Free Republic

<p>RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil's two largest cities have been hit by a massive blackout that has also affected other parts of Latin America's largest nation.</p> <p>Media reports say problems at a huge hydroelectric dam are to blame for the electrial outages affecting large parts of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and other cities in several states.</p>

In an explosive interview by Dr. Laurie Roth on her syndicated West Coast radio show on August 7th, Douglas Hagmann—a respected journalist, director of the Northeast Intelligence Network and longtime private investigator, and Judi McLeod, a prolific journalist and the managing editor of Canada Free Press—the reason for the media blackout about the birth-certificate issue was nothing less than organized Mafia-like dire threats to members of the media issued not only from the heads of major TV and radio stations but also from Federal Communication Commission officials!

More info: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Cal-ISO-Declares-Power-Emergency-64172852.html

The article at the link cites other publications like Le Monde, L'Union, and La Provence discussing the state induced media blackout - the press has been ordered not to report what appears to be record levels of violence. Police ambushes, burning cars, neighborhood fires etc.

What’s taking place in Iran? For an answer, don’t turn to CNN or FOX News and don’t listen to White House officials. Millions have taken to the streets to protest the June 12 rigged election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The University of Tehran has been ransacked. Several protestors have been killed and thousands have been injured. It is the greatest popular uprising that the 21st Century has witnessed. And yet, to find fair and balanced coverage of the momentous event, one had to turn to foreign news outlets. Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent, opted to whitewash the turmoil...

Deployments of smart grids should be slowed until security vulnerabilities are addressed, according to some cybersecurity experts, citing tests showing that a hacker can cause a major blackout after breaking into a smart-grid system. The idea behind smart grids, a burgeoning energy sector in which even Google is playing a role, is that automated meters and two-way power consumption data can be used to improve the efficiency and reliability of an electrical system's power distribution. A washing machine in a household hooked up to a smart meter, for instance, could be set up to run only at lower-cost, off-peak hours,...

February 4, 2009 Dear Mr. Secretary: Since the Committee last convened in early November, the contraction in economic activity has deepened and broadened, while financial markets have remained under duress. The unprecedented volatility present in capital markets when the Committee last met has diminished somewhat but conditions still are exceptionally challenging. Policy efforts have begun to unlock credit for select high-quality borrowers. But the magnitude of wealth destruction, the still heightened cost of economy-wide capital and the impaired system of financial intermediation continue to cast a dark cloud over the economic outlook. Monetary and fiscal policy action now being implemented...

POSTED: 5:29 am HST January 5, 2009 UPDATED: 9:20 am HST January 5, 2009 Gabbard Wants Answers On Cause, Length Of Outage HONOLULU -- Some powerful state senators are seeking an explanation for why the power went out the day after Christmas and why it took so long to restore it. The chairman of the Senate committee on energy and environment announced Sunday he'll hold a hearing later this month to look into the power outage. Parts of Oahu were without electricity all night Dec. 26 and into the next day. On Sunday, Sen. Mike Gabbard called a news conference...

Oahu was without power overnight, possibly from a lightning strike, and Hawaiian Electric Co. officials said to expect it to last until morning. The outages, which began hitting various parts of the island at about 6:30 p.m., also affected the Kailua neighborhood where President-elect Barack Obama is staying. Mayor Mufi Hannemann said at about 10:10 p.m. that Honolulu police had talked to Obama. “He said he is fine and he and his family are going to bed,” the mayor said on KSSK. Gov. Linda Lingle advised all residents to do the same. She said Heco officials advised her that it...

HONOLULU (Reuters) - The resort and much of the island of Oahu where President-elect Barack Obama is vacationing was hit by a major blackout on Friday evening but it was not immediately clear if his compound had a backup source of electricity.

Some stuck without power powerless to fight bank fees Friday, September 19, 2008 By Margaret Harding THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH When his power returned without Internet service Monday, Tom Perry had a bit of a financial freakout. "It was kind of a panic-stricken moment there: 'Oh, no, what am I going to do?' " said Perry, whose credit-card and mortgage payment were both due that day. Perry, like many others, pays his bills online. Online banking and bill payment are pushed as the easiest and most efficient ways to handle such transactions, but a power outage such as the one central...

<p>Five years after the worst blackout in North American history, the country's largest power providers say the problems that turned out the lights on 50 million people have largely been resolved, but they fear that larger, systemic issues could soon lead to even bigger and more damaging outages.</p>

WASHINGTON -- Thousands homes and businesses are without power and Dupont Circle and Metro Center Metrorail stations are closed after a major outage in northwest D.C. on Friday. Officials said the outage was due to a failure at a substation on 10th Street. About 12,000 customers were without power at 10:30 a.m. Pepco said the outages stretches from as far north as U Street N.W. to F Street N.W., the Dupont Circle area to the west and Third Street N.W. to the east. Many downtown workers have been waiting outside on city streets because their offices are dark. Power is...

