, containing the blaze by late evening.
"They got on it fast," said Larry Helmerick of the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.

Only two homes remained threatened. Officials were slowly allowing people to return home, but most remained evacuated. It was not known how the fire started.

Residents said small fires started by lightning were common in the area, where homes occupy lots up to 60 acres. Many property owners are experienced in putting the blazes out themselves.

Hank Smith said he spent about two hours throwing dirt on the fire to stop it from advancing. He got so close, he said, that "when I pushed my glasses up, it burned my eyebrows."

Eleven fire departments battled the flames, which were being driven by winds of 10 to 15 mph that authorities feared could strengthen to 30 to 35 mph.

Firefighters were hampered by relentless heat. Denver reached 105 on Wednesday, tying the all-time record for hottest day, set on Aug. 8, 1878, according to the National Weather Service. It was the second straight day of triple-digit temperatures, far above the normal highs in the upper 80s.
Elsewhere Wednesday, fire crews battled two blazes near Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado and braced for the possibility that lightning could spark new blazes.

Fire information officer Jen Chase said trees were so dry that the probability of lightning starting a fire was 100 percent, and any new fires were likely to spread quickly.

A nearly 200-acre lightning-caused fire on the Ute Mountain Ute Indian reservation was 70 percent contained, and a second blaze on the reservation covering 2,318 acres was 85 percent contained.
Crews used tactics to avoid damaging fragile archaeological sites and artifacts, dropping retardant from the air.

Archaeological treasures on the reservation rival those at Mesa Verde National Park, said Tom Rice, the tribe's resource adviser. They include cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, stone tools and pottery.

In southern Arizona, a 22,500-acre fire was about 75 percent contained, thanks to burnouts and heavy rain, lessening the threat to about 30 homes and cabins and wildlife habitat in Madera Canyon.

Full containment of the blaze was expected by Thursday evening, said fire spokeswoman Donna Nemeth.

In northern California, firefighters contained a wind-blown wildfire that grew to more than 10,000 acres early Wednesday but burned past a nuclear weapons laboratory and some 500 homes without causing major damage, said Chopper Snyder, a California Department of Forestry dispatcher.

The fire left the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory untouched after an initial scare. Officials at the lab had declared an emergency, allowing other agencies to help protect an experimental test site at the facility.
In Oregon, firefighters battled a 5,000-acre blaze on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. The fire was not threatening any homes, but "it's got an awful lot of potential," said Gary Cooke, fire administrator for the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs.

Rafting along the nearby Deschutes River had been suspended, but by Wednesday officials allowed rafters to return. Monitors stood on the banks with bullhorns to help rafters stay out of the way of helicopters that dipped for water.

The National Interagency Fire Center said 36 large fires were active Wednesday in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. Nearly 3.9 million acres of land has been burned so far this year, compared with 4.4 million at this time last year.

posted by ... @ 10:48 AM 0 comments

Drought and locust plague leave Niger on the brink of famine

By Meera Selva, Africa CorrespondentPublished:
20 July 2005

More than 3.5 million people in Niger are on the verge of starving to death, after a plague of locusts and a punishing drought destroyed last year's harvest.

Aid agencies have warned that one in 10 children in the worst affected areas will die as a result of the official reluctance to act sooner to prevent famine. The government of Niger, the second poorest country in the world, warned last November that it would need help feeding 3.6 million people, including 800,000 children under five.

But while aid flooded into high-profile conflict areas such as Darfur in Sudan, Niger's pleas for help for a quarter of its population went unheard.
Jan Egeland, the outspoken UN under-secretary general, said last month that Niger was "the number one forgotten and neglected emergency in the world" and criticised international donor countries for ignoring his appeal for $16.2m (£9.3m) in emergency food assistance. By mid-July, the UN had received only $3.8m, even though more than 150,000 children are said to be severely malnourished. Most of these will now die before they can be fed.

Link to full Story

posted by ... @ 11:43 AM 0 comments

Ice Shelf Collapse Reveals New Undersea World

LiveScience Staff Writer
18 July 2005 01:54 pm ET

The collapse of a giant ice shelf in Antarctica has revealed a thriving ecosystem half a mile below the sea.

Despite near freezing and sunless conditions, a community of clams and a thin layer of bacterial mats are flourishing in undersea sediments.
"Seeing these organisms on the ocean bottom -- it's like lifting the carpet off the floor and finding a layer that you never knew was there," said Eugene Domack of Hamilton College.

Domack is the lead author on the report of the finding in the July 19 issue of Eos, the weekly newspaper of the American Geophysical Union.
The discovery was accidental. U.S. Antarctic Program scientists were in the northwestern Weddell Sea investigating the sediment record in a deep glacial trough twice the size of Texas. The trough was unveiled in the 2002 Larsen B ice shelf collapse.

