May 22, 2013 – Picture of the Day: Sunset cloud formation, Northern Nebraska, U.S.A.

The Master of Disaster

May 22, 2013 - With This Toilet I Thee Wed:  A mass wedding ceremony organized by the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh featured an unusual vow. To take part, grooms had to prove their homes had toilets.  Pictured above, people watched as brides took part in a mass marriage ceremony in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, May 13.

The requirement for Monday’s ceremony, which involved 184 couples, is part of a state initiative to ensure that women in the district of Sehore have a toilet at home.

According to data from the latest census, 68% of households in Sehore don’t have a toilet or a public one nearby, meaning that families have to defecate in the open.

To increase the chances that young women marry into homes with access to sanitation, the Madhya Pradesh government issued a ruling that any groom wanting to get married under its special initiative had to have a toilet at home, or commit to installing one within a month of marriage, said Rajiv Khare, a government official in Sehore.

The initiative – “Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojana” – was launched in 2006 to help young women from poor families marry, according to officials involved.

Under MKY, families organize a match between their children but the state covers the costs of the wedding and gifts for the groom’s family, which are traditionally provided by the bride’s parents. Officials weren’t immediately able to say how much the program has cost but it provides each newlywed couple with goods worth 13,000 rupees ($236). The goods include a gas connection, beds and cupboards, but not toilets.

In 2011, the government decided to tackle the toilet problem.

Now many grooms are taking pictures of themselves with their toilets and sending them to the local officials to ensure their place on the program, Mr. Khare said.

This year, 1,762 couples have married in mass ceremonies under the MKY, according to K.P. Tripathi, deputy director of social justice in Sehore.

A decade of unprecedented economic growth in India hasn’t translated into a significantly improved picture for home sanitation.

The 2001 census found that 63.1% of homes lacked a toilet. In 2011, 53.1% of households were still in that position.  And you thought you had it bad.  Click the link below for the complete story.

The Master of Disaster

With This Toilet I Thee Wed – India Real Time – WSJ.

May 21, 2013 – Picture of the Day: In the still of the sunset from New Zealand’s South Island.

The Master of Disaster

May 21, 2013 -Vast Oklahoma Tornado Kills at Least 91:   A giant tornado, a mile wide or more, killed at least 91 people, 20 of them children, as it tore across parts of Oklahoma City and its suburbs Monday afternoon, flattening homes, flinging cars through the air and crushing at least two schools.

The injured flooded into hospitals, and the authorities said many people remained trapped, even as rescue workers struggled to make their way through debris-clogged streets to the devastated suburb of Moore, where much of the damage occurred.

Amy Elliott, the spokeswoman for the Oklahoma City medical examiner, said at least 91 people had died, including the children, and officials said that toll was likely to climb. Hospitals reported at least 145 people injured, 70 of them children.

Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore was reduced to a pile of twisted metal and toppled walls. Rescue workers were able to pull several children from the rubble, but on Monday evening crews were still struggling to cut through fallen beams and clear debris amid reports that dozens of students were trapped. At Briarwood Elementary School in Oklahoma City, on the border with Moore, cars were thrown through the facade and the roof was torn off.

“Numerous neighborhoods were completely leveled,” Sgt. Gary Knight of the Oklahoma City Police Department said by telephone. “Neighborhoods just wiped clean.”

He said debris and damage to roadways, along with heavy traffic, were hindering emergency responders as they raced to the affected areas.

A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office in Moore said emergency workers were struggling to assess the damage.

“Please send us your prayers,” she said.

Brooke Cayot, a spokeswoman for Integris Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City, said 58 patients had come in by about 9 p.m. An additional 85 were being treated at Oklahoma University Medical Center in Oklahoma City.

“They’ve been coming in minute by minute,” Ms. Cayot said.

The tornado touched down at 2:56 p.m., 16 minutes after the first warning went out, and traveled for 20 miles, said Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the National Weather Service in Norman, Okla. It was on the ground for 40 minutes, she said. It struck the town of Newcastle and traveled about 10 miles to Moore, a populous suburb of Oklahoma City. Click on the link below for the complete story.

