Saturday, March 12, 2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365569/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-10-000-people-missing-Minamisanriku.html

The town that drowned: Fresh pictures from the port where 10,000 people are missing after it was swept away by the megaquake

By Jo Macfarlane
Last updated at 12:36 AM on 13th March 2011

10,000 people missing in Minamisanriku 24 hours after double disaster struck
Official death toll hits 574, but hundreds believed to be buried under rubble or washed away by waves
Explosion at nuclear power plant, but experts say reactor is not at risk
Number of people contaminated with radiation could reach 160
Region hit by repeated aftershocks, some up 6.8-magnitude
Rescue operation begins but some areas still cut off by road damage and flood waters
Force of quake shifts Japan 8ft to the East

Just 48 hours ago, it was a picturesque fishing town where tourists flocked to enjoy the coastal air and natural hot springs. But this horrifying picture shows all that remains of Minami Sanriku after it was destroyed by the tsunami that has wreaked devastation across Japan.
Last night, the official death toll from Friday’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake and ensuing tidal wave stood at 1,700 people – although it is feared the final total could rise sharply once a full picture of the catastrophe emerges.
In Minami Sanriku alone, 10,000 people could have died – more than half of the city’s population.

Obliterated: Where there was once a thriving town, buildings are now covered with mud in Minamisanriku town, Miyagi after the tsunami drowned the entire town

Utter destruction: Stunned local, lucky enough to survive, survey the appalling damage left by Fridays tsunami reducing a once-thriving coastal town to a desolate landscape of broken wood and twisted metal

It only took a few minutes for the 30ft wave to wash the town away with terrifying force. The locals desperately tried to escape to higher ground. But most did not stand a chance.
It is hard to imagine any life remains among the debris. Where last week fishing boats bobbed in the harbour, it is now impossible to tell where the sea begins and the land ends.
One of the few buildings left standing is the town’s Shizugawa Hospital – the large white building to the centre left of this picture. But the rest of what was once the town centre is flooded with filthy sea water.
Other structures lie battered and smashed in piles of broken wood and twisted metal, but most are now little more than debris.
Just visible through the murky waters towards the bottom left of the photograph are the painted stripes of a zebra crossing.

houses that managed to withstand the force of the tsunami wave are clogged up with bricks and wood

Flooded: Soldiers brought in to help with the rescue operation walk across debris and mud in Minamisanriku

Surveying the damage: Soldiers walk along a road past an iron girder that has been uprooted from the ground and a fire that is still smoking in Minamisanriku

Scale of destruction: A tanker has been washed ashore by the massive wave in Kamaishi City

There are vague remnants of roads and the occasional outline of a flooded car, and it is just possible to see the half-submerged outline of the town’s athletics track towards the top left of the picture.
Minami Sanriku lies about 55 miles west of the earthquake’s epicentre and directly in the path of the subsequent tsunami.
And in Fukushima, thousands of people were forced to flee the vicinity of an earthquake-crippled Japanese nuclear plant after a radiation leak and authorities faced a fresh threat with the failure of the cooling system in a second reactor.
The government insisted radiation levels were low following Saturday's explosion, saying the blast had not affected the reactor core container, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had been told by Japan that levels 'have been observed to lessen in recent hours'.
But Japan's nuclear safety agency said the number of people exposed to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi plant could reach 160. Workers in protective clothing were scanning people arriving at evacuation centres for radioactive exposure.
These pictures reveal the brutal aftermath of the tsunami, but an amateur video posted online, filmed by one of the town’s residents, shows the terrifying moment the wave hit.
It shows people desperately driving uphill to escape the wave and the road lined with locals watching open-mouthed as their homes are swept away.

Gutted: Smoke billows from vessels off the harbour in Kesennuma

Cut off: Two bridges, one of which was being built, were badly damaged in Namegata by the 9-magnitude quake

Cut off: The town of Yamamoto was swamped by the massive wave and, right, two bridges, one of which was being built, were badly damaged in Namegata by the 9-magnitude quake

Apocalyptic: A lone cyclist makes his way through a debris-choked street in Miyako

The horrifying footage focuses briefly on those people caught in the traffic, including emergency vehicles, which failed to escape in time. One bus narrowly misses being washed away after speeding uphill as those filming shout ‘Run! Run!’.
Two hundred people were said to have been evacuated from the roof of the hospital and police believe the tidal wave may have washed away an entire train.
One photograph showed the letters ‘SOS’ written on the ground in the car park of the Minami Sanriku Elementary School. The letter H, surrounded by a circle, had also been added, a plea for helicopter assistance.

