Transforming UFO Reported Over India

KOLKATA, OCT 29 (PTI)

A small dazzling UFO was claimed to have been sighted in the eastern sky early today with Birla Planetarium Director here saying it was an 'interesting and strange object'.

It was spotted between 3:30 am and 6:30 am by a senior executive of a private company who filmed it on video on his handycam and showed it to the M P Birla Planetarium Director D P Duari.

Duari told PTI here that the viewer, who did not wish to be named, saw the object, a very bright one, changing shape from a triangle into a sphere and then a straight line while emitting various colours at 30 degrees on the eastern horizon.

"The viewer first thought it was a plane but gradually its brightness increased and it went up and vanished at about 6:30 am," the Planetarium Director said.

"No natural phenomenon is likely to last for such a long duration and it is not a meteor either, It is extremely interesting and strange," Duari said.

UFO Puzzle Has City In A Tizzy

KOLKATA: In the first such incident recorded in Kolkata, an unidentified flying object was spotted in the city’s skies early Monday morning.

The fireball, that moved very rapidly and even seemed to change its shape and size, was photographed by a resident of Kalikapur in east Kolkata. Scientists couldn’t identify the object though some believe it could be a meteor blazing a trail through the morning sky.

The object, as shown on a TV channel, seemed to alter its shape from a round object to a triangle and then turned into a straight line. It emitted a bright light that formed a circle - almost a halo - and also radiated a range of colours.

Is it a UFO, Comet Holmes or Venus?
KOLKATA: The fireball that was seen in the city eastern sky could be comet Holmes or the planet Venus.

The small and bright object sighted on the eastern sky 30 degrees up from the horizon captured on a handycam by a senior executive of a private company early on Monday, was being analysed, Director of the M P Birla Planetarium D P Duari said.

Duari, however, said it could be comet Holmes in the constellation of Perseus or Venus "which occupies the same position as reported around the time the object was seen."

"One has to explore possibility of defocussing and digitalising processes of the handycam which could make Venus seem circular with vivid colours and changing shape to triangular and rod-like as seen in the video," the Planetarium director said.

He said UFO sightings were never reported for three hours as it was in the case of the object.

Duari said it had to be looked into and analysed before making 'any definitive comment'.

Comet Holmes: Trick or Treat?

Breaking Earth News

Skywatch-Media Special Report
Comet Holmes: Trick or Treat?

Comet Holmes Continues to Baffle and Amaze Onlookers
Astronomers around the world agree. Exploding Comet 17P/Holmes is one of the strangest things they've ever seen.

Last night, astrophotographer Alan Friedman of Buffalo, NY, took a close-up picture of the comet's core. "A strong deconvolution filter followed by multiple passes of unsharp mask and gaussian blur reveals startling new structure in comet 17P/Holmes."

Here's a link to the Holmes photo gallery at SpaceWeather.com.
If you haven't seen it yet, step outside after dinner tonight, and look for a narrow triangle of stars below the (sideways) W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia, but above (and slightly to the right of) the bright star Capella - the brightest in that part of the sky. Holmes is the "star" on the left side of the base of that triangle. See Chart Below


RELATED VIDEO

Much of U.S. Could See a Water Shortage

EARTH NEWS ALERT
USA
(AP) -- An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn't have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York's reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year.

Across America, the picture is critically clear - the nation's freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst.

The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.

"Is it a crisis? If we don't do some decent water planning, it could be," said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the Denver-based American Water Works Association.

Water managers will need to take bold steps to keep taps flowing, including conservation, recycling, desalination and stricter controls on development.

"We've hit a remarkable moment," said Barry Nelson, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The last century was the century of water engineering. The next century is going to have to be the century of water efficiency."


RELATED NEWS

Western Canada's Glaciers Hit 7000-Year Low

Overlord Glacier: 7000 years old. Glacier in background.

Earth Change
Tree stumps at the feet of Western Canadian glaciers are providing new insights into the accelerated rates at which the rivers of ice have been shrinking due to human-aided global warming.

Geologist Johannes Koch of The College of Wooster found the deceptively fresh and intact tree stumps beside the retreating glaciers of Garibaldi Provincial Park, about 40 miles (60 km) north of Vancouver, British Columbia. What he wanted to know was how long ago the glaciers made their first forays into a long-lost forest to kill the trees and bury them under ice.

To find out, Koch radiocarbon-dated wood from the stumps to see how long they have been in cold storage. The result was a surprising 7000 years.

"The stumps were in very good condition sometimes with bark preserved," said Koch, who conducted the work as part of his doctoral thesis at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. Koch will present his results on Wednesday, 31 October 2007, at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver.

The pristine condition of the wood, he said, can best be explained by the stumps having spent all of the last seven millennia under tens to hundreds of meters of ice. All stumps were still rooted to their original soil and location.

"Thus they really indicate when the glaciers overrode them, and their kill date gives the age of the glacier advance," Koch explained. They also give us a span of time during which the glaciers have always been larger than they were 7000 years ago — until the recently warming climate released the stumps from their icy tombs.

