“What would have cost tens of thousands of dollars…can now be done for hundreds of dollars, so it’s easier to fake stuff now,” warns Roger Bate, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the author of “Phake: The Deadly World of Falsified and Substandard Medicine.”
Counterfeit, adulterated, or otherwise compromised prescription drugs are a major problem in Africa and a growing problem in the First World, argues Bate. In recent years, counterfeiters passed off hundreds of thousands of phony Lexapro pills around the globe and in 2008 at least 149 Americans died from fake Heparin, a blood-thinning drug. All told, says Bate, the number of deaths globally from ineffective drugs ranges from 100,000 to 1 million.
As drug production moves to China and other developing nations where oversight is tougher to maintain and more sales take place online where provenance can be tougher to ascertain, Bate says that the most viable solution is increased vigilance on the part of drug makers, providers, and patients alike. He looks forward to a fast-approaching world in which hand-held spectrometers verify pills on the spot and praises various online-pharmacy certification programs.
Referring to the classic 1949 film, “The Third Man,” in which Orson Welles plays a drug counterfeiter whose watered-down penicillin in post-war Europe leads to the death of several children, Bate gives Hollywood credit for being well ahead of the curve on putting the spotlight on what he calls “the 2nd oldest profession.”
About 7 minutes. Interview by Nick Gillespie (follow him on Twitter at @nickgillespie). Produced by Anthony L. Fisher, with camera by Jim Epstein and Joshua Swain.
Go to http://Reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv’s YouTube Channel to receive automatic updates when new material goes live.
Don Berwick’s downfall was considered to be his praise for Britain’s universal national health service at a rally in London’s Wembley stadium Photograph: Bloomberg
Barack Obama‘s healthcare reform has already progressed so far in most parts of the United States that it will not be possible to unpick it even if the supreme court rules the law unconstitutional, according to the former head of Medicare and Medicaid.
Dr Don Berwick, who resigned the job in December when it became clear Congress would not confirm his recess appointment made by President Obama, said a great deal of change was under way. “There is so much tectonic motion now – the plates are shifting – and I don’t think they can go back. I’m speaking now to a lot of communities all over the country and I’ve not seen one where there isn’t major change in motion,” he told the Guardian in Boston.
Berwick, who has now joined the think tank Center for American Progress, said he thought the supreme court might allow the law to stand. “Maybe they’ll choose to say this is something that should be hashed out in Congress but not brought to the courts to decide,” he said.
“I suspect that if they do act they may well just take the individual mandate only – take the narrowest possible decision. But I don’t know what they’ll do. I’m concerned if they tamper with the law they will produce a cascade of effects that will be bad for people. Fewer people will have insurance and a lot of the productive logic that is starting to enter healthcare about let’s focus on patients, let’s co-ordinate, let’s work on quality – a lot of that would be eroded.”
The justices in Washington are expected to deliver their ruling in the next 10 days, a decision that could have a serious impact on Obama’s re-election hopes as well as the healthcare of the millions of Americans who currently have inadequate coverage or none at all.
But Berwick says the clock cannot be turned back on moves that are under way everywhere to improve the co-ordination and quality of care as the Act requires, he says. Doctors and hospitals are exploring different relationships. Accountable care organisations (ACOs) are springing up to provide the entire network of care many people need – specialist, primary care doctor and home health care as well, instead of just the separate parts – and these are being offered not just to Medicare patients but to the privately insured as well.
“So I don’t think we will ever go back,” said Berwick. “And if the court strikes the law, you may well see the private sector momentum continue and overtake the public sector momentum for a while. Medicare is so big and so important that you really can’t get the whole system to move without Medicare’s involvement, but Medicare can lead or it can follow. If either the court or the Congress choose to back down from this progress then I think Medicare will find itself following in the long run.”
He admits it is an optimistic view. “I guess we can’t go on as we are. What I’m not optimistic about is that if we enter a phase now of chaos and recision, I think the most vulnerable part of our population will be the poor, the disadvantaged,” he says.
“Medicaid is more vulnerable than Medicare because it serves a less vocal population and it’s a state/federal partnership, so the politics are more difficult. You can see damage to Medicaid occurring. If I were a governor, I’d face a terrible problem right now with state budget deficits and Medicaid is an obvious target. But it worries me a lot. If you don’t get the kind of reforms in healthcare on quality and continuity and patient centred-ness that the ACA progresses in Medicare and Medicaid, then the poor will get hurt, and we’re really on a knife edge on that one.”
He rejects suspicions of Medicaid recipients. “It’s naïve. You go into communities, and people say I met this Medicaid beneficiary who is driving a Cadillac. I say: well I’ve met bad examples wherever I’ve looked but that is not the mean case. When I was in practice in paediatrics the majority of my patients were people who were disadvantaged, and they weren’t there by choice. They were there by circumstance and a compassionate country would reach out a hand and that’s what Medicaid does.”
‘England … makes healthcare a human right’
Berwick’s downfall was considered to be his praise for Britain’s universal national health service at a rally in London’s Wembley stadium to celebrate the NHS’s 60th anniversary. “I was congratulating England, as I still feel as a country that makes healthcare a human right. In that same speech I was talking about the problems. There are many things that need to be fixed in British healthcare,” said Berwick, who was knighted by the Queen for his work on improving the quality of healthcare in the UK under the Blair government.
But it gave his Republican opponents in Congress the reasons they were looking for to reject his appointment. “I would say I was a kind of symbolic target. If I hadn’t said nice things abut the NHS, something else would have been picked up on. I think there was no way they would have confirmed me.
“I went to a number of the senators who opposed me and talked with them and explained my real beliefs which did not coincide with the rhetoric they were using. But they would go ahead and ignore me, and the truth was not in their interests. The minute that law passed things became polarised and the old hands in Washington said it was polarised to a degree they have never seen before. I would say polarised to an irresponsible degree. The public should expect more of their public servants.” He points out that a mere 9% of the population now approves of the way Congress is doing its work.
The act is set to improve and give access to healthcare for millions of people, but the Republicans “grabbed the high ground of communication”, he says. “They had concerns about rationing, about government takeover of medicine, about death panels, about the socialisation of medicine, none of which were accurate and many of which were completely deceptive, whether consciously or unconsciously so.”
The story did not get well told, but in the last six months, as provisions such as rebates on prescription drugs and children no longer being excluded from insurance for pre-existing conditions kick in, that has begun to change, he believes.
He warns that increasing the role of the private sector in the NHS, as the British government is now doing, is risky. “I would be cautious – very cautious,” he said. “When you invite entrepreneurial private sector investors into the delivery of care, under most payment systems, they will be very interested in volume. They will be very interested in doing more things to people and you may find that you lose control of that level of discipline to the disadvantage of patients. When more things are done, more unnecessary things get done and more hazard enters the system – not just cost.
“You want hospitals that seek to be empty, doctors that seek to be idle, machines that are few. In healthcare you want to find the way to help that is the least invasive of the person’s life and body. A volume-based system does not have that incentive structure.”
Berwick wishes he was still running Medicare and Medicaid. “I loved the job. It was an amazing opportunity, and I loved my staff . It was a great chance to try to help and very interesting – I learned a lot. I feel that my background in quality and systems was relevant. [He previously founded and ran the Boston-based Institute for Health Improvement]. I regret that I was unable to stay.”
By John McKiernan,
(NaturalNews) More than 40 countries, including China, require the labeling of genetically modified foods, but the U.S. is not one of them. Almost the entire U.S. soy (94 percent) and corn (72 percent) crop is now GMO. The only way to avoid these crops is to buy certified organic. Recent polls show 90 percent of Americans want GMO labeling, yet the big food corporations are still not required to label. Americans believe strongly in their right to know what’s in their food, yet we still don’t have…
By Raw Michelle,
(NaturalNews) As part of the increasing interest in the non-psychoactive medicinal benefits of cannabis, research is pushing forward, despite legislative resistance, to appraise the long list of claims of the healing power of cannabis. An extensive background checkThe plant’s abilities as a painkiller and an anti-nauseant are well documented, but the plant also has a long history, almost 5000 years, of claims of other medical uses. As one of the 50 “fundamental” herbs in ancient Chinese traditional…
By John Phillip,
(NaturalNews) Heart disease and stroke continues to rank as the leading, preventable cause of death in most Western societies, killing three-quarters of a million people combined. Any natural compound that can significantly lower the death rate from vascular diseases should be embraced by natural health advocates and the medical profession alike. Yet allopathic physicians continue to prescribe a host of ineffective and dangerous prescription medications that do little to combat this epidemic. The…
Contrary to the popular myth about cold, wet noses, a warm, dry nose isn’t a sign your pet is ill unless other symptoms are present, for example, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, or lethargy.
The time to take notice is if your dog’s or cat’s nose changes texture or color. If the skin seems flaky or crusty or is cracking, or if the nose seems to be losing pigmentation, you’ll want to have your vet take a look at it.
Your pet’s nose can change color either temporarily or permanently, for benign reasons or more serious ones. There are a wide variety of causes for nose pigmentation changes.
Signs of a potential problem with the nose are an unusual nasal discharge, swelling, an unpleasant smell, or if your pet seems to be having trouble breathing.
There are several diseases that can affect the nose, so you should learn what your pet’s nose looks like when it’s healthy. That way, you’ll be able to tell right away if a problem might be developing.
Elbow dysplasia is a catchall term that describes inherited developmental abnormalities in a dog’s elbow joint. The four types of elbow joint problems include ununited anconeal process (UAP), fragmented coronoid process (FCP), osteochrondrosis dissecans (OCD) and “elbow incongruency.”
Certain dogs are predisposed to elbow problems, primarily large and giant breeds. It’s important if you’re planning to acquire a dog from a breeder that a high-risk puppy’s parents have been cleared for elbow dysplasia by OFA (the Orthopedic Foundation of America).
Symptoms of elbow dysplasia include lameness, abnormal gait, holding the elbows at odd angles, unwillingness to move around much or play, tiring easily, stiffness upon standing, and a worsening of the condition after exercise.
The goal of treatment of elbow dysplasia is to relieve pain and maintain function in the affected limbs, allowing the dog to live an active, normal life. Treatment involves keeping the dog at a healthy weight, getting moderate exercise, rehab therapies (especially in water), natural anti-inflammatory agents, and sometimes, surgery.
Many dogs with elbow dysplasia can be well managed without resorting to surgery.
If you’re planning to take your dog along on vacation this summer, you’re probably already researching pet-friendly accommodations.
Fortunately, there are several lodging chains that allow pets these days, so it’s fairly easy to map out a road trip with overnight stays at pet-friendly hotels along the way.
Of course, there’s a difference between facilities that allow your pet to stay in the room with you, and accommodations that are actually designed with pets in mind.
El Portal in stunning Sedona, Arizona is the latter.
It’s also one of very few luxury hotels to welcome pets.
Luxury B&B Where Your Dog is as Welcome as You Are
El Portal is a bed and breakfast that opened its doors as a hotel catering to both human and canine guests.
The owners, a couple, spent their careers in the pet food and care industry before opening El Portal.
The B&B has a Southwestern theme and only 12 rooms, each uniquely designed and furnished.
The floors throughout are wood and tile to accommodate doggy visitors, and there’s a 1,000 square-foot fenced patio where guests and their pets can relax.
When you and your pup check in, he’ll get his own special treat basket and one of the beds in your room is for him. You’ll also receive a list of the area’s dog-friendly parks and restaurants (outdoors), pet supply stores, grooming facilities, and veterinarians.
You can also schedule dogs-welcome tours of nearby attractions like the Grand Canyon.
Every year, hundreds of tourists pay about $20,000 to be able to shoot lions in an enclosure. This is called canned hunting.
With tigers on the brink of extinction, dead lion bones are increasingly used as a substitute in Asian markets as some believe they can cure illnesses.
Some are now afraid lions are being bred just for their bones and that the appetite for lion bones will lead to them being poached in the wild, the same way endangered rhinos have been hunted.
There is no scientific proof tiger and lion bones have any medicinal benefits.
Al Jazeera’s Tania Page reports from South Africa.
Around 100,000 years ago, the human race was on the brink of extinction. Confined to Africa, our population had fallen to less than 10,000. Yet within a few tens of thousands of years, we began spreading around the world.
New genetic evidence suggests that one factor contributing to the population bottleneck was a massive epidemic of bacterial disease. The bacteria were exploiting two immune system genes, turning them against us. So the solution was simple: get rid of the traitorous genes.
Ajit Varki of the University of California, San Diego and colleagues looked at two genes called Siglec-13 and Siglec-17. Both code for proteins that are involved in controlling the immune system, helping to decide whether immune cells should go on the offensive.
Varki found that both genes are active in chimpanzees, but not in humans. Siglec-13 has been entirely deleted from the human genome, while Siglec-17 is non-functional as a result of losing one letter from its code.
Traitor genes
Why would we have got rid of two useful immune genes? Varki reconstructed the lost proteins and found that two dangerous bacteria, Group B Streptococcus and Escherichia coli K1, could bind to them.
Wondering if the bacteria could exploit the proteins, he expressed each protein in some human immune cells. The modified cells had a weaker response to the bacteria than immune cells without the proteins. That suggests the bacteria had found a way to dampen the immune response by binding to the two proteins.
Varki thinks that early humans were confronted with a massive epidemic of bacterial infection. The two bacteria he studied are particularly dangerous to newborn babies, who often die after being infected. That could explain why the human population fell so precipitously, and why we got rid of the Siglec genes that made us so vulnerable.
Population crash
The genetic data suggests that the two genes were switched off in some humans between 440,000 and 270,000 years ago, before modern humans split from our Neanderthal and Denisovan cousins. But it took a long time for the effect to spread through the entire population: some people may have had working versions of Siglec-13 as recently as 46,000 years ago. During that long period, Varki thinks our ancestors were decimated by disease.
“The recent advances in ancient DNA studies and the human genome project have made it possible to look at the co-evolution of humans and pathogens,” says Isabelle de Groote of the Natural History Museum in London, UK, who was not involved in the study. By combining data from genetics, archaeology and other disciplines, we can build up a more detailed picture of our evolution.
By J. D. Heyes,
(NaturalNews) Just when, as a parent, you think you’ve got this drug thing with your kids handled, they come up with something else to put themselves at risk and make you begin worrying about them all over again. The most recent trend now, according to reports, is for students to snort – yes, snort – attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs before taking academic exams, not for the high necessarily but to get a better score. In schools all across the country, students bent on getting…
By Larry Malerba, DO,
(NaturalNews) Contemporary scientific culture has fed us the mantra that depression is the result of a chemical imbalance for so long now that the premise is rarely questioned by the general public. On the other hand, there are many in the alternative health community who have been aware of this for a long time (1). Such an overly simplistic explanation suits the needs of a medical establishment that can only think of illness in biochemical terms. It conveniently dispenses with the inherent messiness…
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
An Afghan village where more than 70 people are believed to have been buried in an earthquake-triggered landslide could be declared a mass grave, an official said Wednesday.
Two shallow tremors less than half an hour apart on Monday unleashed a deluge of rock and earth that smashed into the remote village of Mullah Jan, in the mountainous Hindu Kush region.
Villagers say 71 people, all women and children, were trapped in the landslide, and a disaster management official has described the chances of anyone surviving as “slim or non-existent”.
Mechanical diggers were at the site trying to clear rubble to find bodies or survivors, but Nasir Kohzad, the head of the natural disaster agency of Baghlan province, said the scale of the task made it difficult.
“Part of a mountain has collapsed on a part of Mullah Jan village and there is over 60 metres of dirt to remove,” he told AFP.
Pictures from the scene showed earthmovers digging through mounds of brown dirt and rock with no visible signs of buried buildings.
Only three bodies have been recovered from Mullah Jan, Kohzad said, while a fourth was found in a neighbouring district.
Mullah Jan, the chief of the eponymous village, suggested declaring the site a mass grave and leaving the other victims’ bodies to rest, Kohzad said.
The first quake on Monday, with a magnitude of 5.4, struck at 9:32 am (0502 GMT) at a depth of 15 kilometres (10 miles) with the epicentre around 160 kilometres southwest of the town of Faizabad.
A more powerful tremor, measured at 5.7 magnitude, hit around 25 minutes later in almost exactly the same place, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
Northern Afghanistan and Pakistan are frequently hit by earthquakes, especially around the Hindu Kush range, which lies near the collision of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
A 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Pakistan in October 2005 killed 74,000 people and displaced 3.5 million.
TERNATE, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) — Hundreds of residents in northeastern Indonesia fled their homes on Wednesday after a brief eruption at Mount Gamkonora, spewing towering columns of ash and smoke and prompting officials to raise the volcano’s alert level to the second-highest state.
The 1,635-meter (5,364 feet) tall volcano, which is located on the west coast of Halmahera island in the Maluku Islands and is part of North Maluku province, began to erupt on Wednesday afternoon and sent thick ash clouds up to 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) high, although no lava flows were seen.
The Antara news agency reported that hundreds of residents living on the volcano’s slope evacuated the area following the eruption, but they returned hours later after officials determined their communities are not currently at risk. New evacuations could be ordered if activity at the volcano continues to increase.
Following Wednesday’s eruption, the country’s Volcanology and Geology Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) decided to raise the volcano’s alert status to Siaga (level 3), the second-highest level. The agency uses a warning system with four levels of alert, with level 1 being the lowest and level 4 being the highest.
PVMBG said activity at Mount Gamkonora has been increasing for months, with more frequent volcanic earthquakes and an increase of magma activity near the surface. Authorities are still uncertain whether the current eruption will lead to a major event, but past eruptions at the volcano have nearly all been explosive.
Mount Gamkonora last erupted in July 2007, forcing the evacuation of nearly 10,000 people but causing no known casualties. The most notable eruption at the volcano took place in May 1673, when a massive eruption caused significant damage in the area and resulting tsunami waves which flooded nearby villages. An unknown number of people were killed.
Indonesia has more active volcanoes than any other country in the world and sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity.
One of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes is Mount Merapi, which is located on the island of Java near Jogjakarta, the country’s second-most visited area after Bali. Between October and November 2010, a series of eruptions took place at the volcano, killing at least 353 people and displacing more than 300,000 others.
14.06.2012
Volcano Eruption
Indonesia
Halmahera, [Mount Gamkonora Volcano]
Volcano Eruption in Indonesia on Thursday, 14 June, 2012 at 16:53 (04:53 PM) UTC.
Description
Hundreds of residents in northeastern Indonesia fled their homes on Wednesday after a brief eruption at Mount Gamkonora, spewing towering columns of ash and smoke and prompting officials to raise the volcano’s alert level to the second-highest state. The 1,635-meter (5,364 feet) tall volcano, which is located on the west coast of Halmahera island in the Maluku Islands and is part of North Maluku province, began to erupt on Wednesday afternoon and sent thick ash clouds up to 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) high, although no lava flows were seen. The Antara news agency reported that hundreds of residents living on the volcano’s slope evacuated the area following the eruption, but they returned hours later after officials determined their communities are not currently at risk. New evacuations could be ordered if activity at the volcano continues to increase. Following Wednesday’s eruption, the country’s Volcanology and Geology Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) decided to raise the volcano’s alert status to Siaga (level 3), the second-highest level. The agency uses a warning system with four levels of alert, with level 1 being the lowest and level 4 being the highest.
PVMBG said activity at Mount Gamkonora has been increasing for months, with more frequent volcanic earthquakes and an increase of magma activity near the surface. Authorities are still uncertain whether the current eruption will lead to a major event, but past eruptions at the volcano have nearly all been explosive. Mount Gamkonora last erupted in July 2007, forcing the evacuation of nearly 10,000 people but causing no known casualties. The most notable eruption at the volcano took place in May 1673, when a massive eruption caused significant damage in the area and resulting tsunami waves which flooded nearby villages. An unknown number of people were killed. Indonesia has more active volcanoes than any other country in the world and sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity. One of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes is Mount Merapi, which is located on the island of Java near Jogjakarta, the country’s second-most visited area after Bali. Between October and November 2010, a series of eruptions took place at the volcano, killing at least 353 people and displacing more than 300,000 others.
Volcano Eruption in Indonesia on Thursday, 14 June, 2012 at 16:53 (04:53 PM) UTC.
Firefighters continued to build containment lines around the Round Mountain Complex fire Thursday night just east of Tularosa on U.S. Highway 70, Otero County emergency services coordinator Paul Quairoli said. Quairoli said Otero County firefighters were called around 5 p.m. Thursday to the fire on the south side of U.S. Highway 70 East between mile markers 234 and 239. “The fire is about 25 percent contained,” he said. “We had between four and six separate fires in the area. The largest of the fires is 10 acres. Combined with all the fires, we’re about 16 acres total. The fires were burning on private, state and Bureau of Land Management lands. They were small spotted fires that turned into larger grass and brush fires.” He said resources from Otero County fire units, Tularosa Fire Department, U.S. Forest Service, New Mexico State Forestry, BLM and Mescalero responded. “We also had Bureau of Indian Affairs, state police and the sheriff’s department law enforcement respond as well,” Quairoli said. “We had a heavy air tanker and four heavy helicopters respond. We got the air resources from the Little Bear fire here right away. We attacked it aggressively. We had about 28 Otero County units respond to the fire.”
He said fire officials continue the investigation into the cause of the fire. “We’re putting in more fire lines and mopping up certain areas,” Quairoli said. “We have a lot of wet lines down because of the heavy tanker drops that we’re going to work for a long time. Right now we’re a unified command, but we’re going to be turning the command over to the BLM incident commander soon (Thursday night). There was one firefighter who went down with heat exhaustion.” He said he was unable to confirm that a second firefighter suffered from heat exhaustion. “Wednesday, the Otero County Commission confirmed that we’re going into a burn ban county-wide,” Quairoli said. “There are no fireworks within the boundaries of the Lincoln National Forest or basically in the mountain areas. We’re dry and a lot of large fires in the area and resources are short. We urge people to use common sense and precaution that fire doesn’t happen. Any fires in the county, we’re going to continue to extinguish it aggressively because of the dry, high risk and other large fires within the state.”
Forest / Wild Fire in USA on Friday, 15 June, 2012 at 06:43 (06:43 AM) UTC.
Puerto Rico is in the midst of an unusually dry and record-setting hot stretch of weather. Some relief is on the horizon, but it will not be long-lasting. Record heat baked Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan both Tuesday and Wednesday and threatens to do the same into Friday. Temperatures today are headed to near the day’s record high of 96 from 1983, then they will challenge Friday’s record of 94 degrees from the same year. This week’s record highs are actually not that far above the 88 degrees that San Juan typically warms to this time of year. What is really unusual and contributing to the heat is the absence of cooling showers and thunderstorms. Dry air has not only kept the Atlantic Basin free of organized tropical systems this month, but it has also limited the development of showers and thunderstorms over San Juan. No measurable rain has dampened the city so far this June, a month that typically records 4.40 inches of rain. That dry stretch will continue through Friday, and without the storminess and accompanying clouds, temperatures will no trouble challenging records. The recent lack of rain has also dried out vegetation, leading to a heightened fire danger. The good news is that the presence of high humidity is preventing the fire danger from being extreme. The bad news is that the combination of the heat and humidity is creating a very uncomfortable environment for those who must spend time outdoors. Residents are urged to avoid strenuous outdoor activities and to drink plenty of water before some relief finally arrives this weekend. The passage of a tropical wave will open the door for moisture to surge across Puerto Rico this weekend, leading to an increase in much-welcome showers and thunderstorms. The storminess, however, will not be here to stay. After additional spotty showers and thunderstorms follow early next week, latest indications point toward the return of a lengthy stretch of dry and hot weather for the second half of the week.
Heat Wave in Puerto Rico on Friday, 15 June, 2012 at 03:14 (03:14 AM) UTC.
Base data
EDIS Number:
HT-20120615-35447-PRI
Event type:
Heat Wave
Date/Time:
Friday, 15 June, 2012 at 03:14 (03:14 AM) UTC
Last update:
—
Cause of event:
Damage level:
Unknown
Geographic information
Continent:
Caribean Sea
Country:
Puerto Rico
County / State:
Area:
Statewide
City:
Coordinate:
N 18° 13.250, W 66° 35.409
Number of affected people / Humanities loss
Foreign people:
Affected is unknown.
Dead person(s):
—
Injured person(s):
—
Missing person(s):
—
Evacuated person(s):
—
Affected person(s):
—
Today
Forest / Wild Fire
Canada
Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, [Sheshatshiu Region]
The people of North West River and Sheshatshiu are being told to pack their bags and get ready to hit the road as a forest fire encroaches on the Labrador communities. The province issued an evacuation notice on Thursday: “Residents are encouraged to make the necessary preparations at home and heed warnings and instructions from local emergency officials in the community, as the forest fire situation continues.” The growing forest fire is burning some 30 km north of the towns. The Provincial Fire Weather Index said it is burning at “extreme levels.” About 1,700 people live in North West River and some 1,276 in Sheshatshiu.
Forest / Wild Fire in Canada on Friday, 15 June, 2012 at 03:11 (03:11 AM) UTC.
The images look like snow, but Dallas residents will tell you it was no winter wonderland.
“Oh my gosh, this is the biggest hailstorm I have ever witnessed in my life,” shouted Hannah Jones while videotaping chunks of hail pelting her pool and backyard.
Dallas-area hail. (Photo courtesy: CBSDFW.com)
Supercell storms packing heavy rain and droves of damaging hail swept across parts of North Texas Wednesday evening. Some stones were as big as baseballs.
“It was horrible,” one woman told WFAA-TV. “It was like being bombed or something.”
The wild weather wrecked a historic movie theater, smashed windows and left evening commuters cursing Mother Nature as they scrambled for cover.
British gardeners have been told they can use their hosepipes again after drought prompted a two-month ban — but after weeks of pouring rain, their lawns will be looking fresh anyway.
Days after the ban was brought into force in early April, the skies opened — delivering the wettest April in over 100 years, and causing flooding in some areas.
Three of the seven water companies which imposed bans in early April will officially end them on Thursday.
The restrictions, covering the homes of some 20 million Britons, were introduced to combat drought in southern and eastern England after two consecutive dry winters.
“We have had two-and-a-half times the average rainfall for April, we have had steady showers in May and then monsoon downpours in June. That’s changed things,” said a spokesman for Thames Water, one of the firms lifting the ban.
Anglian Water and Southern Water are also lifting their bans, though South East Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Veolia Water Central and Veolia Water Southeast are maintaining them due to low groundwater levels.
The Environment Agency said the recent downpours, which soaked more than a million revellers who crammed into London to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee this month, had boosted river levels and reservoir stocks.
More downpours are expected across Britain this week.
The Environment Agency has two flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, and 19 flood alerts signalling possible flooding, in place across the country.
Taiwan has seen devastating floods after days of rain.
At least six people have been killed after flooding hit Taiwan.
Torrential rain brought floods to counties in numerous parts of the country, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
Taiwan’s Central Emergency Operation Center said more than 7,000 people were moved, with the help of the military, according to Reuters news agency.
The flooding caused landslides, as well as power cuts and water shortages to tens of thousands of homes.
The emergency centre said flooding had caused power cuts to more than 87,000 homes and water shortages to 12,000.
While it was reported that six people had died, a further two were said to be missing.
The Associated Press said two people had been killed in a makeshift shelter in a landslide in Taichung, while two more were killed in landslide in Nantou county.
Reuters said the agricultural loss to the country had been estimated at more than NT$172m ($5.76m/£3.69m).
Taiwan’s Central News Agency quoted President Ma Ying-jeou as saying those losses would be compensated.
He said this would take place through more generous subsidies and an easier application process for funding.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has more than 47,000 personnel ready for relief assistance, according to the Taipei Times.
The newspaper said 411 rivers across the country had been placed on red alert for mud flows with a further 416 on yellow alert.
Two days of rain has flooded several villages and towns in southern Philippines and forced nearly 700 people to flee their homes on Tuesday. Benito Ramos, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council head, said parts of Sarangani, North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces were flooded after two days of pounding rain set off by a brewing tropical storm. Two men died while a total of 250 houses were destroyed when a flashflood hit two villages in Glan town, Sarangani province Tuesday. The flashflood struck the villages of Big Margus Proper and Pangyan Cross. The Armed Forces of the Philippines reported 50 families were also displaced by flashfloods. Sarangani Governor Miguel Rene Dominguez identified the victims as Sagapo Cabigding and Rolando Mata. A certain Rani Pregoner is also reported missing. Nineteen fishermen were also rescued by the authorities from the big waves that battered the area for several hours. The governor said that based on the report coming from Ben Solarte of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, about 139 houses were totally damaged while 111 houses were partially destroyed by the floodwaters.
A flashflood also struck four villages in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat on Monday. It started around 9 p.m. and affected barangays Obial, Sta. Clara, Hinalaan, and Himulan. A total of 2,460 families were affected by the flooding, while 23 families were forcibly evacuated by the authorities. In Malaybalay, Bukidnon, a flashflood also struck barangays Cabangahan, Bangkud, Aglayan, and Linabo at 4:45 p.m. after Bugkaon River overflowed due to continuous heavy rains brought about by the shallow low pressure area. Some 44 families whose houses are situated near a riverbank in this city evacuated to higher grounds when floodwaters reached as high as 15 feet at around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, residents said. Nurkaya Patadon, 42, one of the flood victims in this city, said many of their appliances and valuables were swept out to the Nuangan River, one of the longest rivers in North Cotabato. Patadon’s family, including 43 other families, decided to leave their homes for fear the waters might rise again due to torrential rains. Heavy rains started to pour at around 9:30 p.m. on Monday and continued until Tuesday afternoon, said Psalmer Bernalte, head of the Kidapawan City Emergency Response Unit (KidCeru), one of the groups that conducted rescue operations. Kasan Maruhom, one of the displaced residents, said that Tuesday’s flashfloods was the worst since 2000.
“We never thought the floodwaters could rise as high as 15 feet. What happened was the worst. I’ve lived in this area for more than 30 years,” Maruhom said. Maruhom said he would transfer his family to Mundog Subdivision in Poblacion. Others, however, have problems finding areas for their relocation. “We don’t know where to go. We have no place to stay other than the riverbank. Our workplace is here in the Poblacion,” said Salik Quila, also one of the flood victims. Bernalte said the waters of Nuangan River, already considered a dead river in Kidapawan City, became turbulent as heavy rains continue to fall across North Cotabato due to low pressure area, which brought widespread rain showers and thunderstorms. Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco has already ordered the immediate evacuation of the families living near the riverbanks, including Lapu-Lapu Street, Cotelco Village, and Licatan Subdivision, all in Poblacion here. “We’ve already given them orders in the past to leave the place, yet, they won’t listen,” Gantuangco said. Gantuangco said a relocation site in Barangay Balindog, about five kilometers away from the Poblacion, is set for the victims. He said they will declare this city under state of calamity so they can use a portion of their funds to help the flood victims. He added that he already ordered the City Social Welfare and Development Office and the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council to assess and evaluate the situation and immediately conduct relief operations on Wednesday.
Flood in Philippines on Wednesday, 13 June, 2012 at 02:47 (02:47 AM) UTC.
Base data
EDIS Number:
FL-20120613-35428-PHL
Event type:
Flood
Date/Time:
Wednesday, 13 June, 2012 at 02:47 (02:47 AM) UTC
Last update:
Situation Update No. 1 on Friday, 15 June, 2012 at 03:19 UTC
Cause of event:
Damage level:
Extreme
Geographic information
Continent:
Pacific Ocean – West
Country:
Philippines
County / State:
MultiProvinces
Area:
Sarangani, North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces
City:
Coordinate:
N 7° 0.834, E 125° 5.268
Number of affected people / Humanities loss
Foreign people:
Affected is unknown.
Dead person(s):
2
Injured person(s):
—
Missing person(s):
61
Evacuated person(s):
700
Affected person(s):
—
………………………………………..
Ruta 32 Remains Closed For Landslide
Ruta 32, the route that connects San José with Guapiles and Limón, is once again closed due to a landslide occurring at kilometre 30 in the area of the Zurquí, some 10 km east of the tunnel.
The road is expected to remain closed for most of the day today Thursday, as work crews clean up the debris strewn across the road.
The Consejo Nacional de Vialidad (CONAVI) says it is in the process of removing some 6.400 cubic metres of mud and other materials that coves some 8 metres (25 feet) of roadway.
The CONAVI says that the road will be re-open today if the weather conditions allow the work to continue and no new landslides occur.
An ammonium hydroxide spill of less than a gallon in a stockroom at NextEra Energy Inc.’s nuclear power plant in Seabrook, N.H. required the plant to declare an “unusual event,” the lowest of four emergency categories. Plant spokesman Al Griffith says the spill happened about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday inside the administration building. He says there are no injuries and no danger to the public. The emergency was over in the early evening. It’s not clear how the spill happened. Cleaning materials are kept in the stockroom. The building is in a protected area. Plant operations were not affected.
HAZMAT in USA on Friday, 15 June, 2012 at 03:17 (03:17 AM) UTC.
An American man whose HIV seemed to disappear after a blood marrow transplant for leukemia may be showing new hints of the disease, sparking debate over whether a cure was really achieved.
Scientists disagree over the latest findings on Timothy Brown, also known as the “Berlin patient,” presented at a conference in Spain last week, according to a report in the journal Science’s ScienceInsider blog.
Brown was given bone marrow transplants in 2006 that appeared to eradicate the human immunodeficiency virus from his body, leading his doctors to declare a “cure of HIV has been achieved” in the peer-reviewed journal Blood in 2010.
