At least two potential super-volcanos have the attention of scientists worldwide because of the devastation any of them – two in the U.S. and one in Japan – could wreak on the planet, killing tens of millions and ravaging global economies.
Saturday’s rumblings at the Yellowstone Caldera in America’s most famous national park caught the attention of seismologists over the weekend because of its cataclysmic potential. Scientists warn that a major eruption of the Wyoming volcano would kill an estimated 87,000 people immediately and render two-thirds of the U.S. uninhabitable because of an ash cloud that would spark rapid climate change.
If that scenario sounds apocalyptically scary, consider the other volcano being watched worldwide off the shore of Japan. Just last week, Japanese scientists were warning an eruption at the Kikai Caldera, about 50 miles south of Japan’s main island, could kill 100 million people and set off catastrophic global climate change that would make the world forget about “global warming” scares.
The Japanese lava dome was recently discovered in an underwater volcano. It is growing in size and was formed, scientists believe, following what is known as the Akahoya super-eruption that may have wiped out the ancient Jomon culture that inhabited the southern Japanese island of Kyushu at the time.
“Although the probability of a gigantic caldera eruption hitting the Japanese archipelago is 1 percent in the next 100 years, it is estimated that the death toll could rise to approximately 100 million in the worst-case scenario,” said professor Yoshiyuki Tatsumi, head of the Kobe Ocean-Bottom Exploration Center and a magma specialist. (Read more from “Volcano Alert: You Want to Talk ‘Catastrophic Climate Change’?” HERE)
From the only triple axel landed by a female American Olympic skater to the first men’s single medal for USA Luge at the Games, U.S. athletes are making history in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Athletes from 92 nations are fiercely competing for a chance to stand on those coveted Olympic podiums in Pyeongchang, South Korea. There are 15 different sporting activities and a total of 102 events . . .
Team USA’s Jamie Anderson took home the gold in the 2018 Winter Games after she performed in less-than-perfect weather conditions . . .
The conditions for the men’s snowboard slopestyle were less than ideal, but 17-year-old Red Gerard made it through the swirling winds to capture the United States’ first gold medal of the 2018 Olympics.
At 17, Chloe Kim became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal during the Winter Games. Kim dominated two amazing runs on the women’s snowboard halfpipe, earning her the first place spot on the medal podium. (Read more from “U.S. Winter Olympics 2018 Medal Winners” HERE)
UN staff have carried out thousands of rapes all around the world, a former official claimed on Tuesday.
Andrew MacLeod, who was chief of operations at the UN’s Emergency Co-ordination Centre, warned that ‘predatory’ abusers used aid jobs to prey on vulnerable girls. The claim was made in a dossier passed to the former secretary for international development Priti Patel last year, according to The Sun newspaper.
He estimated 60,000 rapes had been carried out by UN staff in the past decade, with 3,300 paedophiles working in the organisation and its agencies. He added there is an ‘endemic’ of cover-ups with those trying to blow the whistle getting fired.
‘There are tens of thousands of aid workers around the world with paedophile tendencies, but if you wear a Unicef T-shirt nobody will ask what you’re up to,’ he told The Sun.
‘You have the impunity to do whatever you want. It is endemic across the aid industry across the world. The system is at fault, and should have stopped this years ago.’ (Read more from “U.N. Aide Workers Carried out 60,000 Rapes in a Decade” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/6365386329_f24a5e7976_b-1.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-02-15 14:37:252018-02-15 14:37:25U.N. Aid Workers Carried out 60,000 Rapes in a Decade
Earth could travel through the path of particles released by a solar storm this week, according to experts who advise of the possible impact of such an event.
According to WPXI, NASA satellites Sunday night revealed what is called a solar mass ejection, through which material from the sun is blasted with great force out into space. That eruption continued until Monday morning.
Computer projections indicate the storm is on track to impact or narrowly miss Earth Thursday morning.
If the relatively weak flare does cross paths with our planet, the effects could be noticeable but are not expected to be substantial.
Solar storms can create fluctuations in power grids, though any effects from Thursday’s event are expected to be minor. Experts predict the same for any interference with satellite operations due to emission.
The flare can also result in an aurora visible in the skies above areas within 30 and 60 degrees north or south of the equator. Within the U.S., these lights are most likely to appear over the west coast.
Some migratory animals are affected by solar storms, with the impact most evident in northern locations, including Canada.
Flares are common occurrences on the sun, with particulate matter routinely ejected at millions of miles per hour. Of the more than 150 storms that break out in a given year, however, only a small fraction collide with Earth.
While we could experience such a collision Thursday, the event has been classified as a G1, or minor storm. One week last September provided an extended example of the types of storms the sun is capable of producing.
As Space.com reported at the time, a series of seven powerful flares were recorded in a seven-day period beginning Sept. 4. Each storm originated from the sun’s Active Region 2673 as that area rotated out of sight from Earth.
One forceful storm from that series did pass close to North and South America, prompting an advisory from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via its Space Weather Prediction Center. Among the possible effects of that storm, the agency wrote, were high-frequency radio blackouts and low-frequency communication issues lasting for about an hour on the sunlit side of the planet.
