When the heavens opened over New York: Incredible pictures of torrential rain, lightning, and hail breaking the city's heatwave

When the heavens opened over New York: Incredible pictures of torrential rain, lightning, and hail breaking the city's heatwave
July 18, 2012 | Sott.net

© Unknown
New Yorkers were hit with a torrential rain storm that
turned the air from a humid summer swelter to a soggy
downpour in a New York minute Wednesday afternoon.
While those on the ground watched in disbelief as a
sunny day turned into a hailstorm with inch-wide
ice chunks hurling down from the sky, the best view was from above.

Manhattanites were hit with a torrential rain storm that turned the air from a humid summer swelter to a soggy downpour in a New York minute. As pedestrians took cover, meteorologists looked for explanations. 'It went out with a bang,' National Weather Service meteorologist Joey Pica said of the triple-digit heat that suffocated the city for the past three days.

While those on the ground watched in disbelief as a sunny day turned into a hailstorm with inch-wide ice chunks hurling down from the sky, the best view was from above. Instagram and Twitter quickly filled with images of the storm from people flying around the city at the time of the late-afternoon storm.

Arguably the best image comes from former NFL player Dhani Jones, who captured a moment when all of the precipitation of the city swirled in one frightful column, harkening something out of a villainous fantasy film. At the time, Jones was flying out of LaGuardia airport, which is in Queens, and was able to see over Queens and into part of Manhattan.

Additional photos

The true warning came at 3.38pm when AccuWeather.com issued a severe thunderstorm watch and flood advisory for New York City and nearby Long Island City.

At that time, the temperature had reached 94 degrees, which was down from the triple-digit highs reached during the past three days.

To get the word out the the more than 8million people who live and work in Manhattan's five boroughs, city government officials used the mobile phone emergency warning system for the first time since the program was started in May of last year.

Though the bulk of the storms were finished by about 6pm, the repercussions will likely be felt into the evening as flash floods caused transit and road delays.

There was also reports of fallen trees in the suburbs in Westchester and New Jersey which caused damage, though the extent of the destruction is not clear.

NBC News reports that thousands lost power in New York and one injury is being linked to the storm but no details have been released about the nature of that injury or the identity of the victim.

While the majority of the storm may have passed the Big Apple, the National Weather Service has now issued a severe weather warning for Washington D.C., predicting that the capital will be hit by hail up to 1.5-inch in diameter and winds of up to 70 miles per hour to come by 9pm.

Bad Karma: Hundreds of teenagers storm Walmart in criminal flash mob (VIDEO)

Hundreds of teenagers storm Walmart in criminal flash mob (VIDEO)
July 18, 2012 | RT.com


Hundreds of teenagers storm Wal-Mart in criminal flash mob
(Still from YouTube video/isingjay94)

A Jacksonville, Florida party went a bit too wild this week after hundreds of teenagers relocated their shindig to a local Walmart store and went on a rampage, all the while videotaping their outrageous escapades.
Police investigating the Saturday night stampeding of the north Florida store say that around 300 youths were involved in the melee, which miraculously didn’t directly spawn any serious injuries. Moments before storming the store, however, one 20-year-old party-goer reported being shot in the leg while leaving the original get-together.

The entire incident began at what a neighbor tells the Florida Times-Union was a “massive crowd party” in a subdivision in Jacksonville that attracted noise complaints from neighbors. When the police responded to the scene, attendees regrouped around two miles down the road to Walmart.

In the aftermath, police say that only snacks and soda were stolen and that minimal damage and no injuries were reported at the Walmart, although a $1,500 store security scanner is believed to have been broken during the event. Cell-phone footage recorded at the scene of the crime shows several hundred youths clearly causing a disturbance in the store, taking watermelons out of produce containers and generally making mischief throughout the front of the store. Gun shots were also reportedly fired outside of the store but no one was hit.

"The actions of these teenagers was deplorable and put at risk the safety of innocent bystanders, staff and customers," Walmart spokeswoman Dianna Gee tells the Florida Times-Union. "We are committed to assisting law enforcement in any way we can to identify the people responsible for the commotion, including acts of vandalism and thefts at the store."

Police are already drawing comparisons to a similar incident last year outside of Washington, D.C. that involved a gang of unruly youths storming a 7-11 and causing coordinated mischief only momentarily before leaving the store. Such spontaneous gatherings have been considered “flash mobs” in the past, but with a new rash of events involving theft and destruction, police have a new phrase: flash-robs.