The transplants came from a donor with an unusual genetic mutation that is naturally resistant to HIV. About one in 100 Caucasian people have this mutation which prevents the molecule CCR5 from appearing on the cell surface.
The latest debate arose after virologist Steven Yukl of the University of California, San Francisco, gave a talk on June 8 at the International Workshop on HIV & Hepatitis Virus.
Yukl “highlighted the difficulties that they and several labs they collaborated with have had determining if Brown truly had eradicated the virus from his body,” said the ScienceInsider report.
“There are some signals of the virus and we don’t know if they are real or contamination, and, at this point, we can’t say for sure whether there’s been complete eradication of HIV,” Yukl was quoted as saying by ScienceInsider.
“The point of the presentation was to raise the question of how do we define a cure and, at this level of detection, how do we know the signal is real?”
However, some scientists interpreted the presentation to mean that a cure was not actually achieved, and that Brown may even have been re-infected with the virus that causes AIDS.
Alain Lafeuillade of the General Hospital in Toulon, France, issued a press release that described how Yukl and colleagues “challenged these results as they showed persistence of low levels of HIV viremia in this patient, and HIV DNA in his rectal cells.”
He noted that “these HIV strains were found to be different from those initially present in this patient back in 2006, and different from each other.”
While that could mean the HIV has “evolved and persist(ed) over the last 5 years, these data also raise the possibility that the patient has been re-infected,” Lafeuillade wrote.
“More studies are in progress to know if this seronegative HIV individual can infect other subjects if he has unsafe sex,” he concluded.
Yukl, quoted by ScienceInsider, said Lafeuillade misinterpreted the presentation.
“”We weren’t trying to say HIV was still there or he hadn’t been cured,” he said, noting the talk centered on how to interpret very sensitive test results on Brown’s blood cells, plasma and rectal tissue.
One of his collaborators, Douglas Richman of the University of California, San Diego, said he believes researchers have picked up contaminants.
“If you do enough cycles of PCR (polymerase chain reaction), you can get a signal in water for pink elephants,” Richman was quoted as saying.
WEDNESDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) — Although the plague is typically considered a remnant of the Middle Ages, when unsanitary conditions and rodent infestations prevailed amid the squalor of poverty, this rare but deadly disease appears to be spreading through wealthier communities in New Mexico, researchers report.
Why the plague is popping up in affluent neighborhoods isn’t completely clear, the experts added.
“Where human plague cases occur is linked to where people live and how people interact with their environment,” noted lead researcher Anna Schotthoefer, from the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation in Wisconsin. “These factors may change over time, necessitating periodic reassessments of the factors that put people at risk.”
This latest study confirms previous reports that living within or close to the natural environments that support plague is a risk factor for human plague, Schotthoefer said.
Plague is caused by a fast-moving bacteria, known as Yersinia pestis, that is spread through flea bites (bubonic plague) or through the air (pneumonic plague).
The new report comes on the heels of the hospitalization on June 8 of an Oregon man in his 50s with what experts suspect is plague. According to The Oregonian, the man got sick a few days after being bitten as he tried to get a mouse away from a stray cat. The cat died days later, the paper said, and the man remains in critical condition.
For the new study, published in the July issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the researchers used U.S. Census Bureau data to pinpoint the location and socioeconomic status of plague patients.
About 11 cases of plague a year have occurred in the United States since 1976, with most cases found in New Mexico. Plague has also been reported in a handful of other states.
Although many cases were in areas where the habitat supports rodents and fleas, the researchers also found cases occurring in more upper-class neighborhoods. In the 1980s, most cases occurred where housing conditions were poor, but more recently cases have been reported in affluent areas of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, the investigators found.
“The shift from poorer to more affluent regions of New Mexico was a surprise, and suggests that homeowners in these newly developed areas should be educated about the risks of plague,” Schotthoefer said.
Schotthoefer noted that these more affluent areas where plague occurred were regions where new housing developments had been built in habitats that support the wild reservoirs of plague, which include ground squirrels and woodrats.
Bubonic plague starts with painful swellings (buboes) of the lymph nodes, which appear in the armpits, legs, neck or groin. Buboes are at first a red color, then they turn a dark purple color, or black. Pneumonic plague starts by infecting the lungs. Other symptoms include a very high fever, delirium, vomiting, muscle pains, bleeding in the lungs and disorientation.
In the 14th century, a plague called the Black Death killed an estimated 30 percent to 60 percent of the European population. Victims died quickly, within days after being infected.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said he doesn’t expect to see that kind of outbreak ever again.
“This is not a disease of the past, but you are never going to see a massive outbreak of plague in this country,” he said.
“We don’t have the public health problems we used to have and people would be quickly confined if there were ever a large number of cases,” Siegel explained.
Yet, it is not surprising to see plague in these more affluent areas, he noted.
“We know that plague only exists where you have wild animals, and once a reservoir of plague is already present it is likely to persist,” Siegel explained. “It isn’t only about squalor; it’s about where the reservoir is.”
However, if the disease is caught early it is treatable with antibiotics, Siegel added.
Sea ice thickness in the Laptev Sea at the end of the previous winter (April 20, 2012): The sea ice thickness was determined with the SMOS (Soil Moisture Ocean Saliniy) satellite that can resolve ice thicknesses up to 50 centimetres. The black line shows the mission’s flight track. SMOS-data: Lars Kaleschke, KlimaCampus, Hamburg University.
The North-East Passage, the sea route along the North coast of Russia, is expected to be free of ice early again this summer. The forecast was made by sea ice physicists of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association based on a series of measurement flights over the Laptev Sea, a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean.
Amongs experts the shelf sea is known as an “ice factory” of Arctic sea ice. At the end of last winter the researchers discovered large areas of thin ice not being thick enough to withstand the summer melt.
“These results were a great surprise to us”, says expedition member Dr. Thomas Krumpen. In previous measurements in the winter of 2007/2008 the ice in the same area had been up to one metre thicker. In his opinion these clear differences are primarily attributable to the wind: “It behaves differently from year to year.
If, as last winter, the wind blows from the mainland to the sea, it pushes the pack ice from the Laptev Sea towards the North. Open water areas, so-called polynyas, develop in this way before the coast. Their surface water naturally cools very quickly at an air temperature of minus 40 degrees.
New thin ice forms and is then immediately swept away again by the wind. In view of this cycle, differently sized areas of thin ice then develop on the Laptev Sea depending on wind strength and continuity”, explains Thomas Krumpen. (See info charts)
However, the expedition team was unaware of just how large these areas can actually become until they made the measurement flights in March and April of this year. In places the researchers flew over thin ice for around 400 kilometres.
The “EM Bird”, the torpedo-shaped, electromagnetic ice thickness sensor of the Alfred Wegener Institute, was hung on a cable beneath the helicopter. It constantly recorded the thickness of the floating ice. “We now have a unique data set which we primarily want to use to check the measurements of the earth investigation satellite SMOS”, says Thomas Krumpen.
The abbreviation SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) is actually a satellite mission to determine the soil moisture of the mainland and salinity of the oceans. However, the satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) can also be used to survey the Arctic sea ice.
“The satellite can be used above all to detect thin ice areas, as we have seen them, from space”, explains Thomas Krumpen.
The SMOS satellite measurements from March and April of this year confirm that the thin ice areas discovered by the expedition team were no locally restricted phenomenon: “A large part of the North-East Passage was characterised by surprisingly thin ice at the end of the winter”, says Thomas Krumpen.
The new findings of the successful winter expedition give cause for concern to the scientists: “These huge new areas of thin ice will be the first to disappear when the ice melts in summer. And if the thin ice melts as quickly as we presume, the Laptev Sea and with it a part of the North-East Passage will be free from ice comparatively early this summer”, explains the sea ice physicist.
In the past the Laptev Sea was always covered with sea ice from October to the end of the following July and was navigable for a maximum of two summer months. In 2011 the ice had retracted so far by the third week of July that during the course of the summer 33 ships were able to navigate the Arctic waters of Russia for the first time.
The North-East Passage is viewed by shipping companies to be a time and fuel saving alternative to the conventional Europe-Asia route. The connection from Rotterdam to Japanese Yokohama via the Nord-East Passage is some 3800 sea miles shorter than taking the Suez Canal and Indian Ocean route.
On June 14th, for the second day in a row, sunspot AR1504 erupted and hurled a CME toward Earth. The fast-moving (1360 km/s) cloud is expected to sweep up a previous CME and deliver a combined blow to Earth’s magnetic field on June 16th around 10:16 UT. This animation shows the likely progression of the approaching storm:
According to the forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CMEs will also hit Venus on June 15th and Mars on June 19th. Because Venus and Mars do not have global magnetic fields to protect them, both of those planets will probably lose tiny amounts of atmosphere when the CMEs strike.
Here on Earth, the impact is likely to trigger a geomagnetic storm around the poles. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on June 16th
Data from NASA’s AIM spacecraft show that noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are like a great “geophysical light bulb.” They turn on every year in late spring, reaching almost full intensity over a period of no more than 5 to 10 days. News flash: The bulb is glowing. Flying photographer Brian Whittaker photographed these NLCs over Canada on June 13th:
“I was very happy to see my first noctilucent clouds of 2012,” says Whittaker. “They were visible to the north for about 3 hours as we flew between Ottawa and Newfoundland at 35,000 feet.”
These electric-blue clouds are hanging 85 km above Earth’s surface, at the edge of space itself. Their origin is still largely a mystery; various theories associate them with space dust, rocket exhaust, global warming–or some mixture of the three. One thing is sure. They’re baaack … for the summer of 2012.
Observing tips: NLCs favor high latitudes, although they have been sighted as far south as Colorado and Virginia. Look west 30 to 60 minutes after sunset when the Sun has dipped 6o to 16obelow the horizon. If you see luminous blue-white tendrils spreading across the sky, you may have spotted a noctilucent cloud.
Large swathes of farmland are threatened by locusts in Niger even as the drought-prone African nation is grappling with a severe food crisis, a pest-control official said Wednesday.
“Unless swarms are destroyed very early, locusts will reproduce and reach the cropland,” Yahaya Garba, director of the CNLA agency in charge of pest-control, said in the latest bulletin of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Niger.
At least 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) of farmland and one million hectares (2.5 million acres) of pasture land could be devastated.
“Locusts are about to reach the Sahel (region), and notably northern Mali and Niger,” Garba said adding that the migratory species was invading the area from southeast Algeria and neighbouring Libya.
The first swarms were spotted in northern Niger late last month and have started to migrate south where most Niger farmland is concentrated.
More than 80 percent of Niger’s population of 15 million live on farm produce and six million are facing a new food crisis already, out of 18 million in the entire Sahel belt, according to United Nations figures.
“The fight (against the locusts) must be fought intensively and immediately,” warned Garba, appealing for international assistance.
There was a major risk that locusts invade the area from Mali where state agencies do not have access to locust reproduction zones as the north is under the control of armed rebel groups.
The UN’s Rome-based food agency said earlier this month that political insecurity and conflicts in North Africa were hindering efforts to control the swarms of desert locusts.
A 30-foot young humpback whale beached itself on a suburban Vancouver beach and died there.
The midday tide rolls in as police move crowds of people back as they view an eight to ten meter long juvenile humpback whale which died shortly after washing up on the beach in White Rock near Vancouver, British Columbia, early morning June 12, 2012, despite the efforts of local people who tried to save it. The whale was scarred, covered in lice and open sores and appeared malnourished, likely too weak to fight the early morning incoming tides. UPI / Heinz Ruckemann
Today
Biological Hazard
Canada
Province of British Columbia, Comox [Comox coastal region]
A huge Red Tide has formed along the east coast of Vancouver Island, prompting a warning from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. “I just want to inform the public about some closures due to Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning, also known as Red Tide that we have in the area,” explained Comox DFO Fisheries Officer Bryce Gillard. “We had a large section that was identified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that starts in an area about three kilometres south of Union Bay and it goes all the way down to Northwest Bay, just south of Parksville.” Gillard had this message for those planning on checking out the local shellfish festival this weekend. “It doesn’t affect the Shellfish Festival in Comox because all that product comes from a federally registered plant. There are still large areas of the coast which remain open for commercial harvest and recreational harvest. We always encourage people to call their local DFO office for Red Tide updates in the area.” Gillard says Red Tide is a dangerous toxin that affects the nervous system. “Red Tide is an algae that is in our water system and present all year round. Those toxins in bivalve shellfish can’t be eliminated by cooking them, they are toxins that remain in the meat.”
Biohazard name:
Red Tide
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:
Biological Hazard in Canada on Friday, 15 June, 2012 at 06:46 (06:46 AM) UTC.
Base data
EDIS Number:
BH-20120615-35451-CAN
Event type:
Biological Hazard
Date/Time:
Friday, 15 June, 2012 at 06:46 (06:46 AM) UTC
Last update:
—
Cause of event:
Damage level:
Unknown
Geographic information
Continent:
North-America
Country:
Canada
County / State:
Province of British Columbia
Area:
Comox coastal region
City:
Comox
Coordinate:
N 49° 39.844, W 124° 51.907
Number of affected people / Humanities loss
Foreign people:
Affected is unknown.
Dead person(s):
—
Injured person(s):
—
Missing person(s):
—
Evacuated person(s):
—
Affected person(s):
—
Today
Biological Hazard
USA
State of Hawaii, [Sunset Beach Park, Waikiki at Duke Paoa Kahanamoku Beach Park]
A box jellyfish advisory has been issued due to an invasion on Oahu beaches. Affected beaches include Sunset Beach Park, Waikiki at Duke Paoa Kahanamoku Beach Park, Waikiki at Kapiolani Beach Park, Waikiki at Kapiolani Park Beach Center, Waikiki at Kuhio Beach Park, Waikiki at San Souci Beach, and Waimea Bay Beach Park. Today is day three of a four day influx. As of 9:00 a.m., there have been 30 box jellyfish sightings in Waikiki, 50 at Waimea Bay and 50 at Sunset Beach. If you are stung, flush the affected area with copious amounts of white vinegar and use heat or cold for pain. Seek immediate medical attention if you experience breathing difficulty.
Biohazard name:
Jellyfish invasion (Box)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:
Biological Hazard in USA on Friday, 15 June, 2012 at 03:13 (03:13 AM) UTC.
Base data
EDIS Number:
BH-20120615-35446-USA
Event type:
Biological Hazard
Date/Time:
Friday, 15 June, 2012 at 03:13 (03:13 AM) UTC
Last update:
—
Cause of event:
Damage level:
Unknown
Geographic information
Continent:
North-America
Country:
USA
County / State:
State of Hawaii
Area:
Sunset Beach Park, Waikiki at Duke Paoa Kahanamoku Beach Park
Researchers trail behind whales waiting for Tucker to indicate by leaning over the bow that he can smell whale poop. The boat on average stays between 450 yards to more than half a mile away from whales. Credit: Fred Felleman.
Not having enough Chinook salmon to eat stresses out southern resident killer whales in the Pacific Northwest more than having boatloads of whale watchers nearby, according to hormone levels of whales summering in the Salish Sea.
In lean times, however, the stress level normally associated with boats becomes more pronounced, further underscoring the importance of having enough prey, according to Katherine Ayres, an environmental and pet-behavior consultant who led the research while a University of Washington doctoral student in biology. Ayres is lead author of a paper appearing online June 6, in the journal PLoS ONE.
In a surprise finding, hormone levels show that southern resident killer whales are best fed when they come into the Salish Sea in the late spring, Ayres said. The Salish Sea includes Puget Sound and the straits of Georgia, Haro and Juan de Fuca. Once there they get a necessary boost later in the summer while eating Chinook salmon at the height of the Fraser River run.
While Fraser River Chinook are an important food source, helping the southern resident killer whales may mean giving additional consideration to spring runs of Chinook salmon off the mouth of the Columbia River and other salmon runs off the West Coast, if that’s where the orcas are bulking up in the spring, Ayres said. “Resident” killer whales are fish-eating orcas, unlike the so-called “transient” orcas that eat marine mammals.
For the study, scientists analyzed hormonal responses to stress that were measurable in whale scat, or poop. Many samples were collected using a black Labrador named Tucker on board a small boat in the vicinity of individuals or groups of whales. Even a mile away, Tucker can pick up on the scent he’s been trained to recognize as the fishy smell distinctive to southern resident killer whales, a group of orcas listed as endangered by both Canada and U.S.
“This is the first study using scat-detection dogs to locate killer whale feces,” Ayres said. “The technique could be used to collect scat and study stress in other species of whales, always difficult subjects to study because the animals spend 90 percent of their time underwater.”
Since the population of southern resident killer whales declined nearly 20 percent between 1995 and 2001, scientists and managers have wondered if the animals weren’t thriving because of lack of food, the closeness of boats, toxins built up in their bodies or a combination of all three.
“Behavior is hard to interpret, physiology is easier,” said co-author Samuel Wasser, UW professor of biology and developer of the program using dogs like Tucker to detect scat for biological research. “Fish matter most to the southern resident killer whales. Even if boats are important to consider, the way you minimize that impact is to keep the fish levels high.”
It’s the same with toxins, Wasser said. The study being published in PLoS ONE specifically considered stress caused by inadequate prey and boats. But Wasser said that toxins accumulating in body fat will likely affect killer whales most when food is scarce and they start to use that stored fat, releasing toxins into their bodies when their physical condition already is in decline. When whales are well-fed, toxins should be less of a factor, he said. In the study researchers examined the level of two hormones to study physiological responses to boat and food stresses.
One type of hormone, glucocorticoids, are released in increasing amounts when animals face immediate challenges, whether it’s a shortage of food or the fight-or-flight response when threatened, Ayres said. When whale watching boats and other vessels were most numerous in the summer, glucocorticoids should have spiked if the whales were bothered. Instead glucocorticoids went down, driven by an increase in the number of Fraser River Chinook.
The other hormone, thyroid hormone, tunes metabolism depending on how much food is available, for example ramping down metabolism to lower the energy an organism expends when food is scarce, Ayres said. Unlike glucocorticoids, thyroid hormone levels do not respond directly to stresses such as boats being nearby. During summers, thyroid levels of Salish Sea whales dipped while they awaited the arrival of Fraser River Chinook, increased again when food became plentiful and declined once again as the Chinook run petered out.
Unexpectedly, the thyroid hormone measures showed the whales were best fed when they first arrive in the Salish Sea, better than at any time in the five months they spent there, Wasser said.
“We assume winter is a lean time, so to come into the Salish Sea at their nutritional high for the year, then clearly they have been eating something – a very rich food source – before they arrive,” Wasser said. “It appears another fish run is critical to them before they get here.”
Some evidence points to the Chinook returning to the Columbia River, although Wasser said that more spring data are needed.
The PLoS ONE paper follows a draft report issued May 3 by U.S. and Canadian fisheries experts considering to what extent salmon fishing is affecting the recovery of the southern resident killer whales. Wasser said the report pays too little attention to year-to-year salmon variability, but got it right when it said more needs to be known about what’s happening to the whales in the winter and, particularly, in early spring.
Among other things, the report said Chinook stocks are currently harvested at a rate of about 20 percent “so there is limited potential for increasing Chinook abundance by reducing fishing pressure,” according to the executive summary.
More extreme measures may be required that increase overall Chinook salmon stocks, Wasser said.
“To support a healthy population of southern residents we may need more salmon than simply the number of fish being caught by commercial and sport fishers,” Ayres said. “We may need to open up historical habitats to boost wild salmon, such as what is being done with the Elwha River and what is proposed for the Klamath River. That may be the only way to support the historic population size of southern residents, which is ultimately the goal of recovery.”
Other co-authors are Rebecca Booth of the UW; Jennifer Hempelmann, Candice Emmons, M. Bradley Hanson and Michael Ford of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center; Kari Koski of Soundwatch Boater Education Program and the Whale Museum, Friday Harbor; Robin Baird of Cascadia Research Collective, Olympia; and Kelley Balcomb-Bartok, who helped get the study off the ground through collaboration with the Center for Whale Research.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
Scores of people are feared dead in an earthquake and landslide that buried 20 houses in northern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said. Details of the destruction were slow to emerge from the remote district. Rescuers have so far pulled two women’s bodies from the rubble of the landslide in Baghlan province and expect many others were buried, said provincial Gov. Abdul Majid. The U.N. confirmed one other death and said houses were destroyed across five districts. An earthquake measuring a magnitude 5.4 struck the Hindu Kush region Monday morning, followed by a 5.7 quake, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Both were felt as far away as the Afghan capital, Kabul, where buildings shook. Baghlan province’s Burka district, the site of the landslide, is a remote collection of mountain villages. It takes more than two hours to drive the approximately 25 miles from the provincial capital of Pul-e-Khumri to the area. There are no medical clinics in Burka, said Dr. Salim Rasouli, so medics and ambulances were sent from the nearest city. “Right now our doctors, nurses and ambulances are at the site, helping people. As there is no communication system there, we cannot get the latest information on the casualties right now,” Rasouli said.
As many as 100 people are feared dead in an earthquake and landslide that buried more than 20 houses in northern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said.
Rescuers have so far pulled two women’s bodies from the rubble of the landslide in Baghlan province, said provincial Gov. Abdul Majid. The U.N. confirmed one other death and said houses were destroyed across five districts.
A massive landslide of mud and rocks buried houses so deep in the remote mountain village of Sayi Hazara that rescuers gave up trying to use shovels to dig through the buried buildings, said Jawed Basharat, a spokesman for the provincial police chief who was part of a team that examined the village after the slide. There were no visible signs of the buildings underneath.
“We need bulldozers or other machinery to remove all this earth and get the bodies out, or the survivors if there are any,” Basharat said.
They knew how many houses were buried only from information provided by area residents, who said between 25 and 30 houses disappeared in the landslide.
An earthquake measuring a magnitude 5.4 struck the Hindu Kush region Monday morning, followed by a 5.7 quake, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Both were felt as far away as the Afghan capital, Kabul, where buildings shook.
Baghlan province’s Burka district, the site of the landslide, is a remote collection of mountain villages. It takes more than two hours to drive the approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the provincial capital of Pul-e-Khumri to the area.
The police led a team of rescue workers and medics from Pul-e-Khumri, but discovered on arrival that they could be of little use. The handful of people who survived the landslide had already been driven to clinics.
“The ambulances were there, but there was no one to put in the ambulances,” Basharat said.
The U.N. said in a statement that it was working with local authorities to try to help in the rescue effort but did not provide details. Basharat said the police team was the only group to arrive on Monday, and they returned to Pul-e-Khumri when they realized there was nothing they could do.
Four earthquakes, including one of 5.9 magnitude, shook Kashmir today but there was no damage to life or property reported from anywhere in the Valley.
Three of the four tremors were felt within an hour this morning while the fourth was recorded in the afternoon, officials said.
“Two earthquakes of magnitude 5.4 and 5.9 on the Richter scale occurred at 10.32 AM and 10.59 AM respectively in Kashmir Valley,” Aamir Ali, an official of the Natural Disaster Management Cell, said.
He said the epicentre of the two tremors was in the Hindukush region of Afghanistan. A third tremor, measuring 4.2 on the Richter Scale and with epicentre in the same region, was experienced at 2.02 PM.
A MET office official said another tremor, measuring 3.8 on the Richter Scale, was recorded at 10.05 AM. The epicentre of the earthquake was along Sikkim-Nepal border.
There was no damage reported from anywhere in the Valley due to the tremors.
Maybe for its violent history, Guatemala’s Fuego volcano is being closely monitored Monday by experts since it is increasing its activity for the third time this year. According to National Institute for Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology of Guatemala (INSIVUMEH), the 3,763-meter above sea level volcano is on effusive eruption phase. Despite this not dangerous yet condition, INSIVUMEH warns about the possibilities of an increase of the volcanic activity and that eruptions as those of May 19 and 25 are registered. On the other hand, the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (Conrad) was forced to declare the orange alert, which is prior to the red one. However, the activity in that volcano, located near the departments of Escuintla, Sacatepéquez and Chimaltenango, in the central southern region of the country, is high. Authorities from those three departments are on yellow alert for any situation that can come up and continue constantly monitoring the volcano according to the parameters established by Conrad.
A series of earthquakes began in the sub-glacial volcano Katla in Mýrdalsjökull, south Iceland, shortly before 5 am this morning. Between 5 and 6 am 14 minor tremors were registered there, the strongest of which was 1.6 points on the Richter scale. Between 6 and 8 am, six other minor quakes were picked up by the Icelandic Meteorological Office’s sensors, but after that the series subsided. Geographer Sigþrúður Ármannsdóttir at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, said the epicenter of the quakes were in the craters that opened up during the minor eruption in Katla last summer, when the river Múlakvísl flooded, tearing a hole in the Ring Road. Sigþrúður believes they were caused by geothermal activity. She added that increased conductivity that has been measured in Múlakvísl lately might indicate that geothermal water is leaking into it. Approximately one month ago a small glacier outburst occurred in Katla which lasted a few days. Seismic activity in the volcano was picked up by sensors, as well as increased conductivity in Múlakvísl. The reason was also believed to be increased geothermal activity in one of Katla’s craters.
The Fuego volcano, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of this capital, on Sunday spewed a column of ash up to a kilometer (about 3,300 feet) high, a government agency reported.
The National Vulcanology Institute said in a communique that the volcano, which rises 3,763 meters (12,230 feet) above sea level, on Sunday erupted effusively, according to seismic recordings and the images received from a camera at the observatory at Panimache.
The volcano’s activity presently consists of emissions of red hot lava being hurled from the crater to a height of some 500 meters (1,625 feet), the agency said.
The institute went on to say that three rivers of lava were emerging from the crater and moving down the sides of the mountain.
In addition, two emissions of ash rising from 800 to 1,000 meters (about 2,600 feet to 3,300 feet) were blowing southeast.
The vulcanology institute warned that although the eruption presently consists of an effusion of lava, the possibility exists that in the coming hours the volcano’s activity will increase to a pyroclastic flow of the kind experienced on May 19 and May 25.
A pyroclastic flow is a fast-moving current of superheated gas, which can reach temperatures of about 1,000 C (1,830 F), and rock, which reaches speeds moving away from a volcano of up to 700 km/h (450 mph). The flow normally hugs the ground and travels downhill, or spreads laterally under gravity, and is quite devastating to virtually anything in its path.
The agency recommended to the Conred disaster organization to maintain an orange preventive alert near the mountain until the volcanic activity lessens.
Civilian air traffic is being warned to take precautions because the ash cloud extends up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the volcano.
The Fuego volcano, whose name in the Kakchikel Indian language is “Chi Cag” (where the fire is), is one of the most impressive fire mountains in Central America and has been in a constant state of activity.
So far, civil protection authorities do not think that the eruption represents a danger for nearby towns, but it is recommending that residents in the region be on alert to take whatever measures Conred may announce. EFE
Strong storms that moved through the Ozarks on Monday morning caused minor damage throughout the area. Emergency managers in Greene County reported scattered power lines and trees down, with winds gusting up to 68 mph. Surrounding counties had similar reports. City Utilities of Springfield sent an update on Twitter to let the public know its crews are working on restoring power in its service area. About 11:30 a.m., CU reported 4,000 customers had no power, down from a high of 8,000 outages earlier. Strong storms that moved through the Ozarks on Monday morning caused minor damage throughout the area. Emergency managers in Greene County reported scattered power lines and trees down, with winds gusting up to 68 mph. Surrounding counties had similar reports. City Utilities of Springfield sent an update on Twitter to let the public know its crews are working on restoring power in its service area. About 11:30 a.m., CU reported 4,000 customers had no power, down from a high of 8,000 outages earlier. In Springfield, the major area of damage seemed to be contained to the downtown area. Tree damage reports were received from areas of North Main Avenue and surrounding areas. Late morning, the Greene County presiding circuit judge closed the Judicial Courts Building for the rest of the day because of power outages that affected the building’s computer and security systems. The Historic Courthouse housing other county offices remained open. Emergency managers are also reporting flooded streets in Marshfield, with standing water visible at several businesses and homes. Hail ranging in diameter from dime to quarter-size had fallen across the Ozarks as well. The chance of storms continues through roughly 4 p.m.
The Weld County Commission declared overflowing groundwater wells a “disaster emergency” at its meeting Monday. The county is asking Gov. John Hickenlooper to allow the pumping of restricted irrigation wells for a month. The commission’s unanimous declaration follows a meeting last week during which farmers complained that they faced a water shortage as wells teemed with water. The wells currently are shut down to protect senior water rights though they have flooded basements and drowned crops. A meager snowpack and dry weather have put the county’s farmers in danger of suffering crop losses. “We have only a short window of time available to try to avert an agricultural disaster here in Weld County,” commission Chairman Sean Conway said. “The best guess is we have between one to two weeks to get the wells turned on in order to save this year’s crop.” The county’s declaration represents the latest step by elected officials to encourage Hickenlooper to declare a state of emergency. State Sen. President Brandon Shaffer wrote Hickenlooper last week asking the governor to immediately overrule the stay prohibiting the use of the wells for watering grain and vegetable crops. “Crops that were planted in good faith will wither to the ground and cause enormous economic loss for these growers and for all the allied industries that supply and market these products,” Shaffer said. “When our friends and neighbors are hurting and when we can provide them a solution, it is unconscionable that we do not take action.” In May, Hickenlooper signed a bill into law that authorized a study of the situation.
Ministry of Agriculture personnel and Civil Defence Department (CDD) firefighters on Monday managed to contain a fire that erupted on Saturday in a forest in Ajloun Governorate’s Safsafah area. A total of 300 personnel from the ministry and the CDD participated in extinguishing the fire, which spread over 130 dunums, burning more than 1,000 trees, some of which were over 100 years old. On Sunday, the CDD said a committee was formed to investigate the reason behind the fire, noting that preliminary indications point to arson. The department has dealt with 3,200 forest fires since the beginning of the year, according to the CDD.
Crews on Saturday battled a fast-moving wildfire in northern Colorado that has scorched about 8,000 acres and prompted several dozen evacuation orders. Larimer County Sheriff’s Office spokesman John Schulz said the fire was reported just before 6 a.m. Saturday in the mountainous Paradise Park area about 25 miles northwest of Fort Collins. The blaze expanded rapidly during the late afternoon and evening and by Saturday night, residents living along several roads in the region had been ordered to evacuate and many more were warned that they might have to flee. An evacuation center has been set up at a Laporte middle school. Officials didn’t specify how many residents had evacuated but said they had sent out 800 emergency notifications alerting people to the fire and the possibility that might have to flee. “Right now we’re just trying to get these evacuations done and get people safe,” Schulz told Denver-based KMGH-TV, adding that “given the extreme heat in the area, it makes it a difficult time for (the firefighters).” Temperatures near Fort Collins reached the mid-80s Saturday afternoon with a humidity level of between 5 percent and 10 percent. Ten structures have been damaged, although authorities were unsure if they were homes or some other kind of buildings. No injuries have been reported. The cause of the fire was unknown. Aerial footage from KMGH-TV showed flames coming dangerously close to what appeared to be several outbuildings and at least one home in the area, as well as consuming trees and sending a large plume of smoke into the air. Two heavy air tankers, five single-engine air tankers and four helicopters were on the scene to help fight the blaze, which appeared to be burning on private and U.S. Forest Service land and was being fueled by sustained winds of between 20 and 25 mph. “It was just good conditions to grow,” National Weather Service meteorologist Chad Gimmestad told The Associated Press. “The conditions today were really favorable for it to take off.”
Crews battling a massive wildfire in southwestern New Mexico’s Gila National Forest began burnout operations Monday aimed at halting the blaze from creeping into two small towns. After growing to more than 190 square miles and becoming one of the largest fires in New Mexico history, lighter winds helped firefighters start control measures along the mountainous forest lands. Last week, strong winds forced crews to the sidelines as the fire rapidly spread in an isolated region of southwestern New Mexico, destroying a dozen homes and several in the community of Willow Creek, which remains under evacuation. No other communities were threatened. Denise Ottaviano, a spokeswoman for the crew fighting the blaze, said since the winds slowed, the fire hasn’t made a significant push toward the small, privately owned ghost town of Mogollon. However, nearby residents were forced to evacuate. On Sunday, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez authorized the deployment of 15 National Guard soldiers to help secure areas around the fire. The 156,593-acre Los Conchas fire last year was the state’s largest in its history when it charred around 244 square miles.
Firefighters battled wildfires that spread quickly in parched forests in Colorado and New Mexico, forcing hundreds of people from their homes and the evacuation of wolves from a sanctuary.
The Colorado fire, burning in a mountainous area about 15 miles west of Fort Collins, grew to 22 square miles within about a day of being reported and has destroyed or damaged 18 structures.
Strong winds meanwhile, grounded aircraft fighting a 40-square-mile fire near the mountain community of Ruidoso in southern New Mexico. Crews were still working to build a fire line around the blaze, which started on Friday and has damaged or destroyed 36 structures.
It was not immediately clear how many of the structures lost were homes.
In Colorado, the fire sent up heavy smoke, obscuring the sun and creating an eerie, orange dusk in the middle of the day. The smell of smoke drifted into the Denver area and smoke from the fires spread as far away as parts of central Nebraska, western Kansas and Texas.
The latest New Mexico fire is smaller than the Whitewater-Baldy fire – the largest in the state’s history – but more concerning to authorities because it started closer to homes, said Dan Ware, a spokesman for the New Mexico State Forestry Division. He said the number of Ruidoso evacuees was in the hundreds, but he did not have an exact figure.
