Archive for June 23, 2012

Earth Watch Report – Sunday , June 24th, 2012

Filed under: Biological Hazard, Diseases, Earthquakes, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Global Disaster Watch, Magnetic North Pole, meteors — Leave a comment

June 23, 2012

Earthquakes

RSOE EDIS

Date/Time (UTC)	Magnitude	Area	Country	State/Prov./Gov.	Location	Risk	Source	Details
24.06.2012 03:55:29	4.9	Asia	Japan	Iwate-ken	Shirahama		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 03:45:57	4.6	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia	Propinsi Maluku	Isu		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 03:20:34	3.7	North America	United States	Alaska	Kaktovik		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 03:05:23	2.0	North America	United States	Hawaii	ÂAinapÃ¶		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 02:40:29	4.9	Pacific Ocean	New Zealand	Woodville County	Horoera		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 02:15:34	2.1	North America	United States	California	Mercuryville		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 03:10:30	4.2	North America	United States	Alaska	Kaktovik		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 02:10:33	4.3	North America	United States	Alaska	Kaktovik		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 02:25:21	4.2	North America	United States	Alaska	Kaktovik		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 02:05:42	2.4	North America	United States	California	Pinnacles		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 02:00:29	2.2	North America	United States	Alaska	Naptowne		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 01:50:25	2.6	North America	United States	Washington	Stillwater		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 01:50:51	3.2	Caribbean	Dominican Republic	Provincia de La Altagracia	El Algibe		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 02:00:52	4.5	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia		Simatorkis		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 00:30:37	2.5	North America	United States	California	Castle Rock Springs		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 23:51:03	5.3	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia		Simatorkis		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 00:40:39	3.0	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Guanajiro Homes		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 22:15:33	2.1	North America	United States	California	San Benito		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 21:25:40	2.5	Caribbean	British Virgin Islands		The Settlement		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 21:06:06	4.3	Asia	Turkey	Antalya Ili	Cerdin		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 20:56:09	5.0	Pacific Ocean	Fiji		Matokana		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 20:16:31	2.2	Middle America	Mexico	Estado de Baja California	Heriberto Jafa		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 20:17:57	4.7	Europe	Greece	Nomos )) (( Piraios	Kounina		USGS-RSOE
24.06.2012 03:25:23	2.9	North America	United States	Alaska	Kaktovik		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 18:26:28	2.2	North America	United States	Nevada	Scottys Junction		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 18:05:49	2.4	North America	United States	California	Caldwell Pines		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 16:45:35	2.4	North America	United States	Alaska	Kanatak		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 16:41:39	3.5	Pacific Ocean	New Zealand	Woodville County	Herbertville		GEONET
23.06.2012 15:45:30	2.0	North America	United States	Hawaii	ÂAinapÃ¶		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 23:11:11	2.9	Pacific Ocean	New Zealand	Woodville County	Summer		GEONET
23.06.2012 14:32:28	2.6	North America	United States	California	Aromas		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 14:32:28	2.6	North America	United States	California	Aromas		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 13:30:54	4.7	Indonesian archipelago	Papua New Guinea		Matatai		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 11:50:40	2.2	North America	United States	Hawaii	Royal Gardens		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 11:51:01	2.6	North America	United States	Alaska	Nuchek		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 11:40:37	2.1	North America	United States	California	Bryson		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 11:51:22	3.1	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Aguacate		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 10:45:37	2.4	North America	United States	Alaska	Valdez		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 11:30:33	2.8	Caribean	Puerto Rico		Aguacate		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 10:20:40	2.4	North America	United States	California	China Lake		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 11:20:56	3.2	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Aguacate		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 09:55:45	5.0	North America	United States	Alaska	Happy Valley		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 10:05:34	5.1	North America	United States	Alaska	Happy Valley		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 10:30:34	4.7	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia		Wulur		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 23:11:40	3.1	Pacific Ocean	New Zealand	Woodville County	Courtenay		GEONET
23.06.2012 09:20:34	2.6	North America	United States	Nevada	Incline Village		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 09:20:59	2.1	Middle America	Mexico	Estado de Baja California	Las Catitas		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 09:41:03	4.2	South America	Chile	Region del Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins	El Maqui		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 13:10:40	3.2	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Aguacate		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 11:10:59	3.0	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Aguacate		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 09:00:48	4.0	Pacific Ocean	New Zealand	Woodville County	Darfield		GEONET
23.06.2012 11:25:39	2.9	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Aguacate		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 07:50:38	2.1	North America	United States	California	Iceland		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 10:40:53	2.8	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Aguacate		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 09:10:46	2.6	North America	United States	Texas	Egan		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 07:40:58	2.4	North America	United States	California	Muir		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 07:00:34	2.6	North America	United States	Utah	Commonwealth Square Condominium		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 06:55:33	5.9	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia		Keudeampontuan		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 06:20:33	2.4	North America	United States	Alaska	Happy Valley		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 06:00:34	4.2	North America	United States	California	Iceland		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 05:50:31	4.5	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia	Propinsi Maluku	Lautong		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 05:20:46	2.4	North America	United States	Alaska	Kanatak		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 05:06:03	3.1	North America	United States	Utah	Bloomington Hills		USGS-RSOE

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Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

First 100-Degree Day for Dallas, Houston This Weekend

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

Dallas, Houston and other cities throughout the southern midsection of the United States are set to endure their first 100-degree day of the year this weekend.

Soaring temperatures is the theme for this weekend across the nation’s southern midsection as a large dome of high pressure and heat takes up residence overhead.

Highs in the 90s will be common from Nebraska and eastern Colorado to the western Gulf Coast on today with temperatures cracking the 100-degree mark from Denver, Colo., to Dodge City, Kan., and Wichita Falls, Texas.

On Sunday, the triple-digit heat will expand significantly and encompass nearly every community from eastern Colorado and Kansas to Texas.

Sunday’s 100-degree heat will be the first of the year for not only Houston and Dallas in Texas, but also Shreveport, La., Oklahoma City, Okla., and Wichita, Kan.

The triple-digit heat comes unusually early for Houston despite what happened in 2011. Houston set a record for its earliest 100-degree day on June 2 of last year, but such an occurrence typically waits until July 20 to take place and failed to occur until August 15 in 2010.

It is more common for Dallas to experience its first 100-degree day in late June. June 30 is the average day for this to occur and the city has not failed to record a 100-degree day before July the past four years.

Once firmly in place on Sunday, the triple-digit heat will continue to bake Houston, Dallas and all of Texas through at least Tuesday. Likely contributing to the heat early next week will be dry air wrapping around soon-to-be Tropical Storm Debby.

Recording three consecutive days of 100-degree heat is quite unusual for Houston. Cooling effects from the Gulf of Mexico typically hold the city’s number of 100-degree days for an entire year to three.

Summer to Take a Hiatus in the East Next Week

By Brian Edwards, Meteorologist

After several days of record heat across the country, the East is about to get a big break as temperatures fall below normal.

Records were broken Wednesday and Thursday from Boston to New York City and Washington, D.C., with several places reaching the century mark for the first time this summer!

The extreme heat was short-lived, though, as a cold front that tracked into the East set the stage for heat-busting thunderstorms Friday evening.

Temperatures returned to closer to normal in the wake of the front, but will remain slightly above typical late June highs on Sunday. This warm weather, however, won’t last either.

Another cold front will move into the East Sunday night into Monday, bringing more showers and thunderstorms to Albany, New York City, Atlantic City, and Dover.

Behind this next front, a large dip in the jet stream will form over the mid-Atlantic and Northeast for the early and middle part of next week. This is the same dip in the jet stream that could steer future Tropical Storm Debby toward Florida.

Cool air will filter into the Northeast beginning Monday with many places failing to reach the 80-degree mark, especially over New England. At the same time, a massive heat wave will continue building over the Plains.

Readings in the 70s will then make it into Philadelphia, New York City and Baltimore by Tuesday with some places like Binghamton, N.Y., and Burlington, Vt., stuck in the 60s.

What a difference from the last couple of days.

City	High Sunday	High Monday	High Tuesday
Philadelphia	87	80	76
New York City	84	78	76
Boston	82	73	74
Binghamton	80	68	68

Along with the cool air, there will be ample opportunity for clouds along with pop-up shower and thunderstorm activity each afternoon and evening over New England and parts of the mid-Atlantic.

The best chance for these showers and storms will be over New England, closer to where the coolest air will be located.

Below-normal temperatures will persist through the latter part of the week before a steady warming trend commences into next weekend.

Red Flag Warning

FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE

DENVER CO
GRAND JUNCTION CO
LAS VEGAS NV
ELKO NV
MISSOULA MT
SALT LAKE CITY UT

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Storms, Flooding

Tropical Storm Debby Forms; Gulf Coast on Alert

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

This NOAA satellite image captured Tropical Storm Debby as it was taking shape Saturday afternoon.

Tropical Storm Debby has formed and now has its eyes set on the Gulf Coast.

Debby developed about 220 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River at 5 p.m. EDT Saturday, according to the AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center.

Debby broke a record by just forming, but what is more concerning to the AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center is where the tropical storm will track.

As AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Brian Edwards stated on Friday, there are two main factors that could influence Debby’s movement–a dip in the jet stream diving into the East Coast and a large ridge of high pressure building over and baking the Plains.

Debby will continue to crawl northward this weekend, but should get steered to the west-southwest toward Texas or northern Mexico as the ridge of high pressure expands. Given this solution, landfall would likely be delayed until the middle or latter part of next week.

This track should eventually put Debby in an environment conducive for further strengthening, giving the tropical storm the opportunity to become a hurricane.

Even though Debby is expected to track away from Florida, additional tropical moisture and downpours could still be directed across the state through early next week.

It is not out of the question, however, that Florida becomes the target of Debby. If the dip in the jet stream drops southward quicker than expected, Debby could reverse course and cross northern or central Florida early next week.

The strong winds of the jet stream would prevent Debby from rapidly strengthening if it indeed approaches Florida, but flooding rain would remain a serious concern.

Flooding downpours and isolated tornadoes are already threatening Florida, especially its western coast, and will continue to do so through the weekend with Debby churning offshore.

Surf will also continue to build and the danger of rip currents will significantly heighten along the eastern and central Gulf Coasts into Sunday.

The danger of rough surf will expand to the western Gulf Coast as Debby turns westward.

All residents along the Gulf Coast and even into the Southeast are urged to check back with the AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center for the latest on Tropical Storm Debby.

Landfall or Not, Debby Poses Hazards to Florida

By Bill Deger, Meteorologist

This NOAA satellite image captured Tropical Storm Debby as it was taking shape Saturday afternoon.

The official track of Debby takes the tropical storm toward Texas, but there are still dangers for Florida.

Showers and thunderstorms were streafloridaming across Florida Saturday afternoon as Tropical Storm Debby took shape in the east-central Gulf of Mexico.

The AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center expects Debby to track toward Texas, but cautions that that path is not set in stone. It is not out of the question that Debby gets steered into northern or central Florida early next week.

Regardless of where Debby tracks, Florida will face downpours capable of causing flash flooding and ruining outdoor plans for scores of Floridians and vacationers alike.

While all of Florida will be at risk for a soaking at some point into Sunday, the western half of the state will bear the brunt of the heaviest rain and thunderstorms (a handful capable of spawning isolated tornadoes).

By Monday, several inches of rain will have fallen in locations such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Naples and Fort Myers.

Though most residents are accustomed to the low-lying and flash street flooding that are a staple in Florida thundershowers, the frequent nature of the downpours this weekend could prove to be problematic.

Repeated gully-washers will allow water to pile up deeper on some roadways, slowing travel and making even simple drives more difficult.

Those brave few souls planning on venturing to the Panhandle, Big Bend, Suncoast and Southwest Beaches this weekend will probably want to think twice, and not just because of the rain.

Rough surf, rip currents and gusty winds will make swimming and bathing in the Gulf hazardous. If you must enter the ocean, try to go in no farther than knee-deep.

Rough surf and rip currents are also dangers at the beaches of Alabama, Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana.

Beyond Sunday, additional showers and thunderstorms with potentially flooding downpours will get pulled across Florida even as Debby heads westward.

A greater risk of flooding will unfold if Debby steers off its expected track and takes aim at Florida early next week, a potential all residents and visitors of Florida should closely monitor.

Tropical Storm Warning

NEW ORLEANS LA
NE GULF N OF 25N E OF 87W-
N CENTRAL GULF INCLUDING FLOWER GARDEN BANKS MARINE SANCTUARY-
CENTRAL GULF FROM 22N TO 26N BETWEEN 87W AND 94W-

Severe Thunderstorm Warning

GREAT FALLS MT

Tornado Warning

GREAT FALLS MT

Flash Flood Warning

CARIBOU ME

23.06.2012

Flash Flood

Japan

Wakayama Prefecture,

Flash Flood in Japan on Saturday, 23 June, 2012 at 03:45 (03:45 AM) UTC.