Comment: I certainly do not condone this kind of activity and those committing crimes should be prosecuted. On the other hand, we see how this filthy hegemony has to wear a diaper to exist, and it is easy to see how these establishments destroy America.

US West Coast to receive dangerous levels of Fukushima radiation

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)'s
tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant is seen in Fukushima
prefecture, in this aerial view photo taken
by Kyodo (Reuters/Kyodo)

US West Coast to receive dangerous levels of Fukushima radiation 
July 17, 2012 | Rt.com

It’s been over a year since natural disaster ravaged a nuclear plant in Fukushima and interrupted the lives of millions of Japanese. Scientists now fear though that contaminated water is on course to America, and it could be more toxic than thought.

Researchers have released the findings of an intense study into the aftermath of last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster and warn that the United States isn’t exactly spared just yet. In fact, scientists now fear that incredibly contaminated ocean waters could be reaching the West Coast of the US in a matter of only five years, and the toxicity of those waves could eventually be worse than what was seen in Japan.

A team of scientists led by Joke F Lübbecke of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory have published the findings of an experiment recently conducted to measure the impact of last year’s nuclear disaster and the results are eye-opening to say the least. By simulating the spreading of contaminated ocean waters and seeing how currents could carry them across the Pacific from Japan to the US, scientists believe that the worst might be still on the way.

“Within one year it will have spread over the entire western half of the North Pacific and in five years we predict it will reach the US West Coast.” Claus Böning, co-author of the study, tells the website Environmentalresearchweb.

Böning adds that “The levels of radiation that hit the US coast will be small relative to the levels released by Fukushima,” yet fails to exactly stand by that statement in the fullest. “But we cannot estimate accurately what those levels will be because we do not know for certain what was released by Fukushima,” the doctor adds.

In fact, others fear that contaminated ocean waters may collect in packets and produce waves of highly concentrated nuclear toxins that could pose a dangerous toll to Americans.

The paper itself reads, “After 10 years the concentrations become nearly homogeneous over the whole Pacific, with higher values in the east, extending along the North American coast with a maximum (~1 × 10−4) off Baja California.”

“The magnitude of additional peak radioactivity should drop to values comparable to the pre-Fukushima levels after 6–9 years (i.e. total peak concentrations would then have declined below twice pre-Fukushima levels),” it continues. “By then the tracer cloud will span almost the entire North Pacific, with peak concentrations off the North American coast an order-of-magnitude higher than in the western Pacific.”

“The total peak radioactivity levels would then still be about twice the pre-Fukushima values,” the paper’s abstract reveals, discussing what long-term impacts could come to America’s West Coast.

Comment: Detoxing the body will become a much more critical factor going ahead. I recommend GreenMedInfo.com as a viable source to learn detoxing methods, especially with the use of herbs which are by far the most powerful over other useless methods.

Shell angry at $5 bln fine demanded for spill in Nigeria

Reuters/Anton Meres

Shell angry at $5 bln fine demanded for spill in Nigeria
July 18, 2012 | RT.com

Nigerian regulators are demanding Royal Dutch Shell pays $5 billion in fines for environmental damage caused by last year’s oil spill at its offshore Bonga field. Shell says there is no legal basis for the fine.

The fine would be the largest Shell has ever received in Nigeria and is about $125,000 for each barrel of oil split in the Bonga field, about 120 kilometers off the coast.

The spill which was probably the worst in the area for a decade, occurred on December 20, 2011 and according to estimates less than 40,000 barrels, or 1.68 million gallons were released.

"We do not believe there is any basis in law for such a fine. Neither do we believe that SNEPCo (Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Co) has committed any infraction of Nigerian law to warrant such a fine," said the oil company.

By contrast, BP is facing a maximum fine of $4,300 per barrel in the US following the Gulf of Mexico spill, when oil had been gushing out of the well into the water at a rate of 10,000 to 30,000 barrels a day for almost a year, resulting in a an estimated leak of 206 million gallons.

The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) said the Nigerian spill was caused by a failure in Shell's export pipe, saying that the spilled oil badly affected approximately 950 square kilometers of water surface and a great number of sensitive environmental resources.

"It has a direct social impact on the livelihood of people in the river areas whose primary occupation is fishing," the NOSDRA agency maintained.

Shell said last December's an oil spill occurred when a tanker was loading oil, leading to the complete shutdown of the company's 200,000 barrel per day production at the Bonga facility.

Bonga accounts for around 10% of monthly oil flows from OPEC member Nigeria, the continent's largest exporter of crude oil. Production restarted in January.

