Week of 7/7/13 through 7/13/13

   July 10, 2013 – BEIJING — Flooding in western China, the worst in 50 years for some areas, triggered a landslide Wednesday that buried about 30 people, trapped hundreds in a highway tunnel and destroyed a high-profile memorial to a devastating 2008 earthquake. Meanwhile, to the northeast, at least 12 workers were killed when a violent rainstorm caused the collapse of an unfinished coal mine workshop they were building, said a statement from the city government of Jinzhong, where the accident occurred.

July 9, 2013 – JAPAN – VAAC Tokyo reported a small ash plume from the volcano at 5,000 ft (1.5 km) elevation today. Likely, some stronger strombolian-type explosion has occurred at the volcano, whose activity is similar to Stromboli in Italy. –Volcano Discovery

    July 9, 2013 – CHINA – More than 20,000 tons of bright green algae has washed ashore on China’s beaches in recent weeks, but there’s disagreement as to what caused the massive bloom. The algae began washing ashore about a month ago in the city of Qingdao in China’s eastern Shandong province, as it does every year. But this year’s bloom is estimated to be twice the size of 2008′s, when the Beijing Olympic sailing event was threatened by a similar bloom.

 July 9, 2013 – ROMA, IT (AKI) – Minor earthquakes shook several areas of central and southern Italy overnight, but there were no reports of casualties or damage to buildings. A magnitude 3.5 earthquake rocked the provinces of Massa Carrara and Lucca in Tuscany at 1.31 am.                   

July 9, 2013 – TORONTO, CAN – Epic rainfall devastates Toronto:  More than a month's rain falls in less than 2 hours - Like nothing we've ever seen.  It is official: the epic rainfall in Toronto on Monday afternoon that drenched highways, had cars bobbing up and down in rainwater and overwhelmed 911 was an extreme weather event. No, experts say, it wasn’t because of climate change. But yes, we will likely see more storms like it. “This is likely the wettest moment in Toronto’s history.

 

July 9, 2013 – TAIWAN – Taipei would be devastated if a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, which struck central Taiwan’s Nantou in June, hit the capital, Interior Minister Lee Hong-yuan said Monday. The quake could bring down 4,000 buildings in Taipei, Lee said during a speech — on coping with and adjusting to climate change — at the Taichung City Hall. On June 2, an earthquake of 6.3 magnitude struck Nantou’s Jhushan Township, causing the death of four people. In his speech, the minister also cautioned the public to be prepared to deal with the effects of climate change. Lee, a former civil engineering professor, said Taiwan’s average temperature increases by around 1.5% a year, which is double the annual global rate. –Focus Taiwan

 Blood in the streets of Egypt

July 9, 2013 – EGYPT - With its people more polarized than ever and the military once again struggling to impose calm, Egypt’s downward spiral appears to have no bottom. At least 51 people were killed Monday when army and police forces opened fire on a sit-in during morning prayers. The protesters outside Republican Guard headquarters said they were peacefully calling for the release of the Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, whom the military deposed last week. The army said it responded to a “terror group” firing weapons and hurling Molotov cocktails. Stunned but not deterred by the violence, the Islamists quickly called for a national uprising.

July 8, 2013 – EGYPT – A bloodthirsty gang is filmed flinging r­ivals to their deaths from the top of a building, as violence spirals out of control in Egypt. Horrific scenes captured on a mobile phone and posted on YouTube show a group of men surrounded by captors in the north-east city of Alexandria, the Sunday People can report.

July 8, 2013 – MEXICO - The intensity of the current eruptive phase for Mexico’s Popocatépetl volcano remains high. A phase of particularly strong tremor accompanying continuous explosions and ash emissions occurred this morning. As a consequence of the elevated activity,

July 8, 2013 - Johannesburg, SA – The epicenter of a Lowveld earthquake that caused local residents some anxious moments on Sunday was right next the Vygeboom Dam, near Badplaas, Beeld reported. The earthquake, which registered 4.7 on the Richter scale, was felt as far away as Komatipoort and areas of Swaziland, but no major damage was reported.

