March 11th, 2011

8.9 Earthquake, Tsunami Kills Thousands in Japan

(AP) TOKYO – For more than two terrifying, seemingly endless minutes Friday, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan shook apart homes and buildings, cracked open highways and unnerved even those who have learned to live with swaying skyscrapers. Then came a devastating tsunami that slammed into northeastern Japan and killed hundreds of people.

The violent wall of water swept away houses, cars and ships. Fires burned out of control. Power to a cooling system at a nuclear power plant was knocked out, forcing thousands to flee. A boat was caught in the vortex of a whirlpool at sea.

The death toll rose steadily throughout the day, but the true extent of the disaster was not known because roads to the worst-hit areas were washed away or blocked by debris and airports were closed.

After dawn Saturday, the scale of destruction became clearer.

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February 21st, 2011

Suez Canal Has Earthquake As Iranian Ships Approach

(IsraelNationalNews) An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale shook up residents at the entrance to the Suez Canal early Monday morning, 48 hours before two Iranian ships, a frigate and a supply vessel, are expected to enter the canal.

The National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research reported that tremors from the 3 a.m. quake lasted for 27 minutes, but caused no damage.

The ships had originally been expected to enter the Suez today (Monday), but Egyptian officials announced the delay this morning, without explanation.

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January 8th, 2011

Magnetic North Pole Shifts, Forces Runway Closures

(FoxNews) The planet’s northern magnetic pole is drifting slowly but steadily towards Russia — and it’s throwing off planes in Florida.

Tampa International Airport was forced to readjust its runways Thursday to account for the movement of the Earth’s magnetic fields, information that pilots rely upon to navigate planes. Thanks to the fluctuations in the force, the airport has closed its primary runway until Jan. 13 to change taxiway signs to account for the shift, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The poles are generated by movements within the Earth’s inner and outer cores, though the exact process isn’t exactly understood. They’re also constantly in flux, moving a few degrees every year, but the changes are almost never of such a magnitude that runways require adjusting, said Paul Takemoto, a spokesman for the FAA.

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January 8th, 2011

Mystery: Mass Animal Deaths Around the World

(Daily Mail) Thousands of dead turtle doves rained down on roofs and cars in an Italian town in the latest in a growing spate of mass animal deaths across the globe.

…The incident is the latest mass animal death to hit the headlines in the last two weeks.

These include:

  • 450 red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, grackles and starlings found littering a highway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  • 3,000 blackbirds on roofs and roads in the small town of Beebe, Arkansas
  • Thousands of ‘devil crabs’ washed up along the Kent coast near Thanet
  • Thousands of drum fish washed along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River
  • Two million small fish in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland
  • Thousands of dead fish found floating in warm Florida creek
  • Hundreds of snapper fish found dead in New Zealand
  • Scores of American Coots found dead on Texas highway bridge

Experts have speculated that New Year fireworks, thunderstorms, cold weather, parasites and even poisoning may be behind the deaths.

…Another theory is that the rapid movement of the Magnetic North Pole towards Russia may have affected the birds’ innate navigation systems.

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December 29th, 2010

The Worm That Crippled Iran’s Nuclear Program

(FoxNews) In the 20th century, this would have been a job for James Bond.

The mission: Infiltrate the highly advanced, securely guarded enemy headquarters where scientists in the clutches of an evil master are secretly building a weapon that can destroy the world. Then render that weapon harmless and escape undetected.

But in the 21st century, Bond doesn’t get the call. Instead, the job is handled by a suave and very sophisticated secret computer worm, a jumble of code called Stuxnet, which in the last year has not only crippled Iran’s nuclear program but has caused a major rethinking of computer security around the globe.

Intelligence agencies, computer security companies and the nuclear industry have been trying to analyze the worm since it was discovered in June by a Belarus-based company that was doing business in Iran. And what they’ve all found, says Sean McGurk, the Homeland Security Department’s acting director of national cyber security and communications integration, is a “game changer.”

The construction of the worm was so advanced, it was “like the arrival of an F-35 into a World War I battlefield,” says Ralph Langner, the computer expert who was the first to sound the alarm about Stuxnet. Others have called it the first “weaponized” computer virus.

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December 21st, 2010

2010′s World Gone Wild: Quakes, Floods, Blizzards

(MyWayNews) This was the year the Earth struck back.

Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 – the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.

“It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves,” said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.

“The term ’100-year event’ really lost its meaning this year.”

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November 12th, 2010

Boy Ordered to Remove American Flag From Bike

(TheBlaze) Cody Alicea, 13, likes to fly a small American flag on his bike in honor of veterans such as his grandfather, Robert. He’s been doing it for two months. But now, the school he attends has ordered him to remove the flag citing “racial tensions.”


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November 10th, 2010

Christian Woman Sentenced to Death in Pakistan

A court in Pakistan has sentenced a Christian woman to death by hanging for blasphemy against Islam.

Release International, a group that helps persecuted Christians, reports that Asia Bibi was working with Muslim women who were pressuring her to renounce her faith.

Bibi responded by telling the women Jesus died on the cross for all of mankind.  She then asked them what Mohammed had done for them.  Local Muslim leaders demanded she be charged with blasphemy for the statement.

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November 10th, 2010

Russia Importing Israeli Carrots

“He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” (Isaiah 27:6)

(IsraelNationalNews) Russia is gobbling up 9,000 tons of special Israeli carrots grown in the Negev and which are twice the size of the usual carrots that Israelis find in local markets. Russians pay about $1.30 a kilo for the carrots, which works out to about 60 cents a pound.

The exports are worth NIS 33 million ($9 million) and are a big hit in Russia. The carrots were grown in 12 farming communities in the south, and each one sports a diameter of approximately half a centimeter, or slightly less than half an inch, which is nearly double the diameter of the average carrot marketed locally.

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November 10th, 2010

Watchdog Wants Probe of Google’s ‘Unusually Close’ Ties to Obama

(The Hill) As House Republicans plan an ambitious oversight agenda for the next session of Congress, a watchdog group is calling for a probe into a company that it says is far too cozy with the Obama administration: Google.

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a group that advocates for a smaller and more ethical government, wrote to leaders of the House Oversight Committee this month urging them to investigate a major privacy breach by Google. It wants to know if the company’s ties to the administration helped it dodge penalties after the incident.

The group also urges a look at Google’s ties to the administration more generally, pointing to what it calls “a growing body of evidence” that shows the administration’s “unusually close relationship with Google has resulted in favoritism towards the company on federal policy issues.”

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