Thursday, June 2, 2011

Breaking News Thurs. June 2, 2011

Good morning friends! Hope everyone is getting some gardening time in. So far so good here in this area. We're having record heat now  and no rain for some days, hopefully  it's not going to be a long term trend.
Last night, I reiceved this email from Travis and with his permission wanted to share it with you guys.

I wanted to write about my personal experience recently headed across
the northern train route from Washington to Chicago. I took a vacation
over labor day weekend and went back home to the midwest. I took the
Amtrak and had a great time for the most part but was unable to take
the train back due to flooding. We really need more trains in this
country. This flooding will get much worse in the next few weeks.
While going through Glacier Park in Montana we witnessed snow still
falling and it is late May plus it was raining the whole way through
the mountains. On the way east we were already delayed 5 hours due to
a stretch of track that we could only run 5 miles an hour over. This
caused a massive queuing of freight and passenger trains since the
stretch of track only allows one train through at a time. The train
back west was completely canceled with no alternate routes nor any
target date for service restoration. Flying home to the west coast
revealed that the mountains are still massively covered in snow. Just
a heads up but if you know anyone in Montana, North Dakota and
possibly South Dakota and Wyoming I would recommend they be advised of
the potential for massive flooding. Do you remember the flooding in
Fargo a few years back in the 90's? I do and when I drove out west in
2001 I could still see the recovery from that flood as well as all the
new construction. I think this will be worse.
Update, the flooding is affecting overland trucking as well. Just
talked to a guy at my bank, his brother drives truck cross country and
has had to reroute and take a much longer way around due to both the
flooding in the north and the tornado damage further south in the
midwest.

The snow pack is pretty impressive.
http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/nsa/index.html?year=2011&month=6&day=1&units=e&region=Northern_Rockies
ND senator wants mediation for oil land disputes
BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota landowner and oil industry groups sparred Thursday about a proposed independent mediation board that would referee disputes between oil producers and landowners.

On the oil front in North Dakota this is the massive Bakken formation
that has been talked about so much everywhere from LATOC to TOD.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7499
 


I think that Travis may be onto something that is not being fully reported in the MSM.
Possibly due to there being fewer people in the effected area, or, for economic reasons. I don't know but really want to thank Travis for bringing this situation to our attention.
Good luck to the people out west. I'll try and find more news stories about this flooding and post it in the environmental news section.
Don't forget to check out the forums linked at the bottom of the post and the excellent blogs that are on the left. And thank you again Travis for the information you sent. We should keep an eye on developments in that area of the country.
Thanks go out to rj at GlobalGlassOnion and to the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer for their links and friendship!

Japan
JapanProbe: Used Radiation Suits Pile Up In Fukushima
(right now, it looks like the site is down. It had video showing the mountains of used radiation suits, I'll leave this up to see if it comes back online later.)
WSJ: Japan's Auto Sales Plunged 38% in May 
ZeroHedge: Oil Is Now Leaking In Sea Near Fukushima


Global Conflict
MetroUK: China: Google’s Gmail hack claims are 'unacceptable'
China has denied being behind the hacking attempts on the Gmail accounts of US government officials and Chinese activists, after Google said it had traced that email hacking back to the Chinese city of Jinan.
CNNMoney: Hundreds of personal Gmail accounts, including those of some senior U.S. government officials,
were hacked as a result of a massive phishing scheme originating from China, Google said Wednesday.
The account hijackings were a result of stolen passwords, likely by malware installed on victims' computers or through victims' responses to e-mails from malicious hackers posing as trusted sources. That type of hack is known as phishing. Gmail's security systems themselves were not compromised, Google said.
UKTelegraph: Man 'with bomb' threatens to harm himself and staff in Watford bank
Armed police have surrounded a bank in Watford after a man claimed to have a bomb strapped to himself.
Spiegel: The Politics of Stasis 
Israelis Increasingly Resigned to Life without Peace
BBC: Syria: Attack on central town of Rastan 'kills 15'
Syrian government troops have heavily bombarded Rastan, near Homs, in the centre of the country, killing at least 15 people, activists say.

