Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 21 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Earth Changes
Map

Bizarro Earth

UK faces days of battering winds and blizzards

Peter Walker
The Guardian
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:22 UTC
Image
© Daniel Gilfeather / Rex Features
Waves batter a promenade in Ayrshire.
Met Office predicts 'classic winter weather - the sort we've forgotten all about' as parts of UK see driving rain and gales

Much of the UK faces several days of battering winds and localised blizzards as a pair of particularly severe weather systems pass over the country.

The bad weather claimed a life on Tuesday night when an HGV driver was killed in a collision involving two cars and three lorries on the M5 in Gloucestershire, police said.

Many parts of England and Wales experienced gales and driving rain on Monday night. The UK's former ambassador to Venezuela and Chile had to be rescued by firefighters after a tree crashed through the roof of his family home in Winchester, Hampshire. Emergency services said 65-year-old Richard Wilkinson had an extremely lucky escape after the 18m (59ft) tree crushed the bungalow. "I was between sleeping and awake, listening to the storm outside when there was an enormous crash like the Eiffel Tower falling into the Crystal Palace," he said.

With winds gusting up to 70mph, Hampshire police said they had received more than 200 calls about flooding and fallen trees over 24 hours.
      Read More...
Arrow Down

South Africa, Johannesburg: Car Swallowed By Sink Hole

Phakamile Hlubi
Eyewitness News
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Susan Mottrami/iWN
The pothole in Fouurways that Orla Meaker fell victim to.
A Fourways woman escaped serious injury on Monday morning, when her car fell into a massive hole in the middle of the road as she was driving.

Orla Meaker was on the road in the early hours of the morning when her car was suddenly swallowed up by a gaping hole on Kingfisher Drive.

Apparently the 3m sinkhole had been caused by a burst water pipe which had eroded a section of the road overnight.

Meaker says her car may be damaged beyond repair.

"I'd say it's very bad. I'm not an expert but some of the gentlemen here guess that the gearbox is gone and the whole thing is a serious mess."
      Read More...
Info

US, Tennessee: Sinkhole Swallows Pool, Nears House


Elizabethton Star
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
A sinkhole has drained a family's swimming pool in Erwin and was growing in size.

Homeowner Brad Thelen said the noise of the sinkhole opening under the in-ground pool awakened his wife Chemene on Wednesday night, according to The Johnson City Press.

The hole was about 10 feet across Thursday afternoon. By Thursday evening, it had tripled in size and was not far from the Thelans' home. The family removed valuables and was staying with relatives until the sinkhole stabilized.

A playground at Love Chapel Elementary School, adjacent to the family's property, was roped off until seismologists examine the hole.

Source: The Associated Press
      Read More...
Arrow Down

US, New Hampshire:150-foot Manchester sinkhole swallows car

Pat Grossmith
Union Leader
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Pat Grossmith
Manchester firefighters work to remove a car from a sinkhole at the intersection of North and Beech Streets in Manchester on Monday morning
A red Kia was swept into a huge sinkhole at the intersection of North and Beech streets Monday morning when a 12-inch, cast iron water main let go.

Water shot 6 feet into the air and dislodged 10-pound boulders, according to Kevin Clancy of 860-862 Beech St.

"It was wild," he said. His wife heard a "boom" and he looked out the window to see a car stuck in a sink hole, water shooting into the air and large rocks being thrown uphill.

Initially, he said, the car's front tires were in the hole, but "then the whole street fell in."

The entire car sank a few feet into the hole, which stretched across one lane of North Street for about 150 feet. Police closed a portion of Beech Street and North Street, and about 30 homes on Beech Street were without water until mid-afternoon.

Police said the driver thought it was a puddle and drove through it, ending up in the sink hole.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Papua New Guinea - Earthquake Magnitude 7.1


US Geological Survey
Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:22 UTC
PG Quake_141211
© USGS
Earthquake Location.
Date-Time
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 05:04:57 UTC

Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 03:04:57 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
7.518°S, 146.767°E

Depth
121.2 km (75.3 miles)

Region
EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Distances
89 km (55 miles) SSW of Lae, New Guinea, PNG

123 km (76 miles) ENE of Kerema, New Guinea, PNG

221 km (137 miles) NNW of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

2308 km (1434 miles) NNW of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Indonesia - Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - Minahasa, Sulawesi


US Geological Survey
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:20 UTC
Indon Quake_131211
© USGS
Earthquake Location
Date-Time
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 07:52:12 UTC

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 03:52:12 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
0.071°S, 123.102°E

Depth
160.9 km (100.0 miles)

Region
SULAWESI, INDONESIA

Distances
68 km (42 miles) S of Gorontalo, Sulawesi, Indonesia

260 km (161 miles) SW of Manado, Sulawesi, Indonesia

978 km (607 miles) NNW of DILI, Timor-Leste

1615 km (1003 miles) NNW of DARWIN, Northern Territory, Australia
      Read More...
Nuke

Fukushima: The Real Cause of Nuclear Crisis


The Japan Times
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:08 UTC
fukushima on fire
© n/a
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), the operator of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Station, has been insisting that the culprit that caused the nuclear crisis was the huge tsunami that hit the plant after the March 11 earthquake. But evidence is mounting that the meltdown at the nuclear power plant was actually caused by the earthquake itself.

