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19 May 2011 17:35

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Politics: “A failure of basic coal mine safety procedures” at Upper Big Branch

  • I don’t know how you could have assembled a worse record than the record they have assembled in the last few years. It does not appear the culture has changed at Massey. That is most unfortunate.
  • Davitt McAteer, chair of the West Virginia Governor’s Independent Investigation Panel • Speaking on his examination and report about the deadly explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine, under the ownership of Massey Energy.  The full report, available here, is pretty damning — the subtitle of the report is, simply, “a failure of basic coal mine safety practices.” Said Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia: “This report tragically reinforces that the disaster that took the lives of 29 men at Upper Big Branch last year was absolutely preventable. That will always be one of the most painful facts about this explosion.” source

28 Apr 2011 16:11

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U.S.: More scary, awe-inspiring amateur video from the storms

  • A frightful video: The internet has been deluged with amateur footage of violent tornadoes in recent days. This one’s became pretty popular through Twitter, and has been making the rounds elsewhere since. It was posted by Clay Hasenfuss, who shot this video out the third story window of his apartment. Wow. Please stay safe, everyone. source

26 Apr 2011 14:03

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World: Health effects of Chernobyl disaster still hard to quantify

  • Chernobyl at 25: Today marks 25 years since Chernobyl blew up, plagued as it was by a mixture of poor decision-making by its chief operator, Anatoly Diatlov, as well as a critically flawed reactor design. All these years later, officials and experts still debate the health effects resulting from the crisis; the UN concluded about 6,000 youths would/have suffered thyroid cancer as a result, while other scientists and organizations insist the magnitude of the problem is much greater, in the tens of thousands. Now, the containment sarcophagus around Chernobyl is decaying, to boot, so the building of “the shelter,” an enormous arch that would cover the entire plant, becomes more important than ever for the surrounding areas. source

28 Feb 2011 15:32

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World: Christchurch, New Zealand begins burying their dead


  • The sorrow in Christchurch: We won’t add anything to this, except to offer the deepest sympathies possible. source

10 Oct 2010 20:08

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World: Apparently not enough crap: Hungary expects more sludge

  • 8,000 people have been evacuated from Kolontar, Hungary in the wake of a massive toxic sludge leak
  • 500,000 more gallons of sludge could be on the way if a wall breaks; what’s the Hungarian word for “f**k”? source

03 Oct 2010 02:07

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Biz: Remember the stock market “Flash Crash”? Here’s how it happened

  • 1 click of a mouse in Kansas caused the stock market to dip 600 points

 

 

  • $4.1B the amount in futures the mutual fund was trying to sell that fateful day
  • 75k the number of contracts the company dropped onto the market
  • 20 the number of minutes it took for them to flood everything source

29 Aug 2010 11:27

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Tech: YouTube marks Hurricane Katrina’s fifth anniversary perfectly

  • Today is the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall. Many sites have been covering this anniversary of the tragedy in their own ways, but our favorite thus far is YouTube’s treatment of the disaster. This is the first major event that happened on their watch, and the videos here reflect a tragedy that is very much of this generation. It even created a poorly-timed meme. Great job putting this together, guys. source
 

22 Aug 2010 10:21

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World: Pakistan getting the flood help it needs, at least financially

  • $800 million in aid from the rest of the world so far source

14 Aug 2010 13:01

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World: UN: Aid for Pakistan flooding victims slow to come for many

  • 6 million are trying to row without a paddle, if you get our drift source

06 Aug 2010 11:41

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World: In case the last number wasn’t depressing, this should top it

  • 12 million the number of people reportedly affected by the huge monsoon-bred storms in Pakistan
  • 650,000 the number of homes destroyed in what may be the biggest disaster in Pakistan’s history source