Toward the end of the expedition the crew recorded a video of the sea floor. Later analysis of the video showed the clams and bacteria growing around mud volcanoes.

Since light could not penetrate the ice or water, these organisms do not use photosynthesis to make energy. Instead, these extreme creatures get their energy from methane, Domack said today.

The methane is produced inside the Earth and is distributed to the sea floor by underwater vents.

This type of ecosystem is known as a "cold-seep" or a "cold-vent." The first of its kind was discovered in 1984 near Monterey, California. Since then, similar ecosystems have been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Sea of Japan.

This recent discovery is the first cold-seep to be described in the Antarctic. The nearly pristine conditions -- which have been undisturbed for nearly 10,000 years -- will serve as a baseline for researchers probing other parts of the ocean. They better hurry though -- debris from the iceberg calving has already begun to bury some of the area.
Domack hopes to find new species and that this discovery will open the door to future Antarctic expeditions, specifically into Lake Vostok, a freshwater lake that sits two miles below the surface.

Any knowledge gained from studies into Antarctic life could help researchers search for life in other subterranean water locations on Earth. And, experts say, this research could better prepare scientists to examine the hypothesized ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa or on Saturn's moon Titan.

Signs Of The Times

posted by ... @ 11:35 AM 0 comments

Emily picks up steam in Gulf of Mexico

Hurricane warning in effect for lower Texas coast

Tuesday, July 19, 2005; Posted: 8:11 p.m. EDT (00:11 GMT)
CNN) -- Hurricane Emily regained strength as it moved toward the Mexican coast Tuesday and was expected to gain strength before a predicted landfall in the northeast Wednesday morning, forecasters said.
Emily has become better organized as it draws strength from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, growing into a "major" Category 3 storm, said the center, warning that with some additional strengthening, the storm could become a Category 4.

At 7 p.m. ET, Emily was centered 135 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas, with top sustained winds of 125 mph, the center reported.
Hurricane warnings stretched from Port Mansfield, Texas, to La Cruz, Mexico, and tropical storm warnings extended south to the Mexican beach town of Cabo Rojo and northward to Baffin Bay, Texas.

A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are expected within the next 24 hours, while a hurricane watch means such conditions are possible within 36 hours.

The storm, which crossed the Yucatan Peninsula on Monday, was moving west-northwest at 12 mph. It was expected to take a gradual turn to the west late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Hurricane-force winds extended 60 miles outward from its center, while tropical storm winds extended out 160 miles.

Forecasters predicted a coastal storm surge of up to 11 feet above normal tide levels, along with large and battering waves, near and to the north where Emily's eye makes landfall.

If the storm follows that forecast, Texas residents would be safe from a direct hit from the storm -- but residents of the lower Rio Grande Valley were warned they could receive 4 to 8 inches of rain, with up to 12 inches in isolated pockets.

Forecasters expect 5 to 10 inches in northeastern Mexico, with 15 inches possible in some areas.

Southern Texas and northeastern Mexico were already seeing heavy rainfall and wind gusts from the storm's outer rain bands.
Isolated tornadoes are also possible in southern Texas either Tuesday or Wednesday, forecasters said.

Category 3 hurricanes -- those with wind speeds of 111 mph to 130 mph -- can cause structural damage to small residences and utility buildings, blow down large trees and extensively damage mobile homes.

Some residents of South Padre Island began to gear up for Emily's approach by boarding up windows and gathering sandbags.
"The worst-case scenario is if the hurricane would turn north on us," said Dan Quant, an official for the island.

Families living in recreational vehicle parks were ordered to evacuate.
Brownsville Mayor Eddie Trevino said that city officials had been preparing for the storm's arrival for days.

"We've been doing everything -- preparing sandbags, cleaning drainage," Trevino said. "We've been advising people in low-lying areas to get to higher ground."

City spokesman Bill Young said three shelters were open in Brownsville. But Trevino said he did not plan to order an evacuation, partly due to road construction in the area.

At least 225 Texas Army National Guard soldiers were activated in case they are needed for hurricane duty, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry told The Associated Press.

An additional 100 Texas State Guard personnel are on standby, according to the AP.

Emily began July 10 as a tropical depression far out in the Atlantic Ocean. By Thursday, when it crossed the Windward Islands into the Caribbean, the storm was a full-fledged hurricane, blamed for one death in Grenada.
As it moved west, Emily picked up strength dramatically. At least two people were killed in Jamaica as the storm passed by the island to the south.

Early Monday, the hurricane blasted ashore in the beach resort areas of Quintana Roo state with 135 mph winds, then weakened considerably as it moved across the Yucatan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico.
Police have so far reported no fatalities from Emily in the coastal areas of Mexico, popular with U.S. tourists. Thousands of locals and tourists emerged Monday afternoon after spending the night crammed in shelters.

