New York City and NORAD have a problem.

September 25, 2011
The NYPD began fitting police helicopters (click here) with heavy machine guns to shoot down terrorist airplanes about five years ago, after intelligence surfaced that al-Qaida was considering the use of crop dusters and other small craft for attacks, a senior city law enforcement official said Monday.
But while police officers have been trained to use helicopter-mounted .50-caliber machine guns against light planes, there was no intention to take down commercial passenger jets with such weaponry, said the official, who asked not to be identified....

There have been regular reports of drone helicopters interfering with the flight path of commercial aviation. These drones sound very similar to the fly overs of France's nuclear power plants. I don't really believe in coincidence, until it is absolutely known as coincidence.

December 30, 2013

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Aviation Administration (click here) selected Central New York today as one of six national test sites where researchers will figure out how to integrate drone aircraft into the national air space.

NUAIR, an alliance of more than 40 public, private and academic organizations in New York and Massachusetts, was named by the FAA to operate the only Northeast test site, according to the office of U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer.

NUAIR beat out more than 50 applicants nationwide, and had been among 25 finalists before today's decision. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta confirmed the selection in an 11 a.m. conference call....

The reported drones have been noted to be at altitudes of 3000 and 4000 feet. Helicopters can fly that high to take down any drone causing problems with commercial carriers.

August 12, 2014

Drones may soon be buzzing near Batavia. (click here)

An announcement last week that researchers will soon fly a lightweight, self-guided drone over a farm near Batavia revealed that a federally backed project to test unmanned aircraft could reach farther into western New York than originally expected.

The flight in Genesee County will be the first overseen by operators of a drone testing program based out of Griffiss International Airport in Rome, Oneida County. It's one of only six sites in the U.S. where the Federal Aviation Administration said earlier this year it will allow tests to help regulators develop rules for pilotless aircraft to share the sky with traditional planes....

These are the LEGAL use of drones know to be active in the area of NYC. Could the drones in commercial aviation air space be the testing of drones? Maybe. But, it seems to me it also could be someone who knows how to operate these drones at high altitudes. At any rate, they have become a concern now of at least three commercial pilots.

Let's not set up commercial pilots to react quickly to possible drone dangers and cause injuries to passengers.

At the very least, no one is coordinating these flights with drone flights. That will be lesson number one. 

Kindly get this right. 

Contact all the researchers involved with drones in the area and ask for THE FLIGHT LOGS of the drones and their operators. Then determine if these are the drones in question or are they drones that can actually cause harm. 

Government helicopters, more like NORAD though, can fly at 3 to 4 to 5000 feet in altitude without any trouble. A helicopter with a gun can shoot them down. No missiles please. No shooting near commercial aircraft. At the time the intercepting helicopter is in the air, it's pilot needs to be in radio contact with the airliner's pilot(s) experiencing the problem with a drone.

Thank you. Holidays are coming. Lots of people flying all over the country. It would be nice if pilots had peace of mind and passengers were safe.

Where is the apology for President Obama from Speaker Boner?

The Republicans make me laugh when those in the US House state, if we didn't legislate then there wasn't a problem.

Really?

So, then the President and his DIRECTIONS are nothing, too.

Everyone in the country knows the Republicans are out of control and completely disinterested in governing. It is obvious. Credit rating drops, chronic fights over funding the government. When it is finally funded it sinks the USA military. Now there are those that enlisted and wanted a career being told they have to leave because there isn't enough funding for them to stay. The US House rather support hideous spending on military hardware than a ready force of great men and women.

The President has clout. If the Congress can't honor that it says more about them than they would ever expect.

Oh, by the way, where is Speaker Boner's apology from his insulting tone when he stated a veto would call the American people stupid. Where is the apology?

The entire country voted President Obama into office twice. It was only a district in Ohio that send Speaker Boner to the US House. The President deserves an apology and now.

Will President Obama's Executive Order meet the challenge of suppressing moral turpitude?

...Written opinions (click here) from the federal Board of Immigration Appeals (B.I.A.) describe moral turpitude as a “nebulous concept,” and one that “refers generally to conduct that shocks the public conscience as being inherently base, vile, or depraved, contrary to the rules of morality and the duties owed between man and man, either one's fellow man or society in general.” The person committing it should have had either an “evil intent” or been acting recklessly.

This collection of words seems to point to a highly subjective determination— if the immigration official or judge thinks the crime sounds morally wrong, or perhaps mean and nasty, it’s probably a crime of moral turpitude....

Maintaining 'good character' is a requirement for immigration to the USA. To realize millions of people will be brought into the fold so to speak, they need to be aware of the fact the USA demands high moral character to obtain citizenship or even continue the right to a Green Card.

