THE WILLIS UNIVERSITY

Welcome to the Willis University. This is a site dedicated mostly to the world's natural disasters. Also some random inserts of global news from credible sources and also a mixture of opinion. Some of the opinions are not suitable for all. Please remember this is my opinion only. Thanks to all for the guidance I've been given.

January 31, 2007

First bird flu death in Nigeria

A Nigerian woman who died suffering from flu symptoms has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus, says a government minister. It is the first bird flu death reported in sub-Saharan Africa since it surfaced in Nigeria a year ago.

The victim was a 22-year-old from the commercial capital, Lagos.

Health officials said inconclusive tests had also been carried out on her mother and two other people, all of whom died recently.

"Last night our team of 13 scientists were able to conclusively identify the case of avian influenza," Nigerian Information Minister Frank Nweke Jnr told a news conference in Lagos.

He said blood samples were now being sent to foreign laboratories and the findings are now with the World Health Organisation for further scrutiny.

More than 160 people have died of H5N1 bird flu since it's outbreak in December 2003 - most of them in South-East Asia.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6317477.stm

January 30, 2007

Alleged UFO draws Hawaiian crowd, camera

HONOLULU, Jan. 30 A pair of airborne mysterious lights thought to be a UFO in Honolulu last week drew a crowd of onlookers and was captured on video by a local TV network.

Honolulu's KHON-TV reported those who witnessed the alleged UFO said two lights circled above Ala Moana Beach Park in the Hawaiian capital at 45 degrees above the horizon before disappearing.

These two little fireballs with a stream behind it, Honolulu resident Peter Hollingworth said. Looked kind of like a shooting star but it just kept going. They changed directions a few times, at first it was coming in then it turned, then it went out then it came back in again.The unusual light show, caught on video by the Channel 2 SkyCam, immediately brought explanations from area experts.

While University of Hawaii astronomy Professor Gareth Wynn-Williams admitted the objects were a UFO in the basic sense, they were likely ice from the contrail of a high flying airplane.

This in a sense is an unidentified flying object, he said. It's something in the sky that's moving that we haven't identified.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/25363.html

Magnitude 6.7 earthquake

SYDNEY, Australia (AP): A magnitude 6.7 earthquake rocked the coast of Australia's remote Macquarie Island Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake struck west of Macquarie Island at 2:54 p.m. local time (0454GMT), and was centered 10 kilometers (6 miles) below the seabed. The U.S. Geological Survey originally recorded the temblor as a 6.3 magnitude, but later upgraded the quake to 6.7.

Stuart Koyanagi, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at Ewa Beach, Hawaii, said the quake was unlikely to generate a major Pacific-wide tsunami.

"Normally at this magnitude we don't expect any kind of destructive tsunami,'' he said. Clive Collins, a seismologist at Geoscience Australia, said the Macquarie Island earthquake involved two tectonic plates moving against each other horizontally, rather than vertically, and was unlikely to displace the large quantity of water needed to generate a tsunami.

"It's most unlikely there would be any tsunami,'' he said. "It's a fairly large earthquake and it's fairly shallow, but we don't think there's any risk.''

The isolated, sparsely populated island lies around 1,343 kilometers (835 miles) south of the island state of Tasmania, and serves as a base for Australian expeditions to Antarctica.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/1/30/apworld/20070130182857&sec=apworld

Another Outbreak of Bird Flu Hits Japan

TOKYO -- Another outbreak of bird flu was suspected in southern Japan on Tuesday after 23 chickens were found dead at a farm, fueling concern about a string of cases in the country's poultry industry.

The latest outbreak occurred in the town of Shitomi in southwestern prefecture of Miyazaki, which saw two separate bird flu cases earlier this month, Agriculture Ministry official Yasushi Yamaguchi said. The case would mark Japan's fourth bird flu incident in the past month. Authorities found 23 chickens dead at the farm in Shitomi, and seven of 13 birds that were tested showed initial signs of bird flu, Yamaguchi said.

