Earthquakes

USGS

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	2.9	2012/10/07 23:48:20	19.083	-64.763	37.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/07 23:34:07	19.085	-64.797	19.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/10/07 23:31:10	18.962	-64.695	52.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/07 23:14:56	59.767	-151.986	54.5	KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/07 21:10:23	49.483	-120.490	0.0	BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/07 21:04:00	18.420	-64.879	83.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.4	2012/10/07 16:53:10	19.600	-64.442	47.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/10/07 13:25:09	33.986	-117.189	14.2	GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.1	2012/10/07 12:59:21	19.155	-64.604	82.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/07 12:44:53	18.145	-64.599	3.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/07 12:12:06	19.093	-65.859	13.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/10/07 12:01:34	18.978	-64.108	39.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	5.3	2012/10/07 11:42:51	40.737	48.470	40.9	AZERBAIJAN
MAP	4.5	2012/10/07 11:34:14	-7.423	124.922	376.0	BANDA SEA
MAP	3.2	2012/10/07 11:19:37	19.658	-64.352	47.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.3	2012/10/07 11:08:55	-3.211	135.196	32.8	PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP	3.3	2012/10/07 11:06:20	19.926	-64.301	49.0	NORTH OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
MAP	3.2	2012/10/07 10:17:13	59.028	-154.559	135.7	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/07 09:16:49	12.368	-89.199	35.0	OFF THE COAST OF EL SALVADOR
MAP	5.3	2012/10/07 08:36:32	-5.533	151.810	35.3	NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP	2.9	2012/10/07 08:34:03	18.899	-64.974	19.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.6	2012/10/07 07:49:31	18.015	-68.561	97.0	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/10/07 07:44:51	19.786	-64.281	30.0	NORTH OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
MAP	2.7	2012/10/07 07:41:26	18.562	-64.104	24.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/10/07 07:39:36	17.543	-68.570	37.0	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/10/07 07:38:46	-15.420	-172.065	10.0	SAMOA ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.4	2012/10/07 07:00:55	9.685	-85.056	23.7	OFF THE COAST OF COSTA RICA
MAP	3.2	2012/10/07 06:10:09	18.890	-65.249	13.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/07 06:09:00	19.027	-64.584	18.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/10/07 05:45:23	19.094	-64.508	35.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	5.6	2012/10/07 03:14:23	18.550	120.959	33.1	LUZON, PHILIPPINES
MAP	3.4	2012/10/07 03:07:43	19.631	-64.387	50.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.7	2012/10/07 02:48:34	19.457	-64.256	81.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.4	2012/10/07 02:32:07	54.567	167.322	25.4	KOMANDORSKIYE OSTROVA, RUSSIA REGION
MAP	4.7	2012/10/07 01:56:51	-20.659	-174.094	21.8	TONGA

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	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	2.7	2012/10/06 23:42:18	41.274	-123.381	40.4	NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/06 22:57:02	61.735	-150.726	55.1	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.1	2012/10/06 22:49:37	-32.097	-72.290	15.2	OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP	2.7	2012/10/06 22:11:34	55.639	-161.901	166.7	ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP	2.5	2012/10/06 21:58:29	33.456	-116.388	5.5	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/06 20:15:36	60.232	-141.851	36.3	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/06 16:59:06	19.259	-155.287	32.7	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	2.9	2012/10/06 15:01:11	57.067	-157.532	6.1	ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP	2.7	2012/10/06 10:25:44	59.825	-141.784	5.0	SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA
MAP	4.7	2012/10/06 09:27:41	41.113	88.308	36.1	SOUTHERN XINJIANG, CHINA
MAP	4.1	2012/10/06 08:49:17	23.769	-108.551	10.1	GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.3	2012/10/06 08:40:51	62.423	-153.554	37.8	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	4.1	2012/10/06 08:35:37	19.436	-109.056	10.0	REVILLA GIGEDO ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.5	2012/10/06 07:56:29	-25.457	-177.582	150.0	SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP	3.4	2012/10/06 06:15:15	19.693	-64.379	28.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/10/06 05:32:16	18.969	-64.278	64.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.6	2012/10/06 05:27:44	31.424	140.165	153.2	IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/10/06 04:43:03	19.525	-64.421	55.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.9	2012/10/06 03:40:04	23.833	-45.674	9.9	NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
MAP	4.6	2012/10/06 03:18:16	-32.172	-72.138	12.3	OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
MAP	2.6	2012/10/06 03:01:36	61.519	-146.737	49.0	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	4.8	2012/10/06 01:19:35	76.129	7.725	10.0	SVALBARD REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/10/06 00:31:54	60.497	-152.071	16.9	SOUTHERN ALASKA

