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10 in the first 11 days of August....
http://standeyo.com/NEWS/10_Health/100813.plane.crashes.html
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/192899/Q-A-Why-should-we-change...
Q&A: WHY SHOULD WE CHANGE THE CLOCKS?
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Why do we need to change the clocks to have an extra hour of daylight?
Friday August 13,2010
By Daily Express Reporter
Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(5)
WHY do we need to change the clocks to have an extra hour of daylight?
Longer, brighter evenings would make roads safer, cut energy bills, benefit the environment and boost tourism, according to campaigners. It would also
mean people could do more activities in the evenings, particularly in
the winter months.
How will it save lives?
Evidence shows that up to 80 lives a year would be saved on Britain’s roads as millions of journeys would take place in daylight rather than the
dark.Road safety campaigners argue that children would be safer as most
accidents involving them take place after school, not before.
What will happen to the tourist industry?
Experts predict the industry would earn an extra £4billion a year and create 80,000 jobs. Attractions such as Alton Towers would be able to stay open
later, particularly in the spring and autumn when the nights begin to
close in. The Scottish skiing industry would also benefit. Pubs and
restaurants could reap the rewards as more people would be willing to go
out after work if it is lighter.
What are the benefits to the environment?
Environmental groups say brighter evenings could save almost 500,000 tons of CO2 each year, equivalent to taking 185,000 cars off the road permanently, as
people would drive less. Household bills could also go down as people
spend more time outdoors.
How would the change happen?
“Double Summer Time” could be achieved by not turning the clocks back one autumn, after which the usual cycle of putting the clocks forward an
hour in spring and back an hour in autumn would resume.
The change would bring the country in line with much of the rest of Europe.
When is the change likely to happen?
The change could be implemented next autumn – it needs to go through Parliament first. David Cameron has signalled his willingness to pursue
the issue but he needs the support of the public. A three-year trial is
the most likely prospect at the moment.
FROM SAVING LIVES TO MONEY, THE SWITCH TICKS ALL THE BOXES
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David Cameron has promised to look at the idea
Friday August 13,2010
By John Ingham, Environment Editor
Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(1)
SWITCHING to British Summer Time all year round would save lives and money and boost the economy without any cost to the country, supporters claim.
They include the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents which estimates that single BST in winter and double BST in summer – SDST – would prevent 450 deaths and injuries on
the roads each year.
It cites a winter trial of BST between 1968 and 1971 when road accident deaths and serious injuries dropped by 11 per cent in England and 17 per
cent in Scotland.
Four years ago the Department for Transport estimated that the change would save about 100 lives a year on the road.
ROSPA says preventing this many deaths would save the country about £200million. Changing permanently to BST increases evening daylight
while reducing the hours of daylight in the early morning when fewer
people are up and about.
ROSPA says that extra evening daylight would protect vulnerable road users like children, the elderly and cyclists by making them more visible to
motorists.
It argues that from November to February there are 50 per cent more fatal and serious injuries from 4pm to 7pm compared with 7am to 10am, and three times as
many among children in the peak hours from 3pm to 6pm compared with 7am
to 10am.
But there would also be other benefits, including lower energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions.The Energy Saving Trust has estimated that SDST would save
one per cent of the UK’s energy, cutting bills by £260million a year.
This includes £60million off domestic and £200million off business energy bills. At the same time the switch would cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Tory MP Tim Yeo, chairman of the Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, said a Cambridge University study showed SDST would cut
emissions by 1.2 million tons a year “at no cost to consumers”.
He said: “During World War II BST+1 was used in winter and BST+2 in summer to save fuel. It made sense then and it makes sense now.” The move
would align Britain with its major trading partner, the EU and increase
tourism turnover in Britain by £1billion a year.
CLICK HERE TO BACK OUR CAMPAIGN
HOW THE WORLD SET ITS CLOCKS TO GMT
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How the world began to use Greewich Mean Time as a reference point
Friday August 13,2010
By Anil Dawar
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GREENWICH Mean Time developed into the global time reference point thanks to Britain’s naval power in the 18th and 19th centuries.
