#1
What got my attention most about the Joplin tornado was how many ignored the sirens, which mean "Take cover immediately. Your life is in danger." Instead they drove across town, sat out in parking lots or stood out in yards observing the sky, etc.
Two days later tornado sirens went off in my neighborhood. A tornado had been spotted 8 miles west of town, coming right at us. I was walking out of a Walmart when the sirens started. The sky was half sunlit, half black with boiling clouds. Rather than taking cover immediately, I drove home. There were many people near the Walmart sitting in the cars, their kids strapped in, looking up at the rapidly darkening sky. Others were driving around like me. During my 3-mile drive back home, I saw about 50 people in their front yards looking up at the sky. One hundred feet from my driveway, a violent gust of wind lifted up the front end of my F150 and then slammed it down again. Shortly after I was indoors and into the basement. It was all over in 15 minutes, just straight line winds, many trees, poles & wires down, no one injured.
Next morning I walked around the neighborhood to check out the damage. I talked to many neighbors about what they did in response to the sirens. A local contractor went out into his backyard to take down his flags. The first wind gust knocked him flat on his back and leveled his flag pole. He found himself looking straight up at a cloud vortex (never touched down). He was not injured. He went into his basement. Another neighbor works as a disaster trainer, having moved to OH from New Orleans after Katrina destroyed her home. She sent her child & pets into the basement, then went out to her car to get an emergency kit. She was barely able to re-enter her basement due to the wind blowing out of her house as the local air pressure plunged. Another young mother sent her children & pets into the basement, then went back upstairs looking for a corded telephone to use downstairs.
The only person of about 10 that I spoke to who did everything right was my octogenarian next door neighbor, who went into her basement & stayed there until the all-clear.
Oh well, I guess most of us are slow learners.
#2
AH9418, that sounds about right. Good on you for getting to good shelter, tornadoes move a bit quicker than I think most people realize. Those people sky gazing, well, at that perspective all a person sees is flying pain.
One time I was in a similar situation, gathered the apartment codwellers and hit the basement. One left his cat and went back, called him an idiot, stayed in the shelter and held the door. One second I'm pulling with all my might (inward swinging door) and the next I'm pushing, giving goofball a chance to get in.
Some lessons I learned. Have everyting gathered beforehand and where you will be riding it out. Second was taking shelter in the basement of a brick and morter (like one of the posters blithy suggested, proving lunchbox moore wrong that there are idiots in the UK) was likely not a great idea even if taking shelter under a sturdy table. That was proven after seeing Greensburg and their brick and morter main street. The expression Come Down like a Ton of Bricks is correct except for the tonnage.
A land line is not going to help, there will not be any land lines. The story about the guy who texted his location is lucky they had cell service. What a person needs is a talkaround with a radio frequency which will be monitored in the case of an emergency. Other items in a basic kit would be 3 days supply food/water/medicine/toiletries, a collection of rags which could double as wound dressing in a pinch, strong tape which could also double as wound dressing, a laminated or ziplocked bio sheet of all involved in case of outstanding health issues and blood types and contact numbers pictures etc., and an emergency whistle in case trapped and an extra to put into a pocket if time and concentration allows. I have all mine in a backpack with strong shoulder straps and wear it during the hunker down so that a) it does not blow away and b) gives protection to the back during a hunker down. Head protection is also suggested even if just a bike helmet. Also hand is several pair of work gloves strong enough to protect against grabbing a nail. Good thick soled boots are also nice in an aftermath but difficult for a boogie bag.
Glad you are OK; F150 drink up! Tornadoes are in some ways a lot like hurricanes and not in other ways. There are massive pressure changes and variable wind directions which do interesting things to otherwise friendly objects.
Education is key. Admittedly I was a gawker until I learned better the hard way. It was solidified after being a responder. Dang things are mesmorizing.
