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Lights out: House plan would protect nation’s electricity from solar flare, nuclear bomb

Published by Perfect Storm on June 18, 2013

Amid growing fears of a massive electromagnetic pulse hit from either a solar flare or a terrorist nuclear bomb, House Republicans on Tuesday will unveil a plan to save the nation’s electric grid from an attack that could mean lights out for 300 million Americans. Dubbed the Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act, the legislation would push… Read more →

Tectonic Plate movements break up supercontinents: Could signal the start of a new phase of the Wilson Cycle

Published by Perfect Storm on June 18, 2013

A new subduction zone forming off the coast of Portugal heralds the beginning of a cycle that will see the Atlantic Ocean close as continental Europe moves closer to America. Published in Geology, new research led by Monash University geologists has detected the first evidence that a passive margin in the Atlantic ocean is becoming active. Subduction zones, such as the… Read more →

Mexico’s active Popocatepetl volcano has registered a massive explosion spewing ash and incandescent rock almost 4 kilometers high. Authorities have warned that winds could blow the ash cloud as far away as Mexico City.

Inhabitants of villages up to 25 kilometers from Popocatepetl (colloquially known as ‘Don Popo’) rushed out of their houses when the massive explosion reverberated through their homes.

Esther Matinez, resident of Amecameca municipality, told Mexican publication La Jornada that the blast was like a rocket explosion. Around 4.5 million people live within a 50-kilometer radius of the active volcano, 650,000 of whom are considered to be at high risk.

According to authorities in the state of Puebla, where the second-tallest volcano in Mexico is located, the incandescent fragments released in the blast fell as far as 2 kilometers from the crater. Director of Puebla’s Civil Protection department Jesus Morales said that burning rocks sparked small fires around the volcano.

“There were clouds at the time of the eruption so it was possible to observe the large shock wave accompanied by a plume of ash and incandescent material,” Morales said.

RT has the full article

Demonstrators shout anti-government slogans behind a banner, which reads as 'violence', during one of many protests around Brazil's major cities in Sao Paulo June 17, 2013. REUTERS-Alex Almeida

(Photo: Reuters) – As many as 200,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Brazil’s biggest cities on Monday in a swelling wave of protest tapping into widespread anger at poor public services, police violence and government corruption.

The marches, organized mostly through snowballing social media campaigns, blocked streets and halted traffic in more than a half-dozen cities, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia, where demonstrators climbed onto the roof of Brazil’s Congress building and then stormed it.

Monday’s demonstrations were the latest in a flurry of protests in the past two weeks that have added to growing unease over Brazil’s sluggisheconomy, high inflation and a spurt in violent crime.

While most of the protests unfolded as a festive display of dissent, some demonstrators in Rio threw rocks at police, set fire to a parked car and vandalized the state assembly building. Vandals also destroyed property in the southern city of Porto Alegre.

Reuters has the full article

In “Using the Abused,” NRA News Commentator Natalie Foster calls out anti-gun groups for only using domestic abuse to further their anti-gun agenda.

“I think abortion is at the root of so much that has and is going wrong in this country”

Published by Perfect Storm on June 17, 2013

During his radio show on Friday, Rush Limbaugh told his listeners, “I think abortion is at the root of so much that has and is going wrong in this country.” The conservative host went on to discuss that the reason why amnesty is essential to the liberal agenda is because abortion has, since Roe v. Wade in 1973, wiped out millions of… Read more →

President Obama’s approval rating dropped eight points since May. CNN’s Chris Cuomo and John King report.

Floods in northern India wash away a whole apartment block. Read more…

The three-storey building in Uttarkashi was hit on Sunday night amid heavy flooding that has inundated large swathes of Uttarakhand state.

Dramatic footage filmed on a mobile phone and broadcast on local television showed the building collapsing and tumbling into the river.

Obamacare will share personal health info with federal, state agencies

Published by Perfect Storm on June 17, 2013

(Photo: Wikipedia) A new 253-page Obamacare rule issued late Friday requires state, federal and local agencies as well as health insurers to swap the protected personal health information of anybody seeking to join the new health care program that will be enforced by the Internal Revenue Service. Personal health information, or PHI, is highly protected under federal law, but the… Read more →

A Syrian Air Force fighter jet loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad flies past before firing missiles at Erbeen near Damascus January 26, 2013, in this picture provided by Shaam News Network. Picture taken January 26, 2013. REUTERS-Karm Seif-Shaam News Network-Handout (Photo: Reuters) - Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, will not permit no-fly zones to be imposed over Syria, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Monday.

“I think we fundamentally will not allow this scenario,” Lukashevich told a news briefing, adding that calls for a no-fly zone showed disrespect for international law.

Lukashevich spoke before planned talks between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a G8 summit in Northern Ireland which were expected to focus on the conflict in Syria that has killed at least 93,000 people.

Russia and the United States are trying to bring representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his foes to the negotiating table, but Moscow has criticized U.S. plans to arm rebel forces and to consider imposing a no-fly zone.

“All these maneuvers about no-fly zones and humanitarian corridors are a direct consequence of a lack of respect for international law,” Lukashevich said.

He said Russia did not want a scenario in Syria that resembled the events in Libya after the imposition of a no-fly zone which enabled NATO aircraft to help rebels overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.

This is a copy of the full article provided by Reuters