Karen Takai, a spokeswoman for crews battling the Ruidoso fire, said smoke was badly affecting the community of Capitan, about five miles north east of the fire.
She said in addition to the communities that have been evacuated, Capitan and others could face evacuation.
Elsewhere, firefighters were battling a wildfire that blackened six square miles in Wyoming’s Guernsey State Park and forced the evacuation of campers and visitors. Cooler weather was helping firefighters in their battle against two other wildfires in southern Utah.
In Colorado, authorities sent nearly 1,800 evacuation notices to phone numbers. About 500 people had checked in at Red Cross shelters. Larimer County sheriff Justin Smith said.
Authorities say it is the worst fire seen in Larimer County in about 25 years. It spread as fast as one and a half miles an hour on Saturday, skipping and jumping over some areas but burning intensely in trees in others. Flames were coming dangerously close to deputies who were telling some residents to evacuate, Sheriff Smith said.
Kathie Walter and her husband helped friends several miles away evacuate from the Colorado fire. When they got home, they were surprised to get a call warning them to be ready to evacuate just in case. But she did not want to wait.
“Smoke was coming in hard. We could not see flames or orange or black smoke. But we didn’t need to see anymore. We just said, ‘Hey, let’s get out of here’,” she said.
They evacuated with their five cats and two dogs, but with had a head start – after a wildfire in the area last year, they had left two suitcases packed in their garage.
The blaze also forced the evacuation of 11 wolves from a sanctuary near the fire. KUSA-TV in Denver reported that 19 wolves remained behind at the sanctuary, which has underground concrete bunkers known as “fire dens” that can be used by the animals.
The fire is the latest to hit Colorado’s drought-stricken Front Range. In March, the Lower North Fork Fire, 25 miles south west of Denver, killed three people and damaged or destroyed more than two dozen homes.
Eight air tankers – including two from Canada – and several helicopters were on the scene to help fight the blaze.
The speed at which the fire has spread has dashed any hopes of containment for the time being.
“These folks are doing everything they can, but Mother Nature is running this fire,” Sheriff Smith said.
In New Mexico, the mix of timber, dry grass and the steepness of the slopes were making the firefighting efforts more difficult.
The fire was burning in steep, rocky, inaccessible terrain in the White Mountain Wilderness of the Lincoln National Forest, which is home to Smokey Bear, who became the nation’s symbol of fire prevention in the 1940s.
More than 300 firefighters were battling the blaze with help from three large air tankers, three heavy helicopters and three Blackhawk helicopters. There were also 100 National Guard troops in Ruidoso.
A tornado uprooted trees and destroyed chicken houses Sunday in southeast Alabama, where an emergency official said a few homes were damaged but no injuries were reported. “I actually saw it myself coming out of our church door – my first tornado I have ever witnessed,” said Margaret Mixon, emergency management director for rural Geneva County. The twister touched down shortly before noon as portions of southeast Alabama were under a severe thunderstorm warning Sunday. Mixon said the power outages caused by the tornado had left the city of Slocomb and its roughly 2,000 residents without electricity. A few houses and mobile homes had roof damage, she said, but the damage was scattered rather than concentrated in any one area. Meanwhile, Mobile and other communities in southwest Alabama faced a threat of flash floods as heavy rains continued to pour for a third straight day. The National Weather Service said more than 9 inches of rain had fallen in Mobile County over Friday and Saturday, and an additional 2 to 4 more inches were predicted to accumulate Sunday. Several roads were flooded in Mobile County, where authorities said a few motorists got stuck in mud and water as they tried to bypass barricades. A homeowner who lives on a private lake in Mobile said water overflowed into his yard Saturday. Mitch Smith said the flooding blocked the main road to his home, forcing his family to march up a muddy hill to get away.
Flash flooding has hit a dozen properties in two villages near York, following torrential rain this afternoon. Five homes and a kitchen manufacturing business were inundated at Flaxton, while another six properties were flooded in Sandy Lane, Stockton-on-the-Forest. Huge traffic jams also built up on the A64 between York and Malton because of flooding. Flaxton resident Mark O’Brien said he drove back home through a huge hail storm. “The noise was unbelievable,” he said. “It was so loud in the car that we couldn’t talk to each other.” He said the flood waters rose to within inches of the floorboards at his home in Main Street. A rain gauge kept by residents John and Sarah Jackson indicated that more than two inches of rain had fallen in the village. Mrs Jackson said: “The whole ground went white with the ice from the hail storm. I have lived here for 17 years and have never, ever experienced anything like this. There was thunder and lightning for over an hour.” Fire station officer David Watson said the sheer volume of rainfall had been too much for the drains to cope with. He said firefighters using pumps had prevented more properties from being flooded. Richard James Handmade Kitchens’ premises near the railway level crossing in Flaxton, were flooded to a depth of about two feet after a nearby beck burst its banks. Proprietor Richard Patterson said about £100,000 worth of machinery was affected by flooding, along with bespoke furniture that was in the process of being manufactured. He said he would have to wait for the flood waters to recede before he could access the extent of the damage. He pledged to get the business reopened as quickly as possible,adding: “You can’t let the customers down.”
Six babies have died of an unknown fever in the last 24 hours at the Malda Medical College and Hospital. Forty-one male babies with the same ailment are currently admitted in the hospital. A team of experts visited the hospital on Monday and met the victims and the principal. They feel that some seasonal fruit might have led to the disease. Doctors also did not rule out heat as a possibility. However, they will take back the bone marrow and blood sample of the victims to Kolkata for examination. With the temperature soaring up to 43 degree celsius in Malda, even the newborns were not spared. Fifteen babies have died in the last 48 hours at the Malda Medical College and Hospital. But, the three-member team that visited the hospital on Monday, conceded of only six baby deaths due to an unknown fever.The team comprising Dr Krishnagshu Roy of School of Tropical Medicine, Dr Krishna Halder and Dr Asit Biswas first met the victims and they held a meeting with the principal Dr Uchhal Bhadra, hospital superintendent Dr Himadri Ari and other senior officials. An unknown fever coupled with convulsions is taking its toll on the babies admitted in the district hospital, said doctors. While six abbies have already died, 41 others with the same ailment are currently admitted in the hospital. However, doctors are yet to determine the source of such fever and ailment. The bone marrow and blood sample of the affected children will be taken to Kolkata for examination. Interestingly, all the children afflicted are male. Experts feel that some seasonal fruit might have led to this disease. They also did not ignore the extreme heat wave as one of the reasons. It may be recalled that death of 15 babies in last 24 hours in Malda hospital, had created sensation in the health department. This morning a team comprising Dr Krishnagshu Roy of School of Tropical Medicine, Dr Krishna Halder and Dr Asit Biswas had visited Malda hospital. The team met the victim and then held a meeting with Principal of Malda Medical College Dr Uchhal Bhadra, Hospital Superintendent Dr Himadri Ari and others.
Twenty-seven babies have died at the hospital between June 1 and June 10, claimed a hospital source. However, Biswas said, “It is not important how many babies died. Rather, we are interested to ascertain the reason behind the deaths. Already 41 babies were admitted in the hospital suffering from this unknown fever. The All of them ranged from 2-8 years and two third of them are male. Biswas suggested avoiding seasonal fruits and referring to hospital once affected with this fever. Biswas said an initiative is being taken to form a task force and improve the health service at Kaliachak, the block that has been most affected. Dr Roy said, “We are not sure how this disease is spreading. But it is quite dangerous. So we are taking back the bone marrow and blood samples of the victims for test. It will take 72 hours to know the result.” It may be recalled that at least 300 babies died in this hospital in the first three months of the year which created a nationwide sensation.
Biohazard name:
Death caused an unknown fever
Biohazard level:
3/4 Hight
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.
Parents are being warned about the importance of protecting their children against measles following an outbreak of the infectious disease in County Cork. The Public Health Agency (PHA) is urging families to get their children fully immunised with two doses of MMR before travelling to the south of Ireland or to other European countries during the summer months. The warning came after 51 children were diagnosed with measles in west Cork. Two of them were admitted to hospital for further treatment. Most of the infected children are teenagers and 88% of them had never received any dose of MMR vaccine. Although measles can occur at any age, it is most common in children. However, the disease is life threatening at any age. Measles can be caught either through direct contact with an infected person, or through the air when the patient coughs or sneezes. Dr Gerry Waldron is Acting Assistant Director of Public Health (Health Protection) with the PHA. He says it is never too late to get immunised. “If children are not vaccinated they are left exposed to a serious and potentially fatal disease. “MMR immunisation is the safest and most effective way to prevent measles infection and it is never too late to get vaccinated.” Northern Ireland has high uptake levels for MMR, Dr Waldron said, before adding that this was a great tribute to the medical staff involved in the immunisation programme and also parents. “MMR uptake rates are very high – just over 93% of children have received it by the age of two and by five years of age,” he said.
Biohazard name:
Measles
Biohazard level:
3/4 Hight
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.
In the modern global climate, higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere are associated with rising ocean temperatures. But the seas were not always so sensitive to this CO2 “forcing,” according to a new report. Around 5 to 13 million years ago, oceans were warmer than they are today – even though atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were considerably lower.
The unusual mismatch between sea temperatures and CO2 levels during this time period hints that the relationship between climate and carbon dioxide hasn’t always been the same as it is today, said Petra Dekens, assistant professor of geosciences and a co-author of the new study published in the journal Nature.
“There was a transition, from the Earth’s climate system being not as sensitive to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide to becoming more sensitive to these changes,” Dekens said. “What’s interesting is that we can see this transition happening within the last 13 million years.”
The connection between modern-day ocean warming and increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by human activities has been confirmed in numerous studies, many of them collected in the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Recent reconstructions of carbon dioxide levels for the late Miocene time period (roughly 5 to 13 million years ago) suggest that CO2 concentrations for the period were only 200-350 parts per million. Modern CO2 concentrations, by contrast, are around 390 parts per million.
The study’s lead author, Jonathan P. LaRiviere at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and colleagues including Dekens, sought information on late-Miocene ocean temperatures to analyze alongside the Miocene CO2 reconstructions.
They used an organic compound called unsaturated alkenone as their “fossil thermometers.” The compound is produced by tiny phytoplankton and preserved in cores of ocean sediment drawn from the mid-latitude Pacific Ocean basin. Ratios of the compound preserve a record of the water temperature in which the plankton lived.
These data provide the first evidence, Dekens said, that late Miocene sea surface temperatures were significantly warmer than today across a large swath of the North Pacific. The research team found that sea surface temperatures appeared to be highest in the early part of the late Miocene (around 12 to 13 million years ago), and gradually cooled throughout the late Miocene.
The researchers also looked at changes in the late Miocene thermocline, or the ocean layer where warmer, shallow waters meet colder, deeper waters. By comparing oxygen isotope data retrieved from a variety of fossil plankton species that thrive at different ocean depths, they found that the depth of the thermocline has been growing shallow over the past 13 million years.
It is possible, Dekens and colleagues suggest, that changes in the thermocline played some role in creating the warmer waters of the late Miocene – even as carbon dioxide concentrations stayed relatively low.
The depth of the thermocline affects the mixing and circulation of colder and warmer ocean waters, which can in turn affect ocean temperature and atmospheric temperatures in a complex feedback cycle.
“We would like to have more records from different regions,” Dekens said, “to see if this change in the depth of the thermocline was a global change.”
The thermocline might have grown shallow, the researchers say, as massive ocean waterways opened and closed with the shifting of tectonic plates. These changes would have remodeled ocean basins and the major patterns of ocean circulation.
One major waterway that began to close during the period was the Central American Seaway, an ancient body of water separating North and South America. The seaway was later closed by the volcanic creation of the Panama isthmus.
The study published in the June 7 issue of Nature. LaRiviere and Dekens’ co-authors include A. Christina Ravelo and Heather L. Ford of the University of California, Santa Cruz; Allison Crimmons of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Mitch Lyle of Texas A and M University; and Michael W. Wara of Stanford Law School.
Using scientific theories, toy ecosystem modeling and paleontological evidence as a crystal ball, 18 scientists, including one from Simon Fraser University, predict we’re on a much worse collision course with Mother Nature than currently thought. In Approaching a state-shift in Earth’s biosphere, a paper just published in Nature, the authors, whose expertise span a multitude of disciplines, suggest our planet’s ecosystems are careening towards an imminent, irreversible collapse.
Earth’s accelerating loss of biodiversity, its climates’ increasingly extreme fluctuations, its ecosystems’ growing connectedness and its radically changing total energy budget are precursors to reaching a planetary state threshold or tipping point.
Once that happens, which the authors predict could be reached this century, the planet’s ecosystems, as we know them, could irreversibly collapse in the proverbial blink of an eye.
“The last tipping point in Earth’s history occurred about 12,000 years ago when the planet went from being in the age of glaciers, which previously lasted 100,000 years, to being in its current interglacial state. Once that tipping point was reached, the most extreme biological changes leading to our current state occurred within only 1,000 years. That’s like going from a baby to an adult state in less than a year,” explains Arne Mooers. “Importantly, the planet is changing even faster now.”
The SFU professor of biodiversity is one of this paper’s authors. He stresses, “The odds are very high that the next global state change will be extremely disruptive to our civilizations. Remember, we went from being hunter-gathers to being moon-walkers during one of the most stable and benign periods in all of Earth’s history.
“Once a threshold-induced planetary state shift occurs, there’s no going back. So, if a system switches to a new state because you’ve added lots of energy, even if you take out the new energy, it won’t revert back to the old system. The planet doesn’t have any memory of the old state.”
These projections contradict the popularly held belief that the extent to which human-induced pressures, such as climate change, are destroying our planet is still debatable, and any collapse would be both gradual and centuries away.
This study concludes we better not exceed the 50 per cent mark of wholesale transformation of Earth’s surface or we won’t be able to delay, never mind avert, a planetary collapse.
We’ve already reached the 43 per cent mark through our conversion of landscapes into agricultural and urban areas, making Earth increasingly susceptible to an environmental epidemic.
“In a nutshell, humans have not done anything really important to stave off the worst because the social structures for doing something just aren’t there,” says Mooers. “My colleagues who study climate-induced changes through the earth’s history are more than pretty worried. In fact, some are terrified.”
Study predicts imminent irreversible planetary collapse Coming from Chile, Canada, Finland, the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States, the authors of this paper initially met at the University of California Berkeley in 2010 to hold a trans-disciplinary brainstorming session.
They reviewed scores of theoretical and conceptual bodies of work in various biological disciplines in search of new ways to cope with the historically unprecedented changes now occurring on Earth.
In the process they discovered that:
+ Human-generated pressures, known as global-scale forcing mechanisms, are modifying Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and climate so rapidly that they are likely forcing ecosystems and biodiversity to reach a critical threshold of existence in our lifetime.
+ “Global-scale forcing mechanisms today “include unprecedented rates and magnitudes of human population growth with attendant resource consumption, habitat transformation and fragmentation, energy production and consumption, and climate change,” says the study.
+ Human activity drives today’s global-scale forcing mechanisms more than ever before. As a result, the rate of climate change we are seeing now exceeds the rate that occurred during the extreme planetary state change that tipped Earth from being in a glacial to an interglacial state 12,000 years ago. You have to go back to the end of the cataclysmic falling star, which ended the age of dinosaurs, to find a previous precedent.
+ The exponentially increasing extinction of Earth’s current species, dominance of previously rare life forms and occurrence of extreme climate fluctuations parallel critical transitions that coincided with the last major planetary transition.
When these sorts of perturbations are mirrored in toy ecosystem models, they tip these systems quickly and irreversibly.
The authors recommend governments undertake five actions immediately if we are to have any hope of delaying or minimizing a planetary-state-shift. Arne Mooers, an SFU biodiversity professor and a co-author of this study, summarizes them as follows.
“Society globally has to collectively decide that we need to drastically lower our population very quickly. More of us need to move to optimal areas at higher density and let parts of the planet recover. Folks like us have to be forced to be materially poorer, at least in the short term. We also need to invest a lot more in creating technologies to produce and distribute food without eating up more land and wild species. It’s a very tall order.”
Graphene has caused a lot of excitement among scientists since the extremely strong and thin carbon honeycomb-shaped material, just one atom thick, was discovered in 2004. In 2011, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope spotted the signature of flat carbon flakes, called graphene, in space –the first-ever cosmic detection of the material — which is arranged like chicken wire in flat sheets that are one atom thick.
The team of astronomers using Spitzer identified signs of the graphene in two small galaxies outside of our own, called the Magellanic Clouds, specifically in the material shed by dying stars, called planetary nebulae. The N 70 nebula shown above is a “Super Bubble” in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC image below), a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way system, located in the southern sky at a distance of about 160,000 light-years.
The infrared-sensing telescope also spotted a related molecule, called C70, in the same region – marking the first detection of this chemical outside our galaxy. According to the astronomers, the graphene and C70 might be forming when shock waves generated by dying stars break apart hydrogen-containing carbon grains.
Physicist Peter Horava, at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks graphere can help us understand what happened immediately after the big bang or what’s going on near the event horizon of black holes, where the gravitational fields are massive.
Letizia Stanghellini and Richard Shaw, members of the team at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, describe how collisional shocks powered by the winds from old stars in planetary nebulae could be responsible for the formation of fullerenes (C60 and C70) and graphene (planar C24). The team was led by Domingo Anibal Garcia-Hernandez of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in Spain and includes international astronomers and biochemists.
Planetary nebulae originate from stars similar to our Sun that have reached the end of their lives and are shedding shells of gas into space. In this case, the planetary nebulae are located in the Magellanic Clouds, two satellite galaxies to our own Milky Way, that are best seen from the Southern Hemisphere. At the distance of the Magellanic Clouds, planetary nebulae appear as small fuzzy blobs.
However, unlike planetaries in our own Milky Way Galaxy whose distances are very uncertain, the distance to planetaries in the Magellanic Clouds can be determined to better than 5%. With such accurate distances, the research team determined the true luminosity of the stars and confirmed that the objects are indeed planetary nebulae and not some other object in the astrophysical zoo.
Fullerenes, or Buckyballs, are known from laboratory work on Earth and have many interesting and important properties. Fullerenes consist of carbon atoms arranged in a three dimensional sphere similar to the geodesic domes popularized by Buckminster Fuller.
The C70 fullerene can be compared with a rugby ball, while C60 is compared to a soccer ball. Both of these molecules have been detected in the sample. Graphene (planar C24) is a flat sheet of carbon atoms, one atom thick, that has extraordinary strength, conductivity, elasticity and thinness.
Cited as the thinnest substance known, graphene was first synthesized in the lab in 2004 by Geim and Novoselov for which they received the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics. “If confirmed with laboratory spectroscopy – something that is almost impossible with the present techniques – this would be the first detection of graphene in space,” said team member Garcia-Hernandez.
The team has proposed that fullerenes and graphene are formed from the shock-induced (i.e., grain-grain collisions) destruction of hydrogenated amorphous carbon grains (HACs). Such collisions are expected in the stellar winds emanating from planetary nebulae, and this team sees evidence for strong stellar winds in the ultraviolet spectra of these stars.
“What is particularly surprising is that the existence of these molecules does not depend on the stellar temperature, but on the strength of the wind shocks,” says Stanghellini.
The Small Magellanic Cloud is particularly poor in metals (any element besides hydrogen and helium, in astronomers’ parlance), but this sort of environment favors the evolution of carbon-rich planetary nebulae, which turns out to be a favorable place for complex carbon molecules.
The challenge has been to extract the evidence for graphene (planar C24) from Spitzer data. “The Spitzer Space Telescope has been amazingly important for studying complex organic molecules in stellar environments,” says Stanghellini.
“We are now at the stage of not only detecting fullerenes and other molecules, but starting to understand how they form and evolve in stars.” Shaw adds, “We are planning ground-based follow up through the NOAO system of telescopes. We hope to find other molecules in planetary nebulae where fullerene has been detected to test some physical processes that might help us understand the biochemistry of life.”
Meanwhile Horava, at the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a new theory of quantum gravity that reflects the need understand what happened immediately after the big bang or what’s going on near the event horizon of black holes, where the gravitational fields are massive.
In the physics of condensed matter, specifically in graphene, a carbon atom one atom thick, whose electrons ping around the surface like balls in a pinball machine and can be described using quantum mechanics. Because the graphene atoms are moving at only a fraction of the speed of light there is no need to take relativity into account.
But cool graphene down to near absolute zero and something extraordinary happens: the electrons speed up dramatically. Now relativistic theories are needed to describe them correctly. It was this change that sparked Horava’s imagination. What struck Horava about graphene is that Lorentz symmetry isn’t always apparent in it.
Could the same thing be true of our universe, he wondered. What we see around us today is a cool cosmos, where space and time appear linked by Lorentz symmetry – a fact that experiments have established to astounding precision. But things were very different in the earliest moments. What if the symmetry that is apparent today is not fundamental to nature, but something that emerged as the universe cooled from the big bang fireball, just as it emerges in graphene when it is cooled?
Horava tweaked Einstein’s equations in a way that removed Lorentz symmetry: a property that keeps the speed of light constant for all observers, no matter how fast they move, time slows and distances contract to exactly the same degree. This led Horava to a set of equations that describe gravity in the same quantum framework as the other fundamental forces of nature: gravity emerges as the attractive force due to quantum particles called gravitons, in much the same way that the electromagnetic force is carried by photons. He also amended general relativity to include a preferred direction for time, from the past to the future -the way the universe as we observe it appears to evolve.
“All of a sudden, you have new ingredients for modifying the behaviour of gravity at very short distances,” Horava said in an interview with New Scientist.
By breaking asunder the symmetry between space and time, Horava’s theory alters the physics of black holes – especially microscopic black holes, which may form at the very highest energies, which means for the formation of these black holes, and whether they are what they seem to be in general relativity “is a very big question.”
Horava gravity might also help solve one of the great unsolved mysteries of modern cosmology: the puzzle of dark matter if the equations of motion derived from general relativity are slightly off this could explain the observed speeds of the stars and galaxies without dark matter playing a role.
“It is possible that some fraction of the dark matter picture of the universe could be coming from corrections to Einstein’s equations,” Horava said.
Ditto for dark energy: theories of particle physics predict the strength of dark energy to be about 120 orders of magnitude larger than what is observed, and general relativity cannot explain this enormous discrepancy. But Horava’s theory contains a parameter that can be fine-tuned so that the vacuum energy predicted by particle physics is reduced to the small positive value that is in line with the observed motions of stars and galaxies.
The ultimate answers will come with Improved observations of supermassive black holes, which contain regions of intense gravity, which could reveal the necessary corrections to general relativity and prove Horava’s theory of quantum gravity, in much the same way that unexplained measurements of Mercury’s orbit showed that Newton’s laws were incomplete, opening the door for Einstein.
It’s no secret that Mars is a beaten and battered planet — astronomers have been peering for centuries at the violent impact craters created by cosmic buckshot pounding its surface over billions of years. But just how beat up is it?
Really beat up, according to a University of Colorado Boulder research team that recently finished counting, outlining and cataloging a staggering 635,000 impact craters on Mars that are roughly a kilometer or more in diameter.
As the largest single database ever compiled of impacts on a planet or moon in our solar system, the new information will be of help in dating the ages of particular regions of Mars, said CU-Boulder postdoctoral researcher Stuart Robbins, who led the effort. The new crater atlas also should help researchers better understand the history of water volcanism on Mars through time, as well as the planet’s potential for past habitability by primitive life, he said.
“This database is a giant tool that will be helpful in scores of future Mars studies ranging from age-dating and erosion to planetary habitability and to other applications we have not even thought of yet,” said Robbins, who is affiliated with CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. “In a sense it’s like building a new and better hammer, which quickly becomes used by everyone.”A paper on the subject by Robbins and CU-Boulder faculty member Brian Hynek appeared last week in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. A companion study by the two CU researchers was published in a recent issue of the same journal. The study was funded by NASA’s Mars Data Analysis Program.
The assembly of the new Mars crater database was tedious, said Robbins. “We have all this new information coming from Mars orbiters and landers that have helped generate far better maps illustrating the planet’s topography and surface details. I basically analyzed maps and drew crater rim circles for four years.”
Hynek, a LASP research associate and assistant professor in the geological sciences department, said knowing more about the history and extent of Martian cratering has implications for better understanding the potential for past life on Mars.
“Many of the large impact craters generated hydrothermal systems that could have created unique, locally habitable environments that lasted for thousands or millions of years, assuming there was water in the planet’s crust at the time,” said Hynek. “But large impacts also have the ability to wipe out life forms, as evident from Earth’s dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impact 65 million years ago.”
Robbins said most of the smaller diameter craters on Mars are younger than the largest craters and form the bulk of the planet’s crater population. “The basic idea of age dating is that if a portion of the planet’s surface has more craters, it has been around longer,” said Robbins. Much of the planet has been “resurfaced” by volcanic and erosional activity, essentially erasing older geological features, including craters.
The new database also is expected to help planetary scientists better understand erosion on the planet, said Robbins, who earned his doctoral degree from CU-Boulder’s astrophysical and planetary sciences department. “Our crater database contains both rim heights and crater depths, which can help us differentiate between craters that have been filled in versus those that have eroded by different processes over time, giving us a better idea about long-term changes on the planet’s surface.”
Having a better handle on the size and distribution of Martian impact craters also has implications for future, manned missions to the planet, said Hynek. NASA wants to know where the craters are and their particular features both from a safety and research standpoint. “Craters act as a ‘poor man’s drill’ that provide new information about the subsurface of Mars,” he said.
Since the most complete databases of lunar craters include only those roughly 10 to 15 kilometers in diameter or larger, and databases on Mercury’s craters contain only those over roughly 20 kilometers in diameter, it is difficult to compare them with the Martian crater database, said Robbins. While there are only about 150 to 200 known impact craters left on Earth, both the moon and Mercury are still peppered with craters due to their lack of atmosphere and plate tectonic activity, he said.
Cataloging the cratering of Mars and the moon is helping scientists understand a time a few hundred million years after the inner solar system formed, including an event about 3.9 billion years ago known as the “Late Heavy Bombardment” in which asteroids as large as Kansas rained down on Earth. “Although Earth has lost most of its geologic record due to tectonic plate movements and erosion, understanding the impact crater history on the moon and Mars can help us reconstruct our early days,” said Hynek.
The venomous warning flag is flying high on South Padre Island as changing winds have forced some stinging sea creatures ashore. Jellyfish are fairly common, but Blue Button Jellyfish are somewhat rare to see. “I used to go to Port Aransas and I used to go to Padre for year and I’ve never seen anything like the little circles, ever. Of course I’ve seen jellyfish and sea weed but never anything like that,” says a tourist from Temple, Texas. This was the case over the weekend on South Padre Island. According to officials at Texas Parks and Wildlife, the organism is actually not a true jellyfish but a hydroid colony of polyps. “I picked it up and it stayed there and I threw it cause it like freaked me out cause I didn’t know what it was, but it left little blue things on me,” says a beachgoer. The blue tentacle like strands are individual organisms attached to the float, that’s the whitish, circular part in the middle. The organisms generally ride along the top of the sea. But on Saturday, instead of drifting in the sea, the Blue Button Jellyfish made an appearance among beach goers. Officials with Texas Parks and Wildlife say there is relatively little risk in swimming with the sea creatures. With the mass amounts drifting through the water though, swimmers and those walking along the beach took precaution. Officials say the organism doesn’t actually sting like a jellyfish does, but can cause slight irritation in some people if it comes in contact with skin. “I got a big mark across my right arm here earlier, and it doesn’t really hurt, just hurts if I rub it or itch it, but if you leave it alone it goes away. It’s not that bad,” says a tourist from Wimberley, TX. As of Monday afternoon, the majority of the Blue Button Jellyfish had washed back into the ocean.
Biohazard name:
Blue Button Jellyfish Invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:
Today
Biological Hazard
USA
State of California, Los Angeles [Studio City and Calabasas farmers markets]
The California Department of Public Health is warning consumers not to eat soup sold by Organic Soup Kitchen at the Studio City and Calabasas farmers markets. The soups may have been improperly produced, making them susceptible to Clostridium botulinum, officials said. No illnesses have been linked to any of the affected products at this time. Organic Soup Kitchen, a Santa Barbara company, are packaged in one-quart glass jars with screw-on metal lids. The soups were sold between June 6, 2011 and May 6, 2012.
Biohazard name:
Clostridium botulinum
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Status:
11.06.2012
Biological Hazard
United Kingdom
England, Letchworth Garden City [Letchworth Hall Hotel, Hertfordshire]
Half a wedding party including the bride and groom was left with food poisoning after chefs at a four-star hotel undercooked their pate starter. Nicola Hamill, 29, and husband Alex, 32, fell ill while on their honeymoon in Las Vegas following the wedding at Letchworth Hall Hotel, Hertfordshire. When they returned, they heard that 49 of their guests had suffered from the same problems after eating the chicken liver pate which had not been cooked to the right temperature.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Food Poisoning
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Residents near Army Road in Pakenham have been advised to evacuate or stay inside after an ammonia leak at a factory in Army Road this morning. A CFA spokeswoman said a mechanical fault was believed to have caused the leak in a refrigeration plant about 6.50. The CFA evacuated three streets near the plant — Christopher Close, Timothy Close and Emily Close. A CFA spokeswoman said the leak had stopped but residents in the Army Road area who chose not to evacuate should stay inside with their windows and doors shut until the wind dispersed the ammonia cloud. Paramedics were called to assess the condition of one man but found he did not need further treatment. WorkSafe Victoria and the Environment Protection Authority have been called to the scene. Police have advised residents in the affected streets to evacuate to the public hall at the corner of Main and John streets. Pakenham Hills Primary School is open and receiving students via Leigh Drive and Army Road. Police said residents should be aware that they would smell the ammonia before it became a problem, and should expect to smell the gas until midday.
11.06.2012
HAZMAT
India
State of Uttarakhand, [Pauri area, East Nayar river]
The Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan (UJS) has stopped drinking water supply from East Nayar river in Pauri district to nearly 17 villages following reports of poisoning. “We have stopped the drinking water supply and are making scientific tests to verify reports of poisoning at East Nayar river,” UJS Secretary Appraisal P C Kimothi said here. Villagers staying close to the river have alleged that some miscreants had poisoned the water leading to the death of hundreds of fish. Two dogs were also found dead on the river bank. The poisoned area is near the source of water supply to 17 villages in the region, Kimothi said. The allegations have come at a time when the region is reeling under an intense hot spell, leading to water scarcity. The area’s District Forest Officer M B Singh said he had asked the Range officers of Pokhara and Thailisain forest Range, near the river, to investigate the matter and report to him immediately. SDM Thailisain, Madan Ram, also directed officials to investigate the matter and file a report.
An excavation is underway thanks to the discovery of the bones of a prehistoric mammoth in one Oskaloosa, Iowa, family’s backyard.
According to ABC’s affiliate ABC5-WOI in Des Moines, the first bones were discovered in July 2010 by a man named John and his two teenage sons when they were walking in the woods of their property looking for blackberries.
One of his sons pointed out what he thought was a ball in the creek below to his family. Once they got closer, John, who has an interest in archeology, noticed a marrow line at the top of the object, said reporter ABC5-WOI reporter Katie Eastman, who interviewed the family.
Realizing this was no ball, the family dug out what has now been identified as a mammoth femur.
Despite discovering the bones nearly two years ago, the bones were brought to the University of Iowa for identification only last month, sparking the interest of Holmes Semken, professor emeritus of Geoscience.
Semken enlisted the help of volunteers from the University of Iowa as well as Iowa State University, to help to uncover the fossils lying six feet below the surface.
“The size of this discovery is quite uncommon,” said Sarah Horgen, education coordinator at the museum. “It’s pretty exciting-partially because the mammoth is being discovered where it died. And we know that because we’re finding very large bones right alongside very small bones.”
Horgen says the mammoth is at least 12,000 years old, and was extinct by the end of the last ice age.
Horgen also noted that the mammoth’s discovery is not uncommon in Iowa, and that the museum has a working record of reported fossil discoveries around the state.
“The bones discovered could be 100,000 years old or more,” she said.
Two digs have been held so far. In addition to the bones found by the landowner, volunteers have since uncovered the mammoth’s feet bones, as well as its floating and thoracic ribs.
“The femur is about 4 feet long. The ribs of the diaphragm that move when you breathe are 2 and half feet each. The ribs that connect to the breast bone are 4 feet. You could use one for a walking cane,” Semken said.
But what will happen to the mammoth’s bones once they’ve been all dug up?
“The bones really belong to the land owner,” said Semken. “Our agreement with him is we get the science.”
Semken is interested in finding how the animal died, but more importantly, how it lived.
He plans on studying the pollen samples and seeds lodged within the bones, as well as the compound make up to understand the environment the mammoth lived in, what it fed on, where it fed in terms of grassland as opposed to forest.
Semken says the digs should progress through the summer. He plans to enlist the help of volunteers from William Penn College in Oskaloosa, the local county conservation board, as well as rock clubs around the state to partake in the digs.
“We’ll go as long as it takes,” said Semken, “We don’t know how widely scattered the bones are.”
“For us to work with somebody who’s so interested in these types of materials and has a working knowledge of what to look for has been really great,” Horgen added. “The landowner is clearly quite interested in the time period.”
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
An earthquake measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale hit the western Odisha region covering Balangir, Nuapada and Kalahandi on Saturday.
