It’s amazing how little the liberal rhetoric has changed. Whenever there is an issue with policy or Federal encroachment on State sovereignty . They drag out the worn out race card and insults.
The amusing point to all this is that they believe themselves so intelligent and have such lofty impressions of themselves that they do not take the time to look at the people they are insulting. WE are made up of minorities, disillusioned Democrats, fed up environmentalists, disgusted working class Americans. And yet we are all ignorant rednecks with a racists agenda. LOL!!
The lines are getting old and the only thing they have accomplished is to expose their ignorance of the Law of The Land. Perhaps, they need a memorable lesson to assist in the assimilation of the necessary information to permeate those thick skulls. Not to mention a bit of air let out of those over bloated egos would be in order……
This according to the keepers of acceptable opinion at two divergent publications.
Both The Economist and the Montgomery Advertiser recently ran opinion pieces skewering nullification, specifically state efforts to block unconstitutional federal gun laws in Kansas and Alabama. Interestingly, both the author of The Economist piece and the editorial board over at the Alabama newspaper used the same strategy. They both try to make their readers believe anybody who actually views nullification as legitimate must not be too bright. Their implication? “The federal government enjoys absolute supremacy and a bunch of dumb racist, rednecks who don’t know anything about the U.S. government want states to ignore laws they don’t happen to like.”
From the Economist: “It is remarkable that a civics lesson like this is necessary.”
The Montgomery Advertiser editorial board gets even snarkier.
“That body (the Alabama Senate) has taken a plunge into the past by revisiting and embracing the long-discredited practice of nullification, the notion — abandoned decades ago by most people who passed sixth-grade civics.”
Talk about groupthink. Federal supremacists apparently find the whole “civics lesson” theme clever. I have to admit – it does effectively create the impression that nullification supporters wander around in ignorance among the illiterate and uneducated. But the mockery would prove even more effective if the writers actually knew what in the hell they were writing about.
Here’s the problem: these amateur historians actually think the three things they leaned in their government school sixth-grade civics class make them some kind of experts. They might want to move on from pre-civics to basic civics before they try demeaning those of us who actually know the historical and the philosophical basis for nullification.
Let’s touch on a few basics, shall we?
1. Federal Supremacy – These wanna-be historians actually think the federal government stands absolutely supreme all the time, no matter what. They apparently never bothered to put down the sixth-grade textbook and read the actual supremacy clause in the Constitution. If they did, they would find that only acts “in pursuance of” the Constitution stand supreme. Yes Virginia, federal supremacy actually has limits! Alexander Hamilton made this clear in Federalist 33.
“If a number of political societies enter into a larger political society, the laws which the latter may enact, pursuant to the powers intrusted [sic] to it by its constitution, must necessarily be supreme over those societies and the individuals of whom they are composed….But it will not follow from this doctrine that acts of the large society which are not pursuant to its constitutional powers, but which are invasions of the residuary authorities of the smaller societies, will become the supreme law of the land. These will be merely acts of usurpation, and will deserve to be treated as such. Hence we perceive that the clause which declares the supremacy of the laws of the Union, like the one we have just before considered, only declares a truth, which flows immediately and necessarily from the institution of a federal government. It will not, I presume, have escaped observation, that it expressly confines this supremacy to laws made pursuant to the Constitution.”
2. The extent of federal power – While we’re on the subject of limits, our civics professors apparently need a reminder. The federal government can’t just do whatever it wants. It operates under strict limits. The feds can only exercise powers delegated to it in the Constitution. James Madison described the extent of federal power in Federalist 45. He insisted that the powers delegated to the general government were “few and defined,” and those left to the states and people were “numerous and indefinite.” The ratifiers even insisted on a Bill of Rights “in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers.”
3. Who decides constitutionality? - Federal supremacists sell you a load of crap. They want you to believe the people of the states created a federal government with limited, enumerated powers, insisted on further “declaratory and restrictive clauses” – the Bill of Rights - and then left it to that government to decide the extent of its own power. This idea not only earns them an F on their civics test, they also fail their logic test. Basically, these geniuses want the Dallas Cowboy player to referee the Dallas – New York Giants football game. How do you think that would turn out for the Giants?
Fact: the people of the states created the federal government in the first place. Therefore, the people of the states retain the right, in the last resort, to determine the extent of the powers they gave to the government they created. So yes, Kansas can determine what limits the Second Amendment places on federal regulation of firearms. Granted, this idea may fall into the realm of advanced civics, so maybe we should let a real expert explain it. How about we call on Madison, the “Father of the Constitution?”
“The States then being the parties to the constitutional compact, and in their sovereign capacity, it follows of necessity, that there can be no tribunal above their authority, to decide in the last resort, whether the compact made by them be violated; and consequently that as the parties to it, they must themselves decide in the last resort, such questions as may be of sufficient magnitude to require their interposition.”
Today, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback sent a letter in response to Eric Holder’s direct threat against the state for its new law, the 2nd Amendment Protection Act. It reads, in part:
The State of Kansas is in receipt of your letter in which you place Kansas on notice regarding the view of the Obama Administration concerning the state’s Second Amendment Protection Act.
This first sentence of Brownback’s letter is the most important. Holder’s letter took the position that the new Kansas law is unconstitutional – without question. And because of Holder’s view that he is the decider of all that is constitutional or not in this country, he threatened the state – and thus the People – of Kansas.
Brownback showed quite a bit of savvy with that sentence. He absolutely brushed off Holder by pointing out that his letter only represented “the view of the Obama Administration…”
Just because Eric Holder claims that the Kansas law is unconstitutional, doesn’t make it so. And Holder’s claim that he had no idea about “fast and furious” probably doesn’t make that so either.
Sam Brownback did a great service to the People of Kansas by reminding them that Holder is just sharing his opinion.
He also noted that the Kansas nullification law comes from the source of political power to which no American government is above – the People themselves.
“The people of Kansas have clearly expressed their sovereign will.”
Eric Holder doesn’t get to tell the People what THEIR constitution means. It’s the other way around.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (May 2, 2013) – Just one day after Eric Holder sent a letter threatening Kansas if it enforces its recently passed Second Amendment Protection Act, the Missouri Senate thumbed its nose at the Attorney General and passed the Show-Me-State version of Second Amendment protection by a veto-proof majority.
The House passed already passed the bill 115-41, also a veto-proof majority. But the Senate added three amendments, and the bill must no go back to the House for concurrence.
If passed into law, HB436 would nullify virtually every federal gun control measure on the books – or planned for the future. It reads, in part:
All federal acts, laws, orders, rules, and regulations, whether past, present, or future, which infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 23 of the Missouri Constitution shall be invalid in this state, shall not be recognized by this state, shall be specifically rejected by this state, and shall be considered null and void and of no effect in this state.
(2) Such federal acts, laws, orders, rules, and regulations include, but are not limited to:
(a) The provisions of the federal Gun Control Act of 1934;
(b) The provisions of the federal Gun Control Act of 1968;
Joining HB1076 for a full Texas State House vote on SATURDAY, May 4th, is HB928. Both are based on the same principle – that no one working for government in the state of Texas will enforce federal gun control measures. 1076 focuses only on new federal gun control enacted on or after January 1, 2013. But HB928 makes no distinction – and virtually all federal gun control measures will be unenforceable within the state of Texas.
This would make a HUGE dent in any new federal effort to further restrict the right to keep and bear arms in Texas.As Judge Andrew Napolitano has said recently, such widespread noncompliance can make a federal law “nearly impossible to enforce” (video here). And in those limited situations where enforcement does occur, Rosa Parks has taught us all the power of “NO!” Passage of HB928 would mark the beginning of the end of federal gun control measures in Texas. HB928 also provides for a mechanism to ensure that local governments don’t decide to start helping out the Feds – state grant monies would be withdrawn from those localities that assist federal gun control.
Quite simply, the federal government absolutely cannot enforce gun control in Texas without the help of Texas.
