Luke 21:11
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Pestilence in the Bible
Luke 21:11
Healing Powers of My Lord
Last week, I was working with someone in the safety area and an employee came in with her supervisor concerning high blood pressure. She sat in the office for her blood pressure to be checked again in 15 minutes. I continued to do my work and then began talking to her. She was a Christian and so we talked about God and I prayed for her healing and rebuked the stress in her life. She left to go to the doctor. On the following Monday, she searched me out and thanked me for praying with her and she had claimed the healing. She said she felt better than she had felt in many days.
Praise Christ for healing this woman.
Praise Christ for healing this woman.
Answer to Prayer
I praise God for the answer to prayers. I have been at my current job for over a year and am blessed every day. Last Sunday, a young man with whom I have been encouraging and discussing salvation was baptized in his church. He has become active in the church and will be a strong disciple for the Lord all the days of his life.
My relationship with him started by giving him a book about heaven that was lying on my desk, which I took to work for someone else to read. When they finished the book, it laid on my desk and he happened by.
That day started the dialogue of his walk with the Lord. I thank God for putting me in that spot to touch the life of that young man. Through my prayers and the prayers of his grandmother and mother, and God's answer to those prayers, he will one day live eternity in heaven.
My relationship with him started by giving him a book about heaven that was lying on my desk, which I took to work for someone else to read. When they finished the book, it laid on my desk and he happened by.
That day started the dialogue of his walk with the Lord. I thank God for putting me in that spot to touch the life of that young man. Through my prayers and the prayers of his grandmother and mother, and God's answer to those prayers, he will one day live eternity in heaven.
Week of 6/16/13 through 6/22/13
June 17, 2013 – SAUDI ARABIA – Thirty-three people are dead from MERS, a coronavirus that the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling a “threat to the entire world”. MERS, for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, is a newly discovered virus that causes severe respiratory infection. There have been 58 laboratory-confirmed cases world-wide since the virus was discovered last September. Saudi Arabia claims about half of all cases of MERS. Some 30 people have died. Alarm bells are not over what has been MERS has done, but for what it has the potential to do. These statistics were published by WHO on June 14.
June 18, 2013 – GEOLOGY - A new subduction zone forming off the coast of Portugal heralds the beginning of a cycle that will see the Atlantic Ocean close, as continental Europe moves closer to America. Published in Geology, new research led by Monash University geologists has detected the first evidence that a passive margin in the Atlantic Ocean is becoming active. Subduction zones, such as the one beginning near Iberia, are areas where one of the tectonic plates that cover Earth’s surface dives beneath another plate into the mantle — the layer just below the crust. Lead author Dr João Duarte, from the School of Geosciences said the team mapped the ocean floor and found it was beginning to fracture, indicating tectonic activity around the apparently passive South West Iberia plate margin. “What we have detected is the very beginnings of an active margin — it’s like an embryonic subduction zone,” Dr Duarte said. “Significant earthquake activity, including the 1755 quake which devastated Lisbon, indicated that there might be convergent tectonic movement in the area.
June 18, 2013 – MEXICO – A powerful two-punch earthquake shook western Mexico early Sunday, knocking out electricity and cellular phone service in parts of this sprawling capital. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or fatalities. Initial readings put the quake at a magnitude of 5.8 at around 12:30 a.m., with the epicenter about 90 miles south of Mexico City in the northern part of Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located.
June 18, 2013 – MEXICO – Mexico’s active Popocatepetl volcano has registered a massive explosion spewing ash and incandescent rock almost 4 kilometers high. Authorities have warned that winds could blow the ash cloud as far away as Mexico City. Inhabitants of villages up to 25 kilometers from Popocatepetl (colloquially known as ‘Don Popo’) rushed out of their houses when the massive explosion reverberated through their homes. Esther Matinez, resident of Amecameca municipality, told Mexican publication La Jornada that the blast was like a rocket explosion.