Scale of the devastation: A satellite image from the National Space Organisation shows Sendai before the earthquake, left, and after

Damage: This satellite image shows towers that have collapsed at the Kirin plant in Sendai

Rescue: Workers look for missing people in Yamamoto, but many areas are still cut off by damage to roads or flood waters

Tsunami warnings were issued to the entire Pacific seaboard, but the worst fears were not realised. Widespread damage was caused to some coast areas, including California, but there were no reports of fatalities.
President Barack Obama has pledged U.S. assistance and said one aircraft carrier was already in Japan and a second was on its way.
Japan's worst previous earthquake was an 8.3-magnitude temblor in Kanto which killed 143,000 people in 1923. A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe killed 6,400 people in 1995.
The country lies on the 'Ring of Fire' - an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching across the Pacific where around 90 per cent of the world's quakes occur.

Counting the cost: People walk past a car that has been washed into a wall in Miyako

Shelter: A young girl watches the news in a community centre in Fukushima, where an explosion destroyed a building at a nuclear power plant earlier today

Carnage: Boats, cars and buildings lie in ruins in Miyako and, right, rescue workers survey the damage from the top of a shattered building in Rikuzentakada

Precautions: Amid continuing aftershocks, Japanese news presenters wear hard hats as they announce that 9,500 are missing in the port of Minami Sanriku

was no danger of a tsuna
An estimated 230,000 people in 12 countries were killed after a quake triggered a massive tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004, in the Indian Ocean.
A magnitude 8.8 quake which struck off the coast of Chile in February last year also generated a tsunami which killed 524 people. Authorities mistakenly told people in coastal regions there mi.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Reuters/Kyodo

A massive tsunami engulfs a residential area in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan. More photos »

By MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press Malcolm Foster, Associated Press – 49 mins ago

TOKYO – A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes on record slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it swept away ships, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control.
Hours later, the tsunami hit Hawaii but did not cause major damage. Warnings blanketed the Pacific, putting areas on alert as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West coast. In northeastern Japan, the area around a nuclear power plant was evacuated after the reactor's cooling system failed.
Police said 200 to 300 bodies were found in the northeastern coastal city of Sendai, the city in Miyagi prefecture, or state, closest to the epicenter. Another 137 were confirmed killed, with 531 people missing. Police also said 627 people were injured.
The magnitude-8.9 offshore quake unleashed a 23-foot (seven-meter) tsunami and was followed for hours by more than 50 aftershocks, many of them of more than magnitude 6.0.
Dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) stretch of coastline were shaken by violent tremors that reached as far away as Tokyo, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the epicenter. A large section of Kesennuma, a town of 70,000 people in Miyagi, burned furiously into the night with no apparent hope of being extinguished, public broadcaster NHK said.
"The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in northern Japan," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a news conference.
The quake was nearly 8,000 times stronger than one that struck New Zealand late last month, devastating the city of Christchurch.

"The energy radiated by this quake is nearly equal to one month's worth of energy consumption" in the United States, U.S. Geological Survey Scientist Brian Atwater told The Associated Press.

