On August 17th, near Sayanogorsk in south central Russia, a catastrophic accident took place in the turbine and transformer rooms of the hydroelectric plant of the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam. The exact cause is still under investigation, but what is known so far is that a tremendous amount of water from the Yenisei River flooded the turbine room, causing at least one transformer explosion and extensive damage to all ten turbines, destroying at least three of them. 74 workers are known to have lost their lives in the accident, while one remains missing. Additionally, 40 tons of transformer oil were spilled into the river, killing an estimated 400 tons of trout in two fisheries. Investigators plan to release findings in two months, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for a nationwide infrastructure inspection. (32 Photos Total)
Bill gates just filed a patent on a scheme to unplug hurricanes by surrounding them with fleets of pump-boats bringing cold water to the surface:
Having posted this idea four years ago myself, I have to admit it’s a bit wacky. On the other hand, Hurricane Katrina devastated a substantial chunk of my country, so anything that MIGHT be able to slow these monsters down ought to at least be talked about.
The Gates scheme is lumbering and passive. My Hurricane Stopper is agile and active, giving it a better chance of being practical. My idea was to have wind-turbine powered jet-boats suck their propellant water from the cold depths and spread it around in the hurricane’s path. Think of barge-like wind-farms, big enough to ride out hurricane seas.
Downsides: Might not be possible to build a wind-farm barge capable of riding out hurricane winds and seas; would kill a lot of birds and fish; possible ill effects from changing the temperature gradient in the Gulf, if used on massive scale.
Gate’s scheme is similar to mine in that it also uses the hurricane’s own energy, but it does so passively. He would dot the Gulf with giant tubs, ballast-regulated to ride so that hurricane seas would lap over the edges of the tubs, raising the water level in the tub above the surrounding sea level. Gravity would then drive the water in the tub down through a drain in the bottom that extends down to the cold depths: Read the rest of this entry »
oh noooooo… say it ain’t so?! What, no mass death headed our way? What will Kathleen Sebelius do now after her “expect many more deaths” prediction… “twitter” her thumbs?
Why just last week, here’s a breathless Anderson Cooper on CNN
Over “1000″ people in Mexico back on April 24th, and “68″ people have died…..
WHO Director General Margaret Chan declared the phase 5 alert after consulting with flu experts from around the world. The decision could lead the global body to recommend additional measures to combat the outbreak, including for vaccine manufacturers to switch production from seasonal flu vaccines to a pandemic vaccine.
“All countries should immediately now activate their pandemic preparedness plans,” Chan told reporters in Geneva. “It really is all of humanity that is under threat in a pandemic.”
President Barack Obama said Monday that he is closely monitoring the swine flu, and the global outbreak is cause for concern but not alarm.
“We face more complex challenges than we have ever faced before,” Obama said.
“If there was ever a day that reminded us of our shared stake in science and research, it’s today,” Obama said. “We are closely monitoring the emerging cases of swine flu in the United States. This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert. But it is not a cause for alarm.”
Obama made the remarks during a speech to the National Academy of Sciences, pointing to the potential flu pandemic as reason why the U.S. needed to boost its investment in the sciences.
“One thing is clear — our capacity to deal with a public health challenge of this sort rests heavily on the work of our scientific and medical community,” Obama said. “And this is one more example of why we cannot allow our nation to fall behind.”
While we’ve all been engaging in political battle, I’ve been keeping an eye… as many have… on Fargo’s battle with Mother Nature. Having had my own personal experiences with flooding, as has Oregon in general, I know the adrenaline these citizens must be running on, hour after hour… day after day.
My heart pours out to them all. And yet, I salute their courage and sense of community as the town and Guard all joined together to build up a dam, and brace for the worst.
Makes you wonder why Obama needs his National Civilian Community Corp, eh?
Flood water threatens a home in Oxbow, North Dakota, on March 26. Water from the Red River is threatening to overtake Fargo, the largest city in the state.
Senate Banking committee Chairman Christopher Dodd told CNN’s Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer Wednesday that he was responsible for adding the bonus loophole into the stimulus package that permitted AIG and other companies that received bailout funds to pay bonuses.
On Tuesday, Dodd denied to CNN that he had anything to do with the adding of that provision.
…but the video is priceless (look how red his face is).
Also, note that he says he did the discreet removal-not because he’s the largest campaign recipient of money from AIG (noooooooo), but because Obama’s Treasury Dept urged him to do it. That’s the same Treasury Dept that claims they were shocked and surprised, and the same Administration that says it was shocked and surprised…all while we’re supposed to ignore that they knew about the Bonuses months ago. Apparently, not only did the Obama Admin KNOW about the bonuses, but they went out of their way to covertly get them allowed!
The Democrat smear machine is still at full tilt with TPM saying “gotcha!” to a Bobby Jindal statement about Katrina. The Jindal statement: (h/t Mother, May I Sleep With Treacher and Hot Air)
During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I’d never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: ‘Well, I’m the Sheriff and if you don’t like it you can come and arrest me!’ I asked him: ‘Sheriff, what’s got you so mad?’ He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go – when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn’t go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, ‘Sheriff, that’s ridiculous.’ And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: ‘Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!’ Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.
What’s the gotcha from TPM? That the visit didn’t occur the day after Katrina but a few days after Katrina.
Yup, some gotcha.
But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone “days later.” The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.
Pathetic.