Oil spills are often onshore in Nigeria with many caused by sabotage or thieves tapping into easily accessible pipelines. Several communities have taken Shell to court over a failure to clean up spills.

A United National Environment Programme report last year said Shell was not doing enough to clean up spills and maintenance of the infrastructure was inadequate.

Debt Forgiveness Prompts Economic Recovery … No, Not in America

Debt Forgiveness Prompts Economic Recovery … No, Not in America
July 16, 2012 | Mark Stopa

On August 3, 2010, I argued, here, that we should reduce the principal on every mortgage in America such that no owner-occupied homeowners were underwater.  I believed – and still believe – that forgiving debt for every-day Americans would help America’s economy far more than bailing out the banks.  Unfortunately, my theory has never been put to the test, as virtually every country in the world has followed America’s approach of bailing out the banking industry and refusing to write down principal balances on underwater mortgages.   Virtually every country, that is, but Iceland.

So let’s get this straight … the American government has steadfastly refused to engage in any widespread effort to write down principal on mortgages, instead choosing to help the banks … and our economy remains in the toilet.  How do you think Iceland’s economy is doing, having decided to help homeowners and let the banks fail?

Perhaps not surprisingly, according to this recent article in the New York Times, Iceland is doing just great.  Why, exactly, is that?  Well, I don’t pretend to be an expert on Iceland’s economy, but to quote the article:

During the crisis, Iceland did many things differently from its European counterparts. It let its three largest banks fail, instead of bailing them out. It ensured that domestic depositors got their money back and gave debt relief to struggling homeowners and to businesses facing bankruptcy.

You mean Iceland is doing better when it didn’t bail out the banks and gave debt relief to struggling homeowners?  Really?  You don’t say?  I find this just absolutely impossible to believe.  Do you really mean to say that when a country doesn’t spend billions upon billions bailing out the banks, and instead gives relief to struggling homeowners, that said country’s economy turns around faster?  I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.  Or not.

By the way, how pathetic is it that our country is still suffering through an awful recession, and this is an election year, yet we hear absolutely nothing about even the possibility that any candidate would consider pushing a platform with principal reductions?

 Mark Stopa

www.stayinmyhome.com

 

Raping the Earth: Butler County, Pennsylvania, Fracked and Contaminated

Raping the Earth: Butler County, Pennsylvania, Fracked and Contaminated
July 16, 2012 | Nature Abounds | Sott.net

Residents in Butler County, Pennsylvania share their fracking experience.



Film shared courtesy of Nature Abounds' friend Rich Waters, a local photographer and videographer who is documenting how fracking is changing the lives of his neighbors in Southwest Pennsylvania.

Over 100,000 Protest Nuclear Restart in Tokyo

Over 100,000 Protest Nuclear Restart in Tokyo
July 16, 2012 | CommonDreams.org

On hottest day of the year, protesters call for Prime Minister Noda to quit

Over 100,000 protesters took to the streets in central Tokyo on Monday to protest the country's return to nuclear power. The demonstration was one of the largest if of its kind since Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced that the country would restart its reactors last month.

Protest organizers estimated the crowd at 170,000 people. Demonstrators marched through the streets in record setting heat chanting: "Don't resume nuclear power operation. Prime Minister (Yoshihiko) Noda should quit."

"We are so angry because no progress has been made in terms of compensation and decontamination," said Noboru Shikatani, a 71-year-old man who evacuated Fukushima after the disaster.

Public anger over the handling of last year's Fukushima disaster has continued to swell. Earlier this month a damning report released by a parliamentary panel investigating the government's handling of the disaster found that plant owner TEPCO and government regulators intentionally ignored key warnings and preparations that should have been implemented before the tsunami. The subsequent nuclear disaster to follow was "clearly man-made," according to the panel.

"We can't accept any resumption of nuclear power operation as the Fukushima case has not been resolved at all," Shikatani added. "We want to bring our voice to many people by joining this kind of demonstration."

The last of the country's nuclear reactors had been shut down in May, following public pressure; however, the first reactor at the Oi plant in Fukui prefecture was restarted July 1, 2012 despite widespread criticism.

Noda now plans to eventually restart all 50 of Japan's reactors, a campaign that has seen large scale protests since its announcement.

Industry Waste is Good For You: They Say The Sky is Pink

The Sky Is Pink – Josh Fox
July 13, 2012 | Food Freedom News

Academy Award nominee Josh Fox follows up Gasland with this 20-minute, emergency short film addressing the urgent crisis of drilling and fracking in New York state, asking residents to stop Governor Andrew Cuomo from contaminating their environment.