June 18, 2013 – SPACE – Meanwhile on the farside of the sun, an un-numbered active region is seething with activity, and appears capable of significant eruptions. NASA’s STEREO-Behind spacecraft is stationed over the sun’s east limb with a good view of the hot spot (circled): During the early hours of June 18th, a long-duration flare from this active region hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) over the sun’s eastern limb. However, none of the rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) were in the line of fire. In a few days, the sun’s rotation will carry the active region around the eastern limb and onto the Earth-side of the sun. Then we will have a direct view of the underlying sunspot group and be able to better assess its potential for future flares.
June 18, 2013 – INDIA - Rains on Tuesday claimed 11 more lives in North India, taking the toll to 73, even as 71,440 pilgrims bound for the Himalayan shrines remained stranded in monsoon-ravaged Uttarakhand, apart from 1,700 people stuck in Himachal Pradesh. Though rescue efforts picked up in flash flood and landslide-hit areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand with a let-up in the rains and decrease in water level in the Ganga and its tributaries, the whole of Uttarakhand still wore a marooned and devastated look. Hundreds of homes and roads were washed away. Flash floods, cloudbursts and subsequent landslips in Uttarakhand have claimed 44 lives, left as many injured and destroyed 175 houses.
June 18, 2013 – BRAZIL - What started as small protests about higher bus fares has swelled into nationwide, massive anti-government demonstrations in Brazil. Last night, reports O Globo, more than 100,000 protesters filled the streets of Rio de Janeiro, while an additional 65,000 hit the streets of São Paulo. Nothing tells the story quite like this video of the streets of Rio posted by Lucio Amorim on Twitter: Reporting from São Paulo, NPR’s Lourdes Garcia-Navarro tells our Newscast unit that people on the streets are demanding that the government pay attention to them. “The cost of living here is extremely high, there’s a massive rate of inflation, and so people say that they are fed up, that they want their government to do something for them,” Lourdes said.
June 18, 2013 – PAPUA NEW GUINEA - An eruption with a small ash plume was reported this morning and VAAC Darwin issued an advisory. A low level ash plume was also visible on Nasa’s Aqua Modis image at 15:45 UTC. This is the volcano’s second eruption this year. The volcano unleashed an ash cloud in early January. –Volcano Discovery
June 19, 2013 – ALASKA - Taking advantage of an intense heat-wave that broke long-standing records yesterday, residents of Anchorage, Alaska headed to the beach at Goose Lake. As The Anchorage Daily News reports, the National Weather Service recorded a high temperature of 81 degrees in the city, beating the previous record set in June of 1926. The AP reports that in other spots, it got in even hotter: “All-time highs were recorded elsewhere, including 96 degrees on Monday 80 miles to the north in the small community of Talkeetna, purported to be the inspiration for the town in the TV series, ‘Northern Exposure’ and the last stop for climbers heading to Mount McKinley, North America’s tallest mountain. One unofficial reading taken at a lodge near Talkeetna even measured 98 degrees, which would tie the highest undisputed temperature recorded in Alaska. “That record was set in 1969, according to Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the online forecasting service Weather Underground. “This is the hottest heat wave in Alaska since ‘69,’ he said.
June 19, 2013 – SOUTH CAROLINA – On the seafloor just off of the U.S. East Coast lies a barely known world, explorations of which bring continual surprises. As recently as the mid-2000s, practically zero methane seeps — spots on the seafloor where gas leaks from the Earth’s crust — were thought to exist off the East Coast; while one had been reported more than a decade ago, it was thought to be one of a kind. But in the past two years, additional studies have revealed a host of new areas of seafloor rich in seeps, said Laura Brothers, a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. New technologies have allowed scientists to keep locating new seeps, including one that may be the largest in the world. The findings have changed geologists’ understanding of the processes taking place beneath the seafloor. “These newly discovered [seafloor] communities show that there is much more seafloor methane venting then we previously thought, and suggests that there are many more seeps out there that we don’t know about,” Brothers said.
