Not all at Scott Base is snow. This is a seal that lives under and on the ice. Click the title to entry to view other animals that visit the scientists at Scott Base.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is cold. Not real cold, but, cold.
Not all at Scott Base is snow. This is a seal that lives under and on the ice. Click the title to entry to view other animals that visit the scientists at Scott Base.
Location of Lake Chatuge. It spans two states. It is huge. There is a lot "W"rong here. A lot of water evaporated. A lot.
Lake Chatuge before drought (click here)
October 23, 2007
Hiawassee, Georgia
Same location of photo below
October 23, 2007
Hiawassee, Georgia
Photographer states :: North Georgia is experiencing a major drought. These first couple are of Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee. The water levels are below the reach of most floating docks....It has been raining in the North Georgia Mountains for 36 hours, however, it is light and will not help much in the long term...
No relief yet, but, interesting dynamics are taking shape. (click here for 12 hour loop)
October 23, 2007
2330z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES West
There is a continental vortex forming. Better seen in the loop to the hemispheric water vapor.
The tropical storm is dissipated for the most part, except there is a migrating air mass traveling to the west from the tropical storm. It doesn't seem like much right now, but, it could become a larger storm if it can establish a water vapor source to support it.
What good will that do?
It could establish a heat transfer storm. It won't have direct effect in the way of delivering rain, but, a heat transfer would slow the winds to the coastal area of Southern California.
Under these intense Human Induced Global Warming dynamics I have never known a continental vortex to dissipate. Once it forms it continues to build as they are ionic upper tropospheric storms. There is hope for rain if that vortex enlarges it's dynamics and possibly delivers some relief to the area now in flames in Southern California.
Other than those two dynamics, I don't see anything I would call relief for the area on fire.
Did George Walker Bush say the word "DROUGHT" when he came out of his DC 'chambers' to speak of Emergency Measures? I didn't think he did.
Larger image of one below
1:55 PM U.S. Pacific Daylight Time
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, wildfires ignited in the paper-dry, drought-stricken vegetation of Southern California over the weekend of October 20, 2007, and exploded into massive infernos that forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their communities. Driven by Santa Ana winds, fires grew thousands of acres in just one to two days. The fires sped down from the mountains into the outskirts of coastal cities, including San Diego. Dozens of homes have burned to the ground, and at least one person has died, according to local news reports. Several of the fires were burning completely out of control as of October 22.
Does Turkey want a war or what? You know the circumstance in Northern Iraq isn't simple.
While most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, the guerrillas reject Islamic fundamentalism. Instead, they trace their roots to a Marxist past and still espouse what they call "scientific socialism" and promote women's rights.
In Iraq, Conflict Simmers on a 2nd Kurdish Front (click here)
...Yet out of the public eye, a chillingly similar battle has been under way on the Iraqi border with Iran. Kurdish guerrillas ambush and kill Iranian forces and retreat to their hide-outs in Iraq. The Americans offer Iran little sympathy. Tehran even says Washington aids the Iranian guerrillas, a charge the United States denies. True or not, that conflict, like the Turkish one, has explosive potential....
WHILE ON THE Eastern border of Northern Iraq the Kurds are viewed as a threat to Turkey, AT THE VERY SAME TIME, they are viewed as insurgents in Iran to the western border. Can the USA make up it's mind? No. Because Bush turned loose Pandora's Box and what do we know about this type of leadership? They are incompetent. They want money out of the deal so they literally allow anarchy otherwise. Bush was never interested in the people of Iraq. That IS his excuse now no different than protection of the American people were an excuse in March of 2003.
I don't care of a Kurd calls themselves PKK or not. This is a nation of people under seige for most of their lives. The best break they ever had was "The Norhtern No Fly Zone' where they established a democracy, admired the values of the USA and it's freedom and organized a government. The Kurds are ready to be their own nation. The issue is not that they can't defend their borders, they can. Easily, to the tune of being called terrorists. The problem is they want to unite ALL KURDS into a nation that would include parts of Turkey and Iran.