 For more info, see:
Go to NYAgainstfracking.orgfor more info and to get involved.

PINK LINKS: Selected Compiled Research
The Sky Is Pink- Annotated industry documents featured in the film:
foodfreedomgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/josh-fox-sky-is-pink-documents

Affirming GASLAND- Our responses to industry charges against GASLAND
gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking/affirming-gasland
1trickpony.cachefly.net/gas/pdf/Affirming_Gasland_Sept_2010.pdf

Flaming Faucets
foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509857,00.html
hcn.org/blogs/goat/flaming-water/
cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-4879509.html
planetsave.com/2009/03/20/flammable-water-pours-from-faucets-in-colorado-home/
propublica.org/series/fracking
ecopolitology.org/2009/03/19/leaking-gas-well-causes-flammable-water-to-pour-from-faucets-in-colorado-home-video/

Well Failures/Gas Leaks
youtube.com/watch?v=fjaRwh4xRiM&feature=player_embedded
gasdrillinginbalcombe.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/44-of-wells-leaking-at-australian-gas-field/
nytimes.com/1992/05/03/us/abandoned-oil-and-gas-wells-become-pollution-portals.html?src=pm
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-17656307
frack-off.org.uk/gas-wells-leaking/
telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/9168645/Total-admits-it-could-take-six-months-to-stop-gas-leak.html

Well Construction/Integrity
slb.com/~/media/Files/resources/oilfield_review/ors03/aut03/p62_76.ashx
boemre.gov/tarprojects/008/008DE.pdf
naturalgaswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/well_integrity_failure_presentation.pdf
ptil.no/news/new-report-well-integrity-challenges-on-the-norwegian-shelf-article2762-79.html
spe.org/ejournals/jsp/journalapp.jsp?pageType=Preview&jid=EDC&mid=SPE-106817-PA

Climate Change
youtube.com/watch?v=XXyTpY0NCp0

Breast Cancer
texassharon.com/2011/09/02/big-gas-mafia-irony-burnsta-tas/
dentonrc.com/local-news/special-projects/gas-well-drilling-headlines/20110831-breast-cancer-rate-climbs-up.ece
damascuscitizensforsustainability.org/2011/09/breast-cancer-rates-jump-in-the-barnett-shale/
dallasdrilling.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/breast-cancer-rates-jump-in-the-barnett-shale/
abcalliance.org/?p=1725
nbc11news.com/home/headlines/85259117.html

Pittsburgh Fracking Ban
groundswell.gs/2011/10/28/city-councilman-doug-shields-on-the-success-of-pittsburghs-rights-based-fracking-ban/

Water Contamination
propublica.org/article/colorado-study-links-methane-in-water-drilling-422
bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-08/gas-fracking-chemicals-detected-in-wyoming-aquifer-epa-says.html
pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/04/19/gas-drilling-industry-makes-stunning-admission/
static.ewg.org/reports/2011/fracking/cracks_in_the_facade.pdf
pnas.org/content/early/2011/05/02/1100682108.full.pdf+html?sid=bde16321-e169-437d-a59c-798e7f65c479
grist.org/article/2011-02-28-pittsburgh-drinking-water-radioactive-fracking-natural-gas-times/
nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?_r=1&ref=drillingdown
essentialpublicradio.org/story/2011-12-01/salts-drilling-drinking-water-danger-still-showing-rivers-9616
postindependent.com/article/20100813/VALLEYNEWS/100819931

Profiles/Contacts
cee.cornell.edu/people/profile.cfm?netid=ari1
history.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/oreskes-naomi.html

‘Drilling Down’
nytimes.com/interactive/us/DRILLING_DOWN_SERIES.html

PR/Hill and Knowlton
prwatch.org/spin/2009/11/8680/hill-knowltons-carbon-two-step
sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hill_%26_Knowlton
prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html
prwatch.org/search/node/knowlton
naturalgaswatch.org/?p=939
csmonitor.com/2002/0906/p25s02-cogn.html

State Government Documents
mines.industry.qld.gov.au/assets/petroleum-pdf/tara_leaking_well_investigation_report.pdf
cogcc.state.co.us/Library/WQCC_WQCD_AnnualReports/WQCC09_10RPT.pdf

‘Reality Tour’ Marcellus Shale
youtube.com/watch?v=iPM64kseP30

Merchants of Doubt
bloomsburypress.com/books/catalog/merchants_of_doubt_hc_104

Colbert Report
mnn.com/earth-matters/politics/blogs/stephen-colbert-and-tom-ridge-get-awkward-over-fracking
desmogblog.com/tom-ridge-claimed-i-m-not-lobbyist-colbert-report-facts-prove-otherwise
keystonepolitics.com/2011/06/tom-ridge-shills-for-fracking-on-colbert-report/

Gas Industry Conference:
naturalgaswatch.org/?p=970

We Don’t Want Your Stinking ‘Likes’

We Don’t Want Your Stinking ‘Likes’
July 13, 2012 | Truthdig.com

Companies in pursuit of “likes” on Facebook are discouraged to hear that many of those clicks are coming from fake profiles set up to spread spam.

