The Rooster
"Okeydoke"
Sunday, April 04, 2010
If you felt the quake the USGS wants to know. (click title here - thank you_
Huge parts of Antarctic and Arctic ice have already melted. Key Antarctic glaciers (Hektoria, Green and Evans for example) increased their melting rate 8 times in 3 years (between 2000 and 2003, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L18401). ...
Energy of earthquakes systematically increases. The graph on the left depicts the annual quake energy since record begun in 1973, computed on the basis of USGS scientific data from all quakes above 4.0 magnitude since 1973. The data is compared (scaled) to 1973 quake energy. The energy of earthuakes 7.0 and above increased 6 times in the same period...
The North American Plate is not stable. (click here) It has increased dynamics compared to any other tectonic areas on Earth. It has undergone isostatic rebound due to the loss of its ice anchor in the Arctic Ocean. I doubt if the seismic activity will stop and it is my estimation, due to its mass the other plates are 'in reaction' to it. It is only prudent Haiti be aware of potential activity.
Sincerest concern for all those in Southern California, as if California needed anything else to add to its already stressed fiscal status.
Magnitude 2.7
PUERTO RICO REGION
2010 April 03 16:35:10 UTC
Magnitude 3.2
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING
2010 April 04 03:15:52 UTC
Magnitude 4.1
OFFSHORE OAXACA, MEXICO
2010 April 04 05:17:32 UTC
Magnitude 4.7
OFFSHORE CHIAPAS, MEXICO
2010 April 04 12:15:01 UTC
Magnitude 7.2
BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
2010 April 04 22:40:40 UTC
Magnitude 2.8
CENTRAL ALASKA
2010 April 04 23:48:14 UTC
In 2006, Tiger Woods took the lead on promoting drug testing for golf.
Perhaps is it that form of leadership that should be the focus of his return to the sport.
Tiger Woods chats with Jim Furyk at the Augusta National Golf Club. Photo: AP
The final flights of the American owned Shuttle Discovery.
April 10, 2010
16:31:43z
UNISYS Visual Southeast USA Satellite
Hm. A lot happens in twelve hours.
April 4, 2010
15:30:13z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop)
April 4, 2010
03:30:15 z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite
NASA astronauts are readying for the launch (click title to entry - thank you) of shuttle Discovery on Monday to deliver supplies and science experiments to the International Space Station. It is one of the final four missions planned for the shuttle fleet.
NASA officials say the three-day launch countdown began Friday for the launch of Discovery and its crew of seven astronauts.
Shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters says weather conditions should be good for the launch early Monday. She says the launch will occur shortly before the sun rises and casts sunlight on the rising shuttle and the smoke plume....
...The Discovery astronauts (click here) also plan to deliver spare parts for the station's water recycling system in an ongoing effort to work the bugs out of the complex life support equipment before the shuttle's retirement later this year.
"We didn't really know how to design this hardware at the beginning," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's chief of space operations. "We did as good as we could and now we're actually working those bugs out. This is important for us to have the shuttle around for these couple of flights so we can get the water systems and the life support systems up and operating."
Mission managers cleared Discovery for launch after deciding a failed helium isolation valve in the ship's right-side aft rocket pod posed no significant threat to crew safety or meeting the flight's objectives. Likewise, a review showed suspect ceramic inserts around critical bolts were unlikely to shake free and pose an impact threat during launch or re-entry.
With Discovery ready to go, spacewalker Clay Anderson, veteran of a long-duration stay aboard the station in 2007, said the crew was anxious to get on with a complex mission....
...The odds are astronomical (click here), said Tom Petersen — and the Hudson’s Bay teacher wasn’t going for an easy pun.
Petersen knows two of the astronauts who will be aboard the space shuttle Discovery when it blasts off from the Kennedy Space Center early Monday morning.
Petersen taught with Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger during her five-year tenure at Hudson’s Bay High School, and they also coached cross country and track together....
...But Metcalf-Lindenburger is not his only link to the NASA shuttle mission. Petersen went to a small college in Nebraska with Clay Anderson, who will be making his second trip to the International Space Station.
“We both graduated from Hastings College in 1981,” Petersen said.
Petersen and Anderson shared the college’s “Bronco Award,” given annually to outstanding seniors. Petersen said he got his share of the award through campus involvement — “ASB-type things.” Anderson was a multisport athlete....
Karzai is in no position to play bait and switch.
His government has a sincere legitimacy issue and there are other countries that are looking at the Afghan-Pakistan region as a source of violence in their countries. He is setting his country up for bombs and not peace with the international community. The corruption cannot sustain.
His 'idea' that International Regulations in Afghanistan will give opportunity to the Taliban is a flat out lie and he knows it.
The USA has the RIGHT to control the currency it brings into the country through its military. The Karzai Korruption will not use USA assets for its corrosive policies. If Afghans want to kill each other and stay 'high' from morning to night they have that right, but, when they cause chaos in other countries it is as good as declaring war.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai
His 'idea' that International Regulations in Afghanistan will give opportunity to the Taliban is a flat out lie and he knows it.
The USA has the RIGHT to control the currency it brings into the country through its military. The Karzai Korruption will not use USA assets for its corrosive policies. If Afghans want to kill each other and stay 'high' from morning to night they have that right, but, when they cause chaos in other countries it is as good as declaring war.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai
The UN has to place 'proximity' areas in aquatic locations.
Reef pilots debate has a long history (click here)
AAP, The West Australian
April 4, 2010, 2:00 pm
April 4, 2010, 2:00 pm
When bulk coal carrier Shen Neng 1 ran aground on a shoal in Great Barrier Reef waters on Saturday it did not have a marine pilot aboard to guide it through.
The vessel grounded on a reef 15 kilometres from the shipping channel it was supposed to traverse.