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	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	3.3	2012/10/05 23:07:26	41.349	-117.348	0.0	NEVADA
MAP	3.4	2012/10/05 22:37:55	58.209	-137.906	0.0	SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA
MAP	3.2	2012/10/05 20:51:27	43.771	-127.756	10.0	OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
MAP	2.8	2012/10/05 20:32:11	47.709	-122.613	26.2	SEATTLE-TACOMA URBAN AREA, WASHINGTON
MAP	5.0	2012/10/05 20:02:09	23.502	-108.680	1.0	GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP	2.6	2012/10/05 19:54:29	32.205	-115.280	35.0	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP	3.2	2012/10/05 19:45:33	18.518	-66.071	119.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/10/05 19:42:54	58.162	-153.726	99.0	KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP	5.4	2012/10/05 18:22:58	13.032	-91.557	50.9	OFF THE COAST OF GUATEMALA
MAP	5.0	2012/10/05 18:08:20	-6.673	129.509	157.2	BANDA SEA
MAP	4.5	2012/10/05 17:56:02	-15.542	-70.700	185.2	SOUTHERN PERU
MAP	3.0	2012/10/05 17:12:44	19.047	-64.315	63.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/10/05 17:11:53	19.233	-64.451	24.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.5	2012/10/05 17:05:21	19.380	-155.238	3.8	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	3.3	2012/10/05 13:58:11	19.129	-64.295	58.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.9	2012/10/05 13:57:01	18.777	-64.128	69.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/10/05 13:32:58	19.649	-64.397	8.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/10/05 13:14:47	19.108	-64.405	44.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/05 13:11:09	19.182	-64.559	7.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.6	2012/10/05 12:39:03	18.809	-64.120	70.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/05 12:35:36	19.177	-64.409	45.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.2	2012/10/05 12:28:00	19.033	-64.353	60.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/10/05 11:59:32	19.629	-64.393	13.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.2	2012/10/05 11:23:01	19.471	-64.115	86.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	4.5	2012/10/05 11:19:23	-23.038	-175.509	35.0	TONGA REGION
MAP	4.4	2012/10/05 10:25:28	39.369	33.833	4.8	CENTRAL TURKEY
MAP	5.0	2012/10/05 08:13:19	26.233	125.176	154.7	NORTHEAST OF TAIWAN
MAP	4.0	2012/10/05 06:37:31	19.961	-65.465	36.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	4.4	2012/10/05 04:55:52	11.931	-86.656	100.0	NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
MAP	3.1	2012/10/05 04:38:39	19.642	-64.378	40.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/10/05 04:03:31	19.078	-64.707	78.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/05 03:25:18	19.132	-64.382	52.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.3	2012/10/05 02:36:23	18.940	-64.274	66.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.1	2012/10/05 02:23:54	18.963	-64.271	68.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	2.7	2012/10/05 02:17:31	19.108	-64.314	53.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.0	2012/10/05 02:08:30	18.969	-64.384	59.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	3.5	2012/10/05 01:17:22	35.928	-117.680	2.7	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	3.4	2012/10/05 01:10:44	19.236	-64.360	46.0	VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP	5.7	2012/10/05 00:19:57	17.496	-46.461	10.0	NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
MAP	5.5	2012/10/05 00:15:42	17.509	-46.465	10.0	NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE

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‘Silent Earthquakes’ Ripple Under Cascadia

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Volcanic Activity

Maar Volcanoes: Odd Explosions Beneath Earth Explained

By Megan Gannon, News Editor | LiveScience.com

The eruption of a so-called maar-diatreme volcano is short-lived but violent. Magma creeps up through a crack in the Earth’s crust and mixes with water, setting off a series of explosions — as many as a few each hour for several weeks. When the action stops, a crater-topped, rock-filled fracture called a diatreme is left behind. Now researchers are proposing a new way to think about how these structures are formed, which could help geologists predict eruptions and find new sources of diamonds. “Previously it was thought that those explosions started at very shallow levels and got progressively deeper,” geologist Greg Valentine, a professor at the University at Buffalo in New York, told LiveScience. This old model seemed to explain the shape of a diatreme, which sits like an inverted cone beneath a shallow maar, or crater. But that model didn’t match with what geologists were finding at volcanic sites, Valentine said. If the explosions started at shallow levels and moved deeper, shallow rocks would be spewed from the mouth of the volcano first and the deeper rock deposits would pile up on top. At maar sites, however, scientists were finding deep rock fragments mixed mostly with shallow fragments, indicating that explosions occur at essentially every depth throughout the episode. Valentine and James White, an associate professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, created a new model to account for the apparently more jumbled order of explosions. Their model, published online Sept. 18 by the journal Geology, also shows that individual explosions are relatively small, and shallow explosions are more likely than deep explosions to cause eruptions. The last known maar-diatreme eruption occurred in 1977 in Alaska’s remote Aleutian Range, forming two vents known as the Ukinrek Maars. The threats associated with these volcanoes tend to be localized, but they can still be significant, Valentine said. “These volcanoes can send ash deposits into populated areas. They could easily produce the same effects that the one in Iceland did when it disrupted air travel, so what we’re trying to do is understand the way they behave,” he explained in a statement.

08.10.2012

Volcano Eruption

Indonesia

North Sulawesi, [Mount Lokon _Volcano]

Volcano Eruption in Indonesia on Sunday, 07 October, 2012 at 15:46 (03:46 PM) UTC.

Description

A volatile volcano in northern Indonesia erupted Sunday, spewing smoke and ash that caused muddy rain to fall in nearby villages, an official said. Mount Lokon in North Sulawesi province rumbled as heavy rain fell around its cloud-covered crater, local monitoring official Farid Ruskanda Bina said. He said the sound was heard 5 kilometers (3 miles) away but the height of the eruption was not visible. The ash made the rain thick and muddy in six villages, Bina said. “Soldiers are distributing masks to the villagers,” he said. There was no plan for evacuations because the nearest villages are beyond the danger area, he said. More than 33,000 people live along the fertile slopes of the 5,741-foot (1,750-meter) mountain. Mount Lokon is one of about 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Its last major eruption in 1991 killed a Swiss hiker and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

05.10.2012

Volcano Activity

Italy

Sicily, [ Etna Volcano]

Volcano Activity in Italy on Friday, 05 October, 2012 at 17:01 (05:01 PM) UTC.

Description

A slight increase in shaking was reported at Etna volcano on the island of Sicily but it does not appear in danger of eruption, volcano experts said Friday. Activity on a recently opened crater has been registered since Wednesday, Italian news agency ANSA reported. The activity has been accompanied by “a slight increase in volcanic shaking,” volcano experts said. Etna has experienced nine “eruptive events” this year. The volcano belched a plume of smoke in a full-blown explosion in January that led to the temporary closure of Catania airport.

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Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

07.10.2012

Forest / Wild Fire

Tanzania

Multiple areas, [Namtumbo and Tunduru districts]

Forest / Wild Fire in Tanzania on Sunday, 07 October, 2012 at 07:05 (07:05 AM) UTC.

Description

Recently, fire occurrence surveys were conducted in Namtumbo and Tunduru districts, covering all villages in Selous-Niassa Wildlife Protection Corridor (SNWPC) Project Area. The surveys were conducted by teams composed of staff belonging to natural resources sectors.Similar situations where wild fires are seen include Coast Region, Morogoro, Singida, Kigoma and Mara. The selected area served as a study case to general situation in rural areas where this dry season phenomenon is common to the detriment of the environment.It has been found that the major cause for fires is shifting cultivation but other factors also come into play, such as poachers, lumberers, honey gatherers and charcoal burners. Also cases of accidental fires cannot be ruled out. However, fires that occur often get out of hand due to lack of action from villagers as well as lack of laws to control fire occurrences and where laws exist there is a lot of laxity in enforcing them. The report compiled by staff from Natural Resources Sector revealed that incidents of wildfire have increased along with effects of climatic changes. Fires are rare in the wet season because the grass usually has high water content to burn properly. The above situation is also applicable to other areas in Coast Region, Morogoro and Tanga, since wildfires are a commonplace in many parts during the dry season.The majority of interviewed residents and villagers agreed that wildfires tend to occur during the dry season, from July to November. This is the time when the grass is tinder dry and, unfortunately, wild fires can often get out of hand. Again, this is the period most peasants are preparing their plots for the next farming season.The fires are used as short-cut measures in removing long grasses and thick bushes.