July 8, 2013 – EL SAVADOR - A strong earthquake struck the Pacific coast of El Salvador on Sunday evening, shaking buildings in San Salvador, and sending residents running out into the street. There were no immediate reports of damage from the 5.9 magnitude quake, which according to the U.S. Geological Survey was centered 24 miles south-southeast of the capital, just off shore and 60 miles below ground

July 8, 2013 - California

Female prison inmates in California were sterilized without state approval in recent years, according to a new report by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

An inmate at California Institute for Women state prison in Chino, Calif., hugs her daughter during a Mother's Day visit.

Doctors in California prisons sterilized nearly 150 female inmates between 2006 and 2010 without state approval, according to a report.
The Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that doctors at two women’s prisons in California sterilized 148 women between 2006 and 2010 after they gave birth, with as many as 100 more in the years before that and without following proper procedures.
California, which has a long history of forced sterilization, banned the procedure in state prisons in 1979. Because of the state’s grim history, a number of laws were put in place including that state-funded tubal ligations (having one's fallopian tubes tied) be approved by a medical review committee and that inmates must give consent. Because of this, it would be illegal to pressure a female inmate to agree to the procedure while she is going through labor or childbirth.
But former inmates at the California Institution for Women in Corona and the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla claim they were pressured to undergo the procedure while they were pregnant and in prison. Doctors allegedly targeted inmates they thought were likely to be repeat offenders or already had many children.

July 7, 2013

Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude	6.8
Date-Time	·         7 Jul 2013 20:30:07 UTC ·         8 Jul 2013 06:30:08 near epicenter ·         7 Jul 2013 15:30:07 standard time in your timezone
Location	6.024S 149.748E
Depth	61 km
Distances	·         30 km (18 mi) NE of Kandrian, Papua New Guinea ·         68 km (42 mi) SW of Kimbe, Papua New Guinea ·         315 km (195 mi) ENE of Lae, Papua New Guinea ·         334 km (207 mi) SW of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea ·         472 km (292 mi) NE of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

July 7, 2013

Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude	7.2
Date-Time	·         7 Jul 2013 18:35:30 UTC ·         8 Jul 2013 04:35:30 near epicenter ·         7 Jul 2013 13:35:30 standard time in your timezone
Location	3.939S 153.882E
Depth	378 km
Distances	·         110 km (68 mi) ENE of Taron, Papua New Guinea ·         185 km (114 mi) ENE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea ·         311 km (192 mi) NW of Arawa, Papua New Guinea ·         374 km (231 mi) ESE of Kavieng, Papua New Guinea ·         904 km (560 mi) NW of Honiara, Solomon Islands

July 7, 2013 – JAPAN - A possible small eruption occurred this morning. Tokyo VAAC received a (pilot) report of an ash plume rising to 7,000 ft (2.1 km) and drifting 40 nautical miles to the north of the small island. No ash could be detected on satellite images, and sometimes weather clouds are mistaken for ash plumes. On the other hand, the volcano has had relatively frequent small eruptions during the past centuries and new activity would not be a surprising event. The volcano’s last eruption was in 1968. –Volcano Discovery

Types of Tithing

There are 4 types of "giving"