Tropical Storm Noel Nears Florida

Breaking Storm News
Florida, USA
Image: This NOAA satellite image taken Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 01:45 PM EDT shows Noel near Camaguey, Cuba, which is producing widespread rainfall across southeastern Cuba, southern Bahamas, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Farther north, a stationary front cuts across the Florida Peninsula. (AP PHOTO/WEATHER UNDERGROUND)

MIAMI (AP) — Residents of southeastern Florida were advised early Wednesday to keep an eye on the progress of Tropical Storm Noel, a killer storm which could pass close to the state over the next few days.

At 5 a.m. EDT, Noel's top sustained winds were near 40 mph, down from 60 mph a day earlier, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm has crashed through the Caribbean, creating floods and mudslides that have killed at least 22 people.

It was moving "erratically" toward the north-northwestward near 7 mph and approaching the northern coast of Cuba, the center said. But it was expected to turn away from Florida later in the week and speed into the open Atlantic.

Tropical storm-strength winds extended up to 175 miles from the storm's center. Above-normal tides and heavy rains were expected in its path into the Atlantic.

RELATED VIDEO AND NEWS

Environmental failures 'put humanity at risk'

Each person requires a third more land for his or her needs than the planet can supply, says the study. Photograph: Corbis

The future of humanity has been put at risk by a failure to address environmental problems including climate change, species extinction and a growing human population, according to a new UN report.

In a sweeping audit of the world's environmental wellbeing, the study by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that governments are still failing to recognise the seriousness of major environmental issues.

The study, involving more than 1,400 scientists, found that human consumption had far outstripped available resources. Each person on Earth now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the planet can supply, it finds.

Meanwhile, biodiversity is seriously threatened by the impact of human activities: 30% of amphibians, 23% of mammals and 12% of birds are under threat of extinction, while one in 10 of the world's large rivers runs dry every year before it reaches the sea.

The report - entitled Global Environment Outlook: Environment for Development - reviews progress made since a similar study in 1987 which laid the groundwork for studying environmental issues affecting the planet.

Attack Iran and you attack Russia

International News
The barely reported highlight of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Tehran for the Caspian Sea summit last week was a key face-to-face meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A high-level diplomatic source in Tehran tells Asia Times Online that essentially Putin and the Supreme Leader have agreed on a plan to nullify the George W Bush administration's relentless drive towards launching a preemptive strike, against Iran. An American attack on Iran will be viewed by Moscow as an attack on Russia.


Related News

Lack of frost busts record from 1950s

Canada
Frost is missing in action, SETTING A RECORD for its absence from the London region. "Not in my recollection have I seen a season of this length." Environment Canada data shows the London area has already experienced ONE OF THE LONGEST GROWING SEASONS ON RECORD and there was no sign of frost until Monday. Although it varies from year to year, London usually has its last frost day in the spring on May 8 and its first frost in the fall on Oct. 5, working out to an average of 149 frost-free days. But this year, the last frost to hit London was on April 14, three weeks ahead of the average date. And although the temperature dipped toward the freezing mark Sept. 16 and Oct. 12, it never crossed the line to bring the growing and lawn-cutting season to its usual frosty end. By Thursday, the 25th, the area had 194 frost-free days and counting. Over the past century, the climate in Southwestern Ontario has warmed by 0.5 degrees C, enough to lengthen the frost-free season by more than 18 days since the 1940s. That has helped farmers and home gardeners, who have faced less risk of losing their crops before they mature. But agriculture experts and climatologists warn the longer season without freezing temperatures has the potential for both good and bad. "It is not necessarily a good news story . . . how it will play out is still guesswork." Though the longer season may benefit crops, it means the climate is becoming less stable. There is the possibility of extreme weather events, droughts and ground-level ozone. "It may extend the smog season quite a bit, too." The longer growing season lessens the risk of farmers losing their crops, but it is unpredictable. If farmers knew ahead of time it was going to be a long season, they could plant higher-yielding varieties that take longer to mature. But they don't know. And there has to be the right conditions to go with the warmth, such as adequate rainfall. A few farmers gamble each year and double-crop, planting beans, for instance, after they take their wheat crop in July. This year those farmers lost because it didn't rain. The longer growing season when it is warm also increases the potential for insect damage. Another downside is with crops such as pumpkins that ripen early. It is then a challenge to keep them in good shape until Halloween.

Update: Caribbean storm kills 20 people

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
Dominican Republic

At least 20 people have been killed in flooding in the Dominican Republic following torrential rains dumped by Tropical Storm Noel.

Most of the deaths were reported along the south coast, east of the capital Santo Domingo.

It is feared the death toll will rise, with another 20 reported missing.

The storm was continuing to drop heavy rain on the country and on neighbouring Haiti, as it travelled towards Cuba and the Bahamas.

By 0900 GMT, Noel's centre was very near the town of Gibara on the north coast of Cuba and some 270 miles (435km) south-east of Nassau in the Bahamas.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that the storm was expected to strengthen and bring heavy rain to south-eastern Cuba and central and south-eastern Bahamas.

Power cuts

At least 10in (25cm) of rain has already fallen on the island of Hispaniola - divided between the Dominican Republic and Haiti - and the rain is continuing to fall there, forcing river levels higher.

