Neustar – a company which has in many ways laid the foundation for the
surveillance infrastructure in America. It connects people with
companies that want to market to them aggressively and it does this neither with their knowledge nor their approval and very few people are talking about it. Journalist Reyhan Harmanci recently wrote an in-depth article about this company, she joins RT from San Francisco.
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Pre-trial hearings are underway for Bradley Manning – the jailed US soldier accused of releasing information to Wikileaks. His lawyer claims Manning was tortured and treated worse than a terrorist during nearly two years in solitary confinement. He faces 22 charges including ‘aiding the enemy’ – which carries a death sentence.
Chase Mader who wrote the book, “The Passion of Bradley Manning”, says Washington’s stance is hypocritical.
DemocracyNow.org – The Food and Drug Administration has been found to have launched a massive surveillance campaign targeting its own scientists for writing letters to journalists, members of Congress and President Obama. The scientists were expressing their concern over the FDA’s approval of medical imaging devices for colonoscopies and mammograms that could endanger patients with high levels of radiation. The covert spying operation led the agency to monitor the scientists’ computers at work and at home, copying emails and thumb drives and even monitoring individual messages line-by-line as they were being composed in real time. The agency also created an enemies list. We’re joined by the FDA whistleblowers’ attorney, Stephen Kohn, executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center. “For the first time we now have a glimpse into what domestic surveillance of whistleblowers looks like in this country with the modern technological developments,” Kohn says. “The agency [sought] to destroy the reputation of these whistleblowers forever.”
To watch the complete weekday independent news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, search our vast archive, or to find more information about Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman, visit http://www.democracynow.org/
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss how market participants are never more than a few milliseconds away from the next act of fraud and how a teaspoon of collateral leads to economic martial law. They also discuss German economists proposing that the wealthy be forced to buy bonds while in Spain the government and EU force bank losses on cooks and pensioners. In the second half of the show, oil analyst, Chris Cook, about how, despite sanctions, oil will always find a home; the Enron technique of pre-pay now being used by Enron’s former counterparties; and how stability is the death for the oil market middlemen.
PBS home video documents the bitter 50-year war between the Israelis and Arabs. This program begins with the 1947 decision of the U.N. to partition Palestine. In 1948 and 1967, Arab armies were defeated as Israel struggled for statehood. The film follows the development of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The final episode features the 1973 Yom Kipper War, the 1978 Camp David Peace Accord, the 1987 Palestinian uprising, the 1993 Oslo Agreement, and continuing attempts to solidify this unstable relationship. Featured in this documentary are Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Shamir of Israel; King Hussein of Jordan; Yasir Arafat from the Palestine Authority; Hafez al-Assad of Syria; Jafaar Numeiry of Sudan; and American Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Jimmy Carter. The 50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs follows a half-century of war, struggles, and negotiations.
The conflict in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors is given comprehensive treatment in this two-video set produced by PBS. Using archival footage and extensive interviews with participants, the production begins by explaining conditions in Palestine at the end of World War II and the crisis created by the exodus of European Jews who went to the Middle East after the Holocaust. The withdrawal of the British, who had controlled Palestine for decades, is detailed, as is the creation of the state of Israel. Much of the region’s history is complex, with the local struggles being conducted at times as a part of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union, but these videos do an admirable job of explaining the complexities of the situation. The segment on the Six Day War, for example, is masterful, with the scenes shifting from Israel to Egypt to Washington to Moscow, the story developing before the viewer’s eyes. The 50 Years War is often a tale of mistrust and betrayal, but this production strives to present a balanced view of history, and is not only impressive for its command of the facts but for its skillful and often dramatic presentation of history
Leading statesmen, generals, terrorists and others who made the headlines in one of history’s most bitter and enduring struggles tell the story of the Arab-Israeli conflict in The 50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs. Opening with the U.N decision to partition Palestine in 1947, the program charts the ensuing half-century of enmity, warfare, mediation and negotiation.
Among the current and former heads of state and prime ministers interviewed or featured in the series are Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir of Israel; King Hussein of Jordan; Yasir Arafat of the Palestine Authority; Hafez al-Assad of Syria; Jafaar Numeiry of Sudan; and U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush and Jimmy Carter. Also appearing are foreign ministers, defense ministers, commanders in the field, heads of intelligence and guerrilla leaders, as well as high-ranking officials in the United States and the former Soviet Union.