The social-networking site makes money by charging companies for advertisements designed to attract new “likes.” Some of those companies are refusing to pay Facebook and private marketing consultants for their services on the basis that they don’t reach “real people.”

“Likes” are desirable for businesses because in theory they increase exposure on the site. When a user clicks such a link, the associated company can post content on their news feed, send them marketing messages and alert their friends to the connection, supposedly boosting their marketing power.

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly. Follow him on Twitter: @areedkelly.

BBC:

Earlier this year Facebook revealed that about 5-6% of its 901 million users might be fake—representing up to 54 million profiles.

“Spammers and malware authors can mass-produce false Facebook profiles to help them spread dangerous links and spam, and trick people into befriending them,” [Graham Cluley of the security firm Sophos] said.

“We know some of these accounts are run by computer software with one person puppeteering thousands of profiles from a single desk handing out commands such as: ‘like’ as many pages as you can to create a large community.

Read more

Reporters Are An Endangered Species

© unknown

Reporters Are An Endangered Species
July 13, 2012 | Washingtons Blog

News Is Under Attack

Large news organizations are phasing in computer-generated stories which don’t use actual human reporters.

As Agence France-Presse reports:

The new reporter on the US media scene takes no coffee breaks, churns out articles at lightning speed, and has no pension plan.

That’s because the reporter is not a person, but a computer algorithm, honed to translate raw data such as corporate earnings reports and previews or sports statistics into readable prose.

Algorithms are producing a growing number of articles for newspapers and websites ….

While computers cannot parse the subtleties of each story, they can take vast amounts of raw data and turn it into what passes for news, analysts say.

“This can work for anything that is basic and formulaic,” says Ken Doctor, an analyst with the media research firm Outsell.

And with media companies under intense financial pressure, the move to automate some news production “does speak directly to the rebuilding of the cost economics of journalism,” said Doctor.
***

“Over the next 12 to 24 months, every media property will need some automation strategy,” Frederick told AFP.

To mimic the effect of the hometown newspaper, the company generates articles with a different “tonality” depending on the reader’s preference or location.

For the 2012 Super Bowl, the article for New York Giants’ fans read like this: “Hakeem Nicks had a big night, paving the way to a victory for the Giants over the Patriots, 21-17 in Indianapolis. With the victory, New York is the champion of Super Bowl XLVI.”

For New England fans, the story was different: “Behind an average day from Tom Brady, the Patriots lost to the Giants, 21-17 at home. With the loss, New England falls short of a Super Bowl ring.”
***

Chicago-based Narrative Science … has 40 clients including Forbes, and some corporate clients which use the technology to take spreadsheets or other data for internal reports that are more readable.
***

The “bylines” generated were made-up names, not real journalists, in the Tribune, Houston Chronicle and San Francisco Chronicle, a violation of ethics policies for the dailies.

Human journalists face additional threats.  If they criticize those in power, they may be smeared by the government, targeted for arrest (and see this).

Indeed, because the core things which reporters do could be considered terrorism in modern America, they could even targeted under counter-terrorism laws.

And an al-Jazeera journalist was held at Guantánamo for six years, partly in order to be interrogated about the Arabic news network.  And see this.

Of course, the government and mainstream media is doing its best to censor alternative views.  Even though though SOPA and ACTA were defeated, the boys are still trying to sneak them through in various other laws. See this, this and this.

Experts who write about the truth – without any middleman – are also being harassed (and see this).

Wikileaks’ head Julian Assange could face the death penalty for his heinous crime of leaking whistleblower information which make those in power uncomfortable … i.e. being a reporter.

Former attorney general Mukasey said the U.S. should prosecute Assange because it’s “easier” than prosecuting the New York Times.  But now Congress is considering a bill which would make even mainstream reporters liable for publishing leaked information   (part of an all-out war on whistleblowing).

On the other hand, reporters who promote the agenda of the powers-that-be are richly rewarded.  See this, this and this.