An even larger, previously unknown vent was found off the coast of Virginia, in research by Steve Ross, a scientist at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and Sandra Brooke, a scientist at Florida State University. Discovered near the Norfolk submarine canyon, the vent is the largest in the Atlantic, and possibly in all of the world’s oceans, Ross told LiveScience. North America’s continental shelf, the underwater edge of the continent that borders the Atlantic Ocean basin, is littered with underwater canyons etched by rivers thousands of years ago when the region was above sea level. These canyons remain little explored, Ross said. But he is helping to change that through his work aboard the Okeanos Explorer, a ship owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which for the last three years has been working to explore these submarine canyons. Scientists locate the seeps by producing images of methane gas bubbles (and where they originate) using multi-beam sonar, which calculates the amount of time and distance it takes for sound waves to travel from the ship to the bubbles and back. The same technique also produces detailed imagery of the seafloor. Remote-operated vehicles can then be dispatched to bring back photos of the ocean bottom, Ross said. All of these techniques are being used to document the gas seeps, he said.
June 19, 2013 – TURKEY – German and Turkish scientists on Tuesday said they had pinpointed an extremely dangerous seismic zone less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the historic heart of Istanbul. Running under the Sea of Marmara just south of the city of some 15 million people, this segment of the notorious North Anatolian fault has been worryingly quiet in recent years, which may point to a buildup in tension, they wrote. “The block we identified reaches 10 kilometers (about six miles) deep along the fault zone and has displayed no seismic activity since measurements began over four years ago,” said Marco Bohnhoff, a professor at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) in Potsdam, near Berlin. “This could be an indication that the expected Marmara earthquake could originate there.” The North Anatolian fault, created by the collision of the Anatolia Plate with the Eurasia Plate, runs 1,500 kilometers (950 miles) along northern Turkey. At the western tip of the fault, an earthquake took place in 1912 at Ganos near the Aegean Sea. On its eastern side, a domino series of earthquakes in 1939, 1942, 1951, 1967 and 1999 displaced the stress progressively westwards, bringing it ever closer to Istanbul. What is left now is a so-called earthquake gap under the Sea of Marmara, lying between the two fault stretches whose stress has been eased by the quakes. The “gap” itself, however, has not been relieved by an earthquake since 1766. Seeking a more precise view of the gap, the GFZ and Istanbul’s Kandilli Earthquake Observatory set up a network of seismic monitors in the eastern part of the sea. They calculate that the Anatolian fault normally has a westward motion of between 25 and 30 millimeters (one to 1.2 inches) per year.
Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a reported
shooting outside the Kellum Law Firm and a Wal-Mart in Greenville, N.C., Friday,
June 21, 2013.
/ WNCT According to the station, Greenville Police Chief Hassan Aden confirmed a suspect was in custody at about 1:15 p.m.
Police reportedly fired on the shooter after he turned the weapon on authorities. Aden said the shooter's condition is unknown, the station reports.
Aden reportedly said both the Kellum Law Firm and the Wal-Mart in Greenville are now considered crime scenes. He added that the victims were shot in both locations, according to the station. Another was reportedly shot outside the retail store.
The station reports witnesses said that a man with a rifle and a bullet-proof vest walked up and shot an insurance adjustor who was hiding behind a car.
The condition of the victims was not immediately available.
June 20, 2013 – CHILE – A magnitude-5.7 earthquake shook central Chile on Wednesday, causing buildings to sway in the capital but apparently causing no major damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 17:29 p.m. local time and its epicenter was about 60 kilometers (37 miles) east-north-east of Los Andes, Chile. Officials discarded the possibility of a tsunami and said there were no immediate reports of deaths or damages. Chile is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries. A magnitude-8.8 quake and the tsunami it unleashed in 2010 killed more than 500 people and destroyed 220,000 homes. –ABC
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Week of 6/9/13 through 6/15/13
June 9, 2013 – IRAN - Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has opened a new center for monitoring space and tracking objects passing near the Earth. Ahmadinejad visited the center in the town of Delijan, some 200 kilometers south of Tehran, on June 9, accompanied by Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi and other officials.