The Master of Disaster

Vast Oklahoma Tornado Kills at Least 91 – NYTimes.com.

May 20, 2013 – Picture and Video of the Day: Lightning streaks across the sky as lava flows from a volcano in Iceland called Eyjafjallajokul.

Spectacular Video of Eyjafjallajokul Volcano Erupting

The Master of Disaster

May 20, 2013 - Pavlof Volcano ash cloud shows Alaska’s threat to air travel: For the second time in a month, a volcano in Alaska’s remote Aleutian chain has erupted, spotlighting America’s most active portion of the Ring of Fire.

In early May, Cleveland Volcano saw three quick explosions – part of a pattern of increased activity since 2011. Reports suggest that it is still rumbling, with lava flows recorded as recently as Tuesday. But no ash clouds have been seen for a week.

Now, Pavlof Volcano is erupting, and local reports suggest that it might be just getting started. (See picture above and short video link below).

The event began on Monday, with ash clouds reaching 15,000 feet. By Wednesday, the ash had hit 20,000 feet, and the National Weather Service had designated the eruption a “significant meteorological event” that could disrupt local air traffic.

The ash from Pavlof would have to reach 35,000 feet to disrupt international flights that use Alaskan airspace as a corridor for traffic between Asia and North America. For now, that is not forecast, but the eruption bears watching, experts say.

Pavlof has “reared its ugly head a couple times in the last 14 years, but nothing this significant,” Theo Chesley, a pilot for a local air taxi who flew by the volcano twice Thursday, told Alaska Dispatch Saturday.

The eruption could go on for months, said Jeff Freymueller, coordinating scientist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, in the Alaska Dispatch report. “At this point we’re assuming that it’s going to be at least weeks.”

Ninety percent of air freight from Asia to Europe and North America flies over Alaska airspace, scientist Steve McNutt told CNN.

“We think of the Aleutian Islands as being remote and desolate, but when you come up to 30,000 feet we are talking about 20 to 30,000 people there every single day,” said John Power, a scientist from the US Geological Survey, in the CNN report.

Pavlof is an 8,261-foot cone near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula – a long, thin finger of land that extends southwest from the Alaska mainland. From there, the Aleutian Islands sweep out into the Pacific toward Russia in a 1,200-mile chain of volcanic islands. Cleveland Volcano, which reaches an elevation of 5,676 feet, is on uninhabited Chuginadak Island.

Cleveland and Pavlof “are very similar, and both have the ability to erupt,” said Dr. Power.

The Aleutians and the southern coast of Alaska make up the northern edge of the Ring of Fire – an area of heightened volcanic and seismic activity that circles the Pacific from New Zealand to the Philippines to Mexico to Chile.

Though the Ring of Fire also includes parts of Washington, Oregon, and California, Alaska is by far the most volcanically active area in the United States. The state’s 40 active volcanoes account for more than 80 percent of the active volcanoes in the country.

Pavlof last erupted in 2007 and is “one of the most historically active volcanoes in the Northern Hemisphere,” Power told CNN.

About 40 miles southwest in Cold Bay, Alaska (population 108), residents are worried about the potential ash fall, which could damage power generators. Currently, winds are blowing the ash away from the village.

‘‘Everybody is thinking about it,’’ local air traffic controller John Maxwell told the Associated Press. ‘‘Not that anybody is afraid they’re going to be like Mount Vesuvius and turned into little mummies.’’

Alaska’s Mount Pavlof Volcano Erupting – Part I

The Master of Disaster

May 19, 2013 – Picture and Video’s of the Day: The tsunami strikes the coast of Japan on March 11, 2011.

Video #1

Video #3

The Master of Disaster

May 19, 2013 – Aspect Patterns in Global Earthquakes: I maintain an earthquake database of 5,497 global earthquakes, greater than or equal to 6.0 magnitude, from 1973 to 2013. “Planets” used were the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Plus and the True North Node of the Moon. An orb of five degrees longitude was used for the search.

