The following headline out of China is one that doesn't need pictures: China questions costs of U.S. healthcare reform...
Can't find any pictures out of China showing: OBAMA'S 71 CAR MOTORCADE...
THOSE THINGS ON THE SUN WE USED TO HAVE
Close-up image of sunspot 798 on Sept. 11, 2005
Sunspot 798 on Sept. 8, 2005
A close-up of the giant sunspot 798 flaring brightly on Sept. 9, 2005National Severe Weather Map
FORGET THE NATIONAL SEVERE WEATHER MAP - YOU'LL HAVE TO CLICK THE LINK TO VIEW IT!
Crews work overnight in SE Nebraska to restore power, but thousands still without
Utility crews made progress Tuesday restoring electricity to thousands of Southeast Nebraskans who lost power in Monday's winter storm.
Up to 10 inches of snow fell in some areas near the Nebraska-Kansas border, sagging power lines and toppling poles into trees, breaking limbs and even more lines and poles, utility officials said.
Norris Public Power District in Beatrice reported about 1,500 customers without power Tuesday -- down from 4,200 Monday.
INCOMING FROM SPACE NEWS
NO PICTURES (YET)
Kansas father, son suspect meteorite landed in backyard of their Liberal home
LIBERAL, Kan. (AP) — A father and son have an extraterrestrial explanation for the strange rock that recently landed in their backyard in southwest Kansas.
They are convinced it's a meteorite.
Ten-year-old Chandler Harp was playing in the backyard of his Liberal home when he heard what sounded like an explosion about 15 feet from where he was standing. He looked over to see a plume of dirt and debris shoot 5 feet high.
At the bottom of a foot-deep hole, he found a 2-inch rock and showed it to his dad, Lee.
Once Lee Harp got a look at the metallic rock, he was certain it wasn't from this world. He says, "I knew he had a meteorite."
SINK HOLE NEWS
Dead Sea peril: sinkholes swallow up the unwary
November 17th, 2009
EIN GEDI, Israel – Eli Raz was peering into a narrow hole in the Dead Sea shore when the earth opened up and swallowed him. Fearing he would never be found alive in the 30-foot- deep pit, he scribbled his will on an old postcard.
After 14 hours a search party pulled him from the hole unhurt, and five years later the 69-year-old geologist is working to save others from a similar fate, leading an effort to map the sinkholes that are spreading on the banks of the fabled saltwater lake.
These underground craters can open up in an instant, sucking in whatever lies above and leaving the surrounding area looking like an earthquake zone.
The phenomenon, Raz said, stems from a dire water shortage, compounded in recent years by tourism and chemical industries as well as a growing population. “This is the most remarkable evidence of the brutal interference of humans in the Dead Sea,” he said.
The parched moonscape, famous as the site of biblical Sodom and Gomorra, is the lowest point on earth and runs more than 60 miles through Israel and the West Bank.
Large sections of the coast are fenced off and signposted in Hebrew and English: “danger, open pits” and “sinkhole area ahead.” But it’s too expensive to inspect every place for danger. Just two months ago an Israeli hiker wandered into an area that had no warning signs and was critically injured when he fell into a sinkhole.
While such accidents are rare, Raz says there are up to 3,000 open sinkholes along the coast and likely just as many that haven’t burst open yet. And they’re having a big impact on Israeli development plans.
The collapsing terrain has forced authorities to close a campground, date groves and a small naval base, and to scrap plans for 5,000 new hotel rooms, said Galit Cohen, director of environmental planning at the Ministry of the Environment.
The holes, also found on the Jordanian side of the sea, are the result of the Dead Sea having shrunk by a third since the 1960s when Israel and Jordan built plants to divert water flowing through its main tributary, the Jordan River.
The holes form when a subterranean salt layer that once bordered the sea is dissolved by underground fresh water that follows the receding Dead Sea waters.
The main road along the shore has been torn apart by streams whose energy is increased because they are flowing farther to reach the receding sea, and all construction along the strip between sea and highway is banned, Cohen said.
