#in 45+ kph winds

[baron-von-tibbles]

a tradie is a type of maid, right?

[newstfionline]

Friday, September 27, 2024

Helene makes landfall in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 hurricane (AP) Hurricane Helene made landfall in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 storm as forecasters warned that the enormous system could create a “nightmare” storm surge and bring dangerous winds and rain across much of the southeastern U.S. There were at least three storm-related deaths. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Helene roared ashore around 11:10 p.m. Thursday near the mouth of the Aucilla River in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast. It had maximum sustained winds estimated at 140 mph (225 kph). More than 1.2 million homes and businesses were without power in Florida, more than 190,000 in Georgia and more than 30,000 in the Carolinas, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us. The governors of those states and Alabama and Virginia all declared emergencies.

As School Threats Proliferate, More Than 700 Students Are Arrested (NYT) Earlier this month, a detective knocked on Shavon Harvey’s door, in suburban Ohio, to ask about her son. The son had sent a Snapchat message from her phone to his friends, saying there would be shootings at several schools nearby. She rushed to the police station, where her son was already in custody, but the police did not release him. He was charged with inducing panic, a second-degree felony, and officials kept him in detention for 10 nights. He is 10. Ms. Harvey’s son is far from the only child arrested this month after similar behavior. And he’s not even the youngest. In the three weeks since two teachers and two students were killed at Apalachee High School in the deadliest school shooting in Georgia’s history, more than 700 children and teenagers, including at least one fourth grader, have been arrested and accused of making violent threats against schools in at least 45 states, according to a New York Times review of news reports, law enforcement statements and court records. Almost 10 percent were 12 or younger. The arrests come as the police and schools confront an onslaught of threats of violence, gunfire and bombings. The reports have terrified students and their parents, caused attendance to plunge and forced the temporary closure of dozens of campuses.

Their churches no longer feel safe. Now Nicaraguans are taking their worship home (AP) When their church no longer felt safe, deacon Francisco Alvicio and his congregation made a plan. Cautiously, discreetly, they took their worship to their homes. “If I’m pursued at the church, I still have my Bible,” the 63-year-old Nicaraguan said. Praying in hiding became his last resort before fleeing his country in 2023. Like him, several evangelical pastors, Catholic priests and human rights organizations have denounced the surveillance, harassment and the imprisonment of Nicaraguan faith leaders in recent years. Ortega asked the Catholic Church to play a role as a mediator when political tensions arose, but the dialogue didn’t last long. After priests sheltered demonstrators inside their parishes and expressed concern about excessive use of force, Ortega targeted them as “terrorists” who backed opposition efforts to overthrow him. Most evangelical congregations have refrained from any political participation, though this has not prevented leaders from being imprisoned and hundreds of organizations from being closed. The government started imposing taxes on them, black-clad strangers showed up at services, pastors were arrested for no reason. Those too afraid to attend a public service decided to pray at home. Some read their Bibles in solitude. Others with spare chairs turned their tiny houses into makeshift churches. “We believe that wherever we are, we can pray to God,” one believer said. “So I can walk and speak and think bearing that power, knowing that, even if I’m alone, he’ll be with me.”

Dominican president warns of ‘drastic measures’ if anti-gang mission in Haiti fails (AP) The president of the Dominican Republic warned Wednesday that his administration would take “drastic measures” to protect the country if a U.N.-backed mission in neighboring Haiti targeting gang violence fails. Luis Abinader did not provide details of what action he might take during his speech at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Gangs in Haiti control 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and they have grown more powerful since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. More than 3,600 people have been reported killed during the first half of this year, a more than 70% increase compared with the same period last year. The violence also has left nearly 700,000 Haitians homeless in recent years and thousands have fled Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

Pope Francis heads for Luxembourg and Belgium on a trip to a dwindling flock (AP) Pope Francis on Thursday began his trip to once-strong bastions of Christianity in the heart of Europe in an effort to reinvigorate a Catholic flock that is dwindling in the face of secular trends and scandals that have largely emptied the continent’s magnificent cathedrals and village churches. Francis landed mid-morning Thursday in Luxembourg, the European Union’s second-smallest country, with a population of some 650,000 people, and its richest per capita. The trip is a much-truncated version of the 10-day tour St. John Paul II made through Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands in 1985. But then as now, the head of the Catholic Church faced indifference and even hostility to core Vatican teachings on contraception and sexual morals, opposition that has only increased in the ensuing generation. Those secular trends have helped lead to the decline of the church in the region, with monthly Mass attendance in the single digits and plummeting ordinations of new priests.

Vienna prepared itself for a 5,000-year flood (BBC) Storm Boris is the latest deluge in one of the most flood-plagued periods in Europe in the past 500 years, but one city escaped relatively unscathed. When Boris doused Vienna on 15 September, the impact looked dramatic: flooded roads, evacuated houses, a gentle stream that turned into a roaring torrent. In the space of only five days, between twice and five times as much rain fell on the city and other parts of Austria as in an entire average month of September. And yet, considering the onslaught of water, “we got away quite lightly”, noted a Viennese journalist, referring to reports of an estimated ten lightly injured people, and 15 evacuated houses in the city. “Austria has really invested in flood management over the past decades, not least because we had two big floods, in 2002 and 2013,” says Günter Blöschl, a hydrologist who has helped shape Austria’s flood risk management strategy. “Vienna’s flood defence system is designed to cope with a flood discharge of 14,000 cubic metres per second—that’s equivalent to a 5,000-year flood,” he says. A flood of that size last occurred in 1501, he adds. During the flood over the weekend, around 10,000 cubic metres per second flowed through Vienna’s waterways, “significantly below the system’s 14,000-cubic-metre capacity,” he adds. “Without this system, there would have been widespread flooding.”

Russia’s nuclear doctrine to include attacks on nonnuclear states (Washington Post) Russian President Vladimir Putin made a fresh nuclear threat against the West and Ukraine on Wednesday, indicating that any nation’s conventional attack on Russia that was supported by a nuclear power would be perceived as a joint attack. At a meeting with the Russian Security Council, Putin said that in light of an “emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and our allies,” specialists from the Defense Ministry and other government agencies had conducted a year-long, in-depth review of the country’s nuclear doctrine. “The updated version of the document proposes that aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear-weapon state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear-weapon state, should be considered as a joint attack on the Russian Federation,” Putin told the council. He said, “We reserve the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression against Russia and Belarus.”