YOUR PHONE CALLS ARE NEEDED NOW TO SUPPORT THIS BILL
Since the vote is on Saturday, make a CALL – emails won’t have impact. Call after business hours if you have to – and leave a message. Any and every phone call will help move this bill forward.
1. Call your STATE Representative and ask them to vote YES on HB928
On Thursday, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback received a letter from Federal Attorney General Eric Holder threatening action against the state should it enforce SB102 which Brownback signed into law last month.
The new law states, in part:
Any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States which violates the second amendment to the constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas
The bill also provides for criminal penalties against federal agents who attempt to enforce specific federal laws on guns manufactured in the state of Kansas and sold within the state – as the state takes the position under the new law that the federal government does not “interstate commerce” authority over such items.
In his letter, Holder didn’t take too kindly to such a proposition. He wrote:
“In purporting to override federal law and to criminalize the official acts of federal officers, SB102 directly conflicts with federal law and is therefore unconstitutional.”
He continued, “Under the Supremacy Clause…Kansas may not prevent federal employees and officials from carrying out their official responsibilities. And a state certainly may not criminalize the exercise of federal responsibilities. Because SB102 conflicts with federal firearms laws and regulations, federal law supercedes this new statute; all provisions of federal laws and their implementing regulations therefore continue to apply.”
Let’s take Eric apart here.
1. Kansas is NOT purporting to criminalize the exercise of constitutional federal responsibilities. On the contrary, the bill criminalizes what the state has determined is unconstitutional. It is the position that such federal acts are indeed a violation of the Constitution. No matter how much Eric might believe it to be otherwise, his view is obviously not universal – especially in Kansas.
2. The Supremacy Clause. Holder takes the position that all tyrants do – that everything they do is authorized, anything to the contrary – worthless. But Holder is wrong. The Supremacy Clause doesn’t say that “any law in conflict with federal law” is void. It says that only those laws “in pursuance” of the constitution are supreme. The new Kansas legislation, again, takes the position that such federal acts are not constitutional, and therefore not supreme.
3. Historical Precedent. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act was a federal law that basically required all states in the north to act as slave catchers for black people claimed as property in the South. It’s one of the most disgusting acts in American history. A number of northern states passed laws similar to the new Kansas law, criminalizing federal agents for attempting to kidnap people in their states. Although the feds still claimed the same kind of authority that Eric Holder has claimed today, they didn’t have the manpower to enforce. Read more about that here. As an aside, if Holder would like to take the position that such resistance to federal slave laws was wrong, he’s welcome to publicly state that.
Eric capped off his letter by assuring the People of Kansas that the federal government will continue to enforce all federal gun laws. He wrote:
“I am writing to inform you that federal law enforcement agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the United States Attorney’s Office…will continue to execute their duties to enforce all federal firearms laws and regulations.”
4. Manpower. That brings us to the most important fact, the federal government simply does not have the manpower to enforce all its laws already. The new Kansas law doesn’t just deal with firearms made within the state. It also bans all state and local agents from enforcing federal gun control measures. (learn about the bill in detail here). As Judge Andrew Napolitano has affirmed recently, such widespread noncompliance makes federal gun control laws “nearly impossible to enforce” (video here). So Eric can promise to enforce these federal acts all he wants. But if Kansas doesn’t help him, he might be able to get a 2% enforcement rate. Or, he’ll have to pull resources from other states.
I get it. I really do. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore it.
It seems obvious to me that in order to hold a place of prominence at MSNBC you either need to be a partisan hack, or totally clueless of history.
Probably both.
So when MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show producer Steve Benen shares his opinion, it’s usually just best to turn a blind eye to his idiocy.
But, sometimes it’s important to pay attention to what they say because it can actually give us insight on just what we should do for liberty. In fact, if you believe in the right to keep and bear arms and wonder what to do to support that right, you’ll get all the advice you need in Steve’s recent Maddow Blog article, “Pointless Nullification in Kansas.”
Surprised? Read on. It’s true.
BACKSTORY
This month, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed into law the “Second Amendment Protection Act,” a bill that reasserts the state’s role in protecting the right to keep and bear arms of those living there. The bill reads, in part:
“Any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States which violates the second amendment to the constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas.”
In conjunction with the above clause, the bill defines what is meant by “the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” and that it isn’t based off a decision by the Supreme Court.
The second amendment to the constitution of the United States reserves to the people, individually, the right to keep and bear arms as that right was understood at the time that Kansas was admitted to statehood in 1861, and the guaranty of that right is a matter of contract between the state and people of Kansas and the United States as of the time that the compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Kansas in 1859 and the United States in 1861.
By definition, state and local agents cannot enforce any acts or actions that are “null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas.” Based off this text, the state of Kansas now cannot participate in any federal gun control measures that restrict the individual right to keep and bear arms as understood when Kansas became a state in 1861.
I happen to think such a state law is a big deal. In Steve’s blog “report” on the issue, he quoted me as saying that this bill is “potentially the most important state level bill passed in modern American history.”
He didn’t take too kindly to that opinion, though, and spent some time talking about my “hyperbole” and the “cause for alarm” over the fact that Brownback signed this bill into law.
In fact, Steve spent quite a bit of time explaining how such an act is a waste of time. He even said the law doesn’t make “any sense at all.”
SENSE
So here’s some sense for our propagandist. According to Steve, the courts, and the court only, determine what the constitution actually means. But that flies in the face of what James Madison had to say. You know Madison, the guy referred to as the “Father of the Constitution.” In his own words:
“The States then being the parties to the constitutional compact, and in their sovereign capacity, it follows of necessity, that there can be no tribunal above their authority, to decide in the last resort, whether the compact made by them be violated; and consequently that as the parties to it, they must themselves decide in the last resort, such questions as may be of sufficient magnitude to require their interposition.”
Representative Brett Hildabrand of Kansas’ 17th district has introduced a bill, HB2161, to nullify the so-called “indefinite detention” powers of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). HB2161 has many co-sponsors including Representatives: Bradford, Claeys, Garber, Grosserode, Hedke, Houser, Howell, Montgomery, O’Brien, Peck, Petty, Read and Rothlisberg. This bill is currently in the Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice.
This bill is different from and quite a bit stronger than previous bills introduced around the country to nullify NDAA indefinite detention. It includes kidnapping charges for federal agents attempting to arrest people in Kansas without due process. This concept stands on a strong leg, because when you remove due process from the equation, “indefinite detention” is little more than government-sanctioned kidnapping.
The bill states, in part: “A person who violates the provisions of this section may also be prosecuted for, convicted of, and punished for kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping, K.S.A. 2012 Supp. 21-5408, and amendments thereto.”
Violators of this bill could be subject to the following criminal penalties, if convicted of kidnapping:
Kidnapping is a severity level 3 felony with a potential of 8 years in prison. Aggravated kidnapping is a severity level l felony with a prison sentence of over 20 years being possible. Both of these felonies are subject to a fine “to not exceed $300,000″. The exact imprisonment time is determined by a variety of variables and guided by a complex grid and attorneys.
“Indefinite detainers” could also be charged with a misdemeanor charge of “denial of due process” which could include “a definite term of confinement in the county jail which shall be fixed by the court and shall not exceed one year” and “a sum not exceeding $2,500.”
This bill also states, “the provisions of this act shall not apply to the court martial of any member of the United States military pursuant to the uniform code of military justice, 10 U.S.C. Chapter 47.”
“When I first heard that the federal government was considering indefinite detention, I was horrified, but I was unaware of how to fight it at the state level. After reading about anti-NDAA legislation introduced in Texas, I knew we needed to attempt the same thing in Kansas,” said Representative Hildabrand.
He continued, “The kidnapping portion was added to convey the seriousness of the offense. If a non-government official were to take someone against their will and hold them without access to the outside world, we would consider that a kidnapping. If a government official does the same thing, without granting access to a lawyer or the courts, I see no difference.”