Description

Large parts of southern Wakayama city were inundated with water as a rainy front and a low-pressure system brought heavy precipitation over a wide area from the Kyushu to Kanto regions from Thursday through Friday morning. Wakayama saw 179 millimeters of rainfall during the 24-hour period to early Friday morning, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Kawachi-Nagano, Osaka Prefecture, recorded 155.5 millimeters and Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, 103 millimeters. All were record amounts for June in each city. The Wadagawa river in Wakayama rose, causing irrigation ditches connected to the river to overflow and flooding rice paddies and roads over a seven-kilometer-long area along the river. Torrential rain also hit the Tokai and Kanto regions Friday morning, with 47 millimeters of hourly rainfall pouring down Haneda, Tokyo, 39 millimeters in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, and 38 millimeters in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo.

23.06.2012

Flood

Afghanistan

Province of Ghor , [Ghor-wide]

Flood in Afghanistan on Saturday, 23 June, 2012 at 17:39 (05:39 PM) UTC.

Description

Flash floods have swept northern Afghanistan, killing at least 37 people, Afghan and U.N. authorities said Saturday. More than 100 homes, hundreds of hectares (acres) of farmland and farm animals were been destroyed by the floods that followed four or five days of heavy rain in the region. Abdul Hai Khateby, who is the spokesman in Ghor province, said Saturday that 24 people have been killed in four districts, including the provincial capital of Chaghcharan. “Many, many houses have been destroyed, and there are reports of lots of cattle and other animals being killed,” Khateby said. “It is cloudy and we expect more rain.” The provincial spokesman of Badakhshan, Abdul Marouf Rasekh, said 13 people were killed Friday night in Yaftal district and four other districts have been affected. The Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority said an estimated 135 houses in Badakhshan had been destroyed, forcing residents to flee. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said many of the unpaved, rutted roads in the area have been severely flooded, making aid distribution difficult. Elsewhere, a bomb exploded at a music store on Saturday in Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar in the east. Provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said the shopkeeper and one of his customers were killed in the blast and two other people were wounded.

……………………………………………..

Afghanistan flash floods kill more than 30

Flash floods in Afghanistan have killed more than 30 people in central Ghor province early on Saturday.(AFP)

By AFP
Herat

Flash floods in Afghanistan triggered by days of torrential rain have killed more than 30 people, officials said Saturday, with dozens reported missing.

Waters swept through villages and parts of the city of Cheghcheran in central Ghor province early on Saturday, engulfing dozens of homes, provincial spokesman Abdulhai Khatibi told AFP.

“So for I can confirm that 24 people have been killed in these floods, but some are also missing,” Khatibi said.

The floodwaters also destroyed hundreds of hectares of farmland and displaced hundreds of people in the impoverished province, he said.

In the northeast of the country, two days of torrential rains and hail triggered flooding in the remote province of Badakhshan, killing at least eight and destroying up to 100 houses, the provincial head of the national disaster management authority told AFP.

“This kind of rain and hail is not common at this time of year, so people were caught off guard,” Sanaullah Amiri said.

Hundreds of villagers in high-risk areas have been evacuated as a precaution against further flooding, he said.

Afghanistan’s harshest winter in 15 years saw unusually heavy snowfalls and experts predicted that rivers swollen by melting snow were likely to flood in the mountainous north in spring.

In May, flash floods in Sari Pul province, which borders Ghor to the north, killed 50 people, mostly women and children.

Coastal Flood Warning

NEW ORLEANS LA

Flood Warning

DULUTH MN
PENDLETON OR
JUNEAU AK

...THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE FOLLOWING RIVERS IN
MINNESOTA..
  MISSISSIPPI RIVER NEAR AITKIN AFFECTING AITKIN COUNTY
  MISSISSIPPI RIVER NEAR BRAINERD AFFECTING CROW WING COUNTY
  MISSISSIPPI RIVER NEAR FORT RIPLEY AFFECTING MORRISON AND CROW
  WING COUNTIES

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Epidemic Hazards / Diseases

23.06.2012

Epidemic Hazard

Bangladesh

Sirajganj District, [Shahzadpur upazila]

Epidemic Hazard in Bangladesh on Saturday, 23 June, 2012 at 19:43 (07:43 PM) UTC.

Description
Twenty six more Anthrax infected people have been identified at Panchil and Ultadab village under Shahzadpur upazila in Sirajganj district in the last six days. District Sanitary Inspector Ram Chandra Shaha Milon confirmed this to this correspondent yesterday. With the new ones, the number of total infected has risen to 67 in the district. Sources said, they were infected after taking meat of a sick bullock and a sick goat, which were carrying the germ of Anthrax disease. The bullock was slaughtered by one Abdul Mannan Byapari at Panchil Baza on June 2 and the goat was slaughtered by Abdul Baten at Ultadab village on June 6. Doctors said, the people who were involved in skinning and processing the sick bullock and goat would be infected within a few days. A medical team of Sirajganj health department visited the areas of the infected patients recently and prescribed them with the directive to continue the treatment. They also distributed some medicines free of cost, civil surgeon office sources said. Civil surgeon Dr. Nazim Uddin Khan said, people of the district are being infected with Anthrax one after another due to lack of awareness about the disease. Though the people are being warned about the disease and asked not to take meat of any sick cattle or goat, poor and ultra-poor people are ignoring the directives and taking meat of sick cattle or goat. He further said, there is nothing to fear over the disease, because it is curable. However, he urged the people not to slaughter any sick animal. Locals also complained that, due to lack of proper vaccination, many cattle in the areas are being infected with the disease and then people are being forced to slaughter such sick animals to recover their losses.
Biohazard name:	Anthrax
Biohazard level:	4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:	Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

23.06.2012

Epidemic Hazard

USA

State of Virginia, Fairfax [George Mason University]

Epidemic Hazard in USA on Saturday, 23 June, 2012 at 04:33 (04:33 AM) UTC.

Description
Health officials are investigating the cause of a mystery sickness bug which claimed more than 40 victims in one night. Dozens of students at George Mason University, Washington, were taken ill with food poisoning and flu-like symptoms on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Those with reported sickness are said to be from a group of 80 international students aged between 15 and 22, who were at the school to attend the Congressional Awards Foundation Program. An unknown number of students were taken to the George Washington University Hospital after being taken ill, while more students developed similar symptoms just hours later. The students called 911, before another seven pupils were transported to a nearby hospital. Officials are still investigating what caused the illness, but say more than 40 students have so far been affected. Fairfax County health officials say the outbreak may have been viral gastroenteritis, which causes vomiting and diarrhea. A member of Fairfax County Fire and EMS told NBC: ‘Originally they thought it might be related to the heat and dehydration, but they started to show more of a stomach-type virus or illness.’ NBC reported that the virus was spread person to person by touching the infected surface areas. Health officials are now said to be working with the university to clean the area sick students may have infected.
Biohazard name:	Unidentified illness
Biohazard level:	1/4 Low
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses including Bacillus subtilis, canine hepatitis, Escherichia coli, varicella (chicken pox), as well as some cell cultures and non-infectious bacteria. At this level precautions against the biohazardous materials in question are minimal, most likely involving gloves and some sort of facial protection. Usually, contaminated materials are left in open (but separately indicated) waste receptacles. Decontamination procedures for this level are similar in most respects to modern precautions against everyday viruses (i.e.: washing one’s hands with anti-bacterial soap, washing all exposed surfaces of the lab with disinfectants, etc). In a lab environment, all materials used for cell and/or bacteria cultures are decontaminated via autoclave.
Symptoms:	flu-like symptoms, possible viral gastroenteritis
Status:	suspected

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Solar Activity

2MIN News June 23, 2012

Published on Jun 23, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

AMAZING: http://www.universetoday.com/95920/a-gamma-ray-burst-as-music/

TODAYS LINKS
Romania Shale Moratorium: http://phys.org/news/2012-06-romania-moratorium-shale-gas.html
US Fires: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/western-us.html
6.6 Quake: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-06/23/c_131671263.htm

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos - as seen from earth]

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT - as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI - as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it... trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/cme-based/ [CME Evolution]

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can't figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

GREEN FLASH, BLUE FLASH:

Green flashes at sunset are rare. Indeed, they were once thought mythological. Blue flashes are rarer still. On June 21st Göran Strand of Frösön, Sweden, saw them both in a single sunset:

“Tonight the weather was incredibly clear and fine, so I went out to photograph the sunset–and this was the result,” says Strand. “The time interval between the first and last frames is 1 minute and 14 seconds.”

Green flashes are formed when the prismatic action of the atmosphere splits the setting sun into basic R-G-B colors. Temperature inversions create a mirage, magnifying the green into an eye-catching flash.

Blues flashes are formed in the same way, but they are generally harder to see than green flashes, because blue flashes blend into the surrounding blue sky. When the air is exceptionally clear, however, the blue flash emerges.

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Space

PHOTOGENIC, NOT GEOEFFECTIVE:

A long filament of magnetism snaking over the sun’s northwestern limb erupted this morning, hurling much of itself into space. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the blast:

A bright CME billowed away from the blast site. Because of the explosion’s location on the NW edge of the solar disk, the cloud will not hit Earth. This event was photogenic but not geoeffective.

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)

Object Name

Apporach Date

Left

AU Distance

LD Distance

Estimated Diameter*

Relative Velocity

(2011 AH5)

25th June 2012

1 day(s)

0.1670

65.0

17 m – 39 m

5.84 km/s

21024 km/h

(2012 FA14)

25th June 2012

1 day(s)

0.0322

12.5

75 m – 170 m

5.28 km/s

19008 km/h

(2004 YG1)

25th June 2012

1 day(s)

0.0890

34.7

140 m – 310 m

11.34 km/s

40824 km/h

(2010 AF3)

25th June 2012

1 day(s)

0.1190

46.3

16 m – 36 m

6.54 km/s

23544 km/h

(2008 YT30)

26th June 2012

2 day(s)

0.0715

27.8

370 m – 820 m

10.70 km/s

38520 km/h

(2010 NY65)

27th June 2012

3 day(s)

0.1023

39.8

120 m – 270 m

15.09 km/s

54324 km/h

(2008 WM64)

28th June 2012

4 day(s)

0.1449

56.4

200 m – 440 m

17.31 km/s

62316 km/h

(2010 CD55)

28th June 2012

4 day(s)

0.1975

76.8

64 m – 140 m

6.33 km/s

22788 km/h

(2004 CL)

30th June 2012

6 day(s)

0.1113

43.3

220 m – 480 m

20.75 km/s

74700 km/h

(2008 YQ2)

03rd July 2012

9 day(s)

0.1057

41.1

29 m – 65 m

15.60 km/s

56160 km/h

(2005 QQ30)

06th July 2012

12 day(s)

0.1765

68.7

280 m – 620 m

13.13 km/s

47268 km/h

(2011 YJ28)

06th July 2012

12 day(s)

0.1383

53.8

150 m – 330 m

14.19 km/s

51084 km/h

276392 (2002 XH4)

07th July 2012

13 day(s)

0.1851

72.0

370 m – 840 m

7.76 km/s

27936 km/h

(2003 MK4)

08th July 2012

14 day(s)

0.1673

65.1

180 m – 410 m

14.35 km/s

51660 km/h

(1999 NW2)

08th July 2012

14 day(s)

0.0853

33.2

62 m – 140 m

6.66 km/s

23976 km/h

189P/NEAT

09th July 2012

15 day(s)

0.1720

66.9

n/a

12.47 km/s

44892 km/h

(2000 JB6)

10th July 2012

16 day(s)

0.1780

69.3

490 m – 1.1 km

6.42 km/s

23112 km/h

(2010 MJ1)

10th July 2012

16 day(s)

0.1533

59.7

52 m – 120 m

10.35 km/s

37260 km/h

(2008 NP3)

12th July 2012

18 day(s)

0.1572

61.2

57 m – 130 m

6.08 km/s

21888 km/h

(2006 BV39)

12th July 2012

18 day(s)

0.1132

44.1

4.2 m – 9.5 m

11.11 km/s

39996 km/h

(2005 NE21)

15th July 2012

21 day(s)

0.1555

60.5

140 m – 320 m

10.77 km/s

38772 km/h

(2003 KU2)

15th July 2012

21 day(s)

0.1034

40.2

770 m – 1.7 km

17.12 km/s

61632 km/h

(2007 TN74)

16th July 2012

22 day(s)

0.1718

66.9

20 m – 45 m

7.36 km/s

26496 km/h

(2007 DD)

16th July 2012

22 day(s)

0.1101

42.8

19 m – 42 m

6.47 km/s

23292 km/h

(2006 BC8)

16th July 2012

22 day(s)

0.1584

61.6

25 m – 56 m

17.71 km/s

63756 km/h

144411 (2004 EW9)

16th July 2012

22 day(s)

0.1202

46.8

1.3 km – 2.9 km

10.90 km/s

39240 km/h

(2012 BV26)

18th July 2012

24 day(s)

0.1759

68.4

94 m – 210 m

10.88 km/s

39168 km/h

(2010 OB101)

19th July 2012

25 day(s)

0.1196

46.6

200 m – 450 m

13.34 km/s

48024 km/h

(2008 OX1)

20th July 2012

26 day(s)

0.1873

72.9

130 m – 300 m

15.35 km/s

55260 km/h

(2010 GK65)

21st July 2012

27 day(s)

0.1696

66.0

34 m – 75 m

17.80 km/s

64080 km/h

(2011 OJ45)

21st July 2012

27 day(s)

0.1367

53.2

18 m – 39 m

3.79 km/s

13644 km/h

153958 (2002 AM31)

22nd July 2012

28 day(s)

0.0351

13.7

630 m – 1.4 km

9.55 km/s

34380 km/h

(2011 CA7)

23rd July 2012

29 day(s)

0.1492

58.1

2.3 m – 5.1 m

5.43 km/s

19548 km/h

1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers

Source: NASA-NEO

*************************************************************************************************************

Biological Hazards / Wildlife

23.06.2012

Biological Hazard

USA

State of Hawaii, [Maui]

Biological Hazard in USA on Saturday, 23 June, 2012 at 04:36 (04:36 AM) UTC.