Thousands are pouring into Syria, fleeing worsening conflict in Lebanon (AP) Families fleeing the escalating conflict in Lebanon poured into Syria in growing numbers on Wednesday, waiting for hours in heavy traffic to reach the relative safety of another war-torn country. U.N. officials estimated that thousands of Lebanese and Syrian families had already made the journey. Those numbers are expected to grow as Israel targets southern and eastern Lebanon in an aerial bombardment that local officials say has killed more than 600 people this week, at least a quarter of them women and children. Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah fighters and weapons. Lines of buses and cars extended for several kilometers (miles) from the Syria border beginning on Monday, and some families were seen making the journey on foot. Once in Syria, people waited hours more to be processed by overwhelmed border officials, and relief workers handed out food, water, mattresses and blankets.

Israeli Bulldozers Flatten Mile After Mile in the West Bank (NYT) Over two weeks, Palestinians watched as Israeli military bulldozers tore up mile after mile of their streets and alleys, sewage seeping into the dusty ruts left behind. The people of Tulkarm and Jenin, the two West Bank towns that were the focus of Israel’s latest military raids, said they had never before experienced such a scale of destruction. Residents pointed to one video that shows an Israeli armored bulldozer flattening a decorative roundabout and nearby vegetation. “We watched their bulldozers tear up streets, demolish businesses, pharmacies, schools. They even bulldozed the town soccer field, and a tree in the middle of a road,” said Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, a governorate in the northern West Bank. “What was the point of all of this?”

Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them. (ProPublica) According to an investigation by ProPublica, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been fibbing. In April, the U.S. government’s top two humanitarian aid agencies—the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration—gave Blinken their independent assessments regarding Israel’s blockage of aid into Gaza. Both groups found that Israel was deliberately blocking large amounts of aid from entering the Palestinian enclave, assessments which, legally, should have stopped the U.S. from sending military aid to Israel. Blinken, (allegedly) knowing this, told Congress, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.” According to a 17-page memo by USAID summarizing the agency’s findings, Israel had restricted aid in multiple ways, including killing aid workers, bombing agricultural infrastructure, firing missiles at ambulances and hospitals, restricting access to aid supply depots, and making a policy of turning back trucks carrying food and medicine into Gaza. Now? Well, famine is still spreading through parts of Gaza, and Israel still gets handed billions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

45 years ago CompuServe connected the world before the World Wide Web (NPR) Silicon Valley has the reputation of being the birthplace of our hyper-connected Internet age, the hub of companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook. However, a pioneering company in central Ohio is responsible for developing and popularizing many of the technologies we take for granted today. CompuServe was the first major online information service provider, and its subscribers were among the first to have access to email, online newspapers and magazines and the ability to share and download files. The company started in 1969 as a computer time-sharing service. It offered data processing power to businesses that didn’t have their own mainframe computers. But their computers sat relatively idle in the evenings, so CompuServe tested the idea of giving that access to tech enthusiasts who were using these new devices called microcomputers. That developed into a business plan. Users would sit at their computers and dial a phone number with their modem. The modem would kind of screech and squawk, and once the connection was made, users would see the CompuServe menu. “For a lot of people, CompuServe was a connection to the world and their first introduction to the idea that their computer could be more than a computer. It was a communications device, an information device,” tech journalist Dylan Tweney said.

[snehagoogle]

Is the aurora a burning remnant of the atmosphere

Is the aurora a burning remnant of the atmosphere

Is the aurora a source of carbon formation

About Auroras

Vajiram & Ravi

https://vajiramandravi.com › prelims-pointers › about-a...

26 Aug 2023 — Auroras are formed when ejecting charged particles from sun's corona, creating solar wind.

What does aurora produce?

Aurora

In the ionosphere, the ions of the solar wind collide with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen from Earth's atmosphere. The energy released during these collisions causes a colorful glowing halo around the poles—an aurora. Most auroras happen about 97-1,000 kilometers (60-620 miles) above Earth's surface.19 Oct 2023

Aurora Borealis in India

Drishti IAS

https://www.drishtiias.com › daily-news-analysis › auro...

15 May 2024 — Auroras are bright and colourful lights, formed due to an active interaction in Space between charged solar winds and the Earth's magnetosphere.

Northern lights (aurora borealis) — what they are and how ...

Space.com

https://www.space.com › Stargazing › Aurora Borealis

23 Jul 2024

The northern lights are an atmospheric phenomenon that's regarded as the Holy Grail of skywatching.

The northern lights, or the aurora borealis, are beautiful dancing ribbons of light that have captivated people for millennia. But for all its beauty, this spectacular light show is a rather violent event. 

The northern lights are created when energized particles from the sun slam into Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph), but our planet's magnetic field protects us from the onslaught. 

As Earth's magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles — there are southern lights, too, which you can read about below — the dramatic process transforms into a cinematic atmospheric phenomenon that dazzles and fascinates scientists and skywatchers alike.

We know that a candle is a source of fire

But the fusion of hydrogen atoms alone is a ball of fire with constant explosions

So the radiation spread by that ball of fire will give news of many reactions

Translate Hindi

क्या अरोरा वातावरण की जलती हुई अवशेष है

क्या अरोरा कार्बन निर्माण का स्रोत है

ऑरोरा के बारे में

वाजिराम और र��ि

https://vajiramandravi.com › prelims-pointers › about-a...

26 अगस्त 2023 — ऑरोरा तब बनते हैं जब सूर्य के कोरोना से आवेशित कण बाहर निकलते हैं, जिससे सौर हवा बनती है।

ऑरोरा क्या उत्पन्न करता है?

ऑरोरा

आयनमंडल में, सौर हवा के आयन पृथ्वी के वायुमंडल से ऑक्सीजन और नाइट्रोजन के परमाणुओं से टकराते हैं। इन टकरावों के दौरान निकलने वाली ऊर्जा ध्रुवों के चारों ओर एक रंगीन चमकीला प्रभामंडल बनाती है - एक ऑरोरा। अधिकांश ऑरोरा पृथ्वी की सतह से लगभग 97-1,000 किलोमीटर (60-620 मील) ऊपर होते हैं।19 अक्टूबर 2023

भारत में ऑरोरा बोरेलिस

दृष्टि आईएएस

https://www.drishtiias.com › daily-news-analysis › auro...

15 मई 2024 — ऑरोरा चमकीले और रंगीन प्रकाश होते हैं, जो अंतरिक्ष में आवेशित सौर हवाओं और पृथ्वी के चुंबकीय क्षेत्र के बीच सक्रिय संपर्क के कारण बनते हैं।

उत्तरी रोशनी (ऑरोरा बोरेलिस) — वे क्या हैं और कैसे ...