I will take requests to upload any partial selections for focused discussion if any wishes to. I am trying to teach facts and build consensus, not control how anyone thinks. If I can learn too, this is one of my life missions, to not overlook any learning opportunities. Thank you for any participation. — I will do the same thing for any documentaries not already available if there are requests that can be legally met, I will do so. — don’t forget to subscribe and check daily.
President Clinton, Yasser Arafat, the Israeli Prime Ministers, their generals and advisers and those behind the suicide bombs and assassinations tell what happened behind closed doors as peace talks gave way to the violent struggle of the Palestinian intifada.
Uploaded under the fair use doctrine of US copyright law, this is yet another PBS documentary that is using moral equivalence to be “balanced” by showing both sides equally at fault, regardless of the actual evidence. If you decide in advance that no group can ever be taking a morally superior position, then you end up “correcting” the evidence to show “balance” and in this way, the fight will never end because the Palestinian leadership can’t accept sovereignty from non-Muslims. No matter how just the Israeli position is, since the British Empire defeated the Turks, the unspoken expectation was that no matter how many other non-Muslims once lived in the region, none of them can ever have sovereignty over Muslims, or this will be declared as “unjust” in the eyes of Sharia law.
By caving in decades ago and failing to examine the whole body of evidence, the West took their collective eye off the truth while contending with the Cold War, and then certain delusional presidents come along and want to sweep the facts under the rug by enforcing a purely political compromise, when the Jewish State spent decades already caving in to their absolute lowest bottom-dollar position. Yet no matter where they start, the new negotiators come in and ask as much compromise again from each, not noticing that the Arab Muslims have NEVER acquiesced at all! The Jews make promises that they keep, and the Arab Muslims are not expected to. This is racism. Characters like Chomsky start the “evidence” from June 5 as if the whole region fell out of the sky that morning.
Anyone who forms an opinion without starting their research in the 1930s, or earlier, is allowing themselves to be deceived out of laziness and narcissism.
Once enough viewers have started by becoming familiar with these 9 segments from PBS, the 6 segments of ‘The 50 Years War’ and the 3 segments here in, “Elusive Peace” can we begin to take concrete steps to a constructive reconciliation based on truth,
There will never be peace until the majority of constituents stops falling back on the sound bites of their favorite politician, and finds out the truth, and discovers the lies used to mis-characterize the West (those that support the democratic nation of Israel) and Israel itself.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, made her first visit to Egypt since the first democratically elected president was inaugurated. Clinton has met with the two central players in the power struggle playing out in Egypt. On Saturday, she held her first meeting with President Mohamed Morsi. He was sworn in two weeks ago as Egypt’s first democratically elected President. Morsi is an Islamist who emerged from the country’s long-oppressed Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Did you know there is a soon-to-be-passed trade deal that’s being called “NAFTA on steroids”? Did you know over 600 corporate lobbyists are being giving the keys to a backdoor around our laws? You probably didn’t know about it because it’s being kept top secret.
Behind closed doors corporate America is implementing a stealth strategy to consolidate its rule.
CHARLESTON WV
GAYLORD MI
ST LOUIS MO
PITTSBURGH PA
INDIANAPOLIS IN
NORTHERN INDIANA
LA CROSSE WI
LINCOLN IL
MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI
GREEN BAY WI
CHICAGO IL
NEW YORK NY
CLEVELAND OH
WILMINGTON OH
GRAND RAPIDS MI
QUAD CITIES IA IL
MOUNT HOLLY NJ
STATE COLLEGE PA
Monuments on the Acropolis Hill in Athens will close early due to a heat wave in Greece that saw temperatures reach 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit). The site will close to the public on Monday at 2:00 p.m. (1100GMT), and return to regular summer opening hours on Tuesday, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (0500-1700GMT), the Culture Ministry’s association of employees at ancient sites said. Municipal authorities in Greek cities are on alert, providing air-conditioned halls for the public, while the government’s Civil Protection Agency advised elderly Greeks to remain indoors until evening hours.
Images like this will be common on area thermometers the next few days. Image courtesy of Photos.com.