#3
From my time in the Midwest I observed that the sirens were activated anytime heavy thunderstorms blew trough the vicinity and people became complacent. Kind of like the "White Death" alerts from the TV weather anytime significant snowfall was forecast.
Thousands of angry indigenous protesters have taken over the city centre of Puno in south-eastern Peru. Looters have taken advantage of the unrest and ransacked offices and shops as the police retreated.
Cars and buildings were torched on Thursday night when protesters went on the rampage, demanding an end to a Canadian silver mining project.
The indigenous Aymara activists say the mining company will pollute their ancestral lands. The protesters have blocked the main roads into the city.
A customs office was set ablaze on Friday and several other buildings are still smouldering after being torched in the night.
The demonstrators have threatened to continue the disruption until the government revokes the mining concessions for the Canadian Bear Creek mining company. The activists say the mining corporation will contaminate nearby Lake Titicaca, decimating the fish stocks.
However, the firm denies it will harm the environment and wants to begin production next year.
The unrest in Puno comes two weeks before the 5 June presidential run-off election. The indigenous activists say they will try to stop the polls from going ahead in Puno if their demands have not been met.
#4
Dankie china. Ja, nie probleem nie, dit is veilig heir, quite safe. Vir die jonk soldier bid asseblief, hulle is skaars jonk kids. Verdwaal ons 9 dood dis maand. Mood hier is somber as you might imagine. I do old man stuff, they take good care of me. Ek eet te kos lol. Jy in Sweden now? Or still in the UK?
Beste, oud Besoeker.
#5
Besoeker Hey! I just got used to understanding JM.
Oil and water they are two very different people. Lech fought his way Obama was spoon feed his way(that's why I liked Trump a real fighter).
A real person versus a con artist. I have always been able to spot these people. I call it a gift. The tip off is what they actually deliver and how much money it will cost you. He will not change. It is his nature. Like a programed computer he will not grow and develop. When he crashes he just resets to default.
#6
Dale, if your Dutch or "Austrian language" heh German is rusty, just go here, copy/paste, and pick Afrikaans. Unfortunately, I don't think Google translate can do Joe Mendiola!
[Al Jazeera] Riot police firing rubber bullets and wielding truncheons have clashed with protesters as authorities cleared away a makeshift camp set up as part of a Spain-wide demonstration against the country's economic problems.
Friday's altercation left more than 100 people, including coppers, injured.
The trouble started when police tried to clear the protesters from a main square in Barcelona so sanitation workers could clean it up before possible celebrations after a soccer match on Saturday night.
Many of the protesters, who are angry about high unemployment, anti-austerity measures and politicians' handling of the economy refused to move.
TV images showed officers beating the demonstrators and dragging them on the ground. Some wound up with bloodied hands and heads, or broken limbs.
Match forced evacuation
Felip Puig, the front man for Catalonia's regional Interior Ministry, said 84 protesters and 37 police were maimed. Officers were seen hauling people away, but Puig did not say how many had been placed in durance vile and he didn't say how serious the injuries were.
He did say one protester had a broken arm. "I can assure you that there was aggression against the police with rocks, bits of wood, blows, shoves, with violence, with sprays," Puig said.
He said police had fired six rubber bullets, 12 unspecified "projectiles" and 236 rounds of blank warning shots.
The protesters were allowed to return to the plaza, which has been occupied by protesters for nearly two weeks, after it was cleaned. Reports say the projectiles were rubber balls.
Puig justified the authorities' action by saying the plaza had to be cleaned because soccer fans will gather there on Saturday night after the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United in London.
Scuffles also broke out between authorities and protesters in the city of Lleida, west of Barcelona. Two people were reportedly placed in durance vile.
United behind the slogan "Real Democracy Now", tens of thousands of mostly young people have set up around-the-clock protest camps in cities and towns across Spain since May 15 to complain about the government's handling of the economic crisis and what they see as a corrupted political party system.
Growing debt, unemployment
Nearly two years of recession have left Spain with a 21.3 per cent unemployment rate, the highest in the Eurozone, and major debt problems.
