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Melting Arctic link to cold, snowy UK winters
This winter brought snow as far south as GreeceThe progressive shrinking of Arctic sea ice is bringing colder, snowier winters to the UK and other areas of Europe, North America and China, a study shows.
As global temperatures have risen, the area of Arctic Ocean covered by ice in summer and autumn has been falling.
Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a US/China-based team show this affects the jet stream and brings cold, snowy weather.
Whether conditions will get colder still as ice melts further is unclear.
There was a marked deterioration in ice cover between the summers of 2006 and 2007, which still holds the record for the lowest extent on record; and it has not recovered since.
The current winter is roughly tracking the graph of 2007, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
The new study is not the first to propose a causal relationship between Read more…
France hit by third earthquake in two days
For the third time in 48 hours, the south of France was hit by an earthquake.
The latest measured 4.0 on the Richter scale and hit the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence area late on Monday afternoon.
Like the earthquake which hit late on Sunday evening measuring 4.9, the epicentre was just north east of the small town of Barcelonnette.
The latest earthquake was weaker and “felt slightly by locals” according to the French centre for seismology.
A third earthquake hit the western Charente-Maritime region on Sunday morning with a magnitude of 3.8.
Earthquakes are fairly rare in France and tend Read more…
Bird Flu, Swine Flu … and Now Bat Flu?
Scientists have found a new influenza virus that infects bats.
But don’t pull out the hand sanitizer leftover from the H1N1, or swine flu, pandemic just yet. When asked about the implications of this discovery for human health, one of the researchers, Ruben Donis, said: “It’s still too early to tell.”
We still don’t know that this bat flu virus can infect people, according to Donis, who is chief of the molecular virology and vaccines branch in the influenza division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He and a team of American and Guatemalan researchers isolated the virus from fruit-eating, little yellow-shouldered bats in Guatemala. So far, there is no Read more…
Pentagon knows China will be America’s greatest enemy starting in 2017
Nigeria: ‘Biometric Data Will Control Crime in FCT’
This will be the excuse that many governments around the world will use. Gather biometrics from everyone for their own safety and to be monitored while reducing crime…
The FCT Police Commissioner, Michael Zuokumor, yesterday said that capturing cab driver’s biometric data in the territory will tremendously reduce crime.
Zuokumor stated this in Abuja, during the official flag-off of the biometric data capturing of FCT cab drivers, an event organised by Painted Abuja Taxi Nigeria Limited (PAT).
He said the FCT Police Command in partnership with cab drivers in the territory have been able to reduce the incidences of car snatching and ‘one chance operators’ to the barest minimum in recent time.
“The command is developing strategies that will ensure that the issue of car snatching becomes a thing of the past in Abuja within the next three to six months,” he said.
Earlier in his remark, Chairman of Painted Abuja Taxi Nigeria Limited, Alhaji Shugaba Yar’Adua, said the essence of capturing cab drivers biometric data is to tackle the incidence of ‘one chance operators’ in order to guarantee the safety and security of commuters.
He said that the exercise will enable the government monitor the activities of taxi drivers in the territory and urged all cab drivers to key into the scheme.
Yar ‘Adua disclosed that Painted Abuja Taxi Ltd has signed an MoU with FCT Transportation Secretariat to provide them with 300,000 new vehicles in order to remove all rickety commercial vehicles from Abuja road.
He said the FCT Transport Secretariat has equally promised to create taxi racks in all the six area councils, where cab drivers can conveniently carry out their activities.
On his part, Representative of FCT Transport Secretary, Alhaji Mohammed Tukur, urged cab operators in the territory to strictly follow the rules and regulations laid down for their operations for smooth transport operation.
Proposed Nanotechnology Will Convert Body Heat Into Electric Current
Whoever said the movie The Matrix was based on pure fiction obviously didn’t have that discussion with researchers at Wake Forest University. A new technology called Power Felt, a thermoelectric device that converts body heat into an electrical current, soon could create enough juice to make another call on your cell phone simply by touching it.
Developed by researchers in the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest U, Power Felt is comprised of tiny carbon nanotubes locked up in flexible plastic fibers and made to feel like fabric. The technology uses temperature Read more…
S&P Downgrades Greece to ‘Selective Default’
Greece’s credit ratings were cut to “Selective Default” by Standard & Poor’s after it negotiated the biggest sovereign debt restructuring in history.
S&P dropped Greece’s rating from CC, two levels above default, after the government added clauses to its debt designed to mop up investors unwilling to take part in the exchange, the New York-based company said in a statement Monday.
The downgrade follows a reduction last week by Fitch Ratings to C, while Moody’s Investors Service has said it will cut the nation to its lowest rating. Greece published the formal offer document last week for its agreement to exchange bonds for new securities, with investors taking a Read more…
Official List Of Words Feds Monitor On Social Networking Sites
The Feds have been forced to release their social network monitoring manual, which contains the list of words the government watches on social media and news sites.
Earlier the Huffington Post reported on the Feds have been forced to give up their list of words they monitor on Facebook, Twitter, and comments being posted on news articles so I compiled that list below.
Homeland Security Manual Lists Government Key Words For Monitoring Social Media, News
Ever complain on Facebook that you were feeling “sick?” Told your friends to “watch” a certain TV show? Left a comment on a media website about government “pork?”
If you did any of those things, or tweeted about your recent vacation in “Mexico” or a shopping trip to “Target,” the Department of Read more…
Fears for lambing season as deadly virus arrives in West
A deadly virus sweeping across Europe which could be ‘a catastrophe’ for the farming industry has reached the West, Government scientists revealed last night.
The Schmallenberg virus causes stillbirths and birth defects in sheep, goats and cattle and is so new there is no treatment and no cure.
Yesterday, the Government’s vet agency confirmed that the first case has been reported in Wiltshire, leading to fears that this year’s lambing season could be badly hit.
The chairman of the NFU’s livestock board, Alistair Mackintosh, said the virus, which is named after the German town where it was first spotted and discovered only last year, has “the potential to become a catastrophe in the UK”.
It is believed to be spread by midges and is not thought to be a danger to humans, but farmers have little or no defence against it for their livestock. After the first cases last year in Germany, it quickly spread to Read more…
Fearing A National Collapse, The State Of Wyoming Is Putting Together A ‘Doomsday Bill’
wikipedia commons
Wyoming state representatives have taken a cold hard look at the state of America and it seems they do not like what they see.
Jeremy Pelzer at The Casper Star-Tribune reports that legislators approved Friday, a study looking at what the state of Wyoming should do if the U.S. suffers a total political and economic collapse.
House Bill 85 would create a state-run “government continuity task force,” to prepare Wyoming for possible disruptions in energy and food, to a total breakdown of the federal government.
Rep. David Miller sponsored the bill and while he says he doesn’t see any cataclysmic crisis coming anytime soon, to ignore the country’s problems would be a mistake.
With the national debt at more than $15 trillion and the protests springing up around the country Miller isn’t feeling confident in the U.S.’s future.
He wants Wyoming to look into its own alternate Read more…
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