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Big-Time 7.8 Earthquake Strikes Off New Zealand
The earthquake is a 7.8, and it’s that big red dot in the Pacific, near New Zealand.
There are tsunami fears. Warnings are in effect for Tonga and the Kermadec Islands, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
The New Zealand dollar is falling a bit on the news. You can see the big dropoff on the Kiwi on this chart.
More details here from the USGS.
Phoenix Huge Dust Storm 7/5/2011 (Video)
PHOENIX (AP) — A massive dust storm descended on the Phoenix area on Tuesday night, drastically reducing visibility and delaying flights as strong winds downed trees and caused power outages for thousands of residents.
The dust cloud that hit the valley had originated in an afternoon storm in the Tucson Read more…
Biometric Identity: The Great Divider
The use of Biometrics in national identity cards has spliced the globe into two with people in developed nations looking at it as infringement of their privacy and civil liberties, reports Team Inclusion
A debate has been raging in India since Manmohan Singh government broadened the sphere of MNIC (Multi-purpose National Identity Cards) to National Population Register (NPR) appending into it a biometrics-based Unique Identification (UID) number. The opponents of the scheme have accused the central government of snooping into privacy of residents. They fear that the project would prove to be the death of right to privacy implicit in Article 21, which guarantees protection of life and personal liberty. They apprehend that the governmental Read more…
Paper Markets Are A Joke: Prepare for Bullion Prices to Go Supernova
“I think that the prices will continue higher. I mean the amount of money printing is unbelievable. I just think you have to take that initial stand in terms of buying it. I use the James Turk analogy: just keep dollar averaging. We have gone up eleven years in a row, this year it looks like it will be no exception; I would certainly think next year will be no exception. If we ever have QE3 announced, I think gold and silver will just go absolutely bonkers here. And so I just think you have got to step in there and own it; we’ve had these fears all the way along. You know, $400, and $500 and $700 and $800 dollar gold, everyone was afraid it was a one-time thing. I don’t think it is a one-time thing, I think it is Read more…
North Carolina Most At-Risk Against Rising Sea Levels
If one man could hold back the sea, North Carolina wouldn’t need to worry about rising ocean levels. Neither would New York, Boston or Miami. (Photo: Reuters Photographer/Reuters)The problem with reports about rising sea levels is that the damn thing—the world’s ocean—seems to creep up very, very slowly. In the past 21 centuries it’s raised an average of .07874 an inch every year, about the thickness of a nickel.
That doesn’t sound like much, right? Nothing to worry about! But what makes rising sea levels a deadly serious problem is that the ocean just keeps creeping up, up, up. And the average in recent decades is more like an inch a year.
In fact a new report from the National Academy of Sciences says the rate of Read more…
New industrial revolution needed to avert ‘planetary catastrophe’ – UN report
Scientists warn volcanoes in Australia are due to erupt
Scientists are now warning that volcanoes in Western Victoria and South Australia are due to erupt. The prediction comes just hours after two earthquakes hit the state this morning.
Using new dating techniques, University of Melbourne scientists have found that the volcanoes usually erupt every 2000 years, with the last eruption at Mt Gambier, South Australia, 5000 years ago. It comes as Victorians are warned to brace themselves for more tremors after a shallow magnitude quake hit at 11.32am, sending shockwaves through towns and suburbs more than 100 kilometres away. A series of tremors lasting up to 15 seconds have been felt across Melbourne’s CBD and southeastern suburbs. A second, smaller quake shook Korumburra, with reports it was again felt in Melbourne, at 12.37pm
Some Victorians say their houses shook violently for about 10 seconds, and many reported hearing the earth rumble. Experts say the quake struck 8 kilometres underground, and said the epicentre was about 7km west of Korumburra. So far, there are no reports of any major damage, except hairline cracks in some peoples’ homes. The area in Gippsland is prone to Read more…
Drone strikes are police work, not an act of war?
Launching an air strike in another nation would normally be considered an act of aggression. But advocates of America’s rapidly expanding unmanned drone programme don’t see it that way.
They are arguing, as Tom Ricks writes on his blog The Best Defense over at Foreign Policy, that the campaign to kill militants with missile strikes from these unmanned aircraft, is more like police action in a tough neighborhood than a military conflict.
These raids conducted by sinister-looking Predator or Reaper aircraft in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen – and since last month in Somalia – should not be seen as a challenge to states and their authority. Instead they are meant to supplement the power of governments that are Read more…
MI5 admits to wrongful surveillance of innocent people, new report says
The UK’s Security Service wrongly gathered information about innocent telephone users during criminal surveillance, a report into the interception of communications has said.
The MI5 acquired data belonging to subscribers of 134 telephone numbers following a failure in software, Sir Paul Kennedy, Interception of Communications Commissioner, said..
“These errors were caused by a formatting fault on an electronic spreadsheet which altered the last three digits of each of the telephone numbers to ‘000’,” Sir Paul said in his annual review of how law enforcement agencies use legal powers to intercept communications in 2010 (63-page / 2.3MB PDF).
“These unfortunate errors were identified by the Security Service and duly reported,” he said
“The subscriber data acquired had Read more…
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