In Playa del Carmen, a resort south of Cancun, the hurricane downed trees and blew roofs off bungalows, but there appeared to be little structural damage.

Gary Swindler, a Texan who weathered the hurricane with his family in Cozumel, said their hotel was not substantially damaged, though he could see downed trees and debris on the street outside.

"I wouldn't want to go through it again, but it turned out for the best," he said.

Emily's northern eye wall -- the strongest part of the storm -- passed directly over Cozumel.

So far, the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season has been particularly active, with five named storms developing in the first six weeks. Two of them -- Emily and Dennis -- developed into major hurricanes

posted by ... @ 6:46 PM 0 comments

Recipe for extinction

By John Kaminski
skylax@comcast.net

I have a recurring dream. I am on an airplane, sitting in a window seat, gazing contentedly out the window at the tops of puffy clouds and microscopic towns far below, gabbing amiably with the passenger next to me. Soon it becomes apparent that we disagree about our scheduled destination. He insists it's L.A.; I say New York.

As I begin to stir in my seat to get up to ask a flight attendant to settle our dispute, we notice the busy stewardesses are conducting an odd exercise. With polite smiles, they are choosing random passengers one by one, and escorting them to the emergency escape hatch. First a boy clutching his skateboard, then a middle-aged woman in a black business suit, then a soccer mom grasping the small hand of her toddler, all willingly step out into thin air as their guides bid them a cordial farewell.

Incredulous, I lurch to the far window and witness a Mary Poppins-like trail of passengers plummeting toward the ground. Panicked, I turn back to my seatmate, and he returns my look of horror with an empty-headed, nothing-is-wrong smile. Apoplectic, I race feverishly toward the cockpit, wrench open the cabin door, and discover there is no one inside. The pilots' seats are empty.

Astonished, I whirl around and find myself face-to-face with a mannequin stewardess. "Don't you just love autopilot?" she mutters dreamily. "You know, you just have to have faith. Here, let me show you the door to your future."
•••
How much longer, I wonder constantly, will seemingly sensible and honest people continue to put up with this perverted political passion play now besieging the world that is so obviously detrimental to the needs of average people, even willfully destructive of those needs?

The dire predictions of so-called conspiracy theorists are all coming true: senseless wars are being created with transparent lies for the profits of a select few; the populace is infected with obvious poisons from both the medical profession and the food industry who because of recently passed laws are immune from legal action by the victims of these cruel concoctions; and our money is being steadily stolen by inbred elitist bankers who use accounting sleight-of-hand to funnel currency to that same small segment of the population who all seem to be immune from laws that guarantee poverty for the rest of us.

LINK to full story

posted by ... @ 11:21 AM 0 comments

Large Scale Evacutation of Coast, Offshore Oil Platforms as Hurrican Emily Approaches Cancun.

APJuly 17, 2005


CANCUN, Mexico (AP) - Mexico launched a massive evacuation of tourists from one of the world´s biggest resorts on Sunday as Hurricane Emily bypassed the Cayman Islands and bored down on the Yucatan peninsula, packing 150 mph (240 kph) winds.

Emily swept away four people in a car in Jamaica, police said Sunday, then made a jag to the south that spared the Caymans as it set course for Mexico. Two people were killed in a helicopter crashed on the Gulf of Mexico as more than 15,500 workers were evacuated from off-shore oil platforms.

With the Category 4 storm expected to land near Cancun on Sunday night or early Monday, a fleet of buses began to move 30,000 tourists in Cancun to temporary shelters, while 70,000 to 80,000 more people were being evacuated statewide.

Hundreds of tourists clutching pillows waded out of hotels in the twilight hours Sunday morning, waiting in a light drizzle to be loaded aboard buses bound for safer ground.

"It´s a little scary because it´s happening in Mexico," said Brittney Denhart, 23, a recent college graduate from San Diego. "If it was on U.S. soil, it would be a little more reassuring. We don´t know what the level of planning is."

Tourism and hotel association officials had said tourists would be relocated to ballrooms and convention centers in larger, well-protected hotels, but the first wave of evacuees was ferried to gymnasiums and government schools.

Hundreds of mostly foreign tourists lay shoulder-to-shoulder on thin foam pads in a sweltering gymnasium near the center of Cancun. They were given free bottled water and sandwiches, but many gasped when a hard rain rattled the metal roof of the building. Some asked how long they would have to stay in the confines.

"It´s hot in here," said Beth McGhee, 46, a tourist from Independence, Missouri. "We feel like we´ve been kept in the dark until this morning. But we´re safe, and that´s what´s important."

In Jamaica, torrential rains drenched the south coast and washed away at least three houses, while four people were believed killed Saturday night.
The four - a man, a woman, an infant boy and his 5-year-old sister - were driving through a flooded rural road in southwest Jamaica when a surge of water pushed them over a cliff, police said. They were searching the area Sunday to recover the bodies.

