June
10, 2013 – CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – An asteroid the size of a small truck zoomed past Earth
four times closer than the moon on Saturday, the latest in a parade of visiting
celestial objects that has raised awareness of potentially hazardous impacts on
the planet.
June
10, 2013 – LEBANON – Lebanese troops blocked streets in Beirut with tanks and barbed wire for
several hours on Sunday after the killing of a protester outside the Iranian
embassy raised factional tensions already inflamed by the war in Syria. A man
died during a clash between rival groups of Shi’ite Muslims after militiamen
from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement opened fire when protesters drew up
at the embassy, the latest sign of Syria’s violence spilling over to its
neighbors.June 10, 2013 – ECOLOGY – A new and annoying species of ant is terrorizing the U.S. and chemicals that kill off other types of the insect are proving ineffective against it. The ‘crazy’ ant, named for the erratic trail it leaves as it makes its way across the country, originated in Argentina and Brazil. But since it was first spotted in Houston in 2002, it has spread to some 21 counties in Texas, 20 counties in Florida and a few locations in Mississippi and Louisiana. University of Texas researcher and co-author of a study on the creatures Ed LeBrun said the omnivorous ants attack and kill other species as well as monopolizing food sources to the detriment of the entire ecosystem. He said everything from cattle to songbirds are at risk of the tiny ants, despite them being at the bottom of the food chain. According to ABC News, the chemicals that kill the more common red ant aren’t effective on crazy ants so residents should call pest control if they find an infestation in their home. And hopefully they’ll get there before the critters attack their computer. The insects, bizarrely, are attracted to electrical wiring and components and in one year alone caused $146.5 million in damages in Texas, ABC reported. The devastation occurs when one ant discovers the transformer then gets electrocuted when it touches it, and ‘waves its abdomen in the air’ omitting a certain scent. The scent lures for ants to the scene and they too are electrocuted, again sending the scent into the air to attract their friends.
June 10, 2013 – BONN, GERMANY – German authorities urged 15,000 more people to flee their homes in a city on the swollen Elbe River Sunday as central Europe’s worst floods in a decade also threatened Hungary after causing havoc in the Czech Republic and Austria. The river Danube reached a new record high in Budapest but the Hungarian capital’s mayor sought to ease concerns, saying water levels were stabilizing, although about 1,200 people were evacuated along the river. The deluge has also sparked massive emergency responses in Austria and Slovakia. A torrent of flood waters in Germany has turned vast areas into a brown water world, sparked a mass mobilization of emergency workers and caused billions of euros in damage.
June
10, 2013 – CZECH REPUBLIC – Expectations
that Central Europe’s flooding would ease this week were put on hold following heavy rainfall over the
weekend, as the Vltava and Elbe rivers swelled again to near critical levels in
the Czech Republic while the flood wave moving through northern Germany
triggered more evacuations. Forecasters are expecting more thunderstorms in
parts of southern Germany, just as recovery efforts were beginning to get under
way after the worst
flooding seen in some areas in 500 years. And in Hungary, floodwaters were moving southwards after water levels stabilized in
Budapest. The situation was worsening along the Elbe in northern Germany, where
a dike burst overnight, cutting off high-speed train connections between Berlin
and most western German cities.
June
10, 2013 –
INDONESIA - As the Indonesian Volcanological Survey (VSI) specified
in its latest bulletin, parts of the active lava dome of the volcano have recently
(early June) grown higher than the northern crater rim, where it is cut by a
valley extending to the northern feet of the stratovolcano. Therefore,
potential continued growth of the dome poses the risk of rockfalls and
pyroclastic flows reach the northern flanks, where a number of villages are
located, namely Pasilulu and Talen. In addition, VSI scientists have detected
an increase of seismicity and degassing since early May. This includes volcanic
tremor from growing lava dome and deeper earthquakes, possibly related to new
magma rising, and the occurrence of notable sulfur smell.
June
10, 2013 – KAMCHATKA – Russia’s
northernmost active volcano
is churning out ash to a height of up to 9,000 meters (29,500 feet) in the
country’s Far East, local scientists said Monday. The 3,283-meter (10,771-foot)
Shiveluch volcano increased activity in May 2009 and has been periodically
spewing ash from three to ten kilometers. “Video monitoring of the volcano was
complicated due to poor weather conditions, but seismological stations
registered over the past 24 hours almost 150 local seismic activities with the
most continued one accompanied by a spew of ash up to a height of 6.9
kilometers, give or take 2.2 kilometers,” a local department of the Geophysical
Service with the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement. The
Kamchatkan volcano Shiveluch has thrice emitted columns of hot volcanic ash and
gas. The tallest plume reached nine kilometers above the sea level, the
Kamchatkan branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Geophysical Service
reported on Monday. A code orange alert was issued for the volcano.