British sailors always carried at least one chronometer – a highly precise clock – set to GMT so they could calculate their longitude away from the Greenwich Meridian of zero
degrees.
As increasing numbers of mariners from different nations began using the same measurements, GMT became the universally accepted reference point and
led to the creation of time zones.
It was adopted as the official UK time in 1880.
Not long after, British Summer Time and the practice of moving clocks forward an hour between May and October became law with the Summer Time
Act in 1916.
The change came about thanks to the campaigning efforts of English builder William Willett.
The flexible system gave farmers more daylight hours to work in their fields and saved coal for the war effort.
During the Second World War, the country entered into Double Summer Time. It kept the hour’s advance on GMT at the start of the winter of 1940 and
for the subsequent five winters and continued to advance the clocks by
an extra hour each summer and then back one hour in winter.
Clocks in Britain reverted to GMT at the end of the summer of 1945.
In 1968, Prime Minister Harold Wilson began a three-year experiment to synchronise UK time with the Continent, calling it British Standard
Time.
The UK now uses the same time zone as Ireland and Portugal. Recent parliamentary attempts
to adopt the time used in the rest of Western Europe have all failed.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/192900/How-the-world-set-its-cl...
2 Years of water from the Hudson=How many ft of Ocean rise?
Check this out:
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The Great Water Heist Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqHaUadsapcThe Great Water Heist- Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK2jNERXiDQMayan Elder Wandering Wolf live video webcast on 15 August 2010
Magnitude
Seismologists indicate the size of an earthquake in units of magnitude. There are many different ways that magnitude is measured from seismograms because each method only works over a limited range of magnitudes and with different types of seismometers. Some methods are based on body waves (which travel deep within the structure of the earth), some based on surface waves (which primarily travel along the uppermost layers of the earth), and some based on completely different methodologies. However, all of the methods are designed to agree well over the range of magnitudes where they are reliable.
Preliminary magnitudes based on incomplete but available data are sometimes estimated and reported. For example, the Tsunami Centers will calculate a preliminary magnitude and location for an event as soon as sufficient data is available to make an estimate. In this case, time is of the essence in order to broadcast a warning if tsunami waves are likely to be generated by the event. Such preliminary magnitudes, which may be off by one-half magnitude unit or more, are sufficient for the purpose at hand, and are superseded by more exact estimates of magnitude as more data become available.
Earthquake magnitude is a logarithmic measure of earthquake size. In simple terms, this means that at the same distance from the earthquake, the shaking will be 10 times as large during a magnitude 5 earthquake as during a magnitude 4 earthquake. The total amount of energy released by the earthquake, however, goes up by a factor of 32.
