Gigantic, near record-size hailstone pounds northern Maryland

Massive hailstone that fell in Timonium, Md. June 23, 2015 (Nicka Pohl)

As a violent thunderstorm tore through northern Maryland Tuesday evening, it unloaded massive hail – large enough to rank among the biggest in Maryland state weather records.

Nicka Pohl shared with Capital Weather Gang the photo of a softball-size, spiked hailstone measuring approximately 4 inches in diameter, which fell near Timonium. Hail larger than golf balls fell throughout the Hunt Valley, Cockeysville, and Timonium areas in northern Baltimore County.

Credit to Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/06/24/gigantic-near-record-size-hailstone-pounds-northern-maryland/

A giant VORTEX has appeared in Lake Texoma

Despite its strange appearance, there appears to be a simple explanation for the gaping hole.

Assistant lake manager BJ Parkey told Business Insider that the vortex had been created by draining some of the water from the reservoir.

'Just like in your house when you fill a bathtub full of water and [open] the drain, it will develop a vortex or whirlpool,' he said.

The water flow creates a cyclone shape, rather like a tornado, with a wider opening at the top tapering off to a narrow funnel.

The US Army Corps claims the vortex is 'eight feet in diameter and capable of sucking in a full-sized boat'

Credit to dailymail.co.uk

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3139365/A-giant-VORTEX-appears-Lake-Texoma-big-swallow-boat.html

China To Philippines: Stop "Roping In" Other Countries In Sea Standoff

Three weeks ago, Philippine President Benigno Aquino “went there” when, in a speech to Japanese lawmakers, the self-proclaimed “amateur student of history” compared China’s land reclamation efforts in the South China Sea to the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia.

This prompted Beijing to advise “certain people” in the Philippines to “repent” and “stop their provocations.” 

Aquino would do neither. 

Shortly thereafter, the Philippines aired a documentary entitled “Maritime Rights” designed to drum up domestic support for the government’s tough stance towards Beijing’s activities in the disputed waters around the Spratlys. 

Since then, China has “completed” its dredging efforts and although the PLA admits it will use the new islands for military purposes, a new propaganda campaign has been launched, designed to show that despite attempts by the US and its regional allies to cast aspersions, island life in the Spratlys is all about girls, gardening, puppies, and pigs. 

Apparently that wasn’t enough to calm Aquino’s fears of an impending Chinese blitzkrieg because as Reuters reports, tempers are once again flaring between Beijing and Manila with China accusing the Philippines of “roping” other countries in and attempting to incite a war. Here’s more: 

China's military on Thursday accused the Philippines of trying to "rope in" other countries to the dispute over ownership of the South China Sea and stir regional tension after Japan joined a military drill with the Philippines.

According to Japanese and Philippine officials, a Japanese surveillance aircraft, with three Filipino guest crew members, this week flew at 5,000 feet (1,524 m) above the edge of Reed Bank, an energy-rich area that is claimed by both China and the Philippines. It was accompanied by a smaller Philippine patrol aircraft.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun, asked about the exercises, said that bilateral military cooperation between countries should benefit regional peace and security and not harm the interests of third parties.

"Certain countries are roping in countries from outside the region to get involved in the South China Sea issue, putting on a big show of force, deliberately exaggerating the tense atmosphere in the region," he told a monthly news briefing.

"This way of doing things will not have a beneficial effect on the situation in the South China Sea."

Earlier this week, Japan and the US joined the Philippines in conducting military drills near the disputed waters where China and others have conducted land reclamation projects. Here's Bloomberg:

The U.S. and Japan are conducting separate military drills with the Philippines near the disputed South China Sea, signaling support for the country as China builds out reclaimed reefs in the waters.

The annual CARAT Philippines joint exercise started Monday off the east coast of Palawan island and will run until June 26, according to U.S. Navy spokesman Arlo Abrahamson. The Philippine and Japanese navies are holding drills around the same island through June 27, Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force said last week.

The drill includes a sea phase with the littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth, diving and salvage ship USNS Safeguard and a P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft and at least one Philippine frigate, according to the U.S. Navy. It’s the first time a littoral combat ship has taken part in CARAT Philippines.

Japan’s exercises with the Philippines will take place adjacent to the Spratly Islands, where China has created more than 2,000 acres of land in waters also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia. Japan will send a P-3C anti-submarine, maritime surveillance aircraft and 20 personnel. 

“The intent of CARAT is enhancing capabilities, navy-to-navy capabilities, increasing interoperability,” Rear Admiral Leopoldo Alano, commander of the Philippine Fleet, told reporters on Monday on Palawan. “These can be used both in wartime missions or missions other than war.”

The war games "should not be taken as an affront to any other and are an expression of cooperation and learning from all those involved,” an Aquino spokesperson said. 

That's good to know, because when it comes to learning how to keep a tense situation from escalating into a full-blown military conflict, there's surely no better teacher than the US.

Credit to Zero Hedge

Pakistan’s heat wave is so deadly that morgues are overflowing

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A deadly heat wave with temperatures over 113 degrees covers southern Pakistan’s city of Karachi.

A heat wave in southern Pakistan has caused so much death in the country that morgues are overflowing, local medical workers say.

"They are piling bodies one on top of the other," Seemin Jamali, an official at a government hospital in Karachi, said of the city's overflowing morgues in an interview with Al Jazeera. Anwar Kazmi, an official with the Pakistani charity Edhi Welfare Organisation, told Agence France-Presse that the morgues had "reached capacity."

Pakistan's heat wave has been described as the worst in decades, with temperatures soaring to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The high temperatures hit during the Islamic month of Ramadan, when many Muslims were fasting during daylight hours. As of Thursday, reports in the Pakistani media put the death toll at 1,200, though temperatures have begun to fall.

Things got so bad that some morgues have put up signs outside, explaining that they are full.

Photographs taken from inside one morgue show how crowded it has become.


Volunteers try to identify a body among others of those who have died due to an intense heat wave at the Edhi Foundation morgue in Karachi on June 22. (Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

A man waits, right, while volunteers search for the body of his deceased relative among the bodies of heat wave victims at Edhi Foundation morgue in Karachi on June 22. (Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

The scale of crowding at the morgues had some major ill effects, Kazmi told Reuters. "The refrigeration unit was not working properly because there were too many bodies," the official explained.


On Tuesday, the Express Tribune reported that authorities were now attempting to bury unidentified bodies within a day to help deal with the backlog, but gravediggers were taking advantage of the situation and charging double their normal rates.

Credit to Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/06/25/pakistans-heat-wave-is-so-deadly-that-morgues-are-overflowing/

How Tyranny Takes Control

AGAIN! This Greek Debt Crisis Is A Set Up To Fleece The People, PERIOD.

NATO: Russian ‘aggression’ in Ukraine must be countered

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday the alliance will not get dragged into an arms race with Russia but must counter Moscow’s “aggressive actions” in Ukraine.

Defence ministers are due to approve measures including more than doubling NATO’s rapid response force, while the US on Tuesday announced it would pre-position heavy weapons on the alliance’s eastern flank.


Russia has denounced the moves as Cold War-style provocations while upgrading its own armed forces, including with more than 40 new nuclear ballistic missiles this year.

“We will not be dragged into an arms race but we must keep our countries safe,” Stoltenberg said as the meeting opened at NATO HQ in Brussels.

Stoltenberg played down fears of a return to the worst days of the Cold War, insisting NATO's response was "defensive, proportionate and in line with all our international obligations".

"Russia continues to send troops, forces and supplies into eastern Ukraine. There is no doubt that Russia is responsible for aggressive actions in Europe," he said.

Credit to France24.comhttp://www.france24.com/en/20150624-nato-russian-aggression-ukraine-must-be-countered