Katrina's floodwaters inundating Gulf Coast
New Orleans pumps fail; Mississippi coast like 'hell on earth'CNNMonday, August 29, 2005; Posted: 11:45 a.m. EDT (15:45 GMT) NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana-- Parts of New Orleans are flooded with up to six feet of water Monday after some of the pumps that protect the low-lying city failed under the onslaught from Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Ray Nagin said.Nagin said the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, on the east side of the city, was under five to six feet of rising water after three pumps failed.WGNO reporter Susan Roesgen, who is with the mayor at the Hyatt hotel, said New Orleans police had received more than 100 calls about people in the area trapped on their roofs.The National Weather Service reported the Industrial Canal, in the eastern part of the city, had breached a levee and three to eight feet of water could be expected.The weather service reported "total structural failure" in some parts of metropolitan New Orleans, where Katrina brought wind gusts of 120 mph. While it offered no details, it said it had received "many reports."Katrina came ashore Monday morning in southeastern Louisiana as a Category 4 storm, with winds topping 140 mph.At 11 a.m. ET, the National Weather Service said Katrina had degraded to a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph.
New Orleans was prepared for a catastrophic direct hit from the powerful storm. About a million people fled the area, and about 10,000 people who couldn't leave hunkered in the mammoth Louisiana Superdome.
Full Story
Aug 28, 2005
Hurricane Katrina is an extremely dangerous Category 5 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Maximum sustained winds have now been greatly increased to 175 mph. Katrina continues not only grow stronger, but it continues to grow larger. Hurricane-force winds extend 90 miles from the center on the eastern side of Katrina, 75 miles to the northwest and 50 miles to the southwest. The center of Katrina was 225 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River at 10am CDT, but the hurricane force winds are only 135 miles from the coast.
Everyone along the northern Gulf of Mexico needs to take this hurricane very seriously and put action plans into play now. Hurricane warnings have now been hoisted from Morgan City, La., to the Florida-Alabama border. This includes the city of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. A tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch have been issued from the Alabama-Florida border eastward to Destin, Florida and from west of Morgan City to Intracoastal City, Louisiana. Katrina is forecast to turn to the northwest later this morning, then toward the north tonight. Well ahead of the center there will be very high surf crashing ashore in the northern Gulf starting Sunday night. You'll need to use extreme caution or just not go in the water at all along all of the northern Gulf beaches from Louisiana to western Florida due to this increased surf. Extreme damaging winds, high, life threatening storm surge, and deadly flooding rains with possible tornadoes are expected at landfall. Effects from Katrina will not be confined to coastal areas. Once Hurricane Katrina makes landfall, it will progress inland Monday into Tuesday with a trail of flooding rains and damaging winds across Mississippi and Alabama and then into Tennessee. Torrential, flooding rainfall is possible with the remnants of Katrina well inland, possibly into the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes and the Northeast later this week.Elsewhere, there are two areas of low pressure in the central Atlantic. One low pressure is a system that has been monitored for several days now. It is centered about 800 miles east-northeast of the Leeward Islands. The strong area of low pressure has dealt with a harsh environment ever since its existence. Atmospheric conditions have not improved over the last 12 hours, so development with this system would be slow.A second area of low pressure is located several hundred miles southeast of the aforementioned low. This system continues to show signs of organization and could become the next tropical depression later today. It could approach the Lesser Antilles in the next 3 to 4 days.Irwin has weakened to a tropical depression in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Top winds are down to 30 mph. Tropical Depression Irwin should continue to move westward and weaken today.In the northwest Pacific Talim has become a typhoon and is forecast to grow to a 120 mph typhoon before moving across Taiwan and into mainland China in the next 3 to 4 days.
Fish Kills Discovered In Grey's Creek
Shawn J. Soper
News Editor
08/25/2005 OCEAN CITY – A combination of naturally occurring and man-made factors resulted in a fish kill of around 1,000 young menhaden in Grey’s Creek near Hidden Harbor this week.Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) investigators responded to the scene on Tuesday and determined the massive fish kill was the result of a variety of factors including over-enrichment and late summer algal blooms resulting in low dissolved oxygen levels in the poorly flushed canal. According to MDE spokesman Richard McIntire, the canal along Grey’s Creek was in a “severely hypoxic condition,” meaning it was extremely toxic. “The water in the canal was very toxic and very putrid,” he said. “It was actually black in colorFull Story
August 26, 2005
DNR probes mysterious fish killMUNCIE, Ind. -- Indiana environmental officials are trying to determine why 200 fish have turned up dead recently in Prairie Creek.After a heavy rain two weeks ago, fishermen and Prairie Creek crews began to find the walleye and white bass floating on the lake, some with red lesions or sores, according Ron Bonham, who supervises park operations at the lake.full story
Models Swing Katrina West, Away From Central Fla.
POSTED: 12:19 pm EDT August 26, 2005
UPDATED: 5:19 pm EDT August 26, 2005
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Computers models show Hurricane Katrina continuing its path toward the Panhandle over the weekend, making landfall as a possible Category 4 hurricane.
The National Hurricane Center says that Katrina -- which is now a Category 2 storm -- could reach near Category 4 strength by midday Monday.Friday's projected path of movement shows Katrina making a north-west turn early Saturday.
"It will spend a lot of time well away from Central Florida," Mowry said. "But on Sunday, it will make a curve back toward the Panhandle and that's when we will probably see the most rain in our area. The projected landfall is roughly between Apalachicola and New Orleans," Mowry said.
At 5 p.m. Friday, the center of Katrina was located near latitude 24.8 north, Longitude 82.9 west or about 70 miles west-northwest of Key West.Katrina is moving toward the west-southwest near 8 mph.
Recent reports from an Air Force reserve unit hurricane hunter aircraft indicate maximum sustained winds remain near 100 mph with higher gusts.
Tropical Storm Warning
By JILL BARTON
Associated PressAugust 26, 2005
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -
Hurricane Katrina flooded streets, darkened homes and felled trees with wind gusts reaching 92 mph as it plowed through South Florida and emerged over the Gulf of Mexico early Friday. Four people were killed and 1.3 million customers were left without power.Weather officials said flooding was the main concern as the storm dropped up to 15 inches on parts of Miami-Dade County. Katrina's plodding pace meant that strong wind and heavy rain would continue to plague throughout the day.Rain fell in horizontal sheets, seas were estimated at 15 feet and sustained winds were measured at 80 mph as the hurricane made landfall Thursday night along the Miami-Dade and Broward line. Florida Power & Light said the vast majority of people without electricity were in the two counties.In an oceanfront condominium in Hallandale, Carolyne and Carter McHyman said heavy downpours pelted their windows after the eye passed.Full story SOTT
(AP)Updated: 2005-08-26 09:19
Hurricane Katrina dumped sheets of rain, kicked up the surf and blew strong winds along the densely populated southeast coast of Florida, the USA, Thursday, killing two people shortly after it struck land, reported AP. Katrina's maximum sustained winds increased to 80 mph before the Category 1 storm made landfall along the Miami-Dade and Broward county line between Hallandale Beach and North Miami Beach, said hurricane specialist Lixion Avila with the National Hurricane Center in Miami. An estimated 5.9 million Florida residents were in Katrina's projected path.
