the cyclone

I am just scrolling through some news from Bangladesh...

... already the floods that have at least twice hit Bangladesh during the summer destroyed most of the crops, the prices went up and food was scarce...

... now the cyclone came...

... the news said that it is expected up to 10 000 dead, many of those that survived have no access to food and water...

Such natural disasters that hit Bangladesh annualy is something I simply cant imagine, already visiting Bangladesh month ago felt like a bad dream... the worst is that for me leaving the country feels like weaking up... for the millions of people who live in Bangladesh it continues to be everyday life...

Bangladesh storm

I was following the news about the cyclone/storm in Bangladesh. It has hit the coastal parts on the South of Bangladesh, including Cox's Bazar, a city that I have visited few weeks ago. The storm then continued up north and hit Dhaka. The news read "The storm was weakening early Friday as it passed through the capital, Dhaka." (BBC) I cannot imagine what "weakening" could mean after receiving sms from Bangladesh - my friends that live in Dhaka described that the storm felt like the end of the world, that there is no electricity in the city and although their house have survived, other houses were not as lucky.
More is here.

Krakatoa...

... where tsunami did not kill, the volcanic ash did the rest...

Capt. Johan Lindeman piloted the ship Governor General Loudon through the Sunda Strait as Krakatoa erupted in 1883. The ship, operated by the Netherlands Indies Steamship Company as a mail steamer and excursion vessel, was based at Batavia.

This account from the captain begins after the ship docked at Anjer at 2 p.m. on Aug. 26, headed for Telok Betong. A few quotes in the summary of events have been taken from accounts written by a member of the ship’s crew and a passenger.

The diary, Sunday, Aug. 26, 1883

• The Loudon takes passengers on board at Anjer. The ship leaves at 2:45 p.m. At the same time, Krakatoa is "casting forth enormous columns of smoke."
• At 6 p.m., the ship endures heavy falls of ash and pumice, and the wind starts to pick up.
• At 7 p.m., the ship struggles up the coast past Krakatoa, making its way toward Telok Betong. The Loudon approaches the bay and anchors up.
• Later that night, lightning strikes the main mast conductor six or seven times, and "the mud rain, which covered the masts, rigging and decks, was phosphorescent and on the rigging presented the appearance of St. Elmo's fire."
• The native crew tries to put out the flames with their bare hands, pleading with the Europeans, convinced it was the work of evil spirits, and a harbinger of the ship being wrecked.
• Lindeman orders fire hoses set up and ready on deck, "since there was every chance that the ship might catch fire. It is most amazing that this did not happen."
• At midnight, Lindeman sends several signals to shore requesting a sloop to land the passengers bound for Telok Betong. When no sloop comes, Lindeman sends the first mate in a small boat to find out what's happening.
• The first mate returns an hour later saying it's impossible to land because of the heavy current and surf, and that the pier head is standing partly underwater. A boat that had tried to put off from shore has already been wrecked — the sloop the Loudon was expecting.
• The captain hears other ships' bells ringing and is concerned about a collision, so he sails blind to get away from the bells.

The further notes from the diary are to be read here.

Anak Krakatoa, the Son of Krakatoa, a volcano that is growing 5m a year, grows on the spot where the original Krakatoa was and disappeared after its huge erruption in 1883.

The wave that was generated after the erruption was the biggest tsunami ever recorded, the waves came up to Europe. The volcanic dust that got into the atmosphere supposedly caused the temperature to drop on the Earth for the several upcoming decades (maybe that is the reason for the global warming - the dust has finally left the atmosphere and the temperature on the planet came to its usual level ;o).

The scary part is that the volcano is errupting again... many of the locals in West Java do not even know what Krakatoa is... 2000 people died in 1883, now in the surroundings of Krakatoa live millions of people.

The Radar again

The democratically elected government that should represent the voice of people is so democratic and so interested in opinions of us, Czechs, that as soon as there is some important issue to be discussed, their response is that the population is too stupid to give the right opinion. So as usual if only a bit possible there will be no referendum, and it is very likely thus there will be no referendum on US radar in our country which should protect USA from Iranian missiles.

Research says that more than half of the population is against the radar. All the villages in the area where the radar is to be placed, had "local" referendums and usually 90-100% of people voted against the radar. Some of the locals (mayors) did research on radars of this kind that are placed abroad and what they found is not what we are told by the politicians here who claim there are no health risks...

If I restrain from the obvious thing - I do not want US radar in my country to protect US from their stupidity abroad - a new interesting opinion was published today. And mind you, the media here are not objective so I am quite impressed the article was published.

Some while ago there was a study done by army hygienists the output of which was that the radar in Brdy (the area of Czech where radar is to be placed) is of no health risk to lives of people living in the proximity of the radar.

Two scientists from the Institute of radioelectronics have impeached the study saying the study is of low quality and superficial and cannot be taken for a credible one. It has been placed on insufficient and many times incorrect data, as well as it gives no real important data outputs.

Once accused the head hygienist have not commented on his "study". The ministry of defence came with the opinion that the study was never claimed to be a real study in the first place.

It is interesting that once a study (of the hygienists) comes with opinion that suits your need (needs of Czech government to have the radar in Czech), you let the study to be the main source of information and thus deceive thousands of people that have or search for no other source of information.

fighting in prague

The right-wing extremists are to march the city of Prague... they picked The Crystal night, the 10th November ... they picked to march in Josefov in Prague - the Jewish quarter, the only Jewish ghetto that was not destroyed during the WWII...

Jewish liberals, anti-neonazis, politicians, other people are to block the paths to Jewish quarter...

... there is gonna be quite a fight tomorrow.

The Thames barrier

Just recently I have heard of the Thames barrier, it is ironic that few days later a storm supposedly the worst in 50 years hit the North sea and the barriers are raised...

some types of cancer to be cured

Antonin Holy may have found a cure for several types of cancer, from what I have understood it should be leukaemia and cancer of nodules.. there are 6-7 years of study to be done before the success is confirmed...