The Godzilla Tsunami Video

Ken AshfordDisasters, YoutubeLeave a Comment

This is terrifying. The video starts calmly enough.  Some water moving down the street.  Then, within minutes, it is tearing up cars and houses.  This guy was dangerously close, but safe. If you want to see what it looked like before the video, check out Google Maps.  Then watch this:  

More Japan Earthquake Facepalm

Ken AshfordDisasters, Local InterestLeave a Comment

Reportedly, this weekend at a Watauga County Republican Party convention, our own Senator Virginia Foxx had this to say about the Japan earthquake and tsunami: It is a sign that God is still in charge. Yeah.  Right. It has nothing to do with fault lines and shifting tectonic plates. It was God.  He looked down at us and thought to Himself, … Read More

Really, HuffPo? Really?!?

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

Of the MANY things to write about relating to what's going on in Japan (e.g., the earthquake, the tsunami, the horrific loss of life, the possible nuclear meltdown, the effects on wordwide finance and industry, the meaning for the future of the nuclear industry, etc.), I can think of nothing more irrelevant and wasteful than to report on 50 Cent's … Read More

Fake Earthquake

Ken AshfordDisasters, Social Media & NetworkingLeave a Comment

If your Facebook or Twitter feed starts going off with buzz about a massive California earthquake in the next few hours, don't worry.  It's only a test.  A drill is planned by natural disaster experts at San Diego State University to test how social media would be used to respond to a crisis. Unless, of course, there is an actual earthquake … Read More

Here We Go Again? — Breaking News: Another Oil Rig Explosion

Ken AshfordBreaking News, Disasters, Energy and Conservation, Environment & Global Warming & EnergyLeave a Comment

Lovely: An oil rig has exploded 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana, with 12 people overboard and one missing, the Coast Guard said Thursday morning. UPDATE:  The rig is owned by Mariner Energy.  And leased to….???  Well, we don't know yet. UPDATE #2:  It bears mentioning that this is NOT a deep-sea oil well, unlike BP's Deepwater Horizon, and reports are … Read More

Earl Update

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

As of 11AM EDT Hurricane Earl is still tracking toward the outer banks/DC area as a category 3 and is still projected to turn in time to spare the region the full brunt. The NHC image shows why this is really a close call: presently, Earl is headed right at the middle of the east coast and some intensification is still possible. But it … Read More

Where Did The Spilled Gulf Oil Go?

Ken AshfordDisasters, Energy and Conservation, Environment & Global Warming & Energy3 Comments

Now that the well is capped, there seems to be relatively little effect on the environment — at least as not as much as anticipated. I'm not complaining, of course…. but one wonders why the environmental effects aren't devastating. The answer, possibly, is this: A newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe suddenly is flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico and  gobbling up … Read More

Oil Spill Gushes Faster and Claims Two More Lives

Ken AshfordDisasters, Energy and Conservation, Environment & Global Warming & EnergyLeave a Comment

The BP oil spill has upped the ante.  This is breaking news…. Oil gushing at spill site after vent damaged Cap removed after sub hits vent; 2 cleanup workers die in separate events BREAKING NEWS NBC News and news services updated 12:53 p.m. ET, Wed., June 23, 2010 WASHINGTON – Oil was again gushing from the BP spill site on … Read More

Obama Has Sharks With Lasers, Too

Ken AshfordDisasters, Energy and Conservation, Environment & Global Warming & Energy, Right Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

I miss Kaye Grogan.  She was a columnist for Renew America, a right-wing Christian/political website started by many-times presidential candidate Alan Keyes.  Kaye was crazy, and her columns had the added pleasure of being written in the worst English-torturing manner.  I mean, worse than my writing even. Kaye's columns quietly disappeared from the Intertubes a year or so ago, and there's … Read More

Drilling Ban Lifted By Dead British Googly Eyed Comedian

Ken AshfordBreaking News, Disasters, Energy and Conservation, Environment & Global Warming & EnergyLeave a Comment

Bloomberg: A New Orleans federal judge lifted the six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling imposed by President Barack Obama following the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Obama temporarily halted all drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet on May 27 to give a presidential commission time to study improvements in the safety of offshore operations. Government lawyers told U.S. District … Read More