Posts from — June 2011

They aren’t as large as those out West, but with the drought Florida has wildfires too, and one of them just turned lethal:

From WTSP in Tampa: Wildfire kills two Florida firefighters

Tallahassee, Florida – Florida is mourning the loss of two veteran firefighters killed when a wildfire suddenly changed direction and flashed over them.

Fifty-two-year old Brett Fulton and 31-year-old Josh Burch were operating bulldozers at the front lines of the Blue Ribbon Fire in Hamilton County on Monday when they were caught in, what fire officials call, a “burn over.”

The fire was relatively small, only 12 acres, but the weather conditions changed quickly and created a firestorm.

Two other firefighters, Robert Marvin and Steve Carpenter, were injured when they ran into the flames to try to rescue their colleagues but the heat and smoke were too bad.
…

Florida is having one of its worst wildfire seasons. More than 1,500 wildfires have burned about 200,000 acres across the state since May 1st.

About a quarter of that acreage was on the West border of Miami. Because of the drought, most are in what are normally marshes, which die off quickly in droughts.

Florida’s Fraudster-in-chief can’t help being a jerk. He suggested that we have a ‘rain dance’.

They have made the shift to dealing with the aftermath of the fire and have already started some of the necessary work. Personnel numbers are slowly decreasing, and people are returning to the area.

Information from the current Wallow Fire InciWeb Page

• Date Started: 5/29/2011
• Location: Apache, Navajo, Graham, and Greenlee Counties, San Carlos and White Mountain Apache Reservations, Arizona; Catron County, New Mexico
• Cause: Human – under investigation
• Size: 527,774 acres [825 miles² 2136 km²] based on infrared data
• Percent Contained: 56%
• Injuries to Date: 12
• Residences: 1,551 threatened; 32 destroyed; 5 damaged
• Commercial Property: 162 threatened; 4 destroyed
• Outbuildings: 452 threatened; 36 destroyed; 1 damaged
• Other: 1 truck destroyed
• Number of Personnel: Approximately 3,483 including 11 hotshot crews and 50 hand crews
• Equipment: 19 dozers, 202 engines, 73 watertenders
• Aircraft: 15 helicopters, 5 air tankers
• Incident Commander: Jim Loach, Area Command Team 3

[Read more →]

Position: 19.0N 106.5W [ 4PM CDT 2100 UTC].
Movement: West [275°] near 12 mph [19 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Wind Gusts: 70 mph [110 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Minimum central pressure: 995 mb ↑.

Currently about 110 miles [175 km] South-Southwest of Cabo Corrientes, Mexico.

After paralleling the coast, Beatriz is going to head out sea. It is weakening rapidly and all Watches and Warnings have been cancelled.

At 10PM CDT Beatriz is a remnant low.

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.]

Today at 12:16PM [CDT] is the Summer Solstice, technically considered the “first day of Summer”, but the mid Summer by much of Europe. [Unless you are in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case it is the Winter Solstice.]

Celts and many Wiccans celebrate the day as Litha, while computer programmers honor their predecessors, the druids, who build the first solid-state computing devices, the megaliths, like Stonehenge.

The Slavs celebrate St. John’s Night, Иван Купала [Ivan Kupala], the battle between the White god [Белобог – Belobog] and the Black god [Чёрнобог – Chyornobog] for control of the Sun. The Black god always wins and the night begins to expand.

The Finns use the same con by changing the name from Ukon Juhla to Johannes Kastaja [John the Baptist] to get the Christians off their case for holding the same celebration.

The sound track to the battle is Иванова Ночь на Лысой Горе [Night on Bald Mountain ] by Модест Петрович Мусоргский [Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky], which everyone should play very loudly.

Archæoastronomy tracks all of the important solar events, another of the many things I learned from Andante.

My DSL modem is on its last legs, and until I can get a replacement I won’t be around much, if at all.

Oh, yes, CenturyLink really sucks, but that won’t be my problem much longer. Satellite here I come.

There has been much better weather today, and the outlook for the next few days is good, but long-term the National Weather Service is warning about the real possibility of flooding when the rains return. People need to take the warnings seriously, and get flood insurance now. With the loss of vegetation on the hillsides, the water from even a moderate storm will cause flooding.

They are still fighting the spread into New Mexico, but the helicopters have been able to help in the lighter winds.