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
11, 2013 – FRANCE - A natural phenomenon more common for America, a tornado, has hit the
South of France shocking locals and holidaymakers on the Côte d’Azur, the
Mediterranean coastline. As thousands in Central Europe are struggling to cope
with devastating floods which have already claimed the lives of at least 21
people, a tornado ripped through the French Riviera on Sunday morning. The
violently rotating column of air and water formed off the coast not far from
popular resort towns of Cannes and Nice. The phenomenon was observed from the
Cagnes-sur-Mer commune in southeastern France, rising off to Villeneuve-Loubet
and Antibes, reports Nicematin.com. So far, no damage or injury has been
reported.
June 13, 2013 – JAPAN – After 10 days of almost no activity, the volcano has woken up
violently with 3 powerful explosions last night (at 22:05 and 23:58 UTC, ash
plumes to 10-13,000 ft) and this morning at 04:26. The eruption this morning
appears to be one of the largest explosions for a long time, producing an ash
plume rising to 16-20,000 ft (5-6 km) altitude. An SO2 plume is also visible on
satellite data. Tokyo VAAC issued a warning of an ash plume drifting SE at
flight level 200 (20,000 ft altitude), s. graphic.
June 15, 2013 – VENUZELA – The number of H1N1 swine flu cases rose sharply in Venezuela during the last week of May, the health ministry said Wednesday, refusing to disclose whether any deaths have been linked to the outbreak. Health Minister Isabel Iturria, explaining why deaths would not be reported, blamed “political or economic interests” for creating alarm over the outbreak. The ministry said there were 414 new cases of H1N1 in the week from May 26 to June 1, pushing the total number of cases from 724 to 1,138.
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.
Week of 6/2/13 through 6/8/13
June 2, 2013 – SPACE – Earth is pushing the moon away faster now than it has for most of the past 50 million years, mostly a result of tides, a U.S. researcher says. Matthew Huber of Purdue University says his models of the influence of tides on the moon’s orbit help solve a longstanding mystery concerning the moon’s age, NewScientists.com reported Wednesday.
June 2, 2013 – ISRAEL - Iran could have enough launchers to send a salvo of medium range ballistic missiles that would overwhelm Israeli ballistic missile defense systems, according to a Wednesday report from IHS Jane’s.
June 2, 2013 – MOSCOW - Russia plans to resume nuclear submarine patrols in the southern seas after a hiatus of more than 20 years following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Saturday, in another example of efforts to revive Moscow’s military.
June 2, 2013 – TAIWAN – A strong earthquake jolted Taiwan on Sunday, killing two people and injuring at least 18 others and causing panicked shoppers to rush out of a shaking multi-story department store, officials said. Another earthquake jolted the southern Philippines late Saturday, injuring at least 33 people and damaging more than 140 houses. The tremor that hit Taiwan on Sunday afternoon was felt all over the island, but most severely in the central and southern regions. The magnitude-6.3 quake’s epicenter was near Jenai township in Nantou County in central Taiwan, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Taipei.
June 3, 2013 – ONTARIO – Canadian Pacific says there is no indication that a freight train derailment east of Sudbury on Sunday poses a danger to the public or the environment. CP spokesman Ed Greenberg says one of the rail cars derailed and as a result struck a trestle bridge near the community of Wanup.
June 3, 2013 – CALIFORNIA – A trio of drought-fueled wildfires raged in New Mexico and California on Sunday, with the biggest blaze forcing the evacuation of more than 2,000 people from their homes north of Los Angeles. The Powerhouse wildfire in California’s Lake Hughes area, about 65 miles outside Los Angeles, destroyed six houses and was threatening more than 1,000 others.
June 3, 2013 – SIBERIA - A layer of snow on the second day of summer has put the citizens of the Russian city of Kemerovo completely out of humor. Meteorologists say the anomaly occurred because a cyclone brought cold Arctic air from Kara Sea region into Siberia dropping, temperature to lows typical for summer north of the Arctic Circle. Bloggers were at a loss when commenting the issue. “Snow in Kemerovo TODAY? That’s hardcore. The weather must’ve forgot it’s June.” “With a sense of terror has just learnt it’s been snowing in Kemerovo.
