Freighter blast kills 3 in South Korea

(CNN) -- A freighter carrying oil exploded off the South Korean port city of Incheon, killing three crew members, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Sunday.

Five crew members were rescued but eight others were missing, Coast Guard officials told Yonhap.

The 4,191-ton vessel was three miles north of Jawol Island in the Yellow Sea when it exploded Sunday morning, the Coast Guard said.

Incheon is in northwest South Korea.

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 5:31 PM on 15th January 2012

Engineers are set to pour 24 million gallons of water into a dormant volcano in Oregon to test whether it can create a renewable source of energy that does not rely on the weather.

Water will be pumped into the Newberry volcano - 20 miles south of Bend, Oregon - to pick up heat from fractures in the base of the rock. The heated water then turns to steam, generating power.

But the project, which will start this summer, has sparked concerns that pumping water deep into the belly of a volcano could lead to an earthquake - as similar projects have in the past.

Getting ready: Newberry Crater project drilling manager Fred Wilson at the site in May 2008. This summer, engineers will pump water into the volcano to see if they can generate electricity from the earth's heat

Using the earth's heat to generate power, known as geothermal energy, is an alternative to other renewable energy sources, such as turbines or solar panels.

These processes rely on stiff breezes and regular sunshine to generate enough power, yet the geothermal technology can provide a consistent source of energy.

But as well as quake fears, there are also concerns it is hard to create a reservoir big enough to run a commercial power plant.

Together with AltaRock Energy, Inc. from Seattle and Davenport Newberry Holdings LLC from Stamford, Connecticut, they will test whether the new level in geothermal power can work.

'We know the heat is there,' Susan Petty, president of AltaRock, told the Associated Press. 'The big issue is can we circulate enough water through the system to make it economic.'

Site: The Newberry Volcano, which has not erupted in 1,300 years, is 20 miles south of Bend, Oregon. Geothermal developers are interested in extracting heat from hot rocks beneath the surface

Distance: Developers say it is far enough from an urban area that damage is unlikely if there is an quake

In geothermal energy, hot water or steam that bubbles near the surface is used to turn a turbine creating electricity. But most viable areas have been exploited.

Now engineers are in search of places with hot rocks that are not cracked, using a new technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems.

'To build geothermal in a big way beyond where it is now requires new technology, and that is where EGS comes in,' Steve Hickman, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, told the AP.

Wells are drilled deep into the rock and water is pumped in, creating tiny fractures in the rock, a process known as hydroshearing. Cold water is then pumped down wells into the reservoir, and steam is drawn out.

Over three weeks, AltaRock will pour 800 gallons of water per minute into the 10,600-foot test well. 

The process will produce a reservoir of cracks starting about 6,000 feet below the surface, and reaching down to 11,000 feet. It would be about 3,300 feet in diameter.

How it works: The graphic shows how water will be pumped under the surface and generate power

Thanks to worries about earthquakes and space constraints, progress in the technology has been slow so far.

There are two small plants in France and Germany. A project in Australia has had drilling problems, while a plant in Basel, Switzerland, was shut down after earthquake complaints.

'That's the $64,000 question. What's the biggest earthquake we can have from induced seismicity that the public can worry about'

Ernie Majer, seismologist

An international protocol comes out at the end of this month that urges EGS developers to keep projects out of urban areas to avoid quake damage.

It is believed that the danger of a major earthquake at Newberry is low as it has no significant fault lines. It is also far enough from populated areas that property damage would be unlikely.

But the Department of Energy will be monitoring the project and any significant quakes would shut it down temporarily.

'That's the $64,000 question,' Ernie Majer, a seismologist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said. 'What's the biggest earthquake we can have from induced seismicity that the public can worry about.'

The U.S. Department of Energy has given the project $21.5 million, which has been matched by private investors, among them Google with $6.3 million.

Process: Cold water will be pumped below the surface, cracking rocks and extracting heat. When the water is pumped back to the surface, it escapes as steam that can be used to generate power through a turbine

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management released an environmental assessment of the Newberry project last month that does not foresee any problems that would stop it, the AP reported. The agency is taking public comments before making a final decision about the project's future.

No power plant is proposed, but one could be operating in about 10 years, Doug Perry, president and CEO of Davenport Newberry, told the AP.

If successful, the results could be significant.

An assessment in 2008 found EGS throughout the West, where hot rocks are closer to the surface than in the East, could produce half the country's electricity.

'The important question we need to answer now,' said Colin Williams, a geophysicist who compiled the assessment, 'is how geothermal fits into the renewable energy picture, and how EGS fits. How much it is going to cost, and how much is available.'

Although the volcano has not erupted in 1,300 years, hot rocks close to the surface drew exploratory wells in the 1980s.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086985/Newberry-Volcano-Engineers-pour-24-million-gallons-water-Oregon-volcano-create-electricity.html#ixzz1jbGCn46J

 Cleaning product purchases now require ID

By NICOLE WESKERNA - nweskerna@shawmedia.com
Created: Thursday, January 5, 2012 5:30 a.m. CST
  
 
If you set out to buy certain cleaning supplies in the new year, don’t forget to bring your ID.

Under a new state law, retailers are now required to keep a registry of people who purchase items that contain certain chemicals, such as sulfuric acid and ammonia water. The legislation was initiated after two attacks on Chicago women who were badly scarred after having acid poured on them, according to the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

The law, which went into effect Sunday, requires customers who purchase products with a label that reads “causes severe burns” to present retailers with a photo ID. That includes items such as drain cleaners and pool chemicals.

Under the law, customers must provide a valid driver’s license or other government-issued identification showing their name, date of birth and a photograph when purchasing such products. Then they must sign a log documenting their name and address, the date and time of the transaction, the brand name, product name and net weight of the item.

There are exemptions for some items such as batteries. Provided the product isn’t used to injure another person, the law also does not apply to people engaged in commercial manufacturing or use of the substances.

The Sycamore Hy-Vee store sells about 30 products that now require ID, said store manager Kyle Anderson. He said tags are on shelves near items that require ID to inform customers about the law.

“I wouldn’t say it’s an inconvenience. It’s just a matter of making adjustments,” he said.

Carolyn Tobinson, owner of Tobinson’s Ace Hardware in Genoa, said the store has a system where each register prompts a sales clerk to ask for identification for certain items. Information is then recorded in the store’s registry, and a customer can sign the store’s log book. A separate receipt is printed to keep better records, she said.

Tobinson’s Ace Hardware also added signs near the products that now require ID, and a full copy of the law is available at the customer service desk, Tobinson said. The store carries about a dozen products on the list, she added.

Anderson said the law shouldn’t delay checkout lines too badly, but people might have to spend a little more time at the register.

“Is it going to slow down transactions? Of course,” Anderson said. “But the amount of information [required] is not extremely detailed. It’s not going to hold the line an extra 10 minutes.”

The computer system at Lowe’s Home Improvement in DeKalb also prompts cashiers for customers’ information, said assistant manager Tony Dahlin. He said the store will create signs informing customers about which products are subject to the law.

Dahlin said employees are prepared to comply with the new measure while upholding a high level of customer service.

“Every day we’re faced with new laws that come down,” he said. “Our goal is to be compliant.”