Information from the current Wallow Fire InciWeb Page

• Date Started: 5/29/2011
• Location: Apache, Navajo, Graham, and Greenlee Counties, San Carlos and White Mountain Apache Reservations, Arizona; Catron County, New Mexico
• Cause: Human – under investigation
• Size: 519,319 acres [811 miles² 2102 km²] based on infrared data
• Percent Contained: 51%
• Injuries to Date: 12
• Residences: 2,714 threatened; 32 destroyed; 5 damaged
• Commercial Property: 473 threatened; 4 destroyed
• Outbuildings: 1,216 threatened; 36 destroyed; 1 damaged
• Other: 1 truck destroyed
• Number of Personnel: Approximately 3,594 including 15 hotshot crews and 56 hand crews
• Equipment: 21 dozers, 196 engines, 72 watertenders
• Aircraft: 15 helicopters, 5 air tankers
• Incident Commander: Jim Loach, Area Command Team 3

[Read more →]

Position: 18.0N 103.5W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North-Northwest [340°] near 12 mph [19 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 75 mph [120 kph].
Wind Gusts: 90 mph [150 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 105 miles [165 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 30 miles [ 45 km].
Minimum central pressure: 985 mb ↓.

Currently about 85 miles [140 km] Southeast of Manzanillo, Mexico.

Beatriz is a hurricane. I’m still hoping for a Sea of Cortés [Gulf of California] track that would make it a rainmaker for Northern Mexico and the US Southwest. It is currently paralleling the coast line of Mexico.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Zihuatanejo northwestward to Cabo Corrientes.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Tecpan de Galeana westward to east of Zihuatanejo.

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.]

Congress is attempting to screw working people exactly the same way corporations have screwed their workers, by setting up a two-tiered system for Social Security and Medicare. They think they can con people 55 and older into remaining quiet while the taxes paid by younger people get looted for the benefit of the top 1%. It isn’t just the Republicans, the Democrats, led by Zero have bought into every lie the Republicans have told, and have refused to fix the economy.

I’m sick of hearing restatements of the failed policies of Hoover to deal with the Depression, and disgusted by Zero and the Democrats failing to use the tools that FDR proved worked.

The only “problem” with the deficit and Social Security is the reality that one in five American workers is either unemployed or underemployed. If you put people back to work, tax revenues increase, and all of the problems become easy to resolve. Tax breaks don’t create jobs. Demand for products is the only way jobs have ever been created, and that has been proven repeatedly over history. The Shrubbery passed tax cuts early on, and didn’t have enough private sector jobs created to during his entire eight years to cover the introduction of new workers.

Life expectancy falls in many parts of U.S. – how’s that for a headline, after hearing repeatedly that we have to raise the age for benefits, because people are living longer? The US isn’t even in the top three dozen in countries for life expectancy. I’m not interested in conventional wisdom from DC, where are the facts?

If these people are interested in reducing government, they can start by cutting the Senate in half. There is no reason for a state to have two Senators, when one can be just as worthless.

No one who pays FICA taxes should ever vote for anyone who messes around with the benefits. If they can’t leave well enough alone, they need to be unemployed to learn some humility. If they try it, everyone with a stake in Social Security should make them pay.

The gusty winds yesterday pushed the fire over the containment lines in New Mexico and the town of Luna had to be evacuated. With gusts up to 50 mph [80 kph] air resources were grounded for safety reasons.

No new structures have been lost and containment has reached 44%, but the weather will be problem for the rest of today. Hopefully the cold front moving in will improve the weather conditions.

Information from the current Wallow Fire InciWeb Page

• Date Started: 5/29/2011
• Location: Apache, Navajo, Graham, and Greenlee Counties, San Carlos and White Mountain Apache Reservations, Arizona; Catron County, New Mexico
• Cause: Human – under investigation
• Size: 511,118 acres [799 miles² 2068 km²] based on infrared data
• Percent Contained: 44%
• Injuries to Date: 12
• Residences: 2,714 threatened; 32 destroyed; 5 damaged
• Commercial Property: 473 threatened; 4 destroyed
• Outbuildings: 1,216 threatened; 36 destroyed; 1 damaged
• Other: 1 truck destroyed
• Number of Personnel: Approximately 3,594 including 15 hotshot crews and 56 hand crews
• Equipment: 21 dozers, 196 engines, 72 watertenders
• Aircraft: 15 helicopters, 5 air tankers
• Incident Commander: Jim Loach, Area Command Team 3

[Read more →]

Position: 14.9N 102.1W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northwest [305°] near 12 mph [19 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 45 mph [ 75 kph].
Wind Gusts: 55 mph [ 90 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 35 miles [ 55 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1001 mb ↓.

Currently about 320 miles [510 km] South-Southeast of Manzanillo, Mexico.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Zihuatanejo westward to Manzanillo.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Tecpan de Galeana westward to Punta San Telmo.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the coast of Mexico from west of Manzanillo westward to La Fortuna.