“While a fast event, the CME was off the Sun-Earth line and is not expected to produce notable geoeffective impacts,” the SWPC wrote.
Three of the major flares recorded that week were classified as the most severe X storms, including one on Sept. 6 that registered as the strongest in 12 years.
Thursday’s event could be a more direct impact than any of those, but its relatively low force should keep any negative effects to a minimum, according to WHIO meteorologist Brett Collar.
“Don’t think that this storm will be historic by any means but certainly something to keep an eye on over coming days,” he said. (For more from the author of “NASA Warns of New Solar Storm That Could Affect U.S. and Canada This Week” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Magnificent_CME_Erupts_on_the_Sun_-_August_31.jpg10801920Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-02-14 21:25:462018-02-14 21:25:46NASA Warns of New Solar Storm That Could Affect U.S. and Canada This Week
A U.S. fighter jet operating in Syria destroyed a Russian-built tank over the weekend in an act that officials described as self-defense.
Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson first reported the destruction of the tank, noting that the tanks’ three-man crew were all killed in the strike inside. What makes this incident noteworthy is the fact that it is unclear who was operating the tank, whether it was the Syrian government, forces loyal to the Syrian government, or members of the Russian military . . .
JUST IN: US jet destroys Russian T-72 battle tank in E Syria in 'self-defense' Saturday after 'pro-regime forces' fired on US special ops and allied Syrian fighters near same location of last week's attack, officials say. No US or allied casualties. 3 inside tank killed.
The tank was reportedly destroyed after “pro-regime forces” launched an attack on U.S. special forces last week, which prompted the U.S. to respond “with a furious barrage of air and artillery strikes and reported killing 100 pro-government troops, but sources told Bloomberg on Saturday that as many as 200 or 300 Russian mercenaries were killed in the attack.” (Read more from “U.S. Jet Obliterates Russian Tank in ‘Self-Defense’ in Syria” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Modern_T-90_tank_of_the_Russian_Army.jpg10961600Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-02-13 23:39:272018-02-13 23:48:39U.S. Jet Obliterates Russian Tank in ‘Self-Defense’ in Syria
. . .During the first three centuries of Christianity, there were 10 major persecutions in which the government threw Christians to the lions, boiled them alive, had their tongues cut out, and worse. Christian writings, scriptures and historical records were destroyed.
Because so many records were destroyed, details of Saint Valentine’s life are scant. What little is know was passed down and finally printed in the year 1260 in “Legenda Sanctorum” by Jacobus de Voragine, and in the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493.
Saint Valentine was either a priest in Rome or a bishop in Terni, central Italy. He risked the Emperor’s wrath by standing up for traditional marriage, secretly marrying soldiers to their young brides. When Emperor Claudius demanded that Christians deny their consciences and worship pagan idols, Saint Valentine refused. Saint Valentine was arrested, dragged before the Prefect of Rome, and condemned him to die.
While awaiting execution, his jailer, Asterius, asked Saint Valentine to pray for his blind daughter. When she miraculously regained her sight, the jailer converted and was baptized, along with many others. Right before his execution, Saint Valentine wrote a note to the jailer’s daughter, signing it, “from your Valentine.”
Saint Valentine was beaten with clubs and stones, and when that failed to kill him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate on Feb. 14, 269 A.D. (Read more from “The Origin of Valentine’s Day Is Not What You Think” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/16459309086_aec9f8a6f5_b-1.jpg5761024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-02-13 23:20:322018-02-13 23:20:32The Origin of Valentine’s Day Is Not What You Think
By The Daily Wire. NBC believes it’s doing a bang-up job hosting the Olympic Winter Games television broadcast, but in less than two days of coverage, its anchors have already insulted at least two countries.
First, an NBC “Asia correspondent” suggested that Korea was grateful for the presence of Japan’s Olympic delegation, after all Japan had given them (it turns out, the Japanese took more than 200,000 Korean women hostage before World War II to work as “comfort women” for Japanese men). Now, Katie Couric has managed to insult The Netherlands with her quaint, anachronistic (and kind of racist) explanation of the Dutch commute.
While watching the Dutch national team — mostly speed skaters — enter the arena opening night, Couric quipped happily, “‘why are they so good,’ you may be asking yourselves? Because skating is an important mode of transportation in a city like Amsterdam.”
“As you all know, it has lots of canals that can freeze in the winter. So for as long as those canals have existed, the Dutch have skated on them to get from place to place, to race each other and also to have fun,” she continued. (Read more from “Olympic Oops: Katie Couric Has Now Insulted the Dutch” HERE)
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Dutch Mock Katie Couric’s Comments About Speedskating
By USA Today. Katie Couric might want to visit Amsterdam sometime.
The broadcaster is drawing criticism on social media after her unusual reasoning for the Netherlands’ success in speedskating over the years. Couric, who co-anchored NBC’s coverage of Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony in Pyeongchang, said that the Dutch rely on skating as a form of transportation in their capital city, which sits at sea level.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Katie_Couric_at_Heart_Truth_2009_cropped.jpg6861024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-02-12 21:08:132018-02-12 21:08:13Olympic Oops: Katie Couric Has Now Insulted the Dutch
South African police are trying to identify a suspected poacher who was reportedly killed and partially devoured by lions in a private game reserve near the Kruger National Park.