It's like a ghost town out here," said Mark Darress, concierge at The Astor Hotel in Miami Beach, where the night time crowds generally clog the streets. "I see the random, not so smart people, riding scooters every now and then." A man in his 20s in Fort Lauderdale was crushed by a falling tree as he sat alone in his car, while a pedestrian was killed by a falling tree in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Plantation.
Rain fell in horizontal sheets and blew gusts of up to 92 mph, toppling trees and street signs. Seas were estimated at 15 feet, and sand blew across and covered waterfront streets. Florida Power & Light said more than 412,000 customers were without electricity. full article
August 25, 2005
BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Rescue workers completed an airlift evacuation of a half-submerged riverside district of the Swiss capital Thursday as large parts of central and southern Europe were hit by flooding that killed at least 42 people.Hardest hit was Romania with 31 victims, many of whom were trapped inside their homes and drowned as torrents of water rushed in. Austria, Bulgaria, Germany and Switzerland reported a total of 11 dead, but numbers were expected to climb as more bodies of the missing are recovered.Across the Alps, military helicopters were ferrying in supplies to valleys cut off by flooding and evacuating stranded tourists - and even cows - isolated in mountain pastures by the rising waters.The river Aare broke through the windows of a children´s clothes shop in Bern, leaving baby strollers and toys floating in muddy water in the deserted streets of the city´s Matte district.
"It really hits home when you something like this," said fire service chief Franz Bachmann, who led the evacuation operation. "Lots of people have lost their whole existence."Residents evacuated from the low-lying area looked on in tears as water receded slowly, offering the first glimpses of streets, squares and ground floors submerged in mud. The area has been fully searched and none of its 1,100 residents remain, said city police spokesman Franz Maerki.
Police kept guard to prevent people returning to the area, warning that more water could surge down from the mountains as blockages of debris and mud give way."As soon as this wood is gone, the water here will rise rapidly again," said Bachmann.
Many homes there are in imminent danger of collapse, and electricity, phone lines and gas are cut off, city authorities said.Three people were also missing in Romania´s hard-hit Harghita, including a 4-year-old girl, said Maria Magdalena Sipos, a local government official.Szillard Stranitsky, who drove through the area late Wednesday, said cars were unable to move because of the rain and mud on the roads.
"I was scared of driving over a corpse, either human or animal, because I couldn´t see a thing," said the 37-year-old Stranitsky.Meanwhile, officials in Austria turned their attention to the cleanup and reconstruction as the rain there eased up.
"The danger is over," said Doris Ita, the head of Austria´s flood emergency department. "But we are still watching the situation."In Germany, the Danube flooded part of the southeastern town of Kelheim, including its Weltenburg Monastery, founded in the 7th century and described as the oldest in Bavaria.
The ground floor of the Benedictine monastery, which draws 500,000 visitors a year, was submerged early Thursday, said Father Benedikt, the monastery´s prior."The community is working feverishly to rescue what it can," said Benedikt.
There was some good news as Swiss railways said main routes through the Alps connecting northern and southern Europe were open again.Swiss Reinsurance, the world´s second-largest reinsurer, said economic losses from the flooding could reach $791 million US in Switzerland, Austria and Germany.
Posted: 08/24From:
ABC13.com
Literally millions of dead fish are lining the coast in Matagorda and it's causing a smelly problem.
Miles and miles of dead fish are turning up in Texas waters and it's hitting Matagorda especially hard.From the sky, a sea of white is covering the mouth of the Colorado River. Upon closer look, you'll see dead fish – millions of them."Unbelievable if you haven't seen it before," said Matagorda County Commissioner George Deshotel.The stunning images of devastation run for miles. It's one of the largest fish kills people in the town of Matagorda have seen in years.Ronnie Dodd runs a spring bridge and watched dozens of fish die from his perch.
"The flounder were trying to get to the side of the edge of the bank and trying to come up and get air," he told us.Surprisingly, this is a natural event caused by stagnant water and little wind, rain, or flow.
"Millions of these menhaden come in from the Gulf into the Colorado River and because of low tidal action and low wind action, there's nothing to replenish the oxygen in the water," said Deshotel.Texas Parks and Wildlife is closely monitoring the situation.
"It'll run its course, and when it's done, it's done," said Bill Balboa with Texas Parks and Wildlife. "It may happen again, but it happens all up and down the coast."But for now, Matagoda is the worst place...a place with a community that depends on the fish that are quickly dying.The fish began dying a few days ago. If the menhaden keep coming in and the conditions don't change, more can die. And that's not good news for the local economy
By KEN KAYE
sun-sentinel.com Posted August 25 2005, 12:00 PM EDT
Slowing its approach, Tropical Storm Katrina continued intensifying and churning toward South Florida, with landfall projected tonight or early Friday morning as a minimal hurricane.
At 11 a.m., the system was 55 miles east of Fort Lauderdale, creeping west at 6 mph with sustained winds of 60 mph. At that rate and on its current course, the storm would strike somewhere near Fort Lauderdale or Pompano Beach around 10 p.m.However, because it was expected to slow down even further, its exact landfall point and strength remain iffy, as it could strength and wobble north or south, weather officials said.
What remains fairly certain is that the storm will bring torrential rains, as the first bands already have moved through South Florida, along with the storm's gray, gloomy cloud cover.
The rain projection has softened slightly, as forecasters now expect the system to produce 6 to 10 inches of rain across the region, with maximum amounts of 15 inches in some areas. That still could result in widespread if not severe flooding, weather officials said. A flood watch remains in effect through Saturday night.Previous predictions had called for up to 12 inches of rain across South Florida, with isolated areas seeing up to 20 inches.Just before landfall, Katrina was forecast to strengthen to about 75 mph, or just barely hurricane strength.If so, it would be the sixth hurricane in just over a year to strike Florida, as hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne pounded the state last year, and Hurricane Dennis battered the Panhandle in July.South Florida should see conditions steadily deteriorate through this afternoon, as waves of rain arrive. After the system crosses the shoreline, the squally weather should continue through the night.By daybreak on Friday, the strongest winds should start to subside, but stormy, miserable conditions should continue Friday, Saturday and part of the day on Sunday, said Jim Lushine, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.
"The rain will just keep coming," he said.The system is unusually structured in that its south side holds more rain bands than its north side. Normally it's the other way around, Lushine said.
"That means Miami-Dade County might see more rain than even Broward or Palm Beach counties," he said.In addition to rain and wind, the storm could spawn tornadoes. It also threatens to produce a 2 to 4 foot storm surge and large battering waves to the north of where it makes landfall, the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County said.Katrina already has roughed up the Bahamas with heavy rains and tropical-storm force winds.