Description
Wetland biologists and others involved in managing lands with associated wetlands have been notified by the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) of a recent avian botulism outbreak affecting waterbirds on Maui. In just over a week, 67 birds have been found dead at Kanaha Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Kahului including Hawaiian Stilt, Hawaiian Coot, and Hawaiian Ducks of adult and juvenile stages. The paralytic disease has killed adult birds on their nests, also causing the eggs to be lost. Because botulinum toxin can be produced in most wetlands, and transported to new wetlands by dead or dying waterfowl, landowners and managers, both public and private, are being asked to frequently survey their wetlands for sick and/or dead birds, remove any dead or dying birds from the wetland, and contact local DOFAW biologists for guidance. Earlier this year a botulism outbreak in Hanalei, Kauai resulted in over 300 sick and dead birds being collected by USFWS refuge staff. Additionally, numerous other botulism fatalities have also been reported at wetlands throughout the state. Botulism is a paralytic condition brought on by the consumption of a naturally occurring toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. It is an intoxication rather than an infectious disease. Botulism, type C is commonly found in Hawaiian soils and is NOT dangerous to humans. Particular environmental conditions in wetlands will sometimes allow this bacterium to produce botulinum toxin; the toxin is then accumulated in aquatic invertebrates. It is consumption of these toxic invertebrates by waterfowl that leads to mortality. In Hawai‘i, birds commonly affected include waterfowl frequenting wetlands such as our endangered Hawaiian coots, Hawaiian ducks, Laysan ducks, Hawaiian moorhen, Hawaiian stilts, Black-crowned night- herons, and various migratory waterfowl and shorebirds. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Wildlife Health Center Honolulu Field Station (NWHC-HFS) has been working closely with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the State of Hawaii DLNR to investigate and confirm botulism as a cause of waterfowl mortality in Hanalei and Kahului. The NWHC-HFS provides technical assistance to federal, state, municipal, and non-governmental organizations on wildlife health related matters in Hawai‘i and the Pacific. “Part of our role is to determine the cause of death during unusual wildlife mortality events involving native and endangered species and provide management recommendations to address and mitigate such mortalities” said Dr. Thierry Work, Wildlife Disease Specialist for the USGS National Wildlife Health Center Honolulu Field Station. “For this particular event, our team first conducts necropsies of freshly dead birds here in Honolulu and then sends samples to the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison Wisconsin for confirmation of botulism.”
Biohazard name:	Avian botulism
Biohazard level:	1/4 Low
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses including Bacillus subtilis, canine hepatitis, Escherichia coli, varicella (chicken pox), as well as some cell cultures and non-infectious bacteria. At this level precautions against the biohazardous materials in question are minimal, most likely involving gloves and some sort of facial protection. Usually, contaminated materials are left in open (but separately indicated) waste receptacles. Decontamination procedures for this level are similar in most respects to modern precautions against everyday viruses (i.e.: washing one’s hands with anti-bacterial soap, washing all exposed surfaces of the lab with disinfectants, etc). In a lab environment, all materials used for cell and/or bacteria cultures are decontaminated via autoclave.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

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Articles of Interest

Yellowstone geysers become active again after dormant periods

Fan and Mortar geysers in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park fluctuate between active and dormant periods. (Janet White/Geyser Watch – click to enlarge)

By Janet White

Yellowstone geyser enthusiasts are reporting that a handful of Yellowstone National Park geysers appear to be active again after periods of dormancy, including one geyser that last erupted almost two decades ago.

Morning Geyser, quiet for 18 years, is now active, and there is news that an electronic monitor on Echinus in Norris Geyser Basin picked up an eruption. North Goggles Geyser has also started erupting more regularly than the lone annual display it has typically shown over the past few years. The last time it was this active was 2004. Joining the list of newly reactivated thermal features are Fan and Mortar geysers, which may be beginning an active cycle.

Morning Geyser in the Lower Geyser Basin

Morning Geyser erupts in 1959. (NPS photo by George Marler- click to enlarge)

Morning Geyser is one of the tallest and prettiest geysers in the Lower Geyser Basin. The wide eruptions have the potential of reaching 200 feet tall. It is located in the Fountain Paint Pots area, just behind Fountain Geyser. Morning Geyser last erupted in 1994. The first reported eruption this year occurred on Wed., June 20. A second eruption was reported the following day, with geyser gazers reporting online that Morning Geyser spewed for up to 30 minutes, reaching a height of 200 feet.

For the past few weeks, geyser gazer Maureen Edgerton has watched a change in her favorite geyser, Fountain Geyser, of longer intervals between eruptions than seen in recent years. It may be that there is a connection between Morning Geyser and Fountain Geyser, and a change in Fountain Geyser could result in changes in other thermal features in the area.

Edgerton’s time spent watching the area paid off with the first eruption shortly after noon on Wednesday. She noticed it first from the road, and even though she knows the area well, she remained skeptical, Morning Geyser is often confused with bursts seen from other geysers in the area. But Edgerton became certain that it was Morning Geyser erupting as she turned around, parked and headed to the overlook.

How long will Morning Geyser continue erupting? That’s hard to say, but based on past active cycles, it could be days or weeks. Then again, these two eruptions might be all that’s seen for a while. But we hope it continues to delight us for awhile, and allows more people to check seeing this rare geyser in eruption off their list.

But for those of us not in the Park at the moment, thankfully, we can watch a past eruption.

Fan and Mortar Geysers in the Upper Geyser Basin

To the delight of many, it seems that on the June 9, Fan and Mortar geysers started what is expected to be another cycle of activity. Every couple of years, Fan and Mortar geysers take a break and go silent. Prior to this eruption, they were last known to erupt in October 2011. Sometimes they take longer breaks than this, but no one appeared disappointed by the short nap and their recent reawakening.

Echinus Geyser erupts in February 1993. (NPS Photo by Jim Peaco – click to enlarge)

When active, they erupt about every 3-5 days, sometimes appearing to “prefer” nighttime eruptions. Let’s hope this cycle sees more daytime eruptions.

Fan and Mortar Geysers are located in the Upper Geyser Basin, not far from Morning Glory Pool. Expect to see geyser gazers waiting there when it seems like an eruption is ‘due’ unless they all head to the more rare, Morning Geyser.

No further eruptions have been seen or noted by knowledgeable geyser enthusiasts, but one promising ‘event cycle’ was observed. It may take a bit longer for Fan and Mortar to fully reactivate.

Echinus Geyser in Norris Geyser Basin

The announcement of a third geyser reactivating came from an email sent to a geyser email list from Yellowstone National Park ranger Denise Herman, who relayed a message from Jacob B. Lowenstern, the scientist in charge of the U.S. Geological Survey’sYellowstone Volcano Observatory. Lowenstern noted that a temperature probe indicated that Echinus erupted at 3:25 a.m. on Mon., June 28, stating that “no one saw it, but it is the first known eruption since January 2011.”

Janet White is the creator of GeyserWatch.com.

Despite Record-Breaking Flooding, Escaped Seal Steals Day

By Grace Muller, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

The picture of the escaped Lake Superior Zoo seal was posted to Reddit by user Loudmouth_American.

The National Weather Service (NWS) says June 19 and June 20 was Duluth, Minnesota’s wettest two-day period on record. Heavy rain from thunderstorms led to severe flooding Tuesday night across northern Minnesota, including in Duluth, where there was extensive damage from the floodwaters.

According to the NWS, more than 7 inches of rain fell over a large portion of north-central and northeastern Minnesota, with most of the rain falling in just a few hours’ time, drawing comparisons to a historic flood in August 1972.

While the sheer extent of damage in the area was enough to get national media attention, a picture of an escaped seal from the Lake Superior Zoo posted to website Reddit went viral.

Brandon Stahl of the Duluth News Tribune reported that “zoo staff said three of its birds had drowned: a turkey vulture, a raven and a snowy owl. Of the barnyard animals, only a miniature horse survived, while six sheep, four goats and a donkey died.”

In a statement from the Lake Superior Zoo:

“All zoo animals have been secured. Sadly, the zoo experienced the loss of several animals, among them many of the barnyard residents. Due to flooding, the zoo’s polar bear Berlin was able to exit her exhibit. She was darted by the zoo’s vet and is safe in quarantine. At no time did any dangerous animal leave the perimeter fence.“

Como Park Zoo in St. Paul, Minn., will house the displaced animals from Lake Superior Zoo until employees can restore the park, KARE-TV reports.

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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]

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Tags: 2012, 2MIN News June 23, A long filament of magnetism, Afghanistan, Afghanistan flash floods kill more than 30, Alaska, Anthrax, Asia, Avian botulism, Bangladesh, Biological Hazard in USA, Boston, British Virgin Islands, California, Caribbean, Chile, Colorado, Debby Poses Hazards to Florida, Despite Record-Breaking Flooding, Dominican Republic, Earth approaching objects, Epidemic Hazard in Bangladesh, Epidemic Hazard in USA, Escaped Seal Steals Day, Europe, Fiji, First 100-Degree Day for Dallas, Flash Flood in Japan, Flood in Afghanistan, Florida, Greece, Green flashes at sunset, Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, Houston This Weekend, Indonesia, Indonesian Archipelago, Japan, Landfall or Not, Louisiana, Maine, Mexico, Middle America, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New York., New Zealand, North America, Oregon, Pacific Ocean, Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico, South America, Summer to Take a Hiatus in the East Next Week, Texas, The Latest Worldwide Meteor / Fireball Reports, Tropical Storm Debby, Tropical Storm Debby Forms; Gulf Coast on Alert, Turkey, United States, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC, Yellowstone geysers become active again after dormant periods

Comment

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul said Saturday the jet fighter shot down by Syria might have violated Syrian airspace.

Filed under: Global News, Security, Wars and Rumors of War — Leave a comment

June 23, 2012

Turkey downplays ‘ill intentions,’ says downed jet may have violated Syrian airspace

After making a phone call with Damascus, Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul said that the downed jet fighter might have violated Syrian airspace. (Reuters)

By Al Arabiya with agencies

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul said Saturday the jet fighter shot down by Syria might have violated Syrian airspace.

“It is routine for jet fighters to sometimes fly in and out over (national) borders … when you consider their speed over the sea,” Gul told Anatolia news agency. “These are not ill-intentioned things but happen beyond control due to the jets’ speed.”

He said Anakara has made a telephone contact with Syria.

The president, however, heightened his tone when he said that it is not “possible to ignore Turkish fighter jet being downed by Syria,” and that whatever is needed to be done following downing of the fighter jet will be done.

Meanwhile, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on Saturday a jet that was shot down by Syria was not a warplane but a reconnaissance aircraft, state television TRT reported.

It was not immediately clear where Arinc, who is one of four deputy prime ministers and also the government’s spokesman, was speaking. Turkish media reported the downed jet was an F-4 Phantom, a supersonic jet fighter which can also carry out reconnaissance operations.

Syria’s downing of a Turkish plane marks a serious escalation of the Syrian conflict, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Saturday.

“The shooting down yesterday of a Turkish aircraft over Syrian territorial waters – this is a serious escalation and indication that the conflict would have far (a) bigger impact than (on) Syria itself,” he told a televised news conference with his Swedish, Bulgarian and Polish counterparts in Baghdad.

On Saturday, Syria confirmed that it shot down a Turkish warplane over its territory, sparking a fresh crisis on the two countries’ long border which is already awash with refugees and rebel fighters.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said NATO member Turkey would take all necessary steps once it had established the facts of Syria’s downing of the F-4 fighter jet in Mediterranean waters on Friday.

Tensions between the two neighbors were already running high as Ankara has taken a tough line on Damascus’s bloody crackdown on a 15-month-old uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, giving sanctuary to defecting military personnel who have formed the kernel of an expanding rebel army.

Syria’s official SANA news agency confirmed that Damascus had downed the jet in a terse report early on Saturday.

“An unidentified aerial target violated Syrian air space, coming from the west at a very low altitude and at high speed over territorial waters,” the news agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.