"We found the dead birds today and are investigating whether the virus is present," the official said. Results could take days. The farm was quarantined and chicken ranchers within a six-mile radius were told not to transport poultry out of the area. Separately Tuesday, officials were trying to determine whether the virus that killed dozens of chickens in the western prefecture of Okayama was the deadly H5N1 variety.

The H5N1 was pinpointed in the earlier Miyazaki outbreaks, which forced the slaughter of thousands of chickens in the region. The H5N1 virus has prompted the slaughter of millions of birds across Asia since late 2003, and caused the deaths of at least 163 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Japan has confirmed only one human H5N1 infection, and no human deaths. The bird flu virus remains hard for humans to catch, but international experts fear it may mutate into a form that could spread easily among people and possibly kill millions around the world.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/ats-ap_health16jan30,1,4456827.story?coll=sns-ap-tophealth

January 29, 2007

146 U.S. levees may fail in flood

WASHINGTON — The Army Corps of Engineers has identified 146 levees nationwide that it says pose an unacceptable risk of failing in a major flood.

The deficiencies, mostly due to poor maintenance, are forcing communities from Connecticut to California to invest millions of dollars in repairs. If the levees aren't fixed, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could determine that they are no longer adequate flood controls. If that happens, property owners behind the levees would have to buy flood insurance costing hundreds of dollars a year or more.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-28-levees_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

New Bird-Flu Fears Surface

January 29, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Bird flu is back. In recent weeks, there have been reported cases in South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia. Now a 14-year-old Azerbaijani boy, who was treated for suspected bird flu, has died in the capital, Baku.

It's still unclear what exactly killed 14-year-old Ajdar Askarov. The Azerbaijani authorities have said the cause of death was acute pneumonia.

"The results were negative," said Anar Qadirly, the head of the press office at the Azerbaijani Health Ministry. "Samples have been taken from the patient and are being prepared to be sent to World Health Organization laboratories. In the village and surrounding areas, we haven't observed any outbreaks or mass deaths among wild and domestic birds."

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/01/e819f8e4-0285-40b1-aeb7-5231f2464e2e.html

Japan reports bird flu outbreak

TOKYO, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Japan's agriculture ministry announced Monday an outbreak of avian flu had been confirmed at a poultry farm in the prefecture of Okayama. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said about 12,000 chickens at a farm in Takahashi were ordered to be gassed and incinerated or buried. Some 950,000 birds at 15 other farms within a 7-mile radius were also checked by agriculture officials Sunday and a travel ban on the fowl and their eggs was imposed, the newspaper said.

Japan has reported seven cases of the H5N1 avian flu and the most recent is the third this year, officials said.

The virus has killed more than 160 people who had contact with infected birds since 2003, most of them in Asia. Epidemiologists fear the virus could mutate and become transmissible between humans and become a pandemic.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070129-08390900-bc-japan-birdflu.xml

January 19, 2007

IMPEACHBUSH.COM For Sale on EBay...

Scientists unravel superbug that kills in 24 hours

Scientists have unlocked the secrets of a deadly superbug that attacks healthy young people and can kill within 24 hours. The news is a vital first step in attempts to find a cure for the virulent disease, PVL-MRSA, that is highly resistant to current antibiotic treatments. Already responsible for two deaths in Britain, experts fear we are in the early stages of an epidemic that could result in a massive death toll if the superbug took hold in hospitals. The bug generally attacks the body through open wounds and can cause necrotising pneumonia, a disease that rapidly destroys lung tissue and is lethal in 75 per cent of cases. In 2004 it killed Richard Campbell-Smith, an 18-year-old Royal Marine, who died after scratching his legs on gorse during a training exercise in Devon. An outbreak last month at Norfolk and Norwich University hospital killed a baby and infected five others. According to the Health Protection Agency there were 106 cases of PVL-MRSA in England and Wales in 2005 and one confirmed death from necrotising pneumonia. But researchers at the University of Texas in Houston and Lyon University in France say their new understanding of how the bug works gives them hope of heading it off before it colonises hospitals, like the basic MRSA bug before it. Gabriela Bowden, who lead the study, told the Guardian: "We've shown that not only is PVL responsible for causing necrotising pneumonia, but it somehow also causes over-production of these other proteins which cause damage and help the infection spread. "We now have targets to go for."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23382354-details/Scientists+unravel+superbug+that+kills+in+24+hours/article.do