After departing South Florida, the storm was expected to weaken to about 50 mph as it makes it way toward the state's west coast.By Friday night or early Saturday, it was forecast to emerge in the Gulf of Mexico, build to hurricane strength and take aim at the Big Bend area of the North Florida coast.In Broward County, meanwhile, officials recommended that people evacuate barrier islands and low-lying regions, and some schools in the area were closing. Battering waves and storm surge flooding of 2 to 4 feet above normal tide levels were expected.Some people were putting up hurricane shutters, including Mike Knapik, a general contractor and business owner from Fort Lauderdale. Knapik was placing shutters on windows at one of his businesses Thursday, and later planned to do the same at home.``I think it's a light storm. A lot of people aren't taking it too seriously,'' Knapik said.
Gas station attendants along the Interstate 95 corridor between Miami and Fort Lauderdale said they were seeing up to 25 motorists an hour early Thursday, instead of the usual handful. People were buying gas and stocking up on water and cigarettes, but long lines weren't a problem at area hardware stores and supermarkets.``People go out and fill their tanks to the brim, but they don't leave. They buckle down,'' said Chris Bonhorst, a gas station attendant in Aventura.Many in the area -- hit by two hurricanes last year -- had no plans to flee their homes in advance of the slow-moving storm whose worst threat appeared to be flooding.
Carlos Sarcos, 48, of North Miami, said he would only evacuate his family if Katrina grew into a Category 3 storm, with winds of at least 111 mph.``I don't think it's going to be dangerous,'' he said.
Ken Kaye can be reached at kkaye@sun-sentinel.comOn the Net:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
Floods have brought chaos to a large swathe of central Switzerland, triggering landslides and cutting roads and railway lines. At least six people are reported dead or missing, including two firefighters killed by a mudslide on Monday. Floods halted rail services through the Alps towards Italy and several major roads were closed and villages cut off.
Floods have also hit towns in Austria and southern Germany and continue to affect Bulgaria and Romania. The area affected in Switzerland stretches from the Bernese Alps to St Gallen in the north-east.
Torrential rain has lashed Switzerland for nearly three days, hampering efforts to clear debris and shore up flood defences. Over 1,000 people have been evacuated.
Electricity was cut off and water contaminated as a consequence of inundation.
Shipping on part of the River Rhine - flowing into France and Germany - was also halted after the water level rose. Alpine resorts hit
About 400 people were evacuated in the village of Ibach in canton Schwyz after the River Muota burst its banks. The River Luetschine also flooded an area near Wilderswil and the Alpine resorts of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen were cut off. Parts of the resort of Interlaken were also flooded and 150 people - many of them tourists - spent the night in civil defence facilities, the Swiss Info website reported.
There are fears that the swollen river Aare could cause even more damage in Interlaken and the capital, Bern, where 300 people had to be evacuated from a flooded residential area.
Swiss officials say the situation also remains critical around the swollen lakes of Thun, Brienz and Biel.
BBC
Monday, 15 August 2005, 15:11 GMT 16:11 UK
A group of up to 2,000 common dolphins has been spotted off the coast of west Wales.
Marine experts said it was "massively unusual" to see so many off the Pembrokeshire coast, and the reason remained a mystery.Cliff Benson, who runs Sea Trust, the marine branch of the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, said it had been an incredible sight."It's fairly normal to see a hundred or so, but not thousands."Full Article
By
Laura WhitleyABC13 Eyewitness News(8/04/05 - MATAGORDA CO., TX) —
Miles and miles of dead fish are turning up in Texas waters and it's hitting Matagorda especially hard.
From the sky, a sea of white is covering the mouth of the Colorado River. Upon closer look, you'll see dead fish – millions of them.
"Unbelievable if you haven't seen it before," said Matagorda County Commissioner George Deshotel. The stunning images of devastation run for miles. It's one of the largest fish kills people in the town of Matagorda have seen in years.
Ronnie Dodd runs a spring bridge and watched dozens of fish die from his perch.
"The flounder were trying to get to the side of the edge of the bank and trying to come up and get air," he told us. Surprisingly, this is a natural event caused by stagnant water and little wind, rain, or flow.
"Millions of these menhaden come in from the Gulf into the Colorado River and because of low tidal action and low wind action, there's nothing to replenish the oxygen in the water," said Deshotel. Texas Parks and Wildlife is closely monitoring the situation.
"It'll run its course, and when it's done, it's done," said Bill Balboa with Texas Parks and Wildlife. "It may happen again, but it happens all up and down the coast."
But for now, Matagoda is the worst place...a place with a community that depends on the fish that are quickly dying. The fish began dying a few days ago. If the menhaden keep coming in and the conditions don't change, more can die. And that's not good news for the local economy. Back in 1995, there was a similar situation. Then, 60 million fish turned up dead. If you see dead fish, shrimp or crabs, contact the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's 24-hour hotline. That number is 512-389-4848.
By RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
STOUGHTON, Wis. - Emerging from her basement, Connie Janisch saw destruction all around her. One of more than a dozen tornadoes to hit the state Thursday night had ripped through the neighborhood, destroying homes and dumping remnants of three other roofs in her yard. Then she considered what could have been.It was like God put a protective shield around us," she said Friday.
Meteorologists believe 18 tornadoes touched down Thursday night in an area almost 100 miles long. The state normally averages 21 tornadoes in an entire year, according to the
National Weather Service.One man was killed when his home near Stoughton collapsed during the storm, and about three dozen people were treated at hospitals for injuries. In all, about 30 homes were destroyed and more than 200 damaged."It's just difficult to grasp how powerful this storm was. The damage is just really beyond comprehension," Gov. Jim Doyle said after touring the area by helicopter.
State officials estimated the damage statewide at more than $11 million.
Doyle declared a state of emergency Friday in Dane and Richland counties, the two hardest hit, offering $30,000 in emergency assistance and temporary shelter.In Stoughton, a tornado left a 12-mile-long, half-mile-wide path. Preliminary reports suggested its winds reached more than 200 mph. The storm was so strong, roof shingles, papers and other debris were found in the Milwaukee area, 60 miles away.Phil and Becky Daugherty said they crammed into a closet under their staircase as the tornado came through their neighborhood. When they emerged, "everything was gone," Becky Daugherty said.The seven houses across the street lost their roofs. "And the next couple of streets over are just destroyed," Phil Daugherty said.Residents in the hardest-hit areas had to get authorization to return to their homes Friday morning.One of the most devastated areas was a neighborhood of new homes lining the Stoughton Country Club. Some homes still standing Friday had lost their roofs; others were nothing more than piles of debris.The storms also caused extensive damage in the village of Viola, about 80 miles northwest of Madison. Trees were sheared off at 90-degree angles and more than 100 homes were damaged before the storm swept eastward.Phil Stittleburg, the fire chief from nearby La Farge who oversaw cleanup efforts, said the community was fortunate that only one person was hurt — a sheriff's deputy who crashed his squad car while responding to emergency calls
By Mike Davis
The first bar-headed geese have already arrived at their wintering grounds near the Cauvery River in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Over the next 10 weeks, 100,000 more geese, gulls and cormorants will leave their summer home at Lake Qinghai in western China, headed for India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and, eventually, Australia.