USAToday: Ex Israel spymaster: No Iran attack in sight
Israel's recently retired spymaster said the country's military does not plan to attack Iran within the next two years, and the Israeli government should accept a Saudi proposal for Mideast peace. (I think we know what this really means)

Slate: So Much for the Peaceful Division of Sudan
The violence in Abyei shows that if Khartoum is determined to cause trouble, there's very little U.N. peacekeepers can do about it.


Financial News

CNBC: NY Prosecutors Probe Goldman 
Politico: John Boehner: Raise debt ceiling by July 
CNNMoney: Scary signs for jobs
Psssh. That's the sound of the air being sucked out of the job recovery.
Zerohedge: Today's Economic Data Docket - Another 400K+ Claims Number, Productivity, And Factor Ordersc
BBC: Audio slideshow: Foraging for food
A few hours drive from the Armenian capital Yerevan, the effects of rising food prices and climate change mean that family life in the mountains is becoming harder.
Reuters: Kia Motors to boost U.S. business
South Korea's Kia Motors aims to boost its U.S. production capacity by one fifth next year, to meet soaring demand for new models such as the Optima sedan in the world's second-biggest auto market.
Guardian: Olympic tickets credit card debt could take '20 years to pay off'
Average £1,250 spend on tickets for the London Olympics could end up costing nearly £3,000 if cardholders make only minimum repayments, a comparison site warns
MoneyWatch: Top 50 Cities for Job Hunters
SFGate: May manufacturing activity cooled to 20-month low
BusinessInsider: Tomorrow We'll Know All The Gritty Details Of Greece's New Austerity Measures
CNNMoney: For-profit colleges face tougher funding standards
Guardian: Greece has 50:50 chance of defaulting, says ratings agency Moody's
• Cost of insuring Greek government bonds rises
• Credit rating cut to new low as rescue talks continue
MoneyWatch: House Still For Sale: Cutting The Price May Save You Money
Forbes: What Does a $500 Million Golf Course Look Like? 
BusinessInsider: Coca-Cola Is About To List In China 
NakedCapitalism: Affordable Housing Groups Once Again Acting As Human Shields For Banksters
BusinessInsider: The Latest Dominique Strauss Kahn Theory: It's All About Gold
Forbes: Ex-Russian Spy Anna Chapman Becomes Financial News Editor 
Hosted: More job seekers give up, reducing unemployment 
NakedCapitalism: Guest Post: Yastrow: “We Are on the Verge of a Great, Great Depression” 
NakedCapitalism: Banker Derangement Syndrome II: William Cohan Can Give No Reason for Not Appointing Warren, Except Some People Don’t Like Her
PoliticalWorld: Is the IMF an New Form of Colonialism ? - Joseph Stiglitz says "Yes" 
ProjectSyndicate: Asia’s New Growth Model 
WSJ: Online Job Ads Jump 
EconomistsView: On Rising Rents 
CalculatedRisk: U.S. Light Vehicle Sales 11.8 million SAAR in May 

Peak oil and Energy News
FallsChurchNewsPress: Tom Whipple The Peak Oil Crisis: An Announcement
Bloomberg: Oil Market Needs 1 Million Barrels More, OPEC Official Says
Platts: OPEC could raise official oil output targets at June 8 meeting
Hat tip to CollapseNet for the following story
Bloomberg: World’s Greatest Power Thieves Keep 400 Million Indians in Dark
To run his fan, lamp and small television, Sikander strings a homemade wire hook over power cables outside his one-room New Delhi house, helping perpetrate the world’s biggest energy heist.
Guardian: Europe's dry spring could lead to power blackouts, governments warn
River levels may cause nuclear reactors to go offline, while dry weather in northern and eastern Europe will raise food prices
Pravda: Venezuela will keep sending oil to the United States
Reuters: OPEC seen ignoring West's call to actOPEC is unlikely to bow to western pressure to officially raise oil output at its meeting next week, with members instead expected to act independently of the group, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.