That's the issue. This is NOT about terrorism. It's about sovereignty and the right of Kurds to be united and be a nation. That is what is at the heart of these conflicts. The reason they are given such a rough time to achieve that is because it would cause issues with sovereignty of Iran and Turkey. So, why not make the northern Province of Iraq into a Kurdistan province and leave them alone? Why? Because Turkey would love to have the national assets in that territory under their control and destroy any right to the people there to have their own soveriegn authority.
Turkey is wrong on all counts in this issue except for it's sovereign right to protect it's borders. End of discussion.
I'll tell you how stupid this mess has gotten...in an article in RIA Novosti last week the Russian President, in an attempt to contain the Bush potential to expand the Iraq war into surrounding nations, criticized the fact there are now three provinces allowed in the Iraq Constitution. That provision has been there for well over two years now. The provinces are taking up their own border controls, building walls and all sorts of preparedness including accepting their militias as an opportunity to stability.
President Putin is right in that the more division there is within a country the more opportunity for civil war. That is classic textbook theory. He's right. Under normal circumstances a nation divided is going to be incredibly unstable. That is not the case in Iraq. Iraq is the 'hub' of Islamic fundamentalism. There are too many 'powers' (not spiritual either) at play in Iraq to consider a single sovereign government a potential to stability. Too many factions, too many fears, too many human rights abuses and they are all pointing fingers at each other as a threat to SURVIVAL.
The civil war in Iraq is not about economics or power struggles for politics. We would love a political solution for them, but, it isn't going to happen.
Iraq is about fear. It's about losing religion. It is about how strong the Shia can be as a nation of 'people' and NOT laws to protect their very existance on Earth. The Shia are granted the 'right' to fear because of the damage of their religious lineage over decades of Western pandering to Sunni leaders to the sake of oil.
Iraq needs to have autonomy in their provinces so the people feel safe. It's got to happen. There is no way for the Central Governing Authority within Iraq to be established so long as there is overwhelming fear of them. In listening to Iraqi leadership in Baghdad speak today, they have finally come to grips with that fear and are listening and attempting to instill a 'quiet' among their people. All their people. We have to allow the people of Iraq to be separate while sharing national assets. There is only one way to do that and that is to provide them separate provinces and a central authority. Trying now to reverse that won't work, not under the best of 'textbook' conditions.
The people of the USA aren't going to allow Bush to expand his war. The USA troops have to come out of Iraq. There is no way they can stay there and provide a peace for that nation. There is too much 'fire power' within a country the size of Texas to think there will ever be a calm. No way. The munitions have to come out of that country and it should happen as soon as possible. So long as the USA is in Iraq, there will be cooperation by Iran with Shi'ites in the way of arms and humanitarian needs to prevent a spill over into their nation from Iraq.
Do you realize the size of the refugee movement there would be into Iran if it weren't actively involved in Iraq? Do you know how much more destabilizing it would be. The USA has to leave Iraq in order to stop the war. It's never going to stop otherwise. Believe it or not, the politics of Bush and Cheney and Rice about Iran harness the fear of the nuclear reactor. Iran is doing the right thing in Iraq otherwise they would be fighting the American war within their country as well.
The nuclear reactor won't be consented to be dismantled as with North Korea until Iran feels it doesn't now have the same threat facing it. South Korea doesn't have a nuclear weapon. Neither does Japan. However, Israel does and Olmert already stated it. The entire dynamics in the Middle East is so screwed up, it's unbelievable. Israel can't give up it's nuclear potential because of nations such as Pakistan. It's a mess and the ONLY way to a lasting peace is to engage the nations of the region in summits leading to peace and ultimately disarmament. Bush and the Republicans aren't capable of that. Their electorate only sees destruction of Islam the viable solution to American National Security. It's hideous. Islam is not the enemy, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda are and the USA isn't even in Afghanistan anymore.
No, Vladimir Putin is NOT right in demanding ONLY a 'one government' strategy in Iraq no matter the textbook correctness of it all. It won't work, except to keep the killing and destructive USA depleted within Iraq. To THAT end it is a solution, but, to a stable region WITHOUT genocide of the Shia it is not a solution.
Turkey needs to stay in Turkey. End of Discussion !!!! The Kurds need a homeland in northern Iraq and the Shia need to stop being killed. Iran needs to dismantle it's nuclear reactor and the stronger the sanctions so the people of Iran feel it everyday in their lives the sooner they will return to moderate and reasonable leadership.