Space.com

https://www.space.com › स्टारगेज़िंग › ऑरोरा बोरेलिस

23 जुलाई 2024

उत्तरी रोशनी एक वायुमंडलीय घटना है जिसे आकाश को देखने का पवित्र ग्रिल माना जाता है।

उत्तरी रोशनी, या ऑरोरा बोरेलिस, प्रकाश के सुंदर नृत्य रिबन हैं जिन्होंने सहस्राब्दियों से लोगों को मोहित किया है। लेकिन अपनी सारी खूबसूरती के बावजूद, यह शानदार लाइट शो एक हिंसक घटना है।

उत्तरी रोशनी तब बनती है जब सूर्य से ऊर्जायुक्त कण 45 मिलियन मील प्रति घंटे (72 मिलियन किलोमीटर प्रति घंटे) की गति से पृथ्वी के ऊपरी वायुमंडल में टकराते हैं, लेकिन हमारे ग्रह का चुंबकीय क्षेत्र हमें इस हमले से बचाता है।

जब पृथ्वी का चुंबकीय क्षेत्र कणों को ध्रुवों की ओर पुनर्निर्देशित करता है - दक्षिणी रोशनी भी होती है, जिसके बारे में आप नीचे पढ़ सकते हैं - यह नाटकीय प्रक्रिया एक सिनेमाई वायुमंडलीय घटना में बदल जाती है जो वैज्ञानिकों और आकाशदर्शकों को समान रूप से चकित और मोहित करती है।

मोमबत्ती की दीए को तो हम जानते है की वो एक अग्नी की स्रोत है

मगर अकेले की संलयन वो हाइड्रोजन परमानु की न्यूक्लियर फ्यूजन वो तो एक हर दम होने वाला विस्फोट वाली अग्नी गोलक है 

तो उस अग्नी गोलक की फैली रेडिएशन तो कई कई रिएक्ट का समाचार देगा ही

[stevestonbike]

It's October droogs.

I closed out September with a modest ride that cleared last year's by a whopping 5 km. I am at 3880 km for the year. That is more than some years total, but yes less than others. I am doing OK I guess.

On Saturday I did 8 minute hill in 7:45, but I think I missed my finish line mark by a bit so take 5 seconds off that. I confused which damn button is the lap button! I have done under 7 minutes at my best. So I aint at my best. Oh and I will claim a head wind. A key part of a good time is the lower flatter part which I have done at 30 kph. The steep part is pretty consistent and wind makes little difference. The flatter part it does.

The club has had its last ride, and I did not go. Enough said on that.

The weather has gone cold and rainy. This coming Weekend it may be better. The distance goal for October is modest. I am feeling no pressure.

My Achilles is still tender. I do not recall it being a problem before, but I tend to forget minor hurts. I did nothing different and the bike fit has not changed. It started on the Fondo ride, but hey I was prepared, and I did not push as hard as I could of. So I will rest and do some stretching and all the usual things. It will be fine.

Thinking about the dark months coming up. I do not stop, I just do less. I put a lot of faith in HIIT sessions, but they only keep me in a lesser place fitness-wise. Spring and going outside is the happy time. I feel improvement every week, so logically I have lost some capacity.

I guess my Fitbit watch has been taken over by Google, and the updated app is annoying. I may ditch the thing for a Garmin Watch. Why do developers think every change is an improvement. It is not.

I could rant for an hour on that, but what good would it do?

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] BAR HARBOR, Maine -- Atlantic storm Lee - which made landfall at near-hurricane strength, bringing destructive winds and torrential rains to New England and Maritime Canada - kept weakening Sunday after officials withdrew some warnings and predicted the storm would disappear early this week.The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Sunday morning that the post-tropical cyclone was about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west-northwest of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and about 180 miles (290 kilometers) west of Channel-Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. The top sustained wind speed had dropped to 45 mph (70 kph) with some higher gusts expected."Gradual weakening is forecast during the next couple of days, and Lee could dissipate on Tuesday," the U.S. hurricane center said.The sky was sunny in Maine on Sunday morning, where 5% of electricity customers were still without power, down from 11% by midday Saturday during the height of the storm. In Canada, 18% of Nova Scotia had no electricity, down from 27% on Saturday. The figure was 3% in New Brunswick, down from 8%, and less than 1% in Prince Edward Island, down from 3%.The center discontinued a tropical storm warning for the coast of Maine late Saturday and reported the Canadian Hurricane Centre had ended its tropical storm warning for New Brunswick and parts of Prince Edward Island.Storm surges were expected to subside on Sunday after being forecast as up to 3 feet (0.91 meters) on Saturday along coastal areas, the hurricane center said.A 51-year-old motorist in Searsport, Maine, died Saturday after a large tree limb fell on his vehicle on U.S. Highway 1 during high winds. The limb brought down live power lines and utility workers had to cut power before removing the man, who died later at a hospital, Police Chief Brian Lunt said.A driver suffered minor injuries Saturday, after a tree downed by Lee went through his windshield on Route 11 in Moro Plantation, Maine, according to Maine State Police. John Yoder, 23, of Apple Creek, Ohio, attempted to stop but couldn't avoid the tree. Yoder suffered minor cuts but the other five passengers in the van were not injured. Police blamed high winds for the downed tree.The storm was tracked as moving around 22 mph (35 kph) and expected to proceed northeast, taking the weather system across the Canadian Maritimes. Rainfall was expected to be an additional 1 inch (25 millimeters) or less for portions of eastern Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the U.S. storm center said.A tropical storm warning remained in effect for parts of Nova Scotia, the Magdalen Islands and Prince Edward Island with strong winds possibly leading to downed trees and power outages, the center said.In Bar Harbor, Maine, the touristy gateway to Acadia National Park, a whale watch vessel broke free of its mooring and crashed ashore Saturday. Authorities worked to offload 1,800 gallons (6,813 liters) of diesel fuel to prevent it from spilling into the ocean.Lee flooded coastal roads in Nova Scotia and took ferries out of service while fanning anxiety in a region still reeling from wildfires and severe flooding this summer. The province's largest airport, Halifax Stanfield International, canceled all flights."People are exhausted," said Pam Lovelace, a councilor in Halifax. "It's so much in such a small time period."Hurricane-force winds extended as far as 140 miles (220 kilometers) from Lee's center, with tropical storm-force winds extending as far as 320 miles (515 kilometers), enough to cover all of Maine and much of Maritime Canada.The storm skirted some of the most waterlogged areas of Massachusetts that experienced severe flash flooding days earlier, when fast water washed out roads, caused sinkholes, damaged homes and flooded vehicles.In eastern Maine, winds died down enough by late afternoon Saturday for utility workers to begin using bucket trucks to make repairs.The entire region has experienced an especially wet summer, ranking second in the number of rainy days in Portland, Maine - and Lee's high winds toppled trees stressed by the rain-soaked ground in Maine, the nation's most heavily wooded state.Cruise ships found refuge at berths in Portland, Maine, while lobstermen in Bar Harbor and elsewhere pulled traps from the water and hauled boats inland.Billy Bob Faulkingham, House Republican leader of the Maine Legislature, and another lobsterman survived after their boat overturned while hauling traps ahead of the storm Friday, officials said.The boat's emergency locator beacon alerted authorities and the pair clung to the hull until help arrived, said Winter Harbor Police Chief Danny Mitchell. The 42-foot (12.8-meter) boat sank."They're very lucky to be alive," Mitchell said.Lee shared some characteristics with 2012's Superstorm Sandy. Both storms were once-strong hurricanes that became post-tropical cyclones - cyclonic storms that have lost most of their tropical characteristics - before landfall. But Sandy caused billions of dollars in damage and was blamed for dozens of deaths in New York and New Jersey.Lee also was not anywhere near as severe as the remnants of Hurricane Fiona, which a year ago washed houses into the ocean in eastern Canada, knocked out power to most of two provinces and swept a woman into the sea.Destructive hurricanes are relatively rare so far north. The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 brought gusts as high as 186 mph (300 kph) and sustained winds of 121 mph (195 kph) at Massachusetts' Blue Hill Observatory. There have been no storms that powerful in recent years.Separately, Tropical Storm Nigel was strengthening and expected to become a hurricane by Monday, the U.S. hurricane center said. It appeared to pose no threats to the U.S. or Canada. It was about 980 miles (1,575 kilometers) northeast of the Lesser Antilles and about 1,180 miles (1,895 kilometers) east-southeast of Bermuda. It had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and was moving north-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph).The Associated Press contributed to this report. [ad_2]