Earthquake hits Iran

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale hit an area in southwest Iran on Friday, state television reported, but did not report any casualties. The brief headline on state television said the tremor hit an area around Ramhormoz in Khuzestan province at 3.56 p.m. (12:26 p.m. British time). Iranian media had reported three smaller earthquakes in the same region measuring four or above earlier in the day. Earthquakes often strike in Iran, which is crisscrossed with faultlines.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?storyid=2007-01-19T151506Z_01_L19395249_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAN-QUAKE.xml&type=worldNews&WTmodLoc=World-C3-More-4

Moderate earthquake strikes El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - An earthquake shook parts of El Salvador on Thursday night, but there were no immediate reports of damages or injuries, authorities said. The quake, with a magnitude of 5.4, was centered 35 miles south of the capital, San Salvador, and occurred at 7:43 p.m., the United States Geological Survey in Colorado reported. The temblor was felt in the capital and in several western provinces of the country, but did not affect communications or power, or threaten to create a tsunami, national scientists said. Civil protection officials said they had received no reports of injuries.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/16493801.htm

Earthquake shakes Panama, no damage reported

PANAMA CITY, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A moderate earthquake shook Panama on Thursday, startling people but producing no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The quake measured a magnitude of 5.1 and originated close to Cerro Punta, a coffee-growing area in Chiriqui province near the Costa Rican border, the University of Panama's geoscience institute said. No injuries or damage were reported in the region, which is frequently hit by earthquakes, a civil protection spokesman told Reuters.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N18222802.htm

Indonesia begins campaign to clear capital of fowl as bird flu cases spike

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP): Residents handed over hundreds of chickens and other fowl for slaughter Friday as authorities in Indonesia's capital scrambled to stop the spread of bird flu after a spike in human deaths.

Just meters (yards) away, however, it was easy to find people with no intention of giving up their birds, showing the difficulties ahead for Indonesia _ the country worst hit by bird flu _ as it prepares to enforce a ban on fowl in residential areas.

"My chickens are healthy and strong,'' said Jumadi Akhir, who keeps two fighting cocks and several other ornamental chickens. "I treat them as good as I do my own children.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/1/19/apworld/20070119220603&sec=apworld

January 17, 2007

Key Bumping

The UW recieved an email at work on the following story. Please read and take heed:<p> We are being proactive in alerting our customers of a lock picking technique that is being broadcast all over the internet. Google search "bump key" and you will find information about how to make these keys and use them. You will even find sites where anyone can buy pre-made sets of bump keys in several common keyways. In my opinion, the risk factor is very high with this technique because it works on a high percentage of locks (residential and commercial) and it only takes a minute to learn. Locks that are especially vulnerable are master-keyed cylinders.

Local and National news stations are airing stories on this problem. I want to make my customers aware of this potential threat. You need to know how to safeguard against this technique and what to be aware of. If you want more information or if I can advise you further on the security of your home or business, I will make myself available at your convenience. eed:

Google search results for "bump key".

YouTube search results for "bump key".

Google Video search results for "bump key".

Medeco Bump Proof Locks

CyberLock Bump Proof Locks

CyberLock Video

Winter Storms Claim At Least 55 Lives Across Nine States

McALESTER, Okla — Thousands of people stuck it out in dark, unheated homes Wednesday and hundreds of others hunkered down in shelters waiting for restoration of electrical service knocked out by the snow and ice storm blamed for 55 dead in nine states.