Click image to see photos of quake, tsunami damage

Reuters/Kyodo

The government ordered thousands of residents near a nuclear power plant in the city of Onahama to move back at least two miles (three kilometers) from the plant. The reactor was not leaking radiation but its core remained hot even after a shutdown. The plant is 170 miles (270 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.
Trouble was reported at two other nuclear plants as well, but there was no radiation leak at either of them.
Japan's coast guard said it was searching for 80 dock workers on a ship that was swept away from a shipyard in Miyagi.
Even for a country used to earthquakes, this one was of horrific proportions because of the tsunami that crashed ashore, swallowing everything in its path as it surged several miles (kilometers) inland before retreating. The apocalyptic images on Japanese TV of powerful, debris-filled waves, uncontrolled fires and a ship caught in a massive whirlpool resembled scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie.
Large fishing boats and other vessels rode high waves ashore, slamming against overpasses or scraping under them and snapping power lines along the way. Upturned and partially submerged cars bobbed in the water. Ships anchored in ports crashed against each other.
The tsunami roared over embankments, washing anything in its path inland before reversing directions and carrying the cars, homes and other debris out to sea. Flames shot from some of the homes, probably because of burst gas pipes.
Waves of muddy waters flowed over farmland near Sendai, carrying buildings, some of them ablaze. Drivers attempted to flee. Sendai airport was inundated with thick, muddy debris that included cars, trucks, buses and even light planes.
Highways to the worst-hit coastal areas buckled. Telephone lines snapped. Train service in northeastern Japan and in Tokyo, which normally serve 10 million people a day, were suspended, leaving untold numbers stranded in stations or roaming the streets. Tokyo's Narita airport was closed indefinitely.
President Barack Obama said the U.S. "stands ready to help" Japan.
Jesse Johnson, a native of the U.S. state of Nevada who lives in Chiba, north of Tokyo, was eating at a sushi restaurant with his wife when the quake hit.
"At first it didn't feel unusual, but then it went on and on. So I got myself and my wife under the table," he told The Associated Press. "I've lived in Japan for 10 years, and I've never felt anything like this before. The aftershocks keep coming. It's gotten to the point where I don't know whether it's me shaking or an earthquake."
NHK said more than 4 million buildings were without power in Tokyo and its suburbs.
As night fell, Tokyo's streets were jammed with cars, buses and trucks trying to get around and out of the city. Pedestrians swarmed the sidewalks to walk home, or at least find a warm place to spend the night as the temperatures dropped.
Tomoko Suzuki and her elderly mother stood on a crowded downtown corner, unable to get to their 29th-floor condominium because the elevator wasn't working. They unsuccessfully tried to hail a taxi to a relative's house and couldn't find a hotel room.
"We are so cold," said Suzuki. "We really don't know what to do."
A large fire erupted at the Cosmo oil refinery in the city of Ichihara and burned out of control with 100-foot (30-meter) flames whipping into the sky.
"Our initial assessment indicates that there has already been enormous damage," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. "We will make maximum relief effort based on that assessment."
He said the Defense Ministry was sending troops to the hardest-hit region. A utility aircraft and several helicopters were on the way.
Also in Miyagi prefecture, a fire broke out in a turbine building of a nuclear power plant, but it was later extinguished, said Tohoku Electric Power Co.
A reactor area of a nearby plant was leaking water, the company said. But it was unclear if the leak was caused by the tsunami or something else. There were no reports of radioactive leaks at any of Japan's nuclear plants.
Jefferies International Ltd., a global investment banking group, estimated overall losses of about $10 billion.
Hiroshi Sato, a disaster management official in northern Iwate prefecture, said officials were having trouble getting an overall picture of the destruction.
"We don't even know the extent of damage. Roads were badly damaged and cut off as tsunami washed away debris, cars and many other things," he said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 2:46 p.m. quake was magnitude 8.9, the biggest to hit Japan since record-keeping began in the late 1800s and one of the biggest ever recorded in the world.
The quake struck at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), about 80 miles (125 kilometers) off the eastern coast, the agency said. The area is 240 miles (380 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo. Several quakes hit the same region in recent days, including one measured at magnitude 7.3 on Wednesday that caused no damage.
A tsunami warning was extended to a number of areas in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Latin America, including Japan, Russia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Chile. In the Philippines, authorities ordered an evacuation of coastal communities, but no unusual waves were reported.
Thousands fled homes in Indonesia after officials warned of a tsunami up to 6 feet (2 meters) high, but waves of only 4 inches (10 centimeters) were measured. No big waves came to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, either.
The first waves hit Hawaii about 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT). A tsunami about 7 feet (2.1 meters) high was recorded on Maui and a wave at least 3 feet (a meter) high was recorded on Oahu and Kauai. Officials warned that the waves would continue and could get larger.
Japan's worst previous quake was a magnitude 8.3 temblor in 1923 in Kanto that killed 143,000 people, according to USGS. A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe in 1996 killed 6,400 people.
Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 12 nations. A magnitude-8.8 temblor that shook central Chile in February 2010 also generated a tsunami and killed 524 people.
___
Associated Press writers Jay Alabaster, Mari Yamaguchi, Tomoko A. Hosaka and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo; Jaymes Song in Honolulu and Mark Niesse in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Seth Borenstein in New York contributed to this report.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