June 3, 2013 – NEW ZEALAND – MetService has issued severe weather watches for parts of the country. Westland, Buller, Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Wellington, Wairarapa, Bay of Plenty and Rotorua are among the regions set to face heavy rain and wild weather over the next 24 hours.Pictures sent to ONE News show heavy snow has been causing disruptions for motorists on the last day of the long weekend.
June 3, 2013 – EUROPE – Authorities in parts of Europe issued disaster warnings and scrambled to reinforce flood defenses as rivers swelled by days of heavy rain threatened to burst their banks. Several people have died or are missing in the floods in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland since the rains began on Thursday. The floods have killed at least one person and left several missing across the Czech Republic.
June 3, 2013 – DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The earthquakes experienced today in Carmen town, North Cotabato and the rest of Mindanao will possibly last for weeks or months.
June 3, 2013 - Volcano awakening? Meanwhile, De Ocampo belied claims of some residents that a new volcano was discovered in Kibudtungan village in Carmen town. Ayna Sison, a resident in the area, said Phivolcs personnel allegedly told her grandfather of a “newly found” volcano located near the site where he lives. The volcano was said to be “inverted.”
June 3, 2013 – CONFLICT - Three of the world’s nuclear powers — China, India and Pakistan — have increased their arsenals over the past year, while the other five have cut their strength or kept it stable, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Monday. China now has 250 nuclear warheads against 240 in 2012, while Pakistan has increased its warheads by about 10 to between 100 and 120 and India has also added roughly 10 for a total of 90 to 110, SIPRI said in its annual report.
June 4, 2013 – SOUTH AFRICA – Bitter cold conditions, heavy rains and hail have wreaked havoc in Cape Town, South Africa, with a new cold front set to arrive on Monday. The mountains close by have seen heavy snowfall. Wilfred Solomons-Johannes of Cape Town Disaster Management told the media that 2,266 people have been affected by floods on the Cape Flats. Around 550 houses have been damaged in Bishop Lavis, Guguletu, Hout Bay, Khayelitsha, Philippi and Strand. in Athlone, Elsies River, Langa and Parow Valley, roofs were blown off houses.
June 4, 2013 - OKLAHOMA – The National Weather Service reported Tuesday that the killer tornado that struck near Oklahoma City last Friday was a ferocious EF5 twister, which had winds that neared 295 mph. An EF5 tornado, the highest number on the “Enhanced Fujita Scale of Tornado Intensity,” is any tornado that has wind speeds of 200 mph or higher.
June 4, 2013 – ISRAEL - Syria, defeated by Israel in three wars and afraid its arch enemy had gained a nuclear arsenal, began in earnest to build a covert chemical weapons program three decades ago, aided by its neighbors, allies and European chemical wholesalers.
June 4, 2013 – SYRIA - In another bizarre twist to Syria’s tragic civil war, opposition forces are now claiming that officers from the North Korean army are aiding the fight against the rebels in an effort to bolster Bashar al-Assad.
June 5, 2013 – HAWAII – A moderate earthquake struck in the deep ocean off Hawaii Island this afternoon but did not generate a tsunami, officials said. The quake, with a magnitude of 5.3, struck at about 2:12 p.m. and was centered 34 miles southeast of Pahala and 31 miles south of Kalapana, at a depth of about 25 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake initially was listed as a magnitude 5.2, briefly upgraded to 5.6 before USGS scientists reassessed and downgraded it to a magnitude 5.3. No tsunami was generated.
June 5, 2013 – SOLOMON ISLANDS - A 6.1-magnitude earthquake has struck off the Solomon Islands, the US Geological Survey says, but no immediate tsunami warning has been issued. The tremor, at a depth of 64 kilometers, hit in the Santa Cruz Islands, some 89 kilometers south of the remote town of Lata, where a tsunami left at least 10 people dead in February.