A. There are 4 types of "giving" in the Bible…Tithing…First Fruits…Alms…Sowing Seeds Giving is…to be focused on meeting of peoples needs! "Giving" in the New Testament was focused on meeting "people needs." Its goal was to enable others to simply survive, or to carry on ministries recognized as important by the church. It is not surprising then to discover that the term used for "giving" in this New Testament context is not the typical Greek word for making a gift. Instead the New Testament adopts the Greek word koinonia, which means "sharing." As Christians shared life in Christ, their family relationship was expressed by a sharing of financial and material resources. Paul pointed to other believers and to Jesus, whose love moved them to give, first themselves and then money. Paul was pleased that the Corinthians had earlier expressed a strong Willingness (2 Cor. 8:10-12) desire to help. But the Corinthians needed to carry their intentions through to completion, "according to your means." This is an important factor in grace giving. Paul said it again. "If the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have." On the one hand, one need not be a millionaire for his or her contribution to be significant. Even the gifts of those who have little and can give little are acceptable. What God is concerned with is the willingness: the love that motivates the believer to share (cf. Luke 21:1-4). What Paul pointed out is that, at present, the plenty enjoyed by the Corinthians could supply others' needs. In their turn those others might one day supply the Corinthians when they had needs. The body image is appropriate here. Just as the food we take in is digested and distributed to all parts of the body, in order that every bodily part can function, so the funds God supplies to believers are to be shared with those in need so they can live and function as God intends. And, as Paul had shown earlier, it permits us to experience the faithfulness of God who is able, and does supply our needs as we use our material possessions to help our brothers and sisters. Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. 1. Tithing - obedience Rules regarding tithing - Deuteronomy 14:23-24 Bring this tithe to the place the LORD your God chooses for his name to be honored, and eat it there in his presence. This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds. Now the place the LORD your God chooses for his name to be honored might be a long way from your home. The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to fear the LORD your God and obedience to His law and commandments . Tithing…a tenth - brings about protection over your income. Promise regarding tithing - Malachi 3:10-12 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD Almighty, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you! Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease (Hebrew from the devourer). Your grapes will not shrivel before they are ripe," says the LORD Almighty. "Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight," says the LORD Almighty. In this passage in Malachi we have an accusation by God that He was being robbed; we have a command to bring all the tithes into the storehouse; and we have a challenge by God to prove Him and see if He would cause prosperity. God is under obligation to meet His challenge for His promises cannot and will not go void. Matthew 23:23 "How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest part of your income, but you ignore the important things of the law-justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but you should not leave undone the more important things. also Luke 11:42. Genesis 14:20-22 And blessed be God Most High, who has helped you conquer your enemies." Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered. This memorial pillar will become a place for worshiping God, and I will give God a tenth of everything he gives me." Leviticus 27:30 "A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy. Hebrews 7:6 But Melchizedek, who was not even related to Levi, collected a tenth from Abraham. And Melchizedek placed a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had already received the promises of God. 2. First Fruits - of increase Deuteronomy 26:10 And now, O LORD, I have brought you a token of the first crops you have given me from the ground.' Then place the produce before the LORD your God and worship him. 2 Chronicles 31:5 The people responded immediately and generously with the first of their crops and grain, new wine, olive oil, honey, and all the produce of their fields. They brought a tithe of all they owned. Proverbs 3:9-10 Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the best part of everything your land produces. Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with the finest wine. Ezekiel 20:40 For on my holy mountain, says the Sovereign LORD, the people of Israel will someday worship me, and I will accept them. There I will require that you bring me all your offerings and choice gifts and sacrifices. Ezekiel 44:30 The first of the ripe fruits and all the gifts brought to the LORD will go to the priests. The first samples of each grain harvest and the first of your flour must also be given to the priests so the LORD will bless your homes. 