Turkey has denied that it is arming Syrian opposition, however the New York Times reported on Thursday that a small number of CIA officers had been deployed to southern Turkey, where they were helping U.S. allies decide which Syrian opposition elements should receive weapons deliveries.

While Turkey’s offcials downplayed the serious of Syria’s downing of a Turkish plane, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Saturday it marks a serious escalation of the Syrian conflict,

Turkey’s Gul says downing of jet cannot be ignored – Reuters (reuters.com)
Turkish, Syrian forces seek downed Turkish jet (news.yahoo.com)
Gul says downed Turkish warplane may have violated Syrian airspace (dailystar.com.lb)
Turkey admits downed plane had strayed into Syrian airspace – MiamiHerald.com (miamiherald.com)
Turkey vows retaliation for downing of plane by Syria (hotair.com)
Turkey vows ‘necessary’ action against Syria (hosted.ap.org)
Turkey vows ‘necessary’ action after Syria shoots down jet (cbc.ca)
Turkish president says downed jet may have accidentally entered Syria’s air space – Montreal Gazette (montrealgazette.com)
Turkey vows to take necessary steps in response to Syrian attack on plane (raptureimminent.wordpress.com)

Tags: Abdullah Gül, Bashar Al- Assad, Damascus, Middle East, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Saturday, Syria, Turkey

Comment

To encourage mass defections from Syrian Government forces: Saudi Arabia to fund rebel fighters

Filed under: Blow back, Corruption, Government Overreach, Human Rights, Hypocrisy, Politics, Psy - Ops, Security, Wars and Rumors of War, World News — Leave a comment

June 23, 2012

Saudi Arabia to pay salaries of Syrian opposition fighters: report

Saudi Arabia will pay the salaries of the rebel Free Syrian Army in either U.S. dollars or euros. (File photo)

By Al Arabiya with agencies

Saudi Arabia is set to pay the salaries of the rebel Free Syrian Army to encourage mass defections from President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.

The payments would be made in either U.S. dollars or euros — which would mean a rise in salaries as the Syrian pound has fallen sharply in value since the revolt started 16 months ago, the broadsheet said.

The idea was first proposed to Saudi Arabia by Arab officials in May, the Guardian reported, citing sources in three Arab states and adding that the plan has also been discussed with U.S. officials.

However a spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs offered no comment to Al Arabiya on such claims, suggesting the topic is likely to be addressed at the joint GCC-EU council and ministerial meeting set to take place in Luxembourg on Monday.

The Guardian also claims that Turkey has allowed the establishment of a command center in Istanbul co-coordinating the supply of weapons to the rebel fighters in Syria, staffed by more than 20 mainly Syrian nationals.

The report comes amid a crisis between Turkey and Syria after Damascus confirmed that it shot down a Turkish fighter jet that it said had violated Syrian airspace.

The Guardian said Turkey sees weapon supply lines as crucial to the defense of its border with its former close ally Syria, with Syrian forces edging closer in an attempt to stop guns crossing the border into the hands of rebel fighters.

The Guardian says its reporters witnessed weapons being transferred across border from Turkey into Syria in early June.

According to the report, Turkey has given the green-light to establish a command center in Istanbul, to coordinate with opposition leaders within Syria. It is alleged that 22 people have been recruited to run the center, most of them Syrian nationals.

On Friday, Ankara denied allegations in a New York Times report, citing U.S. officials and Arab intelligence sources, that Turkey was among a number of countries shipping weapons to Syrian rebels over the border.

The New York Times also reported that the CIA was on location in south Turkey assisting allies in the distribution of weapons amongst opposition fighters.

“Turkey does not ship weapons to any neighboring country, including Syria,” foreign ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal said.

The neighbors’ relations are already strained over outspoken condemnation by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Syria’s bloody crackdown on protests against Assad’s government.

Turkey is hosting more than 30,000 Syrian refugees living in camps near the border, according to foreign ministry figures, as well as army defectors including 12 generals.

Increasing concern

I think it’s fair to say that we have a concern about the MANPADS coming out of Libya

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta

Meanwhile as evidence mounts of Islamic militant forces among the Syrian opposition, senior U.S. and European officials are increasingly alarmed by the prospect of sophisticated weapons falling into the hands of rebel groups that may be dangerous to Western interests, including al-Qaeda.

In an interview with Reuters, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta articulated U.S. worries that shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, also known as MANPADS, could find their way onto the Syrian battlefield.

Intelligence experts believe that hundreds, if not thousands, of such weapons were looted from arsenals accumulated by late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, and are floating on the Middle East black market.

“I think it’s fair to say that we have a concern about the MANPADS coming out of Libya,” Panetta said in the Thursday interview. “We’ve had an ongoing view that it was important to try to determine where these MANPADS were going, not only the concern that some of them might wind up in Syria but elsewhere as well,” he said.

Panetta added that he had seen no direct intelligence yet that such missiles had made their way to Syria. He did not specifically cite the rebels as potential recipients.

But other U.S. and allied officials voiced that concern, while saying they had no evidence that Syrian rebels had yet acquired MANPADS.

Qaeda joining rebels

It stands to reason that if any Middle Eastern nation is even considering giving arms to the Syrian opposition, it would take a measured approach and think twice about providing arms that could have unintended consequences

U.S. official

The urgency of Western concerns stems as much from the recipients of the weapons as the weapons themselves. High-level sources at multiple national intelligence services report increasing evidence that Islamic militants, including Qaeda and its affiliates and other hard-line Sunni groups, had joined forces with opponents of the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who has advised President Barack Obama on counter-terrorism policy, said that Qaeda and other militants were “deeply engaged” with anti-Assad forces. He cited public pronouncements by senior Qaeda figures, including the group’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, that urged Sunni rebels in Syria to kill members of Assad’s Alawite Muslim minority.

A western government source said that al-Nusrah, a “spinoff” from Qaeda’s Iraq-based affiliate, was responsible for at least some atrocities that have occurred in Syria. The source said the group publicly confirmed its role in killings.

Worries that sophisticated weapons could make their way to the wrong kind of Syrian rebels are one reason Washington remains wary of deeper U.S. involvement in the fighting.

“It stands to reason that if any Middle Eastern nation is even considering giving arms to the Syrian opposition, it would take a measured approach and think twice about providing arms that could have unintended consequences,” a U.S. official said.

Nonetheless, U.S. and allied officials say their Saudi and Qatari counterparts have discussed how MANPADS could be used by Assad opponents to bring down Russian-made helicopters the Syrian army is using to redeploy its troops rapidly between trouble spots.

But such missiles also could be used against other targets, including civilian airliners, one reason for the U.S. and allied concern.

After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the CIA, with Saudi backing, provided sophisticated shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to Islamic militants seeking to oust Soviet troops.

The missiles played a significant role in the Soviets’ ultimate defeat in Afghanistan. But they also became a major headache for U.S. and western counter-terrorism agencies when anti-Soviet militants morphed into anti-Western militant factions including Qaeda.

U.S. providing non-lethal support

Some prominent U.S. Republicans are urging a big step-up in U.S. aid for Assad’s opponents, including arms deliveries and even possible U.S. military involvement.

At a conference on Thursday hosted by the website Bloomberg Government, U.S. Senator John McCain suggested that the Obama administration’s cautious policy regarding the Syrian rebels was “shameful” and urged a major escalation in U.S. involvement.

“So what do we do? First of all, we stand up for them. Second of all, we get them weapons. Third of all, we establish a sanctuary with our allies – no boots on the ground, no boots on the ground – and use our and our allied air power to protect that zone and we help these people in a fair fight,” McCain said.

At the same conference, however, Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, warned: “We are just really not in a good position today to fully identify all of the groups, all of the factions, who’s winning that leadership fight,” he said.

The United States is understood to be supplying non-lethal support to Assad’s opponents, such as financing and communications gear, possibly including monitoring equipment. The Times said that the Obama administration has held back on providing rebels with intelligence information, such as satellite photographs, on the activities of Assad’s forces.

Riedel warned that Qatar authorities might not be too choosy about which Syrian rebels they are willing to supply with arms, though they would try to avoid giving them directly to Qaeda.

“I don’t think that Qatar and the Saudis are as concerned as we are about surface-to-air missiles,” Riedel added.

RED ALERT: Saudi Arabia plans to fund Syria rebel army fighters (investmentwatchblog.com)
Saudi Arabia plans to fund Syria rebel army (theuglytruth.wordpress.com)
Saudi regime to pay salaries of armed rebels in Syria: Report (alethonews.wordpress.com)
You: Saudi Arabia plans to fund Syria rebel army (guardian.co.uk)
The CIA Is Guiding Weapons into Syria (theatlanticwire.com)
Saudi Arabia and Qatar funding Syrian rebels (dailystar.com.lb)
CIA Funneling Arms to Syrian Rebels Through Turkey (news.antiwar.com)
Revealed: CIA secretly operates on Syrian border, supplies arms to rebels (rt.com)

Tags: Barack Obama, Bashar Al- Assad, Free Syrian Army, Guardian, Middle East, New York Times, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey

Comment

Preliminary injunction issued:Restrains the US government from administering section 1021 of the NDAA, a provision that allows for the indefinite detention for Americans

Filed under: Corruption, Democracy, Freedom, Fundamental Rights, Government, Government Overreach, Human Rights, Hypocrisy, Legislation, Politics, Rule Of Law, Security, The American Constitution, War on terror — Leave a comment

June 23, 2012

NDAA declared unconstitutional; Indefinite detention of Americans blocked by the court

Published on Jun 15, 2012 by FinanceAndPolitics

NDAA declared unconstitutional; Indefinite detention of Americans blocked by the court
Published on May 17, 2012 by RTAmerica
On Wednesday, District Judge Katherine Forrest ruled the National Defense Authorization Act unconstitutional. Forrest issued a preliminary injunction which restrains the US government from administering section 1021 of the NDAA, a provision that allows for the indefinite detention for Americans with alleged terrorist ties. Carl Mayer, attorney for The Mayer Law Group representing the plaintiffs,joins us for more on the judge’s ruling.

Tags: Barack Obama, Carl Mayer, Constitutionality, indefinite detention, National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA, Preliminary injunction, United States

Comment

Drug scares, like the seasons, are cyclical. Here in the US. Right on schedule, the latest demon drug has entered stage left: bath salts.

Filed under: Corruption, Drug War, Drugs, Government, Government Overreach, Hypocrisy, Politics, Psy - Ops, Signs Of The Times, Zombie-Like — Leave a comment

June 23, 2012

The Truth Behind the Bath Salt “Epidemic”

If you believe the lurid headlines, addicts across America are ingesting bath salts and transforming into crazed cannibals. This trend, like many, actually hit first in England, where a bath salt ban only increased the problem.

By Tony O’Neill

the fix

Bed, Bath Salts & Beyond Photo via

By Tony O’Neill

Drug scares, like the seasons, are cyclical. Here in the US, we had media firestorms over crack in the 80’s, meth in the 90’s, and prescription painkillers in the 00’s. Right on schedule, the latest demon drug that is supposedly tearing our society apart has entered stage left: bath salts.

Bath salts really just means a drug that is a combination of two stimulants—MDPV and mephedrone. Sold online and via headshops as a cheap, legal alternative to cocaine and ecstasy, mephedrone was first synthesized in 1929 while MDPV came along in 1969. Both were rediscovered in 2003 and they were perfect drugs for the Internet age—an ideal alternative to pricy illegal drugs that could be obtained legally with nothing more than a credit card and the click of a mouse.

The exact pharmacology of bath salts can vary, as compounds are constantly tweaked by chemists to stay one step ahead of the law. “Most of these substances seem to be cathinone derivatives, and as such are central nervous system stimulants that act through interruptions of dopamine, norepinephrine and—to a more limited extent—serotonin function,” explains Dr. Adi Jaffe, an addiction specialist at UCLA. While noting that actual research on these substances is in its early stages and reports are limited, Jaffe says that “at low to moderate doses the most common effects for MDPV can be thought of as meth-like: stimulation, euphoria and alertness. Mephedrone seems to act more like MDMA than meth.”

While the chemistry may change, one thing that has remained consistent is the ballooning popularity of this sector of the drug market.

“The government might claim that the ban was successful because mephedrone use and deaths have fallen but for me the question to ask is: what are users taking instead?”

After the explosion in use, the next phase of the drug scare comes in the form of demonization, and the authorities have certainly wasted no time in making some pretty wild allegations about the supposed effects of bath salts; recently we’ve heard that these drugs can causes cannibalism, a la the infamous Miami face-eater, pedophilia and even cross-dressing goat abuse.

The third part of any good drug scare happens when the press, despite a total lack of causal evidence, parrots these outlandish accusations. In the Miami cannibal case, the link between bath salts originated from a statement made by someone with no direct involvement with the case—the president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, Armando Aguilar—despite the fact that an autopsy and toxicology had yet to be performed on attacker Rudy Eugene.