The Midwest Hardware Association has a sample registry warning the Illinois State Police maintains the authority to request the registry at any time to pursue police matters. It also has signs available to print, directing questions to the appropriate state representative or senator.

Retailers face an initial fine of $150, a second-offense fine of $500 and a $1,500 fine for subsequent violations if they fail to record the information.

• Shaw Media reporter Sarah Sutschek contributed to this report.

'Discovery of a lifetime': Stone Age temple found in Orkney is 800 years older than Stonehenge - and may be more important

• The site contains 100 buildings, forming a 'temple precinct'
• Stonehenge may not have been the centre of Neolithic culture after all
• It could take decades to fully explore and examine

By Ted Thornhill

Last updated at 3:09 PM on 2nd January 2012

A 5000-year-old temple in Orkney could be more important than Stonehenge, according to archaeologists.

The site, known as the Ness of Brodgar, was investigated by BBC2 documentary A History of Ancient Britain, with presenter Neil Oliver describing it as ‘the discovery of a lifetime’.

So far the remains of 14 Stone Age buildings have been excavated, but thermal geophysics technology has revealed that there are 100 altogether, forming a kind of temple precinct.

'More important than Stonehenge': The temple precinct being uncovered in Orkney contains 100 Stone Age buildings

Until now Stonehenge was considered to have been the centre of Neolithic culture, but that title may now go to the Orkney site, which contains Britain’s earliest known wall paintings.

‘It’s opening a window onto the mysteries of Neolithic religion.’

Big draw: Britain's earliest examples of artwork have been found on the walls at the Orkney site

The site in Orkney is surrounded by other Neolithic remains

Experts believe that the site will give us insights into what Neolithic people believed about the world and the universe.

Nick Card, an archaeologist from the University of the Highlands and Islands, said: ‘It’s an archaeologist’s dream site. The excitement of the site never fades.

‘This site is a one-off.’

Professor Mark Edmonds from the University of York, meanwhile, describes the excavation as ‘a site of international importance’.

Some parts of the temple are 800 years older than Stonehenge, which lies 500 miles to the south in Wiltshire.

The site is very close to the Ring of Brodgar stone circle and the standing stones of Stenness and is surrounded by a wall believed to have been 10-feet high.

Archaeologists found red zigzag lines on some of the buildings’ inner walls that they believe is Stone Age art – the oldest ever found.

So far only around 10 per cent of the site has been examined – and it could take decades to uncover and analyse everything there. 

Golden oldie: The megalithic archaeological stone circle called The Ring of Brodgar is

Could hackers develop a 'computer virus' to infect the human mind?

• Synthetic biology is 'out-accelerating evolution' - expert
• Bio-crime today is 'like computer crime in the Eighties'
• Viruses could be used to influence behavior - and we may have to 'learn how to counterattack'
  
• 'One of the most powerful technologies in the world'

By Rob Waugh

Last updated at 9:26 AM on 14th December 2011

Californian biologist Andrew Hessel says, 'Cells are living computers and DNA is a programming language,' but warns that this could lead to viruses and bacteria used to 'hack' human minds

The field of 'synthetic biology' is in its infancy. We can 'tweak' the genetics of life forms - but billionaire entrepreneur Craig Venter only created 'artificial life' for the first time last year, christening his life form 'Synthia'.

But experts working within the field believe that our expertise is out-accelerating natural evolution by a factor of millions of years - and some warn that synthetic biology could spin out of control.

It could lead, says Andrew Hessel of Singularity University, on Nasa's research campus, to a world where hackers could engineer viruses or bacteria to control human minds.

Hessel believes that genetic engineering is the next frontier of computing.

'This is one of the most powerful technologies in the world,' says Hessel 'Synthetic biology - the writing of life.'

'I advocate that cells are living computers and DNA is a programming language.'

'I want to see life programmed and used to solve global challenges so that humanity can achieve a sustainable relationship within the biosphere,' he says.It's growing fast. It will grow faster than computer technologies.'

He predicts a world where we can 'print' DNA, and even 'decode' it. But he warned, in a speech at technology conference TXM, that viruses and bacteria send chemicals into human brains - and could be used to influence, or even 'control' their host.

China Joins Russia, Orders Military To Prepare For World War III

Posted by EU Times on Dec 7th, 2011

Arkansas: Don't Buy Car Insurance Without This Trick

A grim Ministry of Defense bulletin issued to Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev today states that President Hu has “agreed in principal” that the only way to stop the West’s aggression led by the United States is through “direct and immediate military action” and that the Chinese leader has ordered his Naval Forces to “prepare for warfare.”

Hu’s call for war joins Chinese Rear Admiral and prominent military commentator Zhang Zhaozhong who, likewise, warned this past week that: “China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a Third World War,” and Russian General Nikolai Makarov who grimly stated last week: “I do not rule out local and regional armed conflicts developing into a large-scale war, including using nuclear weapons.”

A new US intelligence report has also stated that China has up to 3000 nuclear weapons compared with general estimates of between 80 and 400. To further pour more gasoline on the fire, the Washington Times has just reported that North Korea is making missile able to hit the US.

The raising of global tensions between the East and West was exploded this past fortnight when Russian Ambassador Vladimir Titorenko and two of his aides retuning from Syria were brutally assaulted and put in hospital by Qatar security forces allegedly aided by CIA and British MI6 agents attempting to gain access to diplomatic pouches containing information from Syrian intelligence that the United States was flooding Syria and Iran with the same US-backed al Qaida mercenaries who toppled the Libyan government.

Further evidence in these diplomatic pouches, this bulletin says, reveals that the United States is preparing an “ultimate solution” to the Middle East Crisis should nuclear war break out by attacking Syria and Iran with lethal biological agents intended to kill tens of millions of innocent civilians.

The discovery of the biological agent to be used by the West was revealed a fortnight ago by Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands who lead a team of scientists that discovered that a mere five mutations to the avian flu virus was sufficient to make it spread far more easily and would make it the most lethal killer of mankind ever invented.

Should the US begin an attack utilizing this deadly virus, this bulletin continues, its most likely method of delivery would be via its RQ-170 Sentinel Drone which is operated by the CIA.

These frightening assessments of future US actions against its enemies were revealed in this bulletin based upon Russian intelligence analysts examination of the RQ-170 Sentinel Drone brought down over Iranian territory last week by the Russian made Avtobaza ground-based electronic intelligence and jamming system used against this unmanned aerial vehicle with little damage and that showed it be equipped with a sophisticated aerosol delivery system.

Important to note is that the Western powers first use of a deadly flu virus to destroy their enemies and overthrow the established global order was first used less than a century ago in 1918 when the Spanish Flu variant was unleashed at the ending of World War I and killed an estimated 50-100 million people which represented fully 3-6% of the world’s entire population. Some 500 million, or 27%, were infected.

Archived KGB files on the Spanish Flu pandemic have always stated that this deadly virus was “bio-engineered” by US military scientists who used as their “guinea pigs” American Soldiers who were the first recorded victims and were stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas.

To fully understand the underlying reasons behind the United States and its Western allies push for Total Global War was recently detailed by the top American investigative journalist Greg Hunter whose shocking in depth report titled “Is the World Spinning Out of Control?” revealed that the entire edifice of the Western economic systems is crumbling under the weight of over $100 Trillion in debt no one is able to pay and wherein he warned: “Never in history has the world been this close to total financial chaos and nuclear war at the same time.”