Lava flow spreads through tube

Volcanic Alert
Hawaii, USA
Lava flowing from a new vent on Kilauea's eastern flank is now feeding into a lava tube that could allow it to flow farther and faster. Geologists say the formation of lava tubes can be worrisome because they insulate the lava, which has advanced 1.5 miles from the end of the open lava channel. But Hawaiian Volcano Observatory's daily assessment maintains that there's no immediate threat. That means thousands of lower Puna residents currently remain at a safe distance. There needs to be a steady supply of lava for it to travel a long distance, but the level of the channel has fluctuated over time. Kilauea has been erupting for 24 years. On July 21, a new outbreak of lava occurred to the east of Puu Oo vent. It was the first time lava erupted in the area outside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park since 1992.

Artic Meltdown Warning

Climate Change Warnings
The Artic
Image:The animation shows changing sea ice extent and concentration from 12 March to 24 September 2007. These weekly and bi-weekly Arctic charts are based on the analysis of observations from a diverse number of satellite missions including ESA's Envisat, CSA's RADARSAT-1, NASA's QuikSCAT, DMSP, and NOAA. Credits: U.S. National Ice Center (NIC)

Tropical Storm Noel Rains Lash Haiti

Breaking Storm News
Haiti
Image: A man takes photos of the waves and clouds produced by tropical storm Noel at the seafront of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007. (Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

Tropical Storm Noel lashed Haiti with heavy rains early Monday as it moved across the impoverished Caribbean nation, generating fears of flash flooding on deforested hills often blanketed by rows of flimsy shacks.

Noel, the 14th named storm of the Atlantic season, was expected to drop as much as 20 inches of rain on Haiti and the Dominican Republic which share the island of Hispaniola before heading on a path east of Cuba toward the Bahamas.

Comet Holmes Now Bigger Than Jupiter

The Exploding Comet/Holmes (Above)

Astronomers around the world agree, Comet 17P/Holmes is ONE OF THE STRANGEST THINGS EVER TO EXPLODE IN THE NIGHT SKY. It's a comet, yet it looks like a planet with a golden core and a green atmosphere. Comet Holmes shocked sky watchers with a spectacular eruption, brightening almost a million-fold from 17th to 2.5th magnitude in a matter of hours. The comet is now visible to the naked eye - even from light polluted cities - high in the northern sky after sunset. The golden hue of Holmes' core is probably the color of sunlight scattered by comet dust, while the green fringe likely signifies an atmosphere rich in diatomic carbon and cyanogen (substances found in many green comets). There are reports that the fuzzball is expanding and taking on a lopsided shape - possibly the first signs of a tail. Exploding Comet 17P/Holmes is now larger than Jupiter. The diaphanous and curiously spherical cloud surrounding the comet's core is now large enough to swallow the King of Planets! It's gotten so big, in fact, that many observers say they can see it without a telescope

Freak Tornado Rips Australian Village

Breaking Earth News

Australia

A FREAK tornado with winds up to 150 kmh that tore through a northern NSW village was ONE OF THE RAREST WEATHER EVENTS TO HAPPEN IN A POPULATED AREA OF AUSTRALIA. The tornado rampaged through the village of Dunoon after clipping nearby Lismore, causing millions of dollars in damage. Destructive twisters are more commonly associated with the Midwest of the United States, and RARELY seen by Australians. The tornado came out of the bottom of a thunderstorm about 4pm on Friday. Large hailstones and destructive winds were battering Dunoon, Lismore, Byron Bay and Mullumbimby.

Indonesia's 'Child of Krakatoa' volcano spews ash, smoke; prompts warning

Click the Image Above to Enlarge

THIRD VOLCANO BECOMES ACTIVE - ANAK KRAKATOA - The Indonesian volcano known as the "Child of Krakatoa" has been spewing ash and smoke, prompting warnings of a possible eruption. The mountain in the Sunda Strait, 130 kilometres west of Jakarta, formed after the giant Krakatoa eruption of 1883 that killed tens of thousands of people and was the largest explosion in recorded history. "Activity at Anak Krakatoa increased yesterday [Friday] and there were several small eruptions. We have upgraded the alert level to the second highest." Anak Krakatoa is the third volcano to become active in recent weeks in Indonesia, a sprawling country of more than 17,000 islands. Indonesia has about 150 volcanoes. Krakatoa's massive 1883 blast, heard nearly 3,200 kilometres away in Australia, sent pyroclastic surges of gas and burning ash which, combined with a tsunami, wiped out 165 villages and killed at least 36,417 people. It destroyed two-thirds of the island of Krakatoa between Java and Sumatra.

Related News

Krakatau normally produces five tremors per hour. From Oct. 24 to 26, experts detected 20 tremors an hour. The volcano also spewed white-grey smoke plumes 80 to 200 meters high. Lava flow is yet to be seen so the status is not yet critical. The last time Krakatau was put on alert status was in 2000, when it emitted lava.

