Last update: June 23, 2013 at 9:55 pm by By Ashish Khanal
Update 21:51 UTC : Because of the nightly hours it will take several hours before we will know the results of the local assessment teams
We are calling this earthquake moderately dangerous because of houses build without earthquake resistance. Earthquakes are very unusual in this area and also because of soft soil (farmland)
346 km SE of Kiev, Ukraine / pop: 2,514,227 / local time: 00:16:34.0 2013-06-24
107 km SE of Kirovohrad, Ukraine / pop: 249,454 / local time: 00:16:34.0 2013-06-24
18 km NE of Kryvyy Rih, Ukraine / pop: 652,380 / local time: 00:16:34.0 2013-06-24
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 4.5
Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2013-06-24 00:16:34
Last update: June 23, 2013 at 9:54 pm by By Ashish Khanal
Update 21:29 UTC : The National Emergency Commission reported that emergency committees across the country have been reporting so far (ER : to early for a serious estimate) falling objects in homes and offices, but no injured people.
Cellular network was down a couple of minutes after the earthquake (this happens over and over gain – authorities should enforce only the use of Text after powerful earthquakes).
Electricity was down several minutes in the Alajuela area.
Update 21:03 UTC : After looking into the diverse data so far and taking into account the historic earthquakes in the area, the location of the epicenter in a wilderness area and the MMI values we are receiving in the back office, we expect none to very minor damage or injuries. The biggest damage potential will come from landslides who almost certainly have been triggered.
Update 21:01 UTC : Oviscori Costa Rica is locating the epicenter closer to the coast. This implicates a greater distance from Nicoya which is good news if confirmed, but at the same time closer to Nosara. Nosara I Have Felt It reports are mentioning the strongest shaking values, most of them MMI VI = strong shaking
Update 20:59 UTC : Seismograph in Horizontes Guanacaste
Update 20:55 UTC : The epicenter itself (all 3 agencies) is very sparsely populated. If the Costa Rican parameters are confirmed, we would not exclude damage in the Nicoya area.
Update 20:48 UTC : The direct epicenter area should be wilderness area, but Nicoya is very near (10 km). Nicoya is a city with a population of 13334 (last census)
Nicoya surroundings – Image courtesy Arturo Rodriguez G
Update 20:45 UTC : Very hard to estimate the chance on damage. The 3 agencies we are reporting are having the same Magnitude but epicenters are seriously different and depths are even more different (18 to 53 km !). OVISCORI Costa Rica maintains his M5.8 at 11 km.
When you are one of the people who experienced this earthquake, please fill in the form behind “I Felt A (not Listed) Earthquake”. Thank you.
Update 20:38 UTC : The reported earthquake parameters from the international agencies are a lot better than those from Costa Rica itself. M5.2 at a depth of 40 km may generate minor damage here and there but a M5.8 at 11 km has a lot more damaging power.
Update 20:33 UTC : The same area was hit on September 5 2012 with a powerful M7.6 earthquake at a depth of 40 km. This earthquake was damaging but luckily nobody was killed. Read our in-depth report about this earthquake here.
Update 20:29 UTC : Costa Rica has a high resistance against earthquakes and even massive quakes are often without fatalities.
Update 20:21 UTC : Earthquake Report calls this earthquake as very dangerous due to the shallow depth and the high risk of landslides.
Oviscori Costa Rica reports a powerful earthquake with a preliminary Magnitude of 5.8 at a very shallow depth of 11 km. 2 km al Noroeste de ZARAGOZA (SANTA ROSA) de Nicoya de Guanacaste
10km (6mi) WSW of Nicoya, Costa Rica
18km (11mi) SSE of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica
60km (37mi) S of Liberia, Costa Rica
60km (37mi) SW of Canas, Costa Rica
160km (99mi) W of San Jose, Costa Rica
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.1
Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2013-06-23 14:00:41
What to do today? This is the question you will be asking yourself even though you know what it is that you HAVE to do today. Putting the two together can bring a change of perspective. This can be good. This can be bad. You need to know where it is that you stand in the midst of all of this. You have been aware of the fact that your priorities and concerns have been changing. But with change there can come fear and an attempt to step back from it all and to fall back into all the old stuff. That is in the day’s energy. It is a challenging energy, even more so because it is so subtle, so insidious. You will need to take some time to remove yourself from all there is going on around you and move to within your core and see what it is that makes you feel fulfilled, what it is that gives you a sense of purpose, a feeling of being. You will have the chance today even as things seem to swirl around you almost out of control. You can do it. You know it, and that is the message that you will get, the message that will be undeniable if only you will pay attention. And I think you will. There is so much that can become clearer, even brighter, even lighter. So, let the day unfold and stay centered and grounded. The evening can bring a fine sense of having worked something out.