Sadly, but as always, the American people are not being allowed to know the horrific future their elite leaders are planning for them, a situation made even worse this past week when the US Senate passed a new law by a 93-7 vote that is warned will destroy America for all time by giving total control of this once free nation over to its military forces and destroy their Constitution.

As we noted in our previous report, it is worth mentioning again the words of the American Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson, who warned his fellow citizens over 200 years ago about what is happening today by saying:

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

The £2.5million motorway smash involving 8 Ferrari's, 3 Mercedes, a Lamborghini, a Skyline and a humble Toyota Prius (which was in the wrong place at the wrong time)

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 12:08 PM on 5th December 2011

Thirteen high-end sports car owners - and one driver of a Toyota Prius - were probably close to tears last night after a £2.5million motorway pile-up.

A single miscalculation from a Ferrari driver leading a convoy of sports car connoisseurs left a trail of twisted Italian and German metal trailing across this motorway in Japan.

Ten people were rushed to hospital after the smash on the Chugoku Expressway in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, yesterday afternoon, but none of their injuries were said to be serious.

Not so sporty now: Japanese police and rescue teams investigate damaged Ferrari cars at the site of a traffic accident on the Chugoku Expressway in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture

Tears: Ten people suffered mild injuries in the pile-up. But the damage to the owners' wallets could be worth somewhere in the region of £2.5million, according to estimates

But the damage to their wallets may be far more grievous. Among the wrecked vehicles were eight Ferrari's, three Mercedes, a Lamborghini, and a Skyline, as well as a Prius hybrid that was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Police said the accident occurred on an uphill curve when the 60-year-old driver of the Ferrari leading the pack lost control while trying to overtake another vehicle.

The trailing cars then proceeded to crash one by one, with the ensuing carnage closing down the express way for six hours while emergency services cleared up the mess.

Wiped out: Police said the accident occurred on an uphill curve when the 60-year-old driver of the Ferrari leading the pack lost control while trying to overtake another vehicle

Smash: There was also a Nissan Skyline GT-R - the only current Japanese supercar - involved in the crash

The cars involved in the epic smash included at least two Ferrari F430s, two Ferrari 360 Modenas, two Ferrari F355s and a Lamborghini Diablo.

There was also a Nissan Skyline GT-R - the only current Japanese supercar - and two Mercedes Benz, while the cheapest involved in the crash was the Toyota Prius hybrid.

Sports Nippon estimates the value of the vehicles to be 300million yen (£2.5million).

Written off: Sports Nippon estimated the value of the vehicles involved in the crash to be 300million yen (£2.5million)

Report: US & Arab States Set To Impose No Fly Zone Over Syria

Plan to cripple Assad’s military forces within 24 hours

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wedneday, November 23, 2011

Reports out of Kuwait suggest that Arab states are set to impose a no fly zone over Syria with US logistical support, advancing the prospect of a military assault to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad under a “humanitarian” pretext.

“Senior European sources said that Arab jet fighters, and possibly Turkish warplanes, backed by American logistic support will implement a no fly zone in Syria’s skies, after the Arab League will issue a decision, under its Charter, calling for the protection of Syrian civilians,” reports Albawaba, citing Kuwait’s al Rai daily.

YNet news, the website for Israel’s most widely read newspaper, also carried the report.

As part of a plan to cripple the country’s military forces within 24 hours, the “movement of Syrian military vehicles, including tanks, personnel carriers and artillery,” would all be banned under the terms of the no fly zone.

Syrian opposition forces have repeatedly called for a no fly zone to be enforced over the country, but last month NATO all but ruled out the prospect. Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry has also called on the Obama administration to impose a no fly zone without waiting for a green light from the United Nations.

“If indeed Europe and the Western world is dead set upon an aerial campaign above Syria, then all eyes turn to the East, and specifically Russia and China, which have made it very clear they will not tolerate any intervention. And naturally the biggest unknown of all is Iran, which has said than any invasion of Syria will be dealt with swiftly and severely,” reports Zero Hedge.

Hostilities have accelerated in recent days, with Russian warships entering Syrian territorial waters on Friday in an aggressive maneuver designed to discourage any NATO-led attack.

Without Russia’s help, Syria would be largely defenseless against a NATO attack. “I don’t see any purely military problems. Syria has no defence against Western systems … [But] it would be more risky than Libya. It would be a heavy military operation,” former French air force chief Jean Rannou commented.

While NATO powers have accused the Syrian regime of carrying out atrocities against its citizens, others have framed the bloodshed in the context of a civil war. As we saw with Libya, rebel fighters who were commandeering fighter jets and firing rocket-propelled grenades were still being described as “protesters” by the establishment media days before the no fly zone was imposed and the bombing campaign began.

As we saw prior to the attack on Libya, which was also framed as a “humanitarian intervention,” NATO powers are keen to demonize Assad’s government by characterizing attacks by his forces as atrocities while largely ignoring similar attacks by opposition forces, such as a raid on a Syrian air force intelligence complex earlier this month that killed or wounded 20 security police.

Commentary

Silent Spread of trH3N2 Across the United States

Recombinomics Commentary 14:00
November 23, 2011


Iowa has increased flu surveillance state-wide. And Cox said the CDC has asked bordering states to enhance their surveillance efforts as well.

The three children attended a small day-care together. They live in adjacent counties, Webster and Hamilton, in the centre of the state.
One became sick first and appears to have infected the other two. Quinlisk said it's not clear how the first child got infected.

Another child who is a contact of the first child was ill with what may have been influenza prior to the first child's infection, she said. But by the time laboratories had confirmed the cases, that other child had recovered.

The above comments on the trH3N2 cluster in Iowa leaves little doubt that the novel virus has spread across the United States, yet the CDC continues to deny the extent of the spread and is increasing surveillance in “bordering states”.

The trH3N2 has already been confirmed in children in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maine, and now Iowa, in addition to a pig in New York. Surveillance remains abysmal in spite of rates of 100% in confirmed cases in children in Maine and Pennsylvania, and 50% in Indiana. All seven of the prior isolates match in all 8 gene segments, which also match the swine isolate in New York, signaling a jump from human back to swine.

The CDC has maintained a “swine exposure” narrative, leading to a request for samples with “swine exposure” when the first two cases were announced in the early release MMWR. The denial of human transmission was maintained in the Maine CDC advisory claiming that all prior 2011 cases had a swine exposure, which was not true for the case in Indiana, and the cases in Pennsylvania had limited exposure to asymptomatic swine at a state fair (and only one had direct contact). Moreover, the Maine state epidemiologist claim “no thought” of human transmission, and these agency claims were propagated by media and ProMED reports, and remarkably, this narrative on swine exposure is still be propagated by CIDRAP in its report in the Iowa cluster.
The upcoming MMWR on the cluster in Iowa should demand an increased surveillance throughout the country to get a true estimate of the extent of spread and the number of hospitalized cases.

The silent spread of a trH3N2 pandemic two years after the trH1N1 pandemic raises serious concerns about influenza surveillance in the United States and worldwide.