Both Israel and Jordan evaporate Dead Sea water to extract its phosphates and have built hotels along the coasts for the thousands of tourists who come in search of the curative powers of Dead Sea mud, or simply for the experience of floating unsinkably in its salt-saturated waters.
Only micro-organisms survive in the Dead Sea, but indigenous species of fish, amphibians and snails live in small nearby ponds fed by underground springs, and these could be wiped out as the Dead Sea gets smaller, Raz said.
Many of the changes are masked at the pricey resorts on the sea’s southern end, which lie on the banks of a large artificial pond built by the mineral industry. But around Ein Gedi, the kibbutz or communal farm where Raz lives, the Dead Sea’s shrinkage is evident.
Twenty-five years ago Ein Gedi built a spa by the sea. Now it’s a one-mile trolley ride from the water.
“Any visitor that’s come back for a second visit in these last 10 years would see a dramatic change,” said Gidon Bromberg, Israel director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, an advocacy group. “The sea has run away from the cliffs and it’s exposed kilometers of mud and sea floor.”
No quick solution is in sight.
The World Bank is studying a proposal to dig a canal from the Red Sea, more than 100 miles south, to replenish the Dead Sea’s waters. But with costs estimated at up to $15 billion, there’s little optimism it will happen.
Without a solution, the sea is expected to shrink to lose another third of its area over the next century.
Collapse of the Infrastructure along the Dead Sea Shores
In the last decade, hundreds of sinkholes have developed along the shores of the Dead Sea. These constitute a danger to life and property, disrupt the ongoing life in the area, and hurt development and construction. The Geological Survey and the Geophysical Institute are carrying out a joint comprehensive study aimed at understanding the geological mechanisms operating in the subsurface that are responsible for the formation of the sinkholes on the surface. Integrating field studies, aerial photographs and the data obtained from the subsurface, enable proposing a hydrogeological model for the formation of the sinkholes.
Because of the extent of the phenomenon and its destructive effect, the project focuses on methodical definition and mapping of the hazardous areas and in implementing a series of experiments (including boreholes, pumping water, hydrological observations and monitoring). Several boreholes have been drilled and a first draft of a hazard map has been prepared. Near future work includes defining the hydraulic parameters in the system as a first stage in developing preventive measures for curbing the processes |
USGS | 3.0 magnitude earthquake hit NEW MEXICO - 4 mi W from Carlsbad North, NM - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 11:53:06 AM at epicenter
http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes0.html
MAG DATE LOCAL-TIME LAT LON DEPTH LOCATION
y/m/d h:m:s deg deg km
MAP 3.0 2009/11/17 12:53:06 32.429N 104.644W 5.0 39 km (24 mi) W of Carlsbad, NM YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK EARTHQUAKE UPDATE
MAG DATE LOCAL-TIME LAT LON DEPTH LOCATION
y/m/d h:m:s deg deg km
1.2 2009/11/15 19:15:13 44.706N 110.261W 2.2 43 km (27 mi) SW of Cooke City-Silver Gate, MT
1.3 2009/11/15 08:37:11 44.707N 110.278W 2.5 44 km (27 mi) SW of Cooke City-Silver Gate, MT
http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowstone.html
Update time = Tue Nov 17 15:00:04 MST 2009
Here are the earthquakes appearing on this map, most recent at top ...