3. Alms…giving out of compassion to the needy (good deeds) Luke 6:30 - 38 not only gives the law of God and the moral obligation to give, but it also gives some laws of prosperity in which we will discuss in part 2 of this lesson on "giving". Luke 6:30-38 Give what you have to anyone who asks you for it; and when things are taken away from you, don't try to get them back. Do for others as you would like them to do for you. "Do you think you deserve credit merely for loving those who love you? Even the sinners do that! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, is that so wonderful? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, what good is that? Even sinners will lend to their own kind for a full return. "Love your enemies! Do good to them! Lend to them! And don't be concerned that they might not repay. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. "Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. Stop criticizing others, or it will all come back on you. If you forgive others, you will be forgiven. If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving-large or small-it will be used to measure what is given back to you." Matthew 6:1-4 "Take care! Don't do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, because then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give a gift to someone in need, don't shout about it as the hypocrites do-blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I assure you, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone, don't tell your left hand what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in secret, and your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you. Luke 11:41 So give to the needy what you greedily possess, and you will be clean all over. Luke 12:33 "Sell what you have and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven have no holes in them. Your treasure will be safe-no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. Acts 3:2-3 As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. Acts 3:10 When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded! Acts 10:2 He was a devout man who feared the God of Israel, as did his entire household. He gave generously to charity and was a man who regularly prayed to God. Acts 10:4 Cornelius stared at him in terror. "What is it, sir?" he asked the angel. And the angel replied, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have not gone unnoticed by God! Acts 10:31 He told me, 'Cornelius, your prayers have been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God! The outcome of grace giving (2 Cor. 9:12-15). Paul now summed up the results of generous giving. It supplies the needs of God's people. It overflows in expressions of thanks to God, and stimulates praise. It demonstrates the obedience (commitment) that is appropriate to our profession of faith. It generates prayers for the giver by the one who receives. And, as Paul had shown earlier, it permits us to experience the faithfulness of God who is able, and does supply our needs as we use our material possessions to help our brothers and sisters. 4. Sowing Seed Giving as sowing (2 Cor. 9:6-11). Paul turned to another image that had its roots in the Old Testament. Sharing with others is like sowing seed: the more generously one sows the more he or she will reap. This is not a promise that one who sends in $7 will get $77 in return. Instead it is an affirmation of God's ability to out give His people. "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." The conviction that God is able to supply our needs is intended to free us to give generously, without fear that we will deprive ourselves or our family by responding to meet the needs of others. In this context Paul said that "each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." Again, Paul was careful not to place believers under any obligation to give, and not to specify any percentage as appropriate. Each is to give "what he has decided in his heart," and that decision is not to be made reluctantly or under compulsion. Matthew 13:2 where an immense crowd soon gathered. He got into a boat, where he sat and taught as the people listened on the shore. Matthew 13:24 Here is another story Jesus told: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. 2 Corinthians 9:10 For God is the one who gives seed to the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will give you many opportunities to do good, and he will produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Leviticus 26:4 I will send the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees will produce their fruit. Leviticus 27:16 "If you dedicate to the LORD a piece of your ancestral property, its value will be assessed by the amount of seed required to plant it-fifty pieces of silver for an area that produces five bushels of barley seed. Job 5:6 But evil does not spring from the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the earth. Psalm 126:6 They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest. Ecclesiastes 11:6 Be sure to stay busy and plant a variety of crops, for you never know which will grow-perhaps they all will. Zechariah 8:12 For I am planting seeds of peace and prosperity among you. The grapevines will be heavy with fruit. The earth will produce its crops, and the sky will release the dew. Once more I will make the remnant in Judah and Israel the heirs of these blessings. Sowing financially into God's kingdom work…gives back much in return…what is it that you have a need of. When you sow (plant) financially into God's kingdom work… for an individual situation or need… God is faithful to answer your plea out of the sacrifice of your heart.