Commentary

CDC In Denial Of trH3N2 Sustained HumanTransmission

Recombinomics Commentary 10:45
November 23, 2011
"It possible that the virus is being seeded and is being transmitted in short transmission chains," Cox admitted.

There is no data supporting “short transmission chains”. The cluster in Iowa consists of three confirmed cases and two more contacts with ILI, which is a cluster larger than initially reported in southern California in 2009 at the beginning of the swine H1N1 pandemic.. Like the Iowa cluster, contacts in California had recovered prior to sample collection, so the number of confirmed cases in each cluster was limited to one.

The Iowa cluster however yielded three confirmed cases that were epidemiologically linked, the largest trH3N2 confirmed cluster reported to date. Moreover, the sequences match the other seven isolates, indentified in three other states over a three month time frame.

The Indiana sequence from the first case in Indiana, A/Indiana/08/2011, was virtually identical to the sequences from the second and third cases in Pennsylvania (A/Pennsylvania/10/2011 and A/Pennsylvania/11/2011) which developed symptoms a month after the Indiana case. Similarly, the two cases in Maine are closely related to each other (A/Maine/06/2011 and A/Maine/07/2011) even though disease onset dates were two weeks apart.

These matches signal sustained human transmission, in spite of epidemiological investigations which have failed to identify a source for any of the seven prior isolates, or the index case for the Iowa cluster.
Abysmal surveillance allowed the sustained transmission to continue for at least three months prior to the identification of a cluster without a swine exposure, exposing a heavily biased surveillance program which prioritizes samples with pseudo swine exposure, and then claims the artificial data is related to the trH3N2 transmission.

Now the CDC is claiming a new myth, that of limited human to human transmission for trH3N2 human transmission, which is clearly sustained.

trH3N2 is widespread in children in the United States, and the surveillance failures and denial of sustained transmission are a national disgrace. 

Commentary

Three trH3N2 Cases In Iowa Confirm Pandemic

Recombinomics Commentary 23:45
November 22, 2011

Routine surveillance by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), the State Hygienic Lab and other partners across the state indicate that a novel strain of the influenza virus has been detected in three children in Webster and Hamilton Counties.

This influenza A/H3N2 virus contains components of human, avian, H1N1, and swine influenza. All spread has been human to human, and spread appears to be limited; no further cases have been identified in the last week.

The above comments from the Iowa Department of Public Health describe three cases of trH3N2 in children with no swine exposure, confirming the trH3N2 pandemic. 

Man charged with Obama assassination attempt – but who is he? 

Chicago Chivalry
November 18, 2011

There are interesting facts surrounding Oscar Ortega-Hernandez and this case. At this point in time, we are left with more questions than answers.

Ortega-Hernandez was born on October 2, 1990. Nothing exceedingly interesting here, just added it since it’s the same month I was born.

He is from Idaho Falls, Idaho. His family reported him missing from Idaho Falls last month. Incidentally, out of all the small towns in this country, the city of Idaho Falls decided to conduct a full simulated terrorism drill just two weeks ago.

He has a tattoo of the word “Israel” on the left side of his neck. Who does this? Is he an Israeli? Is he Mossad? Maybe he had a girlfriend named Israel and wanted to show his stupidity love by tattooing her name on his neck.

He reportedly also has a tattoo of three dots on his wrist. Google “prison tattoos.”

He was able to get off multiple shots AT NIGHT at a substantial distance from a car. I'm not a professional marksman, but I think it would be formidable for a reportedly mentally challenged individual to get off multiple accurate shots from his distance on a clear sunny day, much less at night.

Authorities found a Romanian Cugir SA semi-automatic assault rifle with a large mounted scope in his car. Again, I'm not a professional marksman, but I don't think this is a BB gun. I have a feeling this gun can do some damage to adult elephants. By the way, this weapon has been encountered in numbers in Iraq.


Authorities also found three magazines loaded with 7.62 x 39 mm cartridges in his car. I’m not familiar with these rounds, but I do know I don’t want to get hit by one.

Bullet impacts were found on the second and third stories of the White House, which are the residence floors of the First Family. Did he know the windows to target?

How was it possible for a reportedly mentally challenged person to fire multiple high-caliber rounds into the White House from Constitution Avenue and escape the immediate security area without being detained?

Earlier in the day before he fired on the White House, Ortega-Hernandez was stopped by police officers in Arlington, VA at around 11:00 AM. At the time, the officers asked to search his car but Ortega-Hernandez refused. The officers took photos of Ortega-Hernandez and allowed him to go on his way.

More facts will undoubtedly filter out as this case proceeds.

Germany Is Preparing To Kick Countries Out Of Eurozone

Zero Hedge
Friday, November 18, 2011
It’s official – Germany has become just like China (or, rather, has always been like it): the more it is pushed to do something (let ECB print), the more it will do the opposite. Half a year ago we discussed that the weakest point of the European bailout language was its reliance on Collective Action Clauses which imply that any resolution which does not have 100% backing of all bondholders would potentially push a country into default. In essence, this took control out of the hands of the Eurozone head, Germany, and put it to the bondholders. Well, according to a preliminary draft released by the Telegraph and FT, as part of the new bailout indenture contained in the ESM, “under a section headed “The establishment of a procedure for an orderly default as part of the ESM”, Berlin makes clear that countries which are deemed to be insolvent – rather than just suffering a temporary loss of access to the financial markets – would be allowed, in effect, to declare bankruptcy and default on their bonds: If [a debt sustainability review] is negative, the affected member state would instead receive loans for a limited time only, during which the procedure for an orderly default would be prepared. In order to make sovereign defaults possible where they are unavoidable, the threat of instability in the financial system resulting from such a default must be able to be credibly excluded. A plan to maintain the stability of the financial system in the event of an orderly default needs to be developed in close co-operation with European banking regulators. This would determine which banks would be restructured and/or recapitalizes, which will necessitate the drawing up of Europe-wide rules on bank restructuring.” And as we discussed previously, the voluntary language will likely be taken out from the final draft, effectively giving Germany the unilateral ability to kick countries out. Which explains why the market is about to plunge: according to just released information from DPA, “the German Foreign Ministry on Friday confirmed that Germany was considering the possibility of more eurozone “orderly defaults” beyond that of Greece, as suggested by a paper leaked by the British press.” In essence, what this means is that instead of relenting on the ECB issue, which as every investment bank has said would be the end of the world unless massive printing is permitted, Germany would rather kick countries out of the Eurozone instead of entering a hyperinflationary collapse. Perhaps it is now time for the banks to start toning down their language on the imminent destruction that would ensue if the ECB does not print, as this is apparently not happening…

Our friends and rivals over at The Daily Telegraph have gotten their hands on an interesting document from the German government detailing its proposals for EU treaty change, and have helpfully posted it online (with an English translation by the Open Europe think thank).

Although the Telegraph focuses on its implications for Britain, there is a significant amount of detail on how Berlin would like to change eurozone economic governance, including yet another stab at enshrining bondholder “haircuts” in the EU treaties.

For those who haven’t followed the debate closely, there is now a closed-door fight going on about whether Greece really will be the only country that sees its bondholders pushed into losses – as the eurozone’s leaders have repeatedly insisted in their summit conclusions – or whether the bloc’s new €500bn rescue fund, which could come into place as early as next year, should allow for organised defaults.

Why is this a market moving event?