Although the Cayman Islands appeared to escape major damage Saturday, the area was devastated last year, as where a handful of other Caribbean countries when three catastrophic hurricanes - Frances, Ivan and Jeanne - tore through the region with a collective ferocity not seen in years, causing hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars in damage.

Along the narrow spit of land that holds most of Cancun´s palatial hotels, workers scrambled to board up businesses and remove traffic lights that otherwise could becoming wind-borne projectiles.

Cancun´s grim-faced mayor, Francisco Alor, said the city was preparing for a near-direct hit by Emily.

"This hurricane is coming with same force as Gilbert," he said in reference to a notorious 1988 hurricane that killed 300 people in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Late Sunday morning, Emily was about 250 miles (405 kilometers) east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, approaching the Yucatan peninsula at about 20 mph (32 kph).

Hurricane-force winds extended up to 50 miles (95 kilometers) and tropical storm force winds another 150 miles (240 kilometers).
The last time Cancun faced a mass evacuation was 1988, when the city and surrounding resort areas were still fairly new and had only about 8,000 hotel rooms; that number has since grown to over 50,000.

Emily is expected to cross over the Yucatan peninsula before passing over the Gulf and striking again near the U.S. Mexico border later in the week.
On the island of Cozumel, just south of Cancun, tourists in beach-side hotels were moved to accommodations closer to the center of the island, which lies almost directly in the hurricane´s projected path.

Local residents also were expected to flee their homes to some of about 170 schools and community centers. Authorities said they had enough food ready to feed 60,000 to 70,000 people.

President Vicente Fox encouraged residents of the Yucatan peninsula to seek shelter and not worry about leaving property and possessions unguarded.

"That´s what the army is for," said Fox, in comments broadcast over national radio Sunday.

Tourists streamed out of the Cancun airport Saturday, and the terminal could close Sunday.

State oil company Pemex on Sunday was weighing whether to remove its last few hundred workers from oil platforms on the Gulf of Mexico. Strong winds downed a helicopter participating in the evacuation on Saturday night, killing a pilot and co-pilot, Pemex announced on Sunday.

The platform evacuations involved closing 63 wells and halting the production of 480,000 barrels of oil per day.

On its passage through the Caribbean, Emily´s winds ravaged hundreds of homes on the island of Grenada, killing at least one man there whose home was buried under a landslide.

Mexican authorities had evacuated some tourists from the mainland resorts of Tulum and Playa de Carmen, south of Cancun, in some cases sending them as far away as Valladolid, a Yucatan city 100 miles (160 kms) inland.

About 1,800 people were evacuated from the islands of Contoy and Holbox, just off the coast.

posted by ... @ 2:46 PM 0 comments

T-shirts on for an Artic heatwave

Robin McKie reports from Svalbard where scientists have been sunbathing in record temperatures of almost 20C

Sunday July 17, 2005The Observer

These are unusual times for Ny-Alesund, the world's most northerly community. Perched high above the Arctic Circle, on Svalbard, normally a place gripped by shrieking winds and blizzards, it was caught in a heatwave a few days ago. Temperatures soared to the highest ever recorded here, an extraordinary 19.6C, a full degree-and-a-half above the previous record. Researchers lolled in T-shirts and soaked up the sun: a high life in the high Arctic.

It was an extraordinary vision, for this huddle of multi-coloured wooden huts - a community of different Arctic stations run by various countries and perched at the edge of a remote, glacier-rimmed fjord - is only 600 miles from the North Pole.

LINK to full story

posted by ... @ 12:40 PM 0 comments

Plague of locusts invades France

Record numbers of the voracious insects are devouring crops

Alex Duval Smith in ParisSunday July 17, 2005The Observer

In a devastating new twist to the severe drought hitting southern Europe, France is now fighting a plague of hundreds of thousands of locusts which are devouring everything from crops to flowers in village window boxes. The worst invasion by the voracious insects is centred on Saint-Affrique in the Aveyron region where, for the first time since 1987, hundreds of thousands have hatched in the last week.

posted by ... @ 12:37 PM 0 comments

Bush's speech on Iraq draws smallest audience in U.S. survery

www.chinaview.cn
2005-06-30
13:13:37 LOS ANGELES,
June 29 (Xinhuanet) --

US President George W. Bush's latest address to call Americans to stand firm in Iraq drew the smallest US TV audience of his tenure, according to a study released in New York on Wednesday.

Nielsen Media Research, a media tracking company headquartered in New York, US, said that an estimated 23 million television viewers tuned in to Bush's half hour speech on the Iraq war on Tuesday night. [...]

LINK

posted by ... @ 3:34 PM 0 comments

THE LIE OF THE CENTURY

HANG ON TO YOUR SANITY

The Downing Street Memo is only the beginning of the proof we were all lied to.