In the case of Shane Shuyler, the Miami man accused of exposing himself to children while “allegedly” under the influence of bath salts, the evidence was no less hazy. The police said they found something that “appeared” to be bath salts in his wallet (i.e. an unidentified white powder). And then there was this strange quote from a detective giving evidence against Shuyler: “Upon talking to him, he made some statements to me which led me to believe that he was cooling off in a fountain by the tot-lot, because he was hot, which was consistent with ingesting bath salts.” The logic being that since bath salts cause users body temperatures to rise, then cooling off by a water fountain is evidence of bath salts use. Never mind the fact that the incident took place in June, in Miami, where the average temperature is 88.1 degrees.

After the hype comes the crackdown, which means that high-profile cases like these have created a push from both the media and law enforcement for a federal ban on the sale of bath salts.

Florida Republican Rep. Sandy Adams is one of the politicians who helped push the Combating Dangerous Synthetic Stimulants Act of 2011 through the House last December. The bill would federally ban MDPV and mephedrone, the two chemicals found in bath salts, as well as outlawing dozens of other chemicals found in synthetic drugs. The reasoning? “Looking at the Miami incident, we’ve seen people do some very bizarre acts on bath salts,” Adams told the U.S. News and World Report. If he gets his way, bath salts would be categorized alongside heroin and LSD.

So can bath salts really cause ordinary normal people to cannibalize strangers, expose themselves to children, or murder goats? And if they can, why on earth would anybody take them? A drug that has been described variously as “super powered LSD” and “PCP on crack” seems like a confusing proposition. So which is it?

“The reason for the contrasting descriptions is most likely the small but very significant difference in the specific chemicals involved,” says Dr. Jaffe. “Meth and ecstasy are very close chemical cousins but obviously cause very different effects for the user; the same is true here.”

To better get a handle of what is happening here in the US, I looked toward the United Kingdom, which has recently been through a similar cycle of shock horror media coverage of the “bath salt epidemic,” followed by a rush to ban. Bath salts were known under various aliases in the UK, including M-Kat, Meow-Meow and Bubbles, so for the sake of clarity, I’m going to use their chemical name of the most common compound: mephedrone.

“The issues in the US and UK are very similar, except that, as in many things, the US hype is even more over the top than that in the UK,” says Danny Kushlick, founder of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, a charitable think tank that attempts to draw public attention to the fact that drug prohibition is the major cause of drug-related harm. “I mean, we never got so far as cannibalism.”

Yet at its height, the mephedrone scare in the UK was still pretty lurid; according to some of the coverage, it was lin

Read Full Article Here

Miami to Outlaw Sale of ‘Bath Salts’… (miami.cbslocal.com)
S.F. Relaxation Guru Explains the Difference Between Bath Salts and Face-Eating Bath Salts (blogs.sfweekly.com)
Bath Salts Will Get You High, Just Not the Ones at Your House (bellasugar.com)
Bath Salts Drug Blamed For Cannibal Attack in Florida, Authorities Crack Down (inquisitr.com)
The Low Down on the New Highs (addiction-dirkh.blogspot.com)
“Zombie” cannibal attack exposes why ‘bath salts’ are dangerous (kdvr.com)
Bath Salts – The New Designer Drug (psychologytoday.com)
“Bath salts” turn people into zombies (fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com)
House votes to ban bath salts; final Senate vote next week (bangordailynews.com)
Miami-Dade Commission Approves Bath Salt Ban (theaveragejoenewsblogg.com)
Why ‘bath salts’ are dangerous (thechart.blogs.cnn.com)
Bath Salts: Were They Behind “Miami Zombie” Attack? (thehollywoodgossip.com)

Tags: United States, England, Miami, Bath Salt, Methylenedioxypyrovalerone, Tony O'Neill, Sandy Adams, MDMA

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President Bush acknowledged that the U.S. had used “black site” prisons in foreign countries

Filed under: Corruption, Fundamental Rights, Government, Government Overreach, Human Rights, Hypocrisy, Psy - Ops, War on terror, Whistle Blowers, World News — Leave a comment

June 23, 2012

CIA Wanted ‘Torture’ Cage for Secret Prison: Official

By RANDY KREIDER

A Polish official says that prosecutors have a construction order that proves the CIA wanted a cage for terror suspects built at a secret ‘black site’ prison inside Poland……………………

……….This week Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the prosecutor’s office also allegedly has a signed order from Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, the then-head of Polish intelligence, authorizing the creation of the black site. A source told the paper that the agreement has a space intended for an American signature, but that the Americans did not sign the document “because they do not want to sign documents inconsistent with their own Constitution and international law.”

Siemiatkowski did not confirm or deny the existence of the agreement, but said he could not discuss anything he might have signed because it would be classified………………

……………ABC News previously revealed the location of another CIA prison at a former riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2006, President Bush acknowledged that the U.S. had used “black site” prisons in foreign countries, and said many of the suspects who had been detained there were then moved to Guantanamo Bay. While denying that the U.S. employed torture, he said that the U.S. had used an “alternative set of procedures” to interrogate prisoners. ……………

Read Full Article and Watch Video Here

CIA allegedly ordered ‘torture cage’ at secret black site prison (rawstory.com)
CIA Wanted ‘Torture’ Cage for Secret Prison: Official (abcnews.go.com)
Confirmed: CIA secret prison in Poland (redantliberationarmy.wordpress.com)
Confirmed: CIA secret prison in Poland (rt.com)
CIA Secret Prison: Poland’s Leaders Admit ‘Black Site’ Existed (inquisitr.com)
Reprieve unmasks corporations profiting from extraordinary rendition (punpht.wordpress.com)
CIA Secret Prison: Polish Leaders Break Silence About Black Site (the2012scenario.com)
Confirmed: CIA secret prison in Poland – RT (2012indyinfo.com)
CIA ‘ordered cage to hold prisoners in Poland’ (blacklistednews.com)
Poles talk about CIA prison, breaking silence (cbsnews.com)
America’s ‘Trojan Horse in Europe’ is About to Bolt (Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland) (themoderatevoice.com)
Poland charges ex-official over CIA prisons, report says (vancouversun.com)

Tags: ABC News, American Government, Black site, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, enhanced interrogation, Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland, President Barack Obama, President George W. Bush, torture, United States, Vilnius

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Myths And Truths About Genetically Modified Organisms : Earth OpenSource Report

Filed under: Chemicals, Corruption, Environmental, Food Safety, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), Government Overreach, Health, Hypocrisy, Nutrition, Poisons in Our Foods, Politics — Leave a comment

June 23, 2012

GMO Myths and Truths

Genetically modified (GM) crops are promoted on the basis of a range of far-reaching claims from the GM crop industry and its supporters. They say that GM crops:

Are an extension of natural breeding and do not pose different risks from naturally bred crops
Are safe to eat and can be more nutritious than naturally bred crops
Are strictly regulated for safety
Increase crop yields
Reduce pesticide use
Benefit farmers and make their lives easierBring economic benefits
Benefit the environment
Can help solve problems caused by climate change
Reduce energy use
Will help feed the world.

However, a large and growing body of scientific and other authoritative evidence shows that these claims are not true. On the contrary, evidence presented in this report indicates that GM crops:

Are laboratory-made, using technology that is totally different from natural breeding methods, and pose different risks from non-GM crops
Can be toxic, allergenic or less nutritious than their natural counterparts
Are not adequately regulated to ensure safety
Do not increase yield potential
Do not reduce pesticide use but increase it
Create serious problems for farmers, including herbicide-tolerant “superweeds”, compromised soil quality, and increased disease susceptibility in crops
Have mixed economic effects
Harm soil quality, disrupt ecosystems, and reduce biodiversity
Do not offer effective solutions to climate change
Are as energy-hungry as any other chemically-farmed crops
Cannot solve the problem of world hunger but distract from its real causes – poverty, lack of access to food and, increasingly, lack of access to land to grow it on.

Based on the evidence presented in this report, there is no need to take risks with GM crops when effective, readily available, and sustainable solutions to the problems that GM technology is claimed to address already exist. Conventional plant breeding, in some cases helped by safe modern technologies like gene mapping and marker assisted selection, continues to outperform GM in producing high-yield, drought-tolerant, and pest- and disease-resistant crops that can meet our present and future food needs.

Read the full GMO Myths and Truths report

Genetic Engineers Explain Why GE Food Is Dangerous (ecowatch.org)
Genetic Engineers Produce Damning Report Exposing Genetically Modified Foods (deretornoacasa.wordpress.com)
Debunking the Health Claims of Genetically Modified Foods (theatlantic.com)
Senate Rejects Amendment Giving States the Right to Require GMO Labeling (theintelhub.com)
Why Genetically Engineered Food is Dangerous: New Report by Genetic Engineers (sott.net)
Senate rejects amendment giving states the right to require GMO labeling (EndtheLie.com)

Tags: Genetic engineering, Genetically Modified Food, Genetically modified organism, GMO Myths, Harm, Monsanto, Plant breeding, Roundup, Soil quality

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Conspiracy Theory Becomes Conspiracy Fact – Democrat Party says Obama doesn’t HAVE to be eligible to serve as President!

Filed under: Corruption, Democracy, Government, Government Overreach, Hypocrisy, Politics, Rule Of Law, The American Constitution — 4 Comments

June 23, 2012

Democrat Party says Obama doesn’t HAVE to be eligible to serve as President!

By Coach Collins, on June 23rd, 2012

by Doug Book, staff writer

Weary of defending in court the Constitutional eligibility of their boy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Democrat Party has finally admitted Barack Obama is not qualified to be president of the United States– and that it doesn’t matter.

According to a motion filed by Party attorneys in a Tennessee eligibility lawsuit, “…Defendants [the Tennessee Democrat Party and the Democrat National Committee] assert that the Tennessee Democrat Party has the right to nominate whoever it chooses to run as a candidate, including someone who is not qualified for the office.” (1)

In numerous previous lawsuits questioning the Constitutional eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama, Democrats have maintained that voters, not the Constitution, should be the final arbiters of presidential eligibility. Though a disgraceful assertion on its face, such mindless rambling was about all desperate Democrat attorneys had in their arsenals, apart from the perpetually employed “plaintiffs lack standing” defense.

But now the cat is out of the bag and the true sentiments of Democrat Party officials have finally been aired. It seems that according to the left, as long as the acting president has the requisite contempt for the United States, is willing to work tirelessly to destroy the national economy and will ignore both the rule of law and his Constitutional duty to enforce it, he is eminently qualified to hold the country’s top job.

In February, Georgia Administrative Judge Michael Malihi ignored Supreme Court precedent, made a shambles of case law and distorted the rulings of other courts in a pathetically obvious mission to find Barack Obama eligible for the Georgia presidential ballot. Although the first judge to decide an Obama eligibility case on the merits, his contempt for an honest judicial process certainly did nothing to mend the rapidly deteriorating reputation of the American legal system.

Read Full Article coachisright.com …

To read more use these links:

(1) http://www.scribd.com/doc/97824831/TN-WDTN-LLF-2012-06-21-Memorandum-ORDER-DISMISSING-CASE

Obama attorneys argue he’s not Dem nominee (wnd.com)
How Barack Obama avoids prison (english.pravda.ru)
Romney/Rubio Ticket in 2012? Perhaps… (“…”conspiracy theories,” made the connection between Obama’s disappearance and the nearby Bilderberg meeting…”) (gunnyg.wordpress.com)
Arizona Official: ‘Possible’ Obama Doesn’t Make Ballot (newsy.com)

Tags: BarackObama, Constitution, Democrat, Democratic Party, Obama, Supreme Court of the United States, Tennessee, United States

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Corn genetically engineered by Monsanto to kill western corn rootworm is reportedly being devoured by those pests with a vengeance.

Filed under: Chemicals, Corruption, Food Safety, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), Hypocrisy, Poisons in Our Foods, Rising Costs — 1 Comment

June 23, 2012

Nature fights back – bugs devour GM Monsanto corn with a vengeance

Friday, June 22, 2012 by: Tony Isaacs

corn

(NaturalNews) Corn genetically engineered by Monsanto to kill western corn rootworm is reportedly being devoured by those pests with a vengeance. Thanks to heavy reliance on the genetically modified (GM) crops, the tiny rootworm pest has overtaken fields, outsmarting the genetic engineering that was supposed to keep it away.

Nature fights back against GM corn
The GM corn, launched in 2003, is engineered to produce a protein, known as Cry3Bb1, derived from a bacterium known as Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. In theory, rootworms ingest Bt corn roots and the protein is fatal. However, recent reports indicate that pesticide-resistant rootworms are showing up weeks earlier and more voraciously than ever.

In a research paper published in the July/August/September 2012 issue of the journal GM Crops & Food, scientists reported that samples taken in 2010 indicated that rootworm populations had an eleven-fold survival rate on Cry3Bb1 maize than did control populations. The paper noted that resistant corn rootworm populations first identified in 2009 had three-fold survival rates on Cry3Bb1 maize at that time compared to other populations.

Mike Gray, a professor of entomology with the University of Illinois reported: “We’re still early in the growing season, and the adults are about a month ahead of schedule,” explained Gray. “I was surprised to see them – and there were a lot.”