June 5, 2013 –CONGO, AFRICA – Eleven years after an eruption of Mount Nyiragongo devastated the sprawling lakeside city of Goma, killing hundreds of people, eastern Congo’s armed conflict is preventing scientists from predicting the volcano’s next deadly explosion. With its plume of ash and steam reaching high into the sky, the brooding Nyiragongo is one of the world’s most active volcanoes and a constant menace to the city of 1 million people, whose streets are still scarred by solidified lava.
June 6, 2013 – TECHNOLOGY - The U.S. National Security Agency is collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon Communications customers, according to a secret court order obtained and published by the Guardian newspaper’s website. The order marked “Top Secret” and issued by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court directs Verizon’s Business Network Services Inc and Verizon Business Services units to hand over electronic data including all calling records on an “ongoing, daily basis” until the order expires on July 19, 2013.
June 6, 2013 – HONOLULU — Part of what makes living in Hawaii so pleasant is the gentle breeze. Arriving from the northeast, it’s light enough that it is barely noticeable but strong enough to chase away the humidity. It’s a natural draw to the outdoors. It is not uncommon to show up at a house to find its residents relaxing out in the covered porch or in the car port, not their living room, and enjoying the cooling winds — and a cool drink. Nowadays, experts say, these breezes, called trade winds, are declining, a drop that’s slowly changing life across the islands. The effects can be seen from the relatively minor, such as residents unaccustomed to the humidity complaining about the weather and having to use their fans and air conditioning more often, to the more consequential, including winds being too weak to blow away volcanic smog. The winds also help bring the rains, and their decline means less water.
June 6, 2013 – INDONESIA – An small eruption occurred last Sunday (2 June) at 8:43 am (local time), preceded by a rise in seismic activity reported by the local volcano observatory. An ash explosion produced a small rising 300-600 m and light ash fall at Gunung Tujuh about 20 km away. According to local news, the sudden eruption caused panic among inhabitants of Sungai Rumpun village and several evacuated their homes. Some climbers, who were on the volcano at the time of the explosions, returned unharmed.
June 6, 2013 – FLORIDA – The first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Andrea, formed Wednesday over the Gulf of Mexico and was expected to bring wet weather to parts of Florida’s Gulf coast over the next few days.
June 7, 2013 – WASHINGTON – The FBI and the National Security Agency are tapping directly into servers at Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Skype and other major Internet companies to keep track of the communications and interactions of known and suspected foreign terrorists, the Washington Post reported late Thursday. The report is based on an allegedly top-secret document that the Post obtained containing information on a classified data collection program code-named PRISM that was launched about six years ago. The two agencies allegedly accessed audio, video, email, photographs, documents and connection logs purportedly to help counterterrorism analysts track the movements and interactions of foreign nationals thought to pose a threat to the U.S.
June 8, 2013 – NICARAGUA – New eruptions occurred yesterday. The volcano produced a series of 7 small ash emissions between 06:45 to 11:43 am (local time). The explosions were very small and ash plumes only rose up to about 100 m above the crater. The new eruptions were followed by a rise in seismic activity in the form of tremor, which rose to about 3 times normal levels during the afternoon.
June 2, 2013 – ISRAEL - Iran could have enough launchers to send a salvo of medium range ballistic missiles that would overwhelm Israeli ballistic missile defense systems, according to a Wednesday report from IHS Jane’s.
June 2, 2013 – MOSCOW - Russia plans to resume nuclear submarine patrols in the southern seas after a hiatus of more than 20 years following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Saturday, in another example of efforts to revive Moscow’s military.
June 2, 2013 – TAIWAN – A strong earthquake jolted Taiwan on Sunday, killing two people and injuring at least 18 others and causing panicked shoppers to rush out of a shaking multi-story department store, officials said. Another earthquake jolted the southern Philippines late Saturday, injuring at least 33 people and damaging more than 140 houses. The tremor that hit Taiwan on Sunday afternoon was felt all over the island, but most severely in the central and southern regions. The magnitude-6.3 quake’s epicenter was near Jenai township in Nantou County in central Taiwan, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Taipei.