Powell claimed that the Iraqis had 8,500 liters (2245 gallons) of Anthrax. None was ever found.

Powell claimed that Iraq was building long-range remote drones specifically designed to carry biological weapons. The only drones found were short-range reconnaissance drones.

Powell claimed that Iraq had an aggregate of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical and biological warfare agents. Powell gave no basis for that claim at all, and a DIA report issued the same time directly contradicted the claim. No biological or chemical weapons were found in Iraq following the invasion.

Powell claimed that "unnamed sources" confirmed that Saddam had authorized his field commanders to use biological weapons. No such weapons were ever used by the Iraqis to defend against the invasion and, of course, none were ever found in Iraq.

Powell claimed that 122mm warheads found by the UN inspectors were chemical weapons. The warheads were empty, and showed no signs of ever having contained chemical weapons.

Powell claimed that Iraq had a secret force of illegal long-range Scud missiles. None were ever found.

Powell claimed to have an audio tape proving that Saddam was supporting Osama Bin Laden. But independent translation of the tape revealed Osama's wish for Saddam's death.

Colin Powell's UN debacle also included spy photos taken from high flying aircraft and spacecraft. On the photos were circles and arrows and labels pointing to various fuzzy white blobs and identifying them as laboratories and storage areas for Saddam's massive weapons of mass destruction program. Nothing in the photos actually suggested what the blobby shapes were and inspections which followed the invasion, all of them turned out to be rather benign.

In at least one case, the satellite Powell claimed had taken one of the pictures had actually been out of operation at the time. And many questioned why Powell was showing black and white photos when the satellites in use at the time over Iraq took color images.

Link to full article

posted by ... @ 11:28 AM 0 comments

Emily Strengthens to Category 4 Storm

By MICHAEL BASCOMBE
Associated Press
Fri Jul 15, 2:48 AM ET

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada - Hurricane Emily grew even more powerful Friday after slamming into Grenada, tearing up crops, flooding streets and striking at homes still under repair from last year's storms. At least one man was killed.

The storm strengthened to a dangerous Category 4 after it cleared the Windward Islands, unleashing heavy surf, gusty winds and torrential rains on islands hundreds of miles away: Trinidad in the south, nearby Venezuela, to the west and Dominican Republic in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.
LINK

posted by ... @ 1:46 PM 0 comments

Dead Birds Do Tell Tales

Associated Press
08:59 AM Jul. 14, 2005 PT

With a record number of dead seabirds washing up on West Coast beaches from Central California to British Columbia, marine biologists are raising the alarm about rising ocean temperatures and dwindling plankton populations.

"Something big is going on out there," said Julia Parrish, an associate professor in the School of Aquatic Fisheries and Sciences at the University of Washington. "I'm left with no obvious smoking gun, but birds are a good signal because they feed high up on the food chain."

Link to full story

posted by ... @ 1:44 PM 0 comments

Asian quake tears 1,000km rupture

By Richard Black
BBC News
Environment Correspondent

The earthquake which triggered last December's Asian tsunami caused a rupture in the ocean floor more than 1,000km long, a new study reveals.

The finding is based on data gathered from Asian research stations which used GPS to monitor ground movements.
Scientists say they were surprised that such a large quake could happen in south-east Asia.

They tell Nature magazine that further studies into the behaviour of Asian earthquake zones would be prudent.

High accuracy

Full Story here

posted by ... @ 3:20 PM 0 comments

Triple Sunset: Planet Discovered in 3-Star System

In case you have not heard!

Michael Schirber
SPACE.com
Wed Jul 13, 2:07 PM ET

A newly discovered planet has bountiful sunshine, with not one, not two, but three suns glowing in its sky.

It is the first extrasolar planet found in a system with three stars. How a planet was born amidst these competing gravitational forces will be a challenge for planet formation theories.

"The environment in which this planet exists is quite spectacular," said Maciej Konacki from the California Institute of Technology. "With three suns, the sky view must be out of this world -- literally and figuratively."

LINK

posted by ... @ 3:03 PM 0 comments

Unexplained Hot Spot Heats Up Ground In SoCal

Portal to Hell

This article speculates that the hot spot may be caused from a "confluence of minerals." This is different from the article posted on 7-11. That article said a possible earthquake fault. What??...

(CBS 5) In Southern California, a unique and still unexplained hot spot the size of two football fields is producing temperatures above 400 degrees at the surface, and has started at least one brush fire.

The geologic mystery is 15 miles north of Santa Barbara, in the Dick Smith Wilderness area, deep within the Los Padres National Forest. The hot spot was discovered by fire crews putting out a fire last summer, and the source of the fire was traced to intense heat from the ground itself.