Bo (woof) In Commentary: I’ve always known that mice can’t read, but this story makes me wonder whether the same is true of cats. (A cat chasing a mouse in Tirana’s main power station caused a 72-hour blackout across parts of the Albanian capital, the electricity company said on Friday (local time). “A cat and a mouse ran into the high-voltage cables,” a company spokeswoman said, showing pictures of the electrocuted animals.) What part of the DANGER - High Voltage sign did Mittens not understand? (con't @ http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/21/442/#more-442 )

The brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest passenger airplane ever built, sat in its hangar in Toulouse, France without a single hour of airtime. Enter the Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine runups, prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi. The date was November 15, 2007. The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area. Then they took all four engines to takeoff power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not having read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an...

HOUSTON, Feb 29 (Reuters) - FPL Group's (FPL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Florida utility Florida Power & Light said preliminary results of the investigation into Tuesday's four-hour blackout indicated that human error was the primary cause. The blackout affected about 584,000 FPL customers in South Florida, the Juno Beach-based company said in a release on Friday. A total of about 1 million customers of four utilities across the state lost power as emergency safety systems were activated to prevent long-term damage to power plants and transmission equipment. FPL said preliminary findings indicated that a field engineer diagnosing a problem switch at...

<p>Widespread power outages were reported Tuesday from Miami to Jacksonville on Florida's east coast and as far north as Tampa on the Gulf Coast, police and utility officials said.</p> <p>As many 800,000 Florida Power & Light Co. customers are without power Tuesday afternoon, the company said.</p>

(IsraelNN.com) Arab journalists quoted in the Jerusalem Post on Thursday said that many pictures showing Gaza reportedly suffering from a massive blackout had been staged. Gaza-based journalists said that on two occasions they were asked to cover Hamas events in which senior officials sat in dark rooms with lit candles. Both events took place during the daytime, journalists said, with curtains drawn to give the impression of a blackout. Hamas claimed earlier in the week that Israel’s refusal to allow fuel shipments through Gaza crossings had led to a widespread blackout that had created a humanitarian crisis. The group held...

Fox is saying on cable TV that Duncan Hunter is having a press conference today at 2:00. They are speculating that he is dropping out. Nothing on the web yet.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Parts of Southern California sweltered in triple-digit temperatures Monday as a heat wave stretched into the seventh day and contributed to power outages that left thousands without air conditioning. Temperatures soared in the San Fernando Valley with Woodland Hills reporting 102 degrees and Van Nuys at 99, according to the National Weather Service. Downtown Los Angeles also was expected to see temperatures climb above 100. Southern California Edison said 20,000 customers in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties had no electricity, spokesman Steve Conroy said. San Diego Gas and Electric Co., which serves...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A nationwide blackout hit Colombia on Thursday, with authorities struggling to determine the cause of the electrical grid's collapse. President Alvaro Uribe told journalists in the southern city of Cali that authorities would "know in a few minutes" the cause of the blackout, which took place at about 10:15 a.m. local time. He said the blackout "appears to have affected the entire country." Luis Alarcon, manager of state-controlled electricity distributor ISA, told Caracol Radio that the power outage appears to have begun with an undetermined technical glitch at a substation in Bogota and quickly spread to...

Comet McNaught has just made its appearance in the SOHO (SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory) "LASCO-3" field (at about the 11:00 position) -- and it is very bright!! The real-time image is viewable at http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/LATEST/current_c3small.mpg. In the next couple of days, the 48-hr MPEGs of the SOHO LASCO-3 field at http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/LATEST/current_c3small.mpg should be well worth watching. ~~~~~~ (The above URL is for the small (256 X 256) MPEG. The larger (512 X 512) MPEG at http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/LATEST/current_c3.mpg appears to have a problem at present.)

Phoenix Motorcars has developed what could possibly be the perfect electric car. Classified as a Sport Utility Truck (SUT), this vehicle “can cruise on the freeway at up to 95 m.p.h. while carrying five passengers and a full payload.” The Phoenix Motorcars SUV will be introduced in late 2007, having a range of 130 miles, and can be recharged in less than 10 minutes with an off-board charging unit or trickle-charged overnight when plugged into a 220V power source, similar to the SUT. The estimated cost to recharge the battery pack is a small fraction of equivalent gasoline costs. Phoenix...