June 3, 2013 – ONTARIO – Canadian Pacific says there is no indication that a freight train derailment east of Sudbury on Sunday poses a danger to the public or the environment. CP spokesman Ed Greenberg says one of the rail cars derailed and as a result struck a trestle bridge near the community of Wanup.
June 3, 2013 – CALIFORNIA – A trio of drought-fueled wildfires raged in New Mexico and California on Sunday, with the biggest blaze forcing the evacuation of more than 2,000 people from their homes north of Los Angeles. The Powerhouse wildfire in California’s Lake Hughes area, about 65 miles outside Los Angeles, destroyed six houses and was threatening more than 1,000 others.
June 3, 2013 – SIBERIA - A layer of snow on the second day of summer has put the citizens of the Russian city of Kemerovo completely out of humor. Meteorologists say the anomaly occurred because a cyclone brought cold Arctic air from Kara Sea region into Siberia dropping, temperature to lows typical for summer north of the Arctic Circle. Bloggers were at a loss when commenting the issue. “Snow in Kemerovo TODAY? That’s hardcore. The weather must’ve forgot it’s June.” “With a sense of terror has just learnt it’s been snowing in Kemerovo.
June 3, 2013 – NEW ZEALAND – MetService has issued severe weather watches for parts of the country. Westland, Buller, Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Wellington, Wairarapa, Bay of Plenty and Rotorua are among the regions set to face heavy rain and wild weather over the next 24 hours.Pictures sent to ONE News show heavy snow has been causing disruptions for motorists on the last day of the long weekend.
June 3, 2013 – EUROPE – Authorities in parts of Europe issued disaster warnings and scrambled to reinforce flood defenses as rivers swelled by days of heavy rain threatened to burst their banks. Several people have died or are missing in the floods in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland since the rains began on Thursday. The floods have killed at least one person and left several missing across the Czech Republic.
June 3, 2013 – DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The earthquakes experienced today in Carmen town, North Cotabato and the rest of Mindanao will possibly last for weeks or months.
June 3, 2013 - Volcano awakening? Meanwhile, De Ocampo belied claims of some residents that a new volcano was discovered in Kibudtungan village in Carmen town. Ayna Sison, a resident in the area, said Phivolcs personnel allegedly told her grandfather of a “newly found” volcano located near the site where he lives. The volcano was said to be “inverted.”
June 3, 2013 – CONFLICT - Three of the world’s nuclear powers — China, India and Pakistan — have increased their arsenals over the past year, while the other five have cut their strength or kept it stable, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Monday. China now has 250 nuclear warheads against 240 in 2012, while Pakistan has increased its warheads by about 10 to between 100 and 120 and India has also added roughly 10 for a total of 90 to 110, SIPRI said in its annual report.
June 4, 2013 – SOUTH AFRICA – Bitter cold conditions, heavy rains and hail have wreaked havoc in Cape Town, South Africa, with a new cold front set to arrive on Monday. The mountains close by have seen heavy snowfall. Wilfred Solomons-Johannes of Cape Town Disaster Management told the media that 2,266 people have been affected by floods on the Cape Flats. Around 550 houses have been damaged in Bishop Lavis, Guguletu, Hout Bay, Khayelitsha, Philippi and Strand. in Athlone, Elsies River, Langa and Parow Valley, roofs were blown off houses.
June 4, 2013 - OKLAHOMA – The National Weather Service reported Tuesday that the killer tornado that struck near Oklahoma City last Friday was a ferocious EF5 twister, which had winds that neared 295 mph. An EF5 tornado, the highest number on the “Enhanced Fujita Scale of Tornado Intensity,” is any tornado that has wind speeds of 200 mph or higher.
June 4, 2013 – ISRAEL - Syria, defeated by Israel in three wars and afraid its arch enemy had gained a nuclear arsenal, began in earnest to build a covert chemical weapons program three decades ago, aided by its neighbors, allies and European chemical wholesalers.
June 4, 2013 – SYRIA - In another bizarre twist to Syria’s tragic civil war, opposition forces are now claiming that officers from the North Korean army are aiding the fight against the rebels in an effort to bolster Bashar al-Assad.