Magnitudes commonly used by seismic networks include:
Based on the duration of shaking as measured by the time decay of the amplitude of the seismogram. Often used to compute magnitude from seismograms with "clipped" waveforms due to limited dynamic recording range of analog instrumentation, which makes it impossible to measure peak amplitudes. | |||
The original magnitude relationship defined by Richter and Gutenberg for local earthquakes in 1935. It is based on the maximum amplitude of a seismogram recorded on a Wood-Anderson torsion seismograph. Although these instruments are no longer widely in use, ML values are calculated using modern instrumentation with appropriate adjustments. | |||
A magnitude for distant earthquakes based on the amplitude of Rayleigh surface waves measured at a period near 20 sec. | |||
Based on the moment of the earthquake, which is equal to the rigidity of the earth times the average amount of slip on the fault times the amount of fault area that slipped. | |||
Based on the amount of recorded seismic energy radiated by the earthquake. | |||
Based on the integral of the first few seconds of P wave on broadband instruments (Tsuboi method). | |||
Based on the amplitude of P body-waves. This scale is most appropriate for deep-focus earthquakes. | |||
A magnitude for distant earthquakes based on the amplitude of the Lg surface waves. |
Parameters
These parameters provide information on the reliability of the earthquake location. Zero values usually indicate that the contributing seismic network did not supply the information.Nst | Number of seismic stations which reported P- and S-arrival times for this earthquake. This number may be larger than Nph if arrival times are rejected because the distance to a seismic station exceeds the maximum allowable distance or because the arrival-time observation is inconsistent with the solution. |
Nph | Number of P and S arrival-time observations used to compute the hypocenter location. Increased numbers of arrival-time observations generally result in improved earthquake locations. |
Dmin | Horizontal distance from the epicenter to the nearest station (in km). In general, the smaller this number, the more reliable is the calculated depth of the earthquake. |
Rmss | The root-mean-square (RMS) travel time residual, in sec, using all weights. This parameter provides a measure of the fit of the observed arrival times to the predicted arrival times for this location. Smaller numbers reflect a better fit of the data. The value is dependent on the accuracy of the velocity model used to compute the earthquake location, the quality weights assigned to the arrival time data, and the procedure used to locate the earthquake. |
Erho | The horizontal location error, in km, defined as the length of the largest projection of the three principal errors on a horizontal plane. The principal errors are the major axes of the error ellipsoid, and are mutually perpendicular. Erho thus approximates the major axis of the epicenter's error ellipse. |
Erzz | The depth error, in km, defined as the largest projection of the three principal errors on a vertical line. See Erho |
Gp | The largest azimuthal gap between azimuthally adjacent stations (in degrees). In general, the smaller this number, the more reliable is the calculated horizontal position of the earthquake. Earthquake locations in which the azimuthal gap exceeds 180 degrees typically have large Erho and Erzz values. |
M-type | Magnitude type, discussed at greater length above under Magnitude |
Version | Computers automatically update the WWW pages as more reliable information about the earthquake is computed, particularly in the first 10 minutes following the earthquake. The highest version number is always considered authoritative. |
All of these factors (and more) are used (via algorithms) to "correct" preliminary quake reports to produce an "updated" report; which may varry depending on the source, methodology, equipment and data avaiability.
Reporting from Washington — The top executives at the nation's five largest for-profit health insurance companies pulled in nearly $200 million in compensation last year — while their businesses prepared to hit ratepayers with double-digit premium increases, according to a new analysis conducted by healthcare activists.
The leaders of Cigna Corp., Humana Inc., UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint Inc. each in effect received raises in 2009, the report concluded, based on an analysis of company reports filed with the Security and Exchange Commission.
H. Edward Hanway, former chief executive of Philadelphia-based Cigna, topped the list of high-paid executives, thanks to a retirement package worth $110.9 million. Cigna paid Hanway and his successor, David Cordani, a total of $136.3 million last year.
Only one executive in the list actually saw his paycheck shrink last year: Ron Williams, the CEO of Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna Inc., earned nearly $18.2 million in total compensation, down from $24.4 million in 2008.
"Most families are struggling to hang on. Employers are struggling to stay in business. And these guys were giving themselves huge raises," said Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now, a coalition of advocacy groups that prepared the report.
A spokeswoman for WellPoint said executives' compensation reflects their effort to improve care and hit corporate goals. Representatives of the other four insurers either declined to comment Tuesday on the report or did not respond to questions.
The executive packages were calculated by adding base salaries, bonuses, stock awards and other compensation reported on company financial statements. It did not include the value of exercised stock options.
Last year was highly profitable for most of the country's big publicly traded insurers. In the first two quarters of this year, profits for many insurers have continued to soar more than 20%.
Aetna's net income jumped more than 40% in the second quarter of 2010 compared with a year earlier. Indianapolis-based WellPoint recorded a 51% increase in its profit in the first quarter compared with the same period in 2009.
