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A fire broke out at the Guinness factory in Dublin shortly after noon local time. Over nine fire brigades and three rigs with aerial ladder platforms were able to contain the blaze before it spread to the ammonia plant at the site. An official from Guinness was able to confirm that no one was hurt in the incident. “There were no injuries to any personnel and the fire has been extinguished,” the spokeswoman said. “An internal investigation is under way to find out exactly what the cause of the accident was.” The fire broke out near the Victoria Quay entry...

Feb. 4, 2009 -- An ancient killer is hiding in the remote forests of Siberia. Walled off from western eyes during the Soviet era and forgotten among the endless expanse of wilderness, scientists are starting to uncover the remnants of a supervolcano that rained Hell on Earth 250 million years ago and killed 90 percent of all life. Researchers have known about the volcano -- the Siberian Traps, for years. And they've speculated that the volcanic rocks, which cover an area about the size of Alaska, played a role in runaway global warming that led to the end -- Permian...

Until recently, this political epitaph might have been written for Dick Morris: An amoral, but brilliant consultant, strategist, and analyst -- the man who kept Bill Clinton in, and Hillary Clinton out, of the White House. By selling the strategy of triangulation to Bill Clinton, Morris successfully neutered the Gingrich revolution of 1994. But he also neutered the worst political impulses of Bill Clinton (Morris couldn't do anything about the sexual ones) and forced Clinton to work with the Republican congress to balance budgets and reform welfare. But Dick Morris is doing his best work now in his crusade against...

The giant deer, also known as the giant Irish deer or Irish elk, is one of the largest deer species that ever lived. Yet why this giant animal, which had massive antlers spanning 3.6m, suddenly went extinct some 10,600 years ago has remained a mystery. Now a study of its teeth is producing tantalising answers, suggesting the deer couldn't cope with climate change. As conditions became colder and drier in Ireland at the time, fewer plants grew, gradually starving the deer. The discovery is published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. The giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus) has become famous over...

I don't follow the monetary and fiscal problems of other countries very closely. We've got enough of a crisis here to worry about anywhere else. But during the stim bill debate, you may recall liberals pointing to Japan's "stimulus spending" in the decade of the 1990's as an example of how to get out of a deep recession. Maybe they should have read the fine print as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph explains: The IMF expects Japan's gross public debt to reach 218pc of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, 227pc next year, and 246pc by 2014. This has been...

Beware of the blob—this time, it's for real. As sea temperatures have risen in recent decades, enormous sheets of a mucus-like material have begun forming more often, oozing into new regions, and lasting longer, a new Mediterranean Sea study says (sea "mucus" blob pictures). And the blobs may be more than just unpleasant. Up to 124 miles (200 kilometers) long, the mucilages appear naturally, usually near Mediterranean coasts in summer. The season's warm weather makes seawater more stable, which facilitates the bonding of the organic matter that makes up the blobs (Mediterranean map). Now, due to warmer temperatures, the mucilages...

THE CONSCIENCE OF A LIBERTARIAN by Wayne Allyn Root Review by Dr. John Hospers, © September 2009 My book, LIBERTARIANISM was first published in 1971. Its subtitle, ‘A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow’ has at long last come true today. I hope it’s not too late. The pragmatic reality is in Wayne Allyn Root’s brilliant new volume: THE CONSCIENCE OF A LIBERTARIAN - a title I might add, that was obviously carefully considered and borrowed in the “classic liberal” sense –that is, it was returned with dividends of thought and deserved tribute to The Conscience of a Conservative author, politician –...

The New York Times is generally loathe to dignify conservative-leaning books with an official review. That stance is getting dicier these days, especially since the newspaper’s own nonfiction bestseller chart is chockablock with conservatives luminaries like Michelle Malkin, Dick Morris and Mark Levin. President Barack Obama has only been in office for roughly eight months, but he’s already inspired multiple conservative bestsellers. Malkin’s Culture of Corruption sits atop the list, followed by Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny in the two slot and Catastrophe by Morris and Eileen McGann at number four. Marji Ross, president and publisher of Regnery Publishing, isn’t surprised...

Here is video of Dick Morris tonight on The O'Reilly Factor and talking about President Obama's drive to get Government Health Care passed. O'Reilly asked Morris to compare the ObamaCare drive to the HillaryCare debacle in 1994, when President Bill Clinton failed to get Government Health Care passed. One big difference, Morris pointed out, is that Obama has this time bought off all the major players - AARP, Drug Companies, American Medical Association. O'Reilly pointed out that Obama has been stupefyingly dull in his presentation of his Health Care Plan. When asked if Obama is going to succeed, or will...