June 5, 2013 – HAWAII – A moderate earthquake struck in the deep ocean off Hawaii Island this afternoon but did not generate a tsunami, officials said. The quake, with a magnitude of 5.3, struck at about 2:12 p.m. and was centered 34 miles southeast of Pahala and 31 miles south of Kalapana, at a depth of about 25 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake initially was listed as a magnitude 5.2, briefly upgraded to 5.6 before USGS scientists reassessed and downgraded it to a magnitude 5.3. No tsunami was generated.
June 5, 2013 – SOLOMON ISLANDS - A 6.1-magnitude earthquake has struck off the Solomon Islands, the US Geological Survey says, but no immediate tsunami warning has been issued. The tremor, at a depth of 64 kilometers, hit in the Santa Cruz Islands, some 89 kilometers south of the remote town of Lata, where a tsunami left at least 10 people dead in February.
June 5, 2013 –CONGO, AFRICA – Eleven years after an eruption of Mount Nyiragongo devastated the sprawling lakeside city of Goma, killing hundreds of people, eastern Congo’s armed conflict is preventing scientists from predicting the volcano’s next deadly explosion. With its plume of ash and steam reaching high into the sky, the brooding Nyiragongo is one of the world’s most active volcanoes and a constant menace to the city of 1 million people, whose streets are still scarred by solidified lava.
June 6, 2013 – TECHNOLOGY - The U.S. National Security Agency is collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon Communications customers, according to a secret court order obtained and published by the Guardian newspaper’s website. The order marked “Top Secret” and issued by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court directs Verizon’s Business Network Services Inc and Verizon Business Services units to hand over electronic data including all calling records on an “ongoing, daily basis” until the order expires on July 19, 2013.
June 6, 2013 – HONOLULU — Part of what makes living in Hawaii so pleasant is the gentle breeze. Arriving from the northeast, it’s light enough that it is barely noticeable but strong enough to chase away the humidity. It’s a natural draw to the outdoors. It is not uncommon to show up at a house to find its residents relaxing out in the covered porch or in the car port, not their living room, and enjoying the cooling winds — and a cool drink. Nowadays, experts say, these breezes, called trade winds, are declining, a drop that’s slowly changing life across the islands. The effects can be seen from the relatively minor, such as residents unaccustomed to the humidity complaining about the weather and having to use their fans and air conditioning more often, to the more consequential, including winds being too weak to blow away volcanic smog. The winds also help bring the rains, and their decline means less water.
June 6, 2013 – INDONESIA – An small eruption occurred last Sunday (2 June) at 8:43 am (local time), preceded by a rise in seismic activity reported by the local volcano observatory. An ash explosion produced a small rising 300-600 m and light ash fall at Gunung Tujuh about 20 km away. According to local news, the sudden eruption caused panic among inhabitants of Sungai Rumpun village and several evacuated their homes. Some climbers, who were on the volcano at the time of the explosions, returned unharmed.
June 6, 2013 – FLORIDA – The first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Andrea, formed Wednesday over the Gulf of Mexico and was expected to bring wet weather to parts of Florida’s Gulf coast over the next few days.
June 7, 2013 – WASHINGTON – The FBI and the National Security Agency are tapping directly into servers at Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Skype and other major Internet companies to keep track of the communications and interactions of known and suspected foreign terrorists, the Washington Post reported late Thursday. The report is based on an allegedly top-secret document that the Post obtained containing information on a classified data collection program code-named PRISM that was launched about six years ago. The two agencies allegedly accessed audio, video, email, photographs, documents and connection logs purportedly to help counterterrorism analysts track the movements and interactions of foreign nationals thought to pose a threat to the U.S.
June 8, 2013 – NICARAGUA – New eruptions occurred yesterday. The volcano produced a series of 7 small ash emissions between 06:45 to 11:43 am (local time). The explosions were very small and ash plumes only rose up to about 100 m above the crater. The new eruptions were followed by a rise in seismic activity in the form of tremor, which rose to about 3 times normal levels during the afternoon.
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