Reports of increasing rootworm damage began coming in last year after Iowa State University researcher Aaron Gassmann published a study saying that the rootworms in Iowa were becoming resistant to GM corn, creating so-called “superbugs.” Farmers in several states found that the western corn rootworm was surviving after ingesting an insecticidal toxin produced by the corn plants.

Read Full Article Here

Busted: Biotech Leader ‘Syngenta’ Charged Over Covering Up Animal Deaths from GM Corn (activistpost.com)
Rootworms can damage even “fancy corn” (theconscientiousomnivore.wordpress.com)
Bigger refuges needed to delay pest resistance to biotech corn (eurekalert.org)
Eating This Could Turn Your Gut into a Living Pesticide Factory (blacklistednews.com)
Anthony Gucciardi ~ BUSTED: Biotech Leader ‘Syngenta’ Charged Over Covering Up Animal Deaths From GM Corn (shiftfrequency.com)
Busted: Biotech Leader ‘Syngenta’ Charged Over Covering Up Animal Deaths from GM Corn (sott.net)
Eating This Could Turn Your Gut into a Living Pesticide Factory (articles.mercola.com)
Busted: Biotech Leader ‘Syngenta’ Charged Over Covering Up Animal Deaths from GM Corn (naturalsociety.com)
New study on Monsanto corn suggests GMO trees could devastate forest ecosystems (foodfreedomgroup.com)
Busted: Biotech Leader ‘Syngenta’ Charged Over Covering Up Animal Deaths from GM Corn (theaveragejoenewsblogg.com)

Tags: Bacillus thuringiensis, Genetic engineering, Genetically modified maize, GMO, Iowa State University, Maize, Mike Gray, Monsanto, Western corn rootworm

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Earth Watch Report – Saturday June 23rd , 2012

Filed under: Biological Hazard, Diseases, Earthquakes, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Global Disaster Watch, Solar Activity, Space, Storms — Leave a comment

June 23, 2012

Earthquakes

RSOE EDIS

Date/Time (UTC)	Magnitude	Area	Country	State/Prov./Gov.	Location	Risk	Source	Details
23.06.2012 09:20:34	2.6	North America	United States	Nevada	Incline Village		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 09:20:59	2.1	Middle America	Mexico	Estado de Baja California	Las Catitas		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 09:00:48	4.0	Pacific Ocean	New Zealand	Woodville County	Darfield		GEONET
23.06.2012 07:50:38	2.1	North America	United States	California	Iceland		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 09:10:46	2.6	North America	United States	Texas	Egan		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 07:40:58	2.4	North America	United States	California	Muir		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 07:00:34	2.6	North America	United States	Utah	Commonwealth Square Condominium		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 06:55:33	5.9	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia		Keudeampontuan		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 06:20:33	2.4	North America	United States	Alaska	Happy Valley		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 06:00:34	4.2	North America	United States	California	Iceland		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 05:50:31	4.5	Indonesian archipelago	Indonesia	Propinsi Maluku	Lautong		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 05:20:46	2.4	North America	United States	Alaska	Kanatak		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 05:06:03	3.1	North America	United States	Utah	Bloomington Hills		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 04:25:37	2.3	North America	United States	California	Scissors Crossing		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 03:45:29	2.0	North America	United States	California	Imperial		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 03:40:31	4.7	Atlantic Ocean	Saint Helena		Wild Cattle Pound		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 01:45:53	2.9	Caribbean	Dominican Republic	Provincia de La Altagracia	Tres Hermanos		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 23:30:30	2.2	North America	Canada	British Columbia	Princeton		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 23:55:38	3.5	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Vinet		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 23:15:32	2.3	North America	United States	California	Imperial		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 23:10:44	2.3	North America	United States	California	Imperial		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 23:11:04	2.3	North America	United States	California	Imperial		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 23:11:26	2.0	North America	United States	California	Imperial		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 23:15:52	2.2	North America	United States	Oregon	Bradwood		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 22:15:41	2.2	North America	United States	California	Iceland		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 21:40:33	2.1	North America	United States	California	Linnie		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 21:55:43	4.7	Asia	Japan	Tokyo-to	Oki		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 18:30:39	2.4	North America	United States	California	Mercuryville		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 17:20:35	2.9	North America	United States	California	Ribbonwood		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 19:40:38	2.3	North America	United States	Alaska	Happy Valley		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 16:25:33	2.1	North America	United States	Hawaii	Volcano		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 15:25:43	2.4	North America	United States	Washington	Ballow		USGS-RSOE
23.06.2012 00:11:09	2.7	Pacific Ocean	New Zealand	Woodville County	New Brighton		GEONET
22.06.2012 15:11:15	4.0	Pacific Ocean	New Zealand	Woodville County	New Brighton		GEONET
22.06.2012 14:50:41	4.8	Pacific Ocean	New Zealand	Woodville County	Horoera		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 14:35:39	4.9	Pacific Ocean	New Zealand	Woodville County	Horoera		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 19:50:32	2.7	Caribbean	British Virgin Islands		The Settlement		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 14:00:38	2.3	Caribbean	Puerto Rico		Tosquero (historical)		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 12:05:52	3.8	Australia	Australia	State of New South Wales	Narrallen		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 10:20:35	5.1	Asia	Japan	Iwate-ken	Aneyoshi		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 09:55:47	4.7	North America	United States	Alaska	McCord		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 10:05:44	5.0	North America	United States	Alaska	McCord		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 12:00:33	3.7	Caribbean	Dominican Republic	Provincia de La Altagracia	La Zanja		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 22:31:02	2.2	North America	United States	Utah	Ticaboo		USGS-RSOE
22.06.2012 19:30:47	2.2	North America	United States	Alaska	Happy Valley		USGS-RSOE

…………………………………….

Magnitude-6 Earthquake Strikes Off Australia’s Macquarie Island

(RTTNews) – A powerful earthquake of 6.0 magnitude struck in the Pacific Ocean off Australia’s remote and sparsely-populated Macquarie Island on Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The USGS reported that the quake struck at a shallow depth of 6.2 miles at about 3:30 p.m. local time, with its epicenter located some 14 miles northwest of Macquarie Island.

There were no immediate reports of casualities or damages, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is yet to respond to the tremor.

Macquarie Island is located in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica. Politically, it is part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a World Heritage Site.

The island is home to the entire Royal Penguin population on earth during their annual nesting season. Ecologically, the remote island is part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion.

Since 1948, the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has maintained a permanent base on the island. The population of the base, the island’s only human inhabitants, usually varies from 20 to 40 people over the year.

by RTT Staff Writer

BREAKING: 4.2 Earthquake near Incline Village

Print Story

Published: 6/22 9:01 pm

Updated: 6/22 10:51 pm

RENO, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) – The epicenter of the earthquake was due east of Truckee just east of the Nevada – California state line. People from all over the Reno-Sparks metro area and Carson City are telling News 4 that they felt the earthquake.

The quake struck at 8:51pm. There was a 1.4 magnitude aftershock about five minutes after the initial earthquake; 20 minutes later there was a 1.8 aftershock. With-in an hour and a half there were five aftershocks. The largest aftershocks were two 1.9 magnitudes. Nearly two hours after the 4.2, a 2.1 aftershock shook the area.

At 1:00pm, about eight hours before the large earthquake, there was a magnitude 2.0 quake in the same area.

Information from the USGS:

4.2 Ml – NEVADA
Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude4.2 Ml
Date-Time
23 Jun 2012 03:51:56 UTC
22 Jun 2012 20:51:56 near epicenter
22 Jun 2012 19:51:56 standard time in your timezone
Location39.323N 119.979W
Depth11 km
Distances
9 km (6 miles) NNW (344 degrees) of Incline Village-Crystal Bay, NV
10 km (6 miles) NE (35 degrees) of Tahoe Vista, CA
10 km (6 miles) NNE (23 degrees) of Kings Beach, CA
26 km (16 miles) SSW (211 degrees) of Reno, NV
155 km (96 miles) NE (56 degrees) of Sacramento, CA

5.9-magnitude quake hits N. Sumatra, Indonesia — USGS

English.news.cn 2012-06-23 13:48:24

JAKARTA, June 23 (Xinhua) — An earthquake measuring 5.9 jolted northern Sumatra, Indonesia at 0434 GMT on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 97.40 km, was initially determined to be at 2.9635 degrees north latitude and 97.9111 degrees east longitude.

**********************************************************************************************************

Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

Nearly 9,000 evacuated as Utah fire explodes

‘Ash was falling on us as we were pulling away,’ says one evacuee

Ravell Call / The Deseret News via AP

Fire approaches homes near Saratoga Springs, Utah, on Friday.

msnbc.com staff and news service reports

updated 6/22/2012 8:36:36 PM ET

SALT LAKE CITY — Thousands of homes were evacuated from two small Utah communities on Friday as high winds whipped up a brush fire triggered by target shooters and pushed the flames toward houses and a nearby explosives factory.

The so-called Dump fire erupted Thursday in the Kiowa Valley near a landfill for Saratoga Springs, a town of 18,000 on the west shore of Utah Lake, about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Nearly 9,000 people had been evacuated, Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon told The Deseret News.

The blaze initially scorched about 750 acres of cheat grass, sage and pinyon juniper south and west of town, but by Friday, a combination of strong winds and rising heat shifted the fire’s direction and sparked rapid growth, Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Teresa Rigby said.

By Friday evening, the blaze had grown to more than 4,000 acres. Rigby said fire crews had cut containment lines around 20 percent of the blaze, but that number slipped as flames spread.

About 100 firefighters were working the blaze on Friday, with more teams expected, Rigby said. Air support was being provided by one air tanker and one helicopter. A red-flag warning for high wildfire hazards was posted across Utah, and Rigby said authorities are expecting winds of more than 20 mph by afternoon.

Sheriff’s deputies with bullhorns rolled through Saratoga Springs neighborhoods ordering the first evacuations at about 10 a.m., after flames had burned to within half a mile of homes. By midday, evacuations were expanded to include a portion of nearby Eagle Mountain, just east of Saratoga Springs.

Paul Fraughton / The Salt Lake City Tribune via AP

Lisel Christiansen packs her van as she prepares to leave her home in Eagle Mountain, Utah, Friday.

Homeowner and commercial photographer Renee Keith said she and her husband decided the fire had burned “too close for comfort” and began packing before authorities ordered them out. Keith said she packed her children’s baby books, the computer hard drives, one bag of clothes and camera equipment.

“I was kind of nervous, especially when we were packing the car,” Keith told Reuters. “Ash was falling on us as we were pulling away.”

The Keiths said their biggest concern was for a nearby plant that makes explosives for the construction and mining industries. The fire was reportedly burning within one mile of the factory, but authorities said the flames appeared to have burned around it.

It was not clear Friday how long authorities would keep residents away, Rigby said.

In neighboring Colorado, fire managers on Friday reported making progress against a 100-square-mile fire burning west of Fort Collins, near the Wyoming border, after two days of cooler temperatures, calmer winds and higher humidity.

Officials there said containment of the fire, which ranks as the most destructive on record in Colorado, had increased to 60 percent.

But a return of triple-digit temperatures and gusty winds in the forecast posed a renewed challenge to firefighters battling the lightning-caused blaze, fire commander Bill Hahnenberg said.

The fire has been blamed for one casualty so far, a 62-year-old grandmother whose remains were found last week in the cabin where she lived alone.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Forest / Wild Fire in USA on Friday, 22 June, 2012 at 18:05 (06:05 PM) UTC.

Description

A massive, out of control wildfire on Lake Mountain prompted evacuations Friday morning and was bearing down on an explosives factory. “It’s close enough to where we’re really worried,” BLM spokeswoman Cami Lee said of the explosives plant. An evacuation of the Benches subdivision in Saratoga Springs has now begun. Officials have begun notifying residents door to door and through reverse 911 telephone calls. The evacuation area is everything south of Pony Express Parkway, east of Smith Ranch Road and east to Redwood Road. The affected subdivisions in Eagle Mountain include Kiowa Valley, Eagle Top, Fremont Springs and SilverLake. Highway 68 also was closed south of 400 North in Saratoga Springs. A shelter is being set up at West Lake High School. Just after 11 a.m. the temperature was already 90 degrees and the wind was blowing at 15 mph with gust up to 19 mph. Authorities were scrambling around 10 a.m. to notify residents of at least 250 homes in Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain that they needed to leave the area. Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Teresa Rigby said that a change in wind was driving the Dump Fire east and it had come within a quarter of a mile of a neighborhood. The thick brown smoke was filling the air over much of northern Utah County and drifting east over the valley. An air tanker was flying overhead, visible only occasionally before it disappeared into the smoke. In Saratoga Springs the city’s water department has shut off irrigation wast er to all location where culinary water is being used for irrigation, according to the city’s Facebook page, so water tanks can fill and provide water and water pressure if the fire reaches homes. The city also is asking residents to turn off their irrigation systems this weekend. According to the BLM, the fire was being fought Friday morning by four hand crews, various fire engines, and a handful of helicopters. Additional hand crews were en route.