LOADED UP: Turkish troops in Cizre head toward the Iraqi border. Turkey threatened to launch an offensive after 12 of its soldiers were killed by Kurdish separatists over the weekend.
PKK says it will stop cross-border attacks from northern Iraq if Ankara drops threats of an offensive there.
250,000 Evacuated - GOOD ! Thank you. The Governor is doing the right thing. National Guard Deployment ! Outstanding !
October 22, 2007
Fall Creek State Park, Tennessee
Photographer states :: 2007 drought in the southeastern U.S. has seriously lowered water levels in streams and lakes. Forests are extremely dry. Fall colors are greatly reduced.
This is from The Atlanta Journal Consitution:
Feds must help us to weather drought (click here)
By SAM OLENSPublished on: 10/23/07
Someone has pulled the stopper from the bathtub and all the water is draining out!
Metro Atlanta and North Georgia, as well as most of the Southeast, is in the grip of what may prove to be the worst drought on record. At the same time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is releasing extreme amounts of water from Lake Lanier — our region's key water supply source — to enhance the habitat of two species of mussels and to keep a small coal-fired power plant in operation....
Everyone knows about the drought in Atlanta? No joke. People are going to have tankers of water trucked in before too much longer. No one in the federal government gives a hoot. NO ONE. They should have been building desaliation plants a decade ago. Are they yet? It's not going to get better. Did you understand those words? It's NOT going to get better. The USA is profoundly dry under a thick blanket of CO2 and it's only increasing. That drought is not stopping. Ten hurricanes at this point won't stop it and there is no water vapor to support those hurricanes to happen anyway. Wake up. I have to say it? Really?
October 22, 2007
Irvine, California
Photographer states :: A fire east of Irvine produced major air polution
Smoke kills, okay? Ever hear of smoke inhalation? It's not a matter of a 'Bad Fog Day.' I mean I have to be this insulting? You can't protect your house, you can protect your lives.
I'll tell you something, this is more than just a news item. These are people's lives disaffected by government negligence for decades of allowing an oil greedy upper class to dominate the discussion on energy and transportation. These are NOT, I repeat NOT normal Santa Anna winds. No way. The troposphere over the USA is dry and continues to increase in drought conditions.
Politicians that don't care will come to a scene after the tragedy occurs seeking photo ops with residents as if to say, "I am here now." So what! Where were they THEN? Responding to emergencies of a nation is a Republican Specialty. They wean the American people off a supportive government structure, send their National Guard into combat and then show up when the going gets tough to sympathize. Who needs it? There is such a thing as quality of life. THAT is what Americans need to get used to again and not the Bushs and Giulianis of the world ! Time to come home America. You haven't had enough of government abuse yet?
...According to reports the wildfires which are near the Santa Ana desert continue to put thousands of homes at risk of being destroyed....(click here)
Condition of the Nation - Neglected - Deregulation - No Consumer Protections - I'm tired of this Republican Mess - NOT MADE IN CHINA
A retailer tried to distance itself from the Topps Meat scare over the summer that resulted in nearly 22 million pounds of beef being recalled.
They don't care about people ! The federal legislation has the best health insurance on Earth and they don't care whether there are deaths in this nation or not. We are a smart bunch. Smart enough to know when one citizens goes down you raise voices in opposition and make manufacturers dance on the head of a pin.
When is the USA going BACK to consumer protection and PREVENTING tragedy? This is hideous. I have never seen this country in this poor a condition.
It's a darn shame. There was a reason for the regulations in the first place. I am tired of hearing how Democrats make it impossible to make money. I guess so, especially when it saves lives, property, aesthetics of living, provides health and education thats envied by the world and an environmentally safe world including federal budgets that exceed expectations.
It's time to kick 'em out. People are literally sick of corporations taking advantage of them and allowing suffering on all fronts of American lives. Food supplies, water supplies, toys for children, bankruptcy, a melting world and wars.
Get me out of this mad house ! The country doesn't make sense anymore. All the USA is about is "Every man for himself." Greed at any cost and in any manner.
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