Environmental News
ChicagoTribune: Four Killed As Storms Carve Path Of Destruction In Massachusetts
DesdemonaDespair: Brazil approves massive Amazon dam for construction 
AccuWeather: Mass. has had >150 tornadoes since 1950, and 12 this century. More stats here: 
SacramentoBee: Red Cross Responding to Northwest Flooding 
HuffingtonPost: Colorado Rivers Rise With Warmer Temperatures Melting Record Snowpack, Flooding Concerns Statewide 
DenverPost: Riverside residents watch warily as Colorado's waters rise 
CBSSt.Louis: NWS: Dire Warning About “Significant Flooding” Threat Along Missouri River 
SeattlePI: SD governor urges evacuations as flooding looms 
SeattleTimes: 134 now confirmed dead after Joplin, Mo., tornado


America in Decline
CreditSlips: The Real Assault on the Legal System
SHTFPlan: Police State Interrogations: Obama Rolls Back Miranda Rights

Food and Water
Guardian: Food security: rising prices, climate change and a growing population
Fortnightly news round-up: Highlighting the big issues and the debate around food security - what affects it most and what we can do about it
NYT: Groundwater Depletion Is Detected From Space
BBC: E. coli: Russia bans import of EU vegetables
Russia has banned the import of all fresh vegetables from the European Union because of the E. coli outbreak centred on Germany.
Guardian: Biofuels boom in Africa as British firms lead rush on land for plantations
Controversial fuel crops linked to rising food prices and hunger, as well as increased greenhouse gas emissions

Medical and Health
UKMetro: E.coli is 'new, unseen strain' as fears grow over four new cases in BritainBritons are being given additional safety warnings after the World Health Organisation said it is dealing with a 'completely new' strain of E.coli from cucumbers that has seen the number of cases in this country more than double.
Guardian: E coli outbreak: WHO says bacterium is a new strain
World Health Organisation says fatal E coli is a mutant blend of two different varieties and has never been seen before
The World Health Organisation has said that the E coli bacterium responsible for an outbreak that has left 17 dead and infected hundreds in Europe is a new strain that has never been seen before.
AlJazeera: WHO warns E-coli outbreak is new toxic strain
Experts studying bacteria that has caused 18 deaths in Europe say it has never been seen in an outbreak before.
Eurekalert: Two-thirds of newly diagnosed cancer patients unable to obtain oncology appointments 
SeattleTimes: U.S. rejects new Indiana law limiting Medicaid providersThe Obama administration prohibited the state of Indiana on Wednesday from carrying out a state law that cuts off money for Planned Parenthood clinics providing health care to low-income women on Medicaid.

Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
EasyShadeGardening: How to do home composting with kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, tea bags, fruit, vegetables...
PermacultureMedia: Gardening: An Essential Survival Skill - an excerpt from The Resilient Gardener
GardenTricks: Survival Gardening Part 1 peak oil, food storage, TSHTF

Other News
Here's a funny one from rj!
The Onion: Planet Earth Doesn’t Know How To Make It Any Clearer It Wants Everyone To Leave
USAToday: Report: 'The global war on drugs has failed'
TheTelegraph: Chinese teen sells his kidney for an iPad 2
A Chinese teenager was so desperate to acquire the new iPad 2 that he sold one of his kidneys for just £2,000 to pay for it, according to reports.
Guardian: Activists jailed after Copenhagen climate summit protest
Two women have been jailed for shouting the word 'push' during a protest outside the conference centre in 2009
Spiegel: Gays and God
German Catholic Doctors Offer Homeopathic 'Gay Treatment'
Politico: America on the march: Left, right
GlobeandMail: U.S. to boycott world conference against racism
The Obama administration said Wednesday it will boycott a world conference against racism being held at UN headquarters in September because of concerns about anti-Semitism.
CNNMoney: Elizabeth Warren vs. House Republicans, round 2

The Forums
TinfoilPalace:Germany still in dark over mystery killer bacteria
TinfoilPalace:Lest We Forget the Scumbag from the Other Side of the Aisle
TheOilAge:Mutant E. Coli outbreak
TheOilAge:Tornados in New England
Hubberts-Arms:E. Coli Outbreak In Germany - Expected To Worsen In The Coming Week: 14 Dead
Hubberts-Arms:Americans Are Too Fat to Drive Small Cars--Seriously
SilentCountry:Go to first new post Mother Nature's solution to the home price collapseSilentCountry:Lights Out In D.C.

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