It became the second named storm at 1PM CDT. If nothing changes, this storm seems to have its heart setting on hitting Manzanillo as a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday.

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.]

I received a robo-call a few days ago to watch out for an “important health care alert”, and the only name I recognized was that of my worthless Congresscritter, Jefferson Beauregard Miller.

It showed up today, and from local sources, Miller doesn’t know anything about it. [That’s quite believable, as my experience is that Miller doesn’t know anything about most things.]

The mailer is from a group calling itself the American Life Sciences Innovation Council, which has a web site that was registered by “Domains by Proxy” in Arizona through GoDaddy in April of this year, for a single year. The address is 2100 M Street NW Suite 170-256 in DC, which is apparently a box at a UPS store, an address used by a motley crew of groups including serial liar James O’Keefe, and the group behind the Park 51 Islamic center in NYC.

The ad is made to appear as if it came from Miller, but it didn’t, and recommends thanking him for “protecting Medicare” when he voted for the Ryan bill that would destroy it.

It looks like a front group for Medicine Inc. who are worried that something might be done about all of the worthless tests and procedures that they do to pad their profit margin.

The firefighters are definitely winning the battle. Faced with Red Flag conditions they have managed to hold their lines and limit the spread of the fire.

Update: The fire has jumped the containment line in New Mexico and is headed for Luna. Air support can’t fly because of the high winds, so it is going to be a ground battle to save the town.

Information from the current Wallow Fire InciWeb Page

• Date Started: 5/29/2011
• Location: Apache, Navajo, Graham, and Greenlee Counties, San Carlos and White Mountain Apache Reservations, Arizona; Catron County, New Mexico
• Cause: Human – under investigation
• Size: 500,409 acres [782 miles² 2025 km²] based on infrared data
• Percent Contained: 38%
• Injuries to Date: 11
• Residences: 2,714 threatened; 32 destroyed; 5 damaged
• Commercial Property: 473 threatened; 4 destroyed
• Outbuildings: 1,216 threatened; 36 destroyed; 1 damaged
• Other: 1 truck destroyed
• Number of Personnel: Approximately 4,152 including 19 hotshot crews and 64 hand crews
• Equipment: 21 dozers, 245 engines, 63 watertenders
• Aircraft: 15 helicopters, 5 air tankers
• Incident Commander: Jim Loach, Area Command Team 3

[Read more →]

The BBC reports that Merkel and Sarkozy urge bail-out

The leaders of Germany and France have said that they want a new rescue package for debt-laden Greece to be agreed as soon as possible.

Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy were speaking after Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou announced a cabinet reshuffle.
…

There had been calls in Germany that investors should allow Greece extra time to pay off debts and should be made to participate in future fundraising by the Athens government.

After the meeting, the two leaders said they agreed that any private sector involvement should be “voluntary” not compulsory.

It was unclear under what terms private investors might voluntarily take part in a Greek bail-out.

But the comments by Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy were seen as a signal to banks and bondholders that they will not be made to incur losses on Greek debt.

[Read more →]

The Miami Herald ran a piece on the latest Florida job numbers:

Broward’s jobless rate went from 8.9 percent to 9.0 percent, according to state figures. Miami-Dade’s unemployment rate returned to a record 13.4 percent, up from 13.1 percent in April.

The figures from the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation are bound to increase worries that the economic rebound that seemed to be gaining steam in early 2011 has now hit some sort of roadblock. But statewide, the trend was more encouraging. Florida’s unemployment rate dropped slightly, from 10.8 percent to 10.6 percent. That is its lowest level since August 2009.
…

Florida’s labor director touted the May report as a good sign for the Sunshine State, which added 28,000 jobs between April and May and nearly 25,000 compared to a year ago. The yearly gain amounted a tiny portion — far less than 1 percent — of the state’s 7.2 million-person workforce.

“Today’s announcement that unemployment continues to drop and businesses continue to add thousands of jobs shows that Florida’s economy is moving in the right direction,” said Agency for Workforce Innovation Director Cynthia R. Lorenzo. “Our unemployment rate is now the lowest it has been in 21 months, and we can expect our state’s heightened focus on economic recovery to spur additional job growth in the months ahead.”

Excuse me, but if 28,000 jobs were added from April to May, and jobs are only up 25,000 from last year, it means that the entire growth for the year was in that one month, and they were primarily the summer hires, not permanent jobs.

When the ‘body count’ from layoffs of teachers and other public employees begins to get tallied, we are in a world of hurt, and going backwards, not forwards.

As with the Federal reports, many people have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits and have just given up finding a job. Last year was actually inflated by the Census jobs, and the stimulus programs, which are now gone.