According to a science journalist well versed in the matter, Tepco is afraid that if the earthquake were to be determined as the direct cause of the accident, the government would have to review its quake-resistance standards completely, which in turn would delay by years the resumption of the operation of existing nuclear power stations that are suspended currently due to regular inspections.

The journalist is Mitsuhiko Tanaka, formerly with Babcock-Hitachi K.K. as an engineer responsible for designing the pressure vessel for the No. 4 reactor at the ill-fated Fukushima nuclear plant.

He says if the earthquake caused the damage to the plumbing, leading to a "loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA)" in which vaporized coolant gushed into the containment building from the damaged piping, an entirely new problem - "vulnerability to earthquake resistance of the nuclear reactor's core structure" - would surface and that this will require a total review of the government's safety standards for nuclear power plants in Japan, which is quite frequently hit by earthquakes.
      Read More...
Snowflake

Canada: Want a white Christmas this year? Try heading north

Jordana Divon
The Daily Brew
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknown
Dust off that old Bing Crosby record, because according to Environment Canada, the only white Christmas we'll likely be enjoying this year is the one coming from our speakers.

"Right now if you were an odds maker I'd be betting a few loonies on the fact there will be a few more areas than last year that will be green rather than white this Christmas," the agency's senior climatologist, Dave Phillips, told CTV News.

A white Christmas tends to involve at least two centimetres of snow on the ground come December 25.

With the exception of our northern compatriots up in Yellowknife, Whitehorse, and Iqaluit, who never met a December that wasn't blanketed in the stuff, the rest of us can expect little more than a polite dusting on the front yard.

Although cities like Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, and Winnipeg have each had varying amounts of snow up to now, the showing is paltry compared to previous years.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

UK: 100mph Storms On Their Way

David Jarvis
The Express, UK
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:54 UTC
Severe Winter Storm
© Express.co.uk
Travelling conditions will again be treacherous with more flooding expected.
Britain was told to brace itself for the worst weather in 30 years - with forecasts of gale-force winds, snow, sleet and torrential rain.

The Met Office issued a weather warning of gales as strong as 100mph and a freezing wind chill factor bringing the coldest week of the winter so far.

Experts said there will be little respite until the New Year with more brutal weather during the run-up to Christmas.

Motoring organisations urged the public to heed the warnings and plan journeys carefully to avoid the "carpet bomb" weather heading our way.

And there were fears that already hard-hit retailers will take another financial wallop as Christmas shoppers may be put off by the extreme elements from stepping out on the high street.

A double whammy of two deep Atlantic low-pressure systems is forecast to smash in from the South-west later tonight.

High winds and rain will lash most of England with the South and Northern Ireland expected to take the brunt of the gales and storm-force winds. Snow and sleet is likely on higher ground as far south as Dartmoor and Exmoor and on the North Downs.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Draft U.N. Climate Accord Emerges, Debate Turns Ugly

Jon Herskovitz and Nina Chestney
Reuters
Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:35 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Rogan Ward
Greenpeace activists hold a mock party opposite the venue where the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17) is being held, in Durban December 10, 2011.
The chairwoman of U.N. climate talks urged delegates to approve a compromise deal on fighting global warming in the interests of the planet, but an accord remained elusive on Sunday and rich and poor states traded barbs over the limited scope of the package.

South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said the four separate texts represented a good outcome after two weeks of sometimes angry debates in the port city of Durban.

"I think we all realize they are not perfect. But we should not let the perfect become the enemy of the good and the possible," she told the conference.

Much of the discussion has focused on an EU plan designed to push major polluters -- from developed and fast-growing emerging economies like China and India -- to accept legally binding cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions.

EU negotiators had accepted "legal instrument" in one draft as a phrase implying a more binding commitment. But the latest version spoke of a "protocol, another legal instrument or a legal outcome," the sort of weak phrasing that almost collapsed the talks on Friday.

Comment: The EU using flawed science and emotional manipulation to push for greater control in the affairs of economies posing a threat to the collapsing Eurozone economies (who, hypocritically, have quite happily been polluting and destroying the environment since the Industrial revolution started).

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts