A nice example of the blunt and direct language of President Trump

Enjoy!

"There is a massive Ecological Disaster unfolding in the Potomac River as a result of the Gross Mismanagement of Local Democrat Leaders, particularly, Governor Wes Moore, of Maryland. A sewer line breach in Maryland has caused millions of gallons of raw sewage to be dumped directly into the Potomac River, a result of incompetent Local and State Management of Essential Waste Management Systems. This is the same Governor who cannot rebuild a Bridge. It is clear Local Authorities cannot adequately handle this calamity. Therefore, I am directing Federal Authorities to immediately provide all necessary Management, Direction, and Coordination to protect the Potomac, the Water Supply in the Capital Region, and our treasured National Resources in our Nation’s Capital City. While State and Local Authorities have failed to request needed Emergency Help, I cannot allow incompetent Local “Leadership” to turn the River in the Heart of Washington into a Disaster Zone. As we saw in the Palisades, the Democrat War on Merit has real consequences. The Federal Government has no choice, but to step in. FEMA, which is currently being defunded by the Democrats, will play a key role in coordinating the response. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP"

Truth Details | Truth Social

Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D) (Source). Is this a DEI governor? But he is an Afghanistan War veteran.

Submarine Cable Deep-Ocean Observation of earthquakes

Good news! Amazing stuff!

"Researchers from Nokia Bell Labs [and Seismics Unusual] have figured out how to use seafloor telecom cables as earthquake detectors, using the existing fiber-optic network to record real seismic events. While the system isn’t yet used for routine monitoring or early warning, the proof-of-concept shows that today’s global cable network could double as a dense, low-cost sensor array for offshore earthquakes and tsunamis." 

From the abstract:

"The global telecom network's ~1.5 million km of submarine fiber offers a vast opportunity to instrument currently unmonitored ocean regions.

These submarine cables are particularly valuable for addressing the scarcity of deep ocean geophysical data.

While Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) is a powerful technology, its large-scale use on active telecom fibers faces two critical challenges.
First, most DAS systems require dark (unused) fibers, which are scarce and costly. More critically, standard DAS cannot sense past the optical repeaters spaced every 50-80 km along trans-oceanic cables, limiting observations to the first near-shore segment.

Overcoming these barriers is essential for unlocking basin-scale sensing.

Here we present recent advancements in distributed fiber sensing across the entire length of active submarine telecommunication cables.

We demonstrate a DAS system based on optical frequency domain reflectometry achieving 50m spatial resolution >1000km offshore in water depths exceeding 1000m. This enables high resolution detection and analysis of teleseismic body waves and environmental signals in the deep ocean. This proposed sensing system is fully compatible with existing telecom traffic, allowing for large-scale deployment without the need for dark fibers.

Given the scarcity of prior DAS measurements in this environment, we compare our results to standard DAS measurements on shore-spans and simultaneously acquired per-span interferometry data from the same cable. While per-span data is more established, its resolution is fixed by repeater spacing, typically 50-100km in telecom cables.

Our findings demonstrate a viable pathway to transform trans-oceanic telecommunication cables into basin-scale seismic and oceanographic observatories, opening a new frontier for Earth monitoring."

From the preprint abstract (one of the shortest abstracts I have seen in a while and the paper has only 4 pages):

"We detect the recent M8.8 mega-earthquake in Eastern Russia, on a 4400km long active telecom cable in the Pacific Ocean. The resolution achieved 100m represents the highest spatial resolution, the largest number of ocean-bottom sensors, and the first fiber-optic deep-ocean observation of a tsunami wave."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran

Seafloor Telecom Cable Turned Into Giant Earthquake Detector

Seafloor telecom cable transformed into giant earthquake detector

S13A-02 Overcoming the Repeater-Induced Reach Limitation: High-Resolution Continuous DAS on Active Trans-Oceanic Cables (Invited) (no public access)

Submarine Cable Deep-Ocean Observation of Mega-Thrust Earthquake and Tsunami with 44,000 100-m Spaced Sensors (preprint, open access)

Removing dead trees will not save us from fast-moving wildfires. Really!

A very long opinion article totally obsessed with logging dead trees published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)! An example of junk science?

Well active forest management to prevent disastrous wildfires is much more than just removing dead trees!