While temperatures have recently been warm across the Midwest and Northeast, intense heat has been absent–that will change in the upcoming few days.
Another sizzling stretch of weather awaits the Midwest and Northeast this week as the heat baking the Plains expands eastward.
After engulfing the mid-Mississippi Valley, the heat will then continue to build to the Northeast Monday into Tuesday, replacing the ongoing drenching thunderstorms that are being jeered by those with outdoor plans but welcomed by farmers and gardeners.
Triple-digit heat will return to Chicago and St. Louis on Tuesday, challenging record highs. On the same day, highs in the middle to upper 90s will bake nearly every community along the Northeast’s I-95 corridor.
Temperatures will be just as hot, if not hotter, throughout the mid-Atlantic on Wednesday.
High humidity will worsen the situation by creating even hotter AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures.
Forecast High Temperatures
City
Mon.
Tues.
Wed.
Des Moines
97
103
90
Chicago
97
100
88
Detroit
92
97
89
Boston
90
95
87
New York City
92
95
92
Philadelphia
95
98
97
Washington, D.C.
95
98
98
The return of intense heat is the last thing many residents, including the Midwestern farmers facing a corn crop disaster, want to hear. The good news is that its presence will be short-lived.
Not long after the heat builds, a cold front will sweep it back out of the Midwest and Northeast in a northwest to southeast fashion to end the workweek on a comfortable note.
The only problem is that before the refreshing air arrives, severe thunderstorms will first ignite.
16.07.2012
Extreme Weather
Canada
Province of Ontario, Whitby [Ribfest Food Festival]
Hundreds of people at an Ontario food festival were crammed into a dining tent waiting out a sudden rainshower Sunday when a lightning bolt struck one of the structure’s steel poles, triggering an electrical discharge that sent 17 people to hospital amid a buzz of concern. “You see the flash and it sounded like a bomb (went off) exactly at the same time. It was so loud,” said Steve Peddle, who was with his wife inside the main tent of the inaugural Whitby Ribfest when the lightning hit around 2 p.m. “All of a sudden, like not even three seconds after that, you started hearing people screaming.” Officials said none of the 17 taken to hospital suffered life-threatening injuries, but many at the event were shaken by the incident. “It wasn’t just one person – there was a lot of people screaming. And so you knew somebody must have got hit,” said Peddle, who travelled from nearby Pickering with his wife Rose.
“I looked over and where my wife had been sitting before we got our ribs… there was three people lying on the ground there.” Another festival-goer, Michael Thompson, said a huge crowd of people had flooded into the large white tent moments before the strike as rain pounded the festival grounds at Iroquois Park in Whitby, which sits some 55 kilometres east of Toronto. “It was pretty chaotic. We didn’t really know what was going on,” the 45-year-old said of the immediate aftermath of the strike. “Some first aid people were in there and they (were) pretty quick when they rushed in. They were throwing tables out of the way so they could reach the injured.” Durham police said those who were injured were quickly taken to local hospitals. Nine people were rushed via ambulance to Lakeridge Health in Durham, some suffering from minor burns, while others were uninjured but want to be checked up on, said a spokesman with the hospital. “Everyone who came, nobody had anything serious. Everybody has been discharged,” said Aaron Lazarus. Whitby Ribfest chairman Colin O’Regan said the festival didn’t see the lightning storm coming before the bolt hit the tent. “Basically a sudden storm came out of nowhere,” he said.
The festival’s emergency plan – drawing on lessons learned from other rib festivals – ensured first aid workers were able to race inside the tent “within seconds,” while other staff and police already at the event kept the crowd orderly, O’Regan added. Additional police, fire and emergency officials arrived minutes later, he said. The Durham Region, which includes Whitby, was put under a severe thunderstorm watch hours before the strike. O’Regan said emergency officials who were already at the festival had been monitoring the thunderstorm watch. “We were aware but felt that there was no risk to the patrons attending,” he said. No heavy rain or any other indication the storm was coming was noticed until minutes before thunderclouds rolled in and lightning struck the tent, he said. There were several thousand people attending the festival when the strike took place and many more were expected to show up later in the afternoon, O’Regan said. “It occurred earlier in the day when we were not as populated as we would have been,” he said, noting that thousands had attended on each of the two previous festival days.
