Supervolcanoes Build Up Pressure Faster Than Previously Thought

From the Daily Mail:

A 'supervolcano' eruption is the most catastrophic natural disaster that can hit our planet, short of an asteroid impact - and now scientists believe they may build up a deadly head of steam far faster than we thought.

Instead of the process taking hundreds of thousands of years, it could take just hundreds.

The news could be bad for the US, where a supervolcano is said to be simmering beneath Yellowstone National Park. If it erupted, two thirds of the country could be rendered uninhabitable.

* * *

The new study was based on analysis of a super-eruption that occurred in eastern California 760,000 years ago.

Several independent lines of evidence indicated that the magma pool erupted within a few thousand years, perhaps within a few hundred years, covering half the North American continent with smouldering ash.

The scientists based their estimate on quartz crystallisation rates. Previous studies have relied on the growth of zircon crystals, which is said to be a less accurate method.

The research is published in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE.

Lead scientist Dr Guilherme Gualda, from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, said: ‘Our study suggests that when these exceptionally large magma pools form they are ephemeral and cannot exist very long without erupting.

‘The fact that the process of magma body formation occurs in historical time, instead of geological time, completely changes the nature of the problem.’

He said regions such as Yellowstone should be monitored regularly to provide advance warning of a catastrophic super-eruption.

As I've noted before, we don't need a super-volcano to cause problems, just an eruption big enough to lower global temperatures by a degree or two for a year or two.

"China's Expansive Territorial Claims"

From GulfNews.com:

China is now engaged in bitter disputes with the Philippines over Scarborough Shoal and Japan over the Senkaku Islands, both located far beyond China’s 200-mile-wide territorial waters in the South China Sea. Indeed, so expansive are China’s claims nowadays that many Asians are wondering what will satisfy China’s desire to secure its “core interests.” Are there no limits, or does today’s China conceive of itself as a restored Middle Kingdom, to whom the entire world must kowtow?

So far, China has formally referred to Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang province as “core interests,” a phrase that connotes an assertion of national sovereignty and territorial integrity that will brook no compromise. Now China is attempting to apply the same term to the Senkaku Islands in its dispute with Japan, and is perilously close to making the same claim for the entire South China Sea; indeed, some Chinese military officers already have.

. . . [A]t a meeting in Beijing earlier this month between Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a trilateral summit with South Korea, Wen mentioned the independence movement in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the Senkaku Islands in the same breath. “It is important to respect China’s core interests and issues of major concern,” he emphasized.

Until that moment, the Chinese government had never applied the term “core interest” to the Senkaku Islands. Following Wen’s statement, the trilateral summit deteriorated. While South Korean President Lee Myung-bak held bilateral talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, talks between Noda and Hu, and a scheduled meeting between Keidanren Chairman Hiromasa Yonekura and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, were also canceled. The joint declaration issued at the summit was delayed a day, and omitted all references to North Korea – a prime concern of both Japan and South Korea.

. . . If gruff diplomacy was the only manifestation of China’s expansive territorial claims, Asian leaders could sleep more peacefully. But the fact is that China’s navy is becoming increasingly active in the South China Sea, at the Senkaku Islands and Scarborough Shoal in particular, but also around the Spratly Islands claimed by Vietnam. Given China’s mushrooming military budget and secretiveness, that assertiveness has set off alarm bells among the other countries bordering the South China Sea.

Moreover, China’s bullying of the Philippines included not only the dispatch of warships to Scarborough Shoals, but also the sudden imposition of import restrictions on Filipino produce. And China’s reactions toward Japan are far more paranoid since a non-LDP government took power.

The struggles for power within China’s ruling Communist Party over the purge of Bo Xilai, and the blind activist Chen Guangcheng’s escape from detention during economic talks with the US, have made Chinese leaders’ nationalist assertions even more strident than usual. No official wants to appear soft where China’s supposed “core interests” are concerned.

Prediction that Greece Will Exit the Eurozone on June 18

From CNBC:

Greece will leave the euro zone on June 18 if the populist government wins the country’s elections on the 17 as the rest of the euro zone rounds on "cheaters," Nick Dewhirst, director at wealth management firm Integral Asset Management, told CNBC.com Monday.

* * *

He said suggestions of a bank run and contagion have been overplayed by some quarters.

“Yes, the banks would run dry but it can be done, there is a lot more money electronically than there is cash. In Argentina they closed everyone’s bank account and then they were reopened using Pesos. The club would rally round the rest so the weaker members - Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal -would receive a massive support mechanism. The Germans would provide support to the rest of the euro but not to the Greeks,” he said.

Kit Juckes, global head of foreign exchange at Societe Generale, told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange” that the best outcome was “the status quo.” “A Greek economy in depression, austerity that guarantees they’ll stay in depression and living on life support from the rest of Europe is the best,” he said.

I don't think that "cheating" is the right word. "Mooching" is the better term.

There is also this:

British electrical retailer Dixons has spent the last few weeks stockpiling security shutters to protect its nearly 100 stores across Greece in case of riot.

The planning, says Dixons chief Sebastian James, may look alarmist but it's good to be prepared.

Company bosses around Europe agree.

As the financial crisis in Greece worsens, companies are getting ready for everything from social unrest to a complete meltdown of the financial system.

Those preparations include sweeping cash out of Greece every night, cutting debts, weeding out badly paying customers and readying for a switch to a new Greek drachma if the country is forced to abandon the euro.

"Most companies are getting ready and preparing for a Greek exit and have looked at cash, treasury and currency issues," said Roger Bayly, a partner at advisory and accountancy firm KPMG.

When Modern Cities Become Ghosttowns

Der Speigel has an article on modern ghost town,s including what can create one:

The Japanese island of Hashima was once among the most densely populated areas in the world. But with the decline of the coal industry, the island was deserted in the 1970s. Now history enthusiasts like to explore it in hopes of discovering remnants of the mining town it once was. The desolate ruins of the settlement also inspire filmmakers to replicate the haunting setting in their movies.

Hashima is just one example of a number of modern "ghost towns" around the world that has drawn the attention of urban researchers, who opened an exhibition on the topic on Thursday in the German capital of Berlin.

Neft Dashlari is another. An artificial settlement off the coast of Azerbaijan, it was constructed by the Soviets after World War II, when the state was facing a major oil shortage. Having found a large oil deposit 42 kilometers off the Azeri coast, officials decided to build a town to accommodate the rig workers, erecting motorways and housing on top of huge steel posts. But now, as reserves near depletion, the settlement is beginning to resemble a deserted scene from a science fiction film.

Ghost towns are not only the result of deindustrialization, though. Human error and conflict can also rob a community of life. Former Cypriot beach resort Varosha lies abandoned as a result of the Turkish invasion in 1974, which led its entire population to flee the area. Tables in deserted homes remain set for a meal and laundry still hangs on lines near the long stretches of abandoned beach.

Accidents and natural disasters also cause people to desert their homes. An underground mine fire still burning after it began in Centralia, Pennsylvania in the early 1960s has forced all but a handful of residents out. Just seven resolute inhabitants remain living there today without infrastructure and electricity.