Week of 6/31/13 through 7/6/13

July 6, 2013 – HAWAII – Very weak unrest in the form of inflation and seismic activity continues at the largest active volcano of our earth, which has not erupted since 1984. However, this activity is not strong enough to justify a raise of the alert level from green “normal” to yellow “unrest.” There is currently no sign that Mauna Loa will erupt any time soon. HVO reports in its monthly update: “Minor inflation of a shallow magma reservoir beneath Mauna Loa may be occurring. Seismicity rates were slightly elevated.

July 6, 2013 – INDONESIA – A strong 6.4-magnitude quake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Saturday, the US Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued.

July 6, 2013 – NEPAL - Landslides and floods triggered by several weeks of monsoon rains have killed at least 50 people in mainly remote parts of Nepal, a government official said Thursday. “So far, 50 people from across the country have been killed by landslides and floods,” said Lakshmi Prasad Dhakal, chief of National Emergency Operation Centre, which monitors natural disasters in Nepal.

July 5, 2013 – SOLOMON ISLANDS – A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands on Friday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, but there was no immediate tsunami warning issued. The tremor, at a depth of 72 kilometers (45 miles), hit at 4.16am local time (17:16 GMT Thursday) 81km south of the town of Panguna in Papua New Guinea.

July 5, 2013 – CANADA - Half a million Hydro-Québec customers were without power at rush hour for the second straight day, as widespread outages caused by forest fires in northern Quebec affected transmission lines.

July 5, 2013 – MEXICO – Four U.S. airlines temporarily suspended flights to and from Mexico City on Thursday after a volcano 50 miles from the capital spewed ash, a spokesman for the city’s international airport said. Three to eight flights on American Airlines, U.S. Airways, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Air Group have been postponed so far, Richard Jimenez, a representative for Mexico City’s international airport told Reuters.

July 5, 2013
Valley Fever might be enough to scare you off moving to California. Officially called coccidioidomycosis, or cocci for short, it's wreaking all sorts of havoc, including forcing the California Department of Corrections to move 2,600 Central Valley prisoners at high risk for contracting it to new digs. Doctors fighting the airborne fungal infection, which is especially prevalent in California and Arizona, describe hellish symptoms from skin lesions to stroke. It can also eat away bones and attack the brain. Winemaker Todd Schaefer, 48, thinks he contracted the disease 10 years ago while riding around on his tractor. Since then, he has suffered a stroke, a hole in his lung and near-fatal heart episodes. Not to scare you any more, but there is no known cure and incidents are on the rise with over 20,000 cases reported annually.[Source]

July 4 2013

Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude	6.1
Date-Time	·         4 Jul 2013 17:16:00 UTC ·         5 Jul 2013 04:16:00 near epicenter ·         4 Jul 2013 12:16:00 standard time in your timezone
Location	7.039S 155.644E
Depth	72 km
Distances	·         81 km (50 mi) SSE of Panguna, Papua New Guinea ·         92 km (57 mi) S of Arawa, Papua New Guinea ·         478 km (296 mi) SE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea ·         543 km (336 mi) WNW of Honiara, Solomon Islands ·         630 km (390 mi) ESE of Kimbe, Papua New Guinea

July 4, 2013 – LONDON - A man infected with a SARS-like respiratory illness has died in London, officials said. The Qatari man, who was being treated in an intensive care unit at St Thomas’s hospital in central London, had contracted the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus – or MERS-CoV. Hospital officials said that the man, who was 49 when he was admitted, died after his condition deteriorated. 

  

July 3, 2013 – CAIRO — An adviser to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi said Wednesday that a military coup was underway, that tanks were on the move outside Cairo and that communication with the president had been cut off. As a military deadline came and went for Morsi to step aside, the army took control of state television, and boisterous crowds opposed to the regime cheered and danced in Tahrir Square. Representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood, which supports Morsi, also said that some of its leaders had been rounded up and arrested. Earlier in the day, both the president and the military had sworn a fight to the death.  

July 3, 2013 – SAUDI ARABIA – Two more Saudi Arabians have died of MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) infections, the Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) reported today. 

July 2, 2013 – MICHIGAN - An earthquake of preliminary magnitude 3.6 struck early yesterday, beneath Lake Erie, just outside of Cleveland, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). . – Live Science , Fox8

 July 2, 2013 – ELMWOOD - Local beekeepers are finding millions of their bees dead just after corn was planted here in the last few weeks. Dave Schuit, who has a honey operation in Elmwood, lost 600 hives, a total of 37 million bees. “Once the corn started to get planted our bees died by the millions,” Schuit said. He and many others, including the European Union, are pointing the finger at a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids.