USGS hydrologist Dr. Robert Mariner hiked out to the hot spot, and found temperatures of 583 degrees Fahrenheit in fumerals -- or steam vents -- about ten or eleven feet down. That's hot enough to ignite wood, and it defied common knowledge.

"There's just no reason to have temperatures in fumerals that hot, unless you are dealing with a volcano," said Mariner.

Mariner says it's definitely not a volcano. But one theory is that a recent landslide exposed a unique combination of rocks to the air, triggering a chemical reaction.

"We kind of suspect it's a confluence of minerals and that got broken up just right to get the reaction going," said Mariner.

Mariner says the reaction might have been expected to consume itself by now and cool off, but that hasn't happened. So far, it might be easier to explain this as a portal to hell, than any other known geologic feature.

LINK

posted by ... @ 4:46 PM 0 comments

Sinkhole Opens In New Jersey Yard

Here is another report of a sinkhole, so we have one in Texas and now one in New Jersey.


POSTED: 8:53 am EDT July 11, 2005UPDATED: 12:10 pm EDT July 12, 2005

RINGWOOD, N.J. -- Officials were trying to determine Monday what caused a sinkhole to open up in a Ringwood homeowner's yard.

The hole is 20 feet in diameter, 15 feet deep and growing.
The earth opened up soon after Roger DeGroat had finished mowing the lawn on Saturday.
DeGroat might have been swallowed up had he not had to go inside to fix his grass trimmer, he told The Record of Bergen County.

Mayor Wenke Taule told the newspaper she would call various agencies to determine whether an old mine shaft runs under the property.

Officials said the hole poses a danger to children in the neighborhood who might be tempted to take a closer look.

posted by ... @ 3:59 PM 0 comments

Alert upgrade for Indonesian volcano

Things are heating up all over the planet it seems.

Last Updated 12/07/2005, 22:57:49

Indonesian scientists have upgraded an alert status for Mount Merapi volcano on Java island after almost 100 tremors were recorded at the weekend.

The volcano, which rises above plains north of Yogyakarta city in Central Java province, has emitted at least 95 tremors since Friday, forcing authorities to raise Merapi's status to alert level.

The tremors caused panic among residents on the northern slope of the volcano.

Officials have told residents to remain cautious and practice evacuation procedures.

Mount Merapi volcano is almost 3,000 metres high and has been rumbling intermittently during the past four years.

posted by ... @ 3:49 PM 0 comments

Sinkhole A Mystery To Geologist, TX-DOT says

What the heck is this thing?

7/10/05-Smith County

An update tonight on the giant sinkhole in Smith County.

TX-DOT tells KLTV the geologist it hired could not figure out what caused the sinkhole, but came up with some possibilities, including shifting sand or salt underground. Officials are still not commenting on whether the nearby oil drilling rig played any part.

TX-DOT says the hole has not grown since Thursday, when it remained at 105 feet wide.

They hope to hire a new geologist tomorrow, who they say should be able to determine a cause by the end of the month. Repairing the sinkhole should begin shortly after that.
Julie Tam, reporting.

posted by ... @ 4:28 PM 0 comments

Mysterious Hot Spots Sparks Fire

July 11, 2005 at 7:50 a.m.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) -- Scientists are puzzled by a mysterious Los Padres National Forest hot spot where 400-degree ground ignited a wildfire.

The hot spot was discovered by fire crews putting out a three-acre fire last summer in the forest's Dick Smith Wilderness.
"They saw fissures in the ground where they could feel a lot of heat coming out," Los Padres geologist Allen King said. "It was not characteristic of a normal fire."

Fire investigators went back to the canyon days later and stuck acandy thermometer into the ground. It hit the top of the scale, at400 degrees.A dozen scientists, including University of California, SantaBarbara, mineralogist Jim Boles, have been looking for answers sinceAugust. Robert Mariner, a U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist whostudies volcanic gas vents at Mt. Shasta, Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainierwas also called in.

"When I heard about the candy thermometer, I was amazed," Marinersaid, noting that the temperature of the volcanic vents he studiesis typically 200 degrees, around the boiling point of water. "Ithought these guys were pulling my leg."

With the help of an air reconnaissance flight and thermal infraredimaging, scientists found that the hot spot covers about threeacres. The hottest spot was 11 feet underground, at 584 degrees.They found no oil and gas deposits or vents nearby and nosignificant deposits of coal. The Geiger counter readings werenormal for radioactivity, and there was no evidence of explosions or volcanic activity.

One possible explanation still under study is that an earthquake fault may be the source of the heat."We can't rule out anything definitely yet," King said.(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

LINK

posted by ... @ 4:06 PM 0 comments

North Atlantic Ocean Temps Hit Record High

Jul 8, 10:00 AM (ET)

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland (AP) - Ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic hit an all-time high last year, raising concerns about the effects of global warming on one of the most sensitive and productive ecosystems in the world.
Sea ice off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador was below normal for the tenth consecutive year and the water temperature outside St. John's Harbor was the highest on record in 2004, according to a report released Wednesday by the federal Fisheries Department.