More than 300,000 homes and businesses in several states were still without electricity Wednesday because of the ice, snow, and high wind that battered an area from Texas to Maine. At the First Baptist Church in McAlester, Okla., where most of the city's 18,000 residents have lacked power for four days, residents huddled under blankets and in front of space heaters.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,244120,00.html

Floods displace 100,000 in Malaysia

SERI MEDAN, Malaysia: Fears about disease gripped the flood-devastated south of Malaysia on Monday, where more than 100,000 evacuees were crammed into emergency shelters. Two people have died from leptospirosis, a bacterial infection caused by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of animals such as rats, bringing to 15 the death toll from the country's worst flooding in nearly 40 years.

Health workers were planning to step up inoculations against typhoid and fumigate mosquito-prone areas to guard against diseases such as dengue fever and malaria. Warnings have also been issued about cholera.

The latest floods cut off several towns in Johor state, a major oil-palm and rubber growing region, and shut down power and water supplies. The Malaysian Meteorological Service said was forecasting heavy rain for the area until the middle of the week, Bernama, the national news agency reported.

Several relief centers in the Kota Tinggi area, the hardest hit, are overcrowded and cannot accept any more evacuees, an official at the Johor state flood operations center said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/15/news/flood.php

January 15, 2007

The Next UW..

Looks like we know who the Next UW is going with this NFL Season..

January 14, 2007

How many of me/you?

There are 131 people in the US that share my same first and last name.
HowManyOfMe.com
LogoThere are: 131 people with my name in the U.S.A.
How many have your name?

Snow at the UW

Well it finally happened, not for Christmas but on Jan 13 the UW did get some....of the white stuff!!

Indonesia Announces Two Bird Flu Deaths; Japan Confirms Outbreak

An Indonesian health official announced Saturday the recent deaths of two women from Avian influenza. Two other people died earlier in the week. Meanwhile, Japan confirmed bird flu affected chickens on a farm in the south of the country. VOA's Sean Maroney reports from Washington.

Health officials in Indonesia say two more people have died from bird flu there this week, raising the country's total number of deaths to at least 61.

Both women had received treatment in the same hospital in Indonesia's capital of Jakarta.

Earlier in the week, a 37-year-old woman and teenage boy died from bird flu.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-01-13-voa27.cfm

January 13, 2007

Volcano erupts in Comoros, spewing lava and rattling residents

PARIS: A volcano spat forth lava and black smoke early Saturday on an island in Comoros in the Indian Ocean, triggering tremors throughout the day and rattling residents, officials said. The eruption of 2,360-meter (7,746-foot) Mount Karthala on Grand Comore, the largest of the three Comoros islands, did not endanger residents, Hamid Soule of the Karthala Observatory said by telephone.

The volcano started erupting overnight, bright orange flames showing up against the black sky, he said. The lava production appeared to slow by morning, but the volcano continued to shake and tremble throughout the day.

Many alarmed residents of the capital, Moroni — which sits at the foot of Karthala's western slope — gathered outside to watch the eruption and seek information, but no evacuations were deemed necessary, emergency officials said.

Karthala is known to erupt about every 11 years. It long stood silent after a 1991 eruption, but has been active three times in the past two years: in April 2005, when tens of thousands fled their homes, in May 2006, and on Saturday. No casualties were reported in any of the incidents.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/13/africa/AF-GEN-Comoros-Volcano.php

Hong Kong confirms bird flu case

HONG KONG (AFP) - A dead bird found in Hong Kong has tested positive for a milder strain of the bird flu virus, the city's health authorities said.

"Preliminary testing of a dead bird ... has indicated a suspected case of H5 avian influenza," a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said in a statement. Further tests are now being carried out on the carcass of the Crested Hoshawk, which was found by a member of the public, the statement added.

Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died of a then unknown mutation of the avian flu virus. Millions of poultry were culled.

A renewed outbreak in 2003 among poultry flocks in Asia triggered a wave of infections worldwide.

The flu's H5N1 strain is potentially deadly to humans.

Bird flu has killed more than 150 people worldwide since late 2003. There are fears it could mutate and trigger a deadly human flu pandemic.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070113/hl_afp/healthfluhongkong_070113201450

Japan Cancels all Tsunami Warnings After Powerful Earthquake

Japanese meteorological officials have canceled all tsunami warnings after a powerful Pacific Ocean earthquake caused only minor waves in parts of the country.

Japan's Meteorological Agency says a 40-centimeter wave hit Chichi island, east of the Okinawa island chain. Small waves of around 10 centimeters also hit Nemuro and several other areas in northeastern Japan. No damage has been reported in any areas.

The 8.3 magnitude earthquake hit Saturday afternoon east of the Kuril Islands, at 1:24 local time (0424 UTC). Nearly nine hours later, all warnings that were issued throughout the country's northern region and eastern shoreline were lifted.

The agency had earlier said waves as high as one meter could hit the northeastern coast of Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.

The United States has also canceled tsunami warnings and watches issued earlier for various locations around the Pacific Ocean. Those regions include Russia, the Marcus Islands, Taiwan, Canada, Indonesia, the U.S. island of Guam and the states of Hawaii and Alaska.

There are no immediate reports of injuries from the earthquake.

http://voanews.com/english/2007-01-13-voa17.cfm

January 10, 2007

A Bright Comet Is Coming

If you watch the morning or evening sky these days and have a clear view of the horizon, you will be able to spot a bright object with a prominent tail.

Instructions for viewing the comet in the morning from Spaceweather.com:

At dawn, go outside and face east Using binoculars, scan the horizon The comet is located just south of due east

Instructions for viewing the comet in the evening from Spaceweather.com:

At sunset, go outside and face west Using binoculars, scan the horizon The comet is located low and to the right of Venus A clear view of the horizon is essential.

That object is comet C/2006 P1 (Comet McNaught). It was discovered on August 7th, 2006 by the hugely successful comet discoverer Rob McNaught.

At time of discovery, the comet was a very faint object, but the predicted perihelion distance (closest distance to the sun) of just 0.17 astronomical units (the average distance between the Earth and sun, about 150 million kilometers) indicated that the object has the potential to become very bright indeed.

Nobody really knows just what this comet will look like at its closest point to the sun and that is where SOHO comes in! The LASCO instrument aboard SOHO has the ability to watch comets as they get extremely close to the sun.

Fortunately for us, C/2006 P1 is going to pass right through the LASCO C3 field of view in less than a weeks' time! As soon as SOHO's cameras capture the comet, we will post images and further information to the SOHO website. In the meantime, you may enjoy looking at some photographs and checking out the links below for further information.

The image to the left shows the expected track of the comet through SOHO's coronagraph LASCO C3. The comet will appear in the field of view of C3 at around 10:00 UT (05:00 EDT) on January 12th (a few hours before perihelion) in the upper-left of the images and travel almost vertically down, exiting C3's field of view in the lower left at roughly 03:00 UT on January 16th.

Recent estimates of the comet's maximal brightness have ranged widely from magnitude +2.1 (about as bright as Polaris, the North Star) to a super-bright -8.8 (about 40 times brighter than Venus)! The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the object. The brightest stars in the sky are categorized as zero or first magnitude. Negative magnitudes are reserved for the most brilliant objects: the brightest star is Sirius (-1.4); the full Moon is -12.7; the Sun is -26.7.