An unknown number of these beautiful migrating birds will carry H5N1, the avian flu sub-type that has killed 61 people in Southeast Asia and which the World Health Organization (WHO) fears is on the verge of mutating into a pandemic form like that which killed 50 to 100 million people in the fall of 1918.As the birds arrive in the wetlands of South Asia, they will excrete the virus into the water, where it risks spreading to migrating waterfowl from Europe, as well as to domestic poultry. In the worst-case scenario, this will bring avian flu to the doorstep of the dense slums of Dhaka, Kolkata, Karachi and Mumbai.The avian flu outbreak at Lake Qinghai was first identified by Chinese wildlife officials at the end of April. Initially it was confined to a small islet in the huge salt lake, where geese suddenly began to act spasmodically, then to collapse and die. By mid-May it had spread through the lake's entire avian population, killing thousands of birds. An ornithologist called it "the biggest and most extensively mortal avian influenza event ever seen in wild birds".Chinese scientists, meanwhile, were horrified by the virulence of the new strain: when mice were infected they died even quicker than when injected with "genotype Z", the fearsome H5N1 variant currently killing farmers and their children in Vietnam.full article
Mercosur Monday, 15 August
According to scientists from the University of Maryland advances in cell and tissue engineering could lead to the production in laboratory conditions of meat from cells extracted to animals. Chops from the lab? The paper published in the biotechnology magazine Tissue Engineering Journal argues that existing technology could help develop from cells certain types of processed meats such as sausages. Jason Matheny who leads the Maryland University research team said that from one cell you could theoretically produce the world’s annual meat supply and in better health and environment conditions, reducing the need to farm millions of head of cattle. The paper says tissue engineering techniques have been developed for medical use and NASA has grown edible fish tissue in lab conditions.
To industrialize the process researches suggest the cells could be grown on large sheets that would need to be stretched to provide the exercise for the growing muscles. However, much more research is needed to produce prime beef and chicken breast. Methany questions how vegetarians would react to such a lab developed meat, since the animals are no longer harmed, but what about the way cells are extracted from animals? Kerry Bennett from the UK Vegetarian Society told The Guardian that “it won’t appeal to someone who gave up meat because they think it’s morally wrong to eat flesh or someone who doesn’t want to eat anything unnatural”. In United States the Food and Drug Administration has banned selling products that involve cloned animals until their impact in humans has been full assessed.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Posted: 0404 GMT (1204 HKT) TOKYO, Japan --
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake has hit northern Japan, triggering a tsunami alert in its aftermath, the Japanese Meteorological Agency reports.
The agency reported the quake produced an ocean wave of about 50 centimeters (20 inches), but a tsunami watch was posted in the immediate aftermath of the tremor.The U.S. Geological Survey gauged the preliminary magnitude of the quake at 7.0, making it a major earthquake.The quake was located off the northeast coast of the Japanese island of Honshu, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east-northeast of the city of Sendai, the USGS reported. The shaking could be felt as far away as Tokyo, about 350 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of the epicenter.About 80 people were injured when the roof on an indoor pool collapsed in Sendai, the Associated Press reported. Meanwhile, transport systems have been shut down, according to Japan's Kyodo news service, including Sendai's subway system. Bullet train services on the Joetsu and Nagano lines have been suspended.
Kyodo also says a sports facility in Sendai has been damaged.
Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, sitting at the juncture of four tectonic plates. On July 23, a magnitude-6.0 quake shook the Tokyo area, injuring more than two dozen people and suspending flights and trains for hours.
A powerful earthquake registering a magnitude of 6.8 has rocked the north-east coast of Japan. The tremor triggered a tsunami alert for the Pacific coastal region and shook buildings in Tokyo, more than 300km (186 miles) away. The quake's epicentre is thought to have been 20km (12.4 miles) below the ocean off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, at around 1146 (0246GMT).
There are conflicting reports of injuries and damage. Kyodo news agency reports that many people have been injured in the city of Sendai, but state broadcaster NHK quotes city officials as saying damage is minor. Tokyo was hit by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake last month, injuring more than two dozen people.
Virus may kill 60,000 in California despite new drug, study says
By DAVID WHITNEYBEE WASHINGTON BUREAU
Last Updated: August 14, 2005, 04:26:59 AM PDT
WASHINGTON — They know it's coming. Hospitals already are monitoring for its arrival with every patient who checks in. Now scientists are swabbing wild bird bottoms in California and elsewhere in a hunt for the first signs of the deadly virus.What has scientists worried is not the fact that the avian flu virus H5N1 already has killed at least 60 people overseas. Or that it has spread from Southeast Asia to China and Russia.
What has them convinced about the diminishing odds of escaping a worldwide health catastrophe — one study estimates that fatalities in California could top 60,000 — is that wild birds overseas no longer seem to be dying.That means the virus is mutating, and scientists fear it has now adapted so that it can survive the annual migration of wild birds from Asia to North America without killing its hosts."That's a real danger sign," said veterinarian Carol Cardona of the University of California at Davis.
Cardona is part of the growing army of scientists and health care professionals gearing up to fight what could become the first flu pandemic since 1918, when a Spanish flu virus — also believed to have been spread by birds — killed between 20 million and 40 million people around the world.More Americans died in that outbreak than were killed in World War I. And already the projections are that the next pandemic, perhaps just months away, will kill similar numbers of people.So far, the virus has not mutated or combined with other influenza viruses so that it can spread from human to human."The great fear is that we will see a version of H5N1 that will spread very easily from person to person," said David Daigle of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.Migrating birds may bring flu"Most experts believe it is not a question of if, but when," he said.
According to a recent report by the Trust for America's Health, the U.S. toll could surpass 540,000.In California, the report said, deaths could top 60,000 and hospitalizations could exceed 273,000 — unfathomable given that number is four times the amount of hospital beds in the state, according to the California Hospital Association.Ken August, spokesman for the California Department of Health Services, said that if the nightmare scenario develops, mass quarantine of infected patients and other mandatory steps to stop the virus' spread could be inevitable."We could face asking the public to take some extraordinary measures," August warned.Already, he said, hospitals throughout the state have been asked to begin monitoring for patients reporting unexplained respiratory illness and who have traveled recently to Southeast Asia."What we're concerned about is the flu virus mutating into something that no one has experienced and that would cause severe illness and death," he said.While scientists and health officials stress that there is no evidence of an Asian variety of the H5N1 virus in the United States now, it could arrive at almost any time with passengers unloading from an overseas flight from Thailand, China or Russia.Or it could arrive on the wings of an infected bird.
