Local levees threatened by record-setting releases into Missouri River
COLUMBIA — Workers at the city’s water treatment plant in the Missouri River bottoms are getting the boats out of storage.
Two levees protect McBaine from river levels up to 32 feet, and a flood wall at the plant itself can withstand up to 40 feet, said Floyd Turner, Columbia’s manager of water operations.
Extremely high amounts of rainfall and melting snow along the northern sections of the Missouri River are expected to raise river levels enough to possibly overwhelm levees throughout the state. One of those at risk, the McBaine Levee District, protects the Columbia Drinking Water Plant.If the Missouri River overflows the levees along the river, though, plant workers will need their two 14-foot boats to navigate between the nearby wells and possibly transport workers to and from the plant.The water plant’s staff was stockpiling sand for spot leaks along with other supplies in case floods limit access to the plant, engineer Michael Anderson said Friday. Workers at the plant were also checking on emergency generators in the event the plant loses electricity.
A forecast from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows the Missouri River overflowing as many as 58 levees between Kansas City and St. Louis by the end of the month.
After a year’s worth of rain in recent weeks and snowpack 140 percent above average in the Read more…
Millions displaced by natural disasters last year
AP Photo/Zhang WuOSLO, Norway (AP) — About 42 million people were forced to flee their homes because of natural disasters around the world in 2010, more than double the number during the previous year, experts said Monday.
One reason for the increase in the figure could be climate change, and the international community should be doing more to contain it, the experts said.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said the increase from 17 million displaced people in 2009 was mainly due to the impact of “mega-disasters” such as the massive floods in China and Pakistan and the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti.
It said more than 90 percent of the disaster displacements were caused by weather-related hazards such as floods and storms that were probably impacted by global warming, but it couldn’t say to what extent.
“The intensity and frequency of extreme weather events is increasing, and this trend is only set to continue. With all probability, the number of Read more…
China defends naval actions
General Liang Guanglie, China’s defence minister, has rejected criticism that his country was acting belligerently in the South China Sea, saying China was pursuing a “peaceful rise”.
“You say our actions do not match our words. I certainly do not agree,” Gen Liang replied to critics at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-profile Asia defence forum in Singapore.
Speaking days after Vietnam and the Philippines accused China of aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea, Gen Liang denied that China was threatening security in the strategically important and energy-rich disputed waters, saying “freedom of navigation has never been impeded”.
He was the first Chinese defence minister to participate in the forum, which was attended by Robert Gates, US defence secretary, and other Asian defence ministers. It was Gen Liang’s first big international speech.
Mr Gates expressed “increasing concerns” about China’s recent maritime behaviour. But when asked if Beijing was undermining its “peaceful rise” claim, he replied: Read more…
Who will lead Yemen now?
Yemen‘s main political opposition accepted a transfer of power to the country’s vice president after President Ali Abdullah Saleh traveled to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment following an attack on his compound Friday. But it’s unclear who will replace President Saleh more permanently if he doesn’t return, and whether Vice President Abdul Rabu Mansoor Hadi will be accepted by the other groups vying for Saleh’s ouster.
Saleh was injured Friday when opposition tribesmen shelled the presidential compound, targeting a mosque during Friday prayers. Saleh’s forces and Yemeni tribesmen, who have engaged in pitched battles for nearly two weeks in the capital, continued fighting this weekend, the Washington Post reports, despite a truce brokered by Saudi Arabia.
The capital erupted in fireworks after his departure, which some saw as permanent, given his injuries and increasingly weak political position. But the government rebuffed the political opposition’s call for the establishment of Read more…
Yemen’s President Saleh ‘wounded in palace attack’
Opposition television claimed President Saleh was killed after the attack but the reports appeared to be false. A Yemeni party official later said President Saleh was “fine”, and will hold a news conference later today.
The attack was blamed by the authoritites on dissident tribesmen loyal to Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, who have been Read more…
Senators Want To Put People In Jail For Embedding YouTube Videos
I am speechless…the NWO cometh
from the not-understanding-the-technology dept
Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. A few weeks back, we noted that Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Cornyn and Christopher Coons had proposed a new bill that was designed to make “streaming” infringing material a felony. At the time, the actual text of the bill wasn’t available, but we assumed, naturally, that it would just extend “public performance” rights to section 506a of the Copyright Act.
Supporters of this bill claim that all it’s really doing is harmonizing US copyright law’s civil and criminal sections. After all, the rights afforded under copyright law in civil cases cover a list of rights: reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works or perform the work. The rules for criminal infringement only cover reproducing and distributing — but not performing. So, supporters claim, all this does is “harmonize” copyright law and bring the criminal Read more…
Pinks Slips Coming For 450,000 State and Local Government Employees in 2012
In June of 2010 we noted that well known financial sector analyst and the woman who blew the doors open on the 2008 mortgage crisis, Meredith Whitney, was forecasting that two million government employees would see their jobs cut over coming years because of fiscal problems.
It’s happening.
Over 300,000 jobs have been cut in fiscal year 2011, and that number is about to increase 50% going into 2012:
Around 450,000 people who work for U.S. states, counties, cities, towns and villages could get pink slips in fiscal 2012, sharply up from the 300,000 positions shed this year, a report said on Monday.
The number of job cuts will rise mainly because the federal stimulus program Read more…
Beneath The Ice of East Antarctica: Dramatic Discoveries Mapped by Radar
nanopatentsandinnovations.blogspot
Scientists from the U.S., U.K. and Australia have used ice-penetrating radar to create the first high- resolution topographic map of one of the last uncharted regions of Earth, the Aurora Subglacial Basin, an immense ice-buried lowland in East Antarctica larger than Texas.
This new topographic map of a portion of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet revealed several giant fjords carved by the advancing and reatreating ice sheet between 34 and 14 million years ago.
Credit: University of Texas
The map reveals some of the largest fjords or ice cut channels on Earth, Read more…
Record Heat stories US and the world
Record temperature at 51 degrees Celsius in Kuwait — Ramadan
Outages extend into third day for residents, offices
Record Heat Closes Baltimore County Schools Early
Record High Temperatures Expected For The Remainder Of This Week-Rome
Bluefield, ‘Nature’s Air-Conditioned City’, breaks heat record with 90 degrees
Britain prepares for a heatwave…as Ireland gets its woollies on
Barbecue Britain? It’s been the warmest spring since records began in 1659…
Heatwave claims three more lives in Lahore
Electric usage surges during record heat
Colorado weather forecast: Near-record heat expected Thursday
European drought raises fears of food riots
The cracked river-bed near the village of Ancenis, in western France, where severe water restrictions have been impressed. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
BERNARD Maquis’s cattle would normally be grazing in the lush green pastures of the Limousin region, in central France, at this time of year.
Instead, they are eating hay intended for the winter after months of drought have turned the fields yellow.
He is wondering whether it might be better to sell his cows at a reduced price rather than find himself without fodder by the end of the autumn. “I’m starting to sleep badly,” he said.
Mr Maquis is not alone. With northern Europe facing its worst drought since 1976, politicians in the West are expecting protests Read more…
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