According to the Bhuabneswar Regional Meteorological Office, “The earthquake of slight intensity having its magnitude at 3.9 on the Richter scale occurred at 1.45 pm and the epicentre of the earthquake was located at latitude 20.1 degree North and longitude 82.9 degree East in Kalahandi district.”
The people of the three districts tossing under the impact of continued heat-wave condition, felt the tremor that caused vertical cracks in the buildings at some places but there was no reports of any loss of life and property, official sources said.
The earthquake in Kalahandi district was felt in parts of Bhawanipatna town, Kesinga, Junagarh, Dharmagarh, Golamunda and other areas, said an official of the local Met office in Bhawanipatna.
The people of the affected districts who felt the tremor for about 10-15 seconds along with a mild rumbling under earth were panicked and came out of their houses fearing mishap.
Meanwhile, with the pre-monsoon rains in some coastal, southern and northern areas, there was remarkable slide in the day’s temperature by at least four degrees Celsius on Saturday in the costal and southern districts.
However, there was no respite from the intense heat-wave conditions in western Odisha districts as the sunstroke deaths in the State rose to 32 officially against unofficial reports that heat-wave deaths had touched 140.
Twelve places recorded above 40 degrees Celsius on the day while it was between 43 and 46 degrees in nine places in the western districts.
According to Met office, Sundergarah was the hottest spot on the day with The maximum temperature of 45.8 degrees Celsius followed by 45.5 degrees at Hirakud and 45 degrees in three places- Sonepur, Titilagarah and Sundargarh. While Jharsuguda recorded 44.8 degrees, Talcher was at 44.2, Angul 43.6 and Bhawanipatna 43.5. In Balangir the day’s temperature was recorded at 41.5 degrees Celsius.
Though the temperature in the coastal areas was below 40 degrees, the State capital region recorded 40.5 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, the local Met office in its forecast said rain or thundershowers may occur at a few places over coastal Odisha and at one or two places over the interior parts.
However, the Met office warned that thunder squall accompanied with hail and gusty surface wind reaching a speed up to 60-70 km per hour may occur at one or two paces over the State during next 24 hours. In Bhubaneswar, the sky would remain partially cloudy and the maximum day temperature would be around 39 degrees Celsius, the office said.
A powerful earthquake has shaken Greece’s island of Rhodes and southwestern Turkey. No deaths or serious damage have been reported, but officials say six people were hurt in Turkey by jumping out of buildings.
The Athens Geodynamic Institute says the quake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 struck at a depth of 37 kilometres in the Aegean Sea at 3:44 p.m. (1244 GMT) Sunday. That is between the Greek island of Rhodes and western Turkey.
Turkey’s Kandilli Observatory gave a stronger preliminary magnitude of 6.0, with aftershocks of 4.9 and 4.7. Areas of Turkey shaken by the quake included the popular Aegean resort town of Oludeniz, the Aegean port of Izmir, and the Mediterranean city of Antalya.
Police in Rhodes said there are no reports of injuries or damage.
No serious casualties were reported in Turkey either, but officials said half a dozen people who jumped out of windows in panic over the temblor were injured.
These regions of Greece and Turkey are in seismically active areas and suffer frequent earthquakes.
A strong earthquake hit off the southwest coast of Turkey Sunday near a popular tourist resort, putting dozens of people in hospital, including some who jumped from buildings in panic, officials said.
The 6.0 magnitude quake struck off Oludeniz, a small Aegean Sea holiday resort near the city of Fethiye which is popular particularly with Britons.
No-one was killed, according to the national disaster management centre, but provincial health director Cihan Tekin said 59 people were hospitalised, most for psychological trauma.
“From the information we’ve gathered, 59 Turkish citizens are in hospital after the earthquake, including 54 in Fethiye,” Tekin was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
One person suffered a severe head injury jumping from a window out of fright, Tekin said, adding that two people suffered heart attacks.
“Some of people were admitted to hospital for fractures and cuts. But most were admitted for psychological trauma,” he said.
Tekin had earlier put the number of injured at six to seven people, saying: “They jumped in panic from balconies or windows.”
Oludeniz mayor Keramettin Yilmaz told the private NTV television network that the quake also caused material damage but no details were immediately available.
Oludeniz, a resort popular with British tourists, looks out at the brilliant turquoise waters of the Aegean Sea.
Turkey is crossed by several fault lines.
A powerful quake shook eastern Turkey on October 23 last year, killing more than 600 people. It was followed on November 12 by a 5.6-magnitude tremor that killed another 40 people in the same area.
In 1999, two strong quakes in heavily populated and industrialised parts of northwest Turkey killed 20,000 people.
Guatemalan volcanoe Fuego increased their activity in the last hours and the authorities recommended on Monday took all the necessary precautions with the surrounding air traffic. The Insivumeh reported white and blue plume up to 100 meters above the crater, with displacement to the southwest, in the case of Fuego volcano, whose height is 3,763 meters above sea level and is located between the departments of Sacatepequez, Chimaltenango and Escuintla (center south).
An inland lifeboat crew search a flooded caravan park near Aberystwyth. Photograph: Rnli/PA
Hundreds of residents and holidaymakers spent Saturday night in refuge centres after floodwater ravaged their homes and holiday caravans in west Wales.
Around 150 people were evacuated as caravan parks and villages near Aberystwyth were inundated when more than 5 inches (13cm), twice the local average rainfall for June, fell in 24 hours.
As high river levels remained a risk in some areas, police put the overall number of people who fled their homes at 1,000.
Andy Francis, of Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, told the BBC: “There’s mass scale damage to caravan parks and private dwellings throughout the area.
“A lot of floodwater’s gone through them, leaving a huge amount of damage, and a residual danger as well from the biohazards; from sewerage, and other contaminants.
“Lots of sewers may have been damaged, and indeed gas and water supplies damaged, so my advice to anybody entering their properties this morning is to take sensible precautions.”
The Environment Agency said the rain had now passed the area while one flood warning for the River Teifi at Lampeter and Llanybydder remains in place.
Francis said high river levels remained a risk. “Please do not go near the water, it’s still extremely dangerous, and don’t try to drive through it either, because you will end up becoming a casualty and requiring rescue.”
Outside of Wales, flash floods also struck two villages near York, inundating properties. North Yorkshire fire crews said they pumped water out of Flaxton and Stockton-on-the-Forest after torrential rain on Saturday afternoon. The flooding was concentrated in Main Street in Flaxton and Sandy Lane in Stockton-on-the-Forest.
Meanwhile, tributes have been paid to the emergency services who ensured there were no serious casualties during the flooding in Wales. At one point, an inshore lifeboat team had to be airlifted to safety after getting into difficulties while helping to pluck a disabled man from a flooded caravan.
Four holiday camps along the River Lery were evacuated when the swollen waters breached its banks.
Dozens of people took refuge in a community centre in Talybont while three people were winched away from the Riverside caravan park in Llandre by RAF Sea King helicopters. Dyfed-Powys police said three people needed treatment for minor injuries.
Other rescues took place throughout the day at Aberystwyth Holiday Village in Penparcau, Sea Rivers caravan park in Ynyslas, Borth and Mill House caravan park in Dol-y-Bont, Borth.
Crews on Saturday battled a fast-moving wildfire in northern Colorado that has scorched about 8,000 acres and prompted several dozen evacuation orders. Larimer County Sheriff’s Office spokesman John Schulz said the fire was reported just before 6 a.m. Saturday in the mountainous Paradise Park area about 25 miles northwest of Fort Collins. The blaze expanded rapidly during the late afternoon and evening and by Saturday night, residents living along several roads in the region had been ordered to evacuate and many more were warned that they might have to flee. An evacuation center has been set up at a Laporte middle school. Officials didn’t specify how many residents had evacuated but said they had sent out 800 emergency notifications alerting people to the fire and the possibility that might have to flee. “Right now we’re just trying to get these evacuations done and get people safe,” Schulz told Denver-based KMGH-TV, adding that “given the extreme heat in the area, it makes it a difficult time for (the firefighters).” Temperatures near Fort Collins reached the mid-80s Saturday afternoon with a humidity level of between 5 percent and 10 percent. Ten structures have been damaged, although authorities were unsure if they were homes or some other kind of buildings. No injuries have been reported. The cause of the fire was unknown. Aerial footage from KMGH-TV showed flames coming dangerously close to what appeared to be several outbuildings and at least one home in the area, as well as consuming trees and sending a large plume of smoke into the air. Two heavy air tankers, five single-engine air tankers and four helicopters were on the scene to help fight the blaze, which appeared to be burning on private and U.S. Forest Service land and was being fueled by sustained winds of between 20 and 25 mph. “It was just good conditions to grow,” National Weather Service meteorologist Chad Gimmestad told The Associated Press. “The conditions today were really favorable for it to take off.”
Would like to remind EVERYONE that the same sort of thing happened at Byron Illinois nuclear power plant at the start of 2012 —- remember my chicago trip to measure??
There were mystery booms near byron nuclear plant west of chicago… then a mystery “tritium leak” that blew over downtown chicago…then a mystery EQ appeared on the USGS map a day later..
but NO radiation network or black cat systems stations were on at the time ..so we didn’t see what the actual numbers were..
Legionnaires’ disease in Edinburgh has claimed the life of a man in his 50s, as health authorities disclosed they were dealing with more than 30 confirmed and suspected cases. The man, who had other underlying health problems, died at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh on Tuesday. He was one of 15 people in a critical condition being treated in hospital, as the Health and Safety Executive stepped up their efforts to track the source of the outbreak. NHS Lothian said 13 men and two women aged between 33 and 74 were in a critical condition with the disease. They are being treated in intensive care in hospitals in the Lothian area. There were also 15 suspected cases affecting 10 men and five women, similarly concentrated on the Dalry, Gorgie and Saughton neighbourhoods of south-west Edinburgh. The number of people involved in the outbreak has escalated sharply in the past 48 hours, since the first case emerged on last Thursday. Industrial cooling towers in the area are believed to be a potential source of the outbreak and Edinburgh council environmental health staff have treated 16 cooling towers in an effort to halt its spread. One person among the 17 confirmed cases, initially involving men aged between 30 and 65, has already been sent home.
Dr Duncan McCormick, a consultant in public health medicine, said medical staff were now trying to identify other unidentified cases to establish the true scale of the outbreak. “I would like to reassure the public that household water supplies are safe and that Legionnaires’ disease cannot be contracted by drinking water,” he said. “Older people, particularly men, heavy smokers and those with other health conditions, are at greater risk of contracting the disease.” It might take up to 10 days before results are available, since legionella is difficult to culture. Meanwhile, those responsible for maintaining the towers have been advised to carry out additional chemical treatment to water in the systems as a precaution. Other possible sources are not being ruled out. Legionella bacteria is often found in rivers and lakes but can end up in artificial water supply systems, such as air conditioning systems, water services and cooling towers. Spread by minute droplets of water, it cannot be transmitted from person to person. Symptoms usually begin with a mild headache and muscle pain but become more severe after a day or two. These might include high fever, with a temperature of 40C (104F) or more, and increasing muscle pain and chills.
Once the bacteria infect the lungs, carriers may also experience a persistent cough, later including mucus or blood, shortness of breath and chest pains. A third of people with the disease will experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea or loss of appetite. About half may also experience changes to their mental state. Bacteriologist Hugh Pennington told BBC Radio Scotland that the disease was preventable. “Industrial water cooling towers are quite a common source of the bug. The bug lives in warm, fresh water. Basically disinfectant should be put in the water to stop the bug growing.” Legionnaires’ was a “very, very severe pneumonia” but it was often hard to track down the source,” Pennington added. “If there are several water cooling towers in an area you have to look at them all and find out which is the source of the bug.”
Biohazard name:
Legionnaires disease
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
This past winter, an extended cold snap descended on central and Eastern Europe in mid-January, with temperatures approaching minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit and snowdrifts reaching rooftops. And there were the record snowstorms fresh in the memories of residents from several eastern U.S. cities, such as Washington, New York and Philadelphia, as well as many other parts of the Eastern Seaboard during the previous two years. File image courtesy AFP.
The dramatic melt-off of Arctic sea ice due to climate change is hitting closer to home than millions of Americans might think. That’s because melting Arctic sea ice can trigger a domino effect leading to increased odds of severe winter weather outbreaks in the Northern Hemisphere’s middle latitudes – think the “Snowmageddon” storm that hamstrung Washington, D.C., during February 2010.
Cornell’s Charles H. Greene, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, and Bruce C. Monger, senior research associate in the same department, detail this phenomenon in a paper published in the June issue of the journal Oceanography.
“Everyone thinks of Arctic climate change as this remote phenomenon that has little effect on our everyday lives,” Greene said. “But what goes on in the Arctic remotely forces our weather patterns here.”
A warmer Earth increases the melting of sea ice during summer, exposing darker ocean water to incoming sunlight. This causes increased absorption of solar radiation and excess summertime heating of the ocean – further accelerating the ice melt. The excess heat is released to the atmosphere, especially during the autumn, decreasing the temperature and atmospheric pressure gradients between the Arctic and middle latitudes.
A diminished latitudinal pressure gradient is associated with a weakening of the winds associated with the polar vortex and jet stream. Since the polar vortex normally retains the cold Arctic air masses up above the Arctic Circle, its weakening allows the cold air to invade lower latitudes.
The recent observations present a new twist to the Arctic Oscillation – a natural pattern of climate variability in the Northern Hemisphere. Before humans began warming the planet, the Arctic’s climate system naturally oscillated between conditions favorable and those unfavorable for invasions of cold Arctic air.
“What’s happening now is that we are changing the climate system, especially in the Arctic, and that’s increasing the odds for the negative AO conditions that favor cold air invasions and severe winter weather outbreaks,” Greene said. “It’s something to think about given our recent history.”
This past winter, an extended cold snap descended on central and Eastern Europe in mid-January, with temperatures approaching minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit and snowdrifts reaching rooftops. And there were the record snowstorms fresh in the memories of residents from several eastern U.S. cities, such as Washington, New York and Philadelphia, as well as many other parts of the Eastern Seaboard during the previous two years.
Greene and Monger did note that their paper is being published just after one of the warmest winters in the eastern U.S. on record.
“It’s a great demonstration of the complexities of our climate system and how they influence our regional weather patterns,” Greene said.
In any particular region, many factors can have an influence, including the El Nino/La Nina cycle. This winter, La Nina in the Pacific shifted undulations in the jet stream so that while many parts of the Northern Hemisphere were hit by the severe winter weather patterns expected during a bout of negative AO conditions, much of the eastern United States basked in the warm tropical air that swung north with the jet stream.
“It turns out that while the eastern U.S. missed out on the cold and snow this winter, and experienced record-breaking warmth during March, many other parts of the Northern Hemisphere were not so fortunate,” Greene said.
Europe and Alaska experienced record-breaking winter storms, and the global average temperature during March 2012 was cooler than any other March since 1999.
“A lot of times people say, ‘Wait a second, which is it going to be – more snow or more warming?’ Well, it depends on a lot of factors, and I guess this was a really good winter demonstrating that,” Greene said. “What we can expect, however, is the Arctic wildcard stacking the deck in favor of more severe winter outbreaks in the future.”
Core samples were collected at the sites noted in the North Pacific Ocean. Credit: Jonathan LaRiviere/Ocean Data View.
Until now, studies of Earth’s climate have documented a strong correlation between global climate and atmospheric carbon dioxide; that is, during warm periods, high concentrations of CO2 persist, while colder times correspond to relatively low levels. However, in this week’s issue of the journal Nature, paleoclimate researchers reveal that about 12-5 million years ago climate was decoupled from atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. New evidence of this comes from deep-sea sediment cores dated to the late Miocene period of Earth’s history.
During that time, temperatures across a broad swath of the North Pacific were 9-14 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than today, while atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations remained low–near values prior to the Industrial Revolution.
The research shows that, in the last five million years, changes in ocean circulation allowed Earth’s climate to become more closely coupled to changes in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.
The findings also demonstrate that the climate of modern times more readily responds to changing carbon dioxide levels than it has during the past 12 million years.
“This work represents an important advance in understanding how Earth’s past climate may be used to predict future climate trends,” says Jamie Allan, program director in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research.
The research team, led by Jonathan LaRiviere and Christina Ravelo of the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC), generated the first continuous reconstructions of open-ocean Pacific temperatures during the late Miocene epoch.
It was a time of nearly ice-free conditions in the Northern Hemisphere and warmer-than-modern conditions across the continents.
The research relies on evidence of ancient climate preserved in microscopic plankton skeletons–called microfossils–that long-ago sank to the sea-floor and ultimately were buried beneath it in sediments.
Samples of those sediments were recently brought to the surface in cores drilled into the ocean bottom. The cores were retrieved by marine scientists working aboard the drillship JOIDES Resolution.
The microfossils, the scientists discovered, contain clues to a time when the Earth’s climate system functioned much differently than it does today.
“It’s a surprising finding, given our understanding that climate and carbon dioxide are strongly coupled to each other,” LaRiviere says.
“In the late Miocene, there must have been some other way for the world to be warm. One possibility is that large-scale patterns in ocean circulation, determined by the very different shape of the ocean basins at the time, allowed warm temperatures to persist despite low levels of carbon dioxide.”
The Pacific Ocean in the late Miocene was very warm, and the thermocline, the boundary that separates warmer surface waters from cooler underlying waters, was much deeper than in the present.
The scientists suggest that this deep thermocline resulted in a distribution of atmospheric water vapor and clouds that could have maintained the warm global climate.
“The results explain the seeming paradox of the warm–but low greenhouse gas–world of the Miocene,” says Candace Major, program director in NSF’s Division of Ocean Sciences.
Several major differences in the world’s waterways could have contributed to the deep thermocline and the warm temperatures of the late Miocene.
For example, the Central American Seaway remained open, the Indonesian Seaway was much wider than it is now, and the Bering Strait was closed.
These differences in the boundaries of the world’s largest ocean, the Pacific, would have resulted in very different circulation patterns than those observed today.
By the onset of the Pliocene epoch, about five million years ago, the waterways and continents of the world had shifted into roughly the positions they occupy now.
That also coincides with a drop in average global temperatures, a shoaling of the thermocline, and the appearance of large ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere–in short, the climate humans have known throughout recorded history.
“This study highlights the importance of ocean circulation in determining climate conditions,” says Ravelo. “It tells us that the Earth’s climate system has evolved, and that climate sensitivity is possibly at an all-time high.”
Other co-authors of the paper are Allison Crimmins of UCSC and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Petra Dekens of UCSC and San Francisco State University; Heather Ford of UCSC; Mitch Lyle of Texas A and M University; and Michael Wara of UCSC and Stanford University.
New sunspot AR1504 is crackling with impulsive M-class solar flares. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the extreme UV flash from one of them, an M2-class flare on June 10th at 0645 UT:
So far none of the blasts have been Earth directed, but geoeffective eruptions are possible in the days ahead as AR1504 turns toward Earth. NOAA forecasters estimate a 45% chance of more M-flares today.
NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of polar geomagnetic storms during the next 48 hours as a pair of CMEs pass by Earth, possibly delivering glancing blows to our magnetic field.
As the solstice approaches on June 20th, the International Space Station is spending some extra time in the sun. Ironically, this means you’re more likely to see it in the night sky. Mark Humpage photographed three ISS flybys over his home in Lutterworth UK on June 10th:
“There were actually four flybys this evening at 2207, 2343, 0119 and 0256 hrs, however, the first was clouded out,” says Humpage. “I added a few bursts of flash just before the first flyby to light up the garden and then left the camera running all night. The following morning I extracted all the images and stacked them to produce the final composite.”
New research shows that the meteorite which crashed into the Earth 60 to 70 million years ago, wiping out dinosaurs, gave us large, red tomatoes as well. This can be deduced from a tomato genome analysis.
Scientists who mapped the tomato genome have established that the genome of the original tomato plant suddenly tripled in size about 60 to 70 million years ago.
“Such a big genome expansion points to extremely stressful conditions,” says René Klein Lankhorst, the Wageningen UR coordinator of the tomato genome research project.
“We suspect that the meteorite crash and the resulting solar eclipse had created conditions difficult for plants to survive.A distant ancestor of the tomato plant then reacted by expanding its genome considerably in order to increase its chances of survival.”When conditions subsequently improved again, this ancestor of the tomato got rid of a lot of genetic ballast, but the genetic base for fruit formation had already been developed by then, the tomato fruit acquired its red colour and certain genes which produced toxins disappeared, says Klein Lankhorst.
In this way, the tomato differentiates itself from a family member, the potato, which has no edible fruits.
The plant researchers could “look back” very far into the past by comparing the tomato plant genome with family members in the nightshade and other plant families. And they had the advantage of having almost mapped all the 35 thousand genes of the tomato, which made even small changes noticeable.
For example, a comparison of the locally produced vegetable crop with the wild ancestor Solanum pimpinellifolium (probably brought to Europe by the Spanish) showed that the genome of the Dutch tomato differs by only 0.6 percent from that of its wild ancestor from the 15th Century.
Dinosaurs roamed the Earth for around 180 Million years.
Image credit & copyright: National Geographic Society/Corbis So the tomato’s red color was acquired in part because of the meteor crash, as well as its edibility.
Incredibly, the genetic makeup of tomato plants all around the world can be traced to these tomato plant ancestors, proving the link between the dinosaur extinction causing meteor and the common red fleshy fruits.
MessageToEagle.com based on information provided by Wageningen UR
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
A strong 6.0-magnitude quake struck off Taiwan early on Sunday, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued.
A strong 6.0-magnitude quake struck off Taiwan, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued.
The US Geological Survey said the quake had a depth of 70 kilometres (40 miles) and hit around 5 am (2100 GMT Saturday), some 50 kilometres east of Su-ao in the northeastern Yilan county.
Taiwan’s Seismology Centre recorded the quake, which was felt in Taipei and islandwide, at 6.5 on the Richter scale. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a warning.
The National Fire Agency said there were no reports of damages or injuries.
Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes.
In September 1999, a 7.6-magnitude tremor killed around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in Taiwan’s recent history.
There were no immediate reports of casualties and damages, but the quake threw people into panic. File photo
A 5.1-magnitude earthquake has struck the western parts of Turkey, including Istanbul, shaking apartment buildings, rattling windows and causing residents to rush into the streets.
The tremor was also felt in neighboring Bulgaria, in the municipalities of Burgas, Nessebar, Plovdiv and Kardzhali.
According to the National Institute in Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography, at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BAS, the quake occurred shortly before midnight.
The epicenter was registered in the Marmara Sea, a few kilometers from the town of Tekirdag and Marmara Ereglisi. It was at a depth of 10 km.
The quake was followed by two light aftershocks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties and damages, but the quake threw people into panic.
Officials in the New England region of the Australian state of New South Wales are breathing a sigh of relief, with no major damage found from two earthquakes that hit on Friday night.
The green dot indicates where the quake struck at a depth of 17 kilometres. [Google Maps]
Residents were shaken when two magnitude-4.2 quakes hit within a few minutes of each other.
More than 400 people have reported feeling tremors or hearing loud noises. Many called police because they thought they were being robbed.
Gunnedah Shire Mayor Adam Marshall says he has never heard of a tremor in the region before.
“I guess no-one’s really thought about checking their insurance policy for anything like earthquake damage,” he said.
But there have been no reports so far of damage beyond a few windows in need of replacement.
Resident Jeff Silvey says it sounded like a jumbo jet and it set off dogs barking all along his street.
“I thought it was just a jumbo jet but then everyone else started texting saying no it’s an earthquake,” he said.
“The whole house shook and all the windows and even the dogs got scared – we had to bring the dogs in.”
The tremor was felt by residents as far away as the coastal town of South West Rocks, more than 200 kilometres from the quake’s epicentre.
“I was in a rather soft chair, which sort of surprised me that I felt it,” resident Ken Shingleton said.
Geoscience Australia has warned there is a high chance of weaker aftershocks in the coming weeks.
Jonathon Bathgate, a seismologist with Geoscience Australia, says the New England region has had a few earthquakes in the past 100 years.
“There’s been about 13 of this sort of magnitude in that area in these sort of times,” he said.
Mr Bathgate says it is all to do with the underground plates Australia sits on.
“The continent’s moving north at about seven centimetres every year and that just builds up stresses across the rocks. So the overall process is the same for big earthquakes,” he said.
“We can’t predict earthquakes but generally what happens with earthquakes of this size is there is some aftershock activity just as the fault that has moved in an earthquake it sort of resettles down, you’ll get some smaller tremors and a lot of those will go unnoticed by the public.”
Rome, 8 June (AKI) – Italian hospitals are old and at risk of suffering severe damage in the event of an earthquake.
Around 15 percent of the country’s hospitals were constructed before 1900, or which 74, or 9 percent, were built before 1800, according to data from the Italian Civil Protection agency, obtained by Adnkronos Health.
“The oldest hospitals are considered at seismic risk,” said Giuseppe Paradiso, an engineer with Bari-based Gedi di Altamura construction firm. He said the type of cement used puts the structure at risk in the case of an earthquake because of “non-existing regulations.”
“You built without thinking about the territory” he said.
Italy is one of the world’s most seismic countries. A pair of earthquakes last month killed 25 people and caused around 5 billion euros in damage. More than 300 people perished when a quake struck the central Abruzzo region in April 2009.
“The older buildings were built with the seismic norms of the time. But today you need to make important changes to be in line with new regulations,” said Daniela Pedrini, presient of the Italian Society of Health Architecture and Engineering.
Stromboli volcano is in a phase of strong activity. Reports by visitors and images taken with the webcams show that in particular the northwestern vent in the summit crater often produces strong explosions that shower the crater terrace with incandescent lava.
Since the last lateral eruption in March 2007, Stromboli has been in a heightened state of activity overall during most of the past years, indicating that magma levels inside the conduit are relatively high. The question is when again the magma finds its way out through a fissure on the flank on Sciara del Fuoco to produce another effusive eruption with a new lava flow.
A lightning-sparked blaze that jumped its containment lines raced through thick conifer forest in southern New Mexico on Saturday, and fire managers estimated that more than a dozen structures were damaged or destroyed. Spanning only a few acres on Wednesday, the Little Bear fire began to grow Friday as spot fires formed outside established fire lines due to windy conditions. By Saturday morning, about 10,000 acres had been charred. Fire information officers said summer homes and campgrounds in the area about 15 miles north of Ruidoso were evacuated late Friday. There was no immediate word on how many people were evacuated. Two shelters were set up at churches in nearby Ruidoso and Capitan. Officials said in a morning briefing that an estimated 15 to 20 structures have been damaged or destroyed by the fire. They could not say whether the structures were homes, sheds or other buildings since crews haven’t had a chance to do a formal damage assessment. The fire was burning in steep, rocky, inaccessible terrain in the White Mountain Wilderness of the Lincoln National Forest, which is home to Smokey Bear, the little black cub that became the nation’s symbol of fire prevention decades ago. The Little Bear fire has crossed State Highway 48. Fire information officers said Saturday’s goal was to establish an anchor point where crews could work from, fighting the fire with both direct and indirect tactics such as burnout operations. Crews were reporting extreme fire behavior that included flame lengths of about 150 feet and spotting of up to two miles. Fire information officers said one of the biggest concerns was the weather. Forecasters were calling for low humidity and gusty winds. In southwestern New Mexico, firefighters continued securing the massive perimeter of the Whitewater-Baldy fire, the largest fire in the state’s recorded history and the largest currently burning in the nation. The blaze has consumed about 426 square miles and was 32 percent contained Saturday morning.
Today
Forest / Wild Fire
USA
State of Arizona, [Queen Valley, between Superior and Apache Junction]
A fire that has spread to 200 acres between Superior and Apache Junction is about 50 percent contained. David Albo, spokesman for the Tonto National Forest, said about 60 people are fighting the Comet Fire, which is burning a mile east of Queen Valley, north of the U.S. 60. The fire was reported shortly after noon, and officials don’t know how it started, Albo said. “Especially early in the initial-attack phase, they’re kind of scrambling to get some containment of the fire,” he said. The fire is burning primarily Sonoran Desert-type brush, Albo said. Brush fires are “usually not as intense” as forest fires, he said, though they are hard to fight. “The terrain in that area can be kind of difficult, steep and rugged,” he said. No homes or other buildings are in the fire’s path, Albo said. “There is a power line in the vicinity that is a concern, but I don’t think it’s immediately threatened at this point,” he said.
Readers sent in their cellphone pictures of the aftermath of the hail storm. Sean Herd-Hoare lies on an icy hail bed in Durban North.
A freak hailstone storm caught Durban off guard on Friday night with unconfirmed reports of damage to roof tiles, gardens and uprooted trees.
Chris Hoare, in Durban North, said hail got caught in verges and gardens, and was as much as “six inches thick”. His son and friends took pictures of themselves playing in the hail. However, some suburbs like Glenmore and Westville escaped the storm.
Wisani Maluleke, a forecaster at the Durban Weather Office, said temperatures were around 18ºC on Friday night, and large clouds were visible over Durban. “There were reports of hailstones, but we cannot say where,” Maluleke said.
A massive ice storm hit Virginia airport in Durban North. Spokesman for the Durban Air Show Ray de Vries said that this is one of the worst hailstorms the aviation fraternity had seen at the airport. “It looked strangely beautiful. The airport was closed due to dangerous conditions.”
A number of private planes are expected for the Springbok-England Test match, but de Vries said that airport authorities were confident the storm wouldn’t affect planes flying in for the game.
Durbanites, unused to extreme weather conditions, were abuzz on Twitter, while TrafficSA put out a weather warning for motorists, and emergency workers were on high alert. Some people tweeted that it was hailing “mini ice cubes” and that it was as “thick as snow”.
Traffic man Rob Byrne posted pictures of a hail-covered road.
Rassie Pieterse tweeted: “Hail in Durban, and it’s warmer than Bloem” while others called it a “freak storm”.
Rescue workers are searching for an Egyptian tourist who went missing in a flash flood in Phangnga, while one police volunteer was injured in a storm-related incident in Trang.
The tourist was whitewater rafting in the Klong Songphraek stream and went missing three days ago in the flash flood.
Meanwhile, in the provincial seat of Takua Pa district, the floodwater level remains at one metre deep while residents have moved to the second floor.
In Ranong, local officials of the disaster prevention and mitigation department are fixing a portion of flood-damaged road in Kapoe district with a 20-metre bailey bridge to temporarily help 1,000 local residents not be cut off and be able to transport their farm produce.
The work is expected to finish in one or two days. Soldiers distributed royally-sponsored relief supplies to those affected, but it is still not adequate to meet needs.
In Trang’s provincial seat, the floodwater in Bag Rak subdistrict rose to about one metre, forcing residents to evacuate children and pets by boat and to move their belongings to higher ground.
While the floodwaters at some locations reached two metres deep, some villages reportedly were cut off amid rising water levels.
Meanwhile, heavy rain and strong wind in Na Ta Luang subdistrict felled a large tree on a car and injured a local police volunteer.
In Krabi, heavy rain in the afternoon was reported in Ao Luek and Plai Phraya districts, triggering a mudslide on Krabi-Surat Thani Road in Ao Luek district.
The flash flood also damaged the bridge in a village in Plai Phraya district, causing about 50 households to be cut off.
Flash flooding has hit a dozen properties in two villages near York, following torrential rain this afternoon. Five homes and a kitchen manufacturing business were inundated at Flaxton, while another six properties were flooded in Sandy Lane, Stockton-on-the-Forest. Huge traffic jams also built up on the A64 between York and Malton because of flooding. Flaxton resident Mark O’Brien said he drove back home through a huge hail storm. “The noise was unbelievable,” he said. “It was so loud in the car that we couldn’t talk to each other.” He said the flood waters rose to within inches of the floorboards at his home in Main Street. A rain gauge kept by residents John and Sarah Jackson indicated that more than two inches of rain had fallen in the village. Mrs Jackson said: “The whole ground went white with the ice from the hail storm. I have lived here for 17 years and have never, ever experienced anything like this. There was thunder and lightning for over an hour.” Fire station officer David Watson said the sheer volume of rainfall had been too much for the drains to cope with. He said firefighters using pumps had prevented more properties from being flooded. Richard James Handmade Kitchens’ premises near the railway level crossing in Flaxton, were flooded to a depth of about two feet after a nearby beck burst its banks. Proprietor Richard Patterson said about £100,000 worth of machinery was affected by flooding, along with bespoke furniture that was in the process of being manufactured. He said he would have to wait for the flood waters to recede before he could access the extent of the damage. He pledged to get the business reopened as quickly as possible,adding: “You can’t let the customers down.”
Torrential rainfall led to widespread flooding along the northern Gulf Coast on Saturday, and Pensacola came about 2 inches shy of matching its all-time rainfall record for a calendar day: 15.29 inches. On Saturday, Pensacola airport received 13.13 inches of rain. The previous record was set on October 5, 1934, as Tropical Storm 9 of that year was making landfall. The record for any 24 hour period is 17.1 inches, spanning Octover 4-5 in 1934, according to Wunderground weather historian Christopher C. Burt.