Representative Hildabrand’s bill will not release jurisdiction from the state of Kansas to the military. “I believe that a person either supports the whole Constitution, in every circumstance or they do not support it at all. Therefore, when any one is denied due process, I consider it an assault on the Constitution. I feel that is a key concept to convey to those serving in law enforcement and the military. If a bill violates the Constitution, it has no authority. The often misquoted Supremacy Clause states “laws pursuant to the Constitution.” The key being that it is pursuant to the Constitution to have validity.”
But under a quirk of Kansas state law, the Ratliefs and about 145 other families who lived in and around the shattered Pinaire Mobile Home Park are on the hook for a full year of property tax, even though they lost their homes in the April 14 storm.
While it was mostly mobile homes destroyed in the tornado at the southeast end of Wichita, the same rules apply to site-built housing.
So any homeowner unlucky enough to get in the way of a devastating storm, fire, or other house-destroying incident could wind up in the same financial purgatory, paying property tax on property that no longer exists.
County officials who collect the tax say they don’t think it’s fair to continue taxing people on homes that are now taking up space in a demolition landfill.
But they say their hands are tied by state law.
State officials can’t seem to explain why the law is the way it is, in a place that sits on the center stripe of a continental tornado alley.
It’s an issue that’s come up before over the years, in bigger and better-known tornado disasters in Greensburg, Hoisington, Haysville and Andover.
But while the south Wichita tornado was a smaller disaster, change could be in the wind this time around.
A newly elected state representative, whose brother lost his home in the April tornado, said he’ll be asking some tough questions after he’s sworn in in January.
“I know a lot of them just signed their property over (for demolition and removal) and they had to pay the taxes on it through the end of the property tax year,” said Rep.-elect Joe Edwards, R-Haysville. “That’s what I’m hearing from many that lived down in that area.
“Those people that got destroyed homes and cars, the car (taxes) stopped immediately as soon as it was signed over to the salvage pool, but their houses went through the next year and some of them paid several hundred, even into the thousands of dollars, even though the property was destroyed.”
Legislative leaders from both political parties are indicating they’ll be willing to look at changing the law.
Jan. 1 appraisal
Edwards’ brother, the Rev. Doyle Edwards, said he had lived in the mobile home he lost in the tornado for about 12 years.
As he changed jobs, he’d moved it back and forth between Butler and Greenwood counties before settling in the Pinaire park in 2006.
Although it’s on the tax rolls as personal property, “It was our home,” he said.
He and his wife rode out the tornado huddled in a closet inside the mobile home. When they emerged, they immediately knew their home would be a total loss.
The tornado practically ripped the south end off the mobile home.
“The curtain rod from the master bathroom shower was driven through the wall into our bedroom,” he said.
Worse, the winds had twisted the entire structure, popping seams all along both sides. “We could see daylight out through the closet and in the front room,” he said.
About a month after the tornado, he signed ownership of the mobile home over to the park management so it could be torn down and the debris hauled away, he said.
He was able to salvage almost nothing from the disaster.
“We ended up getting an apartment and had to buy new furniture, new vehicles, everything,” he said.
Eight months later, he got a $190 property tax bill for taxes on the destroyed home.
National Earthquake Information Center
U.S. Geological Survey http://neic.usgs.gov/
California earthquake swarm felt in Arizona, Mexico, USGS says
The series of moderate earthquakes — including several magnitude 5.0 and above — were felt as far north as Orange County, east into Arizona and south into Mexico, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The USGS recorded more than two dozen earthquakes in Imperial County, many of them near Brawley. Officials said people reported feeling the quake in Yuma, Ariz., Lake Havasu as well as in Baja California.
The USGS’s “Do You Feel It” system shows the quakes were felt as far away as San Diego, Temecula and San Clemente. The 5.4 quake was also felt in Moreno Valley, Indio, National City and Palm Desert.
The quakes could be felt in the press box at the Del Mar Race Track in neighboring San Diego County, where the $1-million Pacific Classic is scheduled later Sunday.
Between 10 a.m. and 12:50 p.m., the same area was shaken by quakes ranging in magnitude from 2.0 to 5.4, the USGS reported.
The burst of quakes took place roughly 16 miles from El Centro and 92 miles from Tijuana. In the last 10 days, there have been six earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater centered nearby.
There were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries from the temblor, though reports were still coming in.
The border region is known for frequent seismic activity, though the size of these quakes is larger than typically seen.
Here is a preliminary magnitude count of some of the quakes Sunday:
— 5.3 magnitude at 12:32:59
— 5.4 magnitude at 12:31:23
— 5.3 magnitude at 12:30:54
— 3.7 magnitude at 12:30:27
— 4.7 magnitude at 12:21:04
— 4.6 magnitude at 12:20:04
The size of the quakes are subject to change as the USGS refines its data.
Map provided by the U.S. Geologic Survey shows the earthquake swarm. The most recent quakes are in red.
SAN DIEGO (AP) – Dozens of small to moderate earthquakes struck the southeastern corner of California on Sunday, causing minor damages to structures and rattling nerves in a small farming town east of San Diego.
The largest quake registered at a magnitude 5.5 and was centered about three miles northwest of the town of Brawley, said Robert Graves, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Another quake Sunday registered at magnitude 5.3.
More than 30 additional earthquakes with magnitudes of at least 3.5 jiggled the same area near the southern end of the Salton Sea, Graves said.
“The type of activity that we’re seeing could possibly continue for several hours or even days,” Graves said.
At the El Sol Market in Brawley, food packages fell from the shelves, littering aisle ways.
Several glasses and a bottle of wine crashed to the floor and shattered at Assaggio, an Italian restaurant in Brawley, said owner Jerry Ma. The shaking was short-lived but intense, he said.
“It felt like there was quake every 15 minutes. One after another. My kids are small and they’re scared and don’t want to come back inside,” said Mike Patel, who manages Townhouse Inn & Suites in Brawley.
A TV came crashing down and a few light fixtures broke inside the motel, Patel said.
A Brawley Police Department dispatcher said several downtown buildings sustained minor damage. No injuries were reported.
The first quake, with a magnitude of 3.9, occurred at 10:02 a.m. The USGS said more than 100 aftershocks struck the same approximate epicenter, about 16 miles north of El Centro.
Some shaking was felt along the San Diego County coast in Del Mar, some 120 miles from the epicenter, as well as in the Coachella Valley, southern Orange County and parts of northern Mexico.
USGS seismologist Lucy Jones said earthquake swarms are characteristic of the region, known as the Brawley Seismic Zone.
“The area sees lots of events at once, with many close to the largest magnitude, rather than one main shock with several much smaller aftershocks,” Jones said.
The last major swarm was in 2005, following a magnitude-5.1 quake, she said.
Sunday’s quake cluster occurred in what scientists call a transition zone between the Imperial and San Andreas faults, so they weren’t assigning the earthquakes to either fault, Graves said.
The series of moderate earthquakes — including several magnitude 5.0 and above — were felt as far north as Orange County, east into Arizona and south into Mexico, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS recorded more than two dozen earthquakes in Imperial County, many of them near Brawley. Officials said people reported feeling the quake in Yuma, Ariz., Lake Havasu as well as in Baja California. The USGS’s “Do You Feel It” system shows the quakes were felt as far away as San Diego, Temecula and San Clemente. The 5.4 quake was also felt in Moreno Valley, Indio, National City and Palm Desert. The quakes could be felt in the press box at the Del Mar Race Track in neighboring San Diego County, where the $1-million Pacific Classic is scheduled later Sunday. Between 10 a.m. and 12:50 p.m., the same area was shaken by quakes ranging in magnitude from 2.0 to 5.4, the USGS reported. The burst of quakes took place roughly 16 miles from El Centro and 92 miles from Tijuana. In the last 10 days, there have been six earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater centered nearby. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries from the temblor, though reports were still coming in. The border region is known for frequent seismic activity, though the size of these quakes is larger than typically seen.
