Posts from — June 2011

The BBC notes that MySpace sold to Specific Media by Murdoch’s News Corp

News Corporation has sold its ailing social networking site MySpace to online advertising firm Specific Media.

News Corp paid $580m (£361m) for MySpace in 2005, but users and advertisers left the site for rival social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The sale terms were not disclosed, but there were unconfirmed reports that price paid was as low as $35m.

Over a half-billion dollars flushed on one deal sort of explains why the cracks are appearing the Murdock empire. He’s trying to charge for all of his media sites because he doesn’t have anyone who knows how to make money on-line, and he’s paying out piles of cash for tapping people’s phones. The world is not being kind to Australopithecus rupertus™.

From FIFA’s official site: it’s Canada 0-4 France and Germany 1-0 Nigeria in the second round of play in Group A. It looks like Germany and France are through to the next level.

ESPN has the replay on the ‘Net.

Another jump in the size of the fire, but some of that is attributed to backfires to stop the spread of wildfire, and to protect assets like the Los Alamos National Laboratory. There has been a large increase in the assets assigned to the fire.

The number one ‘guess’ as to the cause of the fire is a downed power line near Las Conchas. More fires may start today caused by lightning from storms in the area. The rain, if there is any, doesn’t prevent fires when the forests are as dry as they are. We have lost structures to fires during hurricanes with the rain coming down in buckets.

Information from the current Las Conchas Wildfire InciWeb Page

• Date Started: 6/26/2011
• Location: Jemez Ranger District, Santa Fe National Forest; approximately 12 miles southwest of Los Alamos off NM 4 at mile marker 35, New Mexico
• Cause: Unknown – under investigation
• Size: 92,735 acres [145 miles² 375 km²] based on infrared data
• Percent Contained: 3%
• Injuries to Date: 0
• Residences: 13 destroyed; 3 damaged
• Commercial Property: 3 damaged
• Outbuildings: 2 destroyed
• Number of Personnel: Approximately 752 including 7 hotshot crews and 14 hand crews
• Equipment: 4 dozers, 28 engines
• Aircraft: 5 helicopters
• Incident Commander: Dan Oltrogge, Area Command Team 1

[Read more →]

Position: 21.5N 98.1W [ 1PM CDT 1800 UTC].
Movement: West [270°] near 7 mph [11 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 85 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [100 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 140 miles [220 km].
Minimum central pressure: 997 mb ↑.

Currently about 60 miles [ 95 km] North-Northwest of Tuxpan, Mexico.

Arlene is bringing rain to Texas from Corpus Christi to the South. It isn’t a lot, but it will add some water to the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo and take the edge off the heat.

Update: At 7PM CDT, Arlene has been downgraded to a tropical depression and will become a remnant low in the mountains of Central Mexico.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from La Pesca southward to Palma Sola.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

From FIFA’s official site: it’s Brazil 1-0 Australia and Norway 1-0 Equatorial Guinea in the first round of play in Group D.

ESPN has the replay on the ‘Net.

Containment has started, and while the fire didn’t spread, it is burning actively within its perimeter. To better handle the fire, operations are being split into northern and southern operations, and an Area Command Team brought in to coordinate.

As a result of the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire, a controlled burn that got out of hand, LANL has taken major measures to control and combat fire on the facility, as has the city of Los Alamos. The climate conditions that led to this fire didn’t happen overnight, and people have been anticipating that a fire would erupt at some point.

Update: They hadn’t yet updated the size of the fire at this morning’s briefing. The fire grew by about 8800 acres.

Information from the current Las Conchas Wildfire InciWeb Page

• Date Started: 6/26/2011
• Location: Jemez Ranger District, Santa Fe National Forest; approximately 12 miles southwest of Los Alamos off NM 4 at mile marker 35, New Mexico
• Cause: Unknown – under investigation
• Size: 69,555 acres [109 miles² 281 km²] based on infrared data
• Percent Contained: 3%
• Injuries to Date: 0
• Residences: 12 destroyed
• Number of Personnel: Approximately 341 including 3 hotshot crews and 9 hand crews
• Equipment: 4 dozers, 12 engines
• Aircraft: 5 helicopters
• Incident Commander: Joe S. Reinar, Type I Incident Management Team

[Read more →]

Position: 21.5N 96.1W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [280°] near 6 mph [ 9 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Wind Gusts: 70 mph [110 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 140 miles [220 km].
Minimum central pressure: 996 mb.

Currently about 90 miles [145 km] East-Northeast of Tuxpan, Mexico.