Ghost cities are certainly not a new phenomenon, though. In just one of many such occurences, a change of climate around 1400 is believed to have led to the abandonment of the prosperous ancient city of Angkor in Cambodia, which boasted an advanced water system and sophisticated international relations.

But perhaps even more striking are the existence of newly constructed cities that sit nearly empty, like Ordos in China, which has been described as the "best kept ghost town in the world." A modern city designed for 300,000, with street lamps run by wind turbines and freshly-laid asphalt, it now houses no more than 5,600 people, predominantly gardeners and builders who came for well-paid seasonal work.

DIY Garden Shed

Popular Mechanics has plans and a step-by-step guide for building your own garden/tool shed. Check it out.

Zombie Squad Forum Has Monster List of E-Books

I won't try and reproduce the list here, but the link to the forum discussion listing the sites is here.

Low-Tech Solutions to High-Tech Tyranny

Zero Hedge has an interesting article on low-tech methods to counter-act high tech surveillance and tracking devices. The author uses fictional examples of how or when to use the examples, but links to specific products or articles. He writes:

Technological weaponry and surveillance should never be underestimated. Today’s advancements are terrifying, devastating, and were designed after decades of trial and error in peripheral wars and burgeoning dictatorships around the world. A technology cannot be defeated by someone who does not respect its capability. That said, in the end, wars are not won with fancy gadgets alone. All conflicts are decided by a primary driver; force of will.

Who has the strength of spirit to endure the longest? Who has the intelligence to outwit the technology? Who knows exactly what they are fighting for and why? These questions decide victory, not unmanned aircraft and computers.

In the introduction, I joke a little about the state of our Republic, but sadly, the fictional accounts above represent realities that Americans today must consider as practical and possible in the near future. “The Swedes” are not illusion, but a parable of the kind of totalitarianism that arises in the midst of any culture dominated by elitism and collectivism. Whether you believe this is realistic or not in our nation today I suppose is dependent on your level of awareness surrounding current events. My goal in covering the information above is not to convince you one way or the other of the dangers ahead. The point is to redistribute the knowledge so that one day, in the event that the stories portrayed turn out to be more true than you realize, you may have the ability to do something about those troubled times as an effective champion, rather than a helpless victim…

Read the whole thing.

Detroit Cutting Lighting

From Bloomberg: 

Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating almost half its streetlights.

As it is, 40 percent of the 88,000 streetlights are broken and the city, whose finances are to be overseen by an appointed board, can’t afford to fix them. Mayor Dave Bing’s plan would create an authority to borrow $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of streetlights to 46,000. Maintenance would be contracted out, saving the city $10 million a year.

Other U.S. cities have gone partially dark to save money, among them Colorado Springs; Santa Rosa, California; and Rockford, Illinois. Detroit’s plan goes further: It would leave sparsely populated swaths unlit in a community of 713,000 that covers more area than Boston, Buffalo and San Francisco combined. Vacant property and parks account for 37 square miles (96 square kilometers), according to city planners.

“You have to identify those neighborhoods where you want to concentrate your population,” said Chris Brown, Detroit’s chief operating officer. “We’re not going to light distressed areas like we light other areas.”

This is essentially a continued example of the decline of the city, and the resulting ruralfication of Detroit. Frankly, it would probably just be easer if Detroit relinquished control over much of the land. Freed of the city's oversight, they might be able to more rapidly heal.

This op-ed from National Post describes the overall issues of decline:

The sad story of Detroit, which not all that long ago was one of America’s great cities, gets sadder still. Having lost 60% of its population since 1950, the one-time industrial giant is now a hollowed-out shell of its former self. According to the city’s estimates, over a quarter of its land area is abandoned — and Detroit is a geographically large city, so that’s a hell of a lot of uninhabited space. My last visit to the city a few years ago had me zipping around on various freeways that run through it, looking around in amazement as I passed from a clean, beautiful downtown through what looked like a bombed-out war zone before suddenly finding myself in attractive suburbs. It’s surreal.

As the people have fled, abandoning whole tracts of Detroit to nature and the criminal element, the city’s tax base has vapourized. Empty houses contribute no property taxes to city coffers, and depress land values among the homes still holding families in the area. A new plan to save the city, down to barely 700,000 residents (from a height of 2,000,000), will see large areas of Detroit effectively officially abandoned. And a part of that plan will be turning out the street lights.

As it is, many of the lights have gone out on their own. An estimated 40% of the street lights in Detroit are already broken, and the city doesn’t have the money to repair them even if there was any public demand for them to be in working order. Seventeen percent of the street lights date back to the 1920s and would cost hundreds of millions to repair or replace. Many others have long been stripped for their metal wiring. The city hopes to borrow enough money to replace and upgrade roughly half of the lights operating in the city, but will only do so in certain areas. It hopes this will encourage Detroit’s existing population to concentrate itself in a more economically viable, smaller core.

And this effective shuttering of whole swaths of the city won’t be done through flicking off the lights alone. The city also intends to halt road and sidewalk maintenance in “distressed” (read: abandoned) areas, concentrating available resources on those parts of the city deemed viable. State approval will be needed for some of the changes, but that’s unlikely to be a problem. What to do with Detroit is a problem for all of Michigan, which has half of its population living in or around Detroit, and frankly doesn’t have a whole lot of cash to throw at the dying city.

Here is a photo-essay from Time Magazine about the decline of Detroit.

U.K. Draws Up Plans to Restrict Immigrants if Euro Collapses

From the Telegraph:

The Home Secretary says that the Government is already “looking at the trends” to determine whether immigration from beleaguered European countries is increasing. While there is no evidence of increased migration at present, she adds that it is “difficult to say how it is going to develop in coming weeks”.

On the subject of whether emergency immigration controls are under consideration, Mrs May says: “It is right that we do some contingency planning on this [and] that is work that is ongoing.”

The introduction of immigration controls within the EU would undermine a key part of the single market. However, it is allowed in “exceptional” circumstances under European law.

Controls are most likely to include restrictions on people seeking to work in Britain, who could be made to apply for visas.

Several European governments introduced temporary immigration controls when countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic joined the EU, to stop an influx of workers. France also threatened to reintroduce passport controls at the Italian border following an influx of Libyan and Tunisian refugees during the Arab Spring.

David Cameron has already said that Britain has made contingency plans to deal with the break-up of the single currency.

They involve preparations to evacuate Britons from Greece if civil disobedience spirals out of control....

Storm Clouds Over the World Economies

From the Daily Mail:

The storm clouds hanging over the global economy darkened yesterday as a raft of data showed output slowing around the world.

Bleak news from the United States and China added to the gloom in Britain and the eurozone as confidence drained away.

‘The world economy is in the intensive care unit now,’ said Chilean finance minister Felipe Larrain in a sign that the pain is being felt around the globe.

* * *

In the eurozone, business suffered its steepest decline for nearly three years in May as the malaise spread from the periphery to Germany and France.

Research group Markit said its index of private sector activity – where anything below 50 signals decline – fell from 46.7 in April to 45.9 this month.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said it was the weakest reading for 35 months and pointed towards a 0.5 per cent slump in economic output across the eurozone in the second quarter of the year.