When broader default powers were mooted for the ESM at this time last year in a much-discussed agreement between France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel in the French seaside town of Deauville, bond markets swooned, sending Ireland and then Portugal into bail-outs. Days later, during a G20 meeting in Seoul, Merkel was forced to back down. But the issue clearly hasn’t died.

In other words, while everyone believes Germany has been boxed into a corner and has no choice but to relent on global demands to let the ECB do whatever France demands, Germany was making other plans all along. Such as having the opion to kick France out of the Eurozone if and when it so chooses.

Because after all, money talks. And in Europe, only Germany has the money. 

Activists press for closure of military training school

By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, November 19, 2011


Thousands of activists on Saturday marched on the controversial training base for soldiers from Latin American militaries formerly known as the School of the Americas, at Fort Benning, Georgia, to demand its closure.

“The figure that we have now, very conservative, is more than 4,000 people in Fort Benning Road, the main entrance to the military base,” Hendrik Voss, spokesman for the School of Americas Watch (SOAW), told AFP.

The institute, which each year trains hundreds of soldiers sent over from Latin America military, has renamed itself the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” or WHINSEC.

The activists called on President Barack Obama to close the school, which they argue costs US taxpayers millions of dollars that, they point out, “could be used to improve or build more public schools in the United States.”

Actor and supporter Martin Sheen, who was expected to address the crowd at Fort Benning on Sunday, said in a statement released by the activist group before traveling to Georgia that it was “from numerous acts of courage that human history has been shaped,” in a call for solidarity with the effort.

Seeking to emulate the ongoing “occupy” movement in the United States, where groups have camped out in New York, Washington and in major cities across the country, SOAW said the weekend rally at Fort Benning aimed “to transform Fort Benning from a place that trains assassins into a place of memory and nonviolent resistance.”

 Harrier jump jets culled in Britain find sanctuary in US

US military buys entire fleet of vertical-takeoff-and-landing warplanes scrapped in UK strategic defense review

Nick Hopkins 
guardian.co.UK, Tuesday 15 November 2011 14.55 EST 

A Harrier is attended by ground crew at an airbase in southern Italy in 1999, when the planes were involved in NATO attacks in the former Yugoslavia, Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Archive/Press Association Images

The Royal Navy's entire fleet of Harrier jump jets, the British plane controversially scrapped in last year's defense review, has been saved – by the US military.

All 74 of the planes, which were permanently grounded by the Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR), are to fly again for the US marines, in a deal that is expected to be closed within a week.

The Ministry of De-fence said negotiations were continuing but were in their final stages. And reports in the US suggested the marines were already confidently preparing for the Harriers' arrival.

The sale of the Harriers is bound to raise fresh questions about the wisdom of retiring the much-admired aircraft, which the Americans intend to use until 2025.

Speaking to the NavyTimes, Rear Admiral Mark Heinrich, chief of the US navy's supply corps, said buying the Harriers made sense because many of the jets had been recently upgraded, and the US already had pilots who could fly them.

"We're taking advantage of all the money the Brits have spent on them," he said. "It's like we're buying a car with maybe 15,000 miles on it. These are very good platforms. And we've already got trained pilots."

The US military already has its own fleet of Harriers, and converting the British planes to fire American missiles can be done relatively easily.

The price of the deal has not been disclosed, but Heinrich said the US was paying $50m (£32m) for spare parts alone.

The British Harriers have been kept in storage at RAF Cottesmore, in Rutland, where they have been maintained prior to sale.

Their retirement was criticized when the SDSR was published, last year, and again when British forces became involved in operations to defend Libyan civilians during the country's revolution.

The MoD has maintained, however, that it had no choice, because of cost-cutting forced upon a department where budgets were out of control.

Rear Admiral Chris Parry, a critic of SDSR, said: "The issue is not that the US marines are buying the Harriers: it's that the US still thinks that the Harriers are viable aircraft. They still think there is a need for them."

The MoD said it was negotiating the best deal it could, and that scrapping the Harrier would save hundreds of millions of pounds over the next decade.

Alternative fuel and cancer cure from salt water
Posted by PC
Special Report, World news
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011


You probably haven’t heard yet but an inventor, John Kanzius, created a device that can be used to cure cancer and then discovered an alternative fuel in salt water. Kanzius, an inventor, radio and TV engineer, one-time station owner and ham radio operator from Erie, Pennsylvania invented a method that has successfully treated cancer – inspired by his own such battle. He also demonstrated a device that generated flammable hydrogen containing gas from salt-water-solution by the use of radio waves. Kanzius discovered that under the right conditions, salt water can burn at high temperatures.

Kanzius’ journey began with a leukemia diagnosis in 2003. Faced with the prospect of debilitating chemotherapy, he decided he would try to invent a better alternative for destroying cancerous cells. What he came up with is his radio frequency generator (RFG), a machine that generates radio waves and focuses them into a concentrated area. Kanzius used the RFG to heat small metallic particles inserted into tumors, destroying the tumors without harming normal cells.

What does a cancer treatment have to do with burning salt water?

During a demonstration of the RFG, an observer noticed that it was causing water in a nearby test tube to condense. If the RFG could make water condense, it could theoretically separate salt out of seawater. Perhaps, then, it could be used to desalinize water, an issue of global proportions. The old seaman’s adage “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink” applies inland as well: Some nations are drying up and their populations suffering from thirst, yet the world is 70 percent ocean water. An effective means of removing salt from salt water could save countless lives. So it’s no surprise that Kanzius trained his RFG on the goal of salt water desalinization.

During his first test, however, he noticed a surprising side effect. When he aimed the RFG at a test tube filled with seawater, it sparked. This is not a normal reaction by water.

Kanzius tried the test again, this time lighting a paper towel and touching it to the water while the water was in the path of the RFG. He got an even bigger surprise — the test tube ignited and stayed alight while the RFG was turned on.

News of the experiment was generally met with allegations of it being a hoax, but after Penn State University chemists got their hands on the RFG and tried their own experiments, they found it was indeed true. The RFG could ignite and burn salt water. The flame could reach temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit and burn as long as the RFG was on and aimed at it.

But how could salt water possibly ignite? It has to do with hydrogen. In its normal state, salt water has a stable composition of sodium chloride (the salt) and hydrogen and oxygen (the water). But the radio waves from Kanzius’ RFG disrupts that stability, breaking the bonds that hold the chemicals in salt water together. This releases the combustible hydrogen molecules, and the heat output from the RFG ignites them and burns them indefinitely.



Japan manufactured hydrogen fueled Honda FCX Clarity

So will our cars soon run on salt water instead of gasoline? The US and Japan automakers have already produced cars and trucks that run on hydrogen fuel. With such a device, instead of using gasoline to power our cars and trucks we can now power them with water. Using water as a fuel is environmentally friendly. Hydrogen fuel from water has zero emissions. No more worries of catastrophic oil spills. An end to global warming. No more wars to seize control of the oil reserves of foreign states. A cure for cancer. 

