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Archive for January, 2011

Americans brace for monster winter blizzard

January 31, 2011 Comments off

 

The Rockies got an early blast from an ice storm that glazed the Denver metropolitan area on Monday, snarling traffic and forcing delays at Denver International Airport, followed by snowfall and plunging temperatures.

Denver’s high for Tuesday was forecast at 1 degree below zero Fahrenheit, with a low of minus 17 degrees and wind-chill values at 30 below predicted for overnight Tuesday.

But the nation’s midsection was expected to bear the brunt of the latest winter storm.

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning and hazardous weather outlook for the Chicago area, calling for frigid temperatures, wind gusts as high as 50 miles per hour and heavy snow on Tuesday.

The storm could be the biggest since a 1967 blizzard paralyzed the city, Chicago officials said.

Click more to see the forecast for your area.

Read more…

Tropical Cyclone Yasi Headed Toward Queensland, Australia

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NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Yasi on Jan. 30 at 23:20 UTC (6:20 p.m. EST/09:20 a.m., Monday, January 31 in Australia/Brisbane local time). Although the image did not reveal a visible eye, the storm appears to be well-formed and also appears to be strengthening. Credit: NASA Goddard / MODIS Rapid Response Team

Tropical Storm Anthony made landfall in Queensland, Australia this past weekend, and now the residents are watching a larger, more powerful cyclone headed their way. NASA’s Terra satellite captured a visible image of the large Tropical Cyclone Yasi late yesterday as it makes its way west through the Coral Sea toward Queensland.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured an image of Cyclone Yasi on Jan. 30 at 23:20 UTC (6:20 p.m. EST/09:20 a.m., Monday, January 31 in Australia/Brisbane local time). Although the image did not reveal a visible eye, the storm appears to be well-formed and also appears to be strengthening.

Warnings and watches are already in effect throughout the Coral Sea. The Solomon Islands currently have a Tropical Cyclone warning for Read more…

Egyptian riots day 6: THOUSANDS of Prisoners escape, Musems Looted,many stranded.

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More than 102 dead and thousands of prisoners on the loose in Egypt as 30,000 stranded Britons struggle to leave the country

Around 30,000 British tourists were stranded in Egypt today as army planes buzzed low over Cairo on the sixth day of uprisings.

At least 102 people have been killed, more than 2,000 are injured and there were calls for a multi-party democracy to emerge as President Hosni Mubarack’s grip on power loosens.

Gangs of armed men attacked at least four jails across Egypt before dawn today, helping to free hundreds of Muslim militants and thousands of other inmates as police vanished from the streets of Cairo and other cities.

Now scroll down to see the video:

Show of strength: Egyptians surround an army tank during protests in central Cairo on the sixth day of actionShow of strength: Egyptians surround an army tank during protests in central Cairo on the sixth day of action 

Last night a handful Brits that managed to board flights returning back from Cairo described their relief at escaping the riot-torn country. Read more…

The Internet Kill Switch

January 31, 2011 Comments off

This past week was a perfect example of how the “Internet kill switch” is rapidly becoming one of the favorite new tools of tyrannical governments all over the globe. Once upon a time, the Internet was a bastion of liberty and freedom, but now nation after nation is cracking down on it. In fact, legislation has been introduced once again in Congress that would give the president of the United States an “Internet kill switch” that he would be able to use in the event of war or emergency. Of course there would be a whole lot of wiggle room in determining what actually constitutes a true “emergency”. The members of Congress that are pushing this “Internet kill switch” bill want the U.S. to become more like China in this regard. In China, the Internet is highly controlled, highly regulated and highly censored. In fact, China has shut down the Internet in entire regions when they have felt it necessary. So what Egypt did in shutting down the Internet this past week is not unprecedented – but it was quite shocking.

Read more…

TSA shuts door on private airport screening program

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Washington (CNN) — A program that allows airports to replace government screeners with private screeners is being brought to a standstill, just a month after the Transportation Security Administration said it was “neutral” on the program.

TSA chief John Pistole said Friday he has decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports, saying he does not see any advantage to it.

