Chaitén: Volcano that Doesn’t Sleep

Chaitén volcano: Entering 8th months of activity

Acquired December 5, 2008                                                                   NASA Earth Observatory

Chile’s Chaitén Volcano erupted violently on May 2, 2008, after an estimated 9,000 years of dormancy. The volcano has since spewed ash across Patagonia, ejecting  pumice as far as the nearby gulf, and sending lahars into the town of Chaitén.

The town of Chaitén, located about 10 kilometers from the volcano, is seen covered with volcanic ash in this  satellite image captured by Formosat on December 5, 2008.  West of town, ash forms fan-shaped deposits in what used to be Chaitén’s harbor.  Río Blanco is clogged with ash and appears completely white in the image.

Formosat image © 2008 Dr. Cheng-Chien Liu, National Cheng-Kung University, and Dr. An-Ming Wu, National Space Organization, Taiwan. Caption by Michon Scott.
Instrument: FORMOSAT-2 – RSI
Date Acquired: December 5, 2008

British Columbia Forests Plagued by Beetle

Insect Damage in British Columbia Forests

Acquired June 26, 2006
NASA Earth Observatory

A population explosion of mountain pine beetles have plagued British Columbia’s forests since the 1990s. The beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae, has destroyed large tracts of forest throughout the province. Forests have economic value, and they provide habitat and food for wildlife. In addition, they play an important role in Earth’s carbon cycle, which affects climate. Healthy, growing forests take up carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. Dead forests produce carbon dioxide when trees decay. Some of the worst damage appears near 52 degrees north and 124 degrees west.

NASA map by Robert Simmon, based on data from Paul Montesano, Jon Ranson, and the MODIS land team.
Caption by Michon Scott and Rebecca Lindsey.
Instrument: Terra – MODIS
Dates Acquired: June 26, 2006 – July 11, 2006

California Out of Cash by February 2009

California will run out of cash in two months: State Controller

Please, will all the contractors, state employees and anyone else who have ripped off the state return their loot?

As a French investment manager who put $1.4bn into Madoff’s Ponzi scheme commits suicide in New York, California State Controller sounds the bankruptcy alarm bells in Sacramento.

New York

The body of Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, 65, a co-founder and chief executive officer of Access International Advisors, was found today. The company raised money mainly from wealthy European investors. Madoff was arrested on Dec. 11 for allegedly running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Image: Source. Image may be subject to copyright.

Sacramento

California State Controller John Chiang in a letter to the governor and Legislature said Monday: “There will be no shelter from the storm as the state’s cash position will remain negative throughout the remainder of the fiscal year.”

California is facing a $41 billion budget deficit.

“Cash-preserving options no doubt will have the unintended effect of deepening and prolonging the recession that has crippled our state’s economy,” Chiang warned. The state’s Pooled Money Investment Board has already pulled the plug on $3.8 billion in loans to finance about 2,000 infrastructure projects.

Chiang says he wants to make sure the state won’t have to default because that could further damage the state’s credit rating.

California may have to issue billions of dollars worth of IOUs to anyone owed money, however, even that may not be a viable long-term option, Chiang says.

“Given the current financial instability of the banking industry, it is highly unlikely that the banks, if they accept the IOUs at all, will be able to do so for any sustained period of time,” Chiang said.

Schwarzenegger with his wife Maria Shriver at the 2007 Special Olympics in Shanghai, China.

Schwarzenegger and his family currently live in their 11,000-square-foot (1 022 m²) home in Brentwood. The family owns vacation homes in Sun Valley, Idaho and Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Schwarzenegger does not have a home in Sacramento. However, whenever he is in the state capital, he lives in the Hyatt Regency hotel suite. The suite costs about $65,000 a year. Source

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• California controller says state’s running out of cash
• Where did all of Bernard Madoff’s money go?

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