Current estimates put comet McNaught at magnitude 0 to -1, and it is still brightening. It could be -2 or -3 by the time it reaches LASCO's field of view. This means it will be brighter than comet NEAT or comet 96P/Machholz. In other words, this could be the brightest and most spectacular comet that SOHO has ever seen!

http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/796710/a_bright_comet_is_coming/index.html

January 09, 2007

Scientist: NASA Found Life on Mars -- and Killed It

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have found alien microbes on the red planet and inadvertently killed them, a scientist is theorizing. The Viking space probes of 1976-77 were looking for the wrong kind of life, so they didn't recognize it, a geology professor at Washington State University said.

The paper was released Sunday.

Last month, scientists excitedly reported that new photographs of Mars showed geologic changes that suggest water occasionally flows there -- the most tantalizing sign that Mars is hospitable to life.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/01/07/mars.life.ap/

No Major Damage Reported After 6.0 Earthquake Hits Kyrgyzstan

January 9, 2007 -- An earthquake that measured 6.0 magnitude rocked southern Kyrgyzstan on January 8 but did not cause large-scale damage or injuries.

The country's Emergency Situations Ministry said the quake, in the southern Batken province, did not cause large-scale damage or injuries.

The epicenter was registered in the Turkistan mountains near the border with Tajikistan. Tremors could be felt in the town of Kyzyl-Kya, and the city of Osh.

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/01/00E466A7-4A74-4FEE-8D5E-B40898B3AC96.html

Moderate 5.7 earthquake shakes southeast Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: A moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7 jolted southeast Alaska on Tuesday and was widely felt throughout the Panhandle, but no damage was immediately reported.

The 6:49 a.m. earthquake was centered 57 miles (92 kilometers) west of Haines at a depth of five miles (8 kilometers), according to the Alaska Earthquake Information Center in Fairbanks. It was centered 57 miles west of Haines at a depth of five miles.

The shallow earthquake was felt in Haines, Juneau, Sitka and numerous other communities. There were no immediate reports of damage, according to the earthquake information center.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/09/america/NA-GEN-US-Alaska-Earthquake.php

Bird Flu Ruled Out On Dead Birds; Testing Continues Tuesday

It should be business as usual Tuesday around Downtown Austin, but there's still no word on what caused the deaths of more than 60 birds.

Preliminary tests showed no dangerous chemicals in the area, and the bird flu has been ruled out.

While officials search for answers, they say they're confident that there's no public health threat. "Yeah, it sounds most like a poisoning, if I had to guess," said Jacob Mireles, D.V.M., with the Brykerwood Veterinary Clinic, "and I'm pretty sure that's what it's going to come out as."

The carcasses of the more than 60 grackles, sparrows and pigeons have been sent to Texas A&M, where tests will be performed on Tuesday.

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=5904817

January 08, 2007

Indonesian woman with bird flu in critical condition

JAKARTA, Indonesia: An Indonesian woman was in critical condition Monday after being hospitalized with bird flu, a health official said. It was unclear how she contracted the virus.

The 37-year-old is the second person to be sickened by the disease in less than a week, said I Nyoman Kandun, the Ministry of Health's director general of communicable disease control.

The other was a 14-year-old boy, Kandun said, adding that both are from the industrial city of Tangerang on the western outskirts of the capital, Jakarta, and are being treated at the Persahabatan hospital.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/08/asia/AS-GEN-Indonesia-Bird-Flu.php

Montserrat Volcano Shoots 5-Mile-High Ash Cloud

OLVESTON, Montserrat — The Soufriere Hills volcano, which has been erupting for the past 11 years, shot a cloud of ash more than 5 miles into the sky on Monday, and authorities warned that more significant activity is possible in coming days.

The blast, accompanied by increased seismic rumbling, released gases and steam from inside a lava dome that has grown rapidly over the last week, said Dr. Vicky Hards, director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,242352,00.html

January 05, 2007

Burning 'Space Junk'

The crew of SkyFox (the helicopter for Fox 31 News in Denver) captured some amazing video footage of a spent Russian rocket incinerating as it plummeted over North America, early on Thursday morning. Initially thought to be a large meteor, NORAD later confirmed that what was seen over four states was indeed Russian "space junk."

http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=1961501&version=36&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

N. Korea Builds Hospital for Bird Flu Patients

North Korea finished constructing a hospital ward for patients with bird flu and other contagious diseases with financial support from the World Health Organization (WHO), a media report said Sunday.

The WHO had been helping North Korea to build the isolation ward inside a Pyongyang hospital since June, said the Chosun Sinbo, published by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. ,p> In early 2005, North Korea reported an outbreak of avian influenza at several chicken farms in Pyongyang and asked for help from the international community.

``As part of preventive measures against the spread of contagious diseases, this ward was constructed in cooperation with the WHO,’’ the pro-Pyongyang newspaper said.

The report, however, did not give details on when the hospital ward would open officially. According to the newspaper’s earlier reports, the isolation ward in Songsin Hospital will be a single-floor building with eight rooms covering 695 square meters of land.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200701/kt2007010520585511990.htm

January 04, 2007

40% See 2007 War With Iran As Second Carrier Deployed

A new nationwide poll reveals that four in ten Americans predict the U.S. will go to war with Iran in 2007 as a second aircraft carrier is deployed to the Gulf, putting 5,000 more U.S. sailors in the region, bringing the total to 16,000 in a clear escalation towards a military air strike on the country.

A survey by Ipsos divulges that 40% of Americans think it "likely" that the U.S. will become involved militarily with Iran this year, 11% more than the mere 29% that see coalition troops leaving Iraq.

Concurrently, a second aircraft carrier and escort ships have been sent into the Gulf in a threatening geopolitical gesture aimed at Iran and Syria. The USS John C. Stennis strike group will deploy later this month following in the footsteps of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier group that entered the Gulf in December.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the move a reaffirmation that "We will be here for a long time and everybody needs to remember that."

Televangelist Pat Robertson, an influential sage of the Neo-Con war machine and an icon of its radical ideological underpinnings, has predicted turmoil in 2007 after he claimed God had told him in a conversation that major U.S. cities would suffer mass terror attacks after September that would potentially kill millions of people.

Whether Robertson is simply recycling fearmongering propaganda or not, the fact remains that Dick Cheney's USSTRATCOM contingency plan calls for attacking Iran in the immediate aftermath of a 'second 9/11' - no matter who is behind it - which of course is going to be the cabal Dick Cheney fronts for itself and the same pack of murderers that are actively seeking to initiate global ethic cleansing and genocide to bring about world war three.

Having tried and failed to do Israel's bidding in completely taking over the Middle East by organized military campaigns, the Bush administration has enacted "Plan B," a blueprint favored by the Zionist state's most bloodthirsty adherents all along, which is simply to engender mass chaos and civil war across the entire region and let Sunni and Shia Muslims kill off each other. Israeli strategy documents dating back decades outline the method of breaking up Iraq along sectarian borders by playing the different sects off against each other by means of staged bombings, targeted assassinations and jingoistic manipulation of the political process.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2007/040107warwithiran.htm

A Pregnant Man?

Living in the city of Nagpur, India, Bhagat said he'd felt self-conscious his whole life about his big belly. But one night in June 1999, his problem erupted into something much larger than cosmetic worry.

An ambulance rushed the 36-year-old farmer to the hospital. Doctors thought he might have a giant tumor, so they decided to operate and remove the source of the bulge in his belly. "Basically, the tumor was so big that it was pressing on his diaphragm and that's why he was very breathless," said Dr. Ajay Mehta of Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. "Because of the sheer size of the tumor, it makes it difficult [to operate]. We anticipated a lot of problems." Mehta said that he can usually spot a tumor just after he begins an operation. But while operating on Bhagat, Mehta saw something he had never encountered. As he cut deeper into Bhagat's stomach, gallons of fluid spilled out — and then something extraordinary happened. "To my surprise and horror, I could shake hands with somebody inside," he said. "It was a bit shocking for me."