Manufacturing growth in the US also slowed, with the index down from 56 in April to a three-month low of 53.9 in May.

Recession in parts of Europe and the slowdown in China hurt American exports.

China’s once booming factories suffered a seventh straight month of decline.

The US and China are the world’s two biggest economies. ‘We are very much in a period of weakening global growth,’ said Peter Dixon, an economist at Commerzbank. ‘It doesn’t quite feel like 2008 yet but the danger is we could get there quicker than we think.’

The problem, as I see it, is that right now most every nation's economy is limping along. If everything else goes right, things will hang on, or perhaps even improve, given time. However, a black swan event, such as one or two major volcanic eruptions (we don't need a super-volcano, just something that will pump enough dust and SO2 into the atmosphere to lower temperatures a degree or two), a Middle-Eastern war, a sudden spread of wheat rust or some other similar event that would suddenly drive up food and/or fuel prices, and things would begin to tip over the edge in many areas.

Watching the Weather

Patrick Richardson at PJ Media has a short article on what to do to avoid being a victim of severe weather.

Widespread Eating of Primates Could Cause Epidemics

The Daily Mail reports:

Scientists in Cameroon have warned that eating monkeys and apes could cause the next HIV.

They are already tracking a HIV-like virus called simian foamy virus, and fear more viruses could spread and lead to a global health crisis.

80 per cent of the meat eaten in Cameroon is killed in the wild and is known as ‘bushmeat’,with gorilla, chimpanzee or monkey favourites.

According to one estimate, up to 3,000 gorillas are slaughtered in southern Cameroon every year.

Elsewhere, the Washington-based Bush Meat Crisis Task Force estimates that up to five million tons of wild animals are being ‘harvested’ in the Congo Basin every year – the equivalent of 10 million cattle.

A study earlier this year by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), identified evidence of viruses,including simian foamy virus, in illegally imported wildlife products confiscated at several U.S. international airports, including John F. Kennedy International Airport, George Bush Intercontinental-Houston and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International.

* * *

‘A recent survey confirmed this is now in humans, especially in some of those who are hunters and cutting up the apes in the south-east of the country,’ he said.

He also believes that ebola may be present, and caused a recent mass death in a nearby village.

‘In the village of Bakaklion our brothers found a dead gorilla in the forest,’ said Felix Biango,a village elder.

‘They took it back to the village and ate the meat. Almost immediately, everyone died – 25 men, women and children – the only person who didn't was a woman who didn't eat the meat.’

Wow! Someone in the MSM Finally Noticed

MSNBC has hosted this New York Times piece on China's slowing economy:

A nationwide real estate downturn, stalling exports and declining consumer confidence have produced what a Chinese cabinet adviser, quoted on the official government Web site on Thursday, characterized as a “sharp slowdown in the economy.”

Though the Chinese economy continues to expand, construction workers are losing jobs in droves and retail sales grew last month at the slowest pace in more than three years. Investments in fixed assets have increased more slowly this year than in any year since 2001.

The most striking feature of the slowdown is that it extends beyond the coastal provinces, which depend on exports and are closely linked to the global economy, to the country’s far more insular interior, including cities like Xi’an here in northwestern China.

China’s unexpected economic difficulties are starting to unnerve investors in world markets, especially commodity markets, as China is the world’s largest consumer of most raw materials and the second-largest consumer of oil.

A deepening slowdown would ripple across the world economy. Until now, China’s economy barreled ahead mostly unhindered as the main engine of global growth, even as Europe struggled with its government debt crisis and the United States limped along with a crippled housing market.

 Read the whole thing.

China Blames Philippines for Escalating Tensions

Voice of America reports:

China has acknowledged sending additional ships to the territory it disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea but is blaming Manila for the escalation.

Thursday, China on called the Philippines "insincere" in wanting to resolve a two-month standoff about a disputed island in the South China Sea.

China’s Foreign Ministry cited unspecified provocative actions by Manila around the Scarborough Shoal.

At the same time, spokesman Hong Lei acknowledged sending more ships to the rocky islands, known as Huangyan in China, to strengthen its control.

China has indisputable sovereignty over Huangyan Island, he said. Ships there are government vessels and conduct maritime surveillance and provide some guarantee to the fishing boats. By providing such assurance, Hong said Chinese fishermen can operate freely there.

The Scarborough Shoal has been the site of a standoff since April when a Philippine warship tried to stop Chinese fishing boats.

Chinese surveillance ships blacked them from being detained and the two sides have since engaged in a war of words.

The arrival of more Chinese ships demonstrates how Beijing’s naval capabilities compare to the Philippines, said Carl Thayer, professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy.

“The arrival of other ships puts enormous pressure on the Philippines which, in the best of times, its coast guard is lucky to have one ship in good repair out at sea," he said. "But to station a boat up at the Scarborough Shoal, far removed from the Spratly islands and other areas where it should be patrolling, puts a strain on the resources and also on the capability. So, it looks like China is supplying extraordinary pressure --a ll non-violent, not threatening -- to demonstrate its sovereignty,” said Thayer.

Chinese authorities acknowledged about 20 fishing boats are in the area, despite a temporary self-imposed fishing ban. The Philippines say the Chinese fishermen are violating the ban.

"Prepare Ye"

I came across this article from Pres. Ezra Taft Benson on preparation written in 1974. Some highlights:

In section 1 of the great Doctrine and Covenants, a volume of modern scripture, we read these words: “Prepare ye, prepare ye for that which is to come. …” (D&C 1:12.) Further in this same revelation are these warning words: “… I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth . …” (D&C 1:17.)

What are some of the calamities for which we are to prepare? In section 29 the Lord warns us of “a great hailstorm sent forth to destroy the crops of the earth.” (D&C 29:16.) In section 45 we read of “an overflowing scourge; for a desolating sickness shall cover the land.” (D&C 45:31.) In section 63 the Lord declares he has “decreed wars upon the face of the earth. …” (D&C 63:33.)

In Matthew, chapter 24, we learn of “famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes. …” (Matt. 24:7.) The Lord declared that these and other calamities shall occur. These particular prophecies seem not to be conditional. The Lord, with his foreknowledge, knows that they will happen. Some will come about through man’s manipulations; others through the forces of nature and nature’s God, but that they will come seems certain. Prophecy is but history in reverse—a divine disclosure of future events.

Yet, through all of this, the Lord Jesus Christ has said: “… if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.” (D&C 38:30.)

What, then, is the Lord’s way to help us prepare for these calamities? The answer is also found in section 1 of the Doctrine and Covenants, wherein he says:

“Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments;

“And also gave commandments to others. …” (D&C 1:17–18.) He has also said: “Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled.” (D&C 1:37.)

Here then is the key—look to the prophets for the words of God, that will show us how to prepare for the calamities which are to come. For the Lord, in that same section, states: “What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” (D&C 1:38.)

* * *

At the April 1937 general conference of the Church, President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., of the First Presidency, asked: “What may we as a people and as individuals do for ourselves to prepare to meet this oncoming disaster, which God in his wisdom may not turn aside from us?” President Clark then set forth these inspired basic principles of the Church welfare program:

“First, and above and beyond everything else, let us live righteously. …

“Let us avoid debt as we would avoid a plague; where we are now in debt, let us get out of debt; if not today, then tomorrow.