INDONESIA - MOUNT KELUT - A scientist warned on Wednesday that all indications pointed to the imminent eruption of Mount Kelut volcano on the Indonesian island of Java, despite few obvious signs of activity. Mount Kelut was put on high alert on October 16, triggering efforts to evacuate about 130,000 people living within 10 kilometres (six miles) of its crater. The mountain has been quiet for the past few days, with no drastic changes in the frequency and magnitude of volcanic and tectonic quakes affecting the area. The signs leading to an eruption usually follow the same pattern. "The trend is that the centers of the shallow volcanic quakes are moving closer and closer to the surface, and this is the normal pattern prior to an eruption. "They (the quake centers) are now less than one kilometre beneath the crater's floor but the mountain will only erupt when these are accompanied by shallow quakes of large amplitude and long, continuous tremors." Some villagers said they would not evacuate until told to do so by the 64-year-old spiritual leader. Geologists have said they expect an eruption of Kelut would lead to "heat clouds," searing gasses and volcanic debris rushing down the slopes. Kelud's temperature continued to rise on Friday, an indication that an eruption is imminent.

INDONESIA - MOUNT SOPUTAN - The erupting volcano on Indonesia's Sulawesi island began spewing hot lava on Friday, a day after shooting ash some 1,500m into the air, an official said, although nearby villages were still not being ordered to evacuate. Mount Soputan volcano, which lies in North Sulawesi province, likely was producing a small lava flow, but authorities were unable to spot it because the crater remained covered by clouds. Soputan has been at a Level 3 alert since its last eruption in December 2006 due to its "short duration activity" - meaning it only experiences tremors for short periods before erupting, as was the case on Thursday morning. A Level 4 alert is only given when an active volcano is threatening the safety of people living nearby, but the villages closest to Soputan are eight kilometres away. "Historically, the lava trails from this mountain are a maximum of three kilometres."

Record tides promise more flooding in HCM City

Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City will see RECORD HIGH TIDES within the next few days and can expect widespread flooding if the predicted heavy rains appear at the same time. The Southern Hydrometeorology Station says the Saigon and Dong Nai rivers will peak between Friday and Monday and reach 1.49 meters at Phu An on Sunday. As large volumes of water are released from the dams, outlying areas of the city should experience flooding during this period. The swollen waters could even breach embankments. In the already devastated central region, river levels in Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Quang Ngai and Phu Yen reached alarming levels on Thursday, and the rivers in Quang Nam, Ninh Thuan and Gia Lai were continuing to rise. Heavy rain in Khanh Hoa put many roads 30 centimeters underwater and disrupted traffic severely. The storms also caused landslides in Da Lat in the highlands and generated twisters in Quang Nam farther up the coast. Heavy flooding has been hitting all parts of the country since last month, making hundreds of families homeless and inundating large areas of agricultural land.

Climate Change Testimony Was Edited by White House

NATIONAL NEWS

Natural decline 'hurting lives'

EARTH/SCIENCE

Continuing destruction of the natural world is affecting the health, wealth and well-being of people around the globe, according to a major UN report. The Global Environment Outlook says most trends are going the wrong way. It lists degradation of farmland, loss of forest cover, pollution, dwindling fresh water supplies and overfishing among society's environmental ills. There is a "remarkable lack of urgency" to reverse these trends. "There continue to be persistent and intractable problems unresolved and unaddressed. This assault on the global environment risks undermining the many advances human society has made. Past issues remain and new ones are emerging, from the rapid rise of oxygen 'dead zones' in the oceans to the resurgence of new and old diseases linked in part with environmental degradation." The well-being of millions of people in the developing world is put at risk by failure to remedy problems which have been tackled in richer societies. "This assault on the global environment risks undermining the many advances human society has made in recent decades. It is undercutting our fight against poverty. It could even come to jeopardise international peace and security."

Stuck in denial as the river runs dry

Oregon, USA

Image: Steve Duin/The Oregonian

steveduin@news.oregonian.com

The forecast is for increasingly volatile and unpredictable weather patterns "that are UNPRECEDENTED since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Our experiential framework doesn't encompass these cataclysmic events. We just assume the future will echo the past. The world is changing. Extremely rapidly. All the management rules have been built around the assumption of a stationary climate. For the foreseeable future, for generations to come, change is what we need to manage, not the status quo." In the U.S., by noon Wednesday, more than 666 square miles of the Southern California tinderbox - Los Angeles went 150 consecutive days this year without rain - had been charcoaled. The snowpack in the Sierra Nevada is at its LOWEST LEVEL IN 20 YEARS. And drought continues to devastate the southeast, particularly in Alabama and Georgia, where the folks at Coca-Cola are increasingly "concerned" about sustaining their bottling operation. Will we do better, before water shortages and the climate crisis swallow us whole? Because the dry subtropic zone is expanding, pushing the jet stream and western Oregon's traditional drizzle zone farther north, the Northwest may experience alternating decades of dampness and drought that wreak havoc on the landscape. And as we reach the limits of available water, available food and available space, the conflicts between the haves and have-nots will turn brutal. The 2002 fish kill in the Klamath River "is just the tip of the iceberg." "We can continue to worship before the altar of the status quo or get off our knees and begin wrestling with this runaway change. We can bridle the beast or be stampeded by it, but we can no longer pretend the horse hasn't left the barn."