At the same time, the companies have sought major premium hikes. In Rhode Island, UnitedHealth of Minnetonka, Minn., this spring sought increases of up to 15.5%. In Utah, some customers of Humana of Louisville, Ky., reported increases of 29%.
In California, WellPoint subsidiary Anthem Blue Cross planned increases as high as 39% earlier this year. (The company later scaled them back, acknowledging errors in its rate-setting).
Industry officials have said the rate hikes are necessary because of rising medical costs, but insurance companies have faced added scrutiny as executive pay grows. After UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley cashed in nearly $99 million worth of stock options last year, a group of shareholders launched a bid to expand shareholder input on executive pay.
"It creates a culture of over-compensation," said Lance E. Lindblom, president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which led the ultimately unsuccessful effort to increase oversight at UnitedHealth. "That takes eyes off the ball of performance."
noam.levey@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times
HERE’S WHERE YOUR HEALTHCARE DOLLAR GOES:
From: “The Total Package: Health plan CEO compensation for 2008”
Health insurance executives are still raking in MILLIONS of dollars at the end of the day. This is a look at some of the top total compensation packages from 2008 based on information gathered from the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission.
1. Ron Williams, Aetna - $24.3 million
2. H. Edward Hanway, CIGNA - $12.2 million
3. Angela Braly, WellPoint - $9.8 million
4. Dale Wolf, Coventry Health Care - $9 million
5. Michael Neidorff, Centene - $8.8 million
6. James Carlson, AMERIGROUP - $5.3 million
7. Michael McCallister, Humana - $4.8 million
8. Jay Gellert, Health Net - $4.4 million
9. Richard Barasch, Universal American - $3.5 million
10. Stephen Hemsley, UnitedHealth Group - $3.2 million
– adapted from a Special Report by Dan Bowman at fiercehealthcare
Imagine how many lives would be saved if some of those millions actually went to the care of patients!
MOSCOW — As if things in Russia were not looking sufficiently apocalyptic already, with 100-degree temperatures and noxious fumes rolling in from burning peat bogs and forests, there is growing alarm here that fires in regions coated with fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 24 years ago could now be emitting plumes of radioactive smoke. (Related article: The Lede Blog: Putin Pours Water on Fires and Critic (August 10, 2010))
Several fires have been documented in the contaminated areas of western Russia, including three heavily irradiated sites in the Bryansk region, the environmental group Greenpeace Russia said in a statement released Tuesday. Bryansk borders Belarus and Ukraine.
“Fires on these territories will without a doubt lead to an increase in radiation,” said Vladimir Chuprov, head of the energy program at Greenpeace Russia. “The smoke will spread and the radioactive traces will spread. The amount depends upon the force of the wind.”
Officials from Russia’s federal forest protection service confirmed that fires were burning at contaminated sites on Tuesday, and expressed fears that lax oversight as a result of recent changes in the forestry service could increase the chances that radioactive smoke would waft into populated areas.
It is unclear what health risks the radiation could pose, or to what extent radioactive particles have spread in the weeks that wildfires have been raging throughout Russia, consuming villages and blanketing huge tracts with thick smoke.
The danger comes from radioactive residue still coating large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, years after the explosion of Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, in what was then the Soviet republic of Ukraine.
“The Chernobyl catastrophe occurred and these areas were littered with radioactive fallout,” said Aleksandr Nikitin, director of the St. Petersburg office of Bellona, an international environmental group.
“This contaminated the trees and the grass.” he said.
“Now, when there is a fire and when all of this burns, all of this radioactivity, together with smoke, comes out and spreads to other territories, including populated areas where people breathe it in as smog.”
Russia’s emergency minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, warned last week that the fires could release radioactive particles.
But with the government coming under criticism for its handling of the fires, which have left more than 50 dead and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage, little official information has been made available about the radioactive threat.
Responding to the Greenpeace statement on Tuesday, Dr. Gennadi G. Onishchenko, Russia’s chief sanitary doctor, played down the danger.
“There is no need to sow panic,” he told the Interfax news agency. “Everything is fine.”