“Let us straitly and strictly live within our incomes, and save a little.

“Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing, and, where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead. You of small means put your money in foodstuffs and wearing apparel, not in stocks and bonds; you of large means will think you know how to care for yourselves, but I may venture to suggest that you do not speculate. Let every head of every household aim to own his own home, free from mortgage. Let every man who has a garden spot, garden it; every man who owns a farm, farm it.” (Conference Report, April 1937, p. 26.)

* * *

Concerning clothing, we should anticipate future needs, such as extra work clothes and clothes that would supply warmth during winter months when there may be shortages or lack of heating fuel. Leather and bolts of cloth could be stored, particularly for families with younger children who will outgrow and perhaps outwear their present clothes.

“The day will come,” said President Wilford Woodruff, “when, as we have been told, we shall all see the necessity of making our own shoes and clothing and raising our own food. …” (Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p. 166.)

In a message to the Saints in July of 1970, President Joseph Fielding Smith stated that the pioneers “were taught by their leaders to produce, as far as possible, all that they consumed … This is still excellent counsel.” (Improvement Era, vol. 73 [1970], p. 3.)

Wood, coal, gas, oil, kerosene, and even candles are among those items which could be reserved as fuel for warmth, cooking, and light or power. Some may be used for all of these purposes and certain ones would have to be stored and handled cautiously. It would also be well to have on hand some basic medical supplies to last for at least a year.

Men should seek honorable employment and do their work well in order to provide for their own. Men who can perform useful skills with their hands will be in increasing demand. Handymen, farmers, builders, tailors, gardeners, and mechanics can and will prove a real blessing to their families and their fellowmen.

The Saints have been advised to pay their own way and maintain a cash reserve. Recent history has demonstrated that in difficult days it is reserves with intrinsic value that are of most worth, rather than reserves, the value of which may be destroyed through inflation. It is well to remember that continued government deficits cause inflation; inflation is used as an excuse for ineffective price controls; price controls lead to shortages; artificial shortages inevitably are used as an excuse to implement rationing.

When will we learn these basic economic principles? However, “… when we really get into hard times,” said President Clark, “where food is scarce or there is none at all, and so with clothing and shelter, money may be no good for there may be nothing to buy, and you cannot eat money, you cannot get enough of it together to burn to keep warm, and you cannot wear it.” (Church News, November 21, 1953, p. 4.)

Read the whole thing.

Lost Trans-Himalayan WWII Aircraft

Just for something a little different, here is an interesting article from Fox News about the aircraft lost over the Himalayas during WWII, and the search for a specific aircraft.

Nothing James Browne learned in flight school prepared him for “The Hump,” a perilous, Himalayan no-man’s land that became a graveyard for hundreds of fearless WWII-era fliers who battled Japanese fighters, impossible weather and a supply route from hell.

Just 21 years old on Nov. 17, 1942, when he took the co-pilot’s seat of a C-47 bound for Dinjan, India, from Kunming, China, Browne was one of hundreds of fearless American fliers who took the infamous supply route over the Himalayas, ferrying supplies to China as it battled Imperial Japan. Browne, like many others, had signed on before the U.S. entered the war that was rapidly engulfing the globe.

“He was deeply aware of the threat to this country even though we were yet to declare war,” recalled Browne’s cousin, Bob Willett, now 85 and retired in Florida. “He said to himself, they need fliers and I’m a good one.”

Somewhere high above the Himalayas, the aircraft’s wings iced over. The best guess is that it stalled out and dropped like a rock, landing in the rugged mountain jungle, its location a mystery that would endure for more than 70 years. Browne, who grew up in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Capt. John Dean, the pilot and a veteran of the legendary Flying Tigers, and a Chinese crewman were listed as missing in action.

The plane was one of hundreds to go down in the rugged and remote mountain region fliers dubbed “The Hump” by American fliers who dodged Japanese fighter planes, steering their unarmed and rickety aircraft for 20-hour stretches with unreliable instruments in winds that could reach 200 mph. Experts believe more than 700 planes crashed trying to surmount the Hump, making the Himalayan region an inaccessible tomb of legendary fliers and rusted fuselages. 

* * *

Working off the last transmission from the plane, Kuhles eventually zeroed in on the summit ridge of Cangshan Mountain in Burma as the likely site of the crash. But it would take three trips, over five years, before he hacked through bamboo and high-altitude grass to finally lay his eyes on the plane he’d promised to find.

After climbing 14,000 feet, and being abandoned by all his guides and porters except a 17-year-old boy who spoke no English, “the impenetrable wall of bamboo, as tough as iron and sharp as razor-blades” yielded to Kuhles' machete. Gleaming in the sun was the wreckage of the C-47 transport plane in which Dean and his crew had been entombed.

“It was like stepping into an ancient Egyptian (pyramid),” recalled Kuhles. “I knew it was the plane I was looking for. Finally, Dean and the others would have a chance to come home.”

Read the whole thing. It would make a great book.

Medieval Weapons

The Survivalist Blog recently posted an interesting article discussing Medieval weapons in a survival situation, primarily focusing on melee (i.e., hand-to-hand) weapons.

Odds of Racial Unrest Increasing

You may have noticed that as more facts in the Trevyn Martin/George Zimmerman come to light to the public (the prosecutors have long been privy to all of this), they support Zimmerman's account:

1.  Medical reports that Zimmerman's injuries were more severe than previously reported:

Zimmerman was diagnosed with a "closed fracture" of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation.

2.  Martin had bloody knuckles and drugs in his system.

3.   Witnesses confirm Zimmerman's account, and even Martin's father told investigators that it was not his son's (i.e., Martin's) voice calling for help on the 911 tape.

Two police reports written the night that George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin said that Zimmerman had a bloody face and nose, according to police reports made public today.

The reports also note that two witness accounts appear to back up Zimmerman's version of what happened when they describe a man on his back with another person wearing a hoodie straddling him and throwing punches.

It has been such a contentious case that even the evidence is being disputed.

The police report states that Trayvon Martin's father told an investigator after listening to 911 tapes that captured a man's voice frantically callling for help that it was not his son calling for help.

This includes one witness, who told police "that he saw Trayvon Martin straddling George Zimmerman and pummeling the neighborhood watch captain 'MMA style' shortly before the unarmed teen was felled by a gunshot to the chest."

In short, as one commentator noted, the evidence is such that "[n]o jury – except one frightened that the New Black Panthers might kill them if they vote for an acquittal or that they might cause race riots – no fair jury would find anyone guiltily here of second degree murder."

I think it is almost certain that we will see an increase in racially motivated black-on-white violence and, perhaps, even riots because of the Martin/Zimmerman matter. Unfortunately, it will be hard to track the trend because the media and police actively suppress reporting of black-on-white hate crimes. As Thomas Sowall writes in the National Review:

When two white newspaper reporters for the Virginian-Pilot were driving through Norfolk, and were set upon and beaten by a mob of young blacks — beaten so badly that they had to take a week off from work — that might sound like news that should have been reported, at least by their own newspaper. But it wasn’t.