      

July 2, 2013 – ANTARCTICA – Scientists have seen evidence for a colossal flood under Antarctica that drained six billion tonnes of water, quite possibly straight to the ocean. The cause is thought to be a deeply buried lake that suddenly over-topped. Satellites were used to map the crater that developed as the 2.7 km-thick overlying ice sheet slumped to fill the void left by the escaping water.       

July 2, 2013 – NICARAGUA – A seismic swarm has been occurring at the volcano during the past 24 hours, including a magnitude 3.0 earthquake yesterday. This could indicate a magmatic intrusion happening at depth, but so far, no unusual surface activity has been noted. On the other hand, Momotombo volcano is one of Nicaragua’s most frequently active, with 10 recorded historic eruptions between 1524 and 1905, so new activity would not be a big surprise. The last time the volcano erupted was in 1905. –Volcano Discovery      

July 2, 2013 – INDONESIA – Soldiers, police and volunteers fanned out across an earthquake-damaged region of western Indonesia on Wednesday, scouring the debris of fallen homes and landslides for possible victims of a temblor that killed at least 29 people and injured hundreds. The magnitude- 6.1 quake struck Tuesday afternoon at a depth of just 10 kilometers (6 miles) and was centered on the far western tip of Sumatra island in Aceh province. 

 July 2, 2013 – THAILAND – Twenty two schoolchildren aged 13 to 15 were taken to Patong hospital for treatment after they collapsed screaming and crying at morning assembly today (July 1) at Wat Suwankeereewong School in Patong. Dr. Sirichai Silpa-archa, director of Patong Hospital, said that he first heard about the incident from the Narenthorn Emergency Center, which informed him that one boy and 21 girls had been affected. At the hospital staff calmed them down, though some of the more serious cases, suffering from anxiety, seizures, muscle spasms or hyperventilation, were given Valium to calm them down. Psychiatrists were also drafted in to talk to the children. Health staff found that this was the second time in four days that this group had experienced mass hysteria. On Friday (June 28) they were on a visit to the Anti-Narcotics Training Project at Chulabhorn Marine Park Conservation Centre in Thap Lamu, Phang-Nga. After their outbreak of screaming there, they had to be taken to hospital in Phang Nga but all appeared to recover quite quickly. However, this morning, something once again sparked off the hysterics at a perfectly normal morning ceremony at the school. Today, 13 of the students were released and told to go home, another six were also released but were told to call the hospital if they felt strange again, while three remain in hospital for observation. Dr. Sirichai characterized the incidents as “mass psychogenic illness”. – Phuket News

Supernatural culprit? PHUKET: — Nearly two dozen Phuket students were rushed to Patong Hospital this morning after they collapsed screaming and convulsing during morning assembly – three out of the nine students who were administered anesthesia by doctors at the hospital remain there.  According to reports, the culprit seems to be a ghost in the tourist haven Khao Lak who was offended by a girl putting her sarong in an “inappropriate place.” The students, 21 girls and one boy between 13 and 15 years old, collapsed into their screaming frenzy while at morning assembly at Wat Suwan Khiri Wongwere School  at about 8:20am. A teacher at the school who declined to be named told the Phuket Gazette that all of the students affected were taken to Khao Lak on a Scouts camping trip on Friday.  The troop returned yesterday. “While we were on the camping trip, one of the girls hung her sarong in an inappropriate place,” he said, declining to be more specific about where the sarong was placed. “Later, other students reported seeing what seemed to be a woman sitting on that girl’s shoulders.” Stranger, “While we were in Khao Lak, I even had a dream in which a voice told me to take the girl back to where she hung her sarong and apologize,” said the teacher. “But I ignored the dream. It didn’t make sense… Then this happened this morning,” the teacher said. Dr Sirichai Silapa-archa, director of Patong Hospital, told the Gazette, “They were all in shock. They were hyperventilating, so we calmed them down and aided in slowing their breathing.” Thirteen of the students were released from the hospital before lunch, but the other nine were still screaming and convulsing, he said. “We had to put them under general anesthesia so they could sleep and recover while they were unconscious,” said Dr Sirichai. -TVF