Home video captured the aftermath of one of two moderate earthquakes that struck Imperial County on Sunday, part of a swarm of more than 70 that hit the region. The video shows books and DVDs toppled from shelves and some belongings fallen to the floor. The video was posted on YouTube on Sunday afternoon. But damage appear to be minor. Imperial County officials said no injuries have been reported. A handful of buildings in downtown Brawley had minor damage after an earthquake swarm rattled the area Sunday, officials said. Most of the quakes occurred in and around that California town. Capt. Jesse Zendejas of the Brawley Fire Department described the damage as “cosmetic” and said it occurred in at least three buildings dating to the 1930s. Crews were still assessing other areas of the city, but no injuries had been reported, he said. Imperial County firefighters were also assisting in the survey. The first quake – a magnitude 3.8 temblor, which was downgraded from 3.9 – occurred at 10:02 a.m. about three miles northwest of Brawley and was followed by a series of other quakes in the same general area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which may continue to revise the numbers. Thomas Jordan, director of the USC-based Southern California Earthquake Center, called the activity a “very active swarm” – something not unusual for the southern edge of the San Andreas Fault, which has seen similar occurrences in recent years. This swarm could continue to rumble the region for a few days, Jordan added. “It’s been pretty productive so far,” he said. “It’s a vigorous one. We got some pretty good-sized events.” As data continued to roll in, Jordan said, scientists would study the swarm to learn how the sequence developed and what effect it could have on the fault. “We’re always concerned where there is significant seismic activity because that means there is a higher probability of having more seismic activity,” he said.
Authorities have released preliminary damage estimates of last week’s grass fire that burned more than 1,300 acres in Wilson County. Emergency Management officials said Monday that the fire affected 12 landowners. One home was totally destroyed, along with several outbuildings. Firefighters were able to save five other homes in the path of Thursday’s fire. The fire also destroyed 28 electrical poles, about 315 bales of hay valued at $30,000 and killed one calf. About 8.25 miles of fencing with a replacement value of $123,000 also burned. The cause of the fire may never be determined, but authorities believe it may have been started by a discarded cigarette.
Officials say 10 to 15 structures have been destroyed in south-central Montana and evacuations have been ordered ahead of a fast-moving wildfire that grew to at least 23 square miles on Saturday since starting a day earlier. Fire spokesman Paula Short says the destroyed buildings are believed to be secondary structures and no injuries have been reported. She says the Delphia Fire is in a rural area about 14 miles northeast of Roundup burning in grass, sage and timber. Musselshell County officials have ordered residents along Fishel Creek Road to evacuate, and residents along Hawk Creek Road are under a pre-evacuation notice. Short says about 30 to 40 homes are threatened. She says more than 100 firefighters are battling the fire along with four air tankers and three helicopters.
The wildfire that erupted in southern Bulgaria in the Rila Mountain is continuing to engulf the pine forests for the fifth consecutive day. The situation is reported as extremely serious despite the ongoing effort of hundreds of firemen, forest rangers, military servicemen, and volunteers. The two MI-17 helicopters from the Krumovo Air Base, which helped to halt the spread of the flames Sunday, will resume work on Monday. Volunteers will not be allowed Monday and the extinguishing will be only in the hands of professionals. Over 1 500 decares of vegetation have been affected. The wind is further worsening the situation, which was monitored overnight by a new team of 20 people on duty. The fire started on August 23 at an altitude of 2 300 meters and a very difficult to access terrain, right above the historical Rila monastery. The monastery is not in danger, according to authorities. There are 84 active wildfires in the country, the Interior Ministry’s press office reports. The large number of blazes in Bulgaria is attributed to the summer heat and draught, and to human recklessness.
27.08.2012
Forest / Wild Fire
France
Multiple region, [Between Avignon and Aix-en-Provence]
Gendarmes have moved in to try to find the cause of a fire that destroyed two houses and around 900 hectares of forest and arable farmlands and forced the evacuation of a campsite. Around 900 firefighters plus 12 water-bomber aircraft were needed to control what was the summer’s largest forest fire in the south-east, half-way between Avignon and Aix-en-Provence. The fire, which covered lands in the communes of Orgon, Sénas and Eyguières, was pushed by a strong Mistral wind which was reaching up to 70kph after several days of intense hot weather. The RD569 between Organ and Eyguières was cut by the fire. Smoke could be seen from several tens of kilometres away and ash was blown as far as Marseille. Firefighters managed to stop the spread late yesterday afternoon but 700 of them were still on the scene at Orgon in Bouches-du-Rhône, near the border with the Vaucluse, this morning. Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur prefect Hugues Parant said they fear that the wind will turn around midday and the fire will take off again. It is not yet known how the fire started, but it was first spotted around midnight on Saturday night near a campsite on a rocky ridge on the edge of the Alpilles. Halfway through the night rescue crews evacuated 70 people from the campsite but could not save two houses and outbuildings in Sénas from being destroyed. One man was also rescued from his car which was caught in the path of the flames. The initial 500 firefighters from Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rhône were reinforced by others from Hérault, Drôme and Alpes-Maritimes along with seven Canadair, two Tracker and one Dash water-bombers, plus two helicopters. Already this summer more than 650 hectares of forest have been destroyed in a fire at Lacanau, in Gironde, in the south-west.
Tsunami wave has been observed in DART 43413 buoy on 27.08.2012 at 06:19 UTC. The observed tsunami wave height was 0.1 feet (0.10 cm). The wave height wasn’t dangerous.
Tsunami wave has been observed following the M 7.3 magnitude earthquake in La Union, El Salvador on 27.08.2012 at 06:27 UTC. The observed tsunami wave height was 0.1 feet (0.20 cm). The wave height wasn’t dangerous.
Tsunami wave has been observed following the M 7.3 magnitude earthquake in El Salvador on 27.08.2012 at 05:40 UTC. The observed tsunami wave height was 0.3 feet (0.10 cm). The wave height wasn’t dangerous.
NEW: “It’s been a long and rough night,” storm chaser says
Bolaven crosses over Okinawa
It is the strongest typhoon in the region since 1956
Typhoon Bolaven’s cloud field is about 20 times the length of Okinawa
Tokyo (CNN) — A massive typhoon crossed over Okinawa on Sunday, bringing winds more ferocious than even the typhoon-weary Japanese island has seen in decades.
Typhoon Bolaven, with wind gusts that reached as high as 259 kilometers per hour (161 mph), is the strongest to strike the region in nearly 50 years. And with a cloud field of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), it is 20 times larger than Okinawa’s length.
“It’s been very, very severe,” said storm chaser James Reynolds, who was on the northwestern coast of the island during the worst of the storm.
Typhoon makes landfall in Taiwan
Tree branches were flying through the air amid torrential rain, he said.
Speaking to CNN early Monday morning on Okinawa, Reynolds said, “It’s been a long and rough night.”
“The eye of the typhoon actually crashed ashore just after dark. … Like the rest of the population we all just kind of holed up in the strong and sturdy buildings which make up Okinawa,” he said.
The infrastructure on Okinawa is designed to withstand violent storms. “Everything’s made of solid concrete,” said Reynolds.
The last storm of this scale was Typhoon Naha in 1956.
At 3 a.m. Monday local time (2 p.m. ET Sunday), Bolaven had winds of 194 kilometers per hour, with gusts at 240 kilometers per hour, CNN International meteorologist Jennifer Delgado reported.
Bolaven could make landfall at the Korean peninsula on Tuesday morning, or potentially in South Korea on Monday night, Delgado said.
In the meantime, rainfall totals in Okinawa could top 500 mm (20 inches) in 24 hours, said CNN International meteorologist Tom Sater.
Bolaven is “roughly the size of France to Poland in land mass,” said Sater.
Storm surges were expected to be a major problem for Okinawa. More than 400,000 people in the area live at elevations less than 50 meters (164 feet).
“The large battering waves on both sides of Okinawa are going to be a threat to people living near the water,” Reynolds predicted. “But I think the worst has passed now. The storm is moving away and unfortunately it’s the people in the Korean peninsula who look like they’ve got to prepare for the incoming storm.”