The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel was the first major television program to report this incident. Yet this story is not just a Norfolk story, either in what happened or in how the media and the authorities have tried to sweep it under the rug.

Similar episodes of unprovoked violence by young black gangs against white people chosen at random on beaches, in shopping malls, or in other public places have occurred in Philadelphia, New York, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Los Angeles, and other places across the country. Both the authorities and the media tend to try to sweep these episodes under the rug.

In Milwaukee, for example, an attack on whites at a public park a few years ago left many of the victims battered to the ground and bloody. But when the police arrived on the scene, it became clear that the authorities wanted to keep this quiet.

One 22-year-old woman, who had been robbed of her cell phone and debit card, and had blood streaming down her face, said, “About 20 of us stayed to give statements and make sure everyone was accounted for. The police wouldn’t listen to us, they wouldn’t take our names or statements. They told us to leave. It was completely infuriating.”

The police chief seemed determined to head off any suggestion that this was a racially motivated attack by saying that crime is color-blind. Officials elsewhere have said similar things.

A wave of such attacks in Chicago were reported, but not the race of the attackers or victims. Media outlets that do not report the race of people committing crimes nevertheless report racial disparities in imprisonment and write heated editorials blaming the criminal-justice system.

What the authorities and the media seem determined to suppress is that the hoodlum elements in many ghettoes launch coordinated attacks on whites in public places. If there is anything worse than a one-sided race war, it is a two-sided race war, especially when one of the races outnumbers the other several times over.

Sowell's concern is that, at some point, there will be a violent backlash from Whites. But it could just as well come from other minority groups. Certainly the Hispanic community cannot be too thrilled with what is happening to Zimmerman.

Just be aware that there are black leaders that really hate whites, and will attempt to stir up trouble if Zimmerman is acquitted. You may want to reconsider travel to high density urban areas if and when Zimmerman goes to trial--especially once the matter is submitted to the jury and a verdict is imminent.

What are They Protesting?

CBS News reports on the protests on the NATO summit:

Thousands of protesters walked the sweltering streets of Chicago on Sunday to vent their opposition to NATO and the government leaders meeting just a few hundred yards away.

 * * *

CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reports that as their chants echoed off the facades of downtown skyscrapers, a massive cordon of police - including SWAT teams - marked their every footstep and led them along their approved path.

The ranks of the more violence-prone participants had been thoroughly infiltrated by undercover officers days ago, including three arrested last week who prosecutors accused of conspiracy to commit terrorism.

There was also a cyber attack on the city of Chicago's website that lasted several hours. The hacker group which calls itself Anonymous claimed responsibility.

"We are actively engaged in actions against the Chicago police department and encourage anyone to take up the cause," the hacker group said in a statement.

But while some demonstrators were looking for trouble, for the most part the protests have been peaceful - something the city police superintendent noted amid the crowds along Chicago's lakefront.

"You're seeing us facilitating peaceful protests, protecting people, providing for the public safety, while at the same time being intolerant of crimes being committed," said Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.

It's not really clear what they are protesting, however. This article from the Associated Press states:

Thousands of protesters marched through downtown Chicago on Sunday in one of the city's largest demonstrations in years, airing grievances about war, climate change and a wide range of other complaints as world leaders assembled for a NATO summit.

The protest, which stirred worries about violence in the streets, was largely peaceful until the end, when a small group of demonstrators briefly clashed with a line of police who tried to keep them from the lakeside convention center where President Barack Obama is hosting the gathering. 

* * *

Some participants called for the dissolution of NATO, the 63-year-old military alliance that is holding its 25th formal meeting in Chicago.

* * *

"Basically NATO is used to keep the poor poor and the rich rich," said John Schraufnagel, who traveled from Minneapolis to Chicago for the march. Since the end of the Cold War, he said, the alliance has become "the enforcement arm of the ruling 1 percent, of the capitalist 1 percent."

Peace activists joined with war veterans and people more focused on the economy. Marchers assembled at Grant Park with signs denouncing NATO, including ones that read: "War(equals)Debt" and "NATO, Go Home."

But the crowd was mostly filled with protesters whose primary concerns had little to do with the discussions at the summit.

Concerns that Greece May Exit the Euro

For the past several days, the technocrats of Europe have been swearing on a stack of Bibles (figuratively, they don't actually believe what the Bible teaches) that there were no plans on Greece exiting the Euro, and the idea was unthinkable. Well, like most of their pronouncements, this also was false.

This article reports that, in fact, the EU has been preparing for a Greek exit:

European Union trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said that both the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) were working behind the scenes on contingency plans for a break-up.

“Today there are in the European Central Bank, as well as in the Commission, services working on emergency scenarios if Greece shouldn’t make it. A Greek exit does not mean the end of the euro, as some claim,” he said.

The first public declaration that preparations are in place came as economists at UBS said European taxpayers would have to swallow losses on Greece, whether or not it remains a member of the currency union.

Under a best case scenario, which would see Greece remain inside the euro but its colossal €274bn of outstanding debt put on a more sustainable path, UBS said European taxpayers would have to write-off €60bn of the €182bn of rescue loans they have provided.

If Greece was to leave the euro, however, the bill would jump to at least €225bn as the new currency would halve in value and €104bn of additional emergency funding by the ECB would be wiped out.

Contagion to the banking sector and across the eurozone, coupled with the economic damage that would cause, would lead to further unquantifiable costs. Other economists have estimated the final bill at nearly €800bn. UBS said the losses would cripple the ECB, which would need to be recapitalised.

The International Monetary Fund, which has contributed €22bn to the Greek rescue so far, would probably be treated as a preferential creditor and be protected, the analysts said, so UK taxpayers would not lose out directly.

However, the economic spill-over would plunge Britain into a deep recession from which it might never fully recover.

 This article states that the G-8 Summit leaders have stated that Greece must stay part of the European monetary union. However, it also notes:

Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, said he would not entertain a “Plan B” for Greece, and that the focus remained on a “Plan A” with Greece part of the eurozone.

Attempts to move the debate to how Greece might be able to remain a member of the eurozone follow a terrible week for the region which made a Greek exit seem more likely than ever.

Germany was left isolated after Angela Merkel spoke for the first time about a possible Greek exit early in the week. She was also under increasing pressure to ease her demands for austerity, after Mr Obama joined France and Italy in a pro-growth stance.

A draft of the G8 communique last night showed leaders stressed an “imperative to create growth and jobs.”

On Tuesday Greek politicians said they had failed to agree to a new Coalition Government, paving the way for a second election on June 17.

Two polls on Saturday suggested Greece’s anti-bailout leftist Syriza party is neck-and-neck with the pro-bailout New Democracy party.

The fear among policymakers, investors, and economists alike is that the Greek banking system will not be able to survive as long as the election, as people have already withdrawn hundreds of millions of euros in deposits from Greek banks.

Ironically, however, banks foresee that a Greek exit would actually boost the value of the Euro.