UC Davis' Cardona is helping oversee in California a national effort to detect the virus' avian arrival.This year, she said, about 2,000 nonmigratory wild birds will be checked to see if they have any signs of the Asian H5N1 virus. The nonmigratory birds are easier to locate and swab, she said, and they are likely to pick up the disease from waterfowl and other birds migrating down from Alaska on the Pacific Flyway.The goal is to keep the virus from poultry farms in the Central Valley and Southern California before they become breeding grounds for a deadly form that can be transmitted from human to human."We all believe that wild birds are not likely to cause a pandemic without an intermediate host for the virus," she said. "And poultry are likely to be that host."Already, she said, poultry growers and backyard farmers are being urged to keep the water and feed for their chickens and ducks protected from wild birds so that the virus can't be passed along.The deadly strain of the H5N1 virus was first detected in Southeast Asia more than two years ago. Tens of millions of domestic ducks and chickens have been slaughtered and burned to stop its spread, but the virus quickly migrated.More than 60 people who have come into contact with sick birds have died.While there have been no reports of the virus being transmitted between people, British researchers reported finding the H5N1 virus in the spinal fluid of a young Vietnamese boy earlier this year, indicating that the virus is mutating to the point it can infect the human brain.Researchers working on a drug to fight the virus have been surprised by its mutation.Recently there have been reports from the National Institutes of Health that a drug known commercially as Tamiflu has shown promise in studies involving rats that it could suppress the spread of the virus."That's very encouraging," said August of the California Department of Health Services. "But to produce enough for all Americans and then to distribute it to all who need it would be an enormous challenge."
That point was highlighted by the Trust for America's Health report. It said that if the 5.3 million doses of Tamiflu in federal possession were distributed on the basis of population, only about 639,000 of California's 30 million people would get the medicine.The report's conclusions are grim."Overall, U.S. pandemic preparedness is inadequate," it said. "Both the federal pandemic plan and various state pandemic plans are insufficient for a national response to a pandemic influenza."
California is better off than most states.Two years ago, the trust praised California for the way it had spent $160 million it had received for bioterrorism preparedness, citing it as one of the top four states in terms of preparation."One of the benefits of our preparedness for bioterrorism isthat we have an improved network of laboratories, we've improved our system for identifying outbreaks and we've strengthened our communication between public health, law enforcement and public officials," August said.
"But we can never be fully prepared for a pandemic."
by Laura Knight-Jadczyk [...]
Armageddon is seen by Christian fundamentalists as "nuclear and imminent", waiting only for proper orchestration from American political leaders. The Zionists, naturally, do NOT include Armageddon in their messianic aspirations. This conflict of interests at a higher level is exposed in Gorenberg's book.Gorenberg's book was written before 9-11 and, in this sense, was extremely prescient. The reader who wishes to understand what is at the root of the current conflict that threatens to engulf our planet will find his history of those 35 disputed acres of the Temple Mount to be crucial. Gorenberg makes clear what is at the root of the volatile relationships between Arabs, Jews and Christians in Israel. He pays special attention to carefully documenting and analyzing the actions and beliefs of fundamentalist groups in all three religions.Jewish messianists and Christian millennialists both believe that building the Third Temple on the site where both Solomon's and Herod's temples are alleged to have stood is essential for their respective prophetic scenarios to take place (never mind that they seem to both be using each other and each believe that the other is just a dumb tool), while the Muslim believers fear that efforts to destroy Al-Aqsa mosque to make way for the Third Temple will prevent fulfillment of the prophecy about Islam's Meccan shrine migrating to Jerusalem at the end of time.
Gorenberg calls Temple Mount "a sacred blasting cap".The problem is, of course, as I show in Who Wrote the Bible, there probably never was a FIRST "Temple of Solomon," and the Old Testament is NOT a true "history of the Jews." So, the problem is: if Islam is predicated on two "manufactured" religions, what does that say about the faith of the Islamic fundamentalists?The fact is: There is an alliance between America and Israel in the war on Islam. They are both determined to establish Israeli control over Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple where the Dome of the Rock now stands and the Palestinians are in the way. [...]LINK
John Roachfor National Geographic News
August 12, 2005The world on average is about 1ºF (0.6ºC) warmer today than it was a century ago. That may not sound like a lot, but it's enough to concern some scientists. The temperature rise has put feathered, furry, and scaly animals alike in a state of flux. Some are seeking higher ground, others are breeding earlier, and many can't find enough to eat. Scientists expect the current bout of global warming to cause animals—as during past climate changes—to shift their habitat ranges and to alter the timing of events like breeding and hibernation. But these changes—like the warming itself—are already happening more quickly than most researchers expected. In the North Sea, for example, such changes have kinked the entire food chain, according to Euan Dunn, head of marine policy for the U.K.'s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Many species of seabirds are failing to breed there because of a sharp decline in the population of sand eels, which the birds eat. Sand eel numbers, in turn, are dwindling because the cold-water plankton on which they feed is being replaced by plankton that thrives in warm water.
"Everyone realizes something very serious is going wrong here," Dunn said. Tens of thousands of seabirds—like kittiwakes, terns, and guillemots—failed to breed in 2004. While it's too early to tell this year, Dunn said, sand eel populations are low again so far. In Costa Rican rain forests, meanwhile, warmer temperatures have allowed normally lowland toucans to invade the high-altitude refuge of endangered quetzal birds. The quetzals have nowhere to go, so they nest in tree cavities within easy reach of the toucans who feast on quetzal eggs and chicks. "There's a lot of concern this will have a major impact on quetzal populations," said Terry Root, an ecologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Then there are tree swallows, which are showing up to their U.S. breeding grounds about 12 days earlier than they were 30 years ago, according to Hector Galbraith at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "The result in and of itself would be interesting but hardly worrying," Galbraith said. "But when you look at other [bird] species and see this 10-to-12-day change crop up in tons of those, it is [worrying]." Galbraith, Root, and Dunn are part of a growing chorus of scientists and conservationists sounding an alarm that global warming is changing not just ecosystems but the behavior of animals that live in them. Article continues
Ian Sample,
science correspondent
The Guardian
Thursday August 11, 2005
Siberia feels the heat: It's a frozen peat bog the size of France and Germany combined, contains billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas and, for the first time since the ice age, it is meltingA vast expanse of western Sibera is undergoing an unprecedented thaw that could dramatically increase the rate of global warming, climate scientists warn today.Researchers who have recently returned from the region found that an area of permafrost spanning a million square kilometres - the size of France and Germany combined - has started to melt for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.The area, which covers the entire sub-Arctic region of western Siberia, is the world's largest frozen peat bog and scientists fear that as it thaws, it will release billions of tonnes of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.