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Storms /  Flooding / Landslides

Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system	Location	Formed	Last update	Last category	Course	Wind Speed	Gust	Wave	Source	Details
Olivia (EP15)	Pacific Ocean – East	06.10.2012	08.10.2012	Tropical Depression	355 °	93 km/h	111 km/h	4.88 m	NOAA NHC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 1 Storm name: Olivia (EP15) Area: Pacific Ocean – East Start up location: N 14° 0.000, W 118° 42.000 Start up: 06th October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 211.23 km Top category.: Report by: NOAA NHC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source 07th Oct 2012 08:08:10 N 14° 0.000, W 120° 30.000 17 83 102 Tropical Storm 280 19 1000 MB NOAA NHC Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 08th Oct 2012 05:01:14 N 16° 12.000, W 120° 54.000 11 93 111 Tropical Depression 355 ° 16 998 MB NOAA NHC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 09th Oct 2012 12:00:00 N 17° 24.000, W 121° 30.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 NOAA NHC 09th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 17° 18.000, W 121° 0.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC 10th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 17° 12.000, W 122° 12.000 Tropical Depression 65 83 NOAA NHC 11th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 16° 54.000, W 123° 48.000 Tropical Depression 46 65 NOAA NHC 12th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 16° 0.000, W 125° 42.000 Tropical Depression 37 56 NOAA NHC

Prapiroon (22W)

Pacific Ocean

08.10.2012

08.10.2012

Tropical Depression

270 °

83 km/h

102 km/h

4.57 m

JTWC

Tropical Storm data

Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Storm name: Prapiroon (22W) Area: Pacific Ocean Start up location: N 17° 54.000, E 135° 42.000 Start up: 08th October 2012 Status: Active Track long: 0.00 km Top category.: Report by: JTWC Useful links: Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale FEMA – How To Prepare for a Hurricane Effects of a Hurricane USA – National Hurricane Center

Past track Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave Pressure Source Current position Date Time Position Speed km/h Wind km/h Gust km/h Category Course Wave feet Pressure Source 08th Oct 2012 05:04:27 N 17° 54.000, E 135° 42.000 9 83 102 Tropical Depression 270 ° 15 JTWC Forecast track Date Time Position Category Wind km/h Gust km/h Source 09th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 17° 54.000, E 133° 36.000 Typhoon II 130 157 JTWC 09th Oct 2012 12:00:00 N 17° 54.000, E 133° 0.000 Typhoon III 148 185 JTWC 10th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 17° 54.000, E 132° 30.000 Typhoon III 157 194 JTWC 11th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 18° 12.000, E 131° 48.000 Typhoon IV 176 213 JTWC 12th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 19° 0.000, E 131° 0.000 Typhoon IV 185 232 JTWC 13th Oct 2012 00:00:00 N 20° 12.000, E 130° 30.000 Typhoon IV 194 241 JTWC

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All 18 children confirmed dead in China landslide

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP)

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes

07.10.2012

Landslide

Italy

Provincia di La Spezia, [Cinque Terre]

Landslide in Italy on Sunday, 07 October, 2012 at 17:41 (05:41 PM) UTC.

Description

Rescuers say a rockslide slammed into Italy’s popular Way of Love hiking trail in the coastal Cinque Terre resort area, injuring four Australian women. One was crushed by rocks and another was knocked off the steep path. Dr. Davide Battistella said those two hikers were in grave condition and two others were less seriously injured by the landslide Monday morning on the trail, which cuts into a steep hillside overlooking the Ligurian Sea south of Genoa. Battistella told The Associated Press that one woman was dug out from under the rocks and flown by helicopter to a hospital. The woman who landed on a precarious perch on the hillside was carried out by a human chain of rescuers. The Cinque Terre area is breathtakingly beautiful but geologically fragile.

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Epidemic Hazards  / Diseases

ublished on Oct 5, 2012 by ABCNews

Medication tied to rare meningitis outbreak reached 23 states

(Reuters) – A steroid medication linked to the death of at least five people from rare fungal meningitis may have been administered to patients in 23 states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said on Thursday, raising fears the rare outbreak could spread.

In a briefing for reporters, the CDC said five people had died so far and 35 had taken ill from fungal meningitis in six states. The outbreak was first reported in Tennessee, where three people have died and 25 of the cases have been reported.

The other confirmed deaths were in Virginia and Maryland.

The CDC said it had not yet determined the rate of infection among those patients who received the potentially tainted steroid. The rate of infection is an important barometer of the potential for the outbreak to spread.

The steroid is administered to patients, usually by injection, primarily to control back pain.

All the cases have so far been traced to three lots of Methylprednisolene Acetate from a pharmaceutical compounding plant in Massachusetts, according to the briefing.

The company, New England Compounding Center Inc, or NECC, in Framingham, Massachusetts, prepared the medication, which has been voluntarily recalled. The company has also voluntarily surrendered its license. NECC could not immediately be reached for comment.

“We are encouraging all health facilities to immediately cease use of any product produced by NECC,” Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, Massachusetts public health director of safety, told reporters in a conference call from Boston.

NECC could not immediately be reached for comment.

A fungus linked to the steroid medication has been identified in specimens from five patients, according to the CDC’s Dr. Benjamin Park.

The Massachusetts Health Department said there were 17,676 vials of medication in each of the three lots under investigation. They were sent out July through September and have a shelf life of 180 days.

The CDC said the fungal contamination was detected in the examination of one of the sealed vials taken at that company.

Fungal meningitis is rare and life-threatening, but is not contagious from person to person. Meningitis can be passed to humans from steroid medications that weaken the immune system. Symptoms include a sudden onset of fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea, and vomiting, according to the CDC web site.