Taiwan, meanwhile, could be in for a pounding due to something called the Fujiwhara effect.
Typhoon Tembin made landfall in southern Taiwan a few days ago, and was expected to work its way toward Hong Kong. But Bolaven, which is much stronger, has stopped Tembin’s movement toward Hong Kong and has been spinning it around. Tembin is likely to make a second landfall in southern Taiwan, also on Tuesday morning.
“As Typhoon Bolaven moves northward towards the Yellow Sea, it will drag Tembin toward the China coast very near Shanghai,” said Sater. “That’s an amazing change in direction.”
About 63,000 homes and businesses were out of power mid-morning in the South Florida area as heavy wind and rain continue. The outages represent about 3 percent of Florida Power and Light’s 2.4 million customers in the tri-county area. In Broward, roughly 24,130 locations are without power, according to FPL, out of 800,000 customers. In Miami-Dade, 23,200 are without power out of more than 1 million customers. In Palm Beach, 18,380 locations are without power out of 600,000 customers. That’s significantly more than the roughly 18,000 customers left without power in the hours following Isaac’s closest path to the area, as the large storm continues sending debris and branches into FPL lines. “Palm fronds, believe it or not, are actually a huge cause of power outages,’’ said Richard Gibbs, an FPL spokesman.
A torrential downpour Monday evening turned several roads in the capital into virtual rivulets, causing massive traffic jams that affected tens of thousands. “The whole of Delhi is witnessing traffic jams,” an exasperated Delhi Traffic Police officer told IANS. A city that had been complaining about poor rainfall this year was suddenly hit by blinding rains after 6 p.m., taking motorists and people by surprise. In no time, scores of roads big and small became flooded, thanks to choked drains. In some areas, water entered houses and shops. Motorists had a harrowing time all across the city. On some streets, there was knee deep water. “It took me more than 45 minutes to cross a distance that normally takes just 15 minutes,” complained software professional Punit Chadda. Chadda was driving on the arterial Ring Road, which witnessed flooding at several spots.
North Delhi Mayor Meera Aggarwal told IANS that there was no flooding in the areas she visited. “But when there is such heavy downpour, flooding is bound to happen,” she said. Public Relations Executive Manish Arora was stuck on an otherwise busy road near the All India Institute of Medical Sciences for some 30 minutes because of bumper to bumper traffic. Delhi Metro reported huge crowds as harried Delhites chose the network, even dumping their own vehicles. “Though office hours are always rush hours in metro, today the volume of crowd is more than usual,” Madhulika, a regular commuter, told IANS. South Delhi Mayor Sarita Chaudhary blamed multiple civic agencies for the chaos on the roads. “Sometimes PWD digs up the road but it doesn’t come under us. Who is responsible?” North and East Delhi Municipal Corporation spokesman Yogendra Singh Mann said it was high time the capital’s drainage system was given an overhaul. Rainfall recorded in the last 24 hours till 5.30 p.m. was 26 mm. Officials said data for the later rains was not immediately available. Rains are also expected Tuesday, with the India Meteorological Department predicting light rains or thundershowers. With the Yamuna’s level rising menacingly, the Delhi government asked people living along the river’s banks to move to safer places.
An official said the Yamuna had touched 204.16 metres — 67 centimetres short of danger mark. “All preparations are in place to deal any flood like situation in Delhi,” said Irrigation and Flood Control Minister A.K. Walia. The official said 43,218 cusecs (cubic meters per second) of water has been released from upstream at the Hathnikund Barrage in Yamuna Nagar district of Haryana Monday. Delhi’s rainfall this monsoon has been 26 percent less than the average. So far, 372.1 millimetres of rain has been recorded, against the average of 504.3 millimetres.
27.08.2012
Flash Flood
Nigeria
MultiStates, [States of Adamawa, Katsina and Niger]
Floods wreaked havoc in several states in the North at the weekend, killing at least 15 people in Adamawa State and another four in Niger State. Hundreds of homes and farmlands were destroyed in floods in Katsina State, while roadways and bridges were submerged in Nasarawa State. The Adamawa flood affected 36 villages in 13 local government areas and was partly caused by the release of excess water from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon, emergency authorities said. A local diver said apart from the 15 people who died, as many others were declared missing. “In Yola we counted three corpses, Numan 2, Demsa 3, Guyuk 4, Michika 2, and the list goes on,” he said, asking not to be named. Apart from the Cameroon dam water release, torrential rainfall in the affected areas worsened the floods, head of the Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency, Mr Shadrach Daniel, said. Hundreds of acres of farmlands were submerged in Mayo-Belwa, Song, Fufore, Yola South, Yola North, Shelleng, Lamurde and Numan local government areas wasting farm produce worth millions. Daniel said over 20,000 people have so far been rendered homeless by the incident across the three senatorial districts of the state. He confirmed that people died but said he could not give figures.
At least one person was killed while two people were reported missing in two separate flash flooding incidents in Zamboanga del Sur over the weekend, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said on Monday. In its 6:00 a.m. report, the NDRRMC said a person was killed after a flash flood caused a cargo truck to overturn in the Salug Dako River, Mahayag town in Zamboanga del Sur at 5:30 p.m. p.m. on Saurday. “The victims were on board a cargo truck when a strong current coming from the said river hit the vehicle, which caused it to overturn,” the NDRRMC said. The NDRRMC heavy rain may have caused the river to overflow and destroyed the spillway that connects Mahayag and Dumingag towns. The NDRRMC did not name the fatality but said five other passengers of the truck were rescued.
An anthrax outbreak in a Siberian village left one person dead and 10 others hospitalized as the Russian government declared a state of emergency in the area in a bid to prevent an epidemic. There were at least two other confirmed cases of anthrax infection in the village of Druzhba in the Altai region, reported an unidentified officials. The death was reported in a statement today by the Moscow-based Emergency Situations Ministry, which didn’t say whether it was caused by anthrax. Roads around the village have been closed off, Yevgenia Belikova, a spokeswoman for investigators in Altai. Veterinary officials killed several heads of cattle infected with anthrax and vaccinated another 187, as well as 21 horses and pigs, the Altai region’s press office said on its website. The anthrax outbreak is “under control and localized,” Deputy Governor Daniil Bessarabov said in the statement. The anthrax bacteria, known as Bacillus anthracis, occurs most commonly in cattle, sheep and goats and can be lethal to humans. The bacteria, which can cause skin infections and more severe lung infections, may survive in soil decades after an outbreak.
Biohazard name:
Anthrax
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Russian emergency officials quarantined the village of Druzhba after a suspected exposure to anthrax killed one person and sent 10 others to area hospitals. Officials said one person died and three people were sickened from anthrax exposure Saturday in Druzhba. Seven others were hospitalized for tests, officials said. Authorities said 32 people in the Altai territory are thought to have come into contact with infected animals. Druzhba, with a population of 740, was quarantined and officials ordered all animals vaccinated. Stray animals were killed to help contain the outbreak.
MessageToEagle.com – Scientists have discovered a serious and unexpected loss of ozone over United States this summer.
How worried should we be?
The finding is startling because the complex atmospheric chemistry that destroys ozone has previously been thought to occur only at very cold temperatures over polar regions where there is very little threat to humans. (A large hole in the ozone layer persists over Antarctica.)
The discovery also links—for the first time—ozone loss (an issue around which world leaders successfully organized to ban chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs) to climate change (a global problem that has so far proven politically intractable).
The ozone layer blocks a large fraction of the sun’s ultraviolet light from reaching the earth, protecting life forms from potentially damaging radiation that in humans can lead to skin cancer.But stratospheric ozone is susceptible to chemical catalysts of manmade origin, such as chlorine and bromine, which are present in the earth’s atmosphere as a result of the formerly widespread commercial use of CFCs. And the chemical reactions that destroy ozone are highly dependent on both atmospheric temperature and the presence of water vapor.