After deadly floods, Burkina Faso faces 'wet' drought

Burkina Faso

OUAGADOUGOU (AFP)-After deadly floods that hit Burkina Faso weeks ago, the impoverished west African country faces a drought caused by an early and abrupt end to the rainy season. Fears run high that the weak rains will have a knock-on effect on food prices and would inevitably affect the next cotton harvests. The meteorological services bureau reported a "premature end" to the rains in September when crops were beginning to flower in the west, southwest and the south of the country and just before they matured in the northern parts of the country. "Starting from the second half of September, we have registered a drastic drop in the intensity of the rains.

Climate expert says drought, flooding threaten Texas

Texas, USA

Image: Climate researcher James Hansen expressed concern Wednesday about an accusation that the White House diluted Senate testimony on climate change. The White House has denied the accusation.
News Source: Mayra Beltran: Chronicle

A top climate scientist warned Wednesday that Texas faces a dual threat from floods and drought if global warming is left unchecked. Predictions made two decades ago about the effects of a warming world are now beginning to come true. "Texas is in the line of fire for double-barreled climate impacts. What we said in the 1980s, and is beginning to come true now, is that both ends of the hydrological cycle get intensified by global warming." A warmer climate increases evaporation. It both sucks moisture from the ground, intensifying drought, and increases atmospheric humidity, which causes more rain to fall during extreme events. It remains possible — and not entirely painful — for nations to tackle global warming. The most important step would be to prohibit the construction of coal-fired power plants until technology is developed to capture carbon dioxide produced during the coal-burning process. Coal remains a popular energy source with electricity providers, because it is a cheap source of power and the United States has abundant supplies. However, coal burning is also the worst producer of the greenhouse gases that, scientists say, are causing the planet to warm. A second step would be to gradually adopt a fee for carbon dioxide emissions. Although this would raise the price of energy, it would spur companies to develop alternative energy sources such as wind and solar.

Climate Change: Ignore the science

Sound Off on Climate Change

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
In an apparent attempt to downplay the effects of climate change, the White House Office of Management and Budget (aka, The Ministry of Truth) gouged the text of testimony given by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee this week.

The Associated Press reports that CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding's testimony, providing scientific details about the nature of diseases that will spread should the Earth continue to warm, was cut in half by the White House. A CDC insider told the AP that while some changes were customary, the edits to Gerberding's original draft were especially "heavy-handed." Cut were statements such as, "scientific evidence supports the view that the Earth's climate is changing" and, "Despite this extensive activity, the public health effects of climate change remain largely unaddressed. CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern." Seriously.

The White House says the statements were not diluted. But Gerberding was allowed to say only that climate change is "anticipated to have a broad range" of health impacts and then had to focus on how to prepare for problems she wasn't permitted to list. In July, it surfaced that former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona faced similar censorship when it came to speaking about emergency contraception and global health challenges.

For a country that houses and supports some of the world's premiere scientific minds, this administration's backward policies are nothing short of embarrassing. What's the justification for these tactics?

Killer Floods Continue to Devastate Much of Costa Rica

Costa Rica, C.A.
At least eighteen people are dead and thousands have been displaced after torrential rains pounded Costa Rica this week, flooding large swaths of the country and triggering deadly landslides.

In the worst single incident, 14 people were killed when rains triggered a landslide on October 11, burying seven houses in the town of Atenas, located between San José and the Pacific coast.

On Wednesday, after ten days of downpours, the government declared a national emergency, freeing up funds for disaster efforts in affected areas, which included at least 75 percent of the country.

Late Thursday more than 1800 people were being housed in temporary shelters across the country. The worst of the damage was concentrated in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, where the Tempisque River was among several waterways that burst their banks, and in the central Pacific canton of Parrita, where the Parrita River overflowed and flooded at least 800 homes.

“The water was up to my neck,” said Luz Marina Marchena, a mother from Los Jocotes staying at a shelter in Filadelfia, Carrillo, in Guanacaste. “It happened so fast, we couldn’t save anything.”

TORRENTIAL RAINS
COLUMBIA - A total of 43,200 people have been affected in October by intense rains affecting almost all Colombia in the winter season which started this month. Heavy rains have caused ravages in 39 municipalities in 18 of the 32 Colombian departments. The main affectations are due to floods that have affected hundreds of houses and cultivation areas, landslides, and overflowing of rivers and streams. The Institute of Meteorology and Environment Studies warned that intense rains would affect the Andean, Caribbean and Pacific regions of Colombia up to Saturday. Some zones at the center of Colombia would be affected with electric storms and some other things.

BRAZIL - Heavy rain wreaked havoc in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, causing a mudslide that cut off the main tunnel linking the Brazilian city's north and south. An average of 180,000 vehicles go through the Reboucas Tunnel every day and its closing caused huge traffic jams across the city. Five mudslides since late Tuesday had left some 5,000 tonnes of debris in tunnels and there was a risk of more collapses. The Reboucas Tunnel, more than 2 kilometres long, could be closed for up to a week. Power was cut off in some neighbourhoods, causing further traffic jams as traffic lights did not work.

Oil Rigs Collide, 10 Dead

BREAKING EARTH NEWSGULF OF MEXICO

AT least 10 people died after two oil platforms crashed into each other in high winds in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a gas leak that forced the evacuation of all workers in the area.

"Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) announces the death of 10 workers ... on board the Usumacinta platform,'' the company said.