16.07.2012
Extreme Weather
China
MultiProvinces, [Provinces of Hubei,Guizhou, Anhui and Hunan ]
Heavy rain has swept across central and southern China, killing dozens and forcing thousands to evacuate. Rain-triggered floods have killed 10 people and affected over 2 million others in central China’s Hubei province. Recent rainstorms in Guizhou Province left at least 11 people dead and affected nearly a million others. And east China’s Anhui Province and central Hunan have also been badly affected by extremely heavy rain over the past few days. It‘s not easy to live a normal life here when your whole city has been mired in floods for days. Here in Anyang City in Anhui Province, hundreds of people are still trapped in their houses, waiting to be taken to safety. Meters-high water forced rescuers to try different ways of reaching to those trapped. Families’ belongings are also passed out, one thing at a time. Over the course of 3 hours, rescuers managed to take over 200 people to safe areas. They also brought in disaster relief goods such as blankets and rice, to help those left homeless. The local meteorological office is continuing to issue rain alerts. Meanwhile, emergency plans have been launched by the city government, to try to stop the flood spreading through the city.
Heavy rain and lightning across the Travis and Williamson counties is causing an array of problems for the Austin area. All of Round Rock is under voluntary evacuation. A temporary shelter was established in the Clay Madsen Rec Center at 1600 Gattis School Road. It has since closed as the water is now receding. Many roads across the area are closed. There have been at least nine swift water rescues in the Austin area caused by quickly rising water. One person from a water rescue on South Pleasant Valley Road was transported to St. David’s Hospital in Downtown Austin by EMS. This was the only injury reported. The storm has knocked out power to thousands of Austin Energy customers. The utility has an up-to-date map of the outages on its website here. Ed Clark with Austin Energy said that as of 10 p.m., about 800 customers were still without power. At the storms peak, power outages affected about 5000 Austin Energy customers. High winds from the storm have flipped six boats on Lake Travis off of the Emerald Point Marina, according to the National Weather Service. It’s not known how large the boats are or if the weather has caused any injuries in that area.
A wildfire started on a Wyoming National Guard training area forced the partial evacuation of Glendo State Park, about 100 miles north of Cheyenne. Glendo is northwest of Guernsey State Park, which was evacuated and closed this summer because of another wildfire, which was human caused. An unknown number of campers and visitors on the east side of Glendo Park were evacuated Sunday night and moved to the west side of the park, according to Domenic Bravo, administrator of the state Parks, Historic Sites and Trails Division. “There wasn’t a lot of folks that we had to evacuate,” Bravo said Monday. “There was good handful though.” The park includes Glendo Reservoir, which is a popular destination for boaters and has more than 400 campsites. The Sawmill Canyon fire began Saturday on Camp Guernsey Joint Training Center land, which is operated by the Wyoming Guard. The fire had burned about 7 to 10 square miles of rough terrain with mixed trees and grass by Monday morning. About 180 firefighters aided by helicopters and heavy air tankers are battling the fire. There were some Guard units training in the area, which includes an artillery range, Guard spokeswoman Deidre Forster said. Forster said she didn’t know what type of training was occurring or what units were involved. The area is used for training by various agencies, including the U.S. military, police units, as well as by the Wyoming Guard. State Forester Bill Crapser said the cause of the fire was under investigation.
The fire broke out on Sunday, prompting emergency services to evacuate 50 villagers from their homes overnight, and has spread over 1,100 hectares (2,700 acres), the regional government said on Monday. Fanned by wind, it reached the edge of the Teide National Park – a mountainous beauty spot centring on the Teide volcano, Spain’s highest peak and a Unesco world heritage site. Coaches and cars were moved from the grounds of the park as a precaution. It was not immediately clear whether the fire threatened to spread into the natural park. The regional government of the Canary Islands, the Atlantic archipelago of which Tenerife is part, said 70 firefighters and seven helicopters were busy battling the blaze. Spain is at higher risk of forest fires than ever this summer after suffering its driest winter in 70 years. One fire in eastern Spain this month ravaged 50,000 hectares.