    Secret Information Societies: “I want to know what you’re thinking. There are some things you can’t hide.” – Information Society, 1988 – “If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.”  -George Orwell, 1984

July 1, 2013 – EUROPE - The saga of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden took several more twists over the weekend as new revelations about US electronic snooping emerged. Susan Rice says Snowden leaks have no significant diplomatic consequences but Europeans are outraged at the US allegations of espionage. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday that the NSA had bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks where it was able to read documents and emails. United Nations offices were similarly targeted, reports Der Spiegel based on information provided by Mr. Snowden. Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said that if the report was correct, it would have a “severe impact” on relations between the EU and the United States, reports Reuters. “On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the US authorities with regard to these allegations,” he said in an emailed statement. Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn told Der Spiegel: “If these reports are true, it’s disgusting. The United States would be better off monitoring its secret services rather than its allies. We must get a guarantee from the very highest level now that this stops immediately.”

 Rise of the police state: Surveillance of our society is everywhere and will become increasingly more so with time. As prison populations continue to swell, sky-rocketing rates of crime and lawlessness ravage cities, and as terrorism goes high-tech; the emphasis of combating crime will undoubtedly shift more to the arena of prevention and monitoring. Cameras, eavesdropping, digital message intercepts and flying overhead drones, blimps, and satellites will saturate the planet- all furiously and meticulously searching the trail left by your digital information fingerprint. –The Extinction Protocol, pp 460, 461

    July 1, 2013 – EGYPT - The armed men who ransacked the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo on Monday had crossed a red line of violence, the ruling movement told Reuters, adding that it was considering action to defend itself. Gehad El-Haddad, spokesman of the Islamist movement, told Reuters in a telephone interview that Egyptians would not sit by and tolerate attacks on their institutions. “It’s very dangerous for one entity in society to take up violence as a means of change because it may entice others to do so. The Muslim Brotherhood is a disciplined organization,” he said, criticizing the security forces for failing to protect the headquarters in Sunday’s attack. “The people will not sit silent,” the spokesman said.  –Al Alarabiya 
    

      July 1, 2013 – YARNELL, Ariz.— Gusty, hot winds blew an Arizona blaze out of control Sunday in a forest northwest of Phoenix, overtaking and killing 19 members of an elite fire crew in the deadliest wildfire involving firefighters in the U.S. for at least 30 years. The “hotshot” firefighters were forced to deploy their emergency fire shelters — tent-like structures meant to shield firefighters from flames and heat — when they were caught near the central Arizona town of Yarnell, state forestry spokesman Art Morrison told The Associated Press. The flames lit up the night sky in the forest above the town, and smoke from the blaze could be smelled for miles. The fire started after a lightning strike on Friday and spread to 2,000 acres on Sunday amid triple-digit temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions. Officials ordered the evacuations of 50 homes in several communities, and later Sunday afternoon, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office expanded the order to include more residents in Yarnell, a town of about 700 residents about 85 miles northwest of Phoenix. Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said that the 19 firefighters were a part of the city’s fire department. “We grieve for the family. We grieve for the department. We grieve for the city,” he said at a news conference Sunday evening. “We’re devastated. We just lost 19 of the finest people you’ll ever meet.” Hot shot crews are elite firefighters who often hike for miles into the wilderness with chain saws and backpacks filled with heavy gear to build lines of protection between people and fires. They remove brush, trees and anything that might burn in the direction of homes and cities. The crew killed in the blaze had worked other wildfires in recent weeks in New Mexico and Arizona, Fraijo said. “By the time they got there, it was moving very quickly,” Fraijo told the AP of Sunday’s fire. He added that the firefighters had to deploy the emergency shelters when “something drastic” occurred. “One of the last fail safe methods that a firefighter can do under those conditions is literally to dig as much as they can down and cover themselves with a protective — kinda looks like a foil type — fire-resistant material — with the desire, the hope at least, is that the fire will burn over the top of them and they can survive it,” Fraijo said. “Under certain conditions there’s usually only sometimes a 50 percent chance that they survive,” he said. “It’s an extreme measure that’s taken under the absolute worst conditions.” -DMN

