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Saturday, May 13, 2006

Indonesian authorities have ordered the compulsory evacuation of thousands of residents living on the slopes of the volcano Mount Merapi in Central Java. The alert level has been raised to the highest level, warning of an imminent eruption of the volcano that has been rumbling for weeks and spewing lava and black ash.

“This morning we raised the status of Merapi to the top alert which is the red code” said Subandrio, head of the Merapi section at the Centre for Volcanological Research and Technology Development.

“Every resident has been ordered to evacuate.”

“Because there has been constant lava flows that cause hot gases, we have raised the status to the highest level,” said Bambang Dwiyanto, head of the region’s vulcanology center.

More than 1,000 people who live closest to the crater, including the elderly and mothers with young children, have already been evacuated. But some residents have remained reluctant to leave; they fear losing property and livestock. 27,000 locals in 3 villages could be affected by this eruption.

The scientists have warned that the greatest danger could come from hot gasses expelled from the volcano’s crater.

The 3,000m (9,700ft) peak, in densely populated Central Java province, is one of 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia and part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” – a series of volcanoes stretching from the Americas through Japan and Southeast Asia.

It has small eruptions every 3-4 years and larger eruptions every 10-15 years. It has produced more pyroclastic flows, popularly known as heat cloud and magma, than any other volcano in the world. A gas cloud from the volcano’s last eruption in 1994 killed 60 people. During the eruption in 1930, 1,300 people died. Historians say that Mount Merapi has been active for 10,000 years. The locals consider Mount Merapi very sacred. According to the local folklore the volcano’s eruption is the result of spirits being angered by not receiving sufficient offerings or by a disrespectful attitude among the people on the slopes.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Methane gas was blamed for the explosion deaths of 8 miners in southern Polish‘s Halemba coal mine Tuesday, November 21. Officials say at least 15 are missing.

Rescue efforts were halted because dangerously high levels of methane gas returned, according to Zbigniew Madej, spokesman for state-owned Coal Co., which operates the mine.

The missing miners’ locater devices were not emitting signals, increasing rescurers’ concerns for their well-being. Grzegorz Pawlaszek, head of Coal Co., said the 15 missing miners’ fate is “not known,” but added that “there is a chance to find someone still alive.”

“This is a tragedy. People have died here,” Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said when he came to Ruda Slaska to see the blast.

Earlier Wednesday, a reconnaissance rescue team descended 3000 feet toward the blast scene, only to retreat because of safety concerns related to high methane gas levels. Rescue digging efforts were also halted because of explosion concerns.

The missing men were aged 21-59. One of the miner’s family members, Andrzej Pytlik, 30, remained on scene with his sister, hoping and waiting for news of her husband, Krystian Gaszka.

Pytlik, also a miner, said through teary eyes that, “I work in the mines and I know that hope is scant because that’s the truth.”

The explosion occurred in a closed portion of the mine where the now-missing miners were working to retrieve abandoned equipment. According to Pawlaszek, the value of the equipment was $23 million, adding that “It was new equipment and that is why we decided to retrieve it.”

He indicated that the recovery work was performed under the supervision of gas detection specialists, and that the bodies of the recovered miners were difficult to identify because of the severity of burns and because their ID tags were blown away in the explosion.

The Halemba mine, located in Ruda Slaska, has produced coal for nearly 50 years, has been fraught with safety concerns and has a track record of serious accidents. One of the oldest mines in Poland, it is centrally located in the industrial Silesia region.

Earlier this year, a miner was trapped underground in the Halemba mine five days after a cave-in. In 1990, 19 miners were killed and 20 hurt in a gas explosion, and five were killed in collapse in 1991.

Inside, priests and mining officials were comforting and counseling with distraught relatives. Outside, eight white candles flickered on a main gate wall.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has issued border alerts for specific protein ingredients, imported from China, that may be incorporated into products destined for human consumption.