Brazilians hold a demonstration with a banner that reads, “Villainous politician. Lower your salary,” in Sao Paulo on June 22, 2013. (Reuters)
Alper, a 26-year-old Turkish corporate lawyer, has benefited enormously from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule. He is one of millions of young Turks who rode the country’s economic boom to a lifestyle his grandparents could scarcely imagine.
Yet he loathes Erdogan, participated in the Taksim Square demonstrations and is taking part in the new ” standing man” protests in Istanbul.
“The prime minister is continuing to blatantly lie about the demonstrations,” said Alper, who asked that his last name not be used because he feared arrest. “People are actually scared that if they stop this momentum, then the government will feel free to exercise more force.”
From Turkey to Brazil to Iran the global middle class is awakening politically. The size, focus and scope of protests vary, but this is not unfolding chaos — it is nascent democracy. Citizens are demanding basic political rights, accountable governments and a fairer share of resources.
The movements may lose their way. The demonstrations will have a limited long-term impact if they fail to become organized political movements. And the violence and criminality that erupted during some protests in Brazil have prompted a popular backlash.
Overall, though, Americans jaded about world affairs should see the activism as positive. The protesters are performing the same role as middle classes have in developed nations. As their standard of living rises, so do their expectations of government.
The political dynamic in each country is different, of course. In Turkey, the protests are not the equivalent of the Arab Spring demonstrations that toppled governments across the Middle East. Nor are they simply a pitched battle between religious conservatives and secular liberals. Instead, they are deeply Turkish — and hugely important.
After decades of the Turkish state reigning supreme, young Turks are demanding pluralism and basic individual rights. The Turkish state should be accountable to the people, they argue, instead of the people being accountable to the state.
“Basic freedoms such as the right to peaceful assembly are undermined by police and government,” Alper said in an email. “There have been no significant repercussions for police officers and their superiors.”
For years, Soli Ozel, a professor of International Relations and Political Science at Istanbul Bilgi University, scoffed at Westerners who viewed Turkey as a model for the Middle East. The new protests, however, make him feel the label may apply.
“After this unprecedented mobilization,” he said in a telephone interview, “we now have a very vibrant and very much alive civil society.”
Brazil presents a different dynamic.The ruling Workers’ Party is left-leaning and its economic reforms have helped the poor and middle class. But now a souring economy, corruption scandals and $12 billion in government spending on 2014 World Cup stadiums has sparked one million people to take to the streets.
Marcelo Ridenti, a leading Brazilian sociologist, said reduced inequality and increased education have raised expectations. The number of university students in Brazil, for example, doubled from 2000 to 2011.
“This generates huge changes in society, including changes in expectations among young people,” he told the New York Times . “They expect to get not only jobs, but good jobs.”
Recent events in Iran are more difficult to discern. While Brazil and Turkey’s political systems are relatively open, Iran’s is tightly controlled. Until last weekend’s presidential election, hard-line religious leaders seemed to have tightened their grip on power after crushing the country’s 2009 Green Revolution.
In a surprise result, cleric Hassan Rohani won a sweeping victory in presidential elections last weekend. Pro-reform and urban Iranians frustrated with the country’s weak economy, isolation and conservative monopoly on power apparently handed Rohani the presidency. Rohani may prove to be more conservative than expected, but his victory prompted thousands of Iranians to take to the streets.
“I am hopeful about the future,” Hoda, a 26-year-old who asked that her last name not be used, told Reuters. “Hopeful that we will have more social freedoms, more stability in Iran, better relations with other countries and hopefully a much better economy.”
Comparing political movements in different countries carries risks. Societies vary enormously. But observers see parallels between Brazil’s protests, India’s anti-corruption movement , austerity protests in Europe, the U.S. Occupy Movement and similar demonstrations in Israel.
My focus on Turkey, Brazil and Iran is driven by recent events and optimism. Positive dynamics are at work in all three nations.
First, the explosive spread of social media played a role in the movements. Networks of like-minded people were able to immediately communicate with one another — and potential recruits. Some online information has been false or restricted, but technological change has unquestionably sped up the pace of political organizing.
Second, all three movements are demanding basic individual rights and accountable government. They want non-corrupt leaders who respect their right to protest, gather and speak freely. From minority rights in Turkey, to fair elections in Iran, to better policing, healthcare and transit in Brazil, protesters want improved governance.