I am excited about this announcement tomorrow. I hope it all goes well.

November 17, 2014

President Barack Obama (click here) and his Republican opponents are engaged in yet another fight over his use of executive orders, but the use of this powerful presidential tool is hardly new....

...The constitutional base for the executive order is the president’s broad power to issue executive directives. According to the Congressional Research Service, there is no direct “definition of executive orders, presidential memoranda, and proclamations in the U.S. Constitution, there is, likewise, no specific provision authorizing their issuance.”...

I heard the comments by Scott Walker. He is such a joke. Quite the showman, but, no brain to match. He stated this was an issue of "Division of Powers." No clue. Does know what that means? I don't think he does. He may even be a real dolt.

Walker seems to think the Legislative Branch has a laundry list of rights to legislation and there is a much, much shorter laundry list of rights to an executive order by the President.

I don't know if I should let him wallow in his own idiocy or actually straighten out the mess.

He is right it is a separation of branches of the government, however, it means the legislature has no Executive Power and the Executive Branch has no legislative power.

The permission for Canadian tar sands in any way is a profound lack of good governance. I might add good governance that should have begun 40 or more years ago. The Democrats have to call the Republicans on their lies and manipulation. Denying a warming climate is dishonest and completely out of step with all authorities that investigate climate.

When Republicans cherry pick information supplied to the American people, it is like calling the American people gullible. In that is the fact Republicans regard political manipulation of the truth their entitlement.

When Democrats are facing such issues, they need to speak the entire truth to the American electorate. 

In the case of climate, the verdict is in on that and it cannot be treated as a political issue.

The brain trust, including any of the USA agencies, have already prepared and supplied all the information needed for the USA federal government as well as any other level of government; there is nothing to debate. The overwhelming information is conclusive. This is not a social issue. This is about the well being of the American people, their economy, the national debt and the future of generations. There isn't anything else to do and there isn't any reason to continue the politics of climate. That is finished.

The USA military has also ruled on the climate and has declared the climate to be a matter of national security. Their conclusions are proving to be very true as we have witnessed this in the Middle East with vast drought, unproductive farmlands and diminishing sources of water. 

The war in Syria and Iraq is as much about water as any religious and ethnic bigotry. The ONLY reason I state that is because the Islamic State methodically took up residence along rivers. They knew full well that drying up the sources of water would kill others. They learned that as Ba'athists under Saddam when he dried up the Shi'ite wetlands in Iraq. 

The leaders of the USA cannot over look the impact of climate on the country. In doing so it will cause more problems than it will solve and people, including children, will die.

The politics spawned by the Koch brothers is cruel because their values are ignorant to anything other than profits. If they didn't turn up at every environmental crisis, including drilling and mining, I could never make those statements. They are ignorant and the politicians that they buy through elections are corrupt. Ignorance and corruption make for disastrous decision making. The lack of moral character of those elected has to enter into any equation.

There is absolutely no proof that supports Republicans politicization of climate. There is only corruption that supports it. The American people want an economy based in corruption? I don't think so.

By the USA contributing to the problem doesn't make it go away.

FACT #4: The Alberta tar sands (click here) are holding Canada back on climate change action. Canada would be on track to reduce climate pollution over the next decade if not for the planned expansion of the tar sands industry. Instead Canadian emissions are predicted to increase.⁴

FACT #5: The toxic tailing lakes are considered one of the largest human-made structures in the world. The toxic lakes in Northern Alberta span 176 square kilometers and can be seen from space.

FACT #6: Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil. In 2004, oil sands production surpassed 160 000 cubic metres (one million barrels) per day; by 2015, oil sands production is expected to more than double to about 340 000 cubic metres (2.2 million barrels) per day.

Fuel sources are currently evaluated by most environmental organizations, including the EPA, within a lifetime process. Oil Sands from harvest to burning far exceeds that of other forms of energy.

What are corrosion pits?
Corrosion pits are very localized corrosion defects, or small ‘pits’ in the metal of the pipe. Pitting corrosion, unchecked, can result in a pipeline leaking. Operators have criteria to assess pits. Canadian codes require pits to be repaired when they reach 80% of the wall thickness. European codes allow up to 85%. In-lineinspection tools (known as intelligent pigs - see below) are used to detect pits and/or cracks.

What causes leaks and ruptures?
Internal corrosion, external corrosion, external intervention (for example: hit by a truck or back-hoe), soil displacement such as landslides, material defects, and system malfunctions (for example: operating over design pressure) can cause leaks and ruptures.
Based on incidents reported to the National Energy Board, the majority of leaks are related to pump stations and valves, rather than the body of the pipeline. In general, corrosion accounts for about 20% to 30% of pipeline leaks.