Firefighters in Montenegro are struggling to contain wildfires that are threatening an ancient pine forest in the northeast of the country. Fires have erupted amid extremely high temperatures in the Balkans, reaching around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in Montenegro in the past weeks. Fires have destroyed hundreds of acres of forests and about a dozen houses and stables. Officials say the blaze has reached the outer rim of the Crna Poda forest, where some of the pine trees are 400 years old. Emergency official Radomir Scepanovic said Monday that “we will stay to protect (the forest) until the rain falls.” Firefighters have been using planes and choppers, but efforts are hampered by hilly terrain and occasional strong winds. The forest is located within the UNESCO-protected Tara river canyon.
About 500 people, including tourists, were evacuated Sunday from the vicinity of the town of San Teodoro on the Italian island of Sardinia, due to raging fires in the area. The fire had already spread to residential houses. There is no information regarding the casualties as yet. Land and air resources have been mobilized to fight the blaze. Forest fires are raging across nearly half of Italy, including the region of Abruzzo, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily, due to record- high temperatures, which have been registered in the country for the third week running.
The drought has already raised the price of corn following lowered USDA crop projections that some experts say are still optimistic. Look for meats to lead the way as food prices rise.
Leaves become dry and brittle on stalks of corn in a parched field outside Effingham, Ill., Monday, July 16. The drought gripping the United States is the widest since 1956, according to new data released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Sunday’s storms resulted in flash flooding in certain parts of the Valley. The area near ABC15 at 44th and Van Buren streets got hit especially hard with one impressive downpour. The area is prone to flooding so city officials put up a sign to warn drivers to not enter the area when flooded. Few drivers actually chose to heed that warning. Despite the fact that 48th Street looked more like a lake, people still chose to drive through the water. A few drivers actually did the right thing and found another route to get where they were going. But most people rolled the dice and drove right through the flood water. Arizona does have a stupid motorist law which states that you will be forced to pay for the cost of your rescue if you ignore warning signs and enter a flooded area. Nobody needed to be rescued from the area near 48th Street Sunday night.
At least 337 families were affected by flash floods that hit Tulunan town in North Cotabato Saturday afternoon, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said Sunday. In a report posted on its website Sunday night, the NDRRMC said the incident occurred at 4 p.m. due to continuous rain. The NDRRMC said the flood waters were knee- to waist-deep, although the flood waters had subsided by Sunday. It also said there was no initial report of missing or dead residents due to the floods. Among the villages affected by the floods were F. Cajelo; Minapan (Purok 1, 2, 3, 6, 7), La Esperanza, Poblacion Purok 8, and Galidan. The incident has prompted the Office of Civil Defense to coordinate with the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to assist the affected residents.
16.07.2012
Flash Flood
USA
State of Utah, [St. George, Santa Clara, Snow Canyon State Park and Veyo]
Heavy rain and flash flooding shut down a portion of a road in St. George, and people are reporting water gushing down roadways. Washington County’s emergency services division said Sunset Boulevard east of Lava Flow Drive is closed because of flooding. Flash floods are also happening in Santa Clara. Severe rain, damaging winds and cloud-to-ground lightning prompted the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City to issue warnings Sunday afternoon for multiple areas throughout the state. The weather service says the thunderstorm is capable of producing quarter-sized hail in Washington County. Locations in warning area also include Snow Canyon State Park and Veyo. People should move indoors and stay clear of windows because of the storm’s damaging winds. The warning, which was supposed to lapse at 5:45 p.m., has been extended to 8:30 p.m., as was the danger for flooding. A similar warning was issued for east central Emery County or 15 miles southwest of Green River. I-70 is also listed in the warning, with winds that could top 60 mph. Like Washington County, quarter-sized hail is possible, and the weather service is warning people to seek shelter from the dangerous storm. The warning is in effect until 7:15 p.m. Elsewhere, heavy rain over the Wood Hollow Fire’s burn scar could result in debris flows and is asking residents to take precautions. A flash flood warning has been issued for east central Juab County, north central Sanpete County and south central Utah County. The burn scar is west of U.S. 89 between Birdseye and Mount Pleasant, where up to three quarters of inch of rain is predicted to fall. Particularly vulnerable areas include, but are not limited to Indianola and U.S. 89 from Birdseye through Fairview. The weather service warns that even if a debris flow has already happened, it could followed by additional flows of debris.