[eurovisionsocialnewswire]

IDALIA: Storm surge swamps waterside area in Riverview as hurricane makes landfall

Idalia made landfall as an “extremely dangerous Category 3 hurricane” in the Big Bend area of Florida around 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday morning, August 30, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Maximum sustained winds were an estimated 125 mph (200 kph), and the NHC said “catastrophic storm surge and damaging winds” were ongoing. The storm prompted evacuations across low-lying areas in…

[captainmdhridoyhossain-blog]

[ad_1] A pedestrian makes use of an umbrella as they pass Liberty Road, in downtown Pittsburgh, as snow starts to fall all the way through a iciness typhoon that may have an effect on the area on Sunday evening, Jan. 16, 2022. Alexandra Wimley/AP disguise caption toggle caption Alexandra Wimley/AP A pedestrian makes use of an umbrella as they pass Liberty Road, in downtown Pittsburgh, as snow starts to fall all the way through a iciness typhoon that may have an effect on the area on Sunday evening, Jan. 16, 2022. Alexandra Wimley/AP NEW YORK — A deadly iciness typhoon used to be bringing vital snow fall, robust thunderstorms and blustery winds to the northeastern U.S. on Monday.A foot (30 centimeters) of snow used to be forecast for portions of New England, New York state, Ohio and Pennsylvania thru Tuesday morning.Forecasters in Buffalo, New York, stated the snow used to be falling rapid."WOW! (Newest) snow dimension at 1 AM used to be 4.6 inches within the closing hour on the Buffalo Airport!" the Nationwide Climate Carrier in Buffalo tweeted in a single day. "And tack on any other 4 inches within the closing hour finishing at 2 AM! General to this point since past due Solar night time - 10.2 inches." New York Town and Boston had been spared the heaviest snow fall, which used to be amassing at upper elevations in western Massachusetts, japanese Pennsylvania and portions of New England. A critical thunderstorm caution remained in impact for New York Town early Monday, and top winds made commute treacherous around the area. "We've got had an overly robust space of low power that is more or less moved up the coast, with beautiful heavy snow fall accumulations from Tennessee, North Carolina the entire approach into the northeast," stated meteorologist Marc Chenard on the climate provider's headquarters in School Park, Maryland. The easiest snow fall accumulations to this point had been within the North Carolina mountains, at over a foot, Chenard stated. "The larger towns — New York, Boston — it is warmed up, it is rain there," he stated. Forecasters stated wind gusts within the primary town may just best out round 45 mph (72 kph), and round 60 mph (97 kph) on Lengthy Island. The howling winds unfold a fireplace that destroyed a motel and two different constructions in coastal Salisbury, Massachusetts, early Monday.Sleet and rain had been the primary threats for a lot of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Sessions of snow fall transitioned to rain in a single day. NWS meteorologists in Boston stated wind gusts may just succeed in 70 mph (113 kph).The large iciness machine introduced equivalent stipulations to the Southeast on Sunday. A couple of states reported inches of snow, and critical thunderstorms in Florida spun up a twister with 118 mph (190 kph) winds. Thirty cellular houses had been destroyed and 51 had primary harm. 3 minor accidents had been reported.Rainy roadways within the South had been anticipated to refreeze Monday, developing icy stipulations for motorists.Plow vans had been scattered alongside roads and highways up the East Coast, running to transparent the way in which for vacationers. Some crashes had been reported within the early morning hours, together with an ambulance fascinated with a destroy on Interstate 279 in Pittsburgh, KDKA-TV reported. It used to be unclear whether or not someone used to be injured. [ad_2] #Wintry weather #typhoon #hit #northeast #foot #snow #NPR

[swldx]