Anderson’s team has discovered that during intense summer storms over the United States, water vapor is thrust by convection far higher into the lower stratosphere than previously thought possible, altering atmospheric conditions in a way that leads to substantial, widespread ozone loss throughout the ensuing week.
The paper links the loss of ozone over populated mid-latitude regions in summer to the frequency and intensity of these big storms, which could increase with climate change resulting from rising levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere.
Storms threaten ozone layer over United States. Image credit: Harvard
“We were investigating the behavior of convective water vapor as part of our climate research,” Anderson says, “not ozone photochemistry.
What proved surprising was the remarkable altitude to which water vapor was being lofted—altitudes exceeding 60,000 feet—and how frequently it was happening.” Anderson and his team realized the significance of the finding because higher water- vapor concentrations in the cold reaches of the lower stratosphere change the threshold temperature at which chlorine is converted to a free radical state: in the presence of water vapor, direct catalytic removal of ozone takes place at warmer temperatures.
In continuing studies the team used isotopic signatures to demonstrate that the water vapor had been carried directly to the stratosphere as a result of convective injection. And in the region of convectively injected water vapor, the researchers found that the catalytic loss of ozone increased by a hundredfold.
As a result, rates of ozone loss could exceed the natural rates of ozone regeneration (and replacement through transport from other regions) by two orders of magnitude. These data come from experimental evidence gathered over the United States, but the researchers note that similar conditions may exist elsewhere.
Harvard scientists have discovered that intense summer storms can force water vapor into the dry and cold stratosphere through a process called convective injection. The presence of such water vapor, which normally stops at the tropopause (the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere), changes the threshold temperature at which ozone is destroyed by chemistry dependent on manmade chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are still present in the atmosphere despite an international ban on their use.
The chemical reactions that destroy ozone typically occur only at very cold temperatures. The presence of water vapor raises the temperature at which ozone loss takes place, to the point that threshold conditions for ozone destruction are routinely crossed during the summer above the United States and possibly elsewhere. The frequency and intensity of these summer storms is expected to increase with climate forcing due to increasing levels of heat-trapping atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane. Reductions in stratospheric ozone would allow more DNA-damaging ultraviolet radiation to reach Earth, with potential biological effects on human beings, animals, and plants. Image credit: James G. Anderson/Art by Rob Stanhope
These findings have a public-health impact because they indicate that significant amounts of ozone can be destroyed in only a few days within regions of high water-vapor concentration—and skin-cancer incidence is associated with ultraviolet (UV) dosage levels, which in turn depend on ozone concentrations.
The findings are troubling also because—if the currently extremely dry stratosphere were to become wetter (as happened during earlier periods of elevated carbon dioxide, as indicated in the paleorecord)—the impact on ozone levels could be significant. The high current loading of chlorine and bromine resulting from earlier commercial release of CFCs and halons is unprecedented in Earth’s history. “Were the intensity and frequency of convective events to increase irreversibly as a result of climate forcing,” the scientists write, “decreases in ozone and associated increases in UV dosage would also be irreversible.”
The Science paper notes that loss of ice in the Arctic threatens to release significant amounts of carbon dioxide and methane from the soils of Siberia and Northern Alaska, potentially accelerating climate change. The researchers also note that an increasingly cited remedy for climate change—geo-engineering the climate by launching sulfate particles directly into the atmosphere in order to reflect sunlight away from Earth—would accelerate the process of ozone loss by increasing the reactive surface area for the conversion of chlorine to free radical form, as was observed after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991.
Loss of ice in the Arctic threatens to release significant amounts of carbon dioxide.
Mario Molina, S.D. ’12, Distinguished Professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC, San Diego, and co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on CFCs and ozone depletion, says that the findings described in the Science paper are “something very much to worry about, because there is the potential for a pretty significant effect on stratospheric ozone at latitudes where we normally wouldn’t think that would happen.” His own famous 1974 paper on CFC and ozone chemistry, he notes, was largely hypothesis, whereas the Anderson team’s work is based on science that is well-established: even though the results will have to be tested with further measurements, he says that “there is not much speculation” in the paper.
The location of the ozone loss in this case gives special cause for concern. Because the Antarctic ozone hole is confined to the most southern latitudes and only occasionally moves toward the southern tip of South America, scientists have little field experience with biological impacts. “DNA, of course, is constantly being damaged by ultraviolet radiation,” notes Molina, “and there is a natural repair mechanism.
But should ozone disappear in the way described in Professor Anderson’s paper, this would very much be a threat. Many ecological systems are quite sensitive to ultraviolet radiation and they have not evolved the repair mechanisms for more severe ozone depletion.”
Dramatic loss of ozone in the lower stratosphere over Antarctica was first noticed in the 1970s by a research group from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) who were monitoring the atmosphere above Antarctica from a research station. Today, we learn about unexpected loss of ozone over United States.
Molina says this is “a further indication of society having impacts on the environment which in principle we can do something about.” Harking back to the ozone issue, he points out that if there had “been no international agreement to ban CFCs” in the late 1980s, this newly described problem “would have been a lot worse.” He hopes that “these types of warnings will make the case even stronger for society to begin to react to the climate-change issue, just like we managed to do with the ozone issue.”
Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences and himself an atmospheric chemist, says that Anderson’s group has “come up with a very important overall picture where the individual pieces are well mapped out; they have been studied by the world’s best experts and they work.”
How serious the findings are is not yet clear, Cicerone says, “but what the Anderson group is talking about can be measured fairly quickly. It is now just a matter of marshaling the people and resources to investigate further.”
“Then we can figure out what the influence is on ozone,” he continues, “and how much more ultraviolet light penetrates to the surface of the earth, so that we can get to the bottom-line effects on human health, as well as crop and other damage.” If further investigation verifies the Anderson team’s findings, then the impacts in “a future climate where the air is getting warmer and moister” will need to be considered, Cicerone says.
Are these storms that “thrust moisture into the stratosphere going to be more frequent?” he asks. “We think they are.”
MessageToEagle.com based on information provided by Harvard
MessageToEagle.com – Astronomers have detected X-rays from the remains of a supernova in the constellation Hydra, first seen from Earth over 50 years ago.
While detected in the radio and optical for decades, the supernova SN 1957D, the fourth one detected in the year 1957, did not appear in previous X-ray images.
Astronomers needed a long observation (8.5 days) from Chandra of the spiral galaxy where SN 1957D is found to finally detect it.
The Chandra data suggest a rapidly rotating neutron star was formed by the explosion, which would be one of the youngest objects of this type ever observed.Over fifty years ago, a supernova was discovered in M83, a spiral galaxy about 15 million light years from Earth. Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to make the first detection of X-rays emitted by the debris from this explosion.
Named SN 1957D because it was the fourth supernova to be discovered in the year of 1957, it is one of only a few located outside of the Milky Way galaxy that is detectable, in both radio and optical wavelengths, decades after its explosion was observed.
In 1981, astronomers saw the remnant of the exploded star in radio waves, and then in 1987 they detected the remnant at optical wavelengths, years after the light from the explosion itself became undetectable.
A relatively short observation — about 14 hours long — from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2000 and 2001 did not detect any X-rays from the remnant of SN 1957D.
Click on image to enlargeThis new Chandra image of M83 is one of the deepest X-ray observations ever made of a spiral galaxy beyond our own. Credits: Chandra X-Ray Observatory
However, a much longer observation obtained in 2010 and 2011, totaling nearly 8 and 1/2 days of Chandra time, did reveal the presence of X-ray emission. The X-ray brightness in 2000 and 2001 was about the same as or lower than in this deep image.
This new Chandra image of M83 is one of the deepest X-ray observations ever made of a spiral galaxy beyond our own.
This full-field view of the spiral galaxy shows the low, medium, and high-energy X-rays observed by Chandra in red, green, and blue respectively. The location of SN 1957D, which is found on the inner edge of the spiral arm just above the galaxy’s center, is outlined in the box (or can be seen by mousing over the image.)