In a speech full of dire scenarios and gloomy predictions, the former House speaker argued that no price is too high for the federal government to pay when it comes to shoring up national security. "We are living at the edge of catastrophe," Gingrich said while laying out the flaws of the current governmental approach to security as well as his own framework for policy change.

One of the reasons I like Dick Morris is that he has an uncanny ability to predict the future. Take, for example, his prescient new book "Catastrophe: How Obama, Congress, and the Special Interests Are Transforming a Slump Into a Crash, Freedom Into Socialism, and a Disaster Into a Catastrophe . . . and How to Fight Back." Dick’s wife, Eileen McGann, co-authored the book, which shot to the No. 1 spot on the Times' best-seller list in its very first week of release. The fascinating thing about “Catastrophe” is that, although it hit bookstores just a few weeks ago,...

Listen to former Clinton Advisor, Dick Morris, explain how Barack Obama has deceptively broken his campaign promise of "No New Taxes," similar to the first George Bush. Like then, he must be held accountable.

Dick Morris on CSPAN 2 now talking about his book Catastrophe till the end of the hour ( catch the questions?).

Hardcover Non-Fiction 1. CATASTROPHE, by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann 2. LIBERTY AND TYRANNY, by Mark R. Levin 3. OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell 4. HORSE SOLDIERS, by Doug Stanton 5. THE END OF OVEREATING, by David A. Kessler Paperback Non-Fiction 1. GLENN BECK’S ‘COMMON SENSE’, by Glenn Beck 2. THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin 3. WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES, by David Sedaris 4. BLINK, by Malcolm Gladwell 5. AN INCONVENIENT BOOK, by Glenn Beck

More bad news for Barack Obama. The first major book to be published on his presidency has shot up to the No. 1 spot on The New York Times' bestseller list the very first week of its release. Unlike the fawning media coverage the Obama White House has come to expect, this new best-seller "Catastrophe" paints a deeply negative picture of Obama and his policies. "Catastrophe: How Obama, Congress, and the Special Interests Are Transforming a Slump Into a Crash, Freedom Into Socialism, and a Disaster Into a Catastrophe . . . and How to Fight Back" is authored by...

Author and political commentator Dick Morris spoke at The Book Review in Huntington, NY on Saturday, June 27. Chairs were ready to accommodate an audience of about 150. The crowd swelled beyond 300! Morris didn’t disappoint. He gave an informative speech that focused on President Barack Hussein Obama’s most disturbing actions to date. Obama has repeatedly reneged on his moderate campaign promises and worked hard to make good on his radical promises. He’s wrecking the country with his ratifications to our democratic way of life. Obama’s overhauls are hardly fixes but rather actions that are speeding the nation toward socialism...

Bernanke Inserts Gun In Mouth I'm not at all sure I believed what I read today.  (my comments in italics, indented) Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in January indicates that the economy continues to contract.  Job losses, declining equity and housing wealth, and tight credit conditions have weighed on consumer sentiment and spending.  Weaker sales prospects and difficulties in obtaining credit have led businesses to cut back on inventories and fixed investment.  U.S. exports have slumped as a number of major trading partners have also fallen into recession.  Although the near-term economic outlook is weak, the...

Every Messiah needs his disciples. Barack Obama can count on one in Ann Curry. Reporting from a camp in Chad for refugees from Darfur in a segment on Today this morning, Curry proclaimed that “Obama’s message of hope has reached even here.” Her evidence? The fact that a sign had been tacked up on the door to a mud-brick structure renaming it “the Obama schoolhouse.” The video clip shows a sign in Arabic. Someone had helpfully translated it, scrawling “Obama” in chalk on the entranceway. View video,

There's no way that these times, in spite of the massive and heartbreaking job losses, can compare to the sufferings of the Great Depression. I expect that America will be going back to the seventies, though, when the economy was stagnant and contracting: there were gasoline lines and sky-high interest rates. In the 70s, the unemployment rate was higher than it is now and there were thousands upon thousands of unemployed Vietnam war veterans looking for jobs.