Patrick Cockburn: Greece in a state of shock as Troika reforms take effect


World View: A sense of injustice is growing. Elite politicians and notorious wrongdoers appear immune as ordinary Greeks reel from wage and job cuts


Sunday, 23 October 2011



REUTERS

A nation in paralysis: rival groups of protesters clash in Syntagma Square, central Athens, last week
enlarge



Up close, the most striking feature of the reforms being forced on Greece by its international creditors is their destructiveness and futility. The pay cuts, tax rises, cuts and job losses agreed to by parliament in Athens last week will serve only to send the economy into a steeper tailspin, even if it extracted a much-needed €8bn in bailout money from the EU leaders. "Nothing but a lost war could be worse than this situation," one left-wing ex-minister tells me. "What is worse, no party or political group in Greece is offering real solutions to our crisis."


On the right, there are similar lamentations. Asked if there is the possibility of a revolution in response to current disasters, Simos Kedikoglou, an MP from the opposition New Democracy party, says, "I wish there could be a revolution." He argues that a revolution might at least have a sense of purpose and direction but "we are in a state of shock, and the danger, rather, is that we will have a social eruption, because people have lost hope".

The mass rallies and 48-hour general strike that paralysed Greece last week were a sign of how far Greeks feel the reforms insisted upon by the Troika – the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission – are a recipe for a permanent collapse in living standards. The marches were bigger than before and socially more diverse. Smartly dressed women working for new technology companies and retired bank officials mixed uneasily with garbage and dock workers, but all had a similar complaint: their incomes are being cut past the point where they can make ends meet. 

Obama Ordered To Denver Bunker By US Military

Posted by EU Times on Sep 14th, 2011 

 

A disturbing report prepared by General Alexey Maslov, the Senior Military Representative of the Permanent Mission of Russia to NATO, states that he has been notified by the Americans of their plan to hold a DEFCON 1 “Cocked Pistol” maximum readiness alert drill on 27 September which will be overseen by President Obama at one the United States most secure bunkers located beneath the Denver International Airport.

Under the SALT I Strategic Nuclear Arms Control Agreementsigned between Russia and the US, both parties are required to notify the other in all cases of such maximum readiness drills occurring, but are not required to state their reasons for doing so.

General Maslov states in his report, though, his concern over this drill is “heightened” due to last months nuclear attack on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) branch of the intercontinental military tunnel complex between Washington D.C. and Denver, and which we reported on in our 24 August report Russia Reports Nuclear Explosions Hit Vast US Military Tunnel Network.

Important to note is that shortly after the devastating attacks on American on 11 September 2001, the Bush regime moved to completely militarize the CIA by placing as its Director former US Air Force General Michael Hayden who served in that capacity until February, 2009 when Obama then put in place the former US Army intelligence officer Leon Panetta to run this most powerful of spy agencies. After Panetta, Obama put Americas top general David Petraeus in charge of the CIA barely a week after the aforementioned nuclear attack upon it.

The fears of both the Bush and Obama regimes regarding the CIA were due to their complicity in the 11 September 2001 attacks upon America utilizing their al Qaeda terror network headed by their main asset Osama bin Laden, otherwise known by his code name of “Tim Osman,” that was run jointly with Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and funded by the Saudi royal family.

Important to note is that Russian intelligence services were long aware of the CIA-ISI “Tim Osman” operation after it had been infiltrated by top FSB agent Viktor Bout who delivered to Marvin Bush, President George Bush’s younger brother, and Wirt Walker III, George Bush’s cousin the approximately 15 tonnes of Russian military PVV-5A Plastic Explosive plastic explosives used to bring down the World Trade Center buildings.

In our 1 September 2010 report US-Russia Bidding War For 9/11 “Merchant Of Death” Reaches $20 Billion we detailed this sordid plot and, in part, stated:

“Important to note about Marvin Bush and Wirt Walker III is that at the time of the 9/11 attacks they were both directors of the American security company named Stratesec (formally known as Securacom) which was given a $8.3 million contract to help provide security at the World Trade Center and which the weekend prior to the attacks completely closed this massive skyscraper complex for 36 hours to “upgrade” its security system.

Now Bout in being curious, to say the least, as to why the Bush Family needed so much Russian explosives for their “upgrade” of the World Trade Center complex was “invited” by Marvin Bush to come to New York City to watch “the big show”, an offer Bout did not refuse. And so the night prior to 9/11 Bout traveled to New York City where he was met by Bush “operatives” working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), who “coincidentally” had scheduled an emergency exercise for the morning of September 11, 2001 that all too soon became real.

Bout was given a FEMA security pass that gave him unhindered access to the aftermath of the catastrophic attacks upon the World Trade Center complex which these reports document he took full advantage of. Unfortunately for the Americans though was that Bout’s “visit” wearing his FEMA “credentials” was filmed by FEMA’s official videographer Kurt Sonnenfeld, who was the only film maker given unrestricted access to the 9/11 site.”

The “main conduit” for Saudi Arabian cash used to finance the “Tim Osman” operation was identified by Bout in his FSB reports as being Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife Anoud(a grand niece of Saudi King Abdullah ) who lived in Sarasota, Florida, and who just days prior to the 11 September 2011 attacks suddenly left all of their possessions and returned home. Though the US Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) was quick to state that the Hijji’s had no connection with the Saudi hijackers it is more than curious to note that nearly all of them were recorded visiting them in the days prior to the attacks.

The importance of noting the CIA-ISI-Saudi connection to the attacks upon America on 11 September 2001 with the Obama’s planned 27 September “Cocked Pistol” alert is due to General Maslov warning in his report that this unprecedented drill occurring in Denver on that date could very well likely be related to threats made against the United States by both Saudi Arabia and Israel over the upcoming UN General Assembly vote to declare Palestinian statehood.

Where Israel commands vast resources within the United States to elect government officials, including Presidents, and who have fallen out of favor with Obama over his polices towards Israel, former Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal warned yesterday that unless the Obama regime voted for Palestinian statehood, “Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has” and the “chances of another war in the region” would be assured.

As we had warned about in our 28 May report Obama Vows War On Saudi Arabia, Orders Thousands Of US Troops To Region, and our 23 June report Nuclear Attack On US Warned Imminent As Saudi War Nears, the United States plans for all-out global war are well in place and are now awaiting the “spark” that will set it off.

To if the date of 27 September when Obama will be in Denver will be the date this “spark” is set off it is not in our knowing. What is in our knowing, though, is that since the CIA transferred their headquarters to Denver in 2005 under the mysterious airport [second photo right] with bizarre murals dep4th photos right] picturing mass global death, particularly between Israelis and Palestinians, the questions as to who, or what, actually controls the United States today remains in question.

And when this information is coupled with the fact that icting [3rd and27 September is one of the most significant dates in American history because on that date, in 1777, after British troops captured Philadelphia, Lancaster, Pennsylvania became the United States capitol for that single day, the first time such a thing occurred in all of that nations history, and it is, also, the date that Comet Elenin enters into its feared alignment with the Earth, Sun and Moon with many believing these conjunctions are responsible for catastrophic earthquakes and tsunamis, and nearly all of NASA’s top officials and scientists will be in Denver on that date too, one can be justifiably perplexed as to the many meanings these events have.

But, to the greater meaning of all of these things it has been best stated by Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, who warned the American people about the future to come:

“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the U.S., in the field of commerce and manufacturing, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”

And to understand these words are to understand everything, especially what is to come. No one, therefore, can say that they were never warned, only that they didn’t listen.