The accident occurred late on Tuesday amid high winds and heavy seas when the two platforms crashed into each other.

"Due to wind gusts of up to 130km/h and waves of 6m-8m ... the Usumacinta drilling platform struck the valve train of Kab-101 platform,'' Pemex said.

"Weather conditions in the are have made it impossible to reach an emergency life boat that has already been spotted and which we presume could be carrying the staff that was working on the platforms,'' it said.

Huge ash cloud as Indonesia's Mount Soputan erupts

BREAKING EARTH NEWS

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A volcano erupted in central Indonesia on Thursday, shooting plumes of white smoke and sand 1,500 yards into the air and covering nearby villages in ash, officials said.

Violent tremors sent farmers tilling land near Mount Soputan's crater fleeing before the blast, said Sandy Manengke, a local monitoring official, adding that there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The nearest villages are five miles from the crater's mouth, well clear of the danger zone, he added, but many houses were covered in black soot and residents wore face masks to protect themselves against the smoke.

Related Story

More buffeting forecast for storm-lashed South

NEW ZEALAND
The South is bracing itself for more gales today as hundreds of homes remain without power from yesterday's devastating storms.

Gusts up to 140kmh smashed areas of Southland and Otago yesterday raising roofs, toppling trees, tipping over trucks and cutting power to around 2500 homes.

About 1500 homes were still without power this morning as MetService forecast more gale-force winds to hit the region.

"They're not expected to be as severe as yesterday but there could still be further damage to powerlines, trees, that kind of stuff. So it's just a warning," said forecaster Liz Haslan.

The east of the North Island from Hastings to Masterton can expect similar winds to yesterday with 120kmh gusts and a possible mean speed of about 75kmh this afternoon.

Damage from yesterday's storm is expected to run into the millions of dollars

A Strange Comet Lights Up The Evening Sky

BREAKING ASTRONOMY NEWS
COMET ALERT

ASTRONOMERS ARE BEWILDERED OVER A STRANGE COMET NOW APPEARING IN THE EVENING SKY

Astronomers around the world agree, Comet 17P/Holmes is one of the strangest things ever to explode in the night sky. It's a comet, yet it looks like a planet with a golden core and a green atmosphere:

Comet 17P/Holmes as Shown Below: Photo Gallery

Chris Shur of Payson, Arizona, took this picture last night using his 12.5-inch telescope and a Canon XTi digital camera. "The comet was yellow and green, very bright in the viewfinder," he says.

Yesterday, Comet Holmes shocked sky watchers with a spectacular eruption, brightening almost a million-fold from 17th to 2.5th magnitude in a matter of hours. The comet is now visible to the naked eye--even from light polluted cities--high in the northern sky after sunset: finder chart.

The golden hue of Holmes' core is probably the color of sunlight scattered by comet dust, while the green fringe likely signifies an atmosphere rich in diatomic carbon and cyanogen (substances found in many green comets). There are reports that the fuzzball is expanding and taking on a lopsided shape--the first signs of a tail? Amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor developments

Stay tuned to The Great Red Comet for further updates on this story

Calif. fires may be at turning point

Breaking Earth News
California, USA
Image: A firefighter sprays water in a torrent of hot ambers blown back at him and his team by the wind as they try unsuccessfully to prevent flames from the Harris Fire from crossing the road in Jamul, in California's San Diego county. Fires raged across California for a fourth day Wednesday as officials confirmed three people had died and property worth one billion dollars had been destroyed across the disaster zone.(AFP/Robyn Beck)

SAN DIEGO - A massive aerial assault and a break in harsh winds helped firefighters make their first major progress against Southern California's firestorm, raising evacuees' hopes of returning home for good. But flames were still drawing perilously toward thousands of homes.

The hot, dry Santa Ana winds that have whipped the blazes into a destructive, indiscriminate fury since the weekend were expected to all but disappear Thursday.

"That will certainly aid in firefighting efforts," National Weather Service meteorologist Jamie Meier said.

The record high temperatures of recent days began succumbing to cooling sea breezes, and two fires that burned 21 homes in northern Los Angeles County were fully contained.

President Bush, who has declared a major disaster in a seven-county region, was scheduled to arrive in California Thursday and to take an aerial tour of the burn areas, accompanied by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Losses total at least $1 billion in San Diego County alone, and include a third of the state's avocado crop. The losses are half as high as those in Southern California's 2003 fires, but are certain to rise.

An Interview with James Hoggan of DeSmogBlog

From the Editor's Desk
Skywatch-Media News
October 25, 2007


Last Night James Hoggan, Chairman of the David Suzuki Foundation and PR Executive for Hoggan and Associates of Vancouver, B.C. spoke out on the most important issue of our day, climate change and global warming. During his interview on the Earth Frenzy Radio Show he emphasized the importance of exposing the climate change skeptics (doubters, as he calls them)who are twisting the truth about the reasons for the extreme weather in an attempt to keep the public confused, primarily for monetary gain. Mr Hoggan, through his website, DeSmogBlog has successfully educated and informed the general public about the environment and what can be done to save our planet.