Voice of America 0332 24 May 2023

6080Khz 0319 24 MAY 2023 - VOICE OF AMERICA (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) in ENGLISH from MOPENG HILL. SINPO = 55233. English, s/on @0258z w/Yankee Doodle int fb news anchored by Tommy McNeil @0300z. A senior Russian official claimed Tuesday that Moscow’s troops have repelled a cross-border raid from Ukraine in the Belgorod region, and that Russia killed more than 70 of the attackers in a battle that lasted about 24 hours. In the fog of war, it was impossible to independently verify claims about the armed incursion that began Monday, or even who was behind it. Moscow blamed the raid on Ukrainian military saboteurs. Russian dissidents unhappy about Russian President Vladimir Putin's policies instigated the assault, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Tuesday. @0301z signal suddenly drops below the noise level, but comes back slightly stronger than before about 45 seconds later when the news continued. Lawyers for Donald Trump asked for a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland as a Justice Department investigation into the former president's handling of classified documents shows signs of winding down. In the letter, which Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, attorneys John Rowley and James Trusty asserted that Trump is "being treated unfairly" and asked for a meeting to discuss "the ongoing injustice that is being perpetrated by your Special Counsel and his prosecutors." The language echoed some of Trump's own complaints in recent months about the investigations being led by special counsel Jack Smith. U.S. forces are expected to start training Ukrainians on M1A1 Abrams tanks “in the next week or so,” Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder told VOA on Tuesday. The news of the Abrams tank training comes as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is set to host another virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Thursday. Military and defense leaders from more than 50 nations are expected to focus on ground-based air defense, ammunition needs and F-16 training, Ryder told reporters at the Pentagon earlier Tuesday. Ryder said F-16 training would be conducted outside of Ukraine at European sites, but it could be weeks or months before the training begins. Guam's governor urged residents to stay home and warned the island could take a direct hit from Typhoon Mawar as the storm strengthened on a path toward the U.S. territory in the Pacific. It was expected to arrive as a 225 kph Category 4 typhoon, weather officials said, possibly delivering the biggest hit in two decades. Chief Justice John Roberts says there is more the Supreme Court can do to “adhere to the highest standards” of ethical conduct. It's an acknowledgment that recent reporting about the justices’ ethical missteps is having an effect on public perception of the court. Speaking at a law dinner where he was honored with an award Tuesday, Roberts provided no specifics but said the justices “are continuing to look at the things we can do to give practical effect to that commitment.” He said he is “confident there are ways to do that." The court has resisted adopting an ethics code of its own. But all nine justices recently signed a statement of ethics. Roberts' remarks suggested he knows that statement is not enough to quiet critics.South Carolina’s legislature has passed a bill that would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which is around the time most people find out they are pregnant. @0304z “Daybreak Africa” anchored by male announcer (w/African accent). close program and s/off@0329z. MLA 30 amplified loop (powered w/8 AA rechargeable batteries ~10.8vdc), Etón e1XM. 100kW, BeamAz 350°, bearing 85°. Received at Plymouth, United States, 14087KM from transmitter at Mopeng Hill. Local time: 2219.

[spaceexp]

NASA’s IMERG Estimates Hurricane Dorian’s Rain

NASA & JAXA - Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) patch. September 3, 2019 Dorian – Atlantic Ocean In the early hours of Tuesday, September 3, Hurricane Dorian had been stationary over the island of Grand Bahama for 18 hours, most of the time as a category 5 hurricane. Storm-total rain accumulation over parts of Grand Bahama and Abaco Islands have exceeded 24 inches according to NASA satellite-based estimates.

Image above: NASA’s IMERG storm-total rain accumulation over parts of Grand Bahama and Abaco islands have exceeded 24 inches according to NASA satellite-based estimates. The graphic also shows the distance that tropical-storm force (39 mph) winds extend from Hurricane Dorian’s low-pressure center, as reported by the National Hurricane Center. The symbols H and TS represent a hurricane of various Saffir-Simpson categories or a tropical storm, respectively. Image Credits: NASA Goddard. On early Tuesday morning, Dorian’s central pressure had risen and its wind intensity had dropped to category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.  In addition, Dorian had experienced an eyewall replacement cycle on September 2, so by Tuesday morning Sept. 3, the geographic extent of its tropical-storm-force winds had expanded. These rain estimates come from the NASA IMERG algorithm, which combines observations from a fleet of satellites, in near-realtime, to provide global estimates of precipitation every 30 minutes. The storm-total rainfall at a particular location varies with the forward speed of the hurricane, with the size of the hurricane’s wind field, and with how vigorous the updrafts are inside of the hurricane’s eyewall. IMERG, or the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data product is generated by NASA’s Precipitation Processing System every half hour with a 6 hour latency from the time of data acquisition. It is produced using data from the satellites in the GPM or Global Precipitation Measurement mission constellation of satellites, and is calibrated with measurements from the GPM Core Observatory as well as rain gauge networks around the world. IMERG is an example of the research role that NASA has in hurricanes  – developing observational tools and building computer models to better understand the behavior of tropical cyclones. NASA’s research data is utilized by NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC) to enhance their forecasts. On Tuesday, September 3, 2019, at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 UTC), NHC reported at the eye of Hurricane Dorian was located by reconnaissance aircraft and NOAA Doppler radar near latitude 27.1 degrees North and longitude 78.4 degrees West. NHC said Dorian is beginning to move northwestward at about 1 mph (2 kph), and a slightly faster motion toward the northwest or north-northwest is expected later today and tonight.

Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core satellite. Image Credits: NASA/JAXA

At present maximum sustained winds are near 120 mph (195 kph) with higher gusts.  Dorian is a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.  Dorian is expected to remain a powerful hurricane during the next couple of days. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 miles (75 km) from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 160 miles (260 km). The latest minimum central pressure reported by reconnaissance aircraft is 952 mb (28.11 inches). NHC forecasts a turn toward the north by Wednesday evening, followed by a turn to the north-northeast Thursday morning.  On this track, the core of extremely dangerous Hurricane Dorian will gradually move north of Grand Bahama Island through this evening. The hurricane will then move dangerously close to the Florida east coast late today through Wednesday evening, very near the Georgia and South Carolina coasts Wednesday night and Thursday, and near or over the North Carolina coast late Thursday. For updated forecasts, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GPM/main/index.html For more about NASA’s IMERG, visit: https://pmm.nasa.gov/gpm/imerg-global-image Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, by Owen Kelly / with NOAA’s NHC Update. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

[sciencespies]

NASA sees tropical cyclone 18p form near American Samoa

https://sciencespies.com/environment/nasa-sees-tropical-cyclone-18p-form-near-american-samoa/

NASA sees tropical cyclone 18p form near American Samoa

On Feb. 21, 2020, the MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Terra satellite provided a visible image of newly developed Tropical Depression 18P in the Southern Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA Worldview

The low-pressure area that has been lingering west-northwest of American Samoa for several days has organized into a tropical depression. NASA’s Terra satellite passed over the Southern Pacific Ocean and provided forecasters with a visible image of Tropical Depression 18P.

On Feb.21, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Terra satellite provided a visible image of 18P that showed an improved cyclonic circulation along the southern end of a line of deep convection and thunderstorms that extends north-to-south.

At 10 a.m. EST (1500 UTC) on Feb. 21, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said Tropical Cyclone 18P had maximum sustained winds near 30 knots (34.5 mph/55.5 kph). It was located near latitude 12.9 degrees south and longitude 174.8 degrees west, about 280 nautical miles west-northwest of Pago Pago, American Samoa. 18P is moving to the east-southeast.