23 AUGUST 2011

The Mineral, VA earthquake of August 23, 2011 – UPDATED

Posted by Callan

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This afternoon, I finished with classes, and packed up my bag, and headed out into the bright afternoon sunlight to head home and work from there. Just in front of my building, I ran into one of my star pupils, Victoria, and had a conversation with her. I’m really glad that I ran into her, because if I hadn’t I might have been in my car at the moment the earthquake hit. Instead, Victoria and I wrapped up our conversation and then I felt a weird vibration come up my legs (through the soles of my sneakers) from the concrete walkway (P waves). I asked her, “Do you feel that?” and crouched down. She answered “Yes,” right as we wobbled side to side a bit (S waves) and then suddenly the whole campus started shaking (surface waves). Trees were swaying, and leaves rustling, and plate glass windows on the English building were undulating like water. No glass broke, but the outpouring of students and faculty from the buildings was immediate. There was only one student freaked out and crying that I saw. Everyone else was wide-eyed with wonder. As you can imagine, they had a lot of questions for the geology professors on the scene. It didn’t take long until the geology “fan club” students and geology professors Shelley Jaye and Chris Khourey joined me in front of the science building. We all engaged with the discombobulated populace and answered their questions, augmented by my iPad’s access to Twitter and the USGS website on the event.

The earthquake turned out to be nothing like the last quake I felt on campus: it was much larger (magnitude 5.8, upgraded to 5.9, downgraded to 5.8 again, as opposed to 2.1 last time) and it was much further away (72 miles, as opposed to 1 km last time). Its epicenter (the spot on the Earth’s surface directly above the spot where the rock moved), was located near Mineral, Virginia (appropriately enough). It was apparently the state’s most powerful quake since 1897.

I took a copy of the simplified geologic map of Virginia produced by Chuck Bailey of William & Mary, and overlay it onto Google Earth, and you can see that the epicenter (which is practically the hypocenter, given how very shallow this quake occurred!) is squarely in the middle of the Piedmont province, a zone of mashed-up and recrystallized oceanic rocks that got scraped off a subducted slab of oceanic lithosphere and added to North America in a “Pacific Northwest” style event hundreds of millions of years ago.

This Piedmont of Virginia was a zone of intense mountain-building (and faulting, and earthquakes) between 460 and 250 million years ago, during the time of the Appalachian Orogenies, a series of tectonic collisions that added new crust to the southeastern edge of North America. It is very possible that one of these ancient faults was reactivated in today’s event.

One of these is prominent in the geologic map above, although its trend does not match that of the earthquake’s focal mechanism.

The earthquake’s focal mechanism may surprise you: it’s got a “reverse” sense of motion, meaning that the block of crust above the fault moved up with respect to the block of rock below the fault. From the focal mechanism (as shown in this beach ball diagram), it appears that the fault plane is either dipping steeply to the west or moderately to the east:

I grabbed a detail of the Geologic Map of Virginia from here and overlayed it on Google Earth with the coordinates of the epicenter as provided by the USGS, and got this:

You can see that the dominant structural trend of the region is northeast-trending. That fits pretty well with the beach ball diagram above. However, there are also younger faults (some of them related to Atlantic rifting and the breakup of Pangea, others to the Chesapeake Bay impact structure) that cross-cut the older rocks and older faults. One prominent one in the map immediately above trends towards the southwest, disrupting the “Appalachian” structure and offsetting it with an apparent right-lateral sense of displacement.

UPDATE: Since I posted this, I got an e-mail from Chuck Bailey, and he attached this map, which he encouraged me to share far and wide. It shows the major faults in the area, and historical seismicity, including today’s quake:

That provides a little bit of context, eh? Looks as if the Spotsylvania and Lakeside Faults are suspects. Thanks, Chuck!

So what’s with that “reverse fault” focal mechanism anyhow?

As I mentioned a few weeks back when detailing my ascent of Darton Peak, similar reverse faults are known from the Piedmont. Here’s “the Darton Fault” in DC, where very recent faulting has placed Piedmont metamorphic rocks on top of “Coastal Plain” gravels:

One possible explanation to make sense of a reverse sense of motion on such a young fault (younger than the youngest strata it cuts across) is differential rebound of the crust due to isostatic adjustments. As the east coast is eroded, rock material is removed, and that changes how much the crust weighs in that area. Changes in how much weight is pushing down on the rock can result in changes to the stress field that rocks (or pre-existing fractures in rocks) are subject to. If that change results in a greater stress than the strength of the rock (or the friction holding the fault still), then you get movement, and that generates an earthquake.

The area of today’s quake is known as the Central Virginia Seismic Zone, a designation that came about because in the past there were plenty of (small) earthquakes felt in this area. Why exactly are there more quakes there than elsewhere in Virginia? We’re not really sure. But the pattern is clear enough that the USGS felt obliged to designate that swath as higher in risk than other regions of the Commonwealth:

(Image modified from here)

Note that this is an area where we’ve had earthquakes before, and will have earthquakes again (like the 2 aftershocks we’ve already had). Before anyone starts getting worked up about the SuperMoon or 2012 or some other such hooey du jour, please realize that this is merely the Earth doing what the Earth does. It’s a bit bigger than the usual east coast earthquake, and it was felt a bit more widely, but this is pretty much par for the course.

The waves were detected by the EarthScope array in the midwest: what a beautiful visualization of the energy traveling out from Virginia! You should download the whole 2.5 MB file to watch.

The North Anna Nuclear Power Station is located near the epicenter. This worries me a bit, but it looks as if the plant is so far doing fine on its diesel generator backup power system. It would be a shame to have central Virginia become the next Fukushima. I’ll keep you posted on what I hear about Lake Anna.

The seismic energy from the quake seems to have traveled along the “structural grain” of the Appalachian mountain belt to the northeast, and was felt as far as New York, New Hampshire, and Boston, if Twitter can be believed. Interestingly, it didn’t seem to travel as far to the south, and that may have to do with the orientation of that red wedge in the beach ball diagram – it’s oriented to the northeast, whereas the corresponding southwestern compressive wedge was mainly oriented down into the earth. Some folks in Tennessee and South Carolina felt it, though. Overall, seismic waves are transmitted more efficiently through compact, elastic materials. East coast rocks are relatively old and cold, and thus more dense and more capable of transmitting seismic energy. California and the west, in contrast, has a higher rate of heat flow through the crust and so those rocks are more “poofed out” by being warm — they take up more volume, and so it’s harder for seismic energy to swiftly pass through them. Furthermore, in comparing the great distance that these waves traveled to a similar magnitude event in California, it’s worth keeping in mind that many of the fractures which would retard the transmission of seismic energy in the east have been sealed shut by mineral veins, while a lot of the west coast’s fractures are still relatively fresh. It’s hard for seismic energy to cross empty space. Those two factors –temperature and fracturing– may have something to do with explaining why this event was felt so widely up and down the eastern seaboard.

I spoke to the Washington Post and EARTH magazine on my drive home, and got home to find that I had a new crack in my wall, and that my cat was hiding in the closet and wouldn’t even come out for food. My wife reported that a bunch of things jumped around, and that one glass fell off the counter to shatter on the floor. All in all, a mild damage report for our humble abode.