Full Article
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer posted:
10 August 2005
An asteroid known to astronomers for more than a century has now been found to harbor two small satellites.It is the first asteroid trio ever discovered.And there may be more than three.The main asteroid, named 87 Sylvia, is one of the largest known to orbit the Sun in the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. It is potato-shaped, about 175 miles (280 kilometers) in diameter and 235 miles (380 kilometers) long. It was discovered in 1866.The first moon was found four years ago and the second one was announced today.Full Article
By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent(Filed: 11/08/2005)
A melting permafrost peat bog stretching across an area the size of France and Germany could unleash billions of tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, Russian scientists have warned.The huge frozen region, covering around 360,000 square miles of western Siberia, is rapidly turning into a watery landscape of shallow lakes. Experts fear it could release huge quantities of methane trapped in the frozen peat.
The latest alert follows research by Sergei Kirpotin, a botanist from Tomsk State University in Russia, and Judith Marquand from Oxford University.
Mr Kirpotin told New Scientist magazine that the entire western Siberian sub-Arctic region had begun to melt in the last three or four years. He predicted an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and undoubtedly connected to climatic warming".Western Siberia has warmed faster than almost anywhere on the planet, with average temperatures increasing by about 3C in the last 40 years.
The warming is believed to be due to a combination of man-made climate change, a cyclical atmospheric phenomenon known as the Arctic oscillation, and feedbacks caused by melting ice. As ice melts, it exposes bare ground and sea surface that absorb more solar heat than reflective white ice and snow. Siberia's peat bogs formed around 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. Since then they have been generating methane, most of which has been trapped in permafrost and deeper ice-like structures called clathrates.
Dr Larry Smith, an expert at the University of California at Los Angeles, has estimated that the west Siberian bog alone contains some 70 billion ton of methane - a quarter of all the methane stored on the land surface worldwide. Scientists at the University of Alaska have found methane "hot spots" in eastern Siberia where the gas is bubbling from thawing permafrost so fast that it is preventing the surface from freezing, even in mid-winter.
Catherine Pearce, a climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: "It's very worrying. The release of these emissions is causing massive climate instability leading to extreme weather events, rising temperatures, the melting of the Arctic ice sheet, rising sea levels, droughts, heat waves and famine
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Huffington PostTue Aug 9, 1:55 AM ET
story from
SOTTOn Sunday morning's Meet the Press, Dr. Harvey Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, debated New York Times reporter and author David Kirby about the strength of the science linking the current epidemic of neurological disorders among American children to the mercury-based vaccine preservative Thimerosal. The Institute of Medicine as well as the Centers for Disease Control and theFood and Drug Administration base their defense of Thimerosal on four flimsy studies ginned up by the pharmaceutical industry and federal regulators who green-lighted the use of Thimerosal in the first place. Those fraudulent studies deliberately targeted European populations which were exposed to a fraction of the Thimerosal given to American children.If Dr. Fineberg genuinely wants to test his assertions about Thimerosal safety with epidemiological data, he should commission a study comparing American children who were exposed to vaccines to the Amish, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists or others, who, for religious reasons, did not receive Thimerosal-laced vaccines.A recent survey by United Press found that autism is virtually unknown among Pennsylvania's large Amish populations -- a strong indication that vaccines are indeed a principal culprit of the epidemic. Despite the repeated urgings of independent scientists and the families of autistic children, the federal agencies involved have refused to commission such a study and have closed federal vaccine files in order to derail the creation of those studies by outside scientists.
11:56 AEST Wed Aug 10 2005AAPA volcano is erupting on Australia's most remote territory, McDonald Island, in the sub-Antarctic.The volcanic activity is changing the shape of the island and ultimately changing the environmental make-up of its cold and windswept surface.
Environment Minister Ian Campbell said satellite images had detected the volcanic activity on the rarely visited island, 4,100km southwest of Western Australia.McDonald is better known for its surrounding waters which are home to the Patagonian toothfish, heavily poached by ships transgressing Australian waters.Its steep shores, surrounded by treacherous seas, were last visited by humans in 2002.Senator Campbell said the McDonald Island volcano had been dormant for 75,000 years before erupting for the first time in 1992.
He said there had been several eruptions since - most recently in 2001 - and the island's size had doubled in that time from 1.13sq km to 2.45sq km.
"The McDonald Island volcano is also unusual because, unlike most oceanic volcanoes, it sits on a shallow submarine plateau," Senator Campbell said."(This) means its eruptions are not as wild and fiery as some, instead producing a slow-moving mass of lava that seeps and spreads."Despite the slow-moving nature of the lava, eruptions over the past 13 years have caused startling changes to the island's geography, obliterating some landmarks and creating new ones."Senator Campbell said the island was previously inhabited by macaroni penguins."Now, because you've created this pumice that comes out of the volcano, you've created this very big beach area with pumice, which is one of the desirable habitats for rookeries for the king penguin."King penguins, which hadn't been seen on this island for ever, I think, or a long time, have actually started colonising the island.
"You're getting this increase in biodiversity occurring.The island is within the Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) Marine Reserve, one of the world's biggest marine reserves.It is just 44km from Australia's only other active volcano on Heard Island, where there has not been any activity for some time.Both islands are World Heritage listed
Freak snow blankets southern Australia17:41 AEST Wed Aug 10 2005AAPFreak snowfalls have hit coastal and low lying areas in Australia's southeast, leaving meteorologists reaching for the record books.Bitter Antarctic weather blanketed Victoria in the most widespread snow for decades, hit Hobart with its first snowfall in almost 20 years and showered Parliament House in Canberra, and parts of the Blue Mountains and central western NSW, with a series of flurries.Australia's ski resorts are delighted with the heavy snowfalls, with Thredbo and Perisher Blue in NSW receiving about 25cm of snow overnight, and Victoria's Mt Hotham and Falls Creek about 20cm and 30cm respectively.But in Tasmania and southern Victoria, snow forced the closure of major highways and other roads that remained closed for much of the day.
The snow was falling as children went to school, but the Department of Education said at least three schools closed in Victoria, with students stranded at a primary school in South Gippsland, which was one of the worst affected areas.Principal Alistair Hillis said Mirboo North Primary School and Secondary School were sending home students who had walked to school.full article
POSTED: 10:26 pm EDT August 9, 2005
An explosion at a chemical factory in Romulus is causing a hazardous situation in the area.Initial reports said the explosion was in Wayne, but Local 4 is now reporting that the explosion is in Romulus in the area of Wayne and Van Born roads.Local 4 is reporting that the explosion started at the EQ Resource Recovery, Inc. (EQRR). The company blends fuel and recycles solvent, according to its Web site.The Wayne County Sheriff's Department is cautioning that this is a hazardous materials situation. Residents in the area are being told to close doors and windows in their homes.The sheriff's department is assisting with evacuations and Romulus High School has been opened to accept anyone in the area who is evacuated. Hazmat crews are at the scene.Witnesses are saying the smell is permeating the air and is "toxic." Massive fireballs were exploding in the air, according to witnesses.