You can hear the entire broadcast(podcast)at the following links:

Earth Frenzy Radio

RSS Feeds

Live Broadcast Tonight: James Hoggan, Canadian PR Executive and Founder of DeSmogBlog

Live Broadcast at 8:00PM CST, 6PM PST-Tonight
October 24, 2007

Earth Frenzy Radio

The North Pole and the Greenland Ice Sheet are disappearing at an alarming speed according to recent observations by leading researchers. Learn more about this dire meltdown, and it's implications on society, with leading pr executive and founder of DeSmogBlog, James Hoggan.

James Hoggan is the president of the public relations firm James Hoggan & Associates. Over the past two decades, Jim has earned a reputation as one of Canada’s leading public relations professionals. His clients have included A&W Foods, the North West Cruise Ship Association, Vancouver Port Authority, Canadian Tire, Business Objects and Canadian Pacific Rail.

He is the author of the PR Tips that regularly appear on the front page of the business section in The Vancouver Sun, and In 2003, James Hoggan & Associates won the Public Relations Society of North America’s most prestigious award – The Silver Anvil for the best crisis communications campaign in North America.

Mr.Hoggan is Chair of the David Suzuki Foundation, an executive member of the Urban Development Institute and Future Generations and a Trustee of the Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and Education. He helped establish the Suzuki Foundation Business Council on Sustainability to encourage collaboration between the environmental and business communities.

Jim’s interest in climate change and his commitment to practicing ethical public relations converged recently in the creation of the popular website DeSmogBlog. The blog exists to identify unethical PR tactics and to expose the PR people who are trying to confuse the public about climate change.

NowPublic
Copyright © 2007 Skywatch-Media. All Rights Reserved

Record Breaking Temps In NYC For 5th Time In Oct.

New York City
City On Brink Of Warmest October Ever

For the fifth time this month, a RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE WAS SET at LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday, and it's the seventh record high to be set in the last six weeks. The temperature Tuesday topped out at 80-degrees, breaking the old record set back in 1995. What's more, the average temperature this month has been 9 degrees above normal. With just a week to go until November, New York City is ON PACE TO HAVE ITS WARMEST OCTOBER EVER. In Central Park, the average temperature this month has been 66.7 degrees, a full three degrees warmer than the warmest October on record, which was 60 years ago in 1947. This past week has seen high temperatures remaining steady in the 70s, with a streak of seven straight days with temperatures at least 10 degrees above normal. It hasn't been just this past week that's seen warmer than normal weather. In fact, 32 of the past 34 days have also experienced above average temperatures.

RELATED NEWS
Just how warm is it?

U.S. - “In the interior Northeast, back to the Ohio Valley, it is likely to be the warmest October on record." Most records go back to the late 19th century. The main cause of the balmy weather this month was the UNUSUALLY northern position of the northern jet stream — the river of high-speed air that circles the globe and separates warm and cold air masses. Because the jet stream is farther north than usual, the Northeast is sitting under warmer air. (Farther west, the jet stream zigs south, the World Series-bound Colorado Rockies’ baseball practice was held indoors in Denver on Sunday because of four inches of snow.)
Image: The calendar says it is late October, but there were still plenty of rays to be caught on Monday at the fountain at Washington Square Park.

Mass Exodus from flames: Nearly 1 million flee California wildfires

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
CALIFORNIA, USA
Image: A helicopter swoops in close to wildfire flames to make a water drop over the Del Dios neighborhood of Escondido, Calif., on Tuesday. Below: Kristina Ford, right, hugs friend and neighbor Fran Meyers as they watch efforts to save Ford's home and others in the High Valley area of Poway, Calif., where at least a
dozen homes were destroyed Tuesday. Meyers did not know the fate of her home.

LOS ANGELES -- Firestorms raged across Southern California on an epic scale for a third day, with flames as high as 100 feet stoked by extremes of wind, heat, dryness and -- on the suburban frontier where some of the worst blazes roared -- the human impulse to live just a little farther out.

Brush fires still beyond the control of firefighters forced the largest evacuation in modern times, officials estimated. The orders called for vacating 350,000 homes, affecting 950,000 people. In San Diego County alone, where the largest fire more than tripled in size over 24 hours, evacuation orders went to more than a half-million people without reports of major hardships.

REFUGE BEING IMPLEMENTED FOR EVACUEES

Image: Thousands sought shelter with church groups and strangers and at schools and a football stadium [AFP]






What You Should Know About the Santa Ana Winds & Fire

Georgia Governor Declares Drought Emergency

Georgia, USA

Image: Bare shoreline is revealed Friday as north Georgia's Lake Lanier continues to recede.

Governor Requests Disaster Declaration for North Georgia

LAKE LANIER, Georgia (CNN) -- Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a water supply emergency in north Georgia on Saturday as its water resources dwindled to a dangerously low level after months of drought.

But an Army Corps of Engineers official denied there is a water crisis.
Perdue, who signed an executive order Saturday, asked for President Bush's help in easing regulations that require the state to send water downstream to Alabama and Florida.
He also asked the president to declare 85 counties as federal disaster areas.
Perdue blasted what he called the "silly rules" governing the water supplies, noting that even if the state got replenishing rains, it could not by law conserve those, but must release 3.2 billion gallons a day downstream.
"The actions of the Corps of Engineers and Fish and Wildlife Service are not only irresponsible, I believe they're downright dangerous and Georgia cannot stand for this negligence," Perdue said.