The storm has started to move again, and the outer bands are already affecting the coast. It is a large storm, and it is possible that South Texas will get some rain from the outer bands.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Barra de Nautla northward to La Cruz.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from La Cruz northward to La Pesca and from Palma Sola southward to Veracruz.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

It is so difficult to believe what passes as ‘political discourse’ in this country. I heard less absolute absurdity in college after a night of binge drinking, than in the ‘sober’ discussions taking place on ‘the media’.

The fire is a third larger today than yesterday, but still doesn’t pose a direct threat to structures. As a precaution due to road closures and the weather outlook, communities near the fire, and LANL have been evacuated. Wind direction and speed can easily make this fire jump ahead in leap and bounds.

Update: The Santa Fe New Mexican is reporting

So far, the fire has leveled an estimated 30 structures, most of them homes, in the small communities of Las Conchas and Cochiti Mesa. “They had only minutes to leave,” said Los Alamos County Fire Chief Doug Tucker, who flew over the fire earlier in the day. “They had no time to pack. They lost everything.”

Information from the current Las Conchas Wildfire InciWeb Page

• Date Started: 6/26/2011
• Location: Jemez Ranger District, Santa Fe National Forest; approximately 12 miles southwest of Los Alamos off NM 4 at mile marker 35, New Mexico
• Cause: Unknown – under investigation
• Size: 60,741 acres [95 miles² 246 km²] based on infrared data
• Percent Contained: 0%
• Injuries to Date: 0
• Number of Personnel: Approximately 315 including 2 hotshot crews and 9 hand crews
• Equipment: 5 dozers, 13 engines
• Aircraft: 7 helicopters
• Incident Commander: Joe S. Reinar, Type I Incident Management Team

East – Crews are working to protect structures near Bandelier, as well as working to contain the fire along the Frijole Canyon.

West – Crews are building direct lines to prevent fire movement to the west.

Northeast – Crews are working to contain the fire using burnout methods to prevent the fire from spreading north of Pajarito Road and east of Highway 501.

South – North of Cochiti fire progression is being slowed by lighter fuel types. Firefighters are evaluating methods to stop the fire from spreading south.

[For the latest information click on the Fire symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Fires” for all of the posts related to wildfires on this site.]

Position: 21.4N 94.1W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [295°] near 7 mph [11 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 40 mph [ 65 kph].
Wind Gusts: 50 mph [ 85 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 115 miles [185 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1003 mb.

Currently about 250 miles [400 km] East-Southeast of Tampico.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Barra de Nautla northward to Bahia Algondones.

This is no doubt the result of the Hurricane Hunter mission investigating what was Invest 95.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

From FIFA’s official site: it’s US 2-0 Korea DPR and Colombia 0-1 Sweden in the first round of play in Group C.

ESPN has the replay on the ‘Net.

The fire started at 1PM local on Sunday, on private land, but quickly grew large in the Red Flag fire weather that the area has been experiencing. It is racing through mixed conifer forest and is approaching the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Information from the current Las Conchas Wildfire InciWeb Page

• Date Started: 6/26/2011
• Location: Jemez Ranger District, Santa Fe National Forest; approximately 12 miles southwest of Los Alamos off NM 4 at mile marker 35, New Mexico
• Cause: Unknown – under investigation
• Size: 43,597 acres [68 miles² 176 km²] based on infrared data
• Percent Contained: 0%
• Injuries to Date: 0
• Number of Personnel: Approximately 315 including 2 hotshot crews and 9 hand crews
• Equipment: 5 dozers, 13 engines
• Aircraft: 3 helicopters
• Incident Commander: Joe S. Reinar, Type I Incident Management Team

Power and phone lines are down in the area. The fire is approximately 1 mile southwest of the boundary of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The fire has not entered Laboratory property at this time. All radioactive material is appropriately accounted for and protected.

[For the latest information click on the Fire symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Fires” for all of the posts related to wildfires on this site.]

There is an area of disturbed weather, Invest 95, that may develop into a tropical depression. It is in the southern Bay of Campeche and moving towards the northwest. It is unlikely to have enough time to become a tropical storm, much less a hurricane, but it is producing a lot of rain which is desperately needed in Northern Mexico and the state of Texas.

There is a ridge of high pressure over the northern Gulf of Mexico which will limit how far north the system can move, but whoever gets it, will really need it.

From FIFA’s official site: it’s Japan 2-1 New Zealand and Mexico 1-1 England in the first round of play in Group B.

ESPN has the replay on the ‘Net.