June
11, 2013 – SPACE – Every
summer, something strange and wonderful happens high above the North
Pole. Ice crystals begin to cling to the smoky remains of meteors,
forming electric-blue clouds with tendrils that ripple hypnotically against the
sunset sky. Noctilucent
clouds—a.k.a. “NLCs”–are a delight for high-latitude sky watchers, and
around the Arctic Circle their season of visibility is always eagerly
anticipated. News flash: This year, NLCs are getting an early start. NASA’s AIM
spacecraft, which is orbiting Earth on a mission to study noctilucent clouds,
started seeing them on May 13th. “The 2013 season is remarkable because it
started in the northern hemisphere a week earlier than any other season that
AIM has observed,” reports Cora Randall of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and
Space Physics at the University of Colorado. “This is quite possibly earlier
than ever before. The early start is extra-puzzling because of the solar
cycle. Researchers have long known that NLCs tend to peak during solar
minimum and bottom-out during solar maximum—a fairly strong anti-correlation.
“If anything, we would have expected a later start this year because the solar
cycle is near its maximum,” Randall says. “So much for expectations.” For sky
watchers, this means it’s time to pay attention to the sunset sky, where NLCs
are most often seen.
June 10, 2013 –
INDONESIA - As the Indonesian Volcanological Survey (VSI) specified
in its latest bulletin, parts of the active lava dome of the volcano have recently
(early June) grown higher than the northern crater rim, where it is cut by a
valley extending to the northern feet of the stratovolcano. Therefore, potential
continued growth of the dome poses the risk of rockfalls and pyroclastic flows
reach the northern flanks, where a number of villages are located, namely
Pasilulu and Talen. In addition, VSI scientists have detected an increase of
seismicity and degassing since early May. This includes volcanic tremor from
growing lava dome and deeper earthquakes, possibly related to new magma rising,
and the occurrence of notable sulfur smell.
June
11, 2013 – ALASKA - A
weak eruptive activity has started from the volcano. Since last night, weak ash emissions have
appeared from the central cone of the caldera of the volcano. The new activity
is accompanied by a persistent steam plume and increasing volcanic tremor. So
far there seem to be no lava flows or other significant eruptive processes. The
new ash emissions are very diluted and reach about 200-300 m height. They were
first observed on the Aviation camera of Perryville from last night at around
17-18h local time. AVO who has not yet reported about the ash confirmed to Blog
Culture Volcan that the plume indeed contains very small amounts of ash, which
pose no problems to aviation (for now). The volcano last erupted in 2008. –Volcano Discovery
June 11, 2013 – GERMANY - Thousands
of people left their homes in eastern Germany on Sunday as a dam burst on the swollen
River Elbe and swathes of farmland were flooded in an attempt to spare towns,
with meteorologists forecasting more rain. In Magdeburg, one of the oldest
cities in eastern Germany and a regional capital, some 23,000 people were asked
to evacuate as water levels in the Elbe rose to a record 7.48 meters, around 5
meters above normal and surpassing the level reached in devastating floods in
2002. “We helped yesterday to carry sandbags to secure the town.
June
12, 2013 – WASHINGTON – The
EU is demanding assurances that Europeans’ rights are not being infringed by massive, newly
revealed US surveillance
program. Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding plans to raise the concerns with
US Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday. Last week a series of leaks by a
former CIA worker led to claims the US had a vast surveillance network with
much less oversight than previously thought. The US insists its snooping is
legal under domestic law. The Obama administration is investigating whether the
disclosures by former CIA worker Edward Snowden were a criminal offence. More
revelations are promised to be released to the press in coming days about the
extent of U.S. domestic spying. Mr. Snowden’s employer, defense contractor Booz
Allen Hamilton, said on Tuesday it had fired the 29-year-old infrastructure analyst for violating its ethics code.
June 12, 2013 – COLORADO – Thick smoke plumes, visible for miles, billowed from
fires near Colorado Springs, in southern Colorado, and in Rocky Mountain
National Park to the north. A wildfire in a residential area northeast of Colorado Springs
forced mandatory evacuations of 2,530 homes, including some worth more than $1
million, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said. Video from a helicopter
showed several large homes engulfed in flames.