The rate jumps to 35 per cent for people aged 16 to 29, and many young and highly educated Spaniards can't find jobs as the Eurozone's No. 4 economy struggles.
The biggest protest has been in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square, where tens of thousands of people held nightly protests for nearly a week before regional elections last weekend. On Friday, about 500 people were still camping in the plaza, but they indicated they might move on within several days.
Riot police have monitored the Madrid protesters, but have not intervened.
Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, the interior minister, said he was reviewing a request by Madrid's regional government to dismantle the city's protest zone because of complaints by merchants that business is suffering in the key tourist area.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"angry about ... anti-austerity measures" Is this a typo in AlJ or is Spain growing a Tea Party?
Posted by: James ||
05/28/2011 21:21 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A judge ruled yesterday that Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, the alleged criminal mastermind of the Srebrenica massacre and other atrocities, was fit to face international justice at a war crimes court.
Court spokeswoman Maja Kovacevic said the transfer conditions had been met.
Gen Mladic's legal team says he is in poor health and that they will appeal on Monday. They have requested that he be admitted to hospital over concerns about his health.
Gen Mladic, tossed in the slammer on Thursday after 16 years on the run, faces genocide charges over the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
He was indicted in 1995 over the killings about 7,500 Bosnian Mohammedan men and boys that July at Srebrenica -- the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War II -- and other crimes.
Judge Kovacevic told news hounds outside the court that Gen Mladic's health was good enough for him to stand trial.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Group of Eight leaders had to soften a statement urging Israel and the Palestinians to return to negotiations because Canada objected to a specific mention of 1967 borders, diplomats said on Friday.
Canada's right-leaning Conservative government has adopted a staunchly pro-Israel position in international negotiations since coming to power in 2006, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying Canada will back Israel whatever the cost.
Diplomats involved in Middle East discussions at the G8 summit said Ottawa had insisted that no mention of Israel's pre-1967 borders be made in the leaders' final communiqué, even though most of the other leaders wanted a mention.
"The Canadians were really very adamant, even though Obama expressly referred to 1967 borders in his speech last week," one European diplomat said.
A spokesman for Harper would not comment on the line Canada had taken, saying only that the final communiqué would make positions clear.
No mention of 1967
In the final communiqué, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, the leaders call for the immediate resumption of peace talks but do not mention 1967, the year Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza from Jordan and Egypt during the Six-Day War.
"Negotiations are the only way toward a comprehensive and lasting resolution to the conflict," the communiqué said.
"The framework for these negotiations is well known. We urge both parties to return to substantive talks with a view to concluding a framework agreement on all final status issues.
"To that effect, we express our strong support for the vision of Israeli-Palestinian peace outlined by President Obama on May 19, 2011."
In his speech last week, Obama said pre-1967 borders should be a basis of talks to achieve a negotiated settlement, although he also acknowledged any agreement would ultimately involve land swaps on either side of the border.
That position was rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israel would be indefensible if it returned entirely to the borders that existed before 1967.
Canada's strong backing for Israel was cited by diplomats last year as one reason why Ottawa failed to win a rotating two-year seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Harper has made his position on Israel very clear, saying last year: "When Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack, is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand."
Posted by: Sherry from Arkansas ||
05/28/2011 00:33 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Republican political figure and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is widely expected to formally declare his candidacy for the 2012 US presidential race next week.
The 64-year-old Romney will formally announce his bid for presidency on June 2, AP reported on Thursday.
This comes as Romney formed an exploratory committee last month to adopt a more strategic approach to the current battle for the Republican presidential nomination as compared to three years ago.
"He has spent the last two years meeting lots of grassroots Republicans and has done more fundraising and donated more to state candidates than anyone else," Steve Duprey, a Republican National Committeeman from New Hampshire, said.