MAG DATE LOCAL-TIME LAT LON DEPTH LOCATION
y/m/d h:m:s deg deg km
0.6 2009/11/15 05:53:34 44.802N 110.775W 2.0 26 km (16 mi) S of Gardiner, MT
0.5 2009/11/14 21:41:53 44.768N 111.118W 7.8 12 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT
2.1 2009/11/14 21:14:44 44.768N 111.121W 8.0 12 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT
0.1 2009/11/14 21:13:08 44.775N 111.129W 11.2 13 km ( 8 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT
0.3 2009/11/14 18:24:16 44.773N 111.123W 9.3 12 km ( 8 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT
1.3 2009/11/14 15:01:13 44.763N 111.118W 7.4 11 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT
1.5 2009/11/14 12:40:17 44.766N 111.121W 7.7 12 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT
0.1 2009/11/14 10:39:54 44.766N 111.127W 8.6 12 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT
1.0 2009/11/14 10:36:38 44.767N 111.123W 8.2 12 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT
0.9 2009/11/14 09:46:56 44.764N 111.119W 7.7 11 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT
0.3 2009/11/14 09:46:41 44.770N 111.125W 9.0 12 km ( 8 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT
0.5 2009/11/14 09:17:34 44.072N 110.659W 6.1 44 km (28 mi) NE of Alta, WY
1.0 2009/11/14 06:12:04 44.226N 110.607W 1.8 58 km (36 mi) ENE of Warm River, ID
1.2 2009/11/14 06:03:14 44.224N 110.607W 1.6 58 km (36 mi) ENE of Warm River, ID
1.2 2009/11/14 05:57:52 44.227N 110.601W 6.6 58 km (36 mi) ENE of Warm River, ID
0.6 2009/11/14 05:56:17 44.225N 110.605W 2.2 58 km (36 mi) ENE of Warm River, ID
0.5 2009/11/14 05:54:42 44.228N 110.609W 1.6 58 km (36 mi) ENE of Warm River, ID
0.9 2009/11/14 05:49:42 44.225N 110.609W 2.3 58 km (36 mi) ENE of Warm River, ID
1.4 2009/11/14 05:43:02 44.226N 110.609W 0.5 58 km (36 mi) ENE of Warm River, ID
0.7 2009/11/14 05:25:04 44.226N 110.609W 2.1 58 km (36 mi) ENE of Warm River, ID
1.4 2009/11/13 14:23:26 44.689N 110.016W 12.9 37 km (23 mi) S of Cooke City-Silver Gate, MT
0.7 2009/11/13 14:22:46 44.692N 110.014W 13.3 37 km (23 mi) S of Cooke City-Silver Gate, MT
1.1 2009/11/13 13:23:23 44.697N 110.290W 2.2 45 km (28 mi) SW of Cooke City-Silver Gate, MT
1.5 2009/11/13 12:56:18 44.704N 110.282W 2.1 44 km (27 mi) SW of Cooke City-Silver Gate, MT
1.2 2009/11/13 12:32:47 44.693N 110.296W 2.2 46 km (28 mi) SW of Cooke City-Silver Gate, MT
1.3 2009/11/13 04:50:46 44.769N 111.261W 8.9 17 km (11 mi) NW of West Yellowstone, MT
44,000 ELECTRICAL WORKERS LAID OFF IN MEXICO!
Mexico: nationwide actions protest layoffs
Submitted by WW4 Report on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 18:33.Tens of thousands of unionists, campesinos, students, and members of grassroots organizations and left and center-left parties demonstrated in Mexico's Federal District (DF, Mexico City) and more than 20 of the country's 31 states on Nov. 11 to express solidarity with some 44,000 electrical workers laid off when President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa abruptly liquidated the government-owned Central Light and Power Company (LFC) the night of Oct. 10.
Mexico City was paralyzed as members of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), which represents the LFC workers, led marches from five different points in the city starting early in the morning of Nov. 11. Miners, telephone and transportation workers, and employees and students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), which suspended classes for the day, joined the protesters as they moved around the city, rallying at various government buildings. Adding to the disruption of traffic, protesters blocked major arteries in the states surrounding the capital. FULL STORY
COUNTERFEITING NEWS
International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition - Counterfeiting is a $600 billion-a-year problem
ATLANTA — Along with festive lights, mall Santas and Christmas tree lots, counterfeit money is becoming a hallmark of the holiday season.
Consumers and businesses should expect to see more bogus bills this time of year, said Jeffrey Gilbert, special agent in charge of the United States Secret Service Atlanta field office.