In addition to the 25 cases in Tennessee, one has been reported in North Carolina, two in Florida, four in Virginia, two in Maryland and one in Indiana, according to CDC’s Park.

SOME TENNESSEE PATIENTS ‘REALLY CRITICALLY ILL’

About 75 facilities could have received the steroid in the 23 states. They include California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas and West Virginia, according to Park.

In one example of how widespread the steroid was distributed, one facility in Indiana, St. Mary’s Health, said on Thursday that 560 patients had received the recalled medication. They received the steroid at the Surgicare Cross Pointe clinic in Evansville, said St. Mary’s spokeswoman Laura Forbes. It was not immediately known if any patients were infected there.

In Tennessee, the worst-hit state, Dr. John Dreyzehner, the state health commissioner, said expectations were that the number of cases would rise. “We are awaiting results of tests from other cases,” he told a news conference in Nashville.

Some Tennessee patients are “really critically ill” and in intensive care units, said Dr. Marion Kainer of the state health department. She declined to say how many were critical.

The Massachusetts Health Department said there had been several complaints against the company linked to the steroid. Complaints in 2002 and 2003 about the processing of medication resulted in an agreement with government agencies in 2006 to correct deficiencies

In 2011, there was another inspection of the facility and no deficiencies were found. In March 2012, another complaint was made about the potency of a product used in eye surgery procedures. That investigation is continuing, the state health department said.

(Additional reporting by Mary Wisniewski and Susan Guyett; Writing by Greg McCune; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)

The Next Pandemic: Why
It Will Come from Wildlife

Experts believe the next deadly human pandemic will almost certainly be a virus that spills over from wildlife to humans. The reasons why have a lot to do with the frenetic pace with which we are destroying wild places and disrupting ecosystems.

by david quammen

Emerging diseases are in the news again. Scary viruses are making themselves noticed and felt. There’s been a lot of that during the past several months — West Nile fever kills 17 people in the Dallas area, three tourists succumb to hantavirus after visiting Yosemite National Park, an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo claims 33 lives. A separate Ebola outbreak, across the border in Uganda, registers a death toll of 17. A peculiar new coronavirus, related to SARS, proves fatal for a Saudi man and puts a Qatari into critical condition, while disease scientists all over the world wonder: Is this one — or is that one — going to turn into the Next Big One?

By the Next Big One, I mean a murderous pandemic that sweeps around the planet, killing millions of people, as the so-called “Spanish” influenza did in 1918-19, as AIDS has been doing in slower motion, and as SARS might have done in 2003 if it hadn’t been stopped by fast science, rigorous

measures of public health, and luck. Experts I’ve interviewed over the past six years generally agree that such a Next Big One is not only possible but probable. They agree that it will almost certainly be a zoonotic disease — one that emerges from wildlife — and that the causal agent will most likely be a virus. They agree that sheer human abundance, density, and interconnectedness make us highly vulnerable. Our population now stands above seven billion, after all, a vast multitude of potential victims, many of us living at close quarters in big cities, traveling quickly and often from place to place, sharing infections with one another; and there are dangerous new viruses lately emerging against which we haven’t been immunized. Another major pandemic seems as logically inevitable as the prospect that a very dry, very thick forest will eventually burn.

That raises serious issues in the realm of health policy, preparedness, and medical response. It also suggests a few urgent questions on the scientific side — we might even say, the conservation side — of the discussion. Those questions, in simplest form, are: Where? How? and Why? Addressing them is crucial to understanding the dynamics of emerging diseases, and understanding is crucial to preparedness and response.

First question: From where will the Next Big One emerge? Answer, as I’ve noted: Most likely from wildlife. It will be a zoonosis — an animal infection that spills over into humans.

Everything comes from somewhere. New human diseases don’t arrive from Mars. Notwithstanding the vivid anxieties of The Andromeda Strain (1969) and other such fictions, lethal microbes don’t arrive on contaminated satellites returning from deep space. (Or anyway, knock wood, they haven’t so far.) They emerge from nonhuman animals, earthly ones, and spill over into human populations, catching hold, replicating, sometimes adapting and prospering, then passing onward from human to human.

According to one study, 58 percent of all pathogen species infecting humans are zoonotic. Another study found that 72 percent of all recently emerged zoonotic pathogens have come from wildlife. That list includes

According to one study, 72 percent of all recently emerged zoonotic pathogens have come from wildlife.

everything from Ebola and Marburg and the HIVs and the influenzas to West Nile virus, monkeypox, and the SARS bug.

In Malaysia, a virus called Nipah spilled over from fruit bats in 1998. Its route into humans was indirect but efficient: The bats fed in fruit trees overshadowing factory-scale pigsties; the bat droppings carried virus, which infected many pigs; the virus replicated abundantly in the pigs, and from them infected piggery workers and employees at abattoirs. That outbreak killed 109 people and ended with the culling of 1.1 million pigs.

Second question: How do such pathogens get into humans? The particulars are various but the general answer is: contact. Contact equals opportunity, and the successful pathogens are those that seize opportunities to proliferate and to spread, not just from one host to another but from one kind of host to another.

Wild aquatic birds defecate in a village duck pond, passing a new strain of influenza to domestic ducks; the ducks pass it to a Chinese boy charged with their care, after which the boy passes it to his brother and sister. A man in Cameroon butchers a chimpanzee and, elbow deep in its blood, acquires a simian virus that becomes HIV-1. A miner in Uganda enters a shaft filled with bats carrying Marburg virus and, somehow, by ingesting or breathing bat wastes, gets infected. Contact between people and wildlife, sometime direct, sometimes with livestock as intermediaries, presents opportunities for their infections to become ours.

Third question: Whydo such spillovers seem to be happening now more than ever? There’s been a steady drumbeat of new zoonotic viruses

We are interacting with wild animals and disrupting the ecosystems they inhabit to an unprecedented degree.

emerging into the human population within recent decades: Machupo (1961), Marburg (1967), Lassa (1969), Ebola (1976), HIV-1 (inferred in 1981, first isolated in 1983), HIV-2 (1986), Sin Nombre (the first-recognized American hantavirus, 1993), Hendra (1994), the strain of influenza called “avian flu” (1997), Nipah (1998), West Nile (1999), SARS (2003), and others. These are not independent events. They are parts of a pattern. They reflect things that we’re doing, not just things that are happening to us.