WATER TERRORISM

Skyrocketing water bills mystify, anger residents

Atlanta woman reacts to her $3,000 water bill: I'm "sinking in a hole of water"
City water officials received more than 22,000 calls in January
Many problems arise after installation of automated water meters
Similar water bill spikes reported in Ohio, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Florida

Editor's note: Join Kyra Phillips on CNN TV throughout Tuesday for her Special Investigative Unit report on skyrocketing water Senior Investigative Producer Scott Zamost on Twitter.

Atlanta (CNN) -- Imagine paying as much for water as you do for your bills. Follow CNN mortgage.
Residents throughout Atlanta are outraged by hundreds, even thousands of dollars in monthly spikes in their water bills, and have questioned the legitimacy of the charges for years. Now, they're demanding answers.
"I thought we were sinking in a hole of water," said Debbi Scarborough. "It scared me to death. I thought we had a major leak when I got the bill."
Over two months last summer, her family's monthly water bill, shot up to $1,805 In July and then $1,084 in August, leaving a balance due of more than $3,000. She said in the past her bill has averaged $200 to $250.
"I'm not paying a $3,000 bill. And for those three months, we were pretty much out of town most of the time and there's no leaks," she said, showing CNN a copy of her plumber's report.

Water main break flips car, causes flood

The city installed a device on her meter to track daily usage. In the meantime, Scarborough's bill remains unpaid while she disputes the charges.
She is not alone.
While similar complaints about huge water bill spikes have popped up in Cleveland, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and Brockton, Massachusetts; it appears that the issue has lasted the longest in Atlanta.
See how top 50 cities rank
It's led to a class-action lawsuit, countless meetings with city officials and continuing complaints from fed-up residents.
Thousands of residents who have seen unusual spikes have appealed their high water bills. Just last year, the city issued credits totaling $466,368 to customers.
Atlanta, with more than 500,000 residents, says it already has the highest water rates of any major city in the United States, due in part to federal consent decrees to overhaul the city's water supply infrastructure.

a trillion gallons

10% of homes have water leaks totaling at least 90 gallons a da

Water Leak Facts

Yearly home leaks could exceed annual water amounts used by Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami combined -- or more than y

A constantly running toilet wastes at least 200 gallons of water daily

A leaky faucet with one drip per second wastes more than 3,000 gallons a year

Source: EPA.gov

Many of the problems arose after the installation of new, automated water meters, which began nearly five years ago, and involved contracts for meter installations, the electronic meters and software equipment.
The automated meter-reading technology eliminates the need for city workers to manually check every meter. Instead, they retrieve the data by driving by each property. The meter electronically transmits data showing the amount of water used.
From the beginning, there were problems.
In 2007, city auditors found they were "unable to verify electronic meter readings" because of "meter read errors, equipment failures or human errors."
Specifically, the audit said "about 9% of the meters could not be read due to broken or malfunctioning equipment."

I thought we were sinking in a hole of water. It scared me to death. I thought we had a major leak when I got the bill.
--Debbi Scarborough, Atlanta residential water customer