The new financial rescue plan may not work and could even make things worse because it plunges the US further into debt and it is designed by the same people who failed to forecast the crisis and take measures, legendary investor Jim Rogers told CNBC Tuesday. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will unveil a long-awaited package of measures to help the financial sector at 11 am New York time. But Rogers said Geithner, who was president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, "has been dead wrong about everything for 15 years in a row," and so was President Barack Obama's...

reports coming in of major damage from 1-2 inches of ice over the area..its still raining with temps below freezing in many areas. information is sketchy but major damage to infrastructure are trickling in. Damage to houses from falling trees, multiple power poles down, and widespread power outages Travel is impossible in many area because of 100's of downed trees blocking the roads. Fires are reported in some area widespread state of emergencies issued Northern AR, SE MO and western KY seems to the the hardest hit so far..but things are icing up fast now in the Louisville/Lexington areas too

The flooding in eastern Iowa has reached the point of catastrophe. Towns are overwhelmed, businesses destroyed, and crops are gone. A fifth of the corn and soybeans are gone. Fox News is calling it "Iowa's Katrina." Here is a gallery of aerial phtographs at the web site of the newspaper I used to deliver every afternoon, the Iowa City Press-Citizen. The thing is, though, the people of eastern Iowa seem to be stepping up in the Iowa stubborn way. I have seen any number of man-on-the-street interviews, and nobody is complaining. They all seem to be working to solve their...

Why China's next earthquake might be political The “c” in China has always stood for catastrophe. Whether it has been those of nature, man-made political disasters, or a combination of both, no other civilized society has suffered more down through the centuries than the ancient Chinese polity. That was true in the old, dynastic, traditional China, captured in the melodrama of Pearl S. Buck’s novels which despite their lack of sophistication were a representation of what “the real China” was like. In our own time, the chaos, destruction and loss of life during the two-decade long Japanese invasion and Occupation...

At this point it’s reasonable to wonder how Jimmy Carter got elected governor of Georgia, let alone president of the United States. To witness him laying a wreath at the tomb of Yasser Arafat, then schmoozing with Hamas in Damascus, is enough to make the sane among us recoil in disgust. On the very day that the peanut-farmer-who-became-president claimed to have scored a commitment of peace from Hamas, the terrorist thugs launched a rocket salvo at Israel, thus leading the former president to claim that at least he gallantly tried to bring about peace and stability to the Middle East....

So the sky did not fall in. While the Chicken Littles of the world economy, led by Gordon Brown, George Soros and Warren Buffett, may still repeat mechanically the IMF’s surprising judgment that the world - especially America - faces its worst financial crisis since the 1930s, their hearts are no longer in it. Mr Brown, after last week’s election woe, can no longer blame the world economy for his political failure. Mr Buffett, having speculated against the dollar for years and declared that credit derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, has finally begun to find attractive opportunities to...

Reindeer catastrophe overshadows Sami national day Published: 5 Feb 08 15:22 CET Online: http://www.thelocal.se/9886/ The Sami people of northern Sweden celebrate their national day on February 6th and Lappland is a hive of activity getting ready for the party of the year. Reindeer shoes are being made, handicrafts sculpted and party frocks designed and sewn up. Jokkmokk's yearly market sets the pulses racing among Sami youth and high schools and colleges get their traditional goods ready to sell to the hordes of brethren and tourists that will descend on the town from near and far. "For some it is a...

Tajikistan 'facing catastrophe' by Natalia Antelava BBC News, Dushanbe Tens of thousands in Tajikistan are already malnourished Tajikistan is in the grip of emergency food shortages, the UN's World Food Programme is warning. The deteriorating food situation is part of the energy crisis which hit the mountainous nation in the middle of its coldest winter for five decades. The cost of food has tripled in recent months, partially because of rising world prices. Some humanitarian agencies claim Central Asia's poorest nation is heading towards catastrophe. It's well below zero in Tajikistan, but most people have no electricity, no heating and...

Deadly landslide raises more concerns about China's Three Gorges Dam Aileen McCabe , CanWest Asia Correspondent Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 SHANGHAI - A deadly landslide near China's controversial Three Gorges Dam has killed one construction worker and left two missing in central Hubei Province, near the dam's massive reservoir. The official news agency Xinhua said the tragedy occurred on Tuesday, the same day Chinese government officials pledged to step up measures to deal with environmental problems caused by the dam. Xinhua did not say what caused the fatal landslide, but in a story about the new environmental plan, Xinhua...