I summarized the number of aspect patterns found in the database, shown in the chart above, reflecting the top ten patterns out of 24 used. A brief description and picture of the top three patterns are shown below:

Yod: This is a quincunx-sextile-quincunx. It features a crisis of – and a need for – perspective, in which the energies of the two sextiled planets find difficulty integrating with that of the apex, quincunxed planet.

YOD

T-square: A configuration of aspects formed when two points of a horoscope are in opposition to each other and in quadrature to a third planet.

T-Square

Thor’s Hammer: Thor’s Hammer is an aspect pattern consisting of a square (90 degrees) and two sesiquadrate (135 degrees) interconnecting aspects. It is part of the dynamic series of aspects that are based on the 8th harmonic (45 degree) aspect sequence.

Thor’s Hammer

The value in this type of research is searches of these patterns in the future reveal periods of seismic unrest. The chart below forecasts the probability of global earthquake greater than 6.0 magnitude by Month, from June-2013 to December-2013.

For example, based upon the three strongest aspect patterns explained in the narrative, Feb-14 and Dec-14 will be low in global earthquakes; while Aug-14, Jun-13 and Jul-14 are forecast to be high in global quakes.

The Master of Disaster

May 18, 2013 – Picture of the Day: The sky “on fire” at sunset.

The Master of Disaster

May 18, 2013 - Syria Begins to Break Apart Under Pressure From War:  The black flag of jihad flies over much of northern Syria. In the center of the country, pro-government militias and Hezbollah fighters battle those who threaten their communities. In the northeast, the Kurds have effectively carved out an autonomous zone. Pictured above, fighters from the Free Syrian Army.

After more than two years of conflict, Syria is breaking up. A constellation of armed groups battling to advance their own agendas are effectively creating the outlines of separate armed fiefs. As the war expands in scope and brutality, its biggest casualty appears to be the integrity of the Syrian state.

On Thursday, President Obama met in Washington with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and once again pressed the idea of a top-down diplomatic solution. That approach depends on the rebels and the government agreeing to meet at a peace conference that was announced last week by the United States and Russia.

“We’re going to keep increasing the pressure on the Assad regime and working with the Syrian opposition,” Mr. Obama said. “We are going to keep working for a Syria that is free of Assad’s tyranny.”

But as evidence of massacres and chemical weapons mounts, experts and Syrians themselves say the American focus on change at the top ignores the deep fractures the war has caused in Syrian society. Increasingly, it appears Syria is so badly shattered that no single authority is likely to be able to pull it back together any time soon.

Instead, three Syrias are emerging: one loyal to the government, to Iran and to Hezbollah; one dominated by Kurds with links to Kurdish separatists in Turkey and Iraq; and one with a Sunni majority that is heavily influenced by Islamists and jihadis.

“It is not that Syria is melting down — it has melted down,” said Andrew J. Tabler, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of “In the Lion’s Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington’s Battle with Syria.”

“So much has changed between the different parties that I can’t imagine it all going back into one piece,” Mr. Tabler said. Pictured above, men purportedly being executed.

Fueling the country’s breakup are the growing brutality of fighters on all sides and the increasingly sectarian nature of the violence.

Recent examples abound. Pro-government militias have hit coastal communities, targeting Sunni Muslim civilians. Sunni rebel groups have attacked religious shrines of other sects. A video circulating this week showed a rebel commander in Homs cutting out an enemy’s heart and liver, and biting into the heart.

Analysts say this shift in the nature of the violence will have a greater effect on the country’s future than territorial gains on either side by making it less likely that the myriad ethnic and religious groups that have long called Syria home will go back to living side by side. As the momentum seesaws back and forth between rebels and the government, the geographic divisions are hardening. Click on the link below for the complete story.

The Master of Disaster

Pressure of War Is Causing Syria to Break Apart – NYTimes.com.