Click on image to enlargeMultipanel with Optical, H-alpha & X-ray images of SN 1957D in M83
This set of images from the Hubble Space Telescope shows optical and H-alpha images of the area around SN 1957D in M83. The optical images, shown at two different zooms, includes one filter at ultraviolet wavelengths and two different filters at optical wavelengths, colored blue, green and red. The H-alpha images show light emitted by hydrogen in red, sulfur in green and oxygen in blue. In each case SN 1957D is located in the middle of the image. In the optical images the star cluster containing the supernova is visible and in the H-alpha images the remains of the supernova are visible. The multipanel shows the optical and H-alpha images next to the Chandra image. Credit: Optical: NASA/STScI
The new X-ray data from the remnant of SN 1957D provide important information about the nature of this explosion that astronomers think happened when a massive star ran out of fuel and collapsed. The distribution of X-rays with energy suggests that SN 1957D contains a neutron star, a rapidly spinning, dense star formed when the core of pre-supernova star collapsed. This neutron star, or pulsar, may be producing a cocoon of charged particles moving at close to the speed of light known as a pulsar wind nebula.
If this interpretation is confirmed, the pulsar in SN 1957D is observed at an age of 55 years, one of the youngest pulsars ever seen. The remnant of SN 1979C in the galaxy M100 contains another candidate for the youngest pulsar, but astronomers are still unsure whether there is a black hole or a pulsar at the center of SN 1979C.
An image from the Hubble Space Telescope (in the box labeled “Optical Close-Up”) shows that the debris of the explosion that created SN 1957D is located at the edge of a star cluster less than 10 million years old.
Many of these stars are estimated to have masses about 17 times that of the Sun. This is just the right mass for a star’s evolution to result in a core-collapse supernova as is thought to be the case in SN 1957D.
These results will appear in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal. The researchers involved with this study were Knox Long (Space Telescope Science Institute), William Blair (Johns Hopkins University), Leith Godfrey (Curtin University, Australia), Kip Kuntz (Johns Hopkins), Paul Plucinsky (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), Roberto Soria (Curtin University), Christopher Stockdale (University of Oklahoma and the Australian Astronomical Observatory), Bradley Whitmore (Space Telescope Science Institute), and Frank Winkler (Middlebury College). MessageToEagle.com
EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) – People from all over El Dorado County say they’re hearing loud booms several times a week, but there are many theories on what is causing them.
“I thought it was thunder,” said one person.
“It’s definitely not thunder; too consistent. I thought it was just mining,” said another person.
“I always considered them to be sonic booms from flying aircrafts for years,” said Loring Brunius, owner of Sierra Rock Diamond Quarry.
People who live near Pleasant Valley say their days have been interrupted by loud booms, shaking the floor beneath them.
“You can feel it in the ground, no question about it. But no one’s been able to figure out why,” said Pleasant Valley resident Peter O’Grady. “I tend to hear somewhere between four to six of these things during the weekdays usually between 11 p.m. and 2 p.m.
“Boom, boom, boom, boom just like that,” said Lorren Gonzales, who lives near Pleasant Valley.
And the rolling foothills of El Dorado County make it difficult for them to even tell where it’s coming from.
We asked the owner of Sierra Rock Diamond Quarry what he knew about it. He says they havent blasted since last year. And any miners or quarry owners would need government permission before they can set off any explosives.
“It’s a federally mandated system, and enforced,” said Brunius.
Some think the booms are from nearby wineries using propane cannons to scare away birds.
“We’ve never done it and I don’t know of any other winery that does,” said Carrie Bendick, a winemaker at Holly’s Hill Winery.
According to USGS, there aren’t enough seismic stations to pinpoint the exact location. Meanwhile, some say the booms have been around so long and happen so often they barely notice them anymore. Still, others want to solve the mystery.
“I would like to know what it is, yeah. And I’d like to know when it’s going to stop too,” said O’Grady.
CBS13 spoke to Fallon Naval Air Station that said any supersonic flight operations they do are only allowed over Dixie Valley, which is hundreds of miles away.
Some think illegal mining could be the source of the sounds, but Brunius doubts that theory. He said if that was the case, the culprit would have been caught by now.
PIERRE PART — A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aircraft is expected to make back-and-forth aerial passes at 300 feet as soon as Saturday over the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou areas in an attempt to detect possible plumes of natural gas leaking from the land and water below.
The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources has hired a firm to drill a ground water observation well to test whether natural gas may be in a water aquifer underneath the same area.
And, a science advisory team has recommended a battery of tests for Texas Brine Co. LLC to conduct with the investigatory well that Texas Brine is already drilling to peer inside one of the company’s salt caverns.
Louisiana Department of Natural Resources officials detailed these and other steps during a public meeting Friday.
All are aimed at getting to the bottom of a large sinkhole that was found between Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou on Aug. 3 and prompted an ongoing mandatory evacuation of people living in about 150 homes.
DNR was one of several agencies providing an overview Friday at the parish hall of St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Pierre Part about recent developments in response to the sinkhole and the continuing natural gas releases that preceded the sinkhole by about two months.
DNR scientists think the cavern inside the Napoleonville Dome may have failed and released its brine contents, causing the sinkhole.
The 1-mile-by-3-mile dome is a large salt deposit pushed up from an ancient sea bed under the earth.
The cavern was used in solution mining for nearly three decades to produce brine for industry. In the process, the cavern was hollowed out of the salt dome with water into the shape of a narrow, upside-down vase 3,400 feet underground.
Brent Campbell, DNR Pipeline Division director, told a few hundred people in the church hall that the Office of Conservation and DNR are committed to be in the Bayou Corne area for the long haul.
“We are going to continue to provide any resources that we need to personnel so we can find the cause and try to resolve this problem,” he said.
The group also learned about other theories being considered as a possible causes of the sinkhole or natural gas releases.
Officials with the Louisiana departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Hospitals also continued to say that samples collected from the air and water in and around the sinkhole do not pose a risk to public health.
“While there are a lot of interesting things happening here, one of them is not health risk from pollution. I’d like to make that very clear and the Health Department will point that out when they come as well,” said Chris Piehler, DEQ Inspection Division administrator, adding: “Your health is not threatened from air pollution.”
Piehler noted that the agency’s equipment is sensitive and picking up a variety of chemicals but they are at very low levels, including traces of carcinogenic benzene, or are not toxic, such as natural gas.
“These are incredibly low levels. In fact, I confirmed before coming here tonight that the air quality as indicated by those samples is better than it is in Baton Rouge,” Piehler said.
But residents also received some unsettling news as well.
Michel Cernuska, 36, of Brule St. Martin, asked DNR officials what was being considered by the science advisory group to fix the cavern or its well casing if either has had a failure.
“If it’s as simple as a casing, yes (it can be fixed). If it’s a cavern fracture, failure, whatever, there’s little that you can do,” said Chris Knotts, a civil engineer with DNR who is coordinating the science group studying the sinkhole.
A low but audible rumble in the crowd followed that statement.
Cernuska also asked about the “oxymoronic” evacuation order in light of DEQ and DHH are saying people’s health is not at risk.
But Assumption parish Police Jury President Martin “Marty” Triche said parish officials are not comfortable lifting the order with so many unknowns about the cavern’s cause.
After nightfall on Friday, as red lights began glowing atop the massive Amuay refinery in western Venezuela, the odor of sulfur made its way through the surrounding neighborhood of working-class homes and small shops. Francisco Gonzalez, a stocky accountant with dark hair, noticed the smell after 7 p.m. as he climbed the stairs to his second-story apartment across the street from the refinery. He had smelled the fumes from gas leaks many times before, so he didn’t think much about it as he shut the door. Six hours later, disaster struck. A powerful explosion ripped through the neighborhood and engulfed part of the refinery in flames, killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 80 in Venezuela’s deadliest refinery blast ever. “The first thing I saw was that the apartment didn’t have windows or doors or walls, just a floor and a roof,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t know how we survived.” In the dark, the 31-year-old man made his way downstairs to the street, where he, his brother and sister-in-law joined terrified neighbors. Some were wounded. Others were shouting.