Houston police have reported two people dead and a third injured after lightning struck a soccer field in northwest Harris County during a thunderstorm on Sunday. A sheriff’s spokesman says a men’s league soccer club had been playing on a field today when it began to rain around noon. The men decided to seek shelter under nearby trees when lightning hit one of the trees. According to FOX26, lightning touched down on a field near West Hardy Street Sunday afternoon. One of the victims died at the field, another died after being rushed to the hospital. A third victim was injured during the incident and remains in stable condition at Ben Taub General hospital. The Houston area has been drenched by rain the past week, flooding between 50 and 100 homes.
About 100 homes are being evacuated in Huonville, south of Hobart, as a dam threatens to burst. Police have confirmed one of the dam’s walls is leaking and could break, spilling up to 10 megalitres of water down Scenic Hill Road, on the town’s outskirts. The State Emergency Service and police have blocked roads in the area and have begun doorknocking residents, asking them to evacuate. The private dam is about one hectare in size and the damage is being assessed by the local council and the state water department. Residents have taken to social media networks saying they are nervously waiting and watching to see if the dam will hold. A recovery centre has been set up at the local youth club.
BEIJING — The Chinese province of Hunan urged parents on Sunday to seek immediate treatment for children showing symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease after official figures showed 112 people died from the illness last month.
The disease, which children are especially vulnerable to, also infected more than 381,000 people, the Ministry of Health reported last week.
“The disease incidence rate in June was much higher than that of last June, which has much to do with the high temperatures this summer,” said Liu Fuqiang with the provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The province urged parents and teachers to send children to hospital as soon as they showed symptoms of the disease, including mouth sores, skin rashes or fever.
In June, 34,768 cases were reported and 17 people died from the disease in Hunan, the statement said.
According to the Ministry of Health, over 460,000 people were infected by the disease in May, leading to 132 deaths.
In recent days, health departments in numerous Chinese provinces and regions, including Gansu, Fujian, Jiangsu and Xinjiang have issued warnings over the outbreak of the disease, state press reports said.
16.07.2012
Epidemic Hazard
Australia
State of Queensland, Brisbane [Westfield Chermside and Brisbane airport]
People who went to a busy Brisbane shopping centre and the city’s domestic airport last week have been warned to look out for measles symptoms. A person with a confirmed case of the illness visited Westfield Chermside on Thursday and Brisbane airport domestic terminal on Friday while they were infectious, Queensland Health says. Measles is one of the most infectious of all communicable diseases, and is spread by coughing and sneezing. The initial symptoms of fever, lethargy, runny nose, moist cough and sore and red eyes usually start around 10 days after infection. They are followed a few days later by a blotchy red rash on the face, which then becomes widespread. Queensland Health says anyone who develops the symptoms should phone their GP before visiting, so they can avoid the disease spreading to other patients. It says measles complications can include pneumonia or encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) and occasionally death. It can be a severe illness even in otherwise healthy adolescents and young adults.
Biohazard name:
Measles
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Skywatchers keep an eye out for northern lights; no negative effects reported
Space weather experts kept track of a solar storm that swept over our planet on Saturday, representing the fallout from a powerful solar flare earlier this week.
“The impact was not as strong as forecasters expected,” SpaceWeather.com’s Tony Phillips wrote. “Nevertheless, the blow compressed Earth’s magnetosphere and sparked a mild … geomagnetic storm.”
The solar storm originated from a massive solar flare on Thursday that included a powerful eruption on the sun, known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME. The eruption sent a wave of charged solar plasma toward Earth. The CME could amplify auroral displays, some space weather officials said
Initial forecasts predicted the CME would arrive at Earth between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. ET, with an error margin of plus or minus seven hours. The actual timing was on the late side: SpaceWeather.com reported that the CME hit Earth’s magnetic field at about 2 p.m. ET.
This weekend’s solar storm originated from one of the most powerful sun flares to occur this year. The flare registered as an X1.4-class sun storm, one of the strongest flares the sun can unleash. It marked the sixth X-class solar flare of 2012.