In the end, the gods of the copybook headings must be appeased:

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

 --Kipling

Abandoned Towns of the World

The Telegraph has an interesting slide show of abandoned towns from around the world, including a brief explanation of why the town were abandoned. Although I recognize that the towns selected are not a representative sample, it is still interesting the number of towns that were abandoned due to war, including Varosha, Cyprus, pictured above. The explanation from the Telegraph states:

This was once a thriving tourist area prior to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in the mid 1970s. However, its inhabitants fled and never returned, leaving the high rise hotels to crumble and the beaches deserted.

Fitch Downgrades Greece

The Telegraph reports:

Fitch Ratings downgraded Greece's sovereign rating to CCC from B- and sounded a wider alert for the rest of the currency bloc. It said it would put the entire zone on downgrade watch if after June 17's poll, "Fitch assesses that the risk of a Greek exit from European Monetary Union is probable in the near term."

The agency said it had cut Greece's rating to reflect "the heightened risk that Greece may not be able to sustain its membership of EMU"

It said "the strong showing of 'anti-austerity' parties in the May 6 elections and subsequent failure to form a government underscores the lack of public and political support for the EU-IMF €173bn programme".

Should the voters once again reject austerity and structural reform, Fitch said "an exit of Greece from EMU would be probable". That would be expected to trigger "a widespread default on private sector as well as sovereign euro-denominated obligations".

The agency's warning came as the front runner to become Greece's next leader, Alexis Tsipras, vowed that he would never yield to European demands to impose "barbaric" austerity.

And there is this:

Economists warned that the Greek financial system could crumble within weeks or days unless the European Central Bank steps up support.

President Karolos Papoulias told party leaders that banks had lost €700m in withdrawals on Monday alone as citizens rush to pre-empt capital controls and a much-feared return to the Drachma.

He cited central bank warnings that "great fear" might soon escalate to panic. The leaked details lend credence to claims that capital flight by both savers and firms have reached €4bn a week since the triumph of anti-bailout parties on May 6.

Steen Jakobsen from Saxo Bank said outflows are becoming unstoppable, not helped by open talk in EU circles of `technical’ plans for Greek withdrawal.

"This has a self-fulfilling prophecy built into it and I don’t think we can get to June. The fuse is burning and the only two options now are a controlled explosion where Germany steps in to ensure an orderly exit, or an uncontrolled explosion," he said.

* * *

Greek banks have lost 30pc of their deposits since late 2009. The total fell to €171bn in March. "The surprise is that there is still so much left. I can’t believe it will stay much longer," said Simon Ward from Henderson Global Investors.

The ECB is holding the line with an estimated €100bn of Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) for lenders, channeled through Greece’s central bank. Supplicants must pawn their loan book in exchange. "The risk is that banks will run out of collateral since these are low quality assets with haircuts of 50pc or more. The ECB could relax the rules but they would have to take an active decision to do so," said Mr Ward.

JP Morgan said Greek banks have already exhausted their collateral. A refusal by the ECB to ease rules would amount to expulsion, forcing Greece "to issue its own money."

The ECB said it had stopped routine operations with certain Greek banks with depleted capital buffers, but underscored that they are still able to access the ELA scheme.

 And this:

The Spanish Treasury had to pay around 5pc to attract buyers of three- and four-year bonds. The longer-dated bonds sold with a yield of 5.106pc, way above the 3.374pc the last time it was auctioned.

"This ... fits the pattern of recent sales, with the Spanish treasury successfully getting its supply away but at ever-higher yields," said Richard McGuire, rate strategist at Rabobank in London.

"This unfavourable trend looks set to remain firmly in place ... Ultimately, this ratcheting up of yields will likely require some form of outside intervention," McGuire said.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said yesterday his government, struggling to reduce its budget deficit, could soon find it difficult to fund itself affordably on the bond market unless the pressure eases.

* * *

Official data confirmed the Spanish economy shrank by 0.3pc in the first quarter, putting it back into recession and facing a prolonged downturn as the government cuts spending in an attempt to wrestle down its budget deficit.

Unemployment is already running close to 25pc, rising to around 50pc among the young.

Even if it puts its house in order, Madrid faces the threat of contagion from Greece if it elects an anti-bailout government next month, a move which could hasten a hard default by Greece and its exit from the euro zone.

"It's not Greece leaving the euro that is the major issue," said John Bearman, chief investment officer at Thomas Miller Investment, which manages roughly £3bn of assets. "It's the domino effect."

1308 Potentially Hazardous Asteroids

From NASA:

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid's potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth. Specifically, all asteroids with an Earth Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) of 0.05 AU or less and an absolute magnitude (H) of 22.0 or less are considered PHAs. In other words, asteroids that can't get any closer to the Earth (i.e. MOID) than 0.05 AU (roughly 7,480,000 km or 4,650,000 mi) or are smaller than about 150 m (500 ft) in diameter (i.e. H = 22.0 with assumed albedo of 13%) are not considered PHAs.

There are currently 1308 known PHAs. This ``potential'' to make close Earth approaches does not mean a PHA will impact the Earth. It only means there is a possibility for such a threat. By monitoring these PHAs and updating their orbits as new observations become available, we can better predict the close-approach statistics and thus their Earth-impact threat.

Hundreds of "Superflares" Spotted On Other Stars

From Popular Mechanics (h/t Intapundit):

Whenever a big solar storm appears, it necessarily comes with the looming threat that the Big One, aimed at our planet in just the right way, could overload the power grid and generally set civilization back a few centuries. While we should be thankful that hasn't happened, we should also be thankful that our sun doesn't seem as temperamental as some similar stars.

A study out today in Nature reveals hundreds of "superflares" from stars the same class as the sun. These flares can be thousands or even millions of times more energetic than the largest recorded one to strike Earth, the 1859 Carrington event that wreaked havoc with telegraph systems. The planet-hunting Kepler telescope spotted the huge events. While staring at a field of space for about four months, Kepler saw 83,000 stars of the same class as the sun, and saw a total of 365 superflares, which came from 148 of the stars.

Most of those major events happened in stars spinning much more quickly than the sun; those stars rotate in a period of about 10 days, while the sun takes about a month. Just 101 of the 365 superflares Kepler saw came from slower-rotating stars.

What scientists are wondering now is: Why do these big eruptions happen? Since superflares are clearly possible in stars of similar age and size to the sun, and such a superflare would be a catastrophe for human civilization, it's kind of an important question. According to Nature, the prevailing idea was that the stars' interactions with hot Jupiters (nearby big gaseous planets) caused the flares. But none of the stars in the Kepler study appeared to have such a planet.

Oleg Volk Discusses Tactics for Defending Against Mobs

From the 1992 LA riots, we know that at least some criminals kept up attacks despite being fired upon with pistols. Being able to observe their victims and overwhelm them with numbers apparently made up for the risk of getting shot. We also know that rifle fire from extended ranges, especially with the shooter being invisible, cause instant retreat. In 1992, people were willing to fire at extended ranges due to the absence of authorities — 50 yards is not a typical self-defense range and most people are conditioned not to fire until backed into a corner and almost at contact distance. Lawful people are also conditioned to perceive individuals rather than groups or mobs as threats, so most would not fire into a hostile group. Putting buckshot with “to whom this may be addressed” dispersion into a group can be very effective but goes counter to the peacetime conditioning. The number of conversations with 911 dispatchers where people in dire and immediate danger keep asking for permission to fire suggests that the main factor preventing massive casualties to rioters is the lack of the will, not the lack of firepower. That will is notably bolstered whenever a riot affects residential areas rather than business districts. A store may be abandoned, but a home with a family within is likely to be defended to the last.