The tropical cyclone is forecast to intensify to a tropical storm reaching maximum sustained winds to 45 knots as it passes near American Samoa on Feb. 22. In three days, vertical wind shear is expected to kick in which will cause the storm to dissipate quickly.

In addition to Tropical Cyclone 18P, Tropical Storm Vicky has developed to the southeast of American Samoa. Together, these systems have generated several warnings and watches. On Feb. 21, the National Weather Service (NWS) in Pago Pago has continued the Flash Flood Watch for all of American Samoa through Saturday, Feb. 22. The NWS forecast page stated, “The active monsoon trough remains across the area with several hybrid lows developing northwest and moving swiftly across the islands through the week. A flash flood watch means that conditions may develop that lead to flash flooding. Flash flooding is a very dangerous situation.”

NASA’s Terra satellite is one in a fleet of NASA satellites that provide data for hurricane research.

Tropical cyclones/hurricanes are the most powerful weather events on Earth. NASA’s expertise in space and scientific exploration contributes to essential services provided to the American people by other federal agencies, such as hurricane weather forecasting.

Explore further

NASA finds wind shear doing in Tropical Storm Gabekile

More information: For updated forecasts from NWS, Pago Pago, visit: www.weather.gov/ppg/?lang=english

Provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Citation: NASA sees tropical cyclone 18p form near American Samoa (2020, February 21) retrieved 22 February 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-02-nasa-tropical-cyclone-18p-american.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

#Environment

[political-fluffle]

FREEPORT, Bahamas (AP) — Rescue crews in the Bahamas fanned out across a blasted landscape of smashed and flooded homes Wednesday, trying to reach drenched and stunned victims of Hurricane Dorian and take the full measure of the disaster. The official death toll stood at seven but was certain to rise. (...)

Dorian, meanwhile, pushed its way northward off the Florida shoreline with reduced but still-dangerous 105 mph (165 kph) winds on a projected course that could sideswipe Georgia and the Carolinas. An estimated 3 million people in the four states were warned to clear out, and highways leading inland were turned into one-way evacuation routes.

The storm parked over the Bahamas and pounded it for over a day and a half with winds up to 185 mph (295 kph) and torrential rains, swamping neighborhoods in muddy brown floodwaters and destroying or severely damaging thousands of homes.

“We are in the midst of one of the greatest national crises in our country’s history,” said Prime Minister Hubert Minnis. He said he expects the number of dead to rise. (...)

Red Cross spokesman Matthew Cochrane said Tuesday that more than 13,000 houses, or about 45% of the homes on Grand Bahama and Abaco, were believed to be severely damaged or destroyed. U.N. and Red Cross officials said tens of thousands of people will need food and clean drinking water.

“It’s total devastation. It’s decimated. Apocalyptic,” said Lia Head-Rigby, who helps run a hurricane relief group and flew over Abaco. “It’s not rebuilding something that was there; we have to start again.”

She said her representative on Abaco told her there were “a lot more dead.” (...)

[irvinenewshq]

Philippine capital braces for storm Nalgae dying toll minimize to 45

Manila and close by cities braced on Saturday for Tropical Storm Nalgae, which has killed 45 individuals, largely due to landslides in southern provinces of the Philippines, Development studies with regards to Reuters. The Southeast Asian nation’s catastrophe company diminished its dying toll to 45 from 72 after checking studies from floor employees, together with rescue employees trying to find 18 lacking individuals. Residents within the capital’s coastal space had been evacuated whereas courses throughout all ranges had been suspended, in response to the mayor’s workplace. Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan ordered the closure of the metropolis’s cemeteries, the place thousands and thousands had been anticipated to go to throughout the prolonged All Saints’ Day weekend, on Saturday. The tropical storm, which has most sustained winds of 95 kilometres (60 miles) per hour and gusts of as much as 130 kph (80 mph), has made a number of landfall within the japanese Philippines on Saturday. The state climate company, in its newest bulletin, warned of widespread flooding and landslides due to heavy and at occasions torrential rains over the capital area and close by provinces as Nalgae cuts by means of the principle Luzon island and heads to the South China Sea. Airways have cancelled 116 home and worldwide flights to and from the Philippines’ most important gateway. Practically 7,500 passengers, drivers, and cargo helpers and 107 vessels had been stranded in ports, the coast guard mentioned. Authorities businesses had been giving support and meals packs to affected households, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr mentioned on Twitter. Coast guard personnel guided residents by means of chest-deep floods, with rescuers utilizing a monobloc plastic chair and an outdated fridge to hold youngsters and aged individuals within the central Leyte province, in response to pictures shared by the company. The majority of the deaths, at 40, have been reported within the southern Maguindanao province. “We aren’t discounting the potential of extra casualties,” Cyrus Torrena, provincial administrator of Maguindanao, advised DZMM radio station. “However we pray it doesn’t go up considerably.” The Philippines sees a mean of 20 tropical storms yearly. In December, class 5 hurricane Rai ravaged central provinces, leaving 407 lifeless and greater than 1,100 injured. Originally published at Irvine News HQ

[newstfionline]

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Thousands in the dark as Hurricane Francine strikes Louisiana (AP) Hurricane Francine slammed into the Louisiana coast Wednesday evening as a dangerous Category 2 storm that knocked out electricity to more than a quarter-million customers and threatened widespread flooding as it sent a potentially deadly storm surge rushing inland along the Gulf Coast. Francine crashed ashore in Terrebonne Parish, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of Morgan City, the National Hurricane Center announced at 4 p.m. CDT. Packing top sustained winds near 100 mph (155 kph), the hurricane then battered a fragile coastal region that hasn’t fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021. Morgan City Fire Chief Alvin Cockerham said the hurricane quickly flooded streets, snapped power lines and sent tree limbs crashing down. Power outages in Louisiana topped 261,000 hours after landfall, spread widely across southeast Louisiana. Blackouts affected the majority of homes and businesses in coastal parishes nearest where the storm came ashore as well as their inland neighbors.

Tariffs, the Solution to Almost Any Problem? (NYT) It has been more than five years since former President Donald J. Trump called himself a “Tariff Man,” but since then, his enthusiasm for tariffs seems only to have grown. Mr. Trump has long maintained that imposing tariffs on foreign products can protect American factories, narrow the gap between what the United States exports and what it imports, and bring uncooperative foreign governments to heel. But in recent weeks, Mr. Trump has made even more expansive claims about the power of tariffs, including that they will help pay for child care, combat inflation, finance a U.S. sovereign wealth fund and help preserve the dollar’s pre-eminent role in the global economy. Economists have been skeptical of many of these assertions. While tariffs generate some level of revenue, in many cases they could create only a small amount of the funding needed to pursue some of the goals that Mr. Trump has outlined. And tariffs could actually backfire on the U.S. economy, by inviting retaliation from foreign governments and raising costs for consumers. The cost of tariffs tend to be borne by American businesses and households, rather than foreign companies. Consumers simply have to pay more for things they need or want to buy.