California wildfires - from space

SATELLITE PHOTOS: CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE DISASTER

NASA's Earth-observing satellites have been snapping pictures this week of the devastating wildfires that have scorched southern California and burned hundreds out of their homes.
Here's one showing the smoke plumes streaming out over the Pacific Ocean.
Here's another showing how the fires blossomed in just a few hours on Sunday afternoon.
Here's one shot Monday. Amazing. The red dots show where infrared imagers spotted intense heat on the ground - fire.
And here's one shot today.

A home burns in the massive Californian bushfire. October 22, 2007. (AFP: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

BREAKING NEWS

500,000 evacuated in California wildfire crisis

More than 500,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes in California's San Diego County as wildfires rage across the state, officials said.

Collier Glacier is shrinking

Image: Mary Hare, of La Pine, and Diana Eddleston, of Bend, hike past Middle Sister’s Collier Glacier in late July. In the top photo, circa 1910, the glacier reached the ridge they are walking on — more than a mile farther than it is today

BREAKING EARTH NEWS

OREGON, USA

BEND, Ore. - Between the North Sister and Middle Sister in Oregon's Cascade Range, Collier Glacier has advanced and receded for hundreds of thousands of years. But like many glaciers, it is headed in one direction these days: backward.

It is in serious peril, says geologist Ellen Morris Bishop of the Fossil-based Oregon Paleo Lands Institute. "We have basically a really sad picture of Collier Glacier today."
Geologists blame among other things a warming climate, altering the landscape and perhaps the availability of water to high-elevation ecosystems. Collier is shrinking faster than most of the 35 glaciers in the state.
"Now everything is just in a chaotic shrink," Bishop said.


RELATED NEWS
Disappearing Glaciers
Like others worldwide, Central Oregon’s Collier Glacier is shrinking – ‘We have basically a really sad picture’

Heavy Rain Floods Parts of New Orleans

Louisiana, USA
Image: Lauren Robinson from New Orleans walks through the water in the uptown area of New Orleans on her way to study in a coffeehouse Monday, Oct. 22, 2007. Bands of heavy rain flooded streets and threatened homes and businesses in New Orleans and the surrounding suburbs Monday. The rain caused traffic jams and forced police to close some roads. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The deluge of rain that flooded streets eased dramatically Tuesday, a day after high water disrupted businesses, closed schools and swamped areas still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.
Only a few more showers were forecast Tuesday.
After more than 8 inches of rain drenched the city Monday, Mayor Ray Nagin shut City Hall early and schools were closed across the city. Waist-high water in parts of eastern New Orleans soaked businesses, some of which had only recently reopened after being damaged by Katrina in 2005.
The city's drainage pumps all worked, but they couldn't keep up with the intense rainfall, emergency preparedness officials told The Times-Picayune.
The pumps can handle up to 1 inch of rain in the first hour and a half-inch an hour after that, but some areas got more than two inches of rain in an hour, said Robert Jackson, a spokesman for the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board.
Rough rainfall estimates from 3 p.m. Monday to 7 a.m. Tuesday ranged from 5 inches in Kenner and New Orleans East to nearly 9 in central Jefferson Parish, National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Vasilj said.

Calif. fires burn 1,200 structures

BREAKING EARTH NEWS

CALIFORNIA, USA

Image: A firefighter holds his helmet during a gust of wind while using a water canon on top of a fire truck to try to protect buildings that were in the path of a fast-moving wildfire burning through the Rancho Bernardo neighborhood of San Diego, California, October 22, 2007

SAN DIEGO - Thousands more residents were ordered to evacuate their homes Tuesday, bringing the number of people chased away by the wind-whipped flames that have engulfed Southern California to at least 300,000.

By day three, the dozen wildfires had burned 1,200 homes and businesses and set 245,957 acres — 384 square miles — ablaze, and the destruction may only be the start for the region. Tuesday's forecast called for hotter temperatures and more explosive Santa Ana gusts.

The blazes bedeviled firefighters as walls of flame whipped from mountain passes to the edges of the state's celebrated coastline, spreading so quickly that even hotels serving as temporary shelters for evacuees had to be evacuated.

BREAKING VIDEO: WORST FIRE IN SAN DIEGO'S HISTORY

Update: California Wildfires Out of Control

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
CALIFORNIA, USA
Image: Three firefighters brace themselves from explosive heat coming from a burning home in Rancho Bernardo, Calif., Monday, October 22, 2007. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

SAN DIEGO - Wildfires fanned by fierce desert winds consumed huge swaths of bone-dry Southern California on Monday, burning dozens of buildings and threatening hundreds more from Malibu to San Diego, including a jail, a hospital and nursing homes.

"We have more houses burning than we have people and engine companies to fight them," San Diego Fire Captain Lisa Blake said. "A lot of people are going to lose their homes today."

Nearly 250,000 people were forced to flee in San Diego County alone, where hundreds of patients were being moved by school bus and ambulance from a hospital and nursing homes, sheriff's spokeswoman Susan Knauss said.



BREAKING VIDEO