Inspectors from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) will hold products, such as wheat and corn gluten, as well as soy and rice proteins until they can be tested for melamine, the contaminant found to have sickened pets through its use in pet food. If determined to be free of melamine, the ingredients will be released to the intended recipient. Materials such as glutens and protein powders are used commonly in many forms of food products.

The CFIA said it was not acting on specific information, but rather taking a cautious approach to human protection. “That’s why we have the border lookout for the ingredient, so that we can proactively assess any potential that the product is contaminated,” Paul Mayers of the CFIA told CBC News.

Since the border alert for melamine is a new procedure, the government can’t be sure if the contaminant made it into the food chain previously. The CFIA acknowledged that the same Chinese company under suspicion in the tainted pet food affair had shipped wheat gluten to a Canadian company, which in turn used it in food for fish farms. Although the fish were subsequently eaten by people, the CFIA believes the health risk from such consumption would be low.

In related news, Canadian researchers at the University of Guelph believe they may have determined the mechanism of how melamine caused illness in cats and dogs.

Both cyanuric acid and melamine were found in urine samples from pets that died after consuming contaminated pet food. The two compounds react with one another to form crystals that may block kidney function, researchers at the university said. The researchers observed crystals formed in cat urine by the addition of melamine and cyanuric acid. The composition of these crystals matches those found in the urine of affected pets when compared by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

“You wouldn’t normally expect to find those compounds in pet food, and hence nobody was really looking for it,” said John Melichercik, director of analytical laboratory services. “It’s just another piece of the puzzle along the way in this particular pet-food issue.”

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Citing anger over state policies, commissioners from the northeastern Colorado counties of Weld, Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, Washington, Yuma, and Kit Carson expressed interest, at a meeting last week, in withdrawing from Colorado to form a new U.S. state, named “North Colorado”.

Commissioners from each county met at the Colorado Counties, Inc. Conference Wednesday, and discussed the proposal. It stems from rural Colorado’s perceived isolation from the rest of the state as a result of such Denver policies as stricter gun control laws, agricultural regulation, and oil and gas regulation. According to the commissioners, the “[s]traws that broke the camel’s back” in support of secession, included Colorado Statute S.B. 252, which Governor John Hickenlooper signed last week to increase renewable energy standards in rural Colorado. Local energy companies consider the statute too costly to their industry. In addition, Weld County commissioner Sean Conway, who proposed the idea, argues that though revenue from his county’s agricultural and oil and gas sectors account for 70 percent of Colorado’s state budget, state funds for the county’s schools and road improvements remain low.

The counties could place the idea on the ballot as soon as the November 2013 elections. According to Tom Norton, Mayor of Greeley, the largest city in what would be North Colorado, many people in his city are upset over the state government. A poll on the city’s The Tribune newspaper website shows 49.66 percent support the idea of seceding from Colorado, while 44.15 percent oppose it, and 6.19 percent believe the counties should instead secede from the U.S.

Nevertheless, seceding from a U.S. state requires permission from both the U.S. Congress and the original state legislature. Steve Mazurana, a former professor of Political Science at the University of Northern Colorado, sees this as the death of idea: “All the rest of the states are not going to want to share their federal aid with this new state…And the state is not going to give up oil and gas money on a whim.”

Since the 1863 secession of West Virginia from Virginia, no state has successfully seceded. The three most recent efforts all failed in 2011. Chicago was unable to secede from Illinois, Florida could not be split in half, and the southern part of Arizona could not break away to create Baja Arizona.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Methane gas was blamed for the explosion deaths of 8 miners in southern Polish‘s Halemba coal mine Tuesday, November 21. Officials say at least 15 are missing.

Rescue efforts were halted because dangerously high levels of methane gas returned, according to Zbigniew Madej, spokesman for state-owned Coal Co., which operates the mine.

The missing miners’ locater devices were not emitting signals, increasing rescurers’ concerns for their well-being. Grzegorz Pawlaszek, head of Coal Co., said the 15 missing miners’ fate is “not known,” but added that “there is a chance to find someone still alive.”