Tyreek Hill’s traffic stop revives discussion about the realities faced by Black drivers (AP) After his traffic stop in Miami on Sunday, Tyreek Hill talked about “the talk”—instructions passed down in Black families for generations about what to do when pulled over by police. Keep your hands in sight, preferably on the steering wheel. Avoid any sudden movements. Don’t talk back to the officer. And above all, follow instructions without error or delay. Heeding that advice in the heat of the moment can be hard, as Hill’s own experience showed when the star wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins was stopped for speeding and reckless driving before the team’s first game of the season. His interaction with police—captured in a now-viral cellphone video and body camera footage—escalated and is yet again prompting a larger discussion about the realities of “driving while Black.” According to a national law enforcement survey, traffic stops of Black drivers are more likely to include the threat or use of force.

Americans lost $5.6 billion last year in cryptocurrency fraud scams, the FBI says (AP) Americans were duped out of more than $5.6 billion last year through fraud schemes involving cryptocurrency, the FBI said in a report released Monday that shows a 45% jump in losses from 2022. The FBI received nearly 70,000 complaints in 2023 by victims of financial fraud involving bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies, according to the FBI. The most rampant scheme was investment fraud, which accounted for $3.96 billion of the losses. Scammers will often make contact through dating apps or social media to build trust over several weeks or months before suggesting cryptocurrency investing, the FBI said. Once the relationship is built, they convince the targets to use fake websites or apps to invest their money, sometimes even allowing the victims to withdraw small amounts of money early on to make it seem legitimate.

Mexican lawmakers flee protesters before passing judicial overhaul (Washington Post) Mexico’s Senate voted early Wednesday to abolish the current judicial system and allow citizens to choose nearly all of the country’s judges, a drastic change that U.S. officials warn could pose “a major risk” to the democracy of its top trading partner. The ruling leftist party, Morena, barely mustered the two-thirds of Senate votes required for the constitutional amendment amid furious protests by students and judicial workers. Eighty-six lawmakers voted in favor, while 41 voted against. Raucous demonstrators burst into the chamber during the debate, chanting “Traitors!” and shattering a glass door. Lawmakers escaped to a nearby colonial-era building that formerly housed the Senate, and resumed the session under heavy police guard. The amendment has already passed the lower house and is likely to be quickly ratified at the state level, after which it would take effect. Morena has a majority in 27 of the 32 state legislatures.

UK economy stagnates unexpectedly in growth challenge for new government (Reuters) Britain's economy stagnated for a second month running in July as manufacturing output dropped sharply, an inauspicious start for the new government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer who wants to accelerate the pace of growth. The country's shift towards a services-dominated economy is accelerating, pushing manufacturing's share of economic output to a historic low and setting the nation apart from its global peers.

Ukraine braces for hardest winter due to intensified Russian attacks on energy infrastructure (AP) Ukraine’s prime minister warned Tuesday that the country could be facing its toughest winter since the full-scale Russian invasion began, as airstrikes against the country’s beleaguered energy infrastructure intensify. Russian attacks continue to hammer Ukraine’s energy generation capacity, leaving the country heavily reliant on its three functioning nuclear power stations and electricity imports from European Union countries. “Energy resilience is one of our greatest challenges this year,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a news conference in Kyiv. According to the United Nations and the World Bank, Ukraine lost more than half of its power-generating capacity in the first 14 months of the war, with the situation continuing to deteriorate.

Ukraine woos the Republicans (Washington Post) As Trump looms, Ukraine is turning to its evangelicals to woo the Republicans. There is a growing realization among Ukraine’s leaders of the need to forge close ties with its evangelical Christian community, Europe’s largest, who number between 800,000 and 1 million. The government is betting that its own evangelicals can be a bridge to their counterparts in the United States, who are influential in the Republican Party and could assist in their lobbying efforts for more aid.

Afghanistan, 23 years after 9/11 (Washington Post) Just days after the attacks of 9/11, then-President George W. Bush went to Congress to lay out the scope of his administration’s response. Al-Qaeda’s unprecedented terrorist strike launched the United States on its sweeping “war on terror” and placed the Taliban regime in Afghanistan immediately in Washington’s crosshairs. But 23 years after 9/11, the Taliban hold sway. Their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic doctrines is the law of the land. Their draconian edicts once more asphyxiate Afghanistan society. And Afghan women, as they were a generation ago, are yet again thwarted from school, restricted in all they can do and banned from revealing their faces and even their voices in public. Successive U.S. administrations poured in tens of billions of dollars into the reconstruction of the country, propped up a perennially fragile, frequently venal Washington-aligned government in Kabul, and presided over bloody insurgencies and counterinsurgencies more than two decades. When the resurgent Taliban swept aside the forces of the U.S.-backed regime in 2021, as U.S. and NATO powers telegraphed their plans for withdrawal, it was a brutal shock for Western policy elites. But for the triumphant Taliban, it was the inexorable redemption of their view of the world and their nation’s history. Unbowed, the Taliban have only entrenched their rule.

Flash flood sweeps away hamlet as Vietnam’s storm toll rises to 155 dead (AP) A flash flood swept away an entire hamlet in northern Vietnam, killing 30 people and leaving dozens missing as deaths from a typhoon and its aftermath climbed to 155 on Wednesday. Vietnamese state broadcaster VTV said the torrent of water gushing down from a mountain in Lao Cai province Tuesday buried Lang Nu hamlet with 35 families in mud and debris. Only about a dozen are known so far to have survived. Rescuers have recovered 30 bodies and are continuing the search for about 65 others.

Pope lands in economic power Singapore after a joyous visit to impoverished, devout East Timor (AP) Pope Francis flew to Singapore on Wednesday for the final leg of his trip through Asia, arriving in one of the world’s richest countries from one of its poorest after a record-setting final Mass in East Timor. After a brief farewell ceremony, Francis, the Vatican delegation and journalists traveling with him flew to Singapore aboard local carrier Aero Dili’s only aircraft, an Airbus A320. Francis wrapped up his visit to East Timor with a rally Wednesday morning of its young people, who make up the majority of the 1.3 million population. He urged them to work together to build their young country, using the foundations of older generations who formally secured their independence from Indonesia in 2002, to grow in peace, prosperity and reconciliation.