"We cannot reiterate enough how important it is to look at your money," said Gilbert. "Counterfeiting is a crime of opportunity. And it can be devastating on a business, a family, even our economy."
With the advancements in color copiers, counterfeiters are getting more creative. By bleaching the notes of $5 bills they are able to reprint them as $100 bills. These bills, printed on official U.S. Treasury paper, are passing the counterfeit pen test.
PIRATE NEWS
Somali pirates free 36 hostages, claim $3M ransom
The Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Pirates freed 36 crew members from a Spanish trawler Tuesday, and a self-proclaimed pirate said the hostage-takers were paid $3.3 million in ransom. Spain's prime minister did little to deny a payment was made — one reason the lucrative attacks are on the rise.
Shortly after being freed, the tuna boat Alakrana steamed out to sea under the protection of two Spanish warships. All 36 crew were reported to be in good health after more than six weeks in captivity.
The release came despite the fact that two Somali pirates in Spanish custody soon will stand trial for kidnapping and related charges.
A Somali villager named Ali Ahmed Salad said 12 armed pirates left the ship shortly after noon Tuesday and joined colleagues near the pirate town of Haradhere.
Ali Gab, a self-proclaimed pirate, told The Associated Press that a boat had delivered $3.3 million in ransom. Gab said pirates began leaving the ship shortly afterward, and that a Spanish warship nearby watched the proceedings.
The EU Naval Force said the Alakrana had made its way to the open sea late Tuesday, accompanied by two Spanish warships.
"Alakrana stated in her call that all the pirates had disembarked the ship and that she had sufficient fuel," the force said in a statement. "The captain also reported that the crew of 36 were in good health."
In Spain, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was evasive when asked if the government had taken part in payment of a ransom. "The government did what it had to do," he told a news conference in Madrid after talks with the president of Hungary.
"The important thing is that the sailors will be back with us," Zapatero said. "The first obligation of a country, of the government of a state, is to save the lives of its countrymen."
Obama urges Congress to put off Fort Hood probe
President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead.
Libby’s Warns of a Canned Pumpkin Shortage
November 17, 2009 - As if preparing for Thanksgiving wasn’t stressful enough for cooks, now comes this news: there is likely to be a canned pumpkin shortage.Nestlé, whose Libby brand is far and away the nation’s most popular canned pumpkin, announced today that it might not have enough pumpkin for your pie.
“Our calculations indicate that we may deplete our inventory of canned Libby’s pumpkin as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday,” said Paul Bakus, vice president for Nestlé’s baking division.
Heavy rains in the Midwestern states where most commercial pumpkins are grown have caused the problem. Soggy fields have made it difficult for farmers to get harvesting equipment to the pumpkins. As a result, the harvest, which usually begins in the Midwestern pumpkin fields in August, was late in coming. Acres of pumpkins sit still unharvested in Morton, Ill., which the company calls the “pumpkin capital of the world.” Fungus is a big problem, so it is likely many of those pumpkins will be plowed under.
Because supply was already down from 2008’s lousy pumpkin harvest, there isn’t much back stock.
But what’s bad news for commercial growers in the Midwest has been good news for organic pumpkin concerns on the West Coast. Organic pumpkin makes up only about 3 or 4 percent of the overall canned pumpkin market, but in Oregon the crop was so good that organic pumpkins are able to fill at least a little of the gap left by the Libby shortage.
These remarkable fish have adapted their gills to hold water when out of the sea and have turned their pectoral fins into walking aids in order to live on mud flats. They are able to excavate underground burrows, where they lay their eggs, and can even jump into the air to help attract a mate.
Where to spot them
Mudskippers can be found in tropical, subtropical and temperate region with tidal mud flats, including the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Africa. In BBC One's Life, they were filmed in Saga, Japan.
SOME MUDSKIPPERS CAN GROW TO A VERY BIG SIZE:
My news blog: The CavePublished Version of my News Updates: Surviving the Revolution and Earthchanges
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