There will be setbacks, excesses and confusion in the weeks ahead. But the burgeoning middle class activism in Turkey, Iran and Brazil should be hailed. Like their brethren in developed countries, they are a check on government excess — and create stronger, more vibrant societies.
The current Mars expedition keeps coming up with interesting artifacts that seem out of place. Today, I would like to present a CD shaped object that appears to be shiny. I would say that this does not fit in with the surrounding landscape. It reminds me of a crustacean fossil that you would find on earth. Will NASA provide us with with an explanation, or will they just remain silent?
Wayne Hall, a Greece chemtrail activist, takes a look at how the US steers the discussion of climate change and geoengineering in this 15-minute video:
The surest way not to understand what is happening with geoengineering is to become involved in the contrails versus chemtrails debate. Rather than debate whether chemtrails are contrails, one should point out the parallel with what happened with genetically modified food production: the corporations and their laboratories and their lobbyists decide to introduce a change, so at the same time they start a public relations campaign to deny that any change has occurred.
In the case of genetic modification the key word was “substantial equivalence”. Genetically modified foods are not the same as non-genetically modified foods, chemically, nutritionally or in any other way. Sometimes they look the same. “Substantial equivalence” means that they have to be treated as if they are the same. Soon laws are introduced to make it illegal to make any distinction between them or to say that they are not the same.
Something similar has happened with geoengineering: a decision was taken to change aircraft emissions and turn them from being an unwanted side-effect of flying jet aircraft into being a deliberate means for changing the temperature and the chemistry of the atmosphere. So naturally it was denied that any change had occurred.
Almost fifteen years after the implementation of a massive increase in the use of climate modification on a planetary scale, people are still conducting the chemtrails versus contrails debate. This is NOT what is happening with genetic modification. Ecologists are mostly not wasting their time arguing with corporation spokespersons over whether there is substantial equivalence between genetically modified and non-genetically modified food. The same should have happened with geoengineering, and if it hasn’t happened it should happen now.
Chemtrails do not serve a single purpose, of increasing albedo, cooling the planet, or whatever. They also serve the purpose of increasing the conductivity of the atmosphere to facilitate the operations of Alaskan ionospheric heater HAARP, and the similar smaller installations that exist in other countries.
HAARP was the subject of a report in the European Parliament in 1998, the work of the Swedish anti-nuclear campaigner Maj Britt Theorin. Mrs Theorin’s report is entitled “On the Environment, Security and Foreign Policy”. It describes HAARP as “weapons system which disrupts the climate” and concludes that “by virtue of its far-reaching impact on the environment it is a global concern. Its legal, ecological and ethical implications must be examined by an international independent body before any further research and testing.”
The European Commission said that it could not act on the report or try to implement it, because the European Commission does not have authority over defence questions, which are the responsibility of NATO.
There are two things to say about this: firstly this contradicts the United States’ representation of what HAARP is, because US government says that HAARP is an ionospheric research programme, not a weapons system. Secondly the European Commission’s acceptance of the status of not having responsibility for the defence of European citizens, and accepting that this should be entrusted to NATO, is intolerable.
A new organization called Skyguards includes Green activists from Sweden, Spain and Cyprus, among others, is continuing the work started by Mrs. Maj-Britt Theorin in 1998. Americans, as much as Europeans and the people of the rest of the planet, need this work to be continued, because they are not being defended by their own government. They are being attacked by their own government.
Wayne Hall is a Greek citizen, born in Australia, graduate of the University of Sydney, teacher and freelance translator. In the nineteen eighties he was a member of European Nuclear Disarmament, the non-aligned British-based anti-nuclear-weapons movement. His website in Greece is http://www.enouranois.gr
Some US farmers are considering returning to conventional seed after increased pest resistance and crop failures meant GM crops saw smaller yields globally than their non-GM counterparts.
Farmers in the USA pay about an extra $100 per acre for GM seed, and many are questioning whether they will continue to see benefits from using GMs.
“It’s all about cost benefit analysis,” said economist Dan Basse, president of American agricultural research company AgResource.
“Farmers are paying extra for the technology but have seen yields which are no better than 10 years ago. They’re starting to wonder why they’re spending extra money on the technology.”
One of the biggest problems the USA has seen with GM seed is resistance. While it was expected to be 40 years before resistance began to develop pests such as corn rootworm have formed a resistance to GM crops in as few as 14 years.
“Farmers are paying extra for the technology but have seen yields which are no better than 10 years ago.”
Dan Basse
“Some of these bugs will eat the plant and it will make them sick, but not kill them. It starts off in pockets of the country but then becomes more widespread.
“We’re looking at going back to cultivation to control it,” said Mr Basse. “I now use insecticides again.”