US says Israel should change its way of operating in the West Bank after American killed (Washington Post) Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israeli security forces to make “fundamental changes” in the way they operate in the occupied West Bank, the strongest comments yet from a U.S. official after the Israeli military admitted that it was “highly likely” it had “unintentionally” shot dead an American Turkish citizen at a demonstration last week.

Israeli airstrikes on Palestinian territories kill dozens more (AP) Israeli strikes on Palestinian territories have killed more than two-dozen Palestinians on Wednesday, according to local officials. They say an Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and at least 20 people, including 16 women and children, were killed in the Gaza Strip. Gaza’s Health Ministry says Tuesday’s strike on a tent camp in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone killed at least 19 people. The Health Ministry says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.

Polaris Dawn (Space.com) A commercial space crew has flown higher above Earth than anyone who has traveled since the last Apollo astronauts went to the moon. The four members of the Polaris Dawn mission, riding aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft "Resilience," climbed into an elliptical orbit with a high point, or apogee, of 870 miles (1,400.7 kilometers) on Tuesday (Sep. 10). They reached the record distance about 15 hours after lifting off at 5:23 a.m. EDT (0923 GMT) from Florida earlier in the day and circling the planet about eight times in an initial orbit of 190 by 1,200 miles (306 by 1,930 km). The crew's top altitude more than doubled the maximum height that NASA's space shuttle reached when it deployed the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and surpassed the previous record for a crewed spacecraft remaining in Earth orbit of 853 miles (1,373 km), achieved by NASA's Gemini 11 mission in 1966.

[stevestonbike]

Good weekend and 72 km.

It got warm. Not hot yet, though they are warning of a heat wave coming. I had two layers on top as there was some overcast to start. Ended up in the sun and about 25 degrees (77F). I did a decent distance and a good pace for mixed terrain at just over 25 kph.

The big news is my power meter is coming back on line. I let it die super dead. I did a reset command from my computer and I got my new bike computer to talk to it. The new one is a Garmin Edge 130+. I figured the old one was getting stupid as it did not seem compatible with the new wheel speed sensor (it was supposed to be!). That is part of why the power meter stopped working I think.

The new unit was on double discount from a shop in the UK that sent me the thing from Spain for less money than the bike shop down the street. It could distinguish the power meter from the speed sensor which is a trick the old Edge 500 could just not do. I got them all talking.

The power meter had lost all its calibration so it took about 30 minutes for it to figure itself out. It is a very clever design. (Ibike Power Pod ) It uses slope and air speed (using a pitot port ) to figure drag and such against road speed. You can enter in your weight, and all that, but it adjusts constantly so it works out things anyway. Going uphill coasting downhill tells it what it needs to know. At first it showed stupid numbers, but eventually It looked good. It never worked very well in cross wind, but that is likely why they redesigned it a while ago. I have an older generation.

So I got a normalized power of 152 Watts and a peak of over 500 Watts.

This new Garmin thing is much smarter than the old one. It does some things not so well, but that is probably the operator. It talks to my phone and uses an AP to control things. It puts out several new metrics. One is training effect. It assigns a number of 1 to 5 for a work out. 5 is too much. I got 4.2 and it says that is very good. It gave me a badge! Basically my aerobic base is improving. Ya I knew that, but now I have a Number!

It also calculates my VO2 Max at 40 which is lower than other figures I got, but still pretty FN good for an old man. I hope that with the power meter getting zeroed in that may improve a bit over the summer. It tells me that my biological age is 45. Oh it knows how to sweet talk a guy.

The other aspect of the day was I saw quite a few of the old Lotus Mob. They had done a sufferfest up Cypress. I encountered waves of them returning through the City. First of course the hard core A group. Then the killer Bs and eventually the other Bs. I bumped into some of the Cs in Stanley park at prospect point. Nobody stopped for Ice Cream. Had they learned nothing?

I had a chat with three of the old gang. I get the impression there is some negative karma there. In any event I am glad I did not try the mountain yet. It will come, but in it's proper time. I am slow going uphill. Gravity wants me to stay low. I ascend at about 10 to 12 kph on that road. I can carry just over 200 Watts for the 90 minutes it takes. I have come down at mid 70s of kph. Cypress is good for that as the road surface is open to good light and easy to see. Mount Seymour is bad as there are lots of shadows hiding the ripples and pot holes. Bike tires do not like pot holes.

Mountains are things you feel good about having done, but you hate doing it generally. Its one of the "banging your head against a wall" activities. So good when its over.

I am starting to book more distance, but I am far behind last year. At my current rate I will hit 4000 km for the year. I hope things get better. What will happen will happen.

There is at least one Granfondo event in BC this season. Maybe two. The Victoria one is taking bookings. The Penticton one looks like it is too. Both require more hotels and such than Whistler as for that one I start from my house. We know some people in Victoria, but not enough to room with them. We know some people near Penticton, but their place is a holiday home for the family. So yah hotels for the day before and after.

Another thing is I believe both courses are harder than Whistler. Penticton is 160 km and usually epic hot with hills. Penticton is legitimate desert climate. Victoria is similar but not so hot. Both have in common the course being set by retired pro-cyclists with respected Palmares. (look up Axel Merckx and Ryder Hesjedal).

It is not likely I will sign up for either, but time may tell.

Anyway, I am out and riding and putting down miles. That really is the point.

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] Idalia has weakened to a tropical storm after roaring into Florida's Big Bend region as a powerful hurricane. According to international media reports, Idalia split trees in half, ripped roofs off hotels and turned small cars into boats on Wednesday before sweeping into Georgia as a still-powerful storm that flooded roadways and sent residents running for higher ground. After coming ashore, Idalia made landfall near Keaton Beach at 7:45 am as a high-end Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 205 kph. It had weakened to a tropical storm with winds of 113 kph by Wednesday afternoon. As the eye moved inland, high winds shredded signs, blew off roofs, sent sheet metal flying and snapped tall trees. But as of midday on Wednesday, there were no confirmed deaths in Florida, although fatal traffic accidents in two counties may end up being storm-related, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said. [ad_2]

[eurovisionsocialnewswire]

IDALIA: Street in coastal Florida village inundated amid storm surge from Hurricane Idalia

Idalia made landfall as an “extremely dangerous Category 3 hurricane” in the Big Bend area of Florida around 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday morning, August 30, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Maximum sustained winds were an estimated 125 mph (200 kph), and the NHC said “catastrophic storm surge and damaging winds” were ongoing. The storm prompted evacuations across low-lying areas in…