RELATED TOPICS

Two years later, another audit concluded that a "high number of accounts" were not getting "actual meter readings" because of "meter read errors, equipment failures or human errors."
CNN reviewed hundreds of complaints from Atlanta residents as well as city e-mails obtained through a public records request.
On August 26, 2010, Mitch Elliott, a sales executive of Neptune Technologies, which manufactured the meters, wrote to a city official: "It has been an industry experience that typically when a utility does an AMR (automatic meter reading) meter changeout and also switches software billing companies that generally high bill complaints are either due to new meter accuracy and/or a billing multiplier error."
Elliott would not comment, referring CNN to city officials.
Peter Aman, the city of Atlanta's chief operating officer, said in an interview that he realized at that time the situation was serious. He's been on the job since January 2010. Last September, he replaced senior management in the Atlanta Dept. of Watershed Management.
He said the city has sampled about 9,000 of the 132,954 residential meters and made a major discovery: About 1% of the meters' registers, which show how much water is being used, and the meter base underneath do not properly fit. That mismatch could result in a doubling of the water bill, Aman said.
"These two components don't match and guess what? They're labeled. This one says three-quarter (inch) on it and this one has a "1" (inch) on it. Now, it's small print but it's big enough to see," Aman said.
That would explain a billing multiplier error, which leads to higher bills, he said.
He added that the problem was first "identified in the audit back in (2007) and [the city] put in place, or were supposed to put in place, a whole system of checks and balances as they went through the rest of the system upgrade, and clearly they failed because we're still finding these mismatches out there."
Experts: U.S. water infrastructure in trouble
Operators of Lenox Square Mall and Phipps Plaza, two large shopping malls, complained about water billings "nearly $300,000 over last year for this same period of time," according to another e-mail.
"There appears to be serious errors in the water billings that are creating huge hardships for both centers," wrote Michael F. Romstead, regional vice president of Mid Atlantic Mall of Georgia. "We need the city's full attention to correct the problem."
The city responded the meters' registers. Romstead diby changing d not return calls to check whether the bills had gone back to normal, but there are no follow-up complaints in the city records supplied to CNN.
Asked about problems with the rest of the meters, Aman said, "The majority of the people who complain about high water bills have some issue that is not associated with the meter. Many, many of them have either leaks, or increases in usage through irrigation or pool filling that they didn't fully understand the impact of, but that's not to minimize the fact that we do have some cases of meters that aren't functioning properly. And we're addressing those on a case-by-case basis and giving people their money back. To me, the story here is there has been a complete loss of trust between the city and its citizens and its customers."
The city has not found issues with meter manufacturer Neptune Technologies Inc. or Systems and Software Inc. which installed the billing software, Aman said. Executives at both companies declined interview requests. Two other contractors that installed meters at commercial locations did not return calls.
"We have not found a smoking gun, if you will, in terms of a system problem," Aman told CNN.
However, he said the company that installed the residential meters should be held accountable. KHAFRA, an Atlanta-based firm, joined a Pennsylvania company to carry out the $40.3 million contract.
After months of calls, KHAFRA President Valentino Bates agreed to an interview, but only after CNN had spoken to Aman.
"When we ended the contract in December of 2009, we had a 90-day window to come in and address any concerns. No concerns were brought to us. So as of today sitting here with you, it is our understanding that the meters are functioning properly as they were supposed to when we installed them," Bates said.
He said the company had identified 968 meters that had the mismatching problem, and fixed all of them by last March. The project, he said, was "very successful" and he added that he had not been informed about additional meter issues.
Asked if his company would repair any other meters the city said were not correctly installed, Bates told CNN, "If it is our problem, we will do that."
Meanwhile, Atlanta residents continue to complain to the city, which received more than 22,000 calls to its Department of Watershed Management in January. And last year alone, there were a total of 12,291 water bill disputes, according to the city.
"Clearly, people are upset, and one of the things that we said to people is that we hear you and that we do believe we have problems in the water meter and billing system," Aman said.
That doesn't convince residents like Wilda Cobb, who is astounded at a water bill that now totals $10,071.
Her bill spiked to more than $1,200 in November, then skyrocketed to $6,879 in December.
"I am furious, I am upset, I'm confused," Cobb said. "I can't get an answer from the city because they won't admit there is a problem."
A city official reviewed Cobb's bills, and said the unusually high usage for the two months would normally mean there was some kind of leak, possibly with the irrigation system. The city installed a data logger meter that tracks usage during each day.
Her latest bill is down to just $34.
Ironically, Cobb knows something about water issues. She's an attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency.

"As I person, I know something's wrong here," Cobb said. "As an attorney, what can I do about it? But, I don't think it takes a law degree to say $7,000 for a month's use of water by one person in a small home is just crazy without a leak."