Oh, here is the Sheriff in his own words describing the help Jindal gave to him:
I can tell you first hand that with Hurricane Katrina, the day after, Bobby was in my office and said “what do you need?” And it wasn’t phone calls, he was in my office.”
Pathetic libs….just pathetic.
UPDATE
Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said Jindal appeared at the sheriff’s offices on the east and west banks several times in the days after the storm. The boat rescue holdup by federal response officials did occur initially as citizens brought their watercraft to a staging area in Jefferson Parish, he said. But the problem was resolved and the great majority of boats were deployed to the flooded areas of New Orleans later that day.
Teepell, who after the storm drove with Jindal to visit various sheriffs’ offices in his district, said he recalled being in Lee’s office in west Jefferson on several occasions in the days after the storm. Teepell said he remembers the phone conversation but did not know who was talking to Lee.
Lee was recounting the boat rescue story to the caller on the line, Teepell said. The phone call was not taking place while the boats were attempting the rescue operation, but some days afterward, Teepell said.
WASHINGTON – The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.
“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”
Meanwhile, in Kentucky…
Gov. Steve Beshear called up his entire Army National Guard on Saturday, tripling his troops with his state still reeling from a deadly ice storm that knocked out power from the Midwest to the East Coast.
More than half a million homes and businesses, most of them in Kentucky, remained with out electricity from the Ozarks through Appalachia, though temperatures creeping into the 40s helped a swarm of utility workers make headway. Finding fuel – heating oil along with gas for cars and generators – was another struggle for those trying to tough it out at home, with hospitals and other essential services getting priority over members of the public. Read the rest of this entry »
With one stroke of the pen Obama has now terminated “Bush’s war” which has kept Americans safe since September 11th. From here on out, it’s Obama’s war and he will be held accountable!
Plus: A poll for Obama voters only!
Wordsmith set the ball rolling today on the story that has profound dangers for Americans in the war on terror. Both he and Curt cited the Washington Post story in which reporter Dana Priest gushed:
With the stroke of his pen, he effectively declared an end to the “war on terror,” as President George W. Bush had defined it, signaling to the world that the reach of the U.S. government in battling its enemies will not be limitless.
With the stroke of a pen terrorists around the world were put on notice that the most successful anti-terrorism strategy that has saved thousands of American lives and resulted in the capture of kill of thousands of terrorist scum worldwide was coming to an end.
No doubt there will be a moment of celebration in the caves of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Saudi Arabia and many European capitals tonight. Note: I didn’t mention Iraq. There, we can expect our sworn ally to continue the fight as they have all these many years.
Dec. 8, 2008: President George W. Bush kisses one of the children attending the Children’s Holiday Reception and Performance with first lady Laura Bush in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC. The reception is for children whose parents are serving in the military and cannot be with them for the Christmas holiday.
Chip Somodevilla-Getty Images
In wake of Hurricane Katrina (which “hated” white people more, or in Kanye’s language, “George Bush hates white people”), let’s revisit the ever-so-politically astute and eloquent Kanye West: Read the rest of this entry »
Ya just gotta love the nutjobs that not only make this crap up, but also the morons they think believe it (morons who too often DO believe it!) In their defense, I’ll admit that #3 was probably an easy sell.
Global warming was blamed for everything from beasts gone wild to anorexic whales to the complete breakdown of human society this year — showing that no matter what it is and where it happens, scientists, explorers, politicians and those who track the Loch Ness Monster are comfortable scapegoating the weather.
FOXNews.com… takes a look back at 10 things that global warming allegedly caused — or will no doubt soon be responsible for — as reported in the news around the world in 2008.
1. Cannibalism
In April, media mogul Ted Turner told PBS’s Charlie Rose that global warming would make the world 8 degrees hotter in 30 or 40 years. “Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state, like Somalia or Sudan, and living conditions will be intolerable,” he said. Turner blamed global warming on overpopulation, saying “too many people are using too much stuff.” Crops won’t grow and “most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals,” Turner said.
2. The Death of the Loch Ness Monster
In February, Scotland’s Daily Mirror reported that 85-year-old American Robert Rines would be giving up his quest for Scotland’s most famous underwater denizen. A World War II veteran, Rines has spent 37 years hunting for Nessie with sonar equipment. In 2008, “despite having hundreds of sonar contacts over the years, the trail has since gone cold and Rines believes that Nessie may be dead, a victim of global warming.” Read the rest of this entry »
I just saw Glenn Beck on CNN, and he said that America is on the verge of another Great Depression. Others have used similiarly scary language to describe the financial crisis on Wall Street resulting from the failure of the housing industry. Whether one believes it or not, I’m inclined to think that if lawmakers saw the issue as this dire, then they’d be oblidged to work on Christmas, Easter, or any other religious holiday. If you’re in the military, do you take the day off and leave the frontline because it’s Summer Solstice? I don’t think so. How many times have we heard Democrats complain about Bush going on vacation (as if he’s ever far from the nuclear football or out of communication and not getting daily briefings)?
How do the Democrats get away with this? Leaders always want the ball. They don’t run from it.
Cry havoc, and let slip the bears of Wall Street! That’s what the American people want. That’s what (according to many sources) are filling Congressional switchboards with constituent calls at a rate of 1000:1 against supporting the bailout bill (expect some serious variance depending on the member and district). Still, ya gotta hand it to the American people who FINALLY spoke out with one voice! Read the rest of this entry »