When Gonzalez looked at the back of his right hand, it was bleeding from gashes. At about 2 a.m., the halls of the hospital were filling up with wounded people. Doctors and nurses hurried to treat the most seriously hurt, while Gonzalez and others sat on the floor waiting their turn. Back at the refinery, soldiers, firefighters and state oil company workers were diving into action. Bodies were pulled from the rubble and lifted onto pickup trucks. Stella Lugo, the governor of Falcon state, went on state television to update the nation, setting the initial toll at seven people dead and 48 injured. The toll steadily rose in the next hours. When she reached the refinery at dawn, Lugo posted a photo on Twitter showing balls of fire and black smoke billowing. Other government officials went on television saying the gas leak had led to the blast and that the fire was being brought under control. President Hugo Chavez ordered an investigation and declared three days of mourning in the country. A total of 209 homes and 11 businesses were damaged in the explosion, and a National Guard post next to the refinery was destroyed, Vice President Elias Jaua said on Saturday. He said 18 of the victims were National Guard soldiers.
On Saturday night, dozens of people who had fled their homes in the neighborhood of La Pastora returned to streets covered with rubble, twisted scraps of metal and puddles of spilled fuel. Gabriela Nunez, a housewife, went back to her home to gather belongings, saying she was worried about looters who had stolen goods from nearby stores hours after the explosion. “That forced us to come back, even though we’re afraid, to save what can be saved and secure our houses,” Nunez said. More than a day after the blast, the flames were still raging on Sunday, sending up a column of dark smoke. Some oil experts and government critics were also raising questions, saying they believe there hasn’t been sufficient maintenance at refineries and that the situation could be making such incidents more likely. Refinery manager Jesus Luongo denied that, as did Chavez, who spoke to journalists near the refinery on Sunday. The president said investigators haven’t determined what caused the disaster. “Lack of maintenance? Who can, who can say that right now with any seriousness? Nobody,” Chavez said. He said he had spoken personally with some of the military officers who were on duty at the time. “They tell me that very night, in the rounds that were made a few hours earlier, no substantial leak was detected,” said Chavez, who later visited the refinery complex and attended a Mass for the victims. Amuay is among the world’s largest refineries and is part of the Paraguana Refinery Complex, which also includes the adjacent Cardon refinery. Together, the refineries process about 900,000 barrels of crude per day ad 200,000 barrels of gasoline. Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said the country has enough fuel in storage, “10 days of inventories,” to keep the Venezuelan market fully supplied. He said fires were still burning in two fuel storage tanks but that other “process areas” of the refinery were otherwise unaffected.
Once the flames are completely extinguished, Ramirez said, “we have the ability to restart our refinery in two days.” Restarting will be a challenge for Gonzalez, who picked through what remained of his family’s apartment, sweeping away debris with a broom. Broken glass littered the floor along with fragments of the shattered walls. The shop on the first floor was also destroyed, but Gonzalez and his brother and sister-in-law all survived with only minor injuries. “I’m happy to be here telling this story,” Gonzalez said, his hand covered in a bandage and with stitches on his arms. “Material things, although they cost us a great deal to obtain, aren’t worth much when you compare them with life.”
MessageToEagle.com – A new discovery suggests that a rift in the Antarctic rock as deep as the Grand Canyon is increasing ice melt from the continent.
Experts from the University of Aberdeen and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) made the discovery below Ferrigno Ice Stream, a region visited only once previously, over fifty years ago, in 1961, and one that is remote even by Antarctic standards.
Their findings, reported in Nature this week reveal that the ice-filled ancient rift basin is connected to the warming ocean which impacts upon contemporary ice flow and loss.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is of great scientific interest and societal importance as it is losing ice faster than any other part of Antarctica with some glaciers shrinking by more than one metre per year.
Understanding the processes that influence ice loss from West Antarctica is important to improve predictions of its future behaviour in a warming world.
Dr Robert Bingham, a glaciologist working in the University of Aberdeen’s School of Geosciences and lead author of the study, discovered the rift valley whilst undertaking three months of fieldwork with British Antarctic Survey in 2010.Dr Bingham, whose fieldwork was funded by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) said:“Over the last 20 years we have used satellites to monitor ice losses from Antarctica, and we have witnessed consistent and substantial ice losses from around much of its coastline.
“For some of the glaciers, including Ferrigno Ice Stream, the losses are especially pronounced, and, to understand why, we needed to acquire data about conditions beneath the ice surface.”
The team gathered the data using an ice-penetrating radar system towed behind a skidoo driven across the relatively flat ice surface, over a distance of 1500 miles — greater than that between London and Athens.
Dr Bingham continued: “What we found is that lying beneath the ice there is a large valley, parts of which are approximately a mile deeper than the surrounding landscape.
“If you stripped away all of the ice here today, you’d see a feature every bit as dramatic as the huge rift valleys you see in Africa and in size as significant as the Grand Canyon.
“This is at odds with the flat ice surface that we were driving across — without these measurements we would never have known that it was there.
“What’s particularly important is that this spectacular valley aligns perfectly with the recordings of ice-surface lowering and ice loss that we have witnessed with satellite observations over this area for the last twenty years.”
Co-author and geophysicist Dr Fausto Ferraccioli from British Antarctic Survey added: “The newly discovered Ferrigno Rift is part of a huge and yet poorly understood rift system that lies beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
The ice-margin of Ferrigno Ice Stream where it flows into Eltanin Bay.
(Credit: Photo Rob Bingham)
“What this study shows is that this ancient rift basin, and the others discovered under the ice that connect to the warming ocean can influence contemporary ice flow and may exacerbate ice losses by steering coastal changes further inland.”
Image credit: NASA
Professor David Vaughan, from British Antarctic Survey leads Ice2sea, a major EU-funded FP7 research programme to improve projections of global and regional sea-level. He said, “Thinning ice in West Antarctica is currently contributing nearly 10 per cent of global sea level rise. It’s important to understand this hot spot of change so we can make more accurate predictions for future sea level rise.”
Glossary
Rift valley: A linear-shaped lowland between highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift or fault. This action is manifest as crustal extension, a spreading apart of the surface which is subsequently further deepened by the forces of erosion.
Glacier: A ‘river of ice’ fed by the accumulation of snow. Glaciers drain ice from mountains to lower levels, where the ice either melts, breaks away into the sea as icebergs, or feeds into an ice shelf.
Ice sheet: The huge mass of ice, up to 4 km thick that covers bedrock in Antarctica or Greenland. It flows from the centre of the continent towards the coast where it feeds ice shelves.
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I need a civics lesson.
Typhoon makes landfall in Taiwan
MessageToEagle.com – Scientists have discovered a serious and unexpected loss of ozone over United States this summer.
Harvard scientists have discovered that intense summer storms can force water vapor into the dry and cold stratosphere through a process called convective injection. The presence of such water vapor, which normally stops at the tropopause (the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere), changes the threshold temperature at which ozone is destroyed by chemistry dependent on manmade chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are still present in the atmosphere despite an international ban on their use. 
Loss of ice in the Arctic threatens to release significant amounts of carbon dioxide. 
Dramatic loss of ozone in the lower stratosphere over Antarctica was first noticed in the 1970s by a research group from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) who were monitoring the atmosphere above Antarctica from a research station. Today, we learn about unexpected loss of ozone over United States.
MessageToEagle.com – Astronomers have detected X-rays from the remains of a supernova in the constellation Hydra, first seen from Earth over 50 years ago.
MessageToEagle.com – A new discovery suggests that a rift in the Antarctic rock as deep as the Grand Canyon is increasing ice melt from the continent.
The ice-margin of Ferrigno Ice Stream where it flows into Eltanin Bay.
Image credit: NASA