The solar storm erupted from the giant sunspot AR1520, or Active Region 1520, which is actually a group of sunspots that at its peak may have stretched across 186,000 miles of the sun’s surface, NASA scientists have said. [ Photos of Huge Sunspot AR1520 ]
Auroral displays occur when charged solar particle interact with Earth’s upper atmosphere. Usuallly, they are confined to high-latitude regions around the polar regions by the planet’s magnetic field. Space weather forecasters said there was a chance that the auroral zone would be more extended on Saturday night.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center is tracking AR1520, as well as several other active spots on the sun, for signs of more activity. This weekend’s solar storm was not expected to pose a major risk to satellites and spacecraft in orbit, or to power systems on Earth.
The sun is currently in the middle of an active phase in its 11-year sunspot cycle. The current cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24 and expected to peak in 2013.
MessageToEagle.com – There is a huge amount of space debris in orbit around the Earth and this is a problem.
About 70% of all catalogued objects are in low-Earth orbit (LEO), which extends to 2000 km above the Earth’s surface.
According to observations, the number of objects in Earth orbit has increased steadily – by two hundred per year on average.
Space debris comprise the ever-increasing amount of inactive space hardware in orbit around the Earth as well as fragments of spacecraft that have broken up, exploded or otherwise become abandoned.
Image credit: ESA
The launch of the first artificial satellite by the Soviet Union in 1957 marked the beginning of the utilization of space for science and commercial activity.
During the Cold War, space was a prime area of competition between the USSR and USA, reaching its climax with the race to the Moon in the 1960s.In 1964 the first TV satellite was launched into a geostationary orbit in order to transmit the Olympic games from Tokyo.
Later, Russian launch activities declined while other nations set up their own space programs.
Between the launch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 and 1 January 2008, approximately 4600 launches have placed some 6000 satellites into orbit, of which about 400 are travelling beyond geostationary orbit or on interplanetary trajectories.
Today, it is estimated that only 800 satellites are operational – roughly 45 percent of these are both in LEO and GEO.
About 50 percent of all trackable objects are due to in-orbit explosion events (about 200) or collision events (less than 10).
Trackable objects in orbit around Earth. Image credit: ESA
Image credit: ESA
70% of all catalogued objects are in low-Earth orbit (LEO), which extends to 2000 km above the Earth’s surface. To observe the Earth, spacecraft must orbit at such a low altitude. The spatial density of objects increases at high latitudes.
Debris objects in low-Earth orbit (LEO) Image credit: ESA
Image credit: ESA
What happens after an explosion in space? A geostationary satellite has a velocity of about 3 kms/second (11,000 kms/hour). The fragments are ejected with a much lower velocity and thus stay close to the initial orbit. However, some will travel a bit faster and others a bit slower.
Within a few days the debris cloud will form a diffuse ring at 36,000 km altitude around the Earth.
Image credit: ESA
In any stable orbit, a satellite is in an equilibrium between the Earth’s gravity (indicated here with a blue arrow) and centrifugal force, due to its velocity (indicated in green). Additional perturbing forces, e. g. by Sun and Moon, also act on geostationary satellites.
The debris objects shown in the images are an artist’s impression based on actual density data. However, the debris objects are shown at an exaggerated size to make them visible at the scale shown. MessageToEagle.com based on information provided by ESA
MessageToEagle.com – The black hole in the galaxy M83 is now producing 3000 times more X-rays than it had been before it became mega-powerful!
This extraordinary outburst from a black hole has now been seen with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Astronomers observed what is called a ULX, or ultraluminous X-ray source.
The remarkable behavior of this ULX in M83 provides direct evidence for a population of older, volatile, stellar-mass black holes.
The spiral galaxy M83, where this extraordinary event took place, is located about 15 million light years from Earth.
Such powerful outbursts give off more X-rays than most normal binary systems in which a companion star is in orbit around a neutron star or black hole.
In recent years, astronomers have discovered fascinating regions around black holes that are giving off a crazy amount of X-rays – a lot more than what should be possible.
The galaxy M83, is one of such places, where astronomers have discovered such a weirdly powerful black hole.
Astronomers still don’t fully understand what is making these black holes mega-powerful, but it could be that they are much heavier than normal black holes.