The man’s mauled remains, including his head, were reportedly found today alongside a hunting rifle and ammunition.
“The process of identifying the deceased has already commenced and it might be made possible by the fact that his head is amongst the remains that were found at the scene,” South African Police Service spokesman Lt. Col. Moatshe Ngoepe told the country’s News24.
Ngoepe added: “We are now waiting for a person from the family but we are also utilizing our investigative resources to see if we can successfully identify the deceased.”
Ngoepe told Agence France-Presse news agency: “It seems the victim was poaching in the game park when he was attacked and killed by lions. They ate his body, nearly all of it, and just left his head and some remains.” (Read more from “Lions Reportedly Devour Suspected Poacher in South Africa” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/lions-175933_960_720.jpg720960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-02-12 19:23:002018-02-12 21:26:38Lions Reportedly Devour Suspected Poacher in South Africa
By Reuters. Former journalist Joshua Cooper Ramo, working as an analyst for NBC, said on-air during the Pyeongchang Games opening ceremony that all Koreans recognized that Japan had served as an important example in South Korea’s own economic transformation.
Koreans around the world criticized his remarks on social media and a petition soon circulated online. Japan, which colonized the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, has left a deep legacy of mistrust and ill-feeling in South Korea.
Ramo, who has written books on China and is a director of Starbucks Corp and FedEx Corp, said as athletes paraded into the Games stadium that “every Korean will tell you that Japan is a cultural, technological and economic example that has been so important to their own transformation”. . .
Ramo, who was also an on-air contributor for NBC during the Beijing Olympics, is co-CEO of Kissinger Associates, an advisory firm of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. (Read more from “Starbucks Director, Kissinger Confidante Praises Japan’s Brutal Occupation of Korea, Forced to Apologize” HERE)
NBC Forced to Apologize After Katie Couric, Colleagues Insult Entire Nation of South Korea
By The Daily Wire. NBC, the only network on which Americans can watch the Olympics, has been forced to issue an apology to the entire nation of South Korea after its anchors, Mike Tirico and Katie Couric, and its Asian correspondent, Joshua Cooper Ramo, accidentally insulted the Korean people during their Opening Ceremonies broadcast.
The trio was discussing visiting Olympic dignitaries, when they settled on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to Yahoo News.
“In the booth with Mike Tirico and Katie Couric, NBC Asian correspondent Joshua Cooper Ramo said that ‘every Korean’ respected Japan for their recent achievements as a nation, insinuating that South Korea had forgotten about the 35 brutal years of Japanese rule that ended after World War II,” Yahoo reported . . .
On Saturday, NBC issued a comprehensive apology.
During our coverage of the Parade of Nations on Friday we said it was notable that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the trip to Korea for the Olympics, “representing Japan, a country which occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945 but every Korean will tell you that Japan is a cultural, technological and economic example that has been so important to their own transformation.” We understand the Korean people were insulted by these comments and we apologize.
(Read more from “Nbc Forced to Apologize After Katie Couric, Colleagues Insult Entire Nation of South Korea” HERE)
By The Washington Post. Friday’s Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics in South Korea were, by most accounts, spectacular. NBC’s coverage of the spectacle, on the other hand, was considered hit and miss. Occasionally disastrous.
It wasn’t so much the hosts, Katie Couric and Mike Tirico, who annoyed critics, but rather the network’s analyst, Joshua Cooper Ramo. . .
But Ramo’s big misstep came when he noticed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan in the crowd and offered what he knew about the country’s history with Korea.
Japan was “a country which occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945,” Ramo said, correctly (though he did not mention that historians say the Japanese army forced tens of thousands of Koreans into sex slavery.)
“But,” Ramo continued, “every Korean will tell you that Japan as a cultural and technological and economic example has been so important to their own transformation.” (Read more from “NBC Commentators #Fail at the Olympics” HERE)
Editor’s note: This is a South Korean news clip but has Ramo’s comments in English at about :40
2018 has been a devastating year for the flu. So far, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 63 pediatric deaths. And it’s not even the middle of February yet.
But now a Japanese drugmaker claims that it has developed a pill that can kill the virus within a day, The Wall Street Journal reports.
A late-stage trial on Japanese and American flu patients found that for the people who took the Shionogi & Co. compound, the median time taken to wipe out the virus was 24 hours. That is much quicker than any other flu drug on the market, including Roche AG’s Tamiflu, which the trial showed took three times longer to achieve the same result. Quickly killing the virus could reduce its contagious effects, Shionogi said.
Also, Shionogi’s experimental drug requires only a single dose, while patients need to take two doses of Tamiflu a day, for five days.
Both Shionogi’s compound and Tamiflu take roughly the same amount of time to entirely contain flu symptoms, but Shionogi says its compound provides immediate relief faster.
(Read more from “Experimental Drug Promises to Kill the Flu Virus in Single Day” HERE)
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