At least 150 people were rescued from homes and caravan sites yesterday after serious flooding in Wales. Many people have been winched to safety by a Sea King helicopter and others were rescued by boat after a torrent of rain overnight near Aberystwyth in western Wales. An inshore lifeboat team taking part in the rescue operation also had to be airlifted when it got into difficulty after helping to pluck a disabled man from a flooded caravan. Fire crews rescued 35 people from the Riverside Caravan Park in Llandre, 13km northeast of the seaside resort, using inshore life boats. Another 11 people also were rescued from the nearby Millhouse Caravan Park, while rescues also took place at the Searivers and Glanlerry caravan parks near Borth, 3km further north. In the village of Talybont, located 5km northeast of Llandre, 25 properties were evacuated and residents are sheltering at a local community centre and pub as around 1.2m of water flows through its main street. Jason Hughes, who lives nearby, said, “The lower part of my village is completely closed off, people are all in their top bedrooms.” A spokesman from the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said there was a large amount of water with a heavy current. “Numerous people are surrounded by flood water and are requiring rescue by fire service boats, inshore life boat teams and RAF [Royal Air Force] helicopters,” he said.
The Army launched a major rescue operation to save as many as 400 passengers from the Khardung La Pass in Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, world’s highest motorable road, after they were stuck due to heavy snowfall resulting in landslides. In a statement, the Army said, “The rescue operation lasted whole night and timely action by the Army personnel, ably supported by the state police led to safe evacuation of all tourists and no one suffered any injury.” According to the official spokesman of Jammu and Kashmir government, nearly 145 vehicles carrying tourists, labourers and passengers were trapped in sub-zero temperature. The spokesman said the vehicles were stranded between South and North Pullu, 42 kilometres from Leh. This road leads to Siachen glacier and Nurbu valley. “The road axis was finally cleared by 1300 hours on 9 June 2012. Almost 350-400 persons, 70 light vehicles and 35-40 trucks stranded at North Pullu were guided back to Leh safely under Army escort,” the Army statement said. The Army provided shelter, warm clothing and food to the stranded tourists; established vehicle based medical aid post to provide basic medical assistance and administered oxygen to over 120 tourists suffering from Acute Mountain Sickness, the statement added. Northern Command Army Spokesperson Rajesh Kalia also said that nearly 120 people were administered oxygen as the area has low oxygen levels.
Three people were killed and another six were injured in rainstorm-triggered mudslides from Saturday night to Sunday morning in Kaili, a city in Southwest China’s Guizhou province, said local authorities. From 11 pm Saturday to early Sunday morning, heavy downpours hit Zhouxi township in Kaili, triggering mudslides, according to the publicity department of Kaili city. As of 10 am Sunday, three residents of Zhouxi had been found dead and the six injured people had been sent to hospital. At least 81 houses in Zhouxi have been damaged. Local governments have relocated residents from low-lying areas at risk for flash floods and other geological disasters.
The continental United States experienced the warmest spring on record this year, with temperatures far above the average over the past century, government scientists said Thursday.
The United States, excluding Alaska, Hawaii and overseas territories, had an average temperature of 57.1 degrees Fahrenheit (13.9 Celsius) from March through May, 5.2 degrees (2.9 Celsius) above the average from 1901 to 2000, the data showed.
“Spring 2012 marked the largest temperature departure from average of any season on record for the contiguous United States,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement.
This year’s spring was up 2.0 degrees (1.1 Celsius) from the previous warmest spring in the United States which was recorded in 1910, the agency said.
The year from June 2011 through May also marked the warmest 12-month period on record after a hot summer and warmer winter. The average temperature was 3.2 degrees (1.8 Celsius) above average, the agency said.
In terms of monthly figures, the United States experienced the warmest March, the third warmest April and the second warmest May, the agency said.
Scientists have repeatedly warned that emissions of greenhouse gases, largely through industrial activity, are heating up the planet and could spell serious long-term problems, including the extinction of plant and animal species and the flooding of low-lying islands.
UN-led efforts for a new global climate agreement have moved slowly. Climate change remains a controversial topic in the United States, with many prominent members of the Republican Party casting doubt on the science.
Proposals backed by President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies to mandate cuts in emissions have died in Congress. Critics say the measures would be too costly to a fragile economy.
China has surpassed the United States as the largest emitter. The Asian power has pledged to reduce the intensity of its emissions per unit of economic growth, but not in absolute terms.
Last year, 79 people died due to cholera and 28 due to malnutrition in Pune. These shocking facts came to light through a right to information (RTI) query.
What’s worse, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) that reaped accolades for its ‘zero malaria deaths’ model may have lied about figures as the RTI reply by the civic body’s birth and death registration section shows that 42 people died due to the deadly disease in the last two years.
RTI activist Vihar Durve filed the query and received its reply from incharge of PMC’s birth and death registration section, stating that a total of 25,049 people died within PMC limits in 2011. 0f these, 10 people succumbed to malaria, while 14 died due to dengue. Cholera, an infectious disease that is notifiable, claimed 79 lives, according to the RTI reply. These trends are seen in previous years too. The 2010 records show 26 deaths due to malnutrition, 24 due to cholera, while the 2009 records peg cholera deaths alone at a whopping 468.
As the RTI reply raises serious concerns over the reporting of diseases by the civic administration, PMC’s health department officials vehemently denied the authenticity of the data. Dr ST Pardeshi, chief medical officer, called the data ‘incorrect’ and based on improper reporting by hospitals and private doctors.
“The reply that has been given under RTI is based on cause of death as stated by doctors or hospitals. However, we have a system of coding where deaths are investigated and each is assigned a code after determining cause of death. A person having malaria may not die of it, but of other associated problems. We are going to carry out an audit of all these deaths, do the proper coding and only then will we know the actual numbers,” said Pardeshi.
However, he denied that there could have been so many cholera, malnutrition or malaria deaths within PMC limits. “Cholera is a notifiable disease and we have to inform the government of India about such cases. Had there been so many cholera deaths, we would definitely have known about it. As far as malaria
and malnutrition are concerned, I am sure the figures are exaggerated too,” said Pardeshi.
Despite repeated attempts, VD Khanande, joint director of state health services, couldn’t be contacted for comment.
Sydney residents are warned to be on high alert for measles after three babies came down with the potentially deadly virus in Sydney’s west. Three children have been recently diagnosed with measles at the emergency department at the Children’s Hospital Westmead. The Western Sydney Public Health Unit is in the process of contacting people who may have been exposed in the hospital, in the days around May 11. High vaccination rates mean the virus is uncommon, but NSW Health wants people to know it’s now circulating in the community.
Biohazard name:
Measles
Biohazard level:
3/4 Hight
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.
Unacceptable levels of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) have been detected along the Sunshine Coast. from the southern tip of Texada Island, past Powell River and beyond Cortes Island. Effective immediately, these areas are closed to the harvest of bivalve mollusks, including clams, oysters mussels, geoducks, scallops and cockles. There is one area, known as subarea 15-5, which is still open for the harvesting of manila clams, littleneck clams, oysters and mussels. PSP, also known as Red Tide, can harmfully affect anyone consuming shellfish. Cooking does not destroy the PSP toxin.
Biohazard name:
Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Four workers have died and another two were hospitalized after being poisoned on Saturday in a plant in Dongyang, east China’s Zhejiang province, local authorities confirmed Sunday. Around 1 p.m. Saturday, one worker was poisoned when he was cleaning up the plating cesspool in the Jinluoma Development Co. Ltd. Another five people were also poisoned during rescue efforts, said the publicity department of Dongyang. As of noon on Sunday, four workers had died in hospital due to cyanide poisoning. Another two people hospitalized were in stable condition. Local authorities have initiated safety checks for all electroplating and chemical plants in Dongyang. Investigation is underway to find the detail cause of the accident.
A 65-year-old man was hospitalized Saturday night after a chemical was found leaking from containers unloaded from an El Al flight hours earlier at Ben-Gurion International Airport. According to Ynet news, some 800 litres of the chemical compound acrylamide leaked out when they were being stored in a warehouse owned by importer/exporter Maman. Emergency services were called to the scene. The man was taken to Sheba Hospital at Tel Hashomer with light injuries. Some 10 containers of the chemical had been unloaded from an El Al cargo flight originating in Belgium, with four of the containers found to be leaking. El Al attributed the leak to a “malfunction,” according to Ynet, and said the incident was under investigation. They added that there was no damage to the airport or the plane. Acrylamide is used in water purification plants and is also utilized to make glues, paper and cosmetics. According to the World Health Organization, the chemical can be toxic to humans at certain doses. Scientists believe smaller doses of the compound, found in some processed foods, may be a carcinogen and contribute to causing cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute in the US.
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Limits of Perception full documentary on Science Channel
“We are surrounded by mysterious worlds. Worlds hidden from us by their sizes, too small or too large to be noticed. But now it’s possible to see these worlds. What’s changed our perceptions? Technology; extending our natural senses, taking us on a remarkable journey from our own world through strange parrallel worlds down to the smallest and up to the largest elements of creation…”
**This video is for promotional use only. The video and its content belongs to its respectful owner(s).
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
Mount Rainier lahar losses could reach $6 billion or more in Puyallup Valley
New DNR report examines likely scenarios for a major volcanic mudflow from nation’s most hazardous volcano
OLYMPIA – A new report from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) estimates that a volcanic mudflow (known as a ‘lahar’) from Mount Rainier could produce property losses of up to $6 billion to communities in the Puyallup Valley.
“We now have a much better estimate of the economic impact of a major lahar flowing from Mount Rainier,” said Dave Norman, Washington State Geologist and manager of the DNR Geology and Earth Resources Division.” It’s not a question of if, but when, the next volcanic event will occur.”
The DNR report, “Loss Estimation Pilot Project for Lahar Hazards from Mount Rainier, Washington,” is based on data about several previous lahars from the volcano. Using loss-estimating software developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the report projects potential property damage costs if similar mudflows occurred again on Mount Rainier’s west side, as many geologists anticipate.
Due to the weakened rocks that make up the upper west flank of Mount Rainier, the Puyallup Valley is considered highly susceptible to lahars. Lahar-related flooding has the potential to reach as far as the Commencement Bay and Elliott Bay, including the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.
In concert with the report released today, DNR has produced an online interactive map that allows users to track the potential pathways of lahars from Mount Rainier. The online map and today’s report are designed to assist emergency response, mitigation planning, and community preparation for lahar-prone areas.
Mount Rainier has produced major lahars every 500 to 1,000 years and smaller flows more frequently. The most recent major lahar to reach the Puget Lowland was the Electron Mudflow about 600 years ago. It was more than 100 feet thick at the community of Electron and as much as 20 feet thick at Orting.
Lahars, which have the consistency of wet concrete, can be caused by volcanic activity when an eruption of lava or hot gasses melts a glacier. They also can be produced by avalanches and earthquakes.
The DNR study was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The report was produced by the DNR Division of Geology and Earth Resources. The official citation is:
Information Circular 113. Loss estimation pilot project for lahar hazards from Mount Rainier, Washington, by Recep Cakir and T. J. Walsh. 2012. 17 p.
DNR, manager and steward of state trust lands
DNR manages more than 5.7 million acres of state-owned forest, range, commercial, agricultural, conservation, and aquatic lands. DNR is administered by Peter Goldmark, the 13th Commissioner of Public Lands since statehood in 1889. DNR offers technical assistance and education on a range of subjects, including forest stewardship, mining, geologic hazards, and rare plant species and ecosystems.
Media Contact: Bob Redling, Senior Communications Manager, 360-902-1149, bob.redling@dnr.wa.gov
Posted by: JeffMasters, 11:24 AM GMT on June 07, 2012
+37
Pilgrims to the holy city of Mekkah (Mecca), Saudi Arabia must have been astonished on Tuesday afternoon, when the weather transformed from widespread dust with a temperature of 113°F (45°C) to a thunderstorm with rain. Remarkably, the air temperature during the thunderstorm was a sizzling 109°F (43°C), and the relative humidity a scant 18%. It is exceedingly rare to get rain when the temperature rises above 100°F, since those kind of temperatures usually require a high pressure system with sinking air that discourages rainfall. However, on June 4, a sea breeze formed along the shores of the Red Sea, and pushed inland 45 miles (71 km) to Mekkah by mid-afternoon. Moist air flowing eastwards from the Red Sea hit the boundary of the sea breeze and was forced upwards, creating rain-bearing thunderstorms. According to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera, this is the highest known temperature that rain has fallen at, anywhere in the world. He knows of one other case where rain occurred at 109°F (43°C): in Marrakech, Morocco on July 10, 2010. A thunderstorm that began at 5 pm local time brought rain at a remarkably low humidity of 14%, cooling the temperature down to 91°F within an hour.
Figure 1. Thunderstorms at 109°F? This true-color satellite image of Saudi Arabia taken at 2:10 pm local time (11:10 UTC) shows a line of thunderstorms that developed along the edge of the sea breeze from the Red Sea. Three hours after this image was taken, Mekkah (Mecca) recorded a thunderstorm with rain and a temperature of 109°F (43°C.) Image credit: NASA.
More like a hot shower than a cooling rain?
Thunderstorms often produce big drops of cold rain, since these raindrops form several thousand meters high in the atmosphere, where temperatures are much cooler than near the surface. Some drops even get their start as snow or ice particles, which melt on the way to the surface. Additional cooling of the drops occurs due to evaporation on the way down. However, in the case of the June 4, 2012 Mekkah storm, I think the rain was probably more like a hot shower. Large raindrops, like the kind thunderstorms produce, fall at a speed of about 10 meters per second. A balloon sounding of the upper atmosphere taken at 3 pm local time at a nearby station (Al-Midinah) found that the bottom 1000 meters of the atmosphere was 97°F (36°C) or warmer. Thus, the thunderstorms’ raindrops would have been subjected to 100 seconds of some very hot air on the way to the surface, likely warming them above 100°F by the time they hit the ground. A classic 1948 study of raindrops found that, in many cases, raindrop temperatures start off cold in the first few minutes of a rain shower, then warm up to within 1°C (1.8°F) of the air temperature within a few minutes. With the air temperature a sizzling 109°F (43°C) at the time of the June 4 thunderstorm in Mekkah, the raindrops could easily have been heated to a temperature of over 105°F (41°C) by the time they reached the surface!
How hot can it be and still rain?
If substantial amounts of liquid water are present on the Earth, the planet will experience rain, as long as some mechanism to lift the warm, moist air and cause condensation can be found. If the climate continues to warm as expected, we should see an increasing number of cases where it rains at temperatures well above 100°F. On Saturday, June 2, the temperature in Mekkah hit 51.4°C (124.5°F), a new record for the city, and just 1.1°F (0.6°C) below the all-time hottest temperature record for Saudi Arabia (125.6°F, or 52°C, recorded at Jeddah on June 22, 2010.) I expect that 20 – 40 years from now, we’ll begin seeing occasional cases where rain falls at a temperature above 117°F (47°C) in the desert regions of North Africa and the Middle East.
Firefighters are eyeing better weather conditions in their effort to control a 1,000-acre wildfire in the Medicine Bow National Forest in southeast Wyoming. Forest Service spokesman Aaron Voos says the forecast is for lighter winds and cooler temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday. The fire is burning about 20 miles northwest of Wheatland and about 5 miles southeast of Laramie Peak in an area mixed with ponderosa pine, brush and grass. Lightning is suspected to have started it on Sunday night and strong winds have caused it to spread rapidly. There is a church camp and other structures in the area but so far no structures are threatened. About 120 firefighters and a helicopter are on site, but fire managers are calling in four air tankers to aid the effort.
A band of thunderstorms prompted Environment Canada to issue tornado warnings for parts of cottage country north of Barrie, including Parry Sound, Rosseau, Killbear Park, Hunstville and Baysville, Wednesday evening.
The warning, issued shortly after 5 p.m., said the severe thunderstorms in the area had the potential to produce large hail, damaging winds and heavy rainfall, as well as tornadoes. The tornado warnings ended just before 7 p.m.
A severe thunderstorm warning was also issued for areas east of Toronto, starting around Pickering.
In Toronto, rain and thunder was reported by 5 p.m., with Environment Canada predicting a risk of thunderstorm through the evening.
There were no weather warnings or watches issued for the Toronto area.
April showers bring May flowers, but what do June hail storms and tornadoes bring? After several days of warm weather, on Wednesday night the Colorado sky opened up and unleashed severe weather upon the state delivering spectacular lightning, large hail balls and even some weak tornadoes around the Front Range.
And apparently it’s not over yet. We’ll get a break Thursday during the day, but 9News reports that around 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon, storms will build again along the Front Range and move east throughout the evening and into the night producing the possibility for more large hail, tornadoes, and high winds.
According to 7News, a number of tornadoes and funnel clouds were reported Wednesday. And at one point last night, hail stopped traffic along I-25 at County Line Road and 3 to 5 inches of rain flooded nearby roads.
Jim Kalina, National Weather Service meteorologist, told The Denver Post that a small tornado was spotted near Denver International Airport (watch video of the tornado above) around 5 p.m., on Wednesday. The National Weather Service also received reports of a tornado in northeastern Colorado around 6:40 p.m. that tore a small tree from the ground and thew it about 20 feet.
A storm system that moved north through central Montana has brought hail and at least one tornado in the rural Hobson area, leaving behind downed trees and power lines.
Central Montana 911 dispatcher Dorothy Gremaux says there were no immediate reports of injuries Tuesday night, but cars, houses and outbuildings have been damaged.
National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Brusda says funnel clouds were reported near White Sulphur Springs. He says law-enforcement officers reported a tornado touching down in the Coffee Creek area north of Hobson and moving toward Big Sandy.
He says golf ball-size hail was reported in White Sulphur Springs, penny-size hail in Bozeman and pea-size hail in the Great Falls area.
The storms then moved across the Canadian border into Alberta, where at least one tornado was spotted near Taber.
o injuries but toll includes downed power lines, countless trees, smashed windows, minor flooding, torn-off shingles
Cam Cleland watched helplessly from his brick farmhouse as 25-metre-tall poplar trees were snapped over like dominoes as a tornado passed through the region Tuesday night.
Located seven kilometres south of Taber, his property would have likely been in direct line of the tornado that pulverized the southern Alberta town.
“I’m just glad it didn’t snap all the big ones that would have fallen on my house,” Cleland said Wednesday, adding 20 to 25 trees were knocked over in total.
Across southern Alberta, there were reports of severe weather that included strong winds, flash flooding, golf ball-sized hail and three unconfirmed reports of tornadoes near Brooks, Bow Island and Vulcan.
However, Taber was clearly the hardest hit.
In town, the damage included four or five downed power lines, countless trees, smashed windows, minor flooding and torn-off shingles.
No one was reported injured in the storm.
Barnwell, located near Taber, had 56.5 millimetres of rain on Tuesday night.
Environment Canada confirmed Wednesday that a tornado hit around eight kilometres south of Taber at 8:42 p.m. Tuesday.
Cleland had just returned home from his son’s baseball practice when he saw the clouds growing increasingly darker.
There was the calm before the storm, then the clouds started lowering in the sky and it went pitch black outside.
Southwest winds started blowing in, reaching 70 or 80 km/h, he said.
“The wind wasn’t pushing the trees over. It was snapping, lifting, then dropping them,” he said.
The storm knocked power out for about 3,000 residents overnight.
One building of note was destroyed near town.
The Porter Tanner Associates hay storing facility four kilometres west of town had its roof blown off, with an employee of the family-run company saying it will likely need to be torn down and rebuilt.
“It’s definitely not a good thing,” said Nelson Porter, adding no one was in the building at the time.
The severe weather storm developed over Montana, which had its own reports of hail, strong winds and a tornado.
“It was a very unstable air mass over Montana and southern Alberta,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Bill McMurtry.
“As the Montana system moved northward, it tapped into the energy available over southern Alberta. There was an unstable air mass but, more importantly, the humidity was quite high and that’s one of the more important ingredients for severe weather.”
It’s too early to categorize how strong the tornado was that hit Taber, McMurtry said.
Hail hit other parts of southern Alberta, but Jamie Puchinger of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development said she had not heard of any reports of crop damage caused by the storm.
The tornado touched down at 8:42 p.m. – a peculiar time, according to Environment Canada. The other three unconfirmed tornadoes hit between 10:30 and 11:05 p.m.
“They can happen (in the evening) but most of them happen late afternoon, early evening,” McMurtry said.
Spokespeople with RCMP detachments in Brooks, Bow Island and Vulcan all confirmed there was no severe damage in their jurisdictions.
All in all, though, Taber residents admit it could have been a lot worse.
“It’s safe to say we dodged another bullet last night,” said Taber Mayor Ray Bryant.
A Mini-tornado has ripped through suburban Perth, ripping down powerlines and trees and leaving a trail of damage. Several reports on Twitter described the storm as a “small tornado”. It is believed the destructive winds centred on Light Street, Dianella and Alexander Drive, and hit around midday WA time.
A real estate office and video store on Walter Road, Morley, has been damaged with the roof torn off and one wall collapsed.
Nobody was injured in the building collapse. Several cars may also have been damaged.
The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed that a “tornado” was reported in the Tuart Hill/Morley/Dianella area just after midday.
At 12.45 pm the storm that produced this tornado was in the vicinity of Bickley and moving to the southeast.
Another tornado has been reported near York at around 12.30 pm.
The bureau also issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the area.
Thunderstorm warning
Warning: “For destructive winds and heavy rainfall in, near or between a line Jurien Bay to Beacon to Corrigin to Bunbury to Jurien Bay, including York, Mandurah and the Perth metropolitan area.
“A low pressure system to the southwest of Perth is producing showers and thunderstorms over the southwest of the State with isolated dangerous that could cause significant damage to homes and property. Showers and thunderstorms may also cause heavy rainfall that may cause flash flooding during this afternoon.”
The tornado has ripped powerlines and trees down on Morley Drive between Alexander Drive and Camboon and Wellington Roads.
Western Power crews are on site and are currently assessing the damage.
Approximately 5000 thousand customers have been blacked out and Western Power will be seeking to restore their power as soon as possible.
People are urged to stay away from any fallen power lines and report any damage to 13 13 51.
Trees have also been brought down along Alexander Drive.
Police and emergency services are on site directing traffic.
Drivers are strongly advised to avoid the area if possible.
Other roads in and around the Dianella/Morley area may also have debris or water over the road so drivers are asked to reduce their speed and exercise caution through the area.
China faces a “serious epidemic” of drug-resistant tuberculosis according to the first-ever nationwide estimate of the size of the problem there, said a US-published study on Wednesday.
“In 2007, one third of the patients with new cases of tuberculosis and one half of the patients with previously treated tuberculosis had drug-resistant disease,” said the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Even more, the prevalence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB in new cases (5.7 percent) was nearly twice the global average, said the study.
Using World Health Organization figures as a basis for comparison, “China has the highest annual number of cases of MDR tuberculosis in the world — a quarter of the cases worldwide,” it added.
The data came from a survey of more than 4,600 Chinese people who were recently diagnosed or treated for TB.
Patients for the study were treated at local TB clinics, not hospitals, and the survey was conducted by the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory (NTRL) of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control.
According to an accompanying editorial by Johns Hopkins University infectious disease specialist Richard Chaisson, the growth of drug-resistant TB presents an “enormous challenge.”
Even more concerning was the finding that most of the 110,000 drug-resistant cases were in people newly diagnosed with the disease, suggesting that the virulent bacteria are being transmitted from person to person and not developing solely as a result of a person prematurely stopping treatment.
“MDR tuberculosis is linked to inadequate treatment in both the public health system and the hospital system, especially tuberculosis hospitals; however, primary transmission accounts for most cases,” said the study.
Chaisson said the findings highlight the need for faster testing, and for new cases of TB to be tested for signs of drug resistance, not just recurrent forms.
In China, over one million new tuberculosis infections occur each year — a large chunk of the estimated nine million new cases worldwide annually.
Known formally as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, TB spreads through the air when infected people cough up bacteria. TB kills about 1.5 million people worldwide each year.
Often it can be cured with antibiotics, though drug availability is limited in the developing world and sometimes patients do not follow the entire regimen of treatment, which can encourage the development of resistant strains.
The study was funded by the Chinese Ministry of Health.
Legionnaires’ disease in Edinburgh has claimed the life of a man in his 50s, as health authorities disclosed they were dealing with more than 30 confirmed and suspected cases. The man, who had other underlying health problems, died at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh on Tuesday. He was one of 15 people in a critical condition being treated in hospital, as the Health and Safety Executive stepped up their efforts to track the source of the outbreak. NHS Lothian said 13 men and two women aged between 33 and 74 were in a critical condition with the disease. They are being treated in intensive care in hospitals in the Lothian area. There were also 15 suspected cases affecting 10 men and five women, similarly concentrated on the Dalry, Gorgie and Saughton neighbourhoods of south-west Edinburgh. The number of people involved in the outbreak has escalated sharply in the past 48 hours, since the first case emerged on last Thursday. Industrial cooling towers in the area are believed to be a potential source of the outbreak and Edinburgh council environmental health staff have treated 16 cooling towers in an effort to halt its spread. One person among the 17 confirmed cases, initially involving men aged between 30 and 65, has already been sent home.
Dr Duncan McCormick, a consultant in public health medicine, said medical staff were now trying to identify other unidentified cases to establish the true scale of the outbreak. “I would like to reassure the public that household water supplies are safe and that Legionnaires’ disease cannot be contracted by drinking water,” he said. “Older people, particularly men, heavy smokers and those with other health conditions, are at greater risk of contracting the disease.” It might take up to 10 days before results are available, since legionella is difficult to culture. Meanwhile, those responsible for maintaining the towers have been advised to carry out additional chemical treatment to water in the systems as a precaution. Other possible sources are not being ruled out. Legionella bacteria is often found in rivers and lakes but can end up in artificial water supply systems, such as air conditioning systems, water services and cooling towers. Spread by minute droplets of water, it cannot be transmitted from person to person. Symptoms usually begin with a mild headache and muscle pain but become more severe after a day or two. These might include high fever, with a temperature of 40C (104F) or more, and increasing muscle pain and chills.
Once the bacteria infect the lungs, carriers may also experience a persistent cough, later including mucus or blood, shortness of breath and chest pains. A third of people with the disease will experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea or loss of appetite. About half may also experience changes to their mental state. Bacteriologist Hugh Pennington told BBC Radio Scotland that the disease was preventable. “Industrial water cooling towers are quite a common source of the bug. The bug lives in warm, fresh water. Basically disinfectant should be put in the water to stop the bug growing.” Legionnaires’ was a “very, very severe pneumonia” but it was often hard to track down the source,” Pennington added. “If there are several water cooling towers in an area you have to look at them all and find out which is the source of the bug.”
Biohazard name:
Legionnaires disease
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
TWO PEOPLE have been confirmed dead in the latest outbreak of cholera in Navrongo in the Kasena-Nankana district of the Upper East region with more than 17 on admission. There are fears the figures could rise as reports suggest an increase in the number of cases since the first case was reported late last week at the Navrongo War Government Hospital. Hospital authorities DAILY GUIDE gathered have established an emergency cholera camp within the hospital to enable them contain the situation with reports of Nosignia, a farming community being the worst hit. Over the last three years the district has been bedeviled with cholera epidemics in some rural communities due to inadequate sanitation and water treatment systems. Residents in and around the district have been advised to desist from eating cold food while steps are underway to curtail the activities of food vendors to ensure the outbreak is brought under control. Cholera is an acute filth related epidemic infectious disease caused by the bacterium vibrio cholerae resulting in profuse watery diarrhea, extreme loss of fluid and electrolytes, leading to severe dehydration and death within hours. Worldwide, cholera affects 3-5 million people and causes 100,000 to 130,000 deaths a year as of 2010. Due to severe dehydration, fatality rates are high when untreated, especially among children and infants.
Meanwhile, district directors of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the affected areas have asked local health educators and other volunteers to intensify personal hygiene and environmental cleanliness campaigns. The epidemic broke out between May 27 and May 31 with the first fatality recorded on May 29. The deceased is reported to have refused to be admitted at the Navrongo War Memorial Hospital where he sought treatment. His condition worsened when he returned home resulting in his death. However his wife who was also diagnosed with cholera was still on admission as at May 31. In Kassena-Nankana West, the District GHS Director, Vida Abasega said the district recorded 14 cases between May 29 and 31 with one woman, losing her live. Medical Superintendent at the Navrongo War Memorial Hospital, Dr. Abdulai Forgor said the exact cause of the outbreak in the two districts is yet to be known but did not rule out filthy surroundings as a factor. According to him, the hospital and the GHS have started public education in the districts on cholera, personal and environmental hygiene. He believes residents may have taken a cue for the campaign as the number of cases being reported at the hospital had declined. Upper East Regional Minister, Mark Woyongo who visited the hospital has promised that the Regional Coordinating Council will support the two affected districts in their public education efforts.
He has also directed the district assemblies to use their information vans for announcements on the outbreak and the need for people to keep their surroundings clean. One patient, who narrated her ordeal to the regional minister, said she was rushed to the hospital while returning home from church after buying and eating a meal of ‘kenkey’ along the way. She said she started feeling uncomfortable, and then had severe Diarrhoea.
Biohazard name:
Cholera
Biohazard level:
3/4 Hight
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.
Symptoms:
Status:
suspected
07.06.2012
Epidemic Hazard
USA
State of Utah, [Salt Lake County and Millard County]
Two very different families, one in Salt Lake County and the other in Millard County, are looking for answers after their relatives died suddenly in the last month. Both families have been told that hantavirus, a rare but potentially deadly virus contracted from mouse droppings, could be to blame. Officials with the Utah Department of Health said Tuesday that lab results have been sent. But the family of Norma Martina Aguirre de Sánchez, 47, remains unsure. The Delta family has a death certificate that lists the word “pending” as the cause of Sanchez’s May 2 death at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. Sanchez’s brother-in-law spoke in Spanish to the Deseret News Tuesday, saying the family wishes it knew why she died. They were originally told she may have contracted a “virus from a mouse” but no one confirmed the diagnosis nor told them how others could avoid getting sick. Relatives of 35-year-old Tyler Tidwell, of Herriman, are also awaiting confirmation after his “brief but intense struggle against an as yet unknown illness,” according to an obituary. He died May 29 at LDS Hospital.
It remains unknown where or how the two contracted the illness, but state epidemiologist JoDee Baker confirmed that both were exposed to mouse droppings in the recent past. “It’s been many years since we’ve even seen more than one case in a season,” she said. “To have two fatalities so early in the season is concerning. Hantavirus is still out there. It’s rare, but it is potentially deadly.” While any case of hantavirus is extremely rare in Utah — there have been just 31 in the past two decades — most victims survive the illness, due to early diagnosis and ongoing supportive care, including physician-monitoring. Deer mice, a distant relative of the common house mouse or laboratory mouse in North America, are notorious for carrying hantavirus, transmitting it through their urine and feces. They are most active during the warmer months of summer and early fall, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Contaminated dust from a disturbed pile of excrement can infect a person’s respiratory system, specifically the lungs, leading to a respiratory failure (Hantavirus Pulminary Syndrome) that can cause death. Informing a doctor can help to prevent a fatal conclusion, but there is no known vaccine or antibiotics to combat the virus completely, Baker said.
Biohazard name:
Hantavirus
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Region 1494 (S18W06)
produced an M2/1b at 06/2006Z associated with Type II (est. speed
1148 km/s) and Type IV radio sweeps. An associated CME was first
visible in SOHO LASCO C2 imagery at 06/2036Z. Further analysis will
be conducted as more images become available to determine
geoeffectiveness. A filament eruption was observed in SDO AIA 193
imagery around 05/1945Z near N12W10. The CME was first visible in
STEREO COR 2 imagery at 05/2039Z. The majority of the ejecta appears
to be north of the ecliptic plane, however, there is a weak
Earth-directed component. A model run is in progress to determine
geoeffectiveness. The Penticton 10 cm Flux value was estimated due
to flare enhancement.
BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. – Missouri conservationists are trying to solve a mystery in an area lake.
What started as a couple dozen dead carp turned into more than 10,000 in Blue Springs Lake.
Conservationists took water samples and couldn’t figure out exactly what caused the deaths. Their samples have now gone onto a national lab for further analysis.
Between 500 and 1,000 carp have been killed everyday. Jake Allman, a biologist with the Missouri Conservation, started noticing carp with lesions under their scales the last few weeks.
“There’s a little bacteria on the fish, but not enough to really have caused this,” Allman said. “This feeding activity where they are brushing up against each other can actually spread whatever is making them sick.”
If Allman had his way, this kill would only continue.
“Their spawning activity disrupts spawning of other fish. They root around in the shallows and uproot aquatic vegetation which is beneficial to native fish,” Allman explained.
But it seems the carp are now starting to recover.
Lake officials are now keeping an eye on the E. coli levels in the water.
They had to close a swimming area during Memorial Day Weekend because of a threat of E. Coli from of all the dead fish.
Something terribly fishy is going on at the fishing port of Ohara (pronounced Oh-hara) in Isumi City of Chiba Prefecture, and it has nothing to do with espionage or political corruption. There are tons and tons of dead sardines washing up on the shore, and not only is the sight disturbing, but the huge amount of dead fish is literally smelling up the entire surrounding area. According to the news, the dead fish started washing up around noon of June 3rd, and as of early afternoon on June 4th, the situation still remained pretty much out of control. The amount of dead sardines that has washed up is thought to total several dozen metrics tons, so you can imagine how bad the smell of rotting fish must be. We’ve seen the pictures uploaded onto Twitter, and the port looks completely filled with fish – it almost looks like a carpet of sardines. It doesn’t seem likely that any fishing boats will be setting sail from this port soon. There are also, of course, the usual posts and comments on the internet on how this could be an omen, a sign of a coming great natural disaster. When we inquired with a local inn, we were told that the port was scheduled to be closed from June 1st to 5th, but given the emergency, local fishermen are currently out in full force trying to resolve the situation. Already more than 2 full days into the bizarre occurrence, the smell has to be almost unbearable, but the people of Ohara still have no idea when they will be able to get rid of all the sardines. We sincerely hope they will be able to solve the problem quickly.