Click on image to enlargeStarting on the left the image features an optical view of the full M83 galaxy, while the right images show a close up of the region where the ULX was found with data from Chandra (pink) and Hubble (blue and yellow) Credit: Optical: ESO/VLT; Close-up – X-ray: NASA/CXC/Curtin University/R.Soria et al., Optical: NASA/STScI/Middlebury College/F.Winkler et al.
A heavy black hole could pull in more material than a smaller black hole, which would make a lot more X-rays. Instead of being a few times heavier than the Sun, like normal black holes, the mega-powerful ones could be up to 100 times heavier!
Since the 1980s, astronomers have known about a mysterious class of objects that they call “ultraluminous X-ray sources,” or ULXs.
Click on image to enlargeBefore and After Images in X-ray and Optical Light
In Chandra observations that spanned several years, the ULX in M83 increased in X-ray brightness by at least 3,000 times. This sudden brightening is one of the largest changes in X-rays ever seen for this type of object, which do not usually show dormant periods. Credit: Optical: ESO/VLT; Close-up – X-ray: NASA/CXC/Curtin University/R.Soria et al., Optical: NASA/STScI/Middlebury College/F.Winkler et al)
They named them this because these objects give off more X-ray light than most other binary systems where black holes or neutron stars are in orbit around a normal companion star.
Recent astronomical observation of a ULX in the spiral galaxy M83 gives scientists new clues about what really happens in this region of space.
This ULX increased its output in X-rays by 3,000 times over the course of several years. Using clues found in the X-ray and optical data, researchers think this ULX may be a member of a population of black holes that up until now was suspected to exist but had not been confirmed.
These black holes, which are the smaller stellar-mass black holes, are older and more volatile than previously thought.
Harris County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Thomas Gilliland says rain halted a men’s league soccer club around noon on Sunday and the players all run for cover under some nearby trees.
By Associated Press
Sheriff’s Deputy Joe Shriver points to where he saw the first victim that was killed by a lighting strike at a soccer field on Sunday, July 15, 2012, in Houston. Two men have been killed and a third injured after they were struck by lightning during a thunderstorm.
Lifeguards report that 135 people were stung by jellyfish at Encinitas beaches Sunday. Encinitas lifeguards say the Black Sea Nettle Jellyfish, which is usually 4 to 6 feet long, and the Purple Stripe Jellyfish were caught up in the waves just off the coast. Lifeguards say the warmer waters of the current, coming up from the south, are bringing the jellies into the San Diego area. According to lifeguards, the jellies’ stinging cells on their tentacles cause victims to get a red rash when they remove the stinging cell. They suggest using a vinegar/water solution to take away the pain and letting it dry naturally.
Biohazard name:
Jellyfish invasion (Black Sea Nettle Jellyfish)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
The U.S. Energy Department has begun moving highly radioactive sludge away from the Columbia River in Richland, Wash., the agency announced. At the Hanford Site, a former nuclear production facility, workers transferred the first large container of sludge from a basin next to a former plutonium production reactor to dry storage in the center of the site, the agency said. CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company is doing the work. The recent transfer of materials is the first of six shipments expected this summer to move the sludge away from the Columbia River. A separate system is being built to remove the rest of the sludge from the basin by the end of 2015, the agency said. “This sludge has been stored underwater in the basin for more than 30 years, and today marks a turning point in our cleanup,” said Matt McCormick, manager of the Richland Operations Office, in a statement. “This is a great step toward reducing risk to the Columbia River.”
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Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv after a protester set himself on fire during a rally on Saturday night over what he described as long-standing injustices of the state. The incident has mobilised Israel’s social movement that is demanding immediate action to lower the cost of living, raise wages and tackle poverty. How deep is the socio-economic divide in Israeli society? Guests: Yoaz Hendel , Akiva Eldar, Haggai Matar.
Images like this will be common on area thermometers the next few days. Image courtesy of Photos.com.
MessageToEagle.com – There is a huge amount of space debris in orbit around the Earth and this is a problem.
Image credit: ESA
Trackable objects in orbit around Earth. Image credit: ESA
Image credit: ESA
Image credit: ESA
Image credit: ESA
MessageToEagle.com – The black hole in the galaxy M83 is now producing 3000 times more X-rays than it had been before it became mega-powerful!