Removing dead trees will not save us from fast-moving wildfires | PNAS

Kerr County asked Texas to help pay for a flood warning system for 8 years.

The blaming game has started! The mystique of Camp Mystic will be lost for a long time!

Faith may move mountains, but it did not prevent this deadly flash flood! 

How often was the camp flooded during this time of the year in the past 20-30 years or so?

Why did the adult victims and survivors think it was a good idea to camp at this time in this for many years well known flood prone area? What precautions did they take?

Caveat: I don't claim to be familiar with the details of this very deadly natural disaster.

"Nearly a decade before catastrophic flash flooding killed at least 75 people in Kerr County, including 27 children, several local officials were hard at work convincing their peers to buy into a new early flood warning system. 

The once “state of the art” program installed along the Guadalupe River back in the 1980s was in desperate need of an upgrade, they argued. ..."

"... Some areas of Camp Mystic [built in 1926] also fall within a 100-year floodplain, another high-risk zone that has a 1% chance of flooding in any given year. Other parts lie within a 500-year floodplain, which has a 0.2% annual chance of flooding. ..."

Inside Kerr County’s quest for a flood warning system on the Guadalupe

Camp Mystic was built partly in ‘extremely hazardous’ flood zone

How often has the Guadalupe River in Texas flooded before? Apparently, it was well known to be a dangerous, frequent flood prone area for many years

Who was sleeping at the switch? I suspect this tragedy could have been avoided!

Let me also guess, these annual floodings occur predominantly during certain periods of the year when camping by this river should be avoided! It appears the article below forgot/omitted to dig into the question of seasonality.

"Kerr County Judge Robert Kelly on Friday called the Guadalupe “the most dangerous river valley in the United States,” as rescuers scoured low-lying areas for victims. 

More than 20 counties make up the Guadalupe River Basin – nine of them lie entirely or predominantly within the basin boundaries. We looked at flood events recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that occurred within those nine counties to get a sense of how often floods impact the area. ...

Some years have more floods than others, but not a year has gone by since 1996 – as far back as the database goes for flood events – without serious flooding in the Guadalupe River Basin.

"Texas, far and away, is one of the most flood-prone states," ..."

How has the Guadalupe River flooded before? Search our database.

Why is California Burning? PragerU (from 2020)

Recommendable! Recent wildfires in CA are nothing new and still due to bad policies!

RoBoa slithers to discover victims of disasters in difficult to access, confined spaces

Good news!

From Switzerland, the snake that saves lives! 

Maybe in the near future, this snake will offer Swiss chocolate to survivors! Just kidding!

RoBoa slithers through disaster zones too dangerous for other robots "When disaster strikes, drones and robots can be sent into danger zones to scout for survivors. The RoBoa from a student team at ETH Zurich is designed to snake its way through debris that would stop other solutions in their tracks."

The snake that saves lives (original news release) "An ETH Zurich team of engineers has developed RoBoa – a snake-like robot with the ability to grow in length and slither into the most inaccessible places."

Going where nobody goes! "The robotic revolution to save disaster victims and inspect confined spaces! RoBoa goes where no other robots, drones, or humans can go!"

Panzerpioniere helfen in Polen die Schäden von Überschwemmungen zu reparieren | Bundeswehr

Empfehlenswert! Toll!

When the 46th President, his weirdo Secretary Mayorkas and the FEMA fail, citizen volunteers step up using private Helicopters to Deliver 500,000 Pounds of Supplies to hurricane Helene Victims

This is part of the American Exceptionalism! Americans do not wait for government to act!

Private Helicopters Deliver 500,000 Pounds of Supplies to Helene Victims "Over half-a-million pounds of supplies have been delivered to western North Carolina by volunteers flying private helicopters after Hurricane Helene, local reports have said."

Whataburger app becomes unlikely power outage map after Houston hurricane

What a creativity! 😊 Hamburgers are more than just nutrition!

"... Whataburger is a San Antonio-based fast-food chain with 127 stores in the Houston area, according to Newsweek. On the Whataburger app, users can see a map of Whataburger locations, with an orange logo indicating a store is open, and a grey logo meaning it’s closed. ..."

Whataburger app becomes unlikely power outage map after Houston hurricane | TechCrunch