All Western Europe touched by the electric breakdown PARIS - All Western Europe was struck Saturday evening by electric breakdowns related to an important failure of the German grid system of electricity, indicated in the night of Saturday to Sunday the Grid system of French electricity RTE. Some five million French, is approximately 10% of the population, were private of electricity on this occasion. "They are approximately 5 million consumers who were private" of current, with AFP a door of RTE declared. They "were gradually réalimentées between 22H30 and 23H00", it added. "Of the similar cuts took place in...

TOKYO - A power outage hit wide swaths of Tokyo and nearby Chiba early Monday, halting train service in some areas, news reports said. DEVELOPING...

News blackout imposed on American arms flights refuelling at British bases By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 02/08/2006) The Government refused last night to give details of the flights entering Britain containing American arms destined for Israel. There was also a suggestion that all arms flights via Prestwick airport, near Glasgow, were suspended following pressure from Scottish Labour MPs afraid of the political impact in their constituencies. An Atlas Air Boeing 747 cargo jet at Prestwick Airport Although Government officials have admitted that two flights, carrying GBU28 bunker-busting bombs, arrived at Prestwick the weekend before last and several others came...

Push to declare Queens blackout a disaster Almost a full week of no power (Astoria-WABC, July 23, 2006) - A group of Queens political leaders urged Gov. George Pataki on Sunday to designate a section of the borough suffering from a massive power outage a disaster area, making it eligible for federal aid. "Anywhere else it would be," said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., at a news conference in Sunnyside. "If this were an area of 100,000 people in upstate New York, the governor would have declared it a disaster area." A spokeswoman for Pataki, Joanna Rose, said the governor has...

LOS ANGELES -- Flights in and out of three Southland airports have been halted because of a power failure affecting radar and the Southern California air traffic control system.The affected airports are [Los] Angeles International Airport, Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and Ontario International Airport.

Practically all Georgia has remained without an electricity The new misfortune has fallen upon Georgia. As a result of failure on LEP "Imeretia" practically all country has remained without an electricity. Now the power supply system of the country works in an extreme mode. As have informed RBC in the Ministry of fuel and power of Georgia, failure has occured today approximately at 1:00 Moscow time. Under the preliminary information, because of a strong wind the transmission line "Imeretia" connecting power supply systems on which the electric power acts from the Western Georgia in central and east regions of...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents sabotaged power lines, knocking out electricity across Baghdad area Friday and plunging the capital into darkness on the eve of a landmark vote on a constitution aimed at defining democracy in a nation once ruled by Saddam Hussein (search). For most of the day, Iraqis were hunkered down in their homes, with the streets of the Iraqi capital almost empty hours before a 10 p.m. curfew and the country sealed off from the outside world as borders and airports were closed for Saturday's referendum. The approximately 140-article charter — hammered out after months of bitter negotiations...

A POWER outage at United Nations headquarters disrupted the General Assembly session today, forcing the evacuation of the main building and foreign ministers of the world's five most powerful countries to change their luncheon venue. The power failure, caused by an electrical malfunction in a switch generating unit in the 39-floor secretariat building, led UN security to order all staff except essential personnel and those supporting operations of the General Assembly to evacuate the main glass tower. UN chief Kofi Annan and the foreign ministers of the UN Security Council's five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the...

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials said an outage Monday afternoon was linked to human error at a receiving station. Power officials reported outages from the San Fernando Valley to downtown Los Angeles. Workers connected the wrong wires, causing a surge of power that led to shutdowns at three power generating stations, according to officials. Receiving stations take high-voltage power from generating stations and convert it to lower voltage. It can then be used throughout the city. Ron Deaton, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said the system is designed...

Another L.A. blackout by Pure Coincidence - Blackouts or Blackmail? Link for cartoon NOT SHOWN: http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/Blackout/blackoutgifs/wright.gif An electricity blackout was reported today Monday Sept. 12 affecting major portions of the City of Los Angeles. The blackout was attributed to a hook-up error by L.A. Department of Water and Power utility crews http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050912/ap_on_re_us/la_power_outage Curiously, the blackout occurred exactly one week after a Field Opinion Poll was released on Sept. 5 showing that public opinion was divided on Proposition 80, which would re-monopolize electricity in California. About one third would vote yes, one third no, and another third are undecided on the...

LOS ANGELES — A major portion of Los Angeles lost power Monday afternoon and officials said early indications were that a power line was accidentally cut. Outages were reported from downtown to the coast and north into the San Fernando Valley according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. A Los Angeles Fire Department official said it appeared a line somehow had been cut. Terrorism was not suspected, according to police Sgt. Catherine Plows, though the Los Angeles Police Department went on "full tactical alert," meaning no officers were allowed to leave duty. Traffic was snarled at intersections...