What we’re doing is interacting with wild animals and disrupting the ecosystems that they inhabit — all to an unprecedented degree. Of course, humans have always killed wildlife and disrupted ecosystems, clearing and fragmenting forests, converting habitat into cropland and settlement, adding livestock to the landscape, driving native species toward extinction, introducing exotics. But now that there are seven billion of us on the planet, with greater tools, greater hungers, greater mobility, we’re pressing into the wild places like never before, and one of the things that we’re finding there is… new infections. And once we’ve acquired a new infection, the chance of spreading it globally is also greater than ever.

We cut our way through the Congo. We cut our way through the Amazon. We cut our way through Borneo and Madagascar and northeastern Australia. We shake the trees, figuratively and literally, and things fall out. We kill and butcher and eat many of the wild animals found there. We settle in those places, creating villages, work camps, towns, extractive

Evolution seizes opportunity, explores possibilities, and helps convert spillovers to pandemics.

industries, new cities. We bring in our domesticated animals, replacing the wild herbivores with livestock. We multiply our livestock as we’ve multiplied ourselves, operating huge factory-scale operations such as the piggeries in Malaysia, into which Nipah virus fell from the bats feeding in fruit trees planted nearby, after the bats’ native forest habitats had been destroyed. We export and import livestock across great distances and at high speeds. We export and import other live animals, especially primates, for medical research. We export and import animal skins, exotic pets, contraband bushmeat, and plants, some of which carry secret microbial passengers.

We travel, moving between cities and continents even more quickly than our transported livestock. We eat in restaurants where the cook may have butchered a porcupine before working on our scallops. We visit monkey temples in Asia, live markets in India, picturesque villages in South America, dusty archeological sites in New Mexico, dairy towns in the Netherlands, bat caves in East Africa, racetracks in Australia — breathing the air, feeding the animals, touching things, shaking hands with the friendly locals — and then we jump on our planes and fly home. We get bit by mosquitoes and ticks. We alter the global climate with our carbon emissions, which may in turn alter the latitudinal ranges within which those mosquitoes and ticks live. We provide an irresistible opportunity for enterprising microbes by the ubiquity and abundance of our human bodies.

Everything I’ve just mentioned is encompassed within this rubric: the ecology and evolutionary biology of zoonotic diseases. Ecological circumstance provides opportunity for spillover. Evolution seizes opportunity, explores possibilities, and helps convert spillovers to pandemics. But the majesty of the sheer biological phenomena involved is no consolation for the human miseries, the deaths, and the current level of risk.

There are things that can be done — research, vigilance, anticipation, fast and effective response — to stave off or at least mitigate the Next Big One. My point here is different. My point is about human ecology, not human medicine. It behooves us to remember that we too are animals, interconnected with the rest of earthly biota by shared diseases, among other ways. We should recall that salubriuous biblical warning from the Book of Proverbs: “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.” The planet is our home, but not ours only, and we’d be wise to tread a little more lightly within this wonderful, germy world.

7 dead as meningitis outbreak grows

Atlanta (CNN) — The death toll from an outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to contaminated steroid injections has risen to seven, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday.

The total number of cases has also grown to 64 people in nine states, the CDC said. That is 17 more cases and two more states than the day before.

Patients contracted the deadly meningitis after being injected in their spine with a preservative-free steroid called methylprednisolone acetate that was contaminated by a fungus. The steroid is used to treat pain and inflammation.

What is meningitis?

The New England Compounding Center, the Massachusetts-based pharmacy that made the contaminated injections, voluntarily recalled three lots of the injected steroid last week.

On Saturday, the same pharmacy announced a voluntary nationwide recall of all its other products as well. NECC said the new recall was being announced out of an abundance of caution and that there is no indication any of its other products are contaminated.

The Food and Drug Administration has already asked doctors, clinics, and consumers to stop using any of the pharmacy’s products. The pharmacy on Wednesday voluntarily surrendered its license to operate until the FDA investigation into the contamination is complete.

Health officials say 76 medical facilities in 23 states received the contaminated steroid injections from NECC. A list of the 76 affected medical facilities is on the CDC’s website at http://www.cdc.gov/hai/outbreaks/meningitis-facilities-map.html.

The CDC raised the death toll Saturday after two people died in Michigan. Other deaths have been reported in Maryland, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Tennessee is reporting the most number of overall cases — 29 — which includes three deaths, according to the CDC.

There are also confirmed cases in Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, North Carolina and Ohio.

The other states that received the contaminated products from NECC are California, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.

Federal health inspectors began inspecting the NECC plant last Monday. Inspectors found foreign particles in unopened vials, and after testing one of the unopened vials, they determined the substance was a fungus.

The investigation is still under way.

Nearly 10% of drugs administered in the United States come from compound pharmacies, according to a 2003 Government Accountability Office report.

Drugs manufactured by compound pharmacies do not have to go through FDA-mandated pre-market approval. Instead, oversight and licensing of these pharmacies comes from state health pharmacy boards.

Compound pharmacists create customized medication solutions for patients for whom manufactured pharmaceuticals won’t work, according to the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists.

Meningitis is an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. It is usually caused by an infection, frequently with bacteria or a virus, but it can also be caused by less common pathogens like fungi, according to the CDC.

Fungal meningitis is very rare and, unlike viral and bacterial meningitis, it is not contagious.

Symptoms of fungal meningitis are similar to symptoms from other forms of meningitis, but they often appear more gradually and can be very mild at first, the CDC says.

Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told CNN that fungal infections are not usually mild. He said when a fungus invades small blood vessels, it can cause them to clot or bleed, which can lead to symptoms of small strokes.

In addition to typical meningitis symptoms like headache, fever, nausea and stiffness of the neck, people with fungal meningitis may also experience confusion, dizziness and discomfort from bright lights. Patients might just have one or two of these symptoms, the CDC says.

Health officials say any patients who received an injection at one of the facilities beginning July 1 and who began showing symptoms between one and three weeks after being injected should see their doctor right away.

The earlier a patient gets treatment, the more likely he or she will survive.