UFO At O'Hare? Officials Say Weird Weather

(CBS/AP) Federal officials say it was probably just some weird weather phenomenon, but a group of United Airlines employees swear they saw a mysterious, saucer-shaped craft hovering over O'Hare Airport last fall.

The workers, some of them pilots, said the object did not have lights and hovered over an airport terminal before shooting up through the clouds, according to a report in Monday's Chicago Tribune.

The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged that a United supervisor had called the control tower at O'Hare, asking if anyone had spotted a spinning disc-shaped object. But the controllers did not see anything, and a preliminary check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/02/tech/main2323918.shtml

http://www.worldvieww.blogspot.com/

WTF? America in Allah we trust?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Keith Ellison made history Thursday, becoming the first Muslim member of Congress and punctuating the occasion by taking a ceremonial oath with a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

"Look at that. That's something else," Ellison, D-Minn., said as officials from the Library of Congress showed him the two-volume Quran, which was published in London in 1764.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/04/D8MEPKIG0.html

Earthquake Rocks Knoxville

Knoxville (WVLT) - Many of you may have felt the ground below you move Wednesday night. Around 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, what's being called now a micro-quake rumbled under East Tennessee.

if (self['plpm'] && plpm['Mid-Story Ad']) document.write('');if (self['plpm'] && plpm['Mid-Story Ad']){ document.write(plpm['Mid-Story Ad']);} else { if(self['plurp'] && plurp['97']){} else {document.write(''); } }if (self['plpm'] && plpm['Mid-Story Ad']) document.write(''); We spoke with a geologist from the United States Geological Survey who says the center of the quake is believed to be 6 miles north of Rockford and just 4 miles south, southwest of Knoxville. We've also had reports of its movement being felt across west Knoxville, Grainger County and folks in Blount County as well.

We're also finding out the quake is bigger than first thought.

"It has been reviewed by a seismologist as they got more information, both the location and the magnitude predicted it as a 2.2, more information became available and showed it as a 2.6," said Rafael Abreu from the USGS said.

http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/5077856.html

Human Tests For Bird Flu Vaccine Begin

(WebMD) Government scientists say that an experimental vaccine technology could give them a jump on the constantly mutating bird flu virus.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers are in the opening stages of testing on humans a new vaccine against H5N1, the pathogen behind the bird flu outbreak that has sickened at least 261 people since 2003.

The vaccine will also offer a first pass at using experimental DNA technology to make vaccines against flu. Instead of using weakened or killed viruses to prompt immunity in patients, the new vaccine uses chunks of the genetic material of the flu virus to get the body to react and hopefully form a defense against infection. The vaccine does not contain any infectious material and cannot cause infection.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/04/health/webmd/main2329703.shtml

January 03, 2007

Saddam Video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7532034279766935521

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-739562120525047237

BAGHDAD, Jan. 3 -- A security guard who used a cellphone camera to record the chaotic scene of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's execution was arrested Wednesday, according to an adviser of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The prime minister's political adviser, Sadiq al-Rikabi, did not identify the guard or say where he was being held. Iraqi authorities are questioning the man to see whether he acted independently or was working with others to intentionally undermine the government's desire to publicly reveal just a brief portion of the execution proceedings, said Rikabi.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/03/AR2007010300358.html

More Teachers Needed at the UW...

Recently Cameo Patch "got off" with giving a 17 year old a little oral attention after class. Nothing like a little extra homework....

So the UW went on the search for a few teachers that fit the critera of "teaching/instructing"....Here are a few of the names...Amy McElhenney, 25: Angela Comer, 26:Angela Stellwag, 24: Cameo Patch, 29: Carrie McCandless, 29: Deanna Bobo, 37: Pamela Rogers Turner, 27: Sandra "Beth" Geisel, 42: and the number one favorite on the UW's list is....Debra LaFave, 25: but I'd take them all.

Please click the link at the bottom if you need any after school work...