Watch CNN Newsroom weekdays 9am to 3pm ET and weekends. For the latest from the CNN Newsroom click here.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/01/water.bills.war/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Get ready for a 'global Katrina': Biggest ever solar storm could cause power cuts which last for MONTHS

By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 8:59 AM on 22nd February 2011

Earth is overdue a solar storm as the sun enters its most active period

The world is overdue a ferocious 'space storm' that could knock out communications satellites, ground aircraft and trigger blackouts - causing hundreds of billions of pounds of damage, scientists say.
Astronomers today warned that mankind is now more vulnerable to a major solar storm than at any time in history - and that the planet should prepare for a global Katrina-style disaster.
A massive eruption of the sun would save waves of radiation and charged particles to Earth, damaging the satellite systems used for synchronising computers, airline navigation and phone networks.

Imminent: The world got a taster of the sun's explosive power last week with the strongest solar eruption in five years sent a torrent of charged plasma hurtling towards the world. Scientists believe we are overdue a ferocious solar storm

Imminent: The world got a taster of the sun's explosive power last week with the strongest solar eruption in five years (white flash, centre) sent a torrent of charged plasma hurtling towards the world. Scientists believe we are overdue a ferocious solar storm

If the storm is powerful enough it could even crash stock markets and cause power cuts that last weeks or months, experts told the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The chances of a disruption from space are getting stronger because the sun is entering the most active period of its 11 to 12-year natural cycle.
The world got a taster of the sun's explosive power last week when the strongest solar eruption in five years sent a torrent of charged plasma hurtling towards the world at 580 miles per second.

The storm created spectacular aurorae and disrupted radio communications.

Professor Sir John Beddington, the government's chief scientific adviser, said: 'The issue of space weather has got to be taken seriously. We've had a relatively quiet period of space weather - but we can't expect that quiet period to continue.
'At the same time over that period the potential vulnerability of our systems has increased dramatically, whether it is the smart grid in our electricity systems or the ubiquitous use of GPS in just about everything we use these days.
'The situation has changed. We need to be thinking about the ability both to categorise and explain and give early warning when particular types of space weather are likely to occur.'

Threat: Rio de Janeiro during a blackout in 2009. A solar storm could cause global power cuts for months, scientists have warned

Solar storms are caused by massive explosions on the sun.
The explosions release waves of X-rays and ultraviolet radiation which smash into the Earth within minutes, disrupting radio signals and damaging the electronics of satellites.
They are followed ten to 20 minutes later by a burst of energetic particles which cause even more havoc with satellites - and then 15 to 30 hours later by supercharged plasma which collides with Earth's magnetic field.
The plasma create the aurora - or Northern Lights - and can induce electrical currents in power lines and cables.
Jane Lubchenco, head of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said: 'This is not a matter of if, it is simply a matter of when and how big.
'The last time we had a maximum in the solar cycle, about 10 years ago, the world was a very different place. Cell phones are now ubiquitous; they were certainly around but we didn't rely on them for so many different things.
'Many things that we take for granted today are so much more prone to the process of space weather than was the case in the last solar maximum.'

Communications satellites would be knocked out by a solar storm, causing widespread chaos on Earth and hundreds of billions of pounds of damage

The sun goes through a regular activity cycle about 11 years long on average. The last solar maximum occurred in 2001. Its latest minimum was particularly weak and long lasting.
Space storms are not new. The first major solar flare was recorded by British astronomer Richard Carrington in 1859.
Other solar geomagnetic storms have been observed in recent decades. One huge solar flare in 1972 cut off long-distance telephone communication in the mid-western state of Illinois, Nasa said.
Another similar flare in 1989 'provoked geomagnetic storms that disrupted electric power transmission' and caused blackouts across the Canadian province of Quebec, the U.S. space agency said.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1359136/Global-Katrina-Biggest-solar-storm-cause-power-cuts-MONTHS.html

Thursday, February 17, 2011

HAS AMERICA BECOME SODOM?

Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Leviticus 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

1 Corinthians 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Hawaii Legislature passes civil unions bill; governor will sign it

By the CNN Wire Staff

February 17, 2011 -- Updated 1513 GMT (2313 HKT)

Governor Neil Abercrombie (C) said he will sign a bill that will legalize same-sex unions in Hawaii.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Gov. Neil Abercrombie says civil unions "respect our diversity"
Hawaii will join New Jersey in allowing civil unions
The bill will take effect January 1, 2012

RELATED TOPICS

(CNN) -- Hawaii's Senate has given final passage to a measure legalizing same-sex unions in the state, and Gov. Neil Abercrombie has said he will sign it.
The state House had already passed the bill, which "extends the same rights, benefits, protections and responsibilities of spouses in a marriage to partners in a civil union," according to the Legislature's website. It will take effect January 1, 2012.
Abercrombie has 10 legislative days to sign the bill, which passed the Senate on Wednesday.
"I have always believed that civil unions respect our diversity, protect people's privacy and reinforce our core values of equality and aloha," Abercrombie said in a statement.
"I appreciate all the time and effort invested by those who shared their thoughts and concerns regarding civil unions in Hawaii. This has been an emotional process for everyone involved, but that process is now ended. Everyone has been heard; all points of view respected.
"For me, this bill represents equal rights for all the people of Hawaii," Abercrombie said.
In July, Hawaii's then-Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a similar bill, saying the issue needed to be put to a referendum. Gay rights groups decried her decision.
Five states and the District of Columbia issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Hawaii will join New Jersey in allowing civil unions.
Three states -- Rhode Island, New York and Maryland -- recognize same-sex marriages from other states, according to the conference.

California recognizes same-sex marriages performed during six months in 2008 after its Supreme Court granted same-sex couples the right to marry and before the passage of Proposition 8, which overturned the court's decision.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/02/17/hawaii.civil.unions/?hpt=T2

Monday, February 14, 2011

NO PRIVACY

The app that can read your mind: iPhone brainwave detector arrives (it was only a matter of time)

By Matt Blake
Last updated at 3:56 AM on 15th January 2011

It's a device that would be more at home on the set of a Star Wars movie than the streets of Britain.
But an iPhone application has been developed that can read minds.
The XWave allows users to control on-screen objects with their minds as well as train their brains to control attention spans and relaxation levels.
Scroll down for video

No-brainer: The XWave allows users to control on-screen objects with their minds as well as train their brains to control attention spans and relaxation levels

The device - that could confuse Luke Skywalker himself - is the latest in the field of emerging mind-controlled games and devices and works via a headset strapped around the user's forehead, plugging into the iPhone jack.
A state-of-the-art sensor within the device can then read the user's brainwaves through the skull, converting them into digital signals before displaying them in various colours on the iPhone screen.

State of the art: A sensor within the device can then read the user's brainwaves through the skull, converting them into digital signals before displaying them in various colours on the iPhone screen

And as the mind focuses on a particular task the graphics change, indicating the user's level of concentration or relaxation.
The high-tech sensor was developed by innovations giant PLX Devices using technology that has for years been used by doctors to treat epilepsy and seizures in patients.

Brain train: As the mind focuses on a particular task the graphics change, indicating the user's level of concentration or relaxation

But PLX Devices founder and CEO Paul Lowchareonkul said it was a matter of time before such contraptions entered the mainstream.
He said: 'The human brain is the most powerful, complex thing in the universe, and for the first time, we're able to harness its amazing power and connect it to everyday technology.
'With the development of 3rd party apps, the potential for innovation is limitless.'
Brain-training exercises include levitating an on-screen ball for a certain amount of time or changing a colour by relaxing the brain in a bid to maximise the brain's attention span.
And designers say it won't stop there.
Incredibly, another app, called XWave Tunes allow users to connect with each other through the type of music that most stimulates their brainwaves.
The company says it is working on other ways in which the futuristic technology can be applied such as playing games through the mind, controlling the lights at home and even choosing what music to listen to on an iPod depending on the user's mood.
Its designers claim the possibilities are endless, whether it is for relaxation, brain training, entertainment, games, social networking, sports or sleep.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1346900/The-app-read-mind-iPhone-brainwave-detector-matter-time.html?printingPage=true