In terms of equipment, night vision would be at the top of the list. Since rioters favor nighttime and wear no uniforms, the defenders would have to be able to observe them and be very sure about the hostile actions before firing. Due to possible electrical power failures, it would be prudent to locate emergency store lights in advance. The same goes for weapon lights and floodlights. In terms of disadvantages, defenders are greatly restricted in maneuver. If they wait until point blank range before opening fire, they can be enveloped from the sides and burned out. That eventuality makes long-range response more attractive.

(Full post here).

China and Philippines Temporarily Diffuse Tensions

Voice of America reports:

A territorial squabble between China and the Philippines over a small group of islands in the South China Sea has not evolved into a going green agreement. But a decision by both countries to implement a ban on fishing in the region has helped to temporarily defuse tensions between them.

From May 16 – August 1, China said it will stop fishing in an area that encompasses the Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island to the Chinese), a small group of islands it claims as part of its territory.

The Philippines responded by announcing plans for its own fishing ban in the area. While Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario said called it an opportunity to replenish the rich fishing grounds, his statement was preface by a comment that was more direct to the issue.

If only it were this simple. However, the dispute is less over fish than over oil and control of sea lanes, something that is not going away because of a fishing ban.

Whooping Caugh Epidemic in Washington

From the Washington Post:

Washington state’s worst outbreak of whooping cough in decades has prompted health officials to declare an epidemic, seek help from federal experts and urge residents to get vaccinated amid worry that cases of the highly contagious disease could spike much higher.

* * *

State epidemic declarations are up to the states; there are no federal regulations for such decisions. Selecky said this is the first time in her 13 years on the job she has declared a state epidemic, but felt she needed to take action to stop the disease from spreading further.

“When we’ve looked historically, we’ve seen nothing like this,” she said. “We’re taking this very seriously.”

Adults and teens need booster shots so they don’t give pertussis to the babies in their lives, said CDC spokeswoman Alison Patti

“We want to create a cocoon of protection around them,” she said. “We’re really worried about keeping babies safe.”

Pertussis is known as whooping cough because of the “whooping” sound people often make while gasping for air after a coughing fit. A highly contagious bacterial disease, it starts off like a cold but leads to severe coughing that can last for weeks. In rare cases, it can be fatal. 

Until routine child vaccination became widespread in the 1940s, pertussis caused thousands of fatalities each year in the United States.

Although the state official says that the outbreak isn't because of the anti-vaccine movement, it is notable that the only reasons for the outbreak is a failure to get vaccinated.

Just a good reminder to make sure you are up to date on your vaccines and boosters.

NOAA Ups Possibility of X-Class Flare to 20% In the Next 24 Hours

Since yesterday, NOAA forecasters have upped the chances of an intensive X-Class solar flare occurring in the coming 24 hours to twice what they expected yesterday. The forecasters estimated the likelihood of an X-Class flare occurring in the next solar day at 20%.

Normally, this wouldn’t be much of a concern, but the AR-1476 sunspot is now facing directly at earth as it finishes its sixth day of it two-week transit across the face of the sun

Yesterday, in the early morning hours, AR-1476 hurled an M5.7 Solar Flare off into the solar system dealing a very glancing blow to the planet. That flare came close to crossing the threshold into X-Class territory, but affected only the northern reaches of earth

If within the next two or three days, the sun decides to mete out another dose of its corona, the earth and its communication, GPS, and electrical systems may not fair as well.

(Full story here).

Whew! That's a Relief

China's defence ministry denied reports that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) units had entered level-2 combat readiness, reported Xinhua.

Online media reports said Friday that the PLA's Guangzhou Military Area Command and the South China Sea Fleet have entered Level II combat readiness.

A press release published by the ministry's official website Saturday said that those reports were not true.

(Story here).

I'm being sarcastic in my title, of course. They're ratcheting up the tension for some reason.

"Merchants of Dispair"

Another video from Bill Whittle:

"Walking Into Mordor"

Seven Volcanoes We Should Be Watching

Popular Mechanics lists seven volcanoes that bear watching:

1.  Popocatépetl, Mexico;

2.  Lokon-Empung, Indonesia;

3.  Mt. Etna, Italy;

4.  Kilauea, Hawaii (U.S.);

5.  Tungurahua, Ecuador;

6.  Nevado del Ruiz, Columbia;

7.  Katla, Iceland.

Using Catnip

Forager's Digest has a good article on using catnip. The article notes:

It’s been used mostly as a sleep aid to promote sleep and prevent nightmares but was also used in teas to relieve gas, cramping and colic. Poultices were made with catnip to relieve toothache pain and tonsillitis.

... The leaves are rich in oils and are used in antiseptics and make excellent insecticides. Catnip oil has also been used as bait for trapping large cats like mountain lions and bobcats.

"7 Mistakes of Food Storage"

A good article at Backwoods Home on seven common mistakes people make when putting together their food storage. These include:

1.  Lack of variety (and spices);

2.  Not including necessary staples for cooking (e.g., oil, baking powder, etc.);

3.  Failing to store multi-vitamins and other supplements;

4.  Not including "quick and easy" (i.e., ready made) foods and "feel good" foods (e.g., candy and jello);

5.  Not balancing your storage between different foods or types of food (similar to the variety issue, but even more basic--like concentrating on wheat to the exclusion of other foods);

6.  Not storing foods in proper containers;

7.  Not using and/or rotating your storage--"store what you eat, and eat what you store."

These are actually pretty serious issues. I know people in the Church that literally have a ton of wheat and a grinder, but nothing else, and never, ever, use any of it.

"New York City's Hidden Subway Station"

Another "modern ruins" story, this time about an abandoned subway station in New York City. (Full story here).

It was opened in 1904, with the hope of making it the crowning glory of the New York subway system in elegant architecture and a place for commemorative plaques to honour the work that had resulted in such a successful underground mass transit system. It was to be the original southern terminus of the first ‘Manhattan Main Line’; however the station was closed and boarded up in 1945. The gem of the underground began gathering dust, forgotten by the general public, as passengers were forced off at the Brooklyn Bridge Stop before the train continued on to the terminus to make its turnaround.

The reason for its closure was that newer longer cars were required to match the demand of passengers that passed through the system. But as the stations tracks were severely curved, a dangerous gap between the train doors and the platform was formed making it an unsafe area. This combined with the fact that only about 600 people used it, resulted in its closure with only mythical plans of turning it into a transit museum. But this was never followed through.

More information and photos at the link.

Outdoor Life: Important Items for an EDC Keychain

Outdoor Life has come up with a list of 7 items to include on an everyday carry (EDC) key chain.

Urban Farm Hub: Pickling Asparagus

Urban Farm Hub has posted instructions on how to pickle asparagus.