Just heard a news flash that a major portion of Los ANgeles has lost electrical power, from downtown to the San Fernando Valley. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has no explanation yet.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A large portion of Los Angeles has lost electrical power.

Sean Hannity just stated that large part of L.A. are without power....

States of emergency often unite families, they make people pay attention to each other and care for each other It is an open secret that people experience a strong need of attention and love from their loved ones during a state of emergency. This peculiarity is common for both men and women, for most courageous, fearless and emotional human beings. Such a desire for intimacy may often end up with a birth of a little one, nine months later, of course. This trend was observed in the States after 9/11 terrorist attacks. New Yorkers, especially women, were utterly busy with...

Just heard on LA County Fire frequency that 1 hour blackouts have been instituted....not sure whats up

Tens of millions of Indonesians have been affected by electricity cuts due to technical problems at a series of power stations. Homes and businesses were left in the dark across at least three provinces, including the capital Jakarta, and transport services were disrupted. Officials said they were still trying to isolate the cause of the problem. But they emphasised that the outage had nothing to do with recent power shortages caused by high oil prices. Indonesia faces an increasing energy crisis, as demand outstrips supply. The government has called people to conserve energy, to reduce demand on the national electrical...

URBANA, Ill. (AP) -- Researchers armed with $7.5 million from the federal government are setting out to develop a computer network that can improve the reliability of the nation's vulnerable power grid and make it secure from attack. The project follows the largest blackout in U.S. history, which left millions of people in the Northeast and southern Canada without power in August 2003. "Although the blackout was accidental, it showed that current controls and computer software are inadequate," said William H. Sanders, director of the university's Information Trust Institute. "Today, people are trying to patch it. But those patches will...

Despite the Hillary-induced news blackout, Klein's book will debut at No. 2!   j (click here to see it reeeeeeeally large)

Despite the distribution of a video of the Arab suicide bomber who intended to blow up a hospital by the IDF, nearly all foreign news agencies chose to boycott the story altogether. An outraged former undersecretary to US President Ronald Reagan and candidate for Republican Presidential nominee, Gary Bauer wrote a scathing critique of the world media’s decision to avoid the story. Excerpts from Bauer’s letter: ”If you don't get the Fox News Channel then you didn't see any of the dramatic footage of the Israeli army's arrest yesterday of a 21-year old, female Palestinian homicide-bomber, strapped with 25 pounds...

Blackout sweeps across southeast Texas

There was a massive power outage Wednesday evening in at least seven counties in the Houston area. By 8 p.m. the following counties were confirmed to have experienced the blackout: Liberty, Montgomery, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity, Grimes and Walker. Two power facilities in Willis have failed, although it's not known if the failures are the cause or one of the results of the outage. St. Lukes Hospital in The Woodlands and Conroe Regional Medical Center are both operating on generator power, although it's not believed to be affecting patient care. Michelle Lyons with the Texas Department of Corrections said that...

"The result of the special operation surpassed our expectations," the terrorist's statement runs One of the last leaders of Chechen terrorists, Shamil Basayev, claimed responsibility for the recent blackout in Moscow, which paralyzed a big part of the city and caused huge economic damage to Russia's capital. Basayev claimed that it was him, but not the outdated energetic equipment, that cut Moscow from electric power supplies on Wednesday, May 25th. The statement, which was published on one of Chechen websites, said that the recent crisis with electricity in Moscow had been organized by Chechen gunmen. Shamil Basayev said that diversionary...

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Faced with crippling power outages and a grumbling public, Cuba's President Fidel Castro has made an urgent televised appeal for energy thrift, even demonstrating the relative merits of Chinese-made pressure cookers. "Exceptional measures are being taken" to cope with the crisis, Castro, 78, said in an hours-long appearance on state television late Thursday, as the crunch has begun to yield more blackouts, and longer ones, as Cuba heads into the hottest summer months. As if to underscore that he, too, feels the heat, Castro read aloud "opinions" collected from the public, replete with harsh criticism for the...

Yesterday Moscow and its suburbs were counting the losses from the major power failure on Wednesday. The main victims of the blackout were the poultry plants: due to the failure of electric supply there was a mass death of the birds. Also the sanitary-epidemical services in the Russian capital were brought to high alert because of the dumping of industrial pollutants in the water of the Moscow River. The authorities prohibited swimming in the river and water out of faucets could be contaminated by cholera and hepatitis A bacteria. The Death of the Chickens The big losses from the power...

<p>I cannot believe this has not been posted yet. This is my first post so I apologise for any inconsistensies errors etc. Also I only have sources of my native language about so no URL.</p> <p>A power cut has caused major disruption in the Russian capital, Moscow.</p>