The United States of America have standards regarding carbon emissions. The Canadian Tar Sands vastly fails those standards regardless of how it is transported. The reason the USA will never use any of the Canadian Tar Sands is because of the high carbon ratio to the that of other fuels. That is why our land is being used a gateway to Texas refineries and exportation to the rest of the world.

The answer is, No. We don't pander to greed while allowing the climate consequences of dirty oil, including the inevitable oil spill of our farmland, prairie lands and water sources. Cherry picking particular areas of the Canadian Tar Sands oil is corruption. There is a process every drop of Canadian Tar Sands goes through and it far exceeds any CO2 allowed from CAFE standards of the USA. So, if tar sands oil were coming out of the tailpipe of American cars the outcome for the climate would be far more dangerous in accelerating degradation of the troposphere.

August 10, 2014
By Bobby McGill
...A new study (click here) published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change says the State Department may have underestimated the pipeline’s CO2 emissions by as much as four times. That’s because the consumer demand for oil will rise as new crude oil coming on the market from of Keystone XL will drive global prices down, the study says.

In other words, the more oil Keystone XL pumps, the more oil people will want to burn.

Peter Erickson and Michael Lazarus, both researchers at the Stockholm Environmental Institute, a research affiliate of Tufts University, said in their study that the State Department did not account for an increase in crude oil demand sparked by Keystone XL.

“The most important difference between our analysis and the State Department’s is that we consider the price effects of adding oil supply (in this case, Canadian oil sands) to global markets,” Erickson said via email....

Estimating jobs and emissions is not the same thing, although the Republicans would like it to be. Again, corruption for wealth.

This study validates AGAIN 'the lifetime carbon emission' of Canadian Tar Sands. The RESPONSIBILITY of the USA lies in acting morally to protect the lives of Americans in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

It is completely irresponsible to say, the USA isn't contributing to the climate crisis because Americans don't pump this processed oil into their cars. The oil is transported across the USA FACILITATING it's use.

The USA doesn't exist in isolation. This climate crisis is a global issue. The problem with any climate strategy so far in the USA has been to isolate itself from the reality and expecting the rest of the global community to compensate for Americans' abuses.

It is like having the largest and most deadly military in the world. You don't simply use it because there is a grudge against a dictator.

This article is from 2014.

...The Koch projects (click here) will extract bitumen using a non-mining technique called steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), and are in various stages of development. The projects could ultimately yield an estimated 2.9 billion barrels of “recoverable” resources and could position the buyer “to be a top tier Canadian bitumen producer,” according to an online description of the offering.

The move by Koch to sell off one of its partnerships pulls the curtain back further on the Koch family’s deep but quiet involvement in Canada’s tar sands industry. Koch Industries has had a stake going back 50 years in Canadian heavy oil through mining, pipeline development and refining. Its Pine Bend Refinery in Minnesota is now responsible for about 20 percent of the oil sands crude being piped into the United States and has played a key role in the growth of the family’s fortune. The family stands to profit further from growing U.S. reliance on tar sands imports.

The potential sale of Koch Exploration Canada comes amid a wave of deals involving oil properties and projects in Western Canada, home to the world’s third-largest proven reserves of crude oil.  The investment surge has sent billions of dollars to Alberta’s oil patch and is expected to fuel a doubling of oil production by 2020. It is being led by companies from China—though last month Kuwait’s state-owned petroleum company announced a $4 billion joint venture it hopes to close in October....

This directly links the Koch Brothers to the Canadian Tar Sands as the third largest holder of those lands to exploit them for oil. In realizing that, this also links every Republican for federal office or otherwise directly to the Canadian Tar Sands. That is called conflict of interest. I didn't notice anyone in the US House or Senate sitting out of the vote because the vote conflicts with their campaign contributions.

March 20, 2014
By Steve Mufson and Juliet Eilperin
CORRECTION: An earlier version (click here) of this piece said Koch Industries was the largest lease holder in Canada’s oil sands. On a net acreage basis the company is the largest American and foreign holder of leases in the region, but it might narrowly trail two Canadian companies overall. For more details on the top holders of oil sands leases, go here.
You might expect the biggest foreign lease owner in Canada's oil sands, or tar sands, to be one of the international oil giants, like Exxon Mobil or Royal Dutch Shell. But that isn't the case. The biggest non-Canadian lease holder in the northern Alberta oil sands is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the privately-owned cornerstone of the fortune of conservative Koch brothers Charles and David....

This dirty oil is dirty in every sense of the word.

Why won't major oil companies purchase tar sands?

