Disaster Porn

Not sure whether this qualifies as actually useful in any regard, or if it’s just Apocalypse Pandering; regardless, though, buying a year’s worth of food up front for a flat fee is an intriguing proposition. The question remains, though — is it tasty enough to warrant eating it outside of a disaster survival scenario? http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/lRM6Be7pg4s/costco-will-sell-you-an-apocalyptic-years-worth-of-disgusting-food-for-800

CNN iReporter Nancy Holst of Lombard said her husband, who is a firefighter, responded to several calls overnight where he was working in waist-deep floodwaters. She said he took one look at her once-blooming garden now sitting under 6 inches of water and said, “That’s nothing.” Speaking of flooding and burdened states, how exactly does […]

Looks like Mother Nature is doing her damnedest to drive us into more state bankruptcies; either that, or just to get us rebellious kids off her front lawn. Of course, I don’t suppose our chronic lack of infrastructure funding has anything to do with this failure… The roads on either side of the dam — […]

Crisis in Kyrgyzstan – The Big Picture – Boston.com Posted using ShareThis

The 2009 season ended November 30 had only nine storms, including three hurricanes, and was the quietest since 1997 due in part to El Nino, the eastern Pacific warm water phenomenon that tends to suppress Atlantic hurricanes. But Phil Klotzbach, lead forecaster with the Colorado State team — whose research is followed closely by energy and commodity […]

Wonkette grabs a hold of the Indonesia earthquake and comes to the correct conclusion that we are all doomed; also manages to squeeze in an interesting mention of how the a lot of the Mid-Atlantic region is under wildfire fire alert due to the unusually warm spring. Then there’s California (which is perpetually under alert), […]

Israel’s gearing up for something. While stressing that there was no “imminent threat,” Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai in the same breath said: “We have equipped ourselves with millions of protection kits against biological or chemical warfare, and a massive distribution programme for the population started today,” […] “Every family in Israel can receive these […]

Seems like a morning for populist anger, at least in Asia. Within half an hour of each other, Kyrgyzstan and Thailand had both declared themselves in States of Emergency due to anti-government protests. According to CNN, the Thai protestors want their democratically elected leader back in office (it’s nice to have dreams), while the Kyrgyz […]

Around 100 people have died in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro after the most torrential rain for decades caused landslides and flooding. A state of emergency has been declared and officials have warned the death toll may rise as many more are missing. At least 33 people died in Rio de Janeiro city […]

A fascinating article on the psychological effects of being close to the epicenter of a disaster zone. From the article: The “Psychological Typhoon Eye” describes an inverse relationship between the proximity of the victim to natural disaster devastation and their perceived health or safety risks. Essentially, if a person lives close to the center of the […]