“This is a tragedy. People have died here,” Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said when he came to Ruda Slaska to see the blast.

Earlier Wednesday, a reconnaissance rescue team descended 3000 feet toward the blast scene, only to retreat because of safety concerns related to high methane gas levels. Rescue digging efforts were also halted because of explosion concerns.

The missing men were aged 21-59. One of the miner’s family members, Andrzej Pytlik, 30, remained on scene with his sister, hoping and waiting for news of her husband, Krystian Gaszka.

Pytlik, also a miner, said through teary eyes that, “I work in the mines and I know that hope is scant because that’s the truth.”

The explosion occurred in a closed portion of the mine where the now-missing miners were working to retrieve abandoned equipment. According to Pawlaszek, the value of the equipment was $23 million, adding that “It was new equipment and that is why we decided to retrieve it.”

He indicated that the recovery work was performed under the supervision of gas detection specialists, and that the bodies of the recovered miners were difficult to identify because of the severity of burns and because their ID tags were blown away in the explosion.

The Halemba mine, located in Ruda Slaska, has produced coal for nearly 50 years, has been fraught with safety concerns and has a track record of serious accidents. One of the oldest mines in Poland, it is centrally located in the industrial Silesia region.

Earlier this year, a miner was trapped underground in the Halemba mine five days after a cave-in. In 1990, 19 miners were killed and 20 hurt in a gas explosion, and five were killed in collapse in 1991.

Inside, priests and mining officials were comforting and counseling with distraught relatives. Outside, eight white candles flickered on a main gate wall.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Realising how visual a medium tattooing is, tattoo artist Kat Von D of TV series LA Ink set a world record while raising funds to fight childhood blindness. In 24 hours, Von D tattooed 400 people with an “LA” logo, in her West Hollywood, California tattoo shop.

The December event at High Voltage Tattoo drew 1000 people in line, although only 400 could get the image emblazoned on them, for a $20 donation. Most learned of the event through her MySpace profile. In all, the funds raised will help 32,000 children’s eyesight, through Vitamin Angels.

Vitamin Angels is the only organization in the world solely dedicated to eradicating vitamin A definciency among children, with the goal of warding off youth blindness by 2020. The year 2020 is chosen because perfect vision is described as “20/20“.

First in line at the event was Jose Flores, who had camped out in front of the store since 7:15 the previous evening. Doors didn’t open until 10 am, and Flores didn’t get the tattoo until Von D was done with her friends and family, including internet celebrity Jeffree Star.

A Guinness World Records official was scheduled to attend, but was caught in a snow storm.

Katherine Von Drachenberg told the Los Angeles Times that, as a teenager, she “be at the mall and parents would grab their kids and be like, ‘Honey!’ It was like that scene in Pretty Woman, where the women on Rodeo Drive think Julia Roberts is going to shoplift. Now people just come up to me more out of curiosity — everyone from grandmas to soccer moms.”

The record setting event was filmed for LA Ink, a series that airs Tuesday nights on TLC in the United States. The series is a spin-off of Miami Ink, a series featuring Von D’s previous place of employ, before she set off on her own.

The series’ second season started last night, however that particular episode will air March 4.

Monday, July 3, 2006

A 15-year-old, whose name has not been released for legal reasons, is in court charged with murder after he dropped an eight-kilogram concrete block on a car and killed the driver.

Christopher Currie was driving along Auckland‘s southern motorway in a Honda Civic car last August when the concrete block smashed through the windscreen killing him instantly.

“[The] accused stood on the over bridge and timed the release of the concrete block to hit a car passing underneath” prosecutor Aaron Perkins told the High Court. The accused was positioned so that the driver was unable to see them and take evasive action. They later ran from the scene of the crime and bragged to friends about it.

The defence says that the accused did not mean to murder anyone.

There were three other passengers in the car which the Crown is scheduled to call on to give evidence, along with 33 other witnesses.