Combat Driving

You can pick up survival tips from the oddest sources sometimes. I came across this article on a study from USAA on why returning soldiers are more likely to be involved in auto-accidents. It is because of how they are trained to drive in combat. Here are the differences:

As part of the effort to help ease the transition from military to homefront driving, a division in the Office of The Surgeon General (Army) offers brochures to assist soldiers and their families. The family brochure includes a comparison (below) showing driving behaviors learned in combat and how they might continue at home.

In Combat: Drives as far as possible from road edge to avoid IEDs vs.
At Home: Drives in middle of road, straddling lanes.
In Combat: Changes direction and lanes unexpectedly, especially at tunnels or underpasses where insurgents might be waiting vs.
At Home: Weaves through traffic. Does not signal turns, merges or lane changes. Avoids or changes lanes at underpasses and tunnels.
In Combat: Always moving. Does not stop for traffic or people. Always has right of way vs.
At Home: Anxious when stopped. Rolls through traffic lights and stop signs. Does not yield right of way to other vehicles.
In Combat: Speeds as fast as the lead vehicle in a convoy vs.
At Home: Drives over posted speed limit.
In Combat: Hypervigilant of roadside elements vs.
At Home: Overly attentive to roadside elements.

Tracking

The Daily Mail published an article earlier this week about the "survivalist," Peter Keller, who killed his family and then fled to an underground bunker. He was tracked there by the police and then killed. The story raises a few interesting points for those who plan on bugging out to a remote retreat when the SHTF, concerning tracking an opsec issues.

First, the police used photographs Keller had taken near his retreat to narrow down where he had gone:

After shooting dead his wife, daughter, cat and dog, Peter Keller did not want to be found.

Troy Chaffee knew where to look for him. From photos discovered at Keller's home, King County sheriff's detectives deduced that he had probably headed into the Cascade Mountains, to Rattlesnake Ridge, a tall hump of forested rock where he'd spent the past eight years building a bunker.

Having identified the search area, they then used simple tracking techniques to further confirm and narrow the search area:

Chaffee and another deputy, a woman with tracking experience, decided to go incognito. They dressed like anyone out for a day trip - red backpack, light hiking pants and a rain hat. The only thing unusual was the extra ammunition tucked away in the backpack.

Heading into the woods by the water tower, they knew they wouldn't be able to track the way they usually do, on hands and knees, examining every boot print and twig.

Somewhere above them was Keller, with a high-powered rifle, scope and binoculars. Instead, they'd observe the ground while walking and standing, and chat as any couple might.

One step into the woods, Chaffee knew someone had been there recently. By his fourth step, he knew it was Keller. There were small leaves in the dimpled, muddy earth.

They were torn, but the tears were fresh - they hadn't browned or healed. On the leaves were specks of dirt:

They hadn't been washed off, so must have been left before the last rain - sometime overnight or early that morning. The prints appeared to come from military-style boots.

'Four steps in, we're going up a creek, up an area no one else would go up,' Chaffee said.

'It's steep, it's treacherous, the footing is dangerous, there's no trails, it's at night.

'That's somebody who's hiding, who doesn't want to be seen. Makes sense that it's him.'

He relayed the information back to the detectives using his cellphone because he believed Keller probably had a scanner and did not want to risk using the radio.

It was the final confirmation the detectives needed. They already had the photo, taken from the bunker, showing the North Bend outlet stores in the distance, and reports from hikers who remembered seeing Keller's faded red pickup truck at the Rattlesnake Ridge trail head.

With the tracks, they knew for sure he was somewhere in the area of this creek, swollen with early spring rains.

The final giveaway was the scent from a cooking fire:

At daybreak the next morning, dozens of SWAT officers from Seattle and King County swarmed the mountainside, their faces streaked with camouflage paint.

They slogged for seven hours, sometimes on hands and knees through steep, muddy terrain, thick with cedars, spruce, ferns and salal.

They could smell the smoke from the bunker's woodstove, an aluminum trash can with holes, before they could see it - Keller was inside.

They surrounded the bunker, which had no escape route, and Keller wound up committing suicide.

I have no sympathy for a murderer, but this does provide some interesting lessons.

Mud Flows from Volcanoes

This article on the Popocatepetl volcano discusses an often overlooked threat from large volcanoes--mud floes. From the article:

Mudflows, also called debris flows and lahars (an Indonesian word), occur when water suddenly mixes with volcanic ash near a volcano's summit. The water can come from a multitude of sources — an explosive eruption that melts a mountaintop glacier, a sudden deluge of rain — with equally devastating results.

They are a big ongoing hazard, said Ben Andrews, a research geologist at the Smithsonian's Global Vulcanism Program.

"Thinking about them as mud is technically accurate, but conceptually it's more like a wall of cement flowing," he told OurAmazingPlanet, "and it destroys pretty much everything in its path."

As a flow rushes down a mountainside, it typically picks up large boulders and anything else that lies in its way.

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Both Sheridan and Andrews pointed to a 1985 eruption of Colombia's Nevado del Ruiz volcano to illustrate the insidious danger posed by debris flows.

"That eruption was fairly small," Andrews said. Yet it melted glaciers atop the mountain, producing a moving wall of debris that thundered down. The town of Armero — a full 45 miles (74 km) from Nevado del Ruiz — was essentially wiped away a full two hours after the eruption.

One girl's horrific case came to symbolize the tragedy. Thirteen-year-old Omayra Sanchez was buried up to her neck and hands in muck. For three days, volunteers struggled to free her as water slowly rose, but Sanchez died, held fast by the debris around her. In total, the 1985 mudflow killed more than 23,000 people. Such tragedies are avoidable. "Mudflows can be detected and there can be a warning of up to a half-hour in advance," Sheridan said.

"It's definitely an escapable hazard if there's a warning," Andrews said. "These flows will knock down pretty much everything in their path, but they're restricted to valleys. And they're not moving at hundreds of miles per hour, they're moving at tens of miles per hour."

A good reason to have a packed "bug-out-bag" packed and ready if you live or are traveling near an active or semi-active volcano.

Bolivia and Argentina Nationalize Foreign Corporations

From the Telegraph:

Mr Morales said the expropriation of Transportadora de Electricidad (TDE), which runs most of Bolivia's power grid, was "in honour of all Bolivian people who have struggled to recuperate our natural resources and basic services". He timed the seizure for May Day.

TDE is 99.94pc owned by Spain's Red Electrica and, according to El Pais, accounts for about 1.5pc of the company's business. Accusing Red Electrica of underinvestment in TDE, Mr Morales said: "We do this... for the benefit of the Bolivian people."

The nationalisation comes just two weeks after Argentine President Cristina de Kirchner announced the expropriation of Spanish company Repsol's stake in oil group YPF, also citing underinvestment.

There is a lot that can be said about how political pandering goes hand-in-hand with thievery. The key concern with "nationalization" is the disregard for the rule of law. People expect to have the government pick their pockets, and largely accept it when it is deemed "fair," in the sense that it occurs pursuant to laws and rules and due process. But when due process and the rule of law is abandoned to prop up government finances or appease certain groups, it reveals the true rot in the system. Economic prosperity ultimately relies on trust; and when the trust is gone, so is the money and effort that produces prosperity.