It is too expensive to process, the profit margin including capital improvements doesn't justify itself, it would reduce the price per barrel of oil, THUS, causing losses to their stockholders and possibly facing bankruptcy if the return on investment falls as expected with this processed oil. The Kochs had to go all the way to Kuwait to find investors to exploit the Canadian lands faster. That makes one third of the Koch's tar sands oil owned by Kuwait. We are back to realizing the Middle East owns most of the oil in the world following the USA.

If I were a Koch and wanted to control the world for the sake of "God's chosen people," I would seek to bankrupt all of Wall Streets competitors. If I recall, the oil barons of Texas have already complained publicly to the monopoly Koch is achieving and how it is effecting their ability to conduct business profitably. I would think the Democrats would at least be attractive enough for the major oil companies to donate to.  Oh, wait, ExxonMobile did donate to US Senator Landrieu. Lawyers far exceeded any other of the campaign donors, though.

Four dead in NY State snow storm.

November 19, 2014
By Laila Kearney

Temperatures (click here) in all 50 US states dipped to freezing or below as an unseasonably cold blast of weather moved across the country while heavy snow prompted a state of emergency in western New York and contributed to the deaths of four people.

Every US state, including Hawaii, was bitten by temperatures at freezing point or below, the National Weather Service said.

It was the coldest November morning across the country since 1976, according to Weather Bell Analytics, a meteorologist consulting firm. Typically, such cold is not seen until late December through February, the NWS said....

This is a webpage from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute:

Link: http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/arctic/location.html

The Arctic is named for the north polar constellation “Arktos”—Greek for “bear.” It is 14.5 million square km (5.5 million square miles)—almost exactly the same size as Antarctica—and has been inhabited by humans for close to 20,000 years. It consists of the Arctic Ocean and surrounding land, including all of Greenland and Spitsbergen, and the northern parts of Alaska, Canada, Norway, and Russia. Its boundary is irregular and is often defined by either the northern limit of stands of trees on land, or by a mean July temperature of ~10°C (50°F). 

The land area of the contiguous United States is 2,959,064 square miles (2.9 million square miles).

November 19, 2014
1130.18z
UNISYS North and West Hemisphere Water Vapor Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop)

That is not a great big smiley face put into an Earth air mass for your enjoyment, it is the air mass displaced by a warm Arctic Ocean.

Why is it displaced? On the 12 hour loop a warm air mass coming from the equator is traveling north to the Arctic Circle and displacing the heavier and colder air mass to lower latitudes.

This is a segment of the satellite image above. This is where strong upper tropospheric winds are literally pulling warm, wet air from the equator.

That warm, wet air will travel to the Arctic Circle and cool down. Initially, the warm air mass will settle over top of the colder, denser air mass over the Arctic Circle. As it cools, it will start to descend to Earth's surface. I stated air has mass. It is a proven fact. Can all the air from Earth simply pile up over the Arctic Ocean or Arctic Circle? Of course not. So as the air mass over the Arctic Circle ACCUMULATES with more and more air molecules the physics becomes turbulent and pushes the frigid air mass, which is the densest and heaviest, to lower latitudes. Is this suppose to happen normally?

No. This is an episode of a global event under the heavy blanket of CO2. 

November 19, 2014
1145 gmt
Current Temperature map of USA by The Weather Channel

This is a map of the current temperatures across the USA. It is somewhat tempered because the sun is up even though there are clouds in the way of seeing the sun. The troposphere over the USA is getting warmer with sun rise.

Snow fell at a rate of up to five inches (13 cm) an hour and some areas approached the U.S. record for 24-hour snowfall totals of 76 inches (193 cm), the NWS said.

Republicans are absolutely stupid when 'the greed' feels a need.

The Canadian Tar Sands is not about damn caribou. 

Canadian Tar Sands IS A WETLAND!

Canadian Tar Sands Reclamation

Only 0.15% (click here) of the area disturbed by oilsands mining is certified as reclaimed by the provincial government.

Oilsands reclamation will not return the boreal forest to its natural state.

Water capping of tailings waste through the creation of end pit lakes is an unproven method for reclaiming tailings waste.

Collection of financial security for oilsands mining reclamation, mandated under Alberta's Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, is intended to safeguard against Albertans paying for reclamation of oilsands mine but is inadequate and puts Albertans and Canadians at financial risk.

0.15% is as good as ZERO.

Republicans don't BELIEVE in science. Science is not about believing, it is however about KNOWING. The reason Republicans don't believe in science is because there should always be a NEGOTIABLE way to achieve their goal of taking money out of natural resources. Well, in the year 2014 and the CO2 content of the USA is 400 ppm, there is no more negotiations about the climate and developing more carbon fuels. 

Earth doesn't negotiate. 

Get used to that FACT!