The incident has again sparked debate over whether pilots should be compulsory on vessels traversing the passage between the outer reef and the Queensland coastline.
It's a debate that has gone on for decades.
A near-identical incident in 2000 saw a Malaysian-flagged container ship run aground on Sudbury Reef off Cairns.
On November 2, 2000 the Bunga Teratai Satu ploughed into Sudbury Reef at full speed, its bow penetrating 100 metres onto the coral.
The ship was refloated, without spilling fuel or cargo, on November 14, 2000.
The incident again sparked media debate about the need for pilots on the large freighters which traverse the waters of the inner reef.
The official report into the grounding, by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, noted that "a detailed study of pilotage in the inner route of the Great Barrier Reef is currently being undertaken jointly by AMSA and the Queensland Department of Transport"....
Pleasure boats that are sailing vessels and don't have toxic substances aboard don't have limits.
This was completely avoidable. Shipping lanes have to be established near the protected areas, especially considering this is a substantial carbon sink.
Oil operations need to be dispatched immediately to being to secure the oil from the reef. In addition to proximity limits there also has to be an 'early warning' system, in that, as soon as a Captain detects any peril to these areas it is reported and corrective action can be taken ahead of any disaster.
I realize ship Captains are responsible for their cargo, but, to some extent the shipping companies need to have 'at the ready' funding to dispatch 'avoidant measures' in instances when their cargo are destined for sensitive areas. There has to be disincentives for this kind of idiocy.
The Chinese carrier Shen Neng 1 ran aground and was leaking oil around the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 4, 2010
Filed at 2:40 a.m. ETBRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- A coal-carrying ship that ran aground and was leaking oil on Australia's Great Barrier Reef was in danger of breaking apart, officials said Sunday.
The Chinese coal carrier Shen Neng 1 ran aground late Saturday on Douglas Shoals, a favorite pristine haunt for recreational fishing east of the Great Keppel Island tourist resort. The shoals are in a protected part of the reef where shipping is restricted by environmental law off the coast of Queensland state in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Authorities fear an oil spill will damage the world's largest coral reef off northeast Australia, listed as a World Heritage site for its environmental value.
The ship hit the reef at full speed, nine miles (15 kilometers) outside the shipping lane, State Premier Anna Bligh said.
A police boat was standing by to remove the 23 crew if the ship broke apart and an evacuation was necessary, she said.
Patches of oil were seen near the stricken ship early Sunday, but Maritime Safety Queensland reported no major loss from the 1,000 tons (950 metric tons) of oil on board.
''We are now very worried we might see further oil discharged from this ship,'' Bligh told reporters.
Maritime Safety Queensland general manager Patrick Quirk said the vessel was badly damaged on its port side....
Pay the Afghans in Electronic Funds - ID Credit Cards
Set up PX where Afghans can use electronic funds that show their ID with a photo and provide goods for them as well.
PX to have 'security' component even if that means sniffer dogs, magnetic gates and check points.
No children allowed, adult only admission to purchase goods. Provide a donkey parking lot where they are security checked as well. Manure detail can take the product for sale as fertilizer with electronic transaction. The electronic 'stations' where merchants carry out transactions cannot be portable.
Transaction records can be stored online without paper receipts. No cash can be entered into the system except those provided through the USA military. No cash can be withdrawn. Any currency can be deposited into the system at secure military instillation. All currency, foreign or otherwise to be deposited into USA military account outside of country and paper and coin currency removed from the country.
With a minimum of sustained deposit, the Afghans can open their own 'Wall Street' to invest in their country. They can begin to place value on the way national improvements make them money. They are required to illustrate through online record that they and their families are eating, clothed and being kept warm if they choose to invest.
Make the transactions all in USA dollar exchanges for the sake of ease and stability of deposit. Even 'micro-loans' can be obtained and managed through this process.
More than picture ID, thumb print and/or retinal scan. They are used to thinking about 'purple fingers,' well thumb print on all transactions are the same thing.
They can even register votes on the same system in any election. I would consider 'secure stations' a better idea than running vulnerable land lines.
PX to have 'security' component even if that means sniffer dogs, magnetic gates and check points.
No children allowed, adult only admission to purchase goods. Provide a donkey parking lot where they are security checked as well. Manure detail can take the product for sale as fertilizer with electronic transaction. The electronic 'stations' where merchants carry out transactions cannot be portable.
Transaction records can be stored online without paper receipts. No cash can be entered into the system except those provided through the USA military. No cash can be withdrawn. Any currency can be deposited into the system at secure military instillation. All currency, foreign or otherwise to be deposited into USA military account outside of country and paper and coin currency removed from the country.
With a minimum of sustained deposit, the Afghans can open their own 'Wall Street' to invest in their country. They can begin to place value on the way national improvements make them money. They are required to illustrate through online record that they and their families are eating, clothed and being kept warm if they choose to invest.
Make the transactions all in USA dollar exchanges for the sake of ease and stability of deposit. Even 'micro-loans' can be obtained and managed through this process.
More than picture ID, thumb print and/or retinal scan. They are used to thinking about 'purple fingers,' well thumb print on all transactions are the same thing.
They can even register votes on the same system in any election. I would consider 'secure stations' a better idea than running vulnerable land lines.
...The approach helped turn the tide of insurgency in Iraq. But in Marja, where the Taliban seem to know everything — and most of the time it is impossible to even tell who they are — they have already found ways to thwart the strategy in many places, including killing or beating some who take the Marines’ money, or pocketing it themselves.
Just a few weeks since the start of the operation here, the Taliban have “reseized control and the momentum in a lot of ways” in northern Marja, Maj. James Coffman, civil affairs leader for the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, said in an interview in late March. “We have to change tactics to get the locals back on our side....
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