Dr. Onishchenko and other officials have already come under fire for appearing to cover up information on above-average mortality rates resulting from the high temperatures and heavy smoke. On Monday, Moscow’s chief health official announced that the death rate had doubled in the capital because of the heat.
Russia has a history of whitewashing potentially embarrassing national disasters, a lingering legacy of the Soviet era. It took days for the Soviet government to inform its people of the Chernobyl explosion, leaving thousands unknowingly exposed to deadly radiation.
No one is saying that the radioactive fallout from the fires could reach the magnitude of the Chernobyl disaster. Scientists have known for years that fires in the contaminated zones have the potential to spread radioactive materials in small amounts.
The forest protection service has identified seven regions where dozens of fires have been burning in contaminated zones, with attention focusing on Bryansk, one of the regions most heavily contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/world/europe/11russia.html?_r=1
6.9 M - ECUADOR
Preliminary Earthquake Report UPDATED
</</
Magnitude | 6.9 M |
Date-Time |
|
Location | 1.275S 77.374W |
Depth | 189 km |
Distances |
|
Location Uncertainty | Horizontal: 18.3 km; Vertical 10.3 km |
Parameters | Nph = 308; Dmin = 205.9 km; Rmss = 0.63 seconds; Gp = 64° M-type = M; Version = 6 |
Event ID | US 2010zwa5 |
For updates, maps, and technical information, see:
Event Page
or
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program
How about we limit it to just 6.0's and above?
The Administrators are: Desert Rose, KeithH, and KimB. Cheryl Nelson is the owner.
Here is a list of our current GROUP moderators:
Aftertime Living: Vacant
Alien Sources/Channels: Dianna
All Other Religions: Coedwig/Steve
Christianity-Catholic: Kim B
Christianity-Protestant: Sizzle
Earth Changes & Emotions: Coedwig/Steve
Earthquakes: Joe
Eastern Religions: Vacant
Food Storage: Vacant
Garden Club: Vacant
Kolbrin Bible: Amy Evans isn't a mod, but she knows alot. Email her.
New Age: Vacant
Science & Astronomy: Vacant
Sensitives: Dianna
Survival Information: Vacant
UFOs: Vacant
Just found this.....kinda important don't ya think.....I truly hate that our government keeps this type of information from us.
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre67a0yu-us-infections-superbug/
http://www.gratefulness.org/
Our international nonprofit organization provides resources for living in the gentle power of gratefulness, whichrestores courage, reconciles relationships, and heals our Earth. »
A Network for Grateful Living (ANG*L)
provides education and support for the practice of grateful living as a global ethic, based on the teachings ofBr. David Steindl-Rast and colleagues. Gratefulness– the full response to a given moment and all it contains– isa universal spiritual practice that inspires personal transformation, cross-cultural understanding,interfaith dialogue, intergenerational respect, nonviolent conflict resolution,and ecological sustainability.
"The current alert warning will remain in force until September 5, when the situation in Russia, as the US stipulates, relaxes as far as fires are concerned, because there'll be left nothing to burn. The situation would remain unpredictable regarding plague and radiation."
"A hasty evacuation of diplomatic staff from foreign embassies, like a stampede, began in Moscow. Many embassies are trying to hide the evacuation for political reasons. Mass evacuation of the embassies of Canada and Poland was officially reported at night on August 7.
Western media meanwhile reported that the Canadian embassy in Moscow was closed. Dutch embassy is urgently evacuating its diplomatic staff from Russia.
High level of air pollution (see photo), as one of the consequences of forest fires, has become an official ground for evacuating embassy staff and their family members.
Unofficially, they speak about plague in Russia, but first of all, about sharply elevated radioactive background in the city, caused by destruction of atomic bombs in fires at nuclear weapons arsenals outside Moscow. According to unofficial information, warehouses of chemical and bacteriological weapons were also burnt down"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100811/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_fires