22.06.2012

Forest / Wild Fire

USA

State of Utah, Saratoga Springs

Red Flag Warning

FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE

PUEBLO CO
RIVERTON WY
SALT LAKE CITY UT
CHEYENNE WY
LAS VEGAS NV
ELKO NV
GRAND JUNCTION CO
FLAGSTAFF AZ
DENVER CO
FAIRBANKS AK
POCATELLO ID

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Storms, Flooding

NASA sees tropical trouble brewing in southern Gulf of Mexico

This visible image of System 96L was captured by NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite on June 22 at 1601 UTC (12:01 p.m. EDT). The image was created at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., by the NASA GOES Project Credit: NASA GOES Project

Imagery from NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite has shown some towering thunderstorms within the low pressure area called System 96L, located in the southern Gulf of Mexico. NASA continues to create the imagery from the GOES satellite and NASA satellites are also monitoring the developing low. If it does organize further and become a tropical storm over the weekend, it would be named “Debby.”

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Its quite likely that the fourth tropical cyclone of the North Atlantic Hurricane Season is brewing in the southern Gulf of Mexico, more specifically, in the Yucatan Channel. The Yucatan Channel lies between Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and western Cuba.

Tropical depressions seem have have a habit of forming on weekends, and this low appears to be following that habit. On Friday, June 22 at 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT), System 96L was located near 22.5 North and 89.5 West, near the north coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.

The GOES-13 satellite continually monitors the eastern U.S. and provides updated visible and infrared imagery. An image from June 22 at 1601 UTC (12:01 p.m. EDT) shows a large low pressure area near the Yucatan’s northern coast with disorganized showers and thunderstorms. In the image, some of the thunderstorms near the center of the low appear to be higher than the surrounding clouds,which indicates they are higher and stronger.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted that atmospheric pressure on the surface continues to fall, indicating that the low pressure area is intensifying. Forecasters at NHC give System 96L a 70 percent chance of becoming the fourth tropical depression of the Atlantic Hurricane season, sometime over the weekend.

Meanwhile, System 96L is expected to move slowly northward into the Gulf of Mexico this weekend (June 23-24). The NHC notes “Interests along the entire United States Gulf Coast should monitor the progress of this disturbance through the weekend. Heavy rains and localized flooding are possible across the Yucatan peninsula, western Cuba, and southern Florida through Saturday.”

Provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Flood Warning

PENDLETON OR
DULUTH MN
TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
LAKE CHARLES LA

Flood Advisory

TOPEKA KS
JUNEAU AK

Coastal Flood Advisory

BROWNSVILLE TX
NEW ORLEANS LA

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Epidemic Hazards / Diseases

Today

Epidemic Hazard

USA

State of Virginia, Fairfax [George Mason University]

Epidemic Hazard in USA on Saturday, 23 June, 2012 at 04:33 (04:33 AM) UTC.

Description
Health officials are investigating the cause of a mystery sickness bug which claimed more than 40 victims in one night. Dozens of students at George Mason University, Washington, were taken ill with food poisoning and flu-like symptoms on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Those with reported sickness are said to be from a group of 80 international students aged between 15 and 22, who were at the school to attend the Congressional Awards Foundation Program. An unknown number of students were taken to the George Washington University Hospital after being taken ill, while more students developed similar symptoms just hours later. The students called 911, before another seven pupils were transported to a nearby hospital. Officials are still investigating what caused the illness, but say more than 40 students have so far been affected. Fairfax County health officials say the outbreak may have been viral gastroenteritis, which causes vomiting and diarrhea. A member of Fairfax County Fire and EMS told NBC: ‘Originally they thought it might be related to the heat and dehydration, but they started to show more of a stomach-type virus or illness.’ NBC reported that the virus was spread person to person by touching the infected surface areas. Health officials are now said to be working with the university to clean the area sick students may have infected.
Biohazard name:	Unidentified illness
Biohazard level:	1/4 Low
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses including Bacillus subtilis, canine hepatitis, Escherichia coli, varicella (chicken pox), as well as some cell cultures and non-infectious bacteria. At this level precautions against the biohazardous materials in question are minimal, most likely involving gloves and some sort of facial protection. Usually, contaminated materials are left in open (but separately indicated) waste receptacles. Decontamination procedures for this level are similar in most respects to modern precautions against everyday viruses (i.e.: washing one’s hands with anti-bacterial soap, washing all exposed surfaces of the lab with disinfectants, etc). In a lab environment, all materials used for cell and/or bacteria cultures are decontaminated via autoclave.
Symptoms:	flu-like symptoms, possible viral gastroenteritis
Status:	suspected

22.06.2012

Epidemic Hazard

India

State of Gujarat, Ahmedabad

Epidemic Hazard in India on Friday, 22 June, 2012 at 18:03 (06:03 PM) UTC.

Description
A local hospital is on alert as a resident doctor died of the dreaded Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (Congo fever) here today. Dr Smiral Patel of V S Hospital, who contracted the virus while treating a patient with unknown hemorrhagic viral fever, today died at a private hospital. “We started screening all ward boys, nursing staff and resident doctors as soon as we received the positive report of the blood sample of Dr Patel from the National Institute of Virology, Pune,” said Dr Pankaj Patel, the superintendent of the Municipal Corporation-run V S Hospital. On Wednesday, while Dr Smiral Patel was treating a patient, a splash of patient`s blood landed on his face. Next day he complained of high-grade fever, severe headache, and metallic taste in his mouth. He was immediately rushed here. But today he passed away,” said Dr Atul Patel, senior consultant at Sterling Hospital, where Dr Smiral was undergoing treatment. Authorities at the V S Hospital have started checking up everybody who was in the team with Dr Smiral, and given preventive medicines to his colleagues, who had taken him to the private hospital and stayed with him. Last year, a woman, Amina Momin of Sanand town near Ahmedabad, had died of Congo Fever.
Biohazard name:	Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever
Biohazard level:	3/4 Hight
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

US journal prints controversial bird flu research

Terra Daily
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) June 21, 2012

The US journal Science published research Thursday on how a mutant bird flu may spread among mammals and possibly humans, following months of controversy over the risks of bioterrorism.

The paper detailed how a Dutch lab engineered an H5N1 bird flu virus that can be transmitted in the air among ferrets, and followed the publication last month of findings by a US-based team that made similar advances.

Last year, a US biosecurity panel called for only heavily edited results of the two papers to be released, for fear that an ill-intentioned scientist might be able to use the data to unleash a potent and lethal form of bird flu that humans could catch easily.

But international experts have since agreed that the benefits of publishing outweighed the risks.

Deadly flu pandemics have killed millions of people in the past. Until now, there have been fewer than 600 human cases of H5N1 bird flu infection in the world since it first infected people in Hong Kong in 1997, but more than half of all cases have been fatal.

The World Health Organization has tallied 606 human cases of bird flu since 2003 and 357 deaths, according to its latest report issued this month.

Lead researcher Ron Fouchier, a scientist at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, said the aim was to gain a better understanding of how avian flu is spread in order to prepare for a potential human outbreak.

“The virus did not kill the ferrets that were infected via the aerosol route,” said Fouchier, who has frequently stressed that the dangers of his research were overblown in the media.

“Anybody with access to the scientific literature can read all about dangerous pathogens that are more interesting to terrorize the world with than our particular virus.”

Instead, Fouchier and his colleagues showed that the H5N1 virus could become airborne among ferrets — considered a reasonable but not perfect model for humans — after as few as five mutations and without mixing H5N1 with another flu virus.

The previous paper by Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin and colleagues, published in May in the British journal Nature, described how the virus could become airborne after a series of mutations and re-assortments with the 2009 H1N1 virus, or “swine flu.”

The two papers offer important insights into what forms a spreadable bird flu may take, and could lead to more advances in how to stop it, said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“I believe that the benefits are greater than the risks. Does that mean there’s no risk? No, of course not,” he said.

“Being in the free and open literature would make it much easier to get a lot of the good guys involved than the risk of getting the rare bad guy involved.”

But it remains unclear just how much risk people face, according to Derek Smith from the University of Cambridge, who co-authored an article in the same edition of Science on the potential for such a virus to evolve in humans.

Smith said his team’s research determined that viruses with two of the mutations are already being found in birds.

To reach the minimum level of five mutations that Fouchier’s team described looks “pretty difficult, but we don’t yet know how difficult it is,” he said.

“We now know we are living on a fault line. What we have discovered in this working collaboration with Drs Fouchier and Kawaoka is that it is an active fault line,” he told reporters.

Asked if such a virus would inevitably evolve in nature, Smith likened that to asking, “Could it ever snow in the Sahara?”

“It is absolutely within the realm of possibility that they could evolve in a human host or some other mammalian host. We see nothing — we see no fundamental hurdle to that happening,” he added.

In the meantime, Fauci said a voluntary moratorium on research that involves the causes or transmissibility of H5N1 has yet to be lifted, as leading US health officials try to establish rules for future experiments that could raise alarm among biosecurity experts.

“We are still struggling a bit,” said Fauci.

“I can’t tell you when it’s going to be voluntarily lifted, but we are working very hard right now (to establish a) broad general criteria of the kinds of experiments that could be done.”

The editor-in-chief of Science, Bruce Alberts, said the eight-month-long controversy “has shone a spotlight on the need to deal more effectively with ‘dual-use research of concern.’”

Deadly Bird Flu May Be Five Steps From Pandemic, Study Finds

(Updates with vaccine makers in fifth paragraph.)
June 22 (Bloomberg) — Five genetic tweaks made a deadly strain of bird flu that can infect humans spread more easily, according to a study that the U.S. government had first sought to censor on concerns it could be used by bioterrorists.

The genetic changes made the H5N1 virus airborne among ferrets, the mammals whose response to flu is most like that of humans, researchers from the Netherlands wrote in the journal Science yesterday. The likelihood of those changes occurring naturally is difficult to estimate but there is “no fundamental hurdle to that happening,” said Derek Smith, a University of Cambridge researcher who led a second study.

Scientists have been monitoring for pandemic-inducing changes in H5N1 since the strain was recovered from a farmed goose in China’s southern province of Guangdong in 1996. The virus has since spread across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa, devastating poultry flocks and causing sporadic infections in people, among whom it doesn’t efficiently transmit.

“We now know that we’re living on a fault line,” Smith said on a conference call with reporters. “It’s an active fault line, it really could do something, and now what we need to know is, how likely is that?”

Publication of the paper was delayed after a U.S. biosecurity panel in December asked the scientists to censor some parts of their work to prevent it being used by bioterrorists. Researchers meeting at the World Health Organization in February agreed the full findings should be published to help scientists design vaccines and drugs, and public health officials prepare for a pandemic.
Vaccine Makers
Novartis AG, Sanofi and CSL Ltd. make vaccines against H5N1 avian influenza. GlaxoSmithKline Plc applied for European Union approval of its vaccine in March.

More than 600 people have been infected with H5N1 since 2003, and almost 60 percent have died, according to the Geneva- based WHO. Most had direct contact with infected poultry, prompting scientists to question what it would take for the virus to become easily transmissible between humans.

While influenza viruses mutate constantly in a process called antigenic drift, the flu pandemics of the past century, including the 1918 Spanish flu that killed as many as 50 million people, have all been triggered by so-called antigenic shift, the mixing of human and animal flu viruses to create new pathogens to which people have no preexisting immunity.

Scientists led by Ron Fouchier at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam set out to test whether H5N1 could become more transmissible by antigenic drift alone. The answer: yes.
Infected Ferrets
Fouchier and colleagues examined mutations in viruses responsible for previous flu pandemics, and made three such changes to a strain of H5N1 from Indonesia, the country with the most cases and deaths, which they used to infect a ferret. They later took swabs from its nose and throat and used that to infect another ferret, and so on up to 10 animals, to see how the virus evolved.

Sure enough, it developed the ability to replicate in the animals’ respiratory tract, suggesting the potential for airborne transmission.

The researchers then put the virus to the test by putting the infected animals next to healthy ferrets in neighboring cages. Six out of eight of the healthy ferrets became infected.

In addition to the three genetic changes introduced by the scientists, they identified two other mutations that enabled the virus to spread, the researchers wrote. Those mutations are now the subject of further research.

The five changes have all been observed in nature, but not in the same virus, they wrote. The mutant viruses were susceptible to Roche Holding AG’s antiviral drug Tamiflu.

A similar study led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, which was also delayed, was published in the journal Nature in May. That showed how H5N1 could become highly transmissible by mixing with the H1N1 virus that sparked the 2009 swine flu pandemic.
‘Wrong Hands’
The two groups agreed in December to suspend their work for 60 days after the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity asked two journals to censor some details of the work to ensure it wouldn’t “fall into the wrong hands.”

The controversy over the studies triggered a new U.S. government policy for conducting or funding research that could potentially be used for harm, Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Francis S. Collins, the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, wrote in an accompanying article.
‘Nefarious Use’
The benefits of the research “far outweigh the risks of the nefarious use of this information,” Fauci said on the conference call. “Being in the free and open literature would make it much more easy to get a lot of the good guys involved than the risk of getting the rare bad guy involved.”