According to the company's Web site, the plant specializes in fuel blending, chemical recycling, recoverable petroleum products, oil recycling, and nonhazardous wastewater treatment services.
Fault spawned worst temblor in nation's history in early 1800s
BY PATRICK O'DRISCOLL
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
The sleeping giant of U.S. earthquake faults, the New Madrid zone in the heartland, may be showing new signs of activity. The journal Nature reported in June that a University of Memphis study detected a half-inch of fault shift in the past five years. The movement, detected with a global positioning system, could mean pressure is building toward a significant quake in a region that is home to millions of people.
"We go from nothing moving to a little movement. That's a huge difference," said Arch Johnston, director of the university's Center for Earthquake Research and Information.The New Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid) zone is the most seismically active region east of the Rocky Mountains. It is a 120-mile series of rifts deep beneath eight states along the Mississippi River.
Almost two centuries ago, it produced the largest quake ever to strike the continental United States.The earthquake, later estimated at 8.1 magnitude or higher, was stronger than any in California, home of the San Andreas fault.But the New Madrid fault, named for the frontier Missouri village rocked by powerful quakes in the winter of 1811-12, hasn't had a big one since. The last of considerable strength, estimated about 6.0, was in 1895. More than 100 quakes a year occur in the zone, which runs from northeastern Arkansas to southern Illinois. Most are too small to be felt.
It’s no longer Zionized Left vs. Armageddon Right— the new political Feather of Truth is honestyBy John Kaminski skylax@comcast.netI am a citizen of the world first, and of this country at a later and more convenient hour.— Henry David Thoreau"We are each one of us responsible for every war because of the aggressiveness of our own lives, because of our nationalism, our selfishness, our gods, our prejudices, our ideals, all of which divide us. And only when we realise, not intellectually but actually, as actually as we would recognise that we are hungry or in pain, that you and I are responsible for all this existing chaos, for all the misery throughout the entire world because we have contributed to it in our daily lives and are part of this monstrous society with its wars, divisions, its ugliness, brutality and greed — only then will we act. — Jiddu Krishnamurti
Nobody predicted this one — not Orwell, not Huxley, not H.G. Wells.
I couldn’t believe the words that appeared on my screen in an e-mail:
Overthrowall the governmentsall at once.International criminal syndicatehas taken control of world’s money;honest citizens must preventthem from destroying the world;Lennon was right:all borders are bogus.Is there any reasonwe can’t have an honest world?What a radical idea! Isn’t that what decent people want? But is that the world we have? We have massive numbers of dead people turning up in strange and suspicious mortality categories. Shall I tell you Americans some of the causes of death inflicted by your sons and daughters on innocent children in Iraq, or will you turn your face away and return silently to your polite political dogma and the cringing ugliness of your own suppressed private nightmares? Hmm?Full Article
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Saturday August 6, 2005
The Guardian
Forest fires raged across south-west Europe yesterday as a heatwave hit an area already parched by a severe drought that has dried up rivers and led to water restrictions in many places. The emergency services were tackling dozens of blazes across Portugal, Spain and southern France as temperatures headed towards 45C. The drought is the worst on record in Spain and Portugal. The Algarve region of southern Portugal has warned of water cuts.
Article continues
- by Leuren Moret - 2005-08-05
The use of depleted uranium weaponry by the United States, defying all international treaties, will slowly annihilate all species on earth including the human species, and yet this country continues to do so with full knowledge of its destructive potential. The fact is that the United States and its military partners have staged four nuclear wars, "slipping nukes under the wire" by using dirty bombs and dirty weapons in countries the US needs to control. Depleted uranium aerosols will permanently contaminate vast regions and slowly destroy the genetic future of populations living in those regions, where there are resources which the US must control, in order to establish and maintain American primacy.Described as the Trojan Horse of nuclear war, depleted uranium is the weapon that keeps killing. The half-life of Uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years, the age of the earth. And, as Uranium-238 decays into daughter radioactive products, in four steps before turning into lead, it continues to release more radiation at each step. There is no way to turn it off, and there is no way to clean it up. It meets the US Government’s own definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction.After forming microscopic and submicroscopic insoluble Uranium oxide particles on the battlefield, they remain suspended in air and travel around the earth as a radioactive component of atmospheric dust, contaminating the environment, indiscriminately killing, maiming and causing disease in all living things where rain, snow and moisture remove it from the atmosphere. Global radioactive contamination from atmospheric testing was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs, and still contaminates the atmosphere and lower orbital space today. The amount of low level radioactive pollution from depleted uranium released since 1991, is many times more (deposited internally in the body), than was released from atmospheric testing fallout.A 2003 independent report for the European Parliament by the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR), reports that based on Chernobyl studies, low level radiation risk is 100 to 1000 times greater than the International Committee for Radiation Protection models estimate which are based on the flawed Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Studies conducted by the US Government. Referring to the extreme killing effects of radiation on biological systems, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, one of the 46 international radiation expert authors of the ECRR report, describes it as:
"The concept of species annihilation means a relatively swift, deliberately induced end to history, culture, science, biological reproduction and memory. It is the ultimate human rejection of the gift of life, an act which requires a new word to describe it: omnicide." full story
Sat Aug 6, 2005 5:04 AM ETBEIJING (Reuters) - Typhoon Matsa battered China's eastern coast with strong winds and heavy rain on Saturday morning, killing one and forcing more than a million people from their homes, state media reported.The domestic airport in the country's financial hub, Shanghai, was shut and most international departures were canceled. Debris and small floods clogged streets after downpours in the night.A shed on one of the city's many construction sites collapsed in the rain, killing one person and injuring two, the official Xinhua agency reported.
Matsa made landfall before dawn in coastal Zhejiang province, where officials had evacuated over 1.24 million people. It was heading northwest, threatening the scenic provincial capital of Hangzhou.Officials there said the storm could wreak more havoc than last year's Typhoon Rananim, which killed 164 and caused an estimated 18 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) in damage, the China Daily said.Safe harbours have been arranged for 41,000 ships and regional authorities have been urged to lower water levels behind rain-swollen dams to try to avoid flooding.Some coastal bus services have been suspended and Hangzhou bay residents told to keep away from the river in case of tidal waves. Ningbo port, the country's second largest in terms of handling capacity, was closed on Friday, the newspaper added.In Taiwan, Matsa shut down schools, government offices and financial markets in the capital, Taipei, and caused flooding and mudslides in rural areas.In July, Typhoon Haitang killed 12 people in Taiwan, where three people are still missing, and forced the evacuation of a million Chinese residents.
No casualties have been reported from Matsa, but initial farm damage in Taiwan was estimated at T$36 million (US$1.1 million), while over 50,000 households were left without electricity and 100,000 families had no tap water, the National Fire Agency said.It packed maximum sustained winds of 144 km (89 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 180 km (112 miles) per hour.Typhoons gather strength from warm sea water and tend to dissipate after making landfall. They frequently hit Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and southern China during a typhoon season that lasts from early summer to late autumn.