Biohazard name:
Mass Die-off (Fish)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Twenty six persons were rushed to the hospital at the weekend for food poisoning in Dan-Sharu village in Kafur Local Government Area of Katsina State. The affected persons were admitted for diarrhoea and vomiting, which began shortly after they ate a meal of Tuwo prepared with corn flour. A medical personnel member at the hospital, Mallam Hamisu Hussamatu Ibrahim, told newsmen that all the victims survived. The coordinator of the state’s Primary Health Service in charge of Kafur Local Government Area, Alhaji Shu’aibu Garba Kankara also confirmed that no death was recorded. “The meal was prepared with corn flour suspected to be contaminated with an insecticide. The flour must have been stored for a long time. We are suspecting that the corn flour was contaminated. The affected persons have already been treated and discharged. The only person that was asked to come back to the hospital is the head of the family because he had a minor injury on his tongue,” he said.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Food Poisoning
Biohazard level:
1/4 Low
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses including Bacillus subtilis, canine hepatitis, Escherichia coli, varicella (chicken pox), as well as some cell cultures and non-infectious bacteria. At this level precautions against the biohazardous materials in question are minimal, most likely involving gloves and some sort of facial protection. Usually, contaminated materials are left in open (but separately indicated) waste receptacles. Decontamination procedures for this level are similar in most respects to modern precautions against everyday viruses (i.e.: washing one’s hands with anti-bacterial soap, washing all exposed surfaces of the lab with disinfectants, etc). In a lab environment, all materials used for cell and/or bacteria cultures are decontaminated via autoclave.
A glowing cloud blossomed into a rainbow over southern China on 5 June, appearing at dusk over Wanning City in southern China in Hainan Province. The glowing ‘rainbow’ was spotted first by a child on a fishing boat, and captured by a local photographer.
The rare effect is created by light refracting off ice crystals in clouds, rather than water particles close to Earth, creating a ‘flying’ rainbow.
‘Late in the afternoon of June 5, a giant piece of colorful cloud appeared over the sky in Shenzhou Peninsula, Wanning City of south China’s Hainan Province. A child on a fishing ship had the luck to observe this spectacular phenomenon.
‘When the sun went down, the colorful cloud dispersed gradually,’ says Ye Xin, of China’s People’s Daily Online.
The phenomenon is caused by light reflecting off tiny ice crystals inside the body of the cloud’s water vapour.
It’s very rarely observed, even compared to other unusual rainbow phenomena such as upside-down rainbows.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
Senate Democrats blast national security leak about cyberattack against Iran
By Jeremy Herb
Senate Democrats on Tuesday blasted leaks to the press about a cyberattack against Iran and warned the disclosure of President Obama’s order could put the United States at risk of a retaliatory strike.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, said the leak about the attack on Iran’s nuclear program could “to some extent” provide justification for copycat attacks against the United States.
“This is like an avalanche. It is very detrimental and, candidly, I found it very concerning,” Feinstein said. “There’s no question that this kind of thing hurts our country.”
The FBI opened its own probe Tuesday into who disclosed information on the Iranian attack, The Wall Street Journal reported. On Capitol Hill, the Senate Armed Service Committee promised hearings, while two Republican senators called for a special counsel investigation.
Several Democrats noted with alarm that the Iranian cyber leak is just the latest in a series of media reports that disclosed classified information about U.S. anti-terrorism activity.
“A number of those leaks, and others in the last months about drone activities and other activities, are frankly all against national-security interests,” said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. “I think they’re dangerous, damaging, and whoever is doing that is not acting in the interest of the United States of America.”
Lech Walesa was once a trade-union activist. He was often arrested for speaking his mind against Communist oppression behind the Iron Curtain in Poland and for defying the Soviet Union. He was an electrician who, with no higher education, led one of the most profound freedom movements of the 20th century – Solidarity. He became president of Poland and swept in reforms, pushing the Soviet Union out of his homeland and moving the country toward a free-market economy and individual liberty. And President Obama doesn’t want him to set foot in the White House.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Polish officials requested that Walesa accept the Medal of Freedom on behalf of Jan Karski, a member of the Polish Underground during World War II who was being honored posthumously this week. The request makes sense. Walesa and Karski shared a burning desire to rid Poland of tyrannical subjugation. But President Obama said no.
Administration officials told the Journal that Walesa is too “political.” A man who was arrested by Soviet officials for dissenting against the government for being “political” is being shunned by the United States of America for the same reason 30 years later.
Meanwhile, one of the recipients of the Medal was Dolores Huerta, the honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. So socialist politics are acceptable, but not the politics of a man who stood up and fought socialism.
This revelation follows an eruption of outrage in Poland after President Obama referred in his remarks at the Medal of Freedom ceremony to “Polish death camps,” a phrase that Poles have battled since the end of the Cold War. The phrase suggests that Poles were complicit in Nazi concentration camps, which of course is not the case. In fact, Poles were exterminated in the camps.
The White House’s flippant response to the uproar caused the Polish president and prime minister to demand more thoughtful and personal reactions. But White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that the president has no plans to reach out to his Polish counterparts and has shrugged off the outrage in Poland.
Few observers are suggesting that President Obama’s written remarks noting “Polish death camps” were intentionally malicious. The comment was more likely a result of historical ignorance and careless inattention. This is the same ignorance and carelessness that would cause a president to turn away Lech Walesa and label him as “too political.”
Ironically, Lech Walesa shares a distinction with President Obama: They both won Nobel Peace Prizes. Walesa earned his in 1983 after years of fighting for peace and freedom, and being monitored, harassed, and jailed for it. President Obama received his award in 2009. Some may think that this would be enough of a bond for President Obama to set aside political differences for the greater good. But instead, President Obama treated Walesa the same way he treated the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, who was ushered out the White House kitchen past piles of garbage in 2010.
The likelihood is that President Obama didn’t want Walesa in the White House because Walesa has made critical remarks toward the president’s policies and in 2010 warned that the United States was slipping toward socialism. But rather than taking the mature and diplomatic path and respecting Walesa’s right to have a differing perspective, Obama chose to shun his lifetime of achievements.
Congratulating Walesa on his Nobel Prize in 1983, President Ronald Reagan said: “For too long, the Polish government has tried to make Lech Walesa a non-person and destroy the free trade-union movement that he helped to create in Poland. But no government can destroy the hopes that burn in the hearts of a people. The people of Poland have shown in their support of Solidarity, just as they showed in their support of His Holiness Pope John Paul II during his visit to Poland, that the government of that nation cannot make Lech Walesa a non-person, and they can’t turn his ideas into non-ideas.”
The White House should not treat President Walesa as a non-person, and they cannot turn his ideas into non-ideas.
US stocks waver, then rise, even though Spain warns that it could lose access to borrowing
Richard Drew, File/Associated Press – FILE – In this June 4, 2012, file photo, trader Lewis Vande Pallen, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. US stock futures are sliding along with investor confidence in the ability of the world’s economic leaders to unravel Europe’s worsening debt crisis.
By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, June 5, 3:27 PM
NEW YORK — As world leaders searched for a way out of Europe’s mounting debt crisis, U.S. investors moved to the sidelines.The major market indexes closed modestly higher, after wavering between slight gains and losses throughout the morning. Trading volume was light and the stock moves were small. In Europe, markets were mixed.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 26.49 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,127.95. It traded within a range of 75 points, one of the narrowest of the year.
Timothy McCandless, senior stock analyst at Bel Air Investment Advisors in Los Angeles, described Tuesday’s market as stuck in purgatory: The economy is not strong enough to represent a healthy recovery, but not weak enough for the Federal Reserve to do more to help.
“It’s wrestling with those two sides,” McCandless said. “We’re right in between.”
Finance ministers and central bank presidents from the world’s seven wealthiest nations held an emergency conference call to discuss how Europe can heal its weakest countries without alienating the stronger ones that have to foot the bill. Leaders are worried that Spain and Cyprus, which are scrambling for money to prop up their troubled banks, will soon need to be bailed out by their richer counterparts.
The debt crisis is still unraveling as the European Union struggles to keep its pieces together. We start today, June 4th in Germany where the DAX fell below 6,000 points today for the first time since January. Its effects are the result of Spain’s accumulating debt load. Some argue now is the time for the Central bank to step in and keep Spain from spiraling out of control. Trader Robert Halver with Baader Bank. The European Central Bank announced it will be meeting Wednesday June 6th and the Bank of England on Thursday June 7th to hash out monetary policies for corrective action. But corrective action cannot come fast enough. We take you to Spain where unemployment rates have dipped ever so slightly but still the numbers illustrate the dire situation the people of Spain are facing. This time last year records indicate that the jobless rate is up by 12.5 percent making Spain’s unemployment rate the highest in the Euro zone. Some 4.7 million people or 24 percent remain unemployed as shown by Spain’s Labor Ministry. Despite these grim tales Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is still insisting that Spain does not need assistance from the European Commission to clean-up its banking sector. Seen here during a meeting today with Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, instead called for the establishment of a central authority to oversee and coordinate euro zone fiscal policy. As Spain’s 10 year loan rates approach 7 percent Traders hold on tightly and anticipate some good news from this week’s Central Bank meetings.
CBO: Debt will be double GDP by 2037
By Erik Wasson
U.S. debt is on track to be nearly twice the size of the U.S. economy by 2037, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warned Tuesday.
The new CBO report states that increased entitlement spending driven by the retirement of the baby boomers and insufficient revenue is making the long-term outlook for the national debt increasingly dire.
Under CBO’s most likely scenario, in which lawmakers extend current tax rates and fail to curb entitlement spending, debt held by the public would reach 109 percent of the economy by 2026, and it would be almost 200 percent of GDP by 2037.
Many economists have warned that if debt held by the public approaches 100 percent of GDP, it can bring on the kind of fiscal crisis being felt in European countries today, in which governments must suddenly slash spending and laying off workers in the face of rising interest rates caused by spooked investors.
CBO’s latest prediction is similar to its 2011 report despite the $2.1 trillion in budget cuts enacted in last August’s debt-ceiling deal between the White House and Congress.
CBO said last year that debt as a share of GDP would reach 109 percent of the economy by 2023 — rather than 2026 — and would approach 190 percent in 2035.
In its new report, CBO says that if current policies continue, including allowing the Bush-era tax rates to increase in January and going forward with large cuts in payments to doctors under Medicare, the debt path would be less explosive. In that scenario, debt held by the public moves from 73 percent of GDP this year to 61 percent by 2022 and 53 percent by 2037.
Some of those hired as stewards had to spend the night before the pageant sleeping under London Bridge.
Coachloads of jobless people brought in to work unpaid on river pageant as part of Work ProgrammeA group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.
Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government’s Work Programme.
Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.
One young worker said she was on duty between London Bridge and Tower Bridge during the £12m river spectacle of a 1,000-boat flotilla and members of the Royal family sail by . She said that the security firm Close Protection UK, which won a stewarding contract for the jubilee events, gave her a plastic see-through poncho and a high-visibility jacket for protection against the rain.
Close Protection UK confirmed that it was using up to 30 unpaid staff and 50 apprentices, who were paid £2.80 an hour, for the three-day event in London. A spokesman said the unpaid work was a trial for paid roles at the Olympics, which it had also won a contract to staff. Unpaid staff were expected to work two days out of the three-day holiday.
The firm said it had spent considerable resources on training and equipment that stewards could keep and that the experience was voluntary and did not affect jobseekers keeping their benefits.
The woman said that people were picked up at Bristol at 11pm on Saturday and arrived in London at 3am on Sunday. “We all got off the coach and we were stranded on the side of the road for 20 minutes until they came back and told us all to follow them,” she said. “We followed them under London Bridge and that’s where they told us to camp out for the night … It was raining and freezing.”
A 30-year-old steward told the Guardian that the conditions under the bridge were “cold and wet and we were told to get our head down [to sleep]”. He said that it was impossible to pitch a tent because of the concrete floor.
The woman said they were woken at 5.30am and supplied with boots, combat trousers and polo shirts. She said: “They had told the ladies we were getting ready in a minibus around the corner and I went to the minibus and they had failed to open it so it was locked. I waited around to find someone to unlock it, and all of the other girls were coming down trying to get ready and no one was bothering to come down to unlock [it], so some of us, including me, were getting undressed in public in the freezing cold and rain.” The men are understood to have changed under the bridge.
The female steward said that after the royal pageant, the group travelled by tube to a campsite in Theydon Bois, Essex, where some had to pitch their tents in the dark.
She said: “London was supposed to be a nice experience, but they left us in the rain. They couldn’t give a crap … No one is supposed to be treated like that, [working] for free. I don’t want to be treated where I have to sleep under a bridge and wait for food.” The male steward said: “It was the worst experience I’ve ever had. I’ve had many a job, and many a bad job, but this one was the worst.”
Both stewards said they were originally told they would be paid. But when they got to the coach on Saturday night, they said, they were told that the work would be unpaid and that if they did not accept it they would not be considered for well-paid work at the Olympics.
Molly Prince, managing director of Close Protection UK, said in a statement: “We take the welfare of our staff and apprentices very seriously indeed.
“The staff travelling to the jubilee are completing their training and being assessed on the job for NVQ Level 2 in spectator safety after having completed all the knowledge requirements in the classroom and some previous work experience. It is essential that they are assessed in a live work environment in order to complete their chosen qualifications.
“The nature of festival and event work is such that we often travel sleeping on coaches through the night with an early morning pre-event start – it is the nature of the business … It’s hard work and not for the faint-hearted.
“We had staff travel from several locations and some arrived earlier than others at the meeting point, which I believe was London Bridge [pictured left], which was why some had to hang around. This is an unfortunate set of circumstances but not lack of care on the part of CPUK.”
The company said it had spent up to £220 on sponsoring security training licences for each participant and that boots and combat trousers cost more than £100.
Abi Levitt, director of development services at the charity, said: “We have been unable to verify the accuracy of the situation with either the people on work experience or the business concerned.
“We will undertake a review of the situation as matter of urgency. Tomorrow’s People believes strongly in the value of work experience in helping people to build the skills, confidence and CV they need to get and keep a job and we have an exemplary record going back nearly 30 years for our work with the long-term unemployed.”
San Luis Obispo, Calif. – Yes, I’m mad as hell again. I just read some bad news that should make every American mad as hell. In fact, two bad news items.First, as a U.S. Marine vet, I got angry reading that there have been more military suicides than war deaths the past decade. Yes, more Iraq and Afghan war vets have killed themselves than were killed by America’s enemies in combat. And more are expected as we had more than two million serve in the two wars.
Second, if the economic, psychological, political and moral consequences of the past two wars aren’t bad enough, many politicians and candidates – some of whom never served in the armed forces – are proposing that the full Congress pass the Ryan budget and force Pentagon generals to spend billions more than they requested.This is insane. More taxpayer money for the Pentagon war machine? Why? We’re winding down two wars. We’re dealing with the tragedy of vet suicides. These same politicians whining about the debt and taxes. So why do they want to increase Pentagon spending? Do we love war that much? Are they planning to start a new war? Let’s analyze this contradiction.
Yes, an epidemic: military suicides now exceed war deaths
The effort to increase Pentagon spending was already public knowledge since the House voted on the Ryan budget plan. But what really triggered the anger was a Newsweek feature, “We Pretend Our Vets Don’t Even Exist,” by Marine veteran Anthony Swofford. That put the spotlight on this new crisis, now an epidemic, one few are aware of, fewer care about.
Here are the hard facts: “About 18 veterans kill themselves each day. Thousands from the current wars have already done so. In fact, the number of U.S. soldiers who have died by their own hand is now estimated to be greater than the number (6,460) who have died in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Wake up folks. Something is wrong in our thinking. From the beginning we were in a trance, pretending the Iraq War would be short-lived, cheap and self-funded by oil revenues. Yes, from Day 1 the Iraq War was handled more like an economic stimulus program.
Remember, after 9/11 we were urged to focus on the economy, to spend, go to the mall shopping. Draft was unnecessary. And thanks to bonuses, we built a volunteer army, backed up by mercenaries, tens of thousands of private contractors.
We even hid photos of war casualties from the public, to sanitize the public’s brain.
War now an economic stimulus program, boosting taxes for investors
Treating war as an economic stimulus program became clear a decade ago in the early years of the Iraq war. That fact was stressed in a Huffington Post interview with Oliver Stone. Ryan Grim said that in a 2004 meeting President George W. Bush said to the Argentine prime minister: “All the economic growth that the U.S. has had, has been based on the different wars it had waged.”
Apparently that same ideology remains strong in today’s election politics.
Let’s put all this in the larger macroeconomic context. War should be about national defense. Wars should have nothing to do with scoring domestic political points. And yet, increasing the Pentagon budget has become a political hot button in today’s election drama.
This is insane: Do politicians plan to start new wars?
Ask yourself, are they already itching for a new war? After two exhausting wars? Eleven years? We put 2.3 million in Iraq and Afghanistan; 800,000 served multiple deployments, one of the big reasons for vet suicides. So why demand bigger budgets? Why in a time of national austerity? Why when they’re complaining about high taxes?
No, war shouldn’t be about domestic politics, but it is. And that’s bad news for taxpayers, for investors, for America’s values.
Somebody’s got to pay for all this. The taxes of all Americans will go up if the Senate passes the Ryan budget plan, forcing Pentagon generals to spend $554 billion in 2013, billions more than they requested. Plus it’ll add $6.2 trillion new debt and taxes over the next decade.
Yes, this is insane. A few private contractors will get richer but taxpayers will suffer in this zero-sum economics game.
National defense? No, it’s about getting rich, the rest pay the price
America is on a dangerous and costly path. Not just politicians. Americans love war, it’s in our genes. Congress spends over 50% our tax dollars on the Pentagon war machine. America spends 47% of the total military budgets of all nations in the world.
Why does the public tolerates such absurdities? Why do we hide this insanity deep in our collective conscience? Why are we planning new wars? Why do we see war as an economic stimulus program? The Iraq-Afghan “economic stimulus” strategy got us in the mess we’re in; are we really crazy enough to try it again?
Forget all the campaign rhetoric about national defense. That is not why our politicians want to spent trillions more on the Pentagon war machine. Politician are interested in reelection not national defense. They need votes and will keep military bases open because that means local jobs, satisfied voters.
They need campaign cash. Military contractors are great donors. Cutting war-related jobs is political suicide. So they pass big military budgets, waste billions on outdated weapon systems. Keep throwing money at the Pentagon war machine. Anything to get reelected. National defense is not a first priority; their job, their reelection is.
As a gung-ho teenager, I volunteered to serve with the Marines. I remember telling my dad I wanted to save the world from communism. Today I hate war. Hate war because I know that our leaders deceived us into going to war under false pretenses. I remember all the misleading propaganda about mushroom clouds, a self-funded quickie war paid for by oil revenues, while they dropped the ball on the real Afghan threat.
Now we’re looking at trillions in the unfunded future costs of these misguided wars, says Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz, medical and other costs for the 35,000 wounded warriors. Worse, the manipulation is happening all over again with the proposed increases in the Pentagon budget.
Warning: America’s war-mongering psyche, adding new debt, is taxing
In fact, it’s obvious to see where these proposed budget plans are headed. The Iraq-Afghan wars were huge foreign policy blunders, wasted too many lives, added trillions in debt and squandered our nation’s integrity.
Some few got very rich, are now pushing for new wars. A crazy, dangerous ideology has taken over America’s collective conscience.
This mind-set is extremely dangerous. Our nation’s lost its moral compass. Our new capitalism has been so distorted that accumulating personal wealth means you can do virtually anything no matter how destructive to the public good.
Hopefully America will wake up soon, get mad as hell because this ideology did not work during the Iraq/Afghan Wars, and it will explode in our faces the next time. In addition to the war deaths … the veterans’ suicides … bloated Pentagon budgets … increasing taxes … and the destruction of our value system … this self-destructive “war-is-an-economic-stimulus-program” mind-set will inevitably weaken our national defense.
Remember Kevin Phillips, former Nixon strategist and author of many classics including American Theocracy and American Dynasty? Writing in the early days of the Iraq War, in Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich, he warned that “great nations, at the peak of their economic power, become arrogant, wage great world wars at great cost, wasting vast resources, taking on huge debt, and ultimately burning themselves out.”
Syrian rebels killed at least 80 government soldiers at the weekend, an opposition watchdog has said.
The attacks came after rebels warned they would act if Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, failed to observe a UN-backed ceasefire.
The latest violence, and Assad’s defiant speech to parliament on Sunday, raised questions about how long the UN and Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan, can realistically pursue his peace plan.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said local doctors had confirmed the names of 80 dead soldiers.
Insurgents told the British-based group they had killed more than 100 soldiers and destroyed some tanks in clashes across Syria, including in Damascus and Idlib province, in the north-west.
Syria’s state news agency reported the burial on Monday of 30 members of the security forces killed by rebels.
Some commanders in the rebel Free Syrian Army announced last week they would be “free of any commitment” to Annan’s peace plan if Assad failed to end violence by Friday. The massacre of at least 108 people, nearly half of them children, in the Houla area of Homs province on 25 May dealt a possibly fatal blow to Annan’s proposed ceasefire, which was supposed to have taken effect on 12 April.
A withdrawal of Syrian troops was at the top of Annan’s six-point plan to halt hostilities in Syria, the country the Assad family has controlled for 42 years.
“The Annan mission is essentially dead, and of course most western powers admit that,” said Michael Stephens, researcher at the Royal United Services Institute’s branch in Qatar.
“Houla changed the game completely in terms of what people were willing to accept and what they were not.”
However, Russia and China, wary of any western-led military intervention in Syria, say Annan’s plan is the only way forward. They have twice blocked UN security council resolutions that would have condemned Damascus, and perhaps led to sanctions. The position of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was in the spotlight at the start of a summit with EU leaders in St Petersburg.
Both Russia and Europe say they still support Kofi Annan’s plan, but EU nations would like Russia to press Assad harder to abide by a ceasefire demanded by the plan, and want him to step aside as part of a political transition.
China’s state newspaper, the People’s Daily, has warned that any western-backed military intervention would unleash even bloodier chaos, and warned that abandoning Annan’s plan could push Syria into full-scale war.
Going to war depends first on selling it. Gaining public support is vital. Previous articles discussed it. Walter Lippmann coined the phrase “manufacture of consent.”
Media scoundrels use it to manipulate and control public thinking and perceptions. News and information are filtered. Acceptable “residue” only is reported.
Dissent is marginalized. Government and dominant private interests are prioritized.
Michael Parenti explained:
“The enormous gap between what US leader do….and what American’s think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments….”
In their book titled “Propaganda and Persuasion,” Garth Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell defined their topic as “the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.”
Richard Alan Nelson described the technique as follows:
“Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for ideological, political or commercial purposes through the controlled transmission of one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels.”
“A propaganda organization employs propagandists who engage in propagandism – the applied creation and distribution of such forms of persuasion.”
Propaganda has different forms. Advertisers use it to generate sales. So do politicians to get elected. Religious leaders use it to indoctrinate the faithful. So do nations to promote their agendas.
When war is planned, it’s used to create fear, demonize enemies, dehumanize them, falsely accuse them of atrocities and other crimes, and enlist public support for intervention for alleged humanitarian reasons.
In 1917, George Creel first used propaganda successfully to turn pacifist Americans into raging German-haters.
In his 1928 book titled “Propaganda,” Edward Bernays said it’s possible to “regiment the public mind every bit as much as an army regiments their bodies.”
“If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it?”
“The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.”
It’s also used to launch wars, trick enemies for strategic purposes, and deceive the public while waging them. Media scoundrels play a crucial role. People are manipulated to think aggressive wars are just ones.
Big lies launch them. None achieve peace, security and stability. One conflict begets others. Endless destructive cycles follow. Countless millions die. Vast destruction ravages countries. Human misery, not liberation, results.
Human needs go unmet. Wealth, power, and imperial interests only matter. Successful propaganda convinces people that what harms their well-being actually helps them.
Post-9/11, America waged multiple direct and proxy wars. They continue without end. Obama itches for more. Syria is target one, then Iran, then other nations for unchallenged US dominance. At issue is can humanity survive?
On June 1, Global Research published Russian journalist Marat Musin‘s firsthand observations of what really happened at Houla. He exposed media scoundrel misinformation and lies. Doing so provided a vital service.
Western-enlisted death squads bear full responsibility. Government forces and/or so-called pro-Assad shabbiha had no involvement.
Scoundrel media and Western officials provided fabricated accounts of what went on. It was classic, duplicitous propaganda. It rages to enlist public support for war.
Musin’s article is powerful reading. Circulating it widely is important. Only public rage can stop wars. Nothing else works. Knowing the truth and spreading it has impact. Imperial America and war profiteers fear that most.
It’s time ordinary people got radicalized for their own well-being. Focus first on ending imperial wars. Imagine what’s possible at peace. Imagine public needs prioritized over conquests and domination. If that’s not worth fighting for, what is?
Below is a snapshot of what Musin wrote. Read his article for the full account.
On May 25, Houla was attacked by hundreds of “bandits and mercenaries.”
Ar-Rastan-based Free Syrian Army terrorists were responsible.
Civilians abandoned the town of Ar-Rastan. Lebanese Wahhabi/Salafist extremists dominate the area. With foreign money and weapons, they carry out terrorist attacks.
When killer gangs entered “the lower checkpoint in the center of” Houla, they attacked pro-government residents.
“Many of those killed were ‘guilty’ of….dar(ing) to change from Sunnis to Shiites.” They were murdered in cold blood “with knives (or) shot at point blank range.”
Scandalous accounts blamed Assad. Government forces and/or supporters had nothing to do with it.
Musin called UN observers claiming they heard artillery fire “a bad joke.” Assad’s forces were in Homs, 50 kilometers away.
“After a visual inspection of (Houla), it is impossible to find traces of any of fresh destruction, bombing and shelling….Militants used heavy weapons and snipers…”
Official and scoundrel media reports wreak of inconsistencies and duplicity.
“Militants opened fire on virtually everyone who tries to get closer to (Houla). Before us a UN convoy was fired upon and two armored jeeps of the UN observers were damaged, when they tried to drive up to an army checkpoint in Tal Dow.”
“….(M)any of the militants are professional snipers.”
“….(B)andits even fired an automatic burst on our group of journalists….”
About 108 civilians were killed, including 38 or more young children. They were executed in cold blood. They were pro-government loyalists.
Musin discussed media disinformation, saying:
“To exert pressure on public opinion and change the positions of Russia and China, texts and subtitles in Russian and Chinese languages were prepared in advance, reading:
‘Syria – Homs – the city of Hula. A terrible massacre perpetrated by the armed forces of the Syrian regime against civilians in the town of Houla. Dozens of victims and their number is growing, mainly women and children, brutally killed by indiscriminate bombing of the CITY.’ ”
“Two days later, on May 27, after the residents’ stories and video recordings made showed that the facts do not support the allegation of shelling and bombing, the bandits’ videos had undergone significant changes.”
“At the end of the text appeared this postscript: ‘And some were killed with knives.’ “
Musin reported what everyone needs to know and tell others. Pentagon war plans were ready months ago. Obama itches to attack Syria. Perhaps Houla or another planned incident will trigger it.
On Friday, Syria’s Human Rights Council representative, Faisal al-Hamwi, blamed Houla killings on terror gangs. They’re trying to incite sedition, he said.
“No sane person can believe some of this session’s sponsors when they show sorrow and pain for the victims at the time when they participate in killing the Syrians and shedding their blood,” he added.
On June 1, the Human Rights Council met to discuss Syria. Washington pressure assured its conclusions in advance.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, blamed Assad for killer gang crimes. She wrongly said the “Syrian military allegedly unleashed a barrage of heavy weapons on” Houla, “including artillery and tank fire….” She also blamed “pro-government Shabiha paramilitary groups….”
Doing so ignored clear evidence of responsibility. She wants government officials prosecuted at the International Criminal Court. Western and complicit regional states’ accountability wasn’t mentioned.
On June 2, the State Department claimed satellite images show Houla mass graves. Assad was named responsible. Alleged nearby artillery craters were also shown.
So-called images can be easily manipulated and/or fabricated. They can also be from other areas unrelated to Houla or Syria. State Department claims are spurious and unverified. So are scoundrel media reports about them.
On Friday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said preliminary government investigations showed a well-planned operation carried out by gunmen intent on violence, not a diplomatic solution to Syria’s conflict.
He blamed weapons and funding supplied foreign mercenaries.
Houla killings advanced the ball closer to war. Launching it could happen anytime, with or without Security Council authorization.
Doing so will ignite a regional firestorm. Imagine the potential catastrophic consequences. Future updates will cover more.
About the author
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War. purchase it here from Clarity Press.
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
Once again, the United States Supreme Court has proven Clarence Darrow, a civil liberties attorney and long-time advocate for the Constitution, correct in his assertion that “there is no such thing as justice – in or out of court.” In meting out this particular miscarriage of justice, the Supreme Court recently refused to hear the case of a pregnant woman who was repeatedly tasered by Seattle police during a routine traffic stop simply because she refused to sign a speeding ticket.
Malaika Brooks, 33 years old and seven months pregnant, was driving her 11-year-old son to school on a November morning in 2004, when she was pulled over for driving 32 mph in a 20 mph school zone. Instructing her son to walk the rest of the way to school, Malaika handed over her driver’s license to Officer Juan Ornelas for processing. However, when instructed to sign the speeding ticket – which the state inexplicably requires, Malaika declared that she wished to contest the charge, insisting that she had not done anything wrong and fearing that signing the ticket would signify an admission of guilt.
What happened next is a cautionary tale for anyone who still thinks that they can defy a police officer, even if it’s simply to disagree about a speeding ticket. Rather than issuing a verbal warning to the clearly pregnant (and understandably emotional) woman, Officer Ornelas called for backup. Officer Donald Jones subsequently arrived and told Brooks to sign the ticket. Again she refused. The conversation became heated. The cops called in more backup. The next to arrive was Sergeant Steven Daman, who directed Brooks to sign the ticket, pointing out that if she failed to do so, she would be arrested and taken to jail. Again, Malaika refused.
On orders from Sgt. Daman, Ornelas ordered a distraught Brooks to get out of the car, telling her she was “going to jail.” Malaika refused, and the second cop, Jones, responded by pulling out his taser electro-shock weapon, asking her if she knew what it was and warning her it would be used on her if she continued to resist. Brooks told him “No,” and then said, “I have to go to the bathroom, I am pregnant, I’m less than 60 days from having my baby.”
Jones and Ornelas then proceeded to discuss how best to taser the pregnant woman and forcibly remove her from the car. One officer said, “Well, don’t do it in her stomach; do it in her thigh.” Opening the car door, Ornelas twisted Malaika’s arm behind her back. Desperate, Brooks held on tightly to the steering wheel, while Jones cycled the taser as a demonstration of its capacity to cause pain.
With the taser in a “drive-stun” mode, Officer Jones then pressed the taser against Brooks’ thigh while Ornelas held her hand behind her back. Brooks, in obvious pain, began to cry and honk her car horn – hoping someone would help. Thirty-six seconds later, Ornelas pressed it into her left arm. Six seconds later, he again stunned her, this time on the neck. After being tasered numerous times, Brooks’ pregnant body eventually gave way. As Malaika fell over and out of the car, the officers dragged her onto the street, placing the pregnant woman face down on the pavement, handcuffing her and transporting her to jail.
While Malaika Brooks’ ordeal with the police did not seem to negatively impact her unborn child – she gave birth to a healthy baby girl two months after the altercation – Malaika bears permanent burn scars on her body where she was tasered by police. Thus, looking to the courts to hopefully right the wrong against her, Malaika sued the arresting officers, charging them with use of excessive force and violating her constitutional rights.
Unfortunately, this is where what happened to Malaika Brooks at the hands of the police – behavior that should be roundly condemned and prohibited – becomes yet another example of the cowardice of our justice system and the corrupt nature of life in a police state. Even though the Ninth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals recognized that Malaika posed no threat to anyone, nor did she pose a physical threat to the officers, that none of her offenses were serious, and that officers clearly used “excessive force” against her, the justices granted qualified immunity to the officers – a ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court ostensibly upheld when it refused to hear the case. In doing so, the courts have essentially given police carte blanche authority when it comes to using tasers against American citizens.
Indeed, this case highlights a growing trend in which police officers use tasers to force individuals into compliance in relatively non-threatening situations. Originally designed to restrain violent criminals, tasers are now used with impunity against individuals who pose no bodily harm to the police. Rowdy schoolchildren, the elderly, and mentally ill individuals are increasingly finding themselves on the receiving end of these sometimes lethal electroshock devices. Cops who have been shocked in the course of their training have described being tased as “the most profound pain,” and “like getting punched 100 times in a row.”
Police looking for absolute deference to their authority are quick to utilize tasers. For example, there have been a number of incidents where suspects of minor crimes and even completely innocent people were electroshocked into compliance by cops. In Florida, a 15-year-old girl was tased and pepper sprayed after being taken off of a bus following a disturbance. In Arizona, a run-away 9-year-old girl was tased as she sat in the back seat of a police car with her hands cuffed behind her back. In Oregon, police tased a blind and partially deaf 71-year-old multiple times in her own front yard. In another instance, a Florida woman, 12-weeks pregnant, was tased after refusing to submit to a strip search at a jail. She spontaneously miscarried seven days later. In Texas, a 72-year-old great-grandmother was tased after refusing to sign a speeding ticket.