Three years ago, Romney tried to run the table of early-voting states, spending millions of dollars in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
However, The didactic However... he was edged by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in the Iowa caucuses, and was ambushed by Arizona Senator John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... in New Hampshire.
White House hopefuls Mitt Romney and Sarah Mama Grizzly Palin ... the babe libs love to hate ... lead a narrower field of potential rivals for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination, according to a poll released on Thursday.
Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman from Minnesota, is also considering entering the race.
Other Republican White House hopefuls include former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Yawn. The GOP commences Operation Foot-Bullet: The Country Club Old Boys Gang wants a loser it can control instead of risking a winner it cannot control.
#3
Of the declared first-tier Pubs in the race, Romney and Pawlenty, I'll take either over Obama.
Of the declared second-tier Pubs in the race, like Herman Cain, I'll take him over Obama.
Of the declared others in the race, like Ron Paul, um, um, how long and how sharp are those needles you're about to jam into my eyes?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2011 11:31 Comments ||
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#4
SW:
You don't have a choice between Romney and Bammo, any more than you had a choice between McCain and Bammo or Dole and Clinton. We know how that formula plays out. Between a Democrat and a Dem-Lite, the Democrat always wins.
#1
Two months after his arrival in Iraq the bolt was removed from Manning's rifle because he was deemed a danger.
A guy like that should never have been given access to secret documents.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
05/28/2011 11:56 Comments ||
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#2
...I didn't know these details about Manning before, so I'm going to stick my neck out for a moment here.
I'm not going to fault Manning for getting rattled during a combat situation - nobody knows how they're going to react, and some folks just can't do it. Had Manning's CO then sat him down and said, "Son, you just aren't cut out for this - we're sending you home and cutting your papers for discharge", none of the nightmares that followed ever would have happened.
But let me suggest this sequence of events (and I think our vets will agree with me on this): They're in a combat zone, and you NEVER have enough people in a combat zone, even if you're 100% manned. Sending an otherwise able-bodied kid home simply because he got scared is a bad example to others, and quite frankly is going to reflect poorly on the CO, whose superiors are going to wonder how well he's motivating everybody else. So let's just keep Manning behind this desk, where he can't hurt anybody...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/28/2011 13:33 Comments ||
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#3
Yes, Mike that's the usual institutional response. We've unlearned a lesson from the rebuild of the Army after the nadir of the 70's. By the 80's those who'd worked on the rebuild figured out that its better to have 7 men in a 10 man squad who are motivated and a team than have 10 men with 3 problem children who eat up everyone's time and attention. Of course this is the 10's and those officers and NCOs are well retired and the bad habits of institutions creep back in.
#1
The mystery is solved right there in the article: "I performed a maneuver that had an unacceptably low minimum altitude. This maneuver, combined with other instances of not meeting the airborne standard that makes the Blue Angels the exceptional organization that it is, led to my decision to step down."
#2
I would trust such a man with any job there is. It is a good man who realizes he is not the best one for that position and steps aside voluntarily for the good of the team.
I really believe that this is a case of a man who knew he had made a mistake, and whose integrity was sufficient to stand up and say, "I goofed, and I did not meet the standards this job called for." He led a maneuver - I've seen the video - that very nearly killed himself, three of his men, and had the possibility of taking out innocent people on the ground. A LOT of pilots (and Naval Aviators, there's a difference :) ) would have found a lot of perfectly valid reasons why this wasn't their fault - he didn't. I met more than a few men and women like that during my time in the service, and I wish every CO was like him.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/28/2011 10:11 Comments ||
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#6
I salute him if that is the case Mike. Yes, (pilots and Naval Aviators) there is definately a difference, as explained to me ad nauseam, by a former colleague, USN carier pilot, Sqdn Cdr, and Viet (1 MIG) ACE.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Group of Eight leaders had to soften a statement urging Israel and the Palestinians to return to negotiations because Canada objected to a specific mention of 1967 borders, diplomats said on Friday.
John 