One of the issues if farmers do move back towards non-GMs will be the availability of seed, he said, as around 87% of US farmers plant genetically modified seed.
The top performing countries by crop yield last year were in Asia, in particular China, where farmers do not use GM seed.
Mother Teresa once said, “The greatest disease in the west is not TB or leprosy. It is being unwanted, uncared for, and unloved.” In America you don’t have to go far before you find someone who is in desperate need of love. Communities have been crushed by the addiction of drugs. Thousands of people sleep in the streets because they are without a home. Women and children cry themselves to sleep at night because they have been sexually exploited all day. The need for love becomes more and more apparent when seeing the absence of it.
What if it was possible to put more love in the world? Could we create real change to today’s social issues? Could we start a movement that would change the world? Could we, through love in motion, change the reality of so many living with out it? Project Live Love was born as an attempt to answer these questions with a Yes.
The Project
proj⋅ect [n. proj-ekt, -ikt] 1. something that is contemplated, devised, or planned; plan; scheme. 2. a large or major undertaking.
“Project Live Love is a non-profit organization designed to influence culture through love in action by engaging, networking and mobilizing people who are motivated by love.”
The Mission
THINK – Our desire is to remind people to think about Living Love by exposing the need for love and bringing awareness to our message.
SHARE – Our desire is to create environments and resources that allow people to network with each other and their community’s needs to collectively Live Love.
DO – Our desire is to mobilize individuals, corporations, social organizations, and churches by providing ideas, events, and opportunities to actively Live Love.
WHAT WE DO
The Initiative – THINK LOVE
The Live Love Initiative is designed to influence the hearts and minds of individuals with the idea of “Live Love” by infusing that message into culture. We use tools like t-shirts, stickers, billboards, social media, art shows, and more to inject the message into everyday life. We are marketing a message. The initiative focuses on working with all different areas of culture (Art, Music, Words, Education, Politics, Religion, Media & Fashion) to advance the message.
The Action – DO LOVE
The Action is designed to provide hands on opportunities for individuals to serve others. We partner with individuals, corporations, social organizations, churches, and schools that desire to put their love in motion. We provide opportunities for them to do so by creating programs and projects that are based on local community needs and collecting projects from various 501(c)3 organizations that work on today’s social issues. (i.e. homelessness, sex trafficking, drug and alcohol rehabilitation and more)
Each activity is highly organized and well executed. We have systems to manage the expectations of both the project creator and those living love. Projects are designed and organized according to the geography of volunteers, love languages, time commitment, skill levels and more.
from: http://projectlivelove.com/theproject/
Here is one of their winter projects:
THREE-OH-WE-GO!
In Atlanta alone, it is estimated that 20 plus homeless people die each year from sleeping in the freezing cold… This year, things are going to be different!
THE DETAILS
Every night from November 10th to March 30th we are on call. If the temperature is forecasted to go below freezing the GO-Alarm is sounded and volunteers are alerted. On GO-Nights our team of volunteers assemble together at 9:00pm at LOCATION TBA. From there we divide up locations and supplies then take to the streets with hand warmers, blankets, winter items, and LOVE. Our hope is to help those we encounter make it through the night warm and safe.
Click here to read the story of how THREE-OH-WE-GO began.
Moderate earthquake (aftershock) in Northern Italy close to Massa
Last update: June 23, 2013 at 4:25 pm by By Ashish Khanal
Update 16:25 UTC : Good news: The house with the collapsed roof as uninhabited, so nobody was injured.
Update 16:15 UTC : A roof in the village Villa Minozzo collapsed by the new quake, local newspapers report.
Update 15:59 UTC : According to testimonies, this quake was also felt in Milan, Florence and Geneva. If you also felt this quake, please let us now. (See form below)
Update 15:43 UTC : As seen on the INGV ShakeMap below, a moderate shaking is expected in the area close to the epicenter.
Update 15:35 UTC : Villages within a radius of 10 km from the epicenter : CASOLA IN LUNIGIANA (MS), IUNCUGNANO (LU), MINUCCIANO (LU), PIAZZA AL SERCHIO (LU) and VAGLI SOTTO (LU)
This atershock was the strongest aftershock hitting Tuscany (northern Italy) since the mainshock two days ago. It is possible that more damages were caused by this quake. Especially already damaged buildings are endangered to for new, heavier damage.
INGV gives Magnitude 4.4 and a depth of 9.5 km for this quake. The epicenter is 5 km southeast of the mainshock epicenter, directly the village Minucciano.
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 4.7
Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2013-06-23 17:01:36