Patients are treated with anti-fungal medication, which is given intravenously so patients have to be admitted to the hospital, the CDC said. Patients may need to be treated for months.

The FDA is urging anyone who has experienced problems following an injection with the NECC product to report it to MedWatch, the FDA’s voluntary reporting program, by phone at 1-800-FDA-1088 or online at http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm.

CNN’s Miriam Falco contributed to this report.

Today

Epidemic Hazard

India

State of Orissa, Kandhamal

Epidemic Hazard in India on Monday, 08 October, 2012 at 02:58 (02:58 AM) UTC.

Description
The vector-borne disease of chicken pox has been spreading among the inmates of a government-run residential school in Kandhamal district. At least 19 inmates, aged 6 to 12 years, in the residential school at Daberi in Daringibadi block, have been infected with the disease. There are 131 inmates in the hostel at present. “The situation is under control and there is no cause to panic,” a senior medical officer said, however. District malaria officer (DMO) J N Patnaik visited the hostel along with a team of doctors on Sunday. “The infected children were segregated in a room to prevent the spread of the disease. They are being administered the required medication,” the DMO said. He said the condition of the other students, who have already left the hostel after being infected, was not known. “We are trying to bring them to the hostel for treatment. If their parents do not agree, the medical staff will go to their respective places to provide treatment,” Patnaik said. The outbreak of chicken pox was first reported in the hostel on September 29, sources said. The disease spread gradually. “It’s a viral disease which spreads through the air and after contact with the affected persons. We have advised the school authorities not to allow the affected students to venture outside the hostel,” the DFO said.
Biohazard name:	Chicken pox
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.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

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Climate Change

Arctic Sea Ice Shatters Previous Low Records; Antarctic Sea Ice Edges to Record High

ScienceDaily

This September, sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean fell to the lowest extent in the satellite record, which began in 1979. Satellite data analyzed by NSIDC scientists showed that the sea ice cover reached its lowest extent on September 16. Sea ice extent averaged for the month of September was also the lowest in the satellite record.

The near-record ice melt occurred without the unusual weather conditions that contributed to the extreme melt of 2007. In 2007, winds and weather patterns helped melt large expanses of ice. “Atmospheric and oceanic conditions were not as conducive to ice loss this year, but the melt still reached a new record low,” said NSIDC scientist Walt Meier. “This probably reflects loss of multi-year ice in the Arctic, as well as other factors that are making the ice more vulnerable.” Multi-year ice is ice that has survived more than one melt season and is thicker than first-year ice.

NSIDC Director Mark Serreze said, “It looks like the spring ice cover is so thin now that large areas melt out in summer, even without persistent extreme weather patterns.” A storm that tracked through the Arctic in August helped break up the weakened ice pack.

Arctic sea ice extent reached its lowest point this year on September 16, 2012 when sea ice extent dropped to 3.41 million square kilometers (1.32 million square miles). Averaged over the month of September, ice extent was 3.61 million square kilometers (1.39 million square miles). This places 2012 as the lowest ice extent both for the daily minimum extent and the monthly average. Ice extent was 3.29 million square kilometers (1.27 million square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average.

The Arctic ice cap grows each winter as the sun sets for several months and shrinks each summer as the sun rises higher in the northern sky. Each year the Arctic sea ice reaches its annual minimum extent in September. It hit its previous record low in 2007. This summer’s low ice extent continued the downward trend seen over the last 33 years. Scientists attribute this trend in large part to warming temperatures caused by climate change. Since 1979, September Arctic sea ice extent has declined by 13 percent per decade. Summer sea ice extent is important because, among other things, it reflects sunlight, keeping the Arctic region cool and moderating global climate.

In addition to the decline in sea ice extent, a two-dimensional measure of the ice cover, the ice cover has grown thinner and less resistant to summer melt. Recent data on the age of sea ice, which scientists use to estimate the thickness of the ice cover, shows that the youngest, thinnest ice, which has survived only one or two melt seasons, now makes up the large majority of the ice cover.

Climate models have suggested that the Arctic could lose almost all of its summer ice cover by 2100, but in recent years, ice extent has declined faster than the models predicted. Serreze said, “The big summer ice loss in 2011 set us up for another big melt year in 2012. We may be looking at an Arctic Ocean essentially free of summer ice only a few decades from now.” NSIDC scientist Julienne Stroeve recently spent three weeks in the Arctic Ocean on an icebreaker ship, and was surprised by how thin the ice was and how much open water existed between the individual ice floes. “According to the satellite data, I expected to be in nearly 90% ice cover, but instead the ice concentrations were typically below 50%,” she said.

As the Arctic was experiencing a record low minimum extent, the Antarctic sea ice was reaching record high levels, culminating in a Southern Hemisphere winter maximum extent of 19.44 million square kilometers (7.51 million square miles) on September 26. The September 2012 monthly average was also a record high, at 19.39 million square kilometers (7.49 million square miles) slightly higher than the previous record in 2006. Temperatures over Antarctica were near average this austral winter. Scientists largely attribute the increase in Antarctic sea ice extent to stronger circumpolar winds, which blow the sea ice outward, increasing extent.

NSIDC scientist Ted Scambos said, “Antarctica’s changes — in winter, in the sea ice — are due more to wind than to warmth, because the warming does not take much of the sea ice area above the freezing point during winter. Instead, the winds that blow around the continent, the “westerlies,” have gotten stronger in response to a stubbornly cold continent, and the warming ocean and land to the north.”

Weather-Making High-Pressure Systems Predicted
To Intensify In Coming Years! 

MessageToEagle.com – The intensity of two such high-pressure systems, present over the northern Pacific and Atlantic oceans during the summer, has changed in recent years.

Scientists do not know whether these changes are related to climate warming.

Conducted simulations from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report suggest that these summertime highs are likely to intensify in the twenty-first century as a result of an increase in atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations, according to a Duke University-led study published online this week in Nature Geoscience.