While law enforcement advocates may suggest otherwise, these incongruous and excessive uses of force by the police are quickly becoming the rule, not the exception. A 2011 New York Civil Liberties Union report showed that of the eight police departments surveyed across the state, over 85 percent of taser uses occurred in cases where suspects were not armed. Incredibly, 40 percent of taser uses were aimed at the elderly, children, the mentally ill, or the severely intoxicated. And despite claims that tasers de-escalate tense situations, a Michigan State University study shows that suspects are more likely to be injured in incidences where police use stun guns (41% of the time), rather than when no stun gun is used (29% of the time).
Moreover, although tasers are touted as being non-lethal, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests otherwise. A study recently published by the American Heart Association has determined that taser shocks applied to the chest can lead to cardiac arrest. According to cardiologist Byron Lee, “This is no longer arguable. This is a scientific fact.”
Since 2001, over 500 people have died after being stunned with tasers. In a 2008 report, Amnesty International reviewed hundreds of deaths following taser use and found that 90 percent of those who died after being struck with a taser were unarmed. In late 2007, the United Nations Committee Against Torture declared that the use of tasers constituted a form of torture. Yet despite all of the evidence that tasers are dangerous, taser technology continues to rapidly advance. One of the most recent advances in taser technology is the X12 Taser shotgun, which fires taser rounds at a distance of up to 100 feet, adding nearly 80 feet in range compared to a regular handheld taser. It would not be a stretch to envision police using the X12 against protesters simply exercising their right to free speech and assembly under the First Amendment.
While it is tempting to paint all law enforcement officials as brutish thugs, I truly do not believe that is the case. I have known many honorable law enforcement officials who sincerely struggle with how best to balance the demands placed on them by higher ups in government with the need to treat those around them with respect and dignity.
As John Lennon once remarked, “The trouble with government as it is, is that it doesn’t represent the people. It controls them.” Indeed, the varied expressions of the government’s growing power – the excessive use of tasers by police on non-threatening individuals, allowing drones to take to the skies domestically for purposes of surveillance, the government’s monitoring of our emails and phone calls, and on and on – which get more troubling by the day, are merely the outward manifestations of an inner, philosophical shift underway in how the government views not only the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, but “we the people,” as well.
What this reflects is a move away from a government bound by the rule of law to one that seeks total control over the populace through the imposition of its own self-serving laws on the populace – laws carried out by a police force hired to do the government’s bidding.
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book The Freedom Wars (TRI Press) is available online at http://www.amazon.com. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org
If the government spies on you but brings no charges, you’ll never know.
A federal judge estimates that his fellow federal judges issue a total of 30,000 secret electronic surveillance orders each year – and the number is probably growing. Though such orders have judicial oversight, few emerge from any sort of adversarial proceeding and many are never unsealed at all. Those innocent of any crime are unlikely to know they have ever been the target of an electronic search.
In a new paper, called “Gagged, Sealed & Delivered” (PDF), US Magistrate Judge Stephen Smith bashes this culture of continuing secrecy. (Magistrate judges are important members of the federal judiciary; they handle many of the more routine judicial matters, such as warrant applications and initial case management.) In his work as a judge, Smith has become dismayed by the huge number of electronic surveillance orders he sees and by the secrecy that accompanies them.
When police execute a traditional search warrant, they generally bring with them a copy of that warrant and show it to the homeowner or target of the search. That’s not always the case, of course; sometimes warrants remain sealed while a case is in progress so as not to tip off a suspect.
But when surveillance enters the digital realm, secrecy becomes the norm. Digital “warrant-like” requests to access stored e-mail in an online account, or to wiretap an Internet connection, or to obtain “pen register” information, or to track a cell phone, are obtained from magistrate judges, many times in secret dockets that don’t even appear in the federal government’s official PACER document system. They come after one-sided (“ex parte”) proceedings in which only the government is heard. And they are generally sealed, only to be unsealed once a criminal case is filed. If no such charges are ever brought, the search warrants and the affidavits defending them can remain buried in the murkiest bits of the federal court system; even knowing that they exist can be a challenge. ISPs, which are often targets of such orders, may also be forbidden from disclosing them.
Most of this surveillance is governed by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986 – a law so in need of reform that digital rights advocates and corporations alike have made it a key legislative priority. ECPA provides a host of tools to keep searches secret – so secret that they effectively avoid appellate review, making it difficult to know whether they are being properly issued.
Through a potent mix of indefinite sealing, nondisclosure (i.e., gagging), and delayed-notice provisions, ECPA surveillance orders all but vanish into a legal void. It is as if they were written in invisible ink – legible to the phone companies and Internet service providers who execute them, yet imperceptible to unsuspecting targets, the general public, and even other arms of government, most notably Congress and the appellate courts.
Judge Smith set out to find out how much ECPA surveillance exists in the US. Precise numbers were impossible to come by, even for one of the judges involved in issuing such orders, but Smith combined an earlier government survey with data from his own court’s docket to produce what sounds like a reasonable estimate.
His estimate finds that 50,000 sealed orders were likely generated by federal judges in 2006, the year the judge analyzes. With 60 percent of these presumed to be ECPA-related surveillance orders, Judge Smith finds that magistrate judges issued more than 30,000 secret electronic surveillance orders that year. To put that in context, “this volume of ECPA cases is greater than the combined yearly total of all antitrust, employment discrimination, environmental, copyright, patent, trademark, and securities cases filed in federal court,” he notes.
Smith isn’t calling for the abolition of surveillance or anything too terribly radical. He understands why notice of a warrant may be delayed – but he wants the system made far more accountable.
Perfect transparency in criminal investigations is neither practical nor desirable, but ECPA’s present system of gagging and sealing is surely overkill. If my diagnosis – that ECPA’s regime of secrecy has choked off the oxygen of appellate review necessary for a healthy regulatory scheme – is correct, then the cure is relatively straightforward: open up the information arteries. Greater transparency would enable meaningful oversight not only by appellate courts but also by Congress and the general public.
One simple way to do this would be to open sealed warrants automatically after some period of time. At the moment, most warrant orders are sealed indefinitely, only being unsealed if a prosecutor or investigator in the matter bothers to go back to the judge and bring up the issue. In Smith’s own “home court” in Houston, magistrate judges issued 3,886 sealed electronic surveillance orders between 1995 and 2007. In 2008, 99.8 percent of them still remained sealed.That’s especially bad news for those never charged with a crime, who will probably never learn that they were a target of government surveillance. And that number isn’t trivial. Smith estimates, based on some limited data released by the Department of Justice, that it’s “reasonable to infer that far more law-abiding citizens than criminals have been tracked in this fashion.”
The situation, says Smith, is bad for democracy and for a transparent judiciary. Fixing it will be up to Congress, which has to decide where to draw the line between personal privacy and the needs of law enforcement. In Smith’s view, any fix “will require the elimination of ECPA’s current gag, seal, and blindfold.”
The Pakistani police have arrested three US diplomats in the city of Peshawar for possession of illegal arms.Police officials told Dawn TV that the diplomats, along with three Pakistani nationals, were stopped at a routine checkpoint at the entrance to the Peshawar Motorway on Monday but they refused to allow the police to search their vehicles.
The police checked the “suspicious cars” anyway and discovered several assault rifles, pistols, and ammunition.
US Consul General Mary Richard visited the police station where the US nationals are being held for questioning and told the police they could keep the weapons but asked them to release the US diplomats.
In January 2011, Raymond Davis, a CIA agent operating under the cover of a diplomat, shot and killed two Pakistanis in Lahore, triggering a diplomatic crisis.
Pakistan charged him with murder, but Washington insisted that he was an “administrative and technical official” attached to its Lahore consulate and had diplomatic immunity.
Davis was finally allowed to leave Pakistan in March 2011 after a $2.4 million diyya (a form of monetary compensation or blood money) was paid to the victims’ families.
After the Davis incident, Islamabad ordered all CIA agents to leave the country, but according to local sources, there are still scores of CIA agents working in Pakistan.
A Long Island mortgage broker whose extensive cooperation with investigators helped break open one of the largest and longest-running insider trading frauds ever prosecuted was sentenced to just 2 years and 3 months in prison today, as the sentencing judge praised Kenneth Robinson for helping the FBI make damning secret recordings of his two co-conspirators.
Robinson, 45, of Long Beach, N.Y., got a sentence that was well below the roughly six to seven years recommended for him under federal sentencing guidelines. And his sentence came just a day after the same judge gave his two co-conspirators 12 years and nine years in prison, respectively.
The 12-year sentence handed down Monday to blue-chip corporate lawyer Matthew Kluger, a central figure in a 17-year insider-trading scheme that funneled $37 million in illicit profits to three white-collar professionals, is being hailed by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman as the longest sentence ever imposed in an insider-trading case in the United States.
“It’s very clear to me that only one of the three defendants (charged in the case) is literally living in this world, living and breathing the air that we breathe,” said U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden as she credited Robinson for both his cooperation with authorities and contriteness, while also distinguishing him from co-defendants who she said may still not grasp the impact and wrongness of their crimes.
“Of the three defendants, Mr. Robinson is the only person I can say that about,” Hayden added, referring again to her comment that he seemed to appreciate the full gravity of his crime. “The other two see the world in a very different way.”
Robinson, who wore a dark-blue suit and appeared somber-faced throughout the hearing in Newark, pleaded guilty in April 2011 – just days after the arrests and bust was announced by Fishman as the largest insider-trading case ever handled by New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney’s Office. The broad-shouldered, strapping mortgage broker admitted then to being the “middleman” between a big law-firm New York and Washington attorney, Kluger, and a longtime New York stock trader, Garrett Bauer.
For more than 17 years – starting back in 1994 – Robinson admitted, he’d gotten key insider information on Fortune 500 corporate merger and acquisition deals from Kluger – who had firsthand knowledge of the deals while working at prestigious firms like Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati PC – and then Robinson would pass on that information to Bauer. Bauer would then typically buy stock for the trio in companies involved in the deals before the deals happened, before later selling off the shares at hugely higher values.
“For the last year and three months, there hasn’t been an hour that’s gone by that I haven’t thought about the terrible mistakes I made,” Robinson told Judge Hayden just minutes before he was sentenced, his voice breaking with emotion at times, his eyes tearing up. “I’m truly ashamed for my actions.”
A husband and father, Robinson said that after FBI agents showed up at his Long Beach, N.Y. home with a search warrant in March 2011, he decided within hours to cooperate fully, which soon led to him making secret tapes of long phone calls with his co-conspirators, who often talked on the tapes about how to cover up their decades of insider trading — including how they’d gone to extremes such as throwing out iPhones and computers and suggesting that Robinson burn $175,000 in cash bills that may show fingerprints.
“I was so afraid I wouldn’t be able to make those calls,” Robinson said of the telephone conversations he initiated and helped the FBI record. “These were my friends”
“I didn’t want to hurt them, but it was the right thing to do, I knew it,” he added, just moments after saying, “I knew I had to put my family first.”
Judge Hayden later said of Robinson’s words to the court, “They are heartfelt,” before adding, “One does generally have the sense that Mr. Robinson, of these three defendants, will return to the world and resume a place in it where he can hold his head up.” She also indicated that he should be rewarded for following through with his cooperation with investigators, who in turn had recommended to the judge that Robinson get a sentence below the guidelines range.
On Monday, Hayden made headlines when she sentenced Kluger to 12 years in prison, saying during his hearing, “People stay out of the stock market, in part, because they think it’s skewed toward the insiders.” She added, “The heart of the scheme was a lawyer earning hundreds of thousands of dollars at white-shoe firms, one after another.”
Kluger, after the hearing, was outspoken in calling the sentence he got “outrageous.” He also noted sarcastically that the sentence he received was actually one year more than the 11 years given to Raj Rajaratnam in New York last year in what has been called the largest insider trading fraud ever uncovered. “I guess it’s better to steal $68 million and be unwilling to accept what he did,” Kluger said, adding that he pleaded guilty to his crime last year and admitted wrongdoing, while Rajaratnam took his case to trial.
Bauer, who got nine years Monday, also pleaded guilty last year – though both his and Kluger’s plea came after they had been charged and knew of the FBI’s extensive recordings of their own words that were damning.
During his guilty plea in 2011, Robinson — who admitted to both conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud — also said he bought stock ahead of deals at least twice without using Bauer. One was the buying shares of 3Com before its 2009 acquisition by Hewlett-Packard, and another involved McAfee.
The three co-conspirators in the case admitted to trading on some 30 deals over the 17 years, including Bain Capital LLC’s 2007 acquisition of 3Com Corp. and Oracle Corp.’s 2009 buying of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
As the FBI closed in last year on Kluger and Bauer, the men seemed panicked in the recorded phone conversations. In one phone detailed in the government’s complaint, Bauer said,”I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep. I am waiting for the FBI to ride into my apartment. And I am on edge all night thinking that they’re coming in.”
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
Policymakers must be cautious in formulating plans to streamline care for some low-income elderly and disabled patients, according to an analysis published in the journal Health Affairs.
Estimates about savings from new plans and demonstration projects must also be approached with skepticism, the authors wrote.
The report emphasized that “one size will not fit all” and that specific subgroups of dual eligibles — people enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid — will need programs specifically designed for them.
“Some of the most successful programs work well because they are targeted to subgroups of dual-eligible beneficiaries who face similar challenges,” the authors noted.
They cited the “Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly,” which is designed for people at risk of entering nursing homes.
“It has been successful in reducing hospitalization rates and preventing nursing home admissions for this population. However, enrollment is relatively low. … It remains to be seen whether or how this model can be adapted to other beneficiaries with different needs and circumstances,” the authors wrote.
The average cost of care for a dual eligible is five times higher than that of a regular Medicare beneficiary, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. There are an estimated 9 million such patients in the Medicare system.
CONTRIBUTOR: AmmoLand. CAL FFLMadera, CA –(Ammoland.com)- In a decision holding that “the County now concedes that [gun shows] can be held with firearms present and available for meaningful physical inspection by potential buyers,” the Ninth Circuit has settled a thirteen-year lawsuit between the County of Alameda and plaintiffs Russell and Sallie Nordyke,…
Legal cloud gathers over Scott Walker as recall election approaches
Recent campaign finance filings show that Walker has transferred a total of $160,000 into a criminal defense fund.
With the recall election less than two days away, federal prosecutors are closing in on Governor Scott Walker, according to veteran political reporter David Shuster, former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, and former district attorney Bob Jambois.
In a conference call organized by state Democrats on Saturday evening, June 2, Shuster, Lautenschlager, and Jambois laid out evidence that Walker is a target of a federal investigation.
Wisconsin Democratic Party Communications Director Graeme Zielinski added that there is evidence of wrongdoing after Walker’s time as Milwaukee County Executive, and that the investigation includes criminal activity during his time as governor.
Based on conversations with a lawyer who has knowledge of the investigation, “We believe that Scott Walker set up a secret computer network in the governor’s office and Department of Administration offices, and that the John Doe investigation is seeking evidence of crimes he committed in Madison,” Zielinski said.
Walker denied the allegations. At a campaign event on Saturday, Walker answered “absolutely not” to reporters’ questions — raised by David Shuster’s reporting for Take Action News — about whether he had been informed, either formally or informally, that he might be a target of federal prosecution. “I’ve never heard a single thing about that, other than spin from the left,” Walker said. He described the allegations as “just more of the liberal scare tactics out there desperately trying to get the campaign off target.”
“I stand by my reporting 100 percent,” Shuster said in the conference call. “It’s clear to me that he is, in fact, a target in a federal investigation.”
Despite copious reporting, especially in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, about the Milwaukee County district attorney’s probe of alleged violations when Walker was county executive — including a secret email network maintained by his staff for the purpose of conducting illegal campaign activity on county time, the theft of funds intended for the widows and orphans of Iraq War veterans, and possible favorable treatment of campaign donors seeking public contracts, not much has been written about the FBI probe.
“The Wisconsin press has only reported about the John Doe — the state component,” said Zielinski. “They have not reported on the federal component of this.”
“I’ve been reporting on federal grand juries for twenty years” — including Justice Department probes of former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker, Monica Lewinsky, Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, and Jack Abramoff — said David Shuster, a former reporter for Fox News and anchor for MSNBC, who now works with Take Action News and as a host on Current TV.
U.S. N.R.C. Considering Giving 80-year Operating Licenses to Nuclear Power Plants
By Karl Grossman
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be holding a meeting this week to consider having nuclear power plants run 80 years—although they were never seen as running for more than 40 years because of radioactivity embrittling metal parts and otherwise causing safety problems.
“The idea of keeping these reactors going for 80 years is crazy!” declares Robert Alvarez, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and former senior policy advisor at the U.S, Department of Energy and a U.S. Senate senior investigator. He is also an author of the book Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America’s Experience with Atomic Radiation. “To double the design life of these plants—which operate under high-pressure, high heat conditions and are subject to radiation fatigue—is an example of out-of-control hubris, of believing your own lies.”
“In a post-Fukushima world, the NRC has no case to renew life-spans of old, danger-prone nuke plants. Rather, they must be shut down,” says Priscilla Star, director of the Coalition Against Nukes.
“This is an absurdity and shows the extent to which the NRC is captured,” says Jim Riccio, nuclear policy analyst at Greenpeace. “Nuclear regulators know that embrittlement of the reactor vessels limits nuclear plant life but are willing to expose the public to greater risks from decrepit, old and leaking reactors. As we learned from Fukushima, the nuclear industry is willing to expose the public to catastrophic risks.”
Nevertheless, on Thursday at its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, the NRC is to hold a meeting with the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy and the Electric Power Research Institute, which does studies for the nuclear industry, “to discuss and coordinate long-term operability research programs,” says the NRC, which could lead to it letting nuclear plants run for 80 years.
For more than a decade, the NRC has been extending the operating licenses of nuclear plants from 40 years to 60 years. And just as the NRC has never denied a construction or operating license for a nuclear plant anywhere, anytime in the U.S., it has rubber-stamped every application that has come before it for a 20-year extension of the plant’s original 40-year license. It has now approved 60-year operating licenses for 73 of the 104 nuclear power plants in the U.S.
When the NRC in 2009 OK’d extending the operating license to 60 years of the oldest nuclear plant in the U.S., Oyster Creek in New Jersey, Jeff Titel, president of the New Jersey Sierra Club, declared: “This decision is radioactive. To keep open the nation’s oldest nuclear power plant for another 20 years is just going to lead to a disaster. We could easily replace the plant with 200 windmills that will not pose a danger.” With the same General Electric design as the six Fukushima nuclear power plants, the plant is 60 miles south of New York City.
The first nuclear plants given permission by the NRC to operate for 60 years were the two Calvert Cliffs plants located on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay near Lusby, Maryland, 45 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. That came in 1999. The NRC license extension program is “blind to how these machines are breaking apart at the molecular level…they embrittle, crack and corrode,” said Paul Gunter, then with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service and now director of the Reactor Oversight Project of the organization Beyond Nuclear. The NRC in its “rigged game” is driving the nation toward a nuclear disaster, said Gunter. “The term ‘nuclear safety’ is an oxymoron. It’s an inherently dangerous process and an inherently dangerous industry that has been aging.”
Mubarak Sentenced to Life Term in Egypt; Protests Erupt as Sons, Aides Avoid Convictions
SUMMARY:
DemocracyNow.org – Protests have erupted across Egypt following the sentencing of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other former regime officials. On Saturday, an Egyptian court gave Mubarak and his former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, life in prison for failing to stop the killing of unarmed demonstrators during the protests that ended Mubarak’s nearly 30-year rule. However, the court dismissed corruption charges against Mubarak and his sons, Alaa and Gamal, on technical grounds. The court also acquitted six former police chiefs for their roles during the uprising when 840 protesters were killed and more than 6,000 injured. No one was found guilty of actually ordering the killing of protesters. The verdicts sparked demonstrations across the country, with tens of thousands rallying in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and in other cities. We go to Cairo to speak with Heba Morayef, a Middle East and North Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch who closely monitored the Mubarark trial.
To watch the complete weekday independent news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, search our vast archive, or to find more information about Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman, visit http://www.democracynow.org/
Wisconsin Recall Breaks Record Thanks to Outside Cash
By Paul Abowd
Tuesday’s recall election of Republican Gov. Scott Walker is the most expensive in Wisconsin history. More than $63.5 million has been spent by candidates and independent groups, the overwhelming majority underwritten by out-of-state sources
The record spending total was made possible thanks to the Citizens UnitedU.S. Supreme Court decision — which had the effect of invalidating Wisconsin’s century-old ban on independent expenditures by corporations and unions — and a state law that allows unlimited contributions to the incumbent in recall elections.
The amount spent since November 2011 trounces the state’s previous record of $37.4 million, set during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.\
The election has become a national referendum on the future of public sector unions, which have been a major force within the Democratic Party for decades.
In the first of two debates, Walker vowed to “stand up and take on the powerful special interests,” suggesting that national unions have propped up his Democratic challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
While Barrett has received about 26 percent of his $4 million in campaign donations from outside the Badger State, Walker has drawn nearly two-thirds of his $30.5 million contributions from out of state, according to campaign filings released May 29. Walker has outraised Barrett 7 ½ to 1 since late 2011, though Barrett didn’t enter the race until late March.
“It’s big time,” said Mike McCabe, director of the campaign finance watchdog Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which compiled the numbers. “We have a level of outside interference in this election that the state has never been seen before.”
(Reuters) – When Jean-Claude Trichet called last June for the creation of a European finance ministry with power over national budgets, the idea seemed fanciful, a distant dream that would take years or even decades to realize, if it ever came to be.
One year later, with the euro zone’s debt crisis threatening to tear the bloc apart, Germany is pushing its partners for precisely the kind of giant leap forward in fiscal integration that the now-departed European Central Bank president had in mind.
After falling short with her “fiscal compact” on budget discipline, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pressing for much more ambitious measures, including a central authority to manage euro area finances, and major new powers for the European Commission, European Parliament and European Court of Justice.
She is also seeking a coordinated European approach to reforming labor markets, social security systems and tax policies, German officials say.
Until states agree to these steps and the unprecedented loss of sovereignty they involve, the officials say Berlin will refuse to consider other initiatives like joint euro zone bonds or a “banking union” with cross-border deposit guarantees – steps Berlin says could only come in a second wave.
The goal is for EU leaders to agree to develop a road map to “fiscal union” at a June 28-29 EU summit, where top European officials including European Council President Herman Van Rompuy will present a set of initial proposals.
European countries would then put the meat on the bones of the plan in the second half of 2012, several European sources have told Reuters, including a timetable for overhauling EU treaties, a step Berlin sees as vital for setting closer integration in stone.
“The fundamental question is relatively simple. Do our partners really want more Europe, or do they just want more German money?” a government official in Berlin said.
If European countries go ahead, the steps would represent the most significant policy leap since they agreed to give up their national currencies and cede control over monetary policy 13 years ago. But the hurdles are daunting.
“The world is not coming to an end; rather, it feels as if we are on the doorstep to another major European integration move,” said Erik Neilsen, chief economist at Unicredit. “But why do these initiatives only come when we are on the edge of the cliff where the risk of an accident is so much higher?”
Desperate Greeks heard Friday that public hospitals of the country are lacking in medicine.
As a result, people struggling with serious deseases and illnesses are helpless, since the companies providing their medicine announced that they stop transactions with the Greek state if they are not paid in cash.
Some Greek fund officials announced that people belonging to specific funds will have the chance -especially cancer patients – to order their medicine and take them after two days.
But this only a temporary solution and unfortunately, patients belonging to funds not included in Greek EOPYY organization will be excluded from this provision.
According to Keep Talking Greece, Zoi Grammatoglou, head of the Cancer Sufferers Volunteer Organization, said some patients have cancelled their chemotherapy as unable to afford the costs of treatment.
Only Medics reported “approximately 163 critical drugs are now unobtainable from pharmacies in Greece.” Hospitals are also running out of funds to restock vital drugs and patients are left scrambling to source their own prescriptions.
The Panhellenic Pharmaceutical Association issued a statement saying “Already we have cancer sufferers going from hospital to hospital to try and find drugs because no one can afford to stock them. If the shortages get worse, God knows what we will see.”
Cypriot officials over the weekend openly said that their country may be the fourth eurozone state in line for a bail-out due to exposure to Greece.
Meanwhile, Germany is reportedly pressing Spain to accept a euro-bail-out for its banks.
Cyprus central bank governor Panicos Demetriades told the Financial Times on Sunday (3 June) that a bail-out is getting “less unlikely” by the end of the month, when a €1.8 billion deadline for saving the country’s second largest bank falls due.
Similar comments were made on Friday by Cypriot president Demetrias Christofias, during a press conference: “I don’t take as a given that we will negotiate entry to a support mechanism, [but] I don’t want to absolutely exclude it.”
Until now Cyprus maintained it did not need any EU funding as it took a €2.5 billion loan from Russia last year when its rating was downgraded to “junk,” meaning it cannot borrow from the markets at sustainable rates.
The country’s banks were hit badly by the Greek crisis, as they lost more than €3 billion in the “voluntary” debt write-down for Greece. Cypriot banks still have another €22 billion in outstanding loans to Greek customers. Cyprus’ own GDP, by comparison, is just €18 billion.
If Cyprus asks for a full-blown bail-out like Greece, Portugal and Ireland, it would become the first eurozone country to lead the EU presidency under a considerable loss of sovereignty, with troika inspectors due in Nicosia every few weeks to monitor the implementation of an austerity programme that would accompany the rescue package.
As the United States is preparing to shift its military focus to Asia in a few years time, a university professor says he believes America is pursuing the “militarization of strategic waterways” in the region.
In an interview with the U.S. Desk on Saturday, Michel Chossudovsky, director of the Centre for Research on Globalization and professor of economics at the University of Ottawa, said that east Asia is a strategic region for the U.S. and the military shift towards Asia “is essentially directed against China.”
The United States will move the majority of its warships to the Asia-Pacific in coming years and keep six aircraft carriers in the region, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Saturday in Singapore, giving the first details of a new U.S. military strategy.
Chinese officials have been critical of the U.S. shift of military emphasis to Asia, seeing it as an attempt to fence in the country and frustrate Beijing’s territorial claims.
Britain is reportedly planning to set up refugee camps inside Syria under the pretext of saving civilian lives but in reality to help armed rebels fighting against the government.
According to a report published in Daily Star, British Special Forces would set up camps along Syria’s borders with Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon and that Special Air Service (SAS) troops and MI6 agents will help the rebels if civil war breaks out in the country.
They also have hi-tech satellite computers and radios that can instantly send back photos and details of events unfolding in Syria.
”There are guys in the communications unit who are signalers that can go right up front and get involved in close-quarter fighting,” Daily Star quoted a senior Whitehall source as saying.
The British troops would be part of an international force including French and Turkish soldiers and possibly Americans. A senior Whitehall source said that London is preparing for the move with the full knowledge that setting up camps inside Syria would be an invasion of the country.
The camps are expected to be set up around areas that are easily accessible and even within walking distance of trouble spots. Among them is Krak des Chevaliers, a medieval castle about 25 miles west of Homs close to the Lebanon border, Al-Suwayda, near the border with Jordan and Jisr al-Shughour near the Turkish border.
The British claim that Syrian forces would not dare to come that close to the border.
Israeli intelligence news agency, Debkafile, had earlier reported that British troops are already in Syria leading armed groups in the crisis-hit city of Homs and that the MI6 has established four centers of operation in the city.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011 and many people, including hundreds of security forces, have been killed in the country over the past 15 months.
While the West and the Syrian opposition say the government is responsible for the killings, Damascus blames “outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups” for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
The United States has allowed South Korea to extend its missile ranges up to 550 kilometers from the current maximum range of 300 km, enabling missile launchers in northern areas of South Korea to strike any targets in North Korea, a Seoul daily reported on Monday.
“(At bilateral talks) The US held up its position South Korea should maintain the current maximum range, but the US agreed on extending the range to 550 km to better cope with North Korea’s improving missile capabilities,” a senior South Korean official told the Joong Ang Ilbo.
At the talks with the United States, South Korea demanded its missile range be extended up to 1,000 km, but the two sides eventually agreed on the range of 550 km, the official said.
The United States had shown a lukewarm response to a South Korean request its missile range be extended to 1,000 km, citing a possible negative reaction from China and Russia because some targets in those countries would fall within South Korea’s strike range.
The agreement on South Korea’s missile range will be made public at a high-level meeting involving chiefs of foreign and defense ministries from both sides set for mid-June in Washington, the official said. Meanwhile, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman declined to confirm the newspaper report.
“South Korea and the US have been holding talks on better responding to North Korea’s missile threats. Nothing has been fixed yet and also the issue has not been taken up as an agenda for the upcoming two-plus-two meeting,” spokesman Kim Min Seok said in a press briefing. (Kyodo)
Australia’s secret plan for war with China uncovered
A secret chapter in the Rudd government’s 2009 defence white paper detailed a plan to fight a war with China, in which the navy’s submarines would help blockade its trade routes, and raised the prospect of China firing missiles at targets in Australia in retaliation.
A new book, The Kingdom and the Quarry: China, Australia, Fear and Greed, reveals how Force 2030 set out in the white paper – to include 12 big conventional submarines with missiles, revolutionary Joint Strike Fighters, air warfare destroyers and giant landing ships – was being prepared for a possible war with Australia’s main trading partner.
In the lead-up to the release of the paper in May 2009, The Australian reported extensively on the debate among Australia’s security and intelligence agencies over whether China was likely to pose a threat as it increased investment in its armed forces.
The public version of the paper stopped short of declaring that war with China was what the authors feared. To avoid offending the Chinese, and to create a degree of deniability, discussion of possible future conflict relied on euphemisms such as a “major power adversary”.
As well, the new book’s author, The Australian’s economics editor David Uren, reveals that Treasury came under intense pressure to prepare detailed costings for a mass of new equipment but most of that information also disappeared from the public version of the white paper.
The book describes the fierce debate between key figures in the ADF, who argued that Australia needed to be prepared for a conflict with China, and intelligence agencies that said China was not expansionist and was unlikely to pose such a threat.
The public version of the white paper outlined the strategic environment and the military equipment to be acquired. “But it did not include a top-secret chapter examining in detail the anticipated threats and the structure of the defence force Australia needed to deal with them,” it says.
The missing chapter focused on Australia’s ability to fight an air-sea battle alongside the US against China. The plan was for blockades distant from China but designed to control its sea routes and stop the flow of natural resources on which its industrial engine depended.
“A major power adversary would be expected to respond to these blockades by mining and attacking ports,” the paper said.
“Part of the Defence thinking is that in the event of a conflict with the US, China would attempt to destroy Pine Gap, the US-Australia signals facility near Alice Springs, which is crucial for guiding US military operations in Asia … the paper envisages a very different world in which Australian naval operations alongside the US in, say, the South China Sea, could lead to direct Chinese attack on Australia …
Israel fitting nuclear arms on German-supplied subs: report
Israel is arming submarines supplied and largely financed by Germany with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, influential German news weekly Der Spiegel reports in its issue to be published on Monday.
The magazine said in a cover story that Berlin had until now denied any knowledge that German submarines were being used as part of an Israeli atomic arsenal.
But former high-ranking officials of the German defence ministry told Der Spiegel that the government always assumed Israel was putting nuclear warheads on the Dolphin-class vessels.
The article, based on a months-long probe, cited files from the foreign ministry in Berlin indicating the West German state was aware of the practice as early as 1961.
In Israel, foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said only: “I can confirm that we have German submarines. It’s no secret.
“As for the rest, I am not in a position to talk about their capacity,” he told AFP.
Israel is the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear-armed power.
Germany has already supplied Israel with three of the submarines in question, footing most of the bill, and another three are to be delivered by 2017 under a recently signed contract.
Meanwhile Israel is weighing whether to order three more, according to the report.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
Britain’s culture minister has denied having inappropriate contacts with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in testimony before a public inquiry, as pressure continues to mount on Prime Minister David Cameron’s government over the issue.
Jeremy Hunt, appearing before the Leveson media standards inquiry on Thursday, admitted that he was “sympathetic” towards US-based News Corporation’s failed bid to control British satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
From the Majority Report, live M-F 12 noon EST and via daily podcast at http://Majority.FM:
Thousands upon thousands of eligible voters are being told they cannot vote in Florida…
‘ACTA could turn honest citizens into criminals by mistake’
Amazing how they can see through this move in Europe and no one can seem to see their way clear of the subterfuge hidden within this legislation here in the United States! Makes you wonder huh ?
The controversial ACTA anti-piracy agreement has been dealt a blow by the European Parliament. Three key committees have voted against the treaty, citing concerns over its legality. ACTA sparked Europe-wide protests, with activists saying online freedom of speech is being put at risk.
Rick Falkvinge from the Swedish Pirate Party says the treaty is confused at best.
On Thursday, US lawmakers discussed whether or not the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act should be renewed. FISA gives government the power to monitor phone calls, emails and other forms of electronic communication. Critics believe that FISA can now be used to target citizens all in the name of homeland security. Andrew Blake, RT’s web producer, joins us with more on the controversial legislation and discusses other legislation such as CISPA, SOPA and PIPA.