WHO in talks to stockpile antiviral drugs in case of global outbreakIan Sample, science correspondentThursday August 4, 2005The Guardian
An outbreak of flu in rural south-east Asia could spread around the globe in three months and infect half the world's population within a year, unless strict measures to contain it are introduced, scientists said yesterday.The warning comes from researchers who used computer models to investigate what would happen if the avian flu virus, which is currently rife among poultry in areas of China, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, mutated into a form that spread easily among humans.Scientists believe it is only a matter of time before the virus, known as H5N1, mutates to become more infectious to humans, possibly by swapping genes with the human flu virus.Full Article
04 Aug 2005 13:47:43 GMT
Source:
ReutersHOUSTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) -
Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources.Her comments came as NASA pondered whether to send astronauts out on an extra spacewalk to repair additional heat-protection damage on the first shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster.Discovery is linked with the International Space Station and orbiting 220 miles (352 km) above the Earth."Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi."We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used," said Collins, who was standing with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in front of a Japanese flag and holding a colorful fan.Collins, flying her fourth shuttle mission, said the view from space made clear that Earth's atmosphere must be protected, too."The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have."While Collins and Noguchi chatted, NASA officials were deciding whether a torn insulation blanket protecting part of the shuttle surface could rip off and strike a damaging blow to Discovery when it re-enters the atmosphere.They said it could require another spacewalk to fix, which would take place on Saturday if needed. A decision was expected on Thursday afternoon.
Noguchi and astronaut Steve Robinson already have done three spacewalks, including a landmark walk on Wednesday to remove loose cloth strips protruding from Discovery's belly. NASA feared the strips could cause dangerous heat damage when the shuttle lands on Monday.
COLUMBIA TRIBUTEThe combined crew of Discovery and the space station, nine in all, paid tribute on Thursday to the Columbia crew and other astronauts who have died in space accidents. They took turns speaking while television shots from the shuttle showed it passing over a sunlit Earth, then into night.
"Tragically, two years ago, we came to realize we had let our God down. We became lost in our hubris and learned once more the terrible price that must be paid for our failures," said mission specialist Charles Camarda. "In that accident, we not only lost seven colleagues, we lost seven friends."
Columbia broke apart before landing on Feb. 1, 2003, and the seven astronauts on board died.Loose insulation foam from the fuel tank struck the wing heat shield at launch 16 days before, causing a hole that allowed superheated gases to penetrate and destroy the shuttle when it descended into the atmosphere.
NASA spent 2 1/2 years and $1 billion on safety upgrades after Columbia, but videos showed loose tank foam at Discovery's launch last week. The agency suspended shuttle flights until the foam problem is fixed.
A report in The New York Times suggested NASA was not as careful as it could have been about the foam issue.The Times said an internal NASA memo, written in December by a retired NASA engineer brought back to monitor the quality of the foam operation, complained that deficiencies remained in the way foam was being applied to the fuel tank and warned "there will continue to be a threat of critical debris generation."A spokesman at Johnson Space Center in Houston told Reuters he had not yet seen the Times report and could not comment
CAPTURED: Twister was photographed touching nearby peaks.
By DAN JOLINGThe Associated Press
Published: August 3rd, 2005 Last Modified: August 3rd, 2005 at 04:49 AM
Residents of Sand Point witnessed a weather phenomenon that elders say is a first-time occurrence. They looked across Popof Strait to nearby Unga Island last week and watched a tornado touch two uninhabited mountains."You could see the clouds twisting and debris spinning off of it," said Jaclynne Larsen, 30, a teacher at King Cove who returns to her hometown each summer.story
SOTTAcharya S can prove Jesus Christ never existed, and your preacher can’t prove ‘He’ did
By John Kaminski
skylax@comcast.netOnce you base your whole life striving on a desperate lie, and try to implement that lie, you instrument your own undoing.— Ernest Becker, The Denial of DeathIt’s like taking candy away from a baby. The candy’s no good for the kid, but it will take him many years and much learning to realize the favor you did for him. In the meantime he’ll whine about how mean you were and how wrong it was to do that. But when he’s a healthy adult, because of the very thing you took away, he may actually develop the judgment and wisdom to thank you for what you did. In any case, he’ll be much healthier.So too with beliefs. If you believe in magic, that some special phrase will keep you safe from harm in all situations and even immunize you from death, you can’t help but fail to perceive the true reality of the world before your eyes — that all things must pass, even though subtle aspects of us may journey onward through our offspring.It’s a beautiful system when you think about it, one that governs every living thing in the known universe. And every living thing is more than satisfied with it — in fact, prospers in its vital joy because of it — except one. Us.Humans, normally very discerning in every aspect of their infinitely varied lives, possess absolutely no standards at all when it comes to one subject — death. It is often said that instinct is stronger than reason, and in all the realms of human endeavor, nowhere is this more evident than in the amusingly inventive strategies humans develop to pretend they don’t really die.The second most common human trait after survival is the urge to prosper and be secure, so it should come as no surprise that, very early on in our history, perceptive and enterprising people, upon recognizing this universal human need to deny that we die, rushed to develop and market products that satisfied the public demand to alleviate this fear. Every culture ever known to man left significant traces of this spiritual commerce.You know the argument. Can we live our lives and accept that nothing follows? Or must we deceive ourselves and invent, with the power of our infinite imaginations, a way past this daunting wall of mortality. Well, the answer’s in, and the human species has clearly opted for the unprovable hope. But exactly what is the price of this willful self-deception?
Article here
By David McCandless02:00 AM Aug. 02, 2005 PT Dissident scientists advocating a controversial theory of the universe are having a field day in the wake of NASA's Deep Impact comet collision earlier this month.Scientists promoting the Electric Universe model say their predictions for the comet mission appear to have been more accurate than NASA's.
The Electric Universe theorists, collected at Thunderbolts.info, believe that electricity, when factored properly into astrophysics, plays a greater role in the cosmos than the standard gravitational model, which says electrical forces are insignificant on a cosmic scale.Proponents of the Electric Universe model say they can explain many of the bizarre phenomena and mysteries in cosmology, from a swath of anomalies seen in the solar system to unusual surface features on Mars and Jupiter's moon, Titan. The theory can also sweep away the need for theoretical "dark matter" and "dark energy."Comets are a cornerstone of the model, visible proof of the legitimacy of the theory as they traverse eccentric orbits around the sun.
MSNBC News ServicesUpdated:
1:52 p.m. ET Aug. 2, 2005WASHINGTON -
The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season will be worse than previously expected, with 18 to 21 tropical storms and nine to 11 hurricanes through November, the U.S. government forecast on Tuesday.“Although we have already seen a record-setting seven tropical storms during June and July, much of the season’s activity is still to come,” Gerry Bell, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologist, told reporters.In May, NOAA predicted the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season would be above normal, with 12 to 15 tropical storms and seven to nine hurricanes