This post will be updated later with more information as I learn it.   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Earthquake Details

• This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

Air & Space

Solar Tsunami to Strike Earth

Published August 03, 2010

| FoxNews.com

Flames soar 250m into the air as Mount Etna erupts for eighth time this year

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Last updated at 1:33 PM on 1st August 2011

Flames and sparks were sent 250 metres into the air when Mount Etna erupted for the eighth time this year.

The volcanic blast on Saturday night saw flows of lava trailing down its Sicilian slopes.

But as winds were blowing the ash away from the nearby Catania airport towards the Ionian Sea - no flights out of the Italian island were cancelled or delayed.

Scroll down for video of the eruption...

Dramatic: The sky over Mount Etna is alive with flame and sparks as it erupted for the eighth time this year

Bright display: The eruption saw sparks thrown 250 metres up against the night sky and lava flowing down Etna's slopes

Volcanic cloud: But winds were blowing the ash away from the nearby Catania airport towards the Ionian Sea - so no flights out of the Italian island were cancelled or delayed

Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe at 3,295 metres (10,810ft).

An eruption in May, the fifth of 2011, caused chaos when lava spewed on to its south-eastern slopes and winds swept ash further afield, stopping flights at Catania's airport.

The eruption was also blamed by bemused Siciilians, for knocking their clocks 15 minutes fast.

Elaborate $225 MILLION Welfare Housing Project For Non-Citizens Paid For By Social Security !

The Libyan War ends. Obama makes Moscow peace broker. NATO halts strikes

 
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 14, 2011, 11:42 AM (GMT+02:00)

Pro-Qaddafi rally in Tripoli

Bar the shouting, the war in Libya virtually ended Thursday morning, July 14, when US President Barack Obama called Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to hand Moscow the lead role in negotiations with Muammar Qaddafi for ending the conflict - provided only that the Libyan ruler steps down in favor of a transitional administration.
The US president thus accepted the Russian-Libyan formula for ending the war over the heads of the NATO chiefs who rejected it when they met Russian leaders at the Black Sea resort of Sochi last week.

DEBKAfile's sources note that this same proposal first came from the Libyan ruler himself four months ago: On April 4, just ten days after NATO launched its air operation on behalf of the Libyan rebels, Qaddafi sent emissaries to Athens to propose Greek Prime Minister Georges Papandreou as mediator. The heads of NATO, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron, turned him down, certain at the time they were within easy reach of a quick victory to topple him.

By the time Obama had decided to call Medvedev, individual governments which had spearheaded the anti-Qaddafi campaign were quietly melting away.
From Saturday, July 9, DEBKAfile's military sources report, NATO discontinued its air strikes against Libyan pro-government targets in Tripoli and other places.  The halt though unannounced was nonetheless an admission that 15,000 flight missions and 6,000 bombardments of Qaddafi targets had failed to achieve their object: Col. Qaddafi, without deploying a single fighter jet, firing an anti-air missile or activating terrorist cells in Europe, had waited for NATO to run out of steam and was still in power.

In an overview of the war to British air force commanders Wednesday, July 13, British Defense Secretary Liam Fox remarked that while no one knows when it will end, British ground corps, naval and air forces do not have the means to continue the war.

He admitted candidly that sustaining the high tempo of air strikes by RAF Tornado and Typhoons, as well as Navy warships and Army Apache attack helicopters, did "increase the pressure on both personnel and equipment as planning assumptions are tested, and it tests the ability of defense companies to support front-line operations."

In early June, DEBKAfile's military sources reported that NATO was short of warplanes for enforcing the no- fly zone over Libyan air space approved by the UN Security Council, its arsenals of smart bombs and missiles were depleted and its stocks of munitions and replacement parts almost down to zero.
This has now been confirmed by the British defense secretary, who added that British and European military industries lack the capacity for supporting a war effort that goes beyond a few weeks.

Our military sources disclose that Italy, a key player in NATO's military effort, last week secretly withdrew its Air Force Garibaldi-551 planes from the campaign – dealing the operation another grave setback.
And in the last 10 days, France has also scaled back the military assets it had invested in the fighting after despairing of the anti-Qaddafi rebels based in Benghazi ever making headway against Qaddafi's forces. First, Paris tried to transfer its backing from Benghazi to the secessionist Berber tribes fighting Qaddafi in Western Libya. On June 30, President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered weapons to be parachuted to the tribal fighters in western Libya, contrary to UN and NATO decisions. But the Berbers preferred to use the French guns for plundering towns and villages instead of fighting government forces.

On Monday, July 11, after that experience, Defense Secretary Gerard Longuet said it was time for talks to begin between Qaddafi and the rebels. Paris, he said, had asked the two sides to begin negotiations.

This was backhanded confirmation of the claim Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam made to the French media that his father was engaged in contacts for ending the war through emissaries who met with President Sarkozy.

While Minister Longuet said the Libyan ruler cannot stay in power, he refrained from demanding his ouster by force or his expulsion from the country. This formula therefore came close to Qaddafi's terms for ending the war.

DEBKAfile's diplomatic sources hail the agreement Presidents Obama and Medvedev reached on terms for negotiating the war's end with Muammar Qaddafi as a major victory for the Libyan ruler and a resounding fiasco for NATO.

It also knocks over the international war crimes tribunal's demand to extradite Qaddafi and his sons as war criminals.
Instead of sitting in the dock of the world court, they will now take their seats at the negotiating table for a deal one of whose objects will be to rescue NATO from the humiliation of defeat at war. But its main purpose will be to agree on the shape of a regime for the transition to democracy and its makeup. Qaddafi, while consenting to step down, will not doubt insist on his sons and loyalists being co-opted with full privileges to the future administration in Tripoli. The rebels will take up the offer for lack of any other options.
Libyan diplomacy is liable to be protracted and exhausting with many ups and downs and perhaps even limited military engagements on the ground.

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For Immediate Release

 The fact that Supreme Courts are now attacking the very Constitution they are supposed to uphold is proof that America has been hijacked by rogue criminal elements who are busy dismantling everything that once made the country a beacon of liberty for the world.

While You Were Sleeping, They Abolished the Fourth Amendment                                                                                                Debate Over: The United States has official entered the annuls of history as a Soviet-style police state

Two recent Supreme Court cases have served to virtually abolish the Fourth Amendment in the United States of America, with citizens no longer being “secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”In a precedent described by dissenting justices as “breathtaking” and “unnecessarily broad,” the Indiana Supreme Court ruled last week in a 3-2 vote that doing anything to resist police busting down your door and conducting an illegal search is now a criminal act.

“[We] hold that the right to reasonably resist an unlawful police entry into a home is no longer recognized under Indiana law,” the court ruled in the case of Richard L. Barnes v. Indiana.

Dissenting Justices Brent E. Dickson and Robert D. Rucker made it clear that the ruling represented a total rejection of rights enshrined in the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution.

“In my view, the wholesale abrogation of the historic right of a person to reasonably resist unlawful police entry into his dwelling is unwarranted and unnecessarily broad,” Dickson wrote.

“In my view it is breathtaking that the majority deems it appropriate or even necessary to erode this constitutional protection based on a rationale addressing much different policy considerations,” added Rucker. “There is simply no reason to abrogate the common law right of a citizen to resist the unlawful police entry into his or her home.”