Malaysia tiger mauling stopped by wife with soup ladle

Sumatran Tiger taking a dips in pool at National Zoo, Kuala Lumpur, 7 Dec 2005

Tigers do not usually attack humans - nor they do often have to fend off soup ladles

She entered the fray wielding a wooden soup ladle at the tiger - which fled.
Tambun Gediu, now badly lacerated and recovering in hospital, had tried hitting the tiger away in vain and says his wife saved his life.
Wildlife rangers plan to track the tiger and send it further into dense, unpopulated jungle in the the northern state of Perak.
"I was trailing a squirrel and crouched to shoot it with my blowpipe when I saw the tiger.
"That's when I realised that I was being trailed," Mr Gediu said after surgery.
The tiger pounced not far from the Gediu home in a jungle settlement of the Jahai tribe.
Mr Gediu had tried climbing a tree to escape the animal, but was dragged down by the tiger.
His wife, 55-year old Han Besau, rushed out of the kitchen on hearing his screams and used the kitchen implement to good effect.
"I was terrified and I used all my strength to punch the animal in the face, but it would not budge," the New Straits Times newspaper quoted him as saying.
"I had to wrestle with it to keep its jaws away from me, and it would have clawed me to death if my wife had not arrived."
It was the first time anyone in the village had been attacked by a tiger.
The director of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in the state, Shabrina Mohd Shariff, estimated that there were about 200 tigers in the jungles of Perak.
She added that five had been spotted near the major East-West Highway in the region.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

BE AWARE

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/facebook-dating/

‘Dating’ Site Imports 250,000 Facebook Profiles, Without Permission

By Ryan Singel
February 3, 2011 |

How does a unknown dating site, with the absurd intention of destroying Facebook, launch with 250,000 member profiles on the first day?

Simple.

You scrape data from Facebook.

At least, that’s the approach taken by two provocateurs who launched Lovely-Faces.com this week, with profiles — names, locations and photos — scraped from publicly accessible Facebook pages. The site categorizes these unwitting volunteers into personality types, using a facial recognition algorithm, so you can search for someone in your general area who is “easy going,” “smug” or “sly.”

Or you can just search on people’s real names.

The duo behind the site say it’s art, not commerce.

In what seems to be liberal-arts-grad-schoolese, Paolo Cirio, a media artist, and Alessandro Ludovico, media critic and editor in chief of Neural magazine, explain why they made the site.

“Facebook, an endlessly cool place for so many people, becomes at the same time a goldmine for identity theft and dating — unfortunately, without the user’s control,” the two explain. “But that’s the very nature of Facebook and social media in general. If we start to play with the concepts of identity theft and dating, we should be able to unveil how fragile a virtual identity given to a proprietary platform can be.”

And, the duo speculate, if people pull hard enough on that bothersome thread, Facebook’s $50 billion valuation will unravel.

Facebook, as you might expect, is not amused.

“Scraping people’s information violates our terms,” said Barry Schnitt, Facebook’s director of policy communications. “We have taken, and will continue to take, aggressive legal action against organizations that violate these terms. We’re investigating this site and will take appropriate action.”

Facebook’s terms of service require those who want to collect data from its pages to apply for permission, which Cirio and Ludovic did not do when they pulled down publicly available profile information on a million Facebook users. (They aren’t the first to scrape a million Facebook profiles.)

Cirio and Ludovic say they will take down a user’s profile, if a person asks and the site doesn’t have any indication they are actually trying to make any money. Instead, it’s part of a series of prank sites, the first two of which aimed at Google and Amazon, intended to make people think more about data in the age of internet behemoths.

Moreover, it’s a bit funny hearing Facebook complain about scraping of personal data that is quasi-public.

Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder, made his name at Harvard in 2003 by scraping the names and photos of fellow classmates off school servers to feed a system called FaceMash. With the photos, Zuckerberg created a controversial system that pitted one co-ed against another, by allowing others to vote on which one was better looking.

So even if Facebook’s anticipated legal nasty gram makes its way to the duo, who seem to be based somewhere in Europe, they’ll have an excellent defense.

“I learned it by watching you, Zuck.”

See Also:

Walking by Faith