LINK

posted by ... @ 12:57 PM 0 comments

New Mexico City UFO Fleet Sightings Cause Commotion

It seems things are really heating up on the Big Blue Marble.


By Santiago Yturria
©2005 Santiago Yturria - All Rights Reserved
7-6-5

The dynamic of UFO sighting events following Xalapa's incident took a new course last week with yet another mass sighting of a UFO fleet over Mexico City, an event that caused considerable commotion and many reports from witnesses, even during a daily tv show broadcast.

LINK

posted by ... @ 12:36 PM 0 comments

London blasts bear hallmarks of al-Qaida

07/07/2005

London has feared a devastating terrorist “spectacular” since 191 people were killed and more than 1,500 injured in the Madrid bombings in March last year.
LINK

posted by ... @ 11:58 AM 0 comments

Sinkhole Tops 100 Feet Wide

Today, more pavement fell into the giant sinkhole in Smith County, which now tops 100 feet wide. It's now more than twice its original size two Sundays ago. It's located west of Tyler on FM 724, a couple of miles north of Highway 64.

LINK

posted by ... @ 9:01 AM 0 comments

YOU LIED

posted by ... @ 3:53 PM 0 comments

YOU LIED

I found this Song on Signs Of The Times. It's the best song I have heard in a long time, I invite everyone to check this out. It's worth hearing. These are the same folks who came out with the Pentagon Strike Video.

Happy Birthday, America

SOTT Protest Music Department
The other day Bob Geldolf announced that artists participating in the Live8 concerts should stay away from criticizing President Bush.

Hmmm.

In a moment of fantasy, we wondered what kind of song we'd want to sing in those circumstances, the gauntlet having been thrown down as it were. They're a few things we'd like to say to Mr. Bush and his colleagues in Washington, not that he'd listen to us -- the Washington Post article about our Pentagon Strike flash didn't change anything and we're certain it caught the eye of the White House -- and to Mr. Geldolf who seems to be living in a lala land where mass demonstrations have an effect on the Bush administration. Didn't the millions of people in the streets prior to the illegal invasion of Iraq demonstrate clearly enough that Bush gets his orders elsewhere?

Well, the news today shows there ain't no hope for Geldolf's wishful thinking as Bush has declared he's going to put the US first, but we have never been enamoured with wishful thinking, preferring to look the world in the face and see it as objectively as possible.

Hence, this song:

You lied words & music by Signs of the Times

You told the world Saddam had chemical bombs
To kill us in our homes, and on our farms
You said he sent his men into the heavens
big planes crashing down, September 11

You lied, You lied,
People died, When Bush lied

I've got some questions, wipe that smirk off your face
Betraying your people, that's a real disgrace
See I'm having a hard time finding that plane
that you said hit the Pentagon, bursting into flames
Vapourising the aircraft, didn't leave no remains
But the bodies appear not to burn quite the same

More lies Yeah, yeah, more lies
America died, When Bush lied

And talk about mir'cles, did you see how they fell,
the three towers in New York, those charges worked well
Flattened out in a straight line, just like it was planned
Did you think we were so stupid that we wouldn't understand
And it's a pity about the folks there on Flight 93,
Just as they took back control, you blew them to smithereens

You lied, You lied
Heroes died, when Bush lied

You say Osama is living in a place you have traced
But you don't go and get him, it seems such a waste
Could it be it's because he's still one of your men
A C-I-A asset just like he was then
He endorsed your campaign in a last minute pitch
Is he just one more man who has gotten quite rich

From your lies, Your lies
Freedom died, from your lies

How about those Israelis dancing to their success,
On the rooftops of Jersey, they created a mess
So you sent them back home with a slap on the wrist
Told the cops not to bother, 'cause they don't exist

It's a lie, You lied
Justice died, when you lied

Now people are dying through your crimes in Iraq
You've killed more than Saddam, though you don't care to keep track
Cause they're only some Arabs in a faraway land
That Yahweh has promised to his chosen band
While Sharon and his cronies pull on your strings
When he opens his mouth your whole government sings

His lies, His lies
Palestinians die, With Bush lies

Next time you talk to your God, I've got a question for him
What side is he on or does it change on a whim'
There's a whole lot of people, suff'rin here in his name
What kind of pyscho is he that he's playing this game
It sounds more like the devil is guiding your hand
Destruction and death are the plagues of the land

of your lies, your lies
Children die, When Bush lies

You see, Mr President, there's something amiss
Two elections you lost, but you overcame this
By rigging the vote, not counting the blacks
You've ensured two full terms, the dry drunk is back
And now they're changing the laws to get you a third
The brown shirts are charging at the front of the herd

of your lies, your lies
Democracy dies, When Bush lies

The question remains what can we do about this
Most people refuse to consider this list
They're lost in illusion, can't recognise proof
so we offer this song to all who stand for the truth

No more lies, No more lies
Must we all die, Because of your lies

No more lies, No more lies
Must we all die, Because of your lies

Your lies...

copyright 2005 Signs of the Times

to listen to the song, go to Signs of The Times

posted by ... @ 9:12 AM 0 comments

Nearly 9,000 U.S. troops dead?