Other pathogens studied by scientists are more transmissible and deadlier than H5N1, Fouchier said.

“Anyone with access to the scientific literature can read about all the dangerous pathogens that are more interesting to terrorize the world with than our particular virus,” he said on the conference call.

A moratorium on the research will remain in place until the conditions under which the work is done are assessed by authorities, Fouchier said.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
–Editors: Phil Serafino, Angela Zimm
To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Geneva at sbennett9@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net

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Solar Activity

2MIN News June 22, 2012: Coronal Hole Coming, Tropical Development

Published on Jun 22, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

AMAZING: http://www.universetoday.com/95920/a-gamma-ray-burst-as-music/

TODAYS LINKS
Antarctic 15M years ago: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/06/120620-green-antarctica-trees…
Antarctic 2.8M years ago: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120621151506.htm
Mars Water: http://phys.org/news/2012-06-extensive-mars-interior.html
Carbon Emission: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/jpl/news/earth20120621.html
Agenda 21: http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/
China Goes NWO: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-06/22/c_131669027.htm
Moody Rate Cuts: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/22/us-financial-moodys-downgrades-idUS…
Taliban Attack: http://en.rian.ru/world/20120622/174180317.html

REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]

HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]

SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos - as seen from earth]

SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT - as seen from earth]

Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI - as seen from the side]

SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it... trust me]

SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]

iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]

NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/cme-based/ [CME Evolution]

RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]

JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/

LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php

Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can't figure out what this one is for?]

BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]

TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]

GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]

INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]

NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/

PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]

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Space

Earth approaching objects (objects that are known in the next 30 days)

Object Name

Apporach Date

Left

AU Distance

LD Distance

Estimated Diameter*

Relative Velocity

(2011 AH5)

25th June 2012

2 day(s)

0.1670

65.0

17 m – 39 m

5.84 km/s

21024 km/h

(2012 FA14)

25th June 2012

2 day(s)

0.0322

12.5

75 m – 170 m

5.28 km/s

19008 km/h

(2004 YG1)

25th June 2012

2 day(s)

0.0890

34.7

140 m – 310 m

11.34 km/s

40824 km/h

(2010 AF3)

25th June 2012

2 day(s)

0.1190

46.3

16 m – 36 m

6.54 km/s

23544 km/h

(2008 YT30)

26th June 2012

3 day(s)

0.0715

27.8

370 m – 820 m

10.70 km/s

38520 km/h

(2010 NY65)

27th June 2012

4 day(s)

0.1023

39.8

120 m – 270 m

15.09 km/s

54324 km/h

(2008 WM64)

28th June 2012

5 day(s)

0.1449

56.4

200 m – 440 m

17.31 km/s

62316 km/h

(2010 CD55)

28th June 2012

5 day(s)

0.1975

76.8

64 m – 140 m

6.33 km/s

22788 km/h

(2004 CL)

30th June 2012

7 day(s)

0.1113

43.3

220 m – 480 m

20.75 km/s

74700 km/h

(2008 YQ2)

03rd July 2012

10 day(s)

0.1057

41.1

29 m – 65 m

15.60 km/s

56160 km/h

(2005 QQ30)

06th July 2012

13 day(s)

0.1765

68.7

280 m – 620 m

13.13 km/s

47268 km/h

(2011 YJ28)

06th July 2012

13 day(s)

0.1383

53.8

150 m – 330 m

14.19 km/s

51084 km/h

276392 (2002 XH4)

07th July 2012

14 day(s)

0.1851

72.0

370 m – 840 m

7.76 km/s

27936 km/h

(2003 MK4)

08th July 2012

15 day(s)

0.1673

65.1

180 m – 410 m

14.35 km/s

51660 km/h

(1999 NW2)

08th July 2012

15 day(s)

0.0853

33.2

62 m – 140 m

6.66 km/s

23976 km/h

189P/NEAT

09th July 2012

16 day(s)

0.1720

66.9

n/a

12.47 km/s

44892 km/h

(2000 JB6)

10th July 2012

17 day(s)

0.1780

69.3

490 m – 1.1 km

6.42 km/s

23112 km/h

(2010 MJ1)

10th July 2012

17 day(s)

0.1533

59.7

52 m – 120 m

10.35 km/s

37260 km/h

(2008 NP3)

12th July 2012

19 day(s)

0.1572

61.2

57 m – 130 m

6.08 km/s

21888 km/h

(2006 BV39)

12th July 2012

19 day(s)

0.1132

44.1

4.2 m – 9.5 m

11.11 km/s

39996 km/h

(2005 NE21)

15th July 2012

22 day(s)

0.1555

60.5

140 m – 320 m

10.77 km/s

38772 km/h

(2003 KU2)

15th July 2012

22 day(s)

0.1034

40.2

770 m – 1.7 km

17.12 km/s

61632 km/h

(2007 TN74)

16th July 2012

23 day(s)

0.1718

66.9

20 m – 45 m

7.36 km/s

26496 km/h

(2007 DD)

16th July 2012

23 day(s)

0.1101

42.8

19 m – 42 m

6.47 km/s

23292 km/h

(2006 BC8)

16th July 2012

23 day(s)

0.1584

61.6

25 m – 56 m

17.71 km/s

63756 km/h

144411 (2004 EW9)

16th July 2012

23 day(s)

0.1202

46.8

1.3 km – 2.9 km

10.90 km/s

39240 km/h

(2012 BV26)

18th July 2012

25 day(s)

0.1759

68.4

94 m – 210 m

10.88 km/s

39168 km/h

(2010 OB101)

19th July 2012

26 day(s)

0.1196

46.6

200 m – 450 m

13.34 km/s

48024 km/h

(2008 OX1)

20th July 2012

27 day(s)

0.1873

72.9

130 m – 300 m

15.35 km/s

55260 km/h

(2010 GK65)

21st July 2012

28 day(s)

0.1696

66.0

34 m – 75 m

17.80 km/s

64080 km/h

(2011 OJ45)

21st July 2012

28 day(s)

0.1367

53.2

18 m – 39 m

3.79 km/s

13644 km/h

153958 (2002 AM31)

22nd July 2012

29 day(s)

0.0351

13.7

630 m – 1.4 km

9.55 km/s

34380 km/h

1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers

Source: NASA-NEO

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Biological Hazard / Wildlife

Today

Biological Hazard

USA

State of Hawaii, [Maui]

Biological Hazard in USA on Saturday, 23 June, 2012 at 04:36 (04:36 AM) UTC.

Description
Wetland biologists and others involved in managing lands with associated wetlands have been notified by the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) of a recent avian botulism outbreak affecting waterbirds on Maui. In just over a week, 67 birds have been found dead at Kanaha Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Kahului including Hawaiian Stilt, Hawaiian Coot, and Hawaiian Ducks of adult and juvenile stages. The paralytic disease has killed adult birds on their nests, also causing the eggs to be lost. Because botulinum toxin can be produced in most wetlands, and transported to new wetlands by dead or dying waterfowl, landowners and managers, both public and private, are being asked to frequently survey their wetlands for sick and/or dead birds, remove any dead or dying birds from the wetland, and contact local DOFAW biologists for guidance. Earlier this year a botulism outbreak in Hanalei, Kauai resulted in over 300 sick and dead birds being collected by USFWS refuge staff. Additionally, numerous other botulism fatalities have also been reported at wetlands throughout the state. Botulism is a paralytic condition brought on by the consumption of a naturally occurring toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. It is an intoxication rather than an infectious disease. Botulism, type C is commonly found in Hawaiian soils and is NOT dangerous to humans. Particular environmental conditions in wetlands will sometimes allow this bacterium to produce botulinum toxin; the toxin is then accumulated in aquatic invertebrates. It is consumption of these toxic invertebrates by waterfowl that leads to mortality. In Hawai‘i, birds commonly affected include waterfowl frequenting wetlands such as our endangered Hawaiian coots, Hawaiian ducks, Laysan ducks, Hawaiian moorhen, Hawaiian stilts, Black-crowned night- herons, and various migratory waterfowl and shorebirds. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Wildlife Health Center Honolulu Field Station (NWHC-HFS) has been working closely with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the State of Hawaii DLNR to investigate and confirm botulism as a cause of waterfowl mortality in Hanalei and Kahului. The NWHC-HFS provides technical assistance to federal, state, municipal, and non-governmental organizations on wildlife health related matters in Hawai‘i and the Pacific. “Part of our role is to determine the cause of death during unusual wildlife mortality events involving native and endangered species and provide management recommendations to address and mitigate such mortalities” said Dr. Thierry Work, Wildlife Disease Specialist for the USGS National Wildlife Health Center Honolulu Field Station. “For this particular event, our team first conducts necropsies of freshly dead birds here in Honolulu and then sends samples to the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison Wisconsin for confirmation of botulism.”
Biohazard name:	Avian botulism
Biohazard level:	1/4 Low
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses including Bacillus subtilis, canine hepatitis, Escherichia coli, varicella (chicken pox), as well as some cell cultures and non-infectious bacteria. At this level precautions against the biohazardous materials in question are minimal, most likely involving gloves and some sort of facial protection. Usually, contaminated materials are left in open (but separately indicated) waste receptacles. Decontamination procedures for this level are similar in most respects to modern precautions against everyday viruses (i.e.: washing one’s hands with anti-bacterial soap, washing all exposed surfaces of the lab with disinfectants, etc). In a lab environment, all materials used for cell and/or bacteria cultures are decontaminated via autoclave.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

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Articles of Interest

New deglaciation data opens door for earlier First Americans migration

Terra Daily
by Staff Writers
Corvallis, OR (SPX) Jun 22, 2012

Sanak Island.

A new study of lake sediment cores from Sanak Island in the western Gulf of Alaska suggests that deglaciation there from the last Ice Age took place as much as 1,500 to 2,000 years earlier than previously thought, opening the door for earlier coastal migration models for the Americas.

The Sanak Island Biocomplexity Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, also concluded that the maximum thickness of the ice sheet in the Sanak Island region during the last glacial maximum was 70 meters – or about half that previously projected – suggesting that deglaciation could have happened more rapidly than earlier models predicted.

Results of the study were just published in the professional journal, Quaternary Science Reviews.

The study, led by Nicole Misarti of Oregon State University, is important because it suggests that the possible coastal migration of people from Asia into North America and South America – popularly known as “First Americans” studies – could have begun as much as two millennia earlier than the generally accepted date of ice retreat in this area, which was 15,000 years before present.

Well-established archaeology sites at Monte Verde, Chile, and Huaca Prieta, Peru, date back 14,000 to 14,200 years ago, giving little time for expansion if humans had not come to the Americas until 15,000 years before present – as many models suggest.

The massive ice sheets that covered this part of the Earth during the last Ice Age would have prevented widespread migration into the Americas, most archaeologists believe.

“It is important to note that we did not find any archaeological evidence documenting earlier entrance into the continent,” said Misarti, a post-doctoral researcher in Oregon State’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. “But we did collect cores from widespread places on the island and determined the lake’s age of origin based on 22 radiocarbon dates that clearly document that the retreat of the Alaska Peninsula Glacier Complex was earlier than previously thought.”

“Glaciers would have retreated sufficiently so as to not hinder the movement of humans along the southern edge of the Bering land bridge as early as almost 17,000 years ago,” added Misarti, who recently accepted a faculty position at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

Interestingly, the study began as a way to examine the abundance of ancient salmon runs in the region. As the researchers began examining core samples from Sanak Island lakes looking for evidence of salmon remains, however, they began getting radiocarbon dates much earlier than they had expected.

These dates were based on the organic material in the sediments, which was from terrestrial plant macrofossils indicating the region was ice-free earlier than believed.

The researchers were surprised to find the lakes ranged in age from 16,500 to 17,000 years ago.

A third factor influencing the find came from pollen, Misarti said.

“We found a full contingent of pollen that indicated dry tundra vegetation by 16,300 years ago,” she said. “That would have been a viable landscape for people to survive on, or move through. It wasn’t just bare ice and rock.”

The Sanak Island site is remote, about 700 miles from Anchorage, Alaska, and about 40 miles from the coast of the western Alaska Peninsula, where the ice sheets may have been thicker and longer lasting, Misarti pointed out. “The region wasn’t one big glacial complex,” she said. “The ice was thinner and the glaciers retreated earlier.”

Other studies have shown that warmer sea surface temperatures may have preceded the early retreat of the Alaska Peninsula Glacier Complex (APGC), which may have supported productive coastal ecosystems.

Wrote the researchers in their article: “While not proving that first Americans migrated along this corridor, these latest data from Sanak Island show that human migration across this portion of the coastal landscape was unimpeded by the APGC after 17 (thousand years before present), with a viable terrestrial landscape in place by 16.3 (thousand years before present), well before the earliest accepted sites in the Americas were inhabited.”

Related Links
Oregon State University
Beyond the Ice Age

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