June 12, 2013 - BRUSSELS - The
US National Security Agency (NSA) snoops on all EU member states and on Germany
the most, new data reveals. A color-coded map of secret surveillance activities by the NSA ranks
countries according to how much they are surveilled – green for the least and
red for the most watched. All EU member states have variant shades of green
except for Germany, which is color-coded orange. The NSA tool, called Boundless
Informant, is among the documents disclosed by 29-year-old Edward Snowden who
has since sought refuge in Hong Kong. Snowden, who has worked at the NSA for
the past four years on a number of outside contracts, said some NSA analysts
have blanket power to spy on anyone for any reason. “I, sitting at my desk,
certainly had the authority to wire-tap anyone … even if you are not doing
anything wrong, you are being watched and recorded,” he told The Guardian
newspaper. Boundless Informant reveals that some 3 billion pieces of metadata
intelligence was gathered over a 30-day period, says The Guardian. Metadata
includes calls made, location of the phone, time of the call and duration. The
tool comes with an operational handbook and says it uses “big data technology
to query SIGINT [signals intelligence] collection in the cloud to produce near
real-time business intelligence describing the agency’s available SIGINT
infrastructure and coverage.” It notes that the tool is “hosted entirely on
corporate services” and is designed to, without any human intervention, to
graphically display collected data in map view, bar chart, or simple table. The
tool is able to create a “near real-time snapshot” of collection ability at any
given moment. “The tool allows users to select a country on a map and view the
metadata volume and select the details about the collection against that
country,” notes the handbook. Boundless Informant, along with the revelation of
the secret-Prism programme and the extent of the US Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, has confirmed what a handful of EU
privacy experts have long suspected. The amended FISA grants the US government
powers to collect foreign intelligence on information stored in US Cloud
computing providers like Google or Amazon. Caspar Bowden, a former chief
privacy adviser to Microsoft, told this website in January that the amended
FISA intentionally targets non-US persons who are engaged in any sort of activity
that relates to the conduct of foreign affairs of the United States. But US
justice department spokesperson Dan Boyd said his country’s data laws give high
protection. “We believe the US standards are at least as strong as those
governing intelligence collection in European Union Member States,” Boyd told
EUobserver in an email in January. Boyd said the FISA Amendments Act is not
used indiscriminately or for political purposes. He said the law has a judicial
branch oversight through the so-called Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
(FISC). “A careful and unbiased examination of US law demonstrates how strongly
we carry out this commitment to protecting privacy,” said Boyd. Meanwhile, the
FISC found the NSA activities unconstitutional in a 2011 opinion whose details
have never been fully disclosed. The US justice department, in a rare public
ruling on Friday (7 June), urged that the FISC opinion remain out of sight. –
June 13, 2013 – CHICAGO - A gigantic line of powerful thunderstorms could affect one in five
Americans as it rumbles from Iowa to Maryland packing hail, lightning and
tree-toppling winds. Meteorologists are warning that the continuous line of
storms may even spawn an unusual weather event called a derecho, which is a massive
storm of strong straight-line winds spanning at least 240 miles. Wednesday’s
storms are also likely to generate tornadoes and cause power outages that will
be followed by oppressive heat.
June 13, 2013 – MEXICO - A cluster of several (7) volcanic earthquakes up to magnitudes 2.4 has
occurred this morning, perhaps heralding some more vigorous activity in the
near future. Apart from this, activity has remained stable with about 2 weak
steam-gas-sometimes ash-containing explosions per hour. A steam plume often
rises about 1 km above the volcano. Meanwhile, Mauna Loa may be stirring in
Hawaii. The large volcanic system last erupted in 1984. The latest update of
the USGS mentions that minor inflation of a shallow magma reservoir beneath
Mauna Loa may be occurring. Seismicity rates were slightly elevated. However,
the level of observed seismicity is far from alarming and the alert level
remains at green. No eruption is expected in the near future.
June
13, 2013 – PHILIPPINES – Restive
Taal Volcano in Batangas
province showed heightened activity after at least nine volcanic quakes were
recorded around it in the past 24 hours, according to the Philippine Institute
of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs). Paulo Reniva, science research
assistant of the Phivolcs’ Volcano Monitoring Division, said these quakes were
monitored from 7 a.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. yesterday. Phivolcs recorded seven
volcanic quakes in a previous 24-hour observation period.
June
13, 2013 – INDONESIA - An earthquake
measuring 6.7 on
the Richter scale has struck off Indonesia’s most densely-populated island of
Java, but there have been no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
According to the US Geological Survey, the quake took place at 11:47 pm (1647
GMT) on Thursday and was centered some 170 kilometers (106 miles) east of
Flying Fish Cove, on Australia’s Christmas Island. The US Geological Survey
also said that the quake was 11 kilometers (7 miles) deep. The tremor has
reportedly forced panicked residents and hotel guests to flee into the streets
in Kawalu, West Java province.
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