Click on image to enlargeSouth Indian Ocean, Oval-shaped Hole in a Blanket of Marine Stratocumulus Clouds photographed off Australia on June 5, 2012. High-pressure weather systems often bring fair weather and relatively clear skies. In early June 2012, a high off the coast of Tasmania did just that…and in spectacular fashion. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this view of a hole in a cloud formation at 3:00 p.m. local time (05:00 Universal Time) on June 5, 2012.
The weather system over the Great Australian Bight cut out the oval-shaped hole from a blanket of marine stratocumulus clouds. The cloud hole, with a diameter that stretched as far as 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) across, was caused by sinking air associated with an area of high pressure near the surface. Credits: NASA
High-pressure systems over oceans that largely determine the tracks of tropical cyclones and hydrological extremes will posssibly play an increasingly important role regarding drought and extreme summer rainfall.

The black lines of all the historical tropical storm and hurricane paths curving around that subtropical ridge. If that ridge extends far to the west, tropical storms or hurricanes south of it can in turn be forced far to the west. Credits: http://www.weather.com

Changes in the dominant heating component between the twenty-first- and twentieth-century run. p>Blue, red and green colours denote long-wave radiative cooling, sensible heating and condensational heating, respectively, obtained from the CMIP3 multi-model ensemble mean. Credits: Duke University

A team of scientists led by Wenhong Li, assistant professor of earth and ocean sciences at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, conducted a series of simulations predicting future changes in the strength of the annually occurring North Atlantic Subtropical High “subtropical ridge” (also known as the Bermuda High), and the North Pacific Subtropical High.

Based on their results, these changes will intensify over the 21st century as a result of increasing greenhouse-gas concentrations and – the difference between ocean and land heating, as Earth’s climate warms – will fuel the systems’ intensification.

Research paper

© MessageToEagle.com

See also:
Escalating Problem: Satellites See Collapse of the Greenland Glaciers!

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Solar Activity

3MIN News October 5. 2012: Tsunamis on the Sun

Published on Oct 5, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

Pole Shift Video: http://youtu.be/uI10tKuLtFU

TODAY’S LINKS
China Landslide: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-10/05/c_131889256.htm
F*cking Monsanto: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/10/european-food-safety-author…
Head of NOAA: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/10/despite-tumult-noaas-lubche…

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]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

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]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

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

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

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]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

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!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

2MIN News October 6. 2012

Published on Oct 6, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

Pole Shift Video: http://youtu.be/uI10tKuLtFU
STARWATER: http://youtu.be/LiC-92YgZvQ

TODAY’S LINKS
Snow: http://www.weather.com/news/weather-winter/snow-seasons-first-average-20121004

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]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

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]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

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

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

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]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

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!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

3MIN News October 7. 2012

Published on Oct 7, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

Pole Shift Video: http://youtu.be/uI10tKuLtFU
STARWATER: http://youtu.be/LiC-92YgZvQ

TODAY’S LINKS
Colombia Landslide: http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/15055199/13-missing-in-colombia-muds…
Australia cold: http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/record-cold-october-day-across-nsw-and-vic…
Canary Quake List: http://www.01.ign.es/ign/layoutIn/volcaListadoTerremotos.do?zona=2&cantid…
Draconid Meteors: http://earthsky.org/tonight/legendary-draconids-boom-or-bust

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]

CERES JPL: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ceres;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

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]

NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSystemWebApp/iSWACygnetStreamer?timestamp=…
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

US Wind Map: http://hint.fm/wind/

NOAA Bouys: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/Default.php

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

GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/index.html

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]

RAIN RECORDS: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListIntensePrecipReports.aspx

EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP: http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/world/world-composite-ir-…

PRESSURE MAP: http://www.woweather.com/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=us&MENU=0000000000&…

HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

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!]

QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/seismologist.php

The Past 99 Days

Published on Oct 7, 2012 by Suspicious0bservers

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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
(2012 QE50)	09th October 2012	1 day(s)	0.0809	31.5	450 m – 1.0 km	11.47 km/s	41292 km/h
(1994 EK)	14th October 2012	6 day(s)	0.1356	52.8	230 m – 520 m	12.22 km/s	43992 km/h
(2012 PA20)	15th October 2012	7 day(s)	0.1502	58.5	100 m – 230 m	10.36 km/s	37296 km/h
(2012 RV16)	18th October 2012	10 day(s)	0.1270	49.4	310 m – 700 m	16.14 km/s	58104 km/h
214869 (2007 PA8)	05th November 2012	28 day(s)	0.0433	16.8	1.5 km – 3.3 km	10.79 km/s	38844 km/h
(2011 UG21)	06th November 2012	29 day(s)	0.1784	69.4	340 m – 760 m	19.73 km/s	71028 km/h
1 AU = ~150 million kilometers,1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers Source: NASA-NEO

NIWAKA Japanese Minisatellite Is Sending A Morse Code Beacon Signal 

MessageToEagle.com – Scientists from Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Japan developed a small artificial satellite named FITSAT-1. It also has the nickname “NIWAKA”.

The shape is a 10cm cube, and the weight is 1.33kg.

The main mission of this satellite is to demonstrate the high speed transmitter developed. It can send a jpeg VGA-picture(480×640) within 6 sec.

NIWAKA, which is now in a regular orbit, was launched from the International Space Station 390 kilometres (242 miles) above Earth at 15:44 on 4th October 2012 (UTC).

NIWAKA will write messages in the night sky with Morse code as:

Click on image to enlargeA Morse code in the night sky – transmitted by a palm sized satellite, NIWAKA designed by scientists from Fukuoka Institute of Technology. Credits: Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Japan

NIWAKA will test the possibility of optical communication by satellite. It will actually twinkle as an artificial star.

The minisatellite’s high power LEDs, which is driven with more than 200W pulses to produce extremely bright flashes, will be observable by the unaided eye or with small binoculars.

Click on image to enlargeThe beacon signal is a standard Morse code CW signal. The signal starts with “HI DE NIWAKA …” and telemetry data follows. Credits: Fukuoka Institute of Technology

The LEDs will also be driven in detecting faint light mode. The light will received by a photo-multiplier equipped telescope linked to the 5.8 GHz parabolic antenna.

Duty 30%, 10Hz signal is modulated with also duty 30%, 5kHz signal. So the average input power will be 220W x 0.3 x 0.3 = 20W. In order to detect the faint light, a high gain amplifier with 5kHz filter may be useful.

While, the Morse code is modulated with duty 15%, 1kHz signal. So, the signal can directly drive a speaker with AF-amplifier to hear Morse sound.