 

July 1, 2013 – ECUADOR - The number of earthquakes associated with fluid movement within the volcano has risen from 10 daily earthquakes on June 20 to 54 earthquakes on 29 June. These so-called long period (LP) earthquakes often reflect an increase in pressure inside the volcano. So far, the earthquakes are small and not felt by people. In the afternoon of 29 June, mild fumarolic activity was observed in the crater area. Gas sensors installed near the volcano showed no increase in the concentration of SO2 gas, which suggests that the conduit is currently blocked by a plug, which supports the idea of increasing pressure inside the volcano. Based on the above, IGPEN warns that the pressure build-up could lead to an explosion that destroys the plug, as has happened on other occasions, such as on 16 December last year, and result in new activity of the volcano such as in March and May this year. –Volcano Discovery     

     July 1, 2013 – GEOLOGY - Massive earthquakes can cause distant volcanoes to sink, according to research in Japan and Chile published on Sunday. The magnitude 9.0 tsunami-generating quake that occurred off northeastern Japan in 2011 caused subsidence of up to 15 centimeters (9.3 inches) in a string of volcanoes on the island of Honshu as much as 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the epicenter, a Japanese study said. And the 8.8 magnitude Maule quake in Chile in 2010 caused a similar degree of sinking in five volcanic regions located up to 220km (130 miles) away, according to a US-led paper. It was not clear whether the phenomenon boosted eruption risk, the authors wrote. Both the Japan and Chile quakes were of the subduction type, caused when one part of Earth’s crust slides beneath another. If the movement is not smooth, tension can build up over decades or centuries before it is suddenly released, sometimes with catastrophic effect.  In both cases, the sinking occurred in mountain ranges running horizontally to the quake. The 2011 quake “caused east-west tension in eastern Japan,” Youichiro Takada of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University told AFP in an email. “Hot and soft rocks beneath the volcanoes, with magma at the centre, were horizontally stretched and vertically flattened. This deformation caused the volcanoes to subside.” The researchers for the Chilean volcanoes said subsidence occurred along a stretch spanning 400km (250 miles).

 June 30, 2013 – HAWAII – Breakouts from the Kahaualea 2 lava flow burned forest areas north of Kilauea’s middle east rift zone today as eruption activity continued with little change. Tiltmeters at the Kilauea summit recorded only minor fluctuations, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Seismic tremor levels were also low, according to the observatory. The tiltmeter at Puu Oo cone in the middle east rift zone also recorded only minor fluctuations. According to the observatory, the northeast spatter cone continued to feed the Kahaualea 2 flow, which extended about 1.6 miles to the north. Breakouts fro the flow burned forest at the north edge of a flow field created between 1983 and 1986. A second active front, about 1.2 miles north-northwest of Puu Oo, expanded to the west and burned the edge of the forest to the north, the observatory reported. Meanwhile, the so-called Peace Day flow fed a pair of ocean entries via lava tubes. The main entry area was just east of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park boundary; a smaller entry was located just inside the park. –Star Adviser

Lava Lake: Lava lakes are large volumes of molten lava, usually basaltic, contained in a volcanic vent, crater, or broad depression. The term is used to describe both lava lakes that are wholly or partly molten and those that are solidified (sometimes referred to as frozen lava lakes in this case). There is a lava lake in Marum crater, Ambrym in Vanuatu. Hawaii’s Kilauea has the distinction of having two persistent lava lakes: one in the Halemaʻumaʻu vent cavity within the summit caldera, and another located within the Puʻu ʻŌʻō cone located on the east rift zone of the volcano. The number of lava lakes being reported in volcanoes has increased dramatically in the last 25 years, suggesting more magma from the planet’s interior is seeping towards the surface. – Wikipedia