The lies from the administration are getting pretty hard to ignore.

Baltimore Indymedia
A NATIONWIDE CALL FOR INFO FROM SURVIVORS.

Has the Bush administration drastically understated the U.S. military death count by redefining "death"? The following article suggests that it has, and it calls for a nationwide campaign to honor deceased service members by naming and counting them.

According to the article: "...DoD lists currently being very quietly circulated indicate almost 9,000 [U.S. military] dead"; this far exceeds the "official" death count of 1,831. How can this be? It's largely because "U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals have not previously been counted."

In other words, "death" has been redefined.

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW:

1. If you know (or know of) service members who've died in Bush([search])'s wars, look for their names on the full, alphabetized "official" Pentagon death list, at www.tbrnews.org/Archives/list.htm. IF THEIR NAMES ARE NOT INCLUDED, PLEASE SEND A REPORT TO: tbrnews (at) hotmail.com. You're also encouraged to notify your Congress members, your local newspaper, and other interested parties.

(Note that the alphabetized list is updated regularly at tbrnews.org. It currently includes deaths reported up through early June.)

2. FORWARD THIS WEB PAGE TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO MAY KNOW SERVICE MEMBERS WHO'VE DIED.

3. Forward this web page to veterans' groups, other organizations, responsible journalists and respectable elected officials.

"The Bush Butcher’s Bill: Officially, 80 US Military Deaths in Iraq([search]) from 1 through 21 May, 2005 – Official Total of 1,831 US Dead to date (and rising)"

(Following text from www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1682.htm )

U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals have not previously been counted. They total about 6,210 as of 1 January, 2005. The ongoing, underreporting of the dead in Iraq, is not accurate. The DoD is deliberately reducing the figures. A review of many foreign news sites show that actual deaths are far higher than the newly reduced ones. Iraqi civilian casualties are never reported but International Red Cross, Red Crescent and UN figures indicate that as of 1 January 2005, the numbers are just under 100,000.

by Brian Harring, Domestic Intelligence Reporter

Note: There is excellent reason to believe that the Department of Defense is deliberately not reporting a significant number of the dead in Iraq. We have received copies of manifests from the MATS that show far more bodies shipped into Dover AFP than are reported officially. The educated rumor is that the actual death toll is in excess of 7,000. Given the officially acknowledged number of over 15,000 seriously wounded, this elevated death toll is far more realistic than the current 1,400+ now being officially published. When our research is complete, and watertight, we will publish the results along with the sources In addition to the evident falsification of the death rolls, at least 5,500 American military personnel have deserted, most in Ireland but more have escaped to Canada and other European countries, none of whom are inclined to cooperate with vengeful American authorities. (See TBR News of 18 February for full coverage on the mass desertions) This means that of the 158,000 U.S. military shipped to Iraq, 26,000 either deserted, were killed or seriously wounded. The DoD lists currently being very quietly circulated indicate almost 9,000 dead, over 16,000 seriously wounded* (See note below. This figure is now over 24,000 Ed) and a large number of suicides, forced hospitalization for ongoing drug usage and sales, murder of Iraqi civilians and fellow soldiers , rapes, courts martial and so on –

I have a copy of the official DoD casualty list. I am alphabetizing it with the reported date of death following. TBR will post this list in sections and when this is circulated widely by veteran groups and other concerned sites, if people who do not see their loved one’s names, are requested to inform their Congressman, their local paper, us and other concerned people as soon as possible.

The government gets away with these huge lies because they claim, falsely, that only soldiers actually killed on the ground in Iraq are reported. The dying and critically wounded are listed as en route to military hospitals outside of the country and not reported on the daily postings. Anyone who dies just as the transport takes off from the Baghdad airport is not listed and neither are those who die in the US military hospitals. Their families are certainly notified that their son, husband, brother or lover was dead and the bodies, or what is left of them (refrigeration is very bad in Iraq what with constant power outages) are shipped home, to Dover AFB. You ought to realize that President Bush personally ordered that no pictures be taken of the coffined and flag-draped dead under any circumstances. He claims that this is to comfort the bereaved relatives but is designed to keep the huge number of arriving bodies secret. Any civilian, or military personnel, taking pictures will be jailed at once and prosecuted.

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