Though little known, the Screening Partnership Program allowed airports to replace government screeners with private contractors who wear TSA-like uniforms, meet TSA standards and work under TSA oversight. Among the airports that have “opted out” of government screening are San Francisco and Kansas City. Read more…

Blast from the Sun

January 31, 2011 1 comment
Photo of the sun as it unleashes two powerful double blasts on Jan. 28, 2011.
This still from SDO caught the action in freeze-frame splendor when the Sun popped off two events at once (Jan. 28, 2011). A filament on the left side became unstable and erupted, while an M-1 flare (mid-sized) and a coronal mass ejection on the right blasted into space.
NASA/SDO/GSFC

The sun unleashed two powerful solar eruptions today (Jan. 28) in a spectacular double blast caught on camera by a NASA spacecraft.

The twin solar storms occurred in concert and marked an impressive start for the 2011 space weatherseason.

A video recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the two sun storms erupting from opposite sides of the star. Neither of the events posed a space weather threat to Earth or its satellites, NASA officials said. Read more…

North pole shift could cause airport trouble

January 31, 2011 1 comment

Airports like Tampa and West Palm Beach have recently closed runways because of the shift that is taking place, and it is not the runway that is moving.

Peter Burns, Ph.d., a professor at Notre Dame, says, “The issue of course is the magnetic field does not align with the rotational poles of the earth, and depending on where you sit on the earth, the wandering of the magnetic poles is more or less significant.”

Burns also says that magnetic north is currently located in northern Canada, and it is wandering towards Russia.

This could cause some problems for pilots, as compass readings will also “wander”.

Dee Davis of the Mishawaka Pilots Club, says, “More and more navigation is GPS-based and that is a wonderful thing. But the magnetic north compass still works very well, it is inexpensive, and doesn’t require batteries.”

Compasses aid in navigation and they play an important role in runway numbering.

The main runway at South Bend Regional Airport is labeled 27, a look at the charts shows that the runway’s full heading is at 273 degrees.

If magnetic north continues to wander, some runway numbers will no longer match up with their true heading, a problem that could be very dangerous for pilots taking off.

“One of the most important things that a pilot does before take off, is he will Read more…

Without Egypt, Israel will be left with no friends in Mideast

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The fading power of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government leaves Israel in a state of strategic distress. Without Mubarak, Israel is left with almost no friends in the Middle East; last year, Israel saw its alliance with Turkey collapse.

Egypt protest - AP - Jan 26, 2011 An anti-government protester ripping a poster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, January 26, 2011.

From now on, it will be hard for Israel to trust an Egyptian government torn apart by internal strife. Israel’s increasing isolation in the region, coupled with a weakening United States, will force the government to court new potential allies.

Israel’s foreign policy has depended on regional alliances which have provided the country with strategic depth since the 1950s. The country’s first partner was France, which at the time ruled over northern Africa and provided Israel with advanced weaponry and nuclear capabilities.

After Israel’s war against Egypt in 1956, David Ben-Gurion attempted to establish alliances with non-Arab countries in the region, including Iran, Turkey and Ethiopia. The Shah of Iran became a significant ally of Israel, supplying the country with oil and money from weapons purchases. The countries’ militaries and intelligence agencies worked on joint operations against Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rule, which was seen as the main threat against Israel and pro-Western Arab governments. Read more…

Planned Food Shortage In The US

January 31, 2011 Comments off

“Most people have the idea that food in our grocery stores just magically appears; maybe it just pops up out of the floors or drops down from secret store rooms in the ceilings.”

Buy local? Ok! I will do that!  Wait…..this says product of China, product of Brazil, product of Mexico, product of Egypt, Guatemala, Argentina ………where is the stuff produced in the US?  How am I supposed to buy local to support my local economy when there is nothing here that was produced locally or even in the United States?  And this stuff over here?  It just says “distributed by” a company in the US and I have no idea where the heck it came from.

In what I see as a sick joke mouthed by sick individuals in our government, the call has gone out to “buy local!  Know your farmer!”  I know the farmers in this area but they are being regulated and pressured out of business with the passage of the fake food safety bill in the senate.  Read more…

“Very disturbing findings” in chemical tests of Gulf residents -Bleeding from ears

January 31, 2011 Comments off