Click on image to enlargeFlight Model – Credits: Fukuoka Institute of Technology

The NIWAKA body is made by cutting a section of 10cm square aluminum pipe. Both ends of the cut pipe are covered with aluminum plates. The surface of the body is finished with black anodic coating.

Click on image to enlargeBottom View of The Model – Credits: Fukuoka Institute of Technology

The CubeSat slide rails and side plates are not separate; they are made as a single unit. The thickness of the square pipe is 3mm, but the surfaces attached by solar cells are thinned to 1.5mm because of weight limit.

In order to make the 8.5mm square CubeSat rails, 5.5mm square aluminum sticks are attached to the four corners of the square pipe.

Click on image to enlargeCredits: Fukuoka Institute of Technology

The trajectory of the ISS is inclined 51.6 deg from the equator, so NIWAKA will travel between 51.6 degrees south latitude and 51.6 degrees north latitude.

NIWAKA minisatellite will carry a mounted neodymium magnet to force it to always point to magnetic north like a compass. When NIWAKA rises above the horizon, it will be to the south of the Fukuoka ground station, and both the 5.8 GHz antenna and the LEDs will be aimed accurately enough by the magnet aligning itself and the satellite with the earth’s magnetic field that the Fukuoka ground station will be within the main beams.

Click on image to enlargeScientists perform both 5.8 GHz high-speed and optical communication experiments for about 3 minutes as the satellite travels along the orbit shown as the red line in the figure. Credits: Fukuoka Institute of Technology

After Deployment from NASA pictures:

Click on image to enlargeCredits: Fukuoka Institute of Technology

Click on image to enlargeCredits: Fukuoka Institute of Technology

Click on image to enlargeProfessor Takushi Tanaka holding a palm sized satellite at his laboratory in Fukuoka. Credits: Fukuoka Institute of Technology

Scientists will perform both 5.8 GHz high-speed and optical communication experiments for about 3 minutes as the satellite travels along the orbit shown as the red line in the figure.

MessageToEagle.com

See also:
Dawn Spacecraft Is Heading Towards Dwarf Planet Ceres To Investigate The Formation Of Our Solar System

X-Ray Nova Reveals A New Black Hole 

MessageToEagle.com – A new stellar-mass black hole has been discovered in our Milky Way galaxy by NASA’s Swift satellite.

The presence of a previously unknown black hole, was revealed by high-energy X-rays emanating from a source towards the center of our galaxy.

“Bright X-ray novae are so rare that they’re essentially once-a- mission events and this is the first one Swift has seen,” according to Neil Gehrels, the mission’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Click on image to enlargeCredit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

“This is really something we’ve been waiting for.”

An X-ray nova is a short-lived X-ray source that appears suddenly, reaches its emission peak in a few days and then fades out over a period of months. The outburst arises when a torrent of stored gas suddenly rushes toward one of the most compact objects known.

The nova – dubbed Swift J1745-26 – is located a few degrees from the center of our galaxy toward the constellation Sagittarius. While astronomers do not know its precise distance, they think the object resides about 20,000 to 30,000 light-years away in the galaxy’s inner region.

The nova peaked in X-rays — energies above 10,000 electron volts, or several thousand times that of visible light — on September 18, when it reached an intensity equivalent to that of the famous Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant that serves as a calibration target for high-energy observatories and is considered one of the brightest sources beyond the solar system at these energies.

Click on image to enlargeCredit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

As it dimmed at higher energies, the nova brightened in the lower-energy emissions detected by Swift’s X-ray Telescope.

“The pattern we’re seeing is observed in X-ray novae where the central object is a black hole,” said Boris Sbarufatti, an astrophysicist at Brera Observatory in Milan, who currently is working with other Swift team members at Pennsylvania State

“Once the X-rays fade away, we hope to measure its mass and confirm its black hole status.”

MessageToEagle.com

See also:
Halo Of Hot Gas Surrounds The Milky Way

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Biological Hazards / Wildlife /Hazmat

Officials baffled as Nearly 8,500 Deer found Dead in Michigan in recent weeks due to mystery Virus

Published on Oct 4, 2012 by ADRENALINEJUNKY -Jason Hendricks

06.10.2012

HAZMAT

USA

State of Texas, Halliburton

 

HAZMAT in USA on Friday, 14 September, 2012 at 03:03 (03:03 AM) UTC.

Back

Updated:	Saturday, 06 October, 2012 at 03:42 UTC
Description
A small radioactive cylinder that went missing from a Halliburton (HAL) truck last month was found on a Texas road late Thursday, the company said, ending a weeks-long hunt for the device that involved local, state and federal authorities. The seven-inch stainless steel tube, which contained a small amount of radioactive material, was lost by an oil-and-gas crew somewhere along the 130-mile journey from the vicinity of Pecos to Odessa, in West Texas. A Halliburton spokesman said Friday that the device was found late Thursday on a road in Reeves County, Texas. The company first reported it missing to the state health department on Sept. 11, according to another report to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. State officials, company inspectors and members of a Texas National Guard unit had combed the area for the device, which is used in the process of measuring and evaluating conditions within oil and gas wells. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission report stated that the tube was a “category 3″ radioactive device, a class that includes some pacemakers.

07.10.2012

HAZMAT

India

State of Maharashtra, Jalgaon

HAZMAT in India on Sunday, 07 October, 2012 at 14:18 (02:18 PM) UTC.

Description

Over 50 labourers fell ill on Sunday in an industrial area of Jalgaon city in Maharashtra owing to a chlorine gas leak from a factory, police said. “The workers belonged to a factory called Tulsi Pipes. They suffered from breathing problems and acute vomiting as one of the 25 chlorine cylinders stacked in the adjoining Kalpataru Agro-Chem Industries leaked,” an official from Jalgaon police station said. The manager of Kalpataru Agro-Chem told police that the cylinders were kept on the factory premises for being taken to another plant. He said that he did not know how the chlorine leaked from one of the cylinders, police said. “All victims have been sent to hospital. While 10 labourers are still under medical care, others have been discharged,” the official added. A complaint has been registered by one of the labourers, Mohammed Aslam Mehboob Ilahi, against owners of Kalpataru Agro-Chem under Indian Penal Code Sections 284 (negligent conduct with respect to poisonous substance), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of other), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of other) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of other), the official said.

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