House rejects bill penalizing doctors for sex-selective abortions
By Pete Kasperowicz
The House on Thursday rejected a Republican bill that would impose fines and prison terms on doctors who perform abortions for the sole purpose of controlling the gender of the child, a practice known as sex-selective abortion.
The Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA), H.R. 3541, was defeated in a 246-168 vote. While that’s a clear majority of the House, Republicans called up the bill under a suspension of House rules, which limits debate and requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass. In this case, it would have required more support from Democrats.
Twenty Democrats voted for the bill, while seven Republicans opposed it. The bill would have needed 30 more yeas to pass.
Suspension votes are normally used for noncontroversial bills, but the GOP-backed measure was clearly controversial. Republicans have occasionally put controversial bills on the suspension calendar in order to highlight that Democrats oppose certain policies.
In some cases, Republicans have rescheduled these bills for regular consideration after they have failed, allowing for passage by a simple majority. But Republicans gave no sign that they would try again with PRENDA.
Earlier in the day, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated that the issue of stopping sex-selective abortion is important enough that they would try again, but he was not specific.
Democracynow.org – After years of rumors that mining companies were exploring in Haiti, Canadian and U.S. corporations now confirm they have permits to mine gold in more than 1,000 square-miles in northern Haiti. Haiti’s new prime minister says the estimated $20 billion worth of minerals in Haiti’s hills could help liberate it from dependency on foreign aid, and rebuild from the devastating 2010 earthquake. But many worry the mines will be a boom for foreign investors and a bust for local communities. We speak to Jane Regan, lead author of “Gold Rush in Haiti: Who Will Get Rich?” The report by Haiti Grassroots Watch was published Wednesday in The Guardian and Haïti Liberté. “You have a perfect storm brewing where you have giant pit mines in the north in a country that is already environmentally devastated and giant pit mines being run by Canadian and American companies,” Regan says. “Most of the money and gold dug up will go straight north.”
To watch the complete weekday independent news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, search our vast archive, or to find more information about Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman, visit http://www.democracynow.org/
Moody’s Investors Service has cut its credit ratings for nine Danish banks, citing the impact of the ongoing eurozone crisis on bank loan quality and on their fund-raising capacity.
The ratings agency lowered the debt ratings of the banks, along with the Finnish subsidiary of one of the banks, by up to three notches on Wednesday, AFP reported.
The banks are Danske Bank, Jyske Bank, Sydbank, Spar Nord Bank, Ringkjobing Landbobank, Nykredit, Realkredit, DLR Kredit, and Danmarks Skibskredit. Moody’s also downgraded Danske Bank’s Finnish arm Sampo Bank.
“Danish financial institutions face sluggish domestic economic growth, weakening real estate prices, and higher levels of unemployment, as well as the risk of external shocks from the ongoing euro area debt crisis,” Moody’s said.
“Asset quality is deteriorating, and these pressures are expected to continue,” it added.
The agency also noted that the significant reliance of most of the financial institutions on market funding has enhanced their vulnerability to the eurozone crisis.
“Structural changes to that market have increased refinancing risk, posing a particular concern for mortgage credit institutions whose access to alternative funding is limited,” Moody’s stated.
Europe was hit by a serious financial crisis in 2008 and the situation has intensified over the past few months.
DemocracyNow.org – We go to Bahrain to speak with two recently released political prisoners, Zainab Alkhawaja and Nabeel Rajab, both jailed for protesting the U.S.-backed monarchy. Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was released on bail after being held for nearly a month. “We always thought that America and Bahrain’s good relations would benefit our fight for freedom and democracy in our region, but it has turned out to be opposite,” he says. “They are supporting a dictator here, the oppressive regime. … We have to suffer for being a rich region.” Alkhawaja, who was jailed in April after protesting the detention of her father, Abdulhadi, vows: “We are going to carry on protesting … It doesn’t matter if we get arrested five, six, 10 times, it’s not going to stop. In the end, we have sacrificed a lot for democracy and freedom.”
To watch the complete weekday independent news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, search our vast archive, or to find more information about Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman, visit http://www.democracynow.org/
A group of defectors fighting for the M23 rebel movement against the Congolese army say that they were recruited and trained in neighbouring Rwanda against their will.
The revelations come after weeks of fighting in the east of the country and would be the first direct evidence that Rwandan troops are involved in the fighting that has displaced thousands from their homes.
The allegations made by the rebel defectors across the border in Congo will strain relations with Rwanda, but so far officials from both sides have held back, and are talking about a joint investigation to get to the bottom of the matter.
The Syrian government says the massacre of more than a hundred people in the Syrian town of Houla was the work of armed terrorist gangs. This, as the U.S. Secretary of State admits military planning for action in Syria is already going ahead, but Moscow has vowed to block any moves for outside interference at the UN.
Activist Sara Flounders talks to RT. She says Washington was never interested in a diplomatic solution in Syria.
Mosaic News: Egypt’s Shafiq vows to crush revolution and restrain Islamists if he wins election
Egypt’s Shafiq vows to crush revolution and restrain Islamists if he wins the election, Sudan pulls troops from Abyei amid new bombing accusations by the South, prominent Bahraini activist Zainab al-Khawaja released on bail, and more.
Today’s headlines in full:
Egypt’s Shafiq vows to crush revolution and restrain Islamists if he wins election
Al-Alam, Iran
Sudan pulls troops from Abyei amid new bombing accusations by South
Dubai TV, UAE
Prominent Bahraini activist Zainab al-Khawaja released on bail
BBC Arabic, UK
Afghan rage over sharp increase in civilian casualties
Press TV, Iran
Israel lacks courage to wage war on Iran, says Supreme Leader’s aide
Press TV, Iran
Iran’s foreign ministry in talks with Saudi Arabia over jailed Iranians
Press TV, Iran
Iran hit by ‘Flame’ computer virus as Israel keeps mum on speculated involvement
IBA, Israel
Turkey authorizes arrest warrants for ex-IDF chiefs over 2010 flotilla deaths
IBA, Israel
Israeli forces turn Palestinian family home into prison
Palestine TV, Ramallah
Mood ‘deeply disturbed’ by executions in Syria
Future TV, Lebanon
Iraqis rally for national unity as government faces no-confidence vote
Al-Iraqiya TV, Iraq
Image: Flyers of Egyptian presidential candidate and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq are seen on the ground outside his campaign headquarters in Cairo May 29, 2012:L REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Mosaic is a Peabody Award-winning daily compilation of television news reports from the Middle East, including Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, Iraq and Iran. Watch more Mosaic at http://www.linktv.org/mosaic
Syrian rebels have given president Bashar al-Assad a 48-hour deadline to comply with an international peace plan otherwise they would renew their battle to overthrow him.
The ultimatum was issued after UN observers reported the discovery of 13 bodies bound and shot in eastern Syria, adding to the world outcry over the massacre last week of 108 men, women and children.
The latest developments emphasised how the peace plan drafted by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has failed to stem 14 months of bloodshed or bring the Syrian government and opposition to the negotiating table.
Col Qassim Saadeddine of the rebel Free Syrian Army said its leadership set a deadline of 9am tomorrow for Mr Assad to implement the peace plan, which includes a ceasefire, deployment of observers, and free access for humanitarina aid and journalists.
If it fails to do so “we are free from any commitment and we will defend and protect the civilians, their villages and their cities,” Mr Saadeddine said in a statement posted on social media.
Both sides in the conflict have violated a tenuous ceasefire over the past two months but Mr Assad’s forces have been by far the worst offender, according to UN monitors.
Outrage at last Friday’s massacre in the town of Houla, led a host of Western countries to expel senior Syrian diplomats on Tuesday and to press Russia and China to allow tougher action by the UN Security Council.
Major-general Robert Mood, the Norwegian head of the observer mission, said the 13 corpses found yesterday in Assukar, about 50 km (east of Deir al-Zor, had their hands tied behind their backs. Some had been shot in the head from close range.
Mr Mood called the latest killings an “appalling and inexcusable act” and appealed to all factions to end the cycle of violence.
He did not apportion any blame but Syrian activists said the victims were army defectors killed by Mr Assad’s forces.
Video footage posted by activists showed the bodies face down on the ground, hands tied behind their backs, with dark pools of blood around their heads and torsos.
UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said in New York on Tuesday that the Syrian army and “shabbiha” militiamen supporting Assad were probably responsible for killing the 108 people in Houla with artillery and tank fire, guns and knives.
The government denied any responsibility and blamed Islamist “terrorists” – its term for rebel forces.
The uprising began last March with street protests against Mr Assad, who succeeeded his late, authoritarian father Hafez al-Assad 11 years ago to perpetuate the family dynasty.
While initially a pro-democracry movement, the struggle has grown into an armed struggle increasingly involving sectarian rivalries pitting the Sunni Muslim majority against the Alawite sect, to which the Assad clan belongs.
Mr Assad’s forces have killed 7,500 people since it began, according to a UN toll. The government, which says the unrest is the work of foreign-backed terrorists, says more than 2,600 soldiers or security agents have been killed.
Mr nnan, trying to save his peace plan from collapse, told Mr Assad in Damascus on Tuesday that Syria was at a tipping point.The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that more than 100 people were killed in Houla the same day.
Diplomats said the UN Human Rights Council would meet in Geneva on Friday to consider the Houla massacre, the fourth time Syria has faced such scrutiny since the anti-Assad revolt broke out in March 2011.
Mr Assad has so far proved impervious to international scolding and Western sanctions for his crackdown and has failed to return troops and tanks to barracks, as required by the Annan plan.
However, the UN observers sent in to monitor a notional ceasefire were able to verify the horrors in Houla, which produced a wave of world revulsion.
Mr Assad’s heavyweight international allies, China and Russia, stuck to their rejection of any intervention or UN-backed penalties to force him to change course.
The West is itself averse to military intervention, although French president Francois Hollande said on Tuesday this could change if the UN Security Council backed it. But that is not possible unless veto-wielding members Russia and China allow it.
Turkey joined other countries including the United States, Britain, France and Germany in expelling Syrian diplomats in protest at the Houla massacre, saying unspecified international measures would follow if crimes against humanity continued.
Stung by the expulsions, Syria told the Dutch chargee d’affaires to leave. She was one of the few senior Western diplomats left in Damascus.
Despite the diplomatic deadlock, Mr Annan, a former UN secretary-general and Nobel peace laureate, is pressing on with his mission.
“It is important to find a solution that will lead to a democratic transition in Syria and find a way of ending the killings as soon as possible,” he said after talks in Jordan yesterday.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined a plan Wednesday to ban the sale of sugary soft drinks larger than 16 ounces at restaurants, movie theaters, street carts and other venues.
Reason.tv’s Anthony Fisher took to the streets to ask New Yorkers what they thought about Bloomberg and the ban.
Approximately 2 minutes.
Camera by Kaplan Akincilar. Produced by Anthony Fisher
A U.S. security institute has published satellite images which it said increased concerns that Iran was trying to “destroy evidence” of suspected past research relevant for developing a nuclear weapons capability, a charge Tehran dismisses.
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) posted them on its website hours after diplomats said the U.N. atomic watchdog showed what appeared to be similar imagery at a closed-door briefing in Vienna.
Western envoys who attended Wednesday’s briefing earlier told Reuters that two small side buildings at the Parchin military facility had been removed, and ISIS said its pictures from May 25 showed that they “have been completely razed”.
The disclosure followed inconclusive talks between Iran and six world powers in Baghdad last week to address concerns about the nature of its nuclear activities, which Iran says are aimed at generating electricity.
The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly asked Iran for access to Parchin as part of a long-stalled probe into suspicions that Tehran may be seeking the ability to assemble nuclear bombs, should it decide to do so.
The Islamic state has so far refused to let inspectors visit the facility – which it describes as a conventional military complex – saying there must first be a broader framework agreement on how to address the IAEA’s questions.
The new satellite images will add to Western suspicions that Iran is “sanitizing” the site of any incriminating evidence before allowing the IAEA to go there.
Iran’s IAEA envoy, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, dismissed such accusations by Western officials, telling reporters after the briefing at IAEA headquarters that “this kind of noise and allegations are baseless”.
ISIS, which tracks Iran’s nuclear programme closely, said there were visible tracks in the images “made by heavy machinery used in the demolition process”, adding that the two buildings had been intact in early April.
No Parchin Access?
“Heavy machinery tracks and extensive evidence of earth displacement is also visible throughout the interior as well as the exterior of the site’s perimeter,” the think-tank said.
The Parchin complex is at the centre of Western allegations that Iran has been conducting research and experiments that could serve a nuclear weapons development programme. The Islamic Republic has repeatedly denied any such ambition.
Last week, the IAEA said in a report issued to member states that satellite images showed “extensive activities” at the facility southeast of Tehran.
Western diplomats said this was an allusion to suspected cleaning at Parchin. They have earlier cited other images showing recent activity at the site, including a stream of water, as suggesting Iran is trying to remove evidence.
Iran, which denies Western accusations it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons capability, has dismissed charges aired about Parchin as “childish” and “ridiculous”.
“The newest image raises concerns that Iran is attempting to raze the site prior to allowing an IAEA visit. The razing of the two buildings may also indicate that Iran has no intention to allow inspectors access soon,” ISIS said.
An IAEA report last November said Iran had built a large containment vessel in 2000 at Parchin in which to conduct tests that the U.N. agency said were “strong indicators of possible (nuclear) weapon development.”
It said a building was constructed around a large cylindrical object, a vessel designed to contain the detonation of up to 70 kg of high explosives. Diplomatic sources say the suspected tests likely took place about a decade ago.
Last week, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying the IAEA had not yet given good enough reasons to visit Parchin.
Comment: Images and words about tracks in dirt made by heavy machinery is offered as proof. No mention of earlier International Atomic Energy Agency Reports where the IAEA clearly said Iran is not a nuclear threat and has no nuclear ambitions in any military capacity.
Things are starting to take a repeat roll of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. The obvious target: Iran.
By the way, construction in and around nuclear sites is not uncommon. In simple terms; a construction company who did work inside the facility leveled the lunchroom they built for their workers, since work at the site was complete. Leave it to the West to always conclude (for us) the worst, while bastardizing free decent people, whose resources the 1% intend on plundering.
Britain’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden, but put his deportation on hold to give his lawyers a final chance to reopen the case.
The court, which handed down its decision after an 18-month legal marathon, rejected Assange’s argument that the Swedish prosecutor who issued the arrest warrant over sex crime allegations was not entitled to do so.
“The request for Mr Assange’s extradition has been lawfully made and his appeal against extradition is accordingly dismissed,” Supreme Court president Nicholas Phillips said as he delivered the ruling to a hushed courtroom.
The seven judges were split five to two but their majority ruling was that the prosecutor was a rightful judicial authority, and therefore allowed to issue the warrant for the Internet whistleblower.
But in a new twist, Assange’s lawyer Dinah Rose asked for 14 days to consider whether to apply to reopen the case, on the grounds that the judgment referred to material that was not mentioned during the last hearing in February.
The judge granted the request, which is highly unusual in the three-year history of the Supreme Court.
“With the agreement of the respondent, the required period for extradition shall not commence until 13th June 2012,” the Supreme Court said in a statement.
Assange, a 40-year-old Australian national, was not in the central London court for the judgment. One of his supporters, journalist John Pilger, said he was “stuck in traffic” with his mother, who flew in from Australia for the verdict.
The Swedish lawyer for the two women who accuse Assange of rape and sexual assault said he would be extradited eventually.
“The decision was what we expected . . . It’s unfortunate that it has been delayed further, but he will ultimately be extradited,” Claes Borgstroem told AFP.
Assange is at present wanted for questioning over the sex crime allegations, but Borgstroem said he expected an indictment perhaps within a month after he gets to Sweden.
Australia said it would closely monitor the case and added that consular officials were available to help him if he wished.
“The Australian government cannot interfere in the judicial processes of other governments but we will closely monitor the proceedings against Mr Assange in Sweden,” said a spokeswoman for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs.
Assange, whose website enraged Washington by releasing a flood of state and military secrets, has been living under tight restrictions on his movement for 540 days, including wearing an ankle tag and reporting daily to police.
He has said he fears his extradition would eventually lead to his transfer to the United States, where U.S. soldier Bradley Manning is facing a court-martial over accusations that he handed documents to WikiLeaks.
Outside court, Assange’s principal lawyer Gareth Peirce confirmed that the extradition was stayed while his legal team considers whether to apply to reopen the case, although the judgment still stands.
The point in question is the interpretation of the Vienna Convention on the law of treaties, “which was never addressed in the hearing, one way or another, by either side,” Peirce added.
If Assange fails to have the case reopened in Britain, he still has the option of a last-ditch appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The white-haired Assange does not deny that he had sex with two WikiLeaks volunteers in Sweden while attending a WikiLeaks seminar, but insists the sex was consensual and argues there are political motives behind the attempts to extradite him.
Assange’s mother Christine told Australian television ahead of the judgment: “It’s a 24-hour nightmare because we know he is not safe and the biggest governments in the world are gunning for him.”
The former computer hacker has been fighting deportation since his arrest in London in December 2010 on the European arrest warrant issued by Sweden.
The Supreme Court is his final avenue of appeal under British law, after two lower courts ruled he should be sent to Sweden for questioning.
The British Medical Association has decided to delay non-urgent patient care on June 21 after doctors voted with an overwhelming majority for the first industrial action in the profession in 40 years.
The BMA said in an open letter published in UK newspapers that the “reluctant” day of action is not meant to harm anyone and those with the most severe situations will still have access to medical care.
“On that day, doctors will be in their usual workplaces but providing urgent and emergency care only”, wrote the BMA.
“We will be postponing non-urgent cases and although this will be disruptive to the NHS, rest assured, doctors will be there when our patients need us most and our action will not impact on your safety,” it added.
The letter said the doctors are keen to have their “voice heard by the government.”
The action comes after BMA warned ministers against pushing ahead with “totally unjustified” pension contribution rises and a simultaneous increase in doctors’ retirement age.
The move puts doctors alongside a host of other public sector workers including teachers, civil service personnel and even police officers who have already announced or launched strikes in reaction to the austerity measures and changes to their pension schemes.
“We are taking this step very reluctantly, and would far prefer to negotiate for a fairer solution,” said chairman of council at the BMA, Dr Hamish Meldrum.
“But this clear mandate for action – on a very high turnout – reflects just how let down doctors feel by the Government’s unwillingness to find a fairer approach to the latest pension changes and its refusal to acknowledge the major reforms of 2008 that made the NHS scheme sustainable in the long term,” Meldrum added.
Rocker taps into anger at financial world, dedicating anti-bank song to ‘those who are struggling in Europe and Berlin’
Bruce Springsteen has touched on a nerve of widespread discontent with financiers and bankers while performing a concert in Berlin.
Springsteen played to a sold-out crowd at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, singing from his album Wrecking Ball and speaking about tough economic times that have put people out of work worldwide and led to debt crises in Greece and other countries.
“In America a lot of people have lost their jobs,” said Springsteen, 62, who performed for three hours to 58,000 fans in the stadium that hosted the 1936 Olympics and 2006 World Cup final.
“But also in Europe and in Berlin, times are tough,” he said, speaking in German. “This song is for all those who are struggling.” He then introduced Jack of All Trades, a withering attack on bankers that includes the lyrics: “The banker man grows fat, working man grows thin.”
Europe has been especially hard hit since 2008’s financial meltdown that sparked an enduring sovereign debt crisis. Unemployment on the continent has risen to levels not seen since the 1990s.
Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball tour began on 13 May in Spain, which is struggling with its crushing debt load, and runs for two and a half months with 33 stops in 15 countries before concluding on 31 July in Helsinki.
Berlin has been a special place for Springsteen since his July 1988 concert behind the old Iron Curtain in East Berlin.
Watched by 160,000 people, it was the biggest rock show in East German history, and The Boss spoke out against the “barriers” keeping East Germans prisoners in their country. Some historians have said the concert fed into a movement gaining moment at the time that contributed to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall 16 months later in November 1989.
“Once in a while you play a place, a show that ends up staying inside of you, living with you for the rest of your life,” he told the crowd on Wednesday after being handed a poster from a fan thanking him for the 1988 concert. “East Berlin in 1988 was certainly one of them.”
Germany has weathered the financial crisis well so far but Berlin itself is struggling with double-digit unemployment, low wages and a high incidence of poverty.
“The financial world has caused us all a lot of our problems and Springsteen has always been a critical spirit – that’s what I like about him,” said Kathleen Wapp, a 42-year-old doctor’s assistant from Wolfsburg who was at the show. “I like the way he’s not afraid to put a critical light on the key issues.”
“I think it’s great the way he’s taking on the banking industry – he’s got it dead right,” said Matthias Beck, 46, a carpenter from Leipzig. “There’s hardly anything good about banks. They take advantage of the little people and it’s always hard to find someone who’ll take responsibility when it all goes wrong.”
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
Desinewed meat, produced with low-pressure separation equipment to remove flesh from meaty bones, is outlawed in the United Kingdom beginning tomorrow.
The UK’s Food Safety Agency is imposing what it calls a moratorium on the product it considers to be perfectly safe in order to satisfy the European Commission’s Food and Veterinary Office.
Nobody in the UK is happy about it, especially the way the EC’s Food and Veterinary Office in Brussels went about making it happen. After a routine March 6-14 visit to the UK, the EC office on March 28 wrote FSA to demand that low-pressure desinewed meat be categorized and labeled as mechanically separated meat (MSM).
The UK had five days to respond, and if it did not go along, British minced meat, meat products and meat preparations could be barred from the EU market.
And the Catch 22 was that ruminant bones used in producing desinewed meat with low pressure are prohibited in anything labeled as MSM.
That brought the first moratorium, imposed on April 28, prohibiting ruminant bones in desinewed meat. It will be extended to cover poultry and pork bones on Saturday, May 26, unless there is a last-minute reprieve.
Consumers are likely to see much more domestic farm-raised seafood bearing an organic label in the not-too-distant future. The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a memo this week about forward with developing an organic aquaculture certification program.According to Seafood Source, “Existing U.S. rules do not allow any seafood to bear the coveted ‘USDA Organic’ label due to the lack of standards for organic aquaculture production and certification, though some seafood products are labeled as organic because they’ve been certification by a third-party outfit such as Naturland in Germany.”
The Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) is seeking public comment on raw milk consumption and sales that will be compiled and submitted as a report to the the Governor and the Legislative Council.
The sale of raw milk for human consumption is currently illegal in Indiana, but it is legal to sell raw milk for consumption by pets. In January, Senator John Waterman (R-Shelburn) added wording to a Senate bill that would have allowed small farms to sell raw milk sales for human consumption under the following conditions:
The Food and Drug Administration late Friday clarified an earlier warning that all oysters, clams, mussels and scallops from Korea should be considered adulterated and removed from the market, and said that ban includes canned products.
And earlier FDA constituent update had said the ban excluded canned products.
After testing 12,845 samples of fresh produce and other foods, the U.S. Department of Agriculture once again says pesticide residues are not a safety issue.
That’s according to the latest Pesticide Data Program Annual Summary released Friday by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The report details the analysis of samples collected in 2010. The data program has been ongoing since 1991.
The conclusion: as in other years, overall pesticide residues found on the foods tested well below the tolerances levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Only 0.25 percent of samples — fresh and processed fruit and vegetables, oats, eggs, catfish, baby food, groundwater, and treated and untreated drinking water — tested at levels exceeding EPA tolerances, according to the news release announcing the report.
USDA to mask sodium benzoate preservative with new ‘anti-microbial’ label to trick consumers
By Ethan A. Huff,
(NaturalNews) Kraft Foods Global, Inc. and a food chemical company known as Kemin Food Technologies, Inc. have both propositioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in recent years to approve the use of propionic acid and salt solutions in various new food applications, including in raw meat and poultry products, sausages, hot dogs, soups, stews, salads, and brine injections. According to a recent May 7 petition filing, the Des Moines, Ia.-based…
The ground beef product that was recalled last week by two South Carolina-based manufacturers was imported from Australia and contaminated before it arrived, according to one of the importers.
After testing conducted by the South Carolina Meat and Poultry Inspection Department revealed E. coli in a sample of boxed beef from Australia, two U.S. companies – G & W, Inc. and Lancaster Frozen Foods – recalled almost 7,000 pounds of ground beef products made with meat sourced from the foreign producer.
“We never sold the box that was contaminated but we went ahead and did a recall on everything that was in that lot number,” Emily Clayton, director of operations at G & W told Food Safety News.
A detailed list of those products made with beef from the contaminated lot is available here.
The boxed beef was imported in March and then stored in freezers before being processed into ground beef products, which were produced between March 2 and May 11 at Lancaster Frozen Foods and between March 2 and April 12 at G&W.
While several hundred pounds of the product had not yet been distributed, the majority of it was processed and sold, says JoAnna Clayton, vice president of G & W.
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) director Dr. Ron Chapman warned consumers on Thursday not to eat Taste of Roux, LLC jarred vegetarian soups because they may have been improperly produced, making them susceptible to contamination with Clostridium Botulinum.
No illnesses have been linked to any of the affected products at this time.
Ingestion of botulism toxin from improperly processed jarred and canned foods may lead to serious illness and death.
Taste of Roux, LLC of Valley Village, California is recalling its Lentil, Black Bean, Tomato, Carrot Ginger, Vegetarian Chili, and Detox jarred soups. The soups were sold under the Taste of Roux label and packaged in quart and pint glass jars with screw-on metal lids. The product labels do not include any coding or use-by dates.
Zenner’s Quality Meat Products, Inc. of Oregon is recalling about 3,660 pounds of bratwurst because it contains soy protein, one of the major food allergens, that is not declared on the label.
According to a study published in Food Microbiology, raw milk aged cheeses are relatively safe. The cheeses must be aged at least 60 days, at temperatures not less than 35 degrees F. The aging process produces low pH, low water activity, and high salt content that renders the cheese inhospitable to bacteria, yeast, and molds.
The regulations regarding raw milk aged cheeses were enacted in 1950, ”long before contemporary pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli 0157:H7, and Campylobacter had been recognized,” according to the study. Those bacteria can tolerate inhospitable environments such as low pH and low water activity.
In the last 20 years, “many small and several large foodborne outbreaks linked to consumption of cheese made from unpasteurized milk have occurred, both in Europe and in the U.S.” according to the study.
L.A. Link (Huntington Beach) Corp. of of Cerritos, CA is recalling dried shitake mushrooms sold at Costco Wholesale locations in Washington, Oregon and California because they may be contaminated with chemical residues not approved for dried mushrooms.
A sample of the product tested by the Food and Drug Administration was found to be contaminated with fluoranthene, pyrene and carbendazim.
Mt. Airy Meat Center of Mt. Airy, N.C. is recalling approximately 100 pounds of frozen, raw chicken breasts because they contain wheat, a known allergen not declared on the label, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Thursday.
The problem was discovered by FSIS during a routine label review. In the recall alert, Mt. Airy Meat Center said it repackages chicken for individual retail sale; the company explained that the problem may have occurred due to a change in suppliers.
Zenner’s Quality Meat Products of Portland, OR is recalling approximately 3,660 pounds of a bratwurst because it contains soy protein, an allergen not declared on the label.
FSIS and the company say they have not received any reports of adverse reactions.
The recall is of 2.25-lb. packages “Zenner’s Smoked Brotwurst” with a sells by date through 7/17/12 and the establishment number 6308.
The vast majority of Americans have confidence in the safety of the U.S. food supply, according to a new survey by the International Food Information Council, a food industry communications group.
The “2012 Food & Health Survey” shows a jump over last year’s confidence numbers, which IFIC found particularly interesting considering the survey was fielded during the first two weeks of April when food safety headlines — about Salmonella sushi, E. coli beef and new limits in antibiotics in agriculture — were widespread.
The survey found that 78 percent of those surveyed were either “somewhat confident” or “very confident” in the safety of the domestic food supply. Last year that number was closer to 50 percent.
“This year was a little higher,” said Marianne Smith Edge, the senior vice president of nutrition and food safety at IFIC, though she noted that the question was phrased differently this year. Instead of asking those surveyed if they were “extremely confident” they changed it to “very confident” on the high end of the spectrum.
Though the vast majority of Americans have thought about the safety of food and beverages over the past year — 85 percent reported giving “a little” or “a lot” of thought — most Americans think the chances are low they will themselves come down with foodborne illness.
“What I think is interesting is that more than 50 percent think their chance is extremely low,” said Smith Edge. Fifty seven percent of consumers said they “strongly” or “somewhat agree” that the chances they will get a serious foodborne illness are extremely low. Some consumers disagreed: 27 percent “somewhat disagree” and 9 percent “strongly disagree.”
Kentucky libertarian Sen. Rand Paul was not entirely successful with his amendments to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) User Fee Re-authorization Bill before it passed the Senate Thursday by a 96 to 1 vote.
The bill, setting user-fees to provide about half of FDA’s $4.5 billion budget for next year, showed the Senate can fully debate, amend and pass a needed law.
Paul was fully engaged in the process with multiple amendments. One – to disarm FDA agents, stop raids on natural food stores and Amish farms and end the agency’s scrutiny of truthful claims for dietary supplements – received only 15 votes.
But Paul did get his language included in the bill that forces FDA to accept data from clinical investigations conducted outside of the U.S., including the European Union, because Paul says it will speed getting life-saving drugs to the market.
Paul hailed passage of the bill because it contained some of his words.
Jensen Farms, the Colorado cantaloupe grower responsible for last year’s Listeria cantaloupe outbreak, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy filings list a number of wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits filed against the farm that resulted from the outbreak that sickened 146 people and killed 36.
According to Jensen Farms’ bankruptcy lawyer, in an interview with the Denver Post, Jensen’s decision to file for bankruptcy will eventually free up millions of dollars in insurance money and other funds to pay victims.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
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MessageToEagle.com – We all know that tomatoes are red. That’s no news, but how did they become red and why are they not blue, purple or have any other color?
Dinosaurs roamed the Earth for around 180 Million years.
A strong 6.0-magnitude quake struck off Taiwan, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued.
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Food Safety Report – Sunday May 27th, 2012
Food Safety
UK Imposes Moratorium on Desinewed Meat
USDA Works to Create Organic Aquaculture Standards
Indiana Seeks Public Comment On Raw Milk
The Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) is seeking public comment on raw milk consumption and sales that will be compiled and submitted as a report to the the Governor and the Legislative Council.
The sale of raw milk for human consumption is currently illegal in Indiana, but it is legal to sell raw milk for consumption by pets. In January, Senator John Waterman (R-Shelburn) added wording to a Senate bill that would have allowed small farms to sell raw milk sales for human consumption under the following conditions:
Ban on Korean Shellfish Includes Canned Shellfish
USDA Report Says Pesticide Residues Aren’t a Food Safety Concern
USDA to mask sodium benzoate preservative with new ‘anti-microbial’ label to trick consumers
By Ethan A. Huff,
(NaturalNews) Kraft Foods Global, Inc. and a food chemical company known as Kemin Food Technologies, Inc. have both propositioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in recent years to approve the use of propionic acid and salt solutions in various new food applications, including in raw meat and poultry products, sausages, hot dogs, soups, stews, salads, and brine injections. According to a recent May 7 petition filing, the Des Moines, Ia.-based…
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Recalls
Contaminated Beef Mars Australia’s Usually Clean Track Record
California Warns of Botulism Risk in Jarred Soups
Smoked Bratwurst Recalled For Undeclared Soy
Read Full Article Here
Raw Milk Aged Cheeses Are Relatively Safe, According to Study
The regulations regarding raw milk aged cheeses were enacted in 1950, ”long before contemporary pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli 0157:H7, and Campylobacter had been recognized,” according to the study. Those bacteria can tolerate inhospitable environments such as low pH and low water activity.
In the last 20 years, “many small and several large foodborne outbreaks linked to consumption of cheese made from unpasteurized milk have occurred, both in Europe and in the U.S.” according to the study.
Read Full Article Here
Dried Shitake Mushroom Slices Recalled
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Allergen Alert
Allergen Alert: Frozen Chicken Breasts With Wheat
Allergen Alert: Bratwurst With Soy Protein
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Articles of Interest
Majority of Americans Confident in Safety of Food Supply, Survey Finds
The vast majority of Americans have confidence in the safety of the U.S. food supply, according to a new survey by the International Food Information Council, a food industry communications group.
The “2012 Food & Health Survey” shows a jump over last year’s confidence numbers, which IFIC found particularly interesting considering the survey was fielded during the first two weeks of April when food safety headlines — about Salmonella sushi, E. coli beef and new limits in antibiotics in agriculture — were widespread.
The survey found that 78 percent of those surveyed were either “somewhat confident” or “very confident” in the safety of the domestic food supply. Last year that number was closer to 50 percent.
Though the vast majority of Americans have thought about the safety of food and beverages over the past year — 85 percent reported giving “a little” or “a lot” of thought — most Americans think the chances are low they will themselves come down with foodborne illness.
“What I think is interesting is that more than 50 percent think their chance is extremely low,” said Smith Edge. Fifty seven percent of consumers said they “strongly” or “somewhat agree” that the chances they will get a serious foodborne illness are extremely low. Some consumers disagreed: 27 percent “somewhat disagree” and 9 percent “strongly disagree.”
Read Full Article Here
Rand Paul Wins One in Senate Passage of FDA Bill
Jensen Farms Files for Bankruptcy
Cantaloupe grower responsible for 2011 Listeria outbreak
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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]