A carbon-rich black layer, dating to 12.9 ka, has been previously identified at 50 Clovis-age sites across North America and appears contemporaneous with the abrupt onset of Younger Dryas (YD) cooling. The in situ bones of extinct Pleistocene megafauna, along with Clovis tool assemblages, occur below this black layer but not within or above it. Causes for the extinctions, YD cooling, and termination of Clovis culture have long been controversial. In this paper, we provide evidence for an extraterrestrial (ET) impact event at 12.9 ka, which we hypothesize caused abrupt environmental changes that contributed to YD cooling, major ecological reorganization,...

Wooly mammoths, giant sloths, saber-toothed cats, and dozens of other species of megafauna may have become extinct when a disintegrating comet or asteroid exploded over North America with the force of millions of hydrogen bombs, according to research by an international team of scientists. The blast, which the researchers believe occurred 12,900 years ago, may have also doomed a mysterious early human culture, known as Clovis people, while triggering a planetwide cool-down that wiped out the plant species that sustained many outsize Ice Age beasts, according to research published online yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

AMES - Rudy Giuliani would be a “total catastrophe.’’ Mitt Romney would be “OK.” That’s the assessment of the 2008 Republican presidential field by Steve Scheffler, the president of the Iowa Christian Alliance. Scheffler said his association’s members have not begun to coalesce around any of the candidates seeking the Republican nomination. However, the fact the Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain aren’t in Ames today “is a testimony to the constituency – the largest constituency to participate in the caucuses” – the social conservatives that make up the ICA. “If they thought they could win the straw poll, they...

The defence of the families of victims who died in A-310 air catastrophe in Irkutsk (Russia) in 2006 is considering a possibility of filing a civil suite against the European aircraft manufacturer – Airbus.

One of the criticisms of Al Gore’s message on climate change is that he exaggerates the imminence of the threat—implying, for instance, that sea levels may rise more quickly than scientists feel comfortable saying. But a few people think Gore is actually sugarcoating the catastrophe predictions. Most prominently, the renowned British scientist James Lovelock thinks that the world is already approaching a tipping point, beyond which temperature rise will run out of control and major ecosystems will collapse. The dying Amazon rainforest would begin releasing carbon, making things even hotter. The permafrost would melt, releasing carbon and causing sea levels...

WHILE the international community readies itself for gradual global warming over the next century, a growing number of scientists are beginning to worry that climate change might come much sooner - and be much more catastrophic - than previously thought. They point out that, in the past, climate change has not been gradual. Europe's climate has switched from arctic to tropical in three to five years and, they warn, it can happen again. Fred Pearce, of the New Scientist, has spent the past two years speaking to climate experts who are studying the possibility of "type 2" climate change -...

PARIS (AFP) - The World Wildlife Fund on Friday warned consumers against buying Spanish strawberries, whose cultivation is having a "catastrophic" impact on wetlands in the south of the country. "By buying Spanish strawberries -- on sale in supermarkets from January to April -- you are supporting the destruction of the Iberian natural milieu because the impact of this cultivation on the environment is catastrophic," WWF's Paris office said. Some 95 percent of Spanish strawberries are grown on an area of 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres) around the Coto Donana national park, which is on the UNESCO world heritage list, WWF...

The seas have been rising for 18,000 years, but the pace has quickened. At the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean crept seven inches higher during the past century, as global warming melted glaciers and expanded ocean waters. Californians are taking notice. In one of the first efforts of its kind in the state, officials are starting to address the threats rising seas pose to the Bay Area. One of the first steps was to compile maps that show what would happen if the sea level rose three feet -- the upper limit for what might occur by 2100, according...

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - An attack on Iran would be catastrophic and encourage it to develop a nuclear bomb, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Thursday. "It would be absolutely counterproductive, and it would be catastrophic," ElBaradei said at a discussion on nuclear proliferation at the World Economic Forum. The Bush administration in recent weeks has toughened its stance against Iran, which the West has accused of seeking to secretly build an atomic bomb, raising fears among political and business leaders that the U.S. plans an attack. President George W. Bush has moved an...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - An employee working the drive-through window at a McDonald's will have a tale to tell. When the worker went to the open window thinking the car pulling up had already ordered, the people in the car threw a dead cat through the window, police said. Cedar Rapids Animal Control officer Matt McAtee said the black domestic shorthair appeared to have been dead for a while. "It looked like somebody had picked it up off the road," McAtee said. Police were called to the restaurant about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday. The people in the car drove off. A...

Thousands of people have gathered in Trafalgar Square in London to urge the Government to take dramatic action to combat climate change. Organisers put the number of people at today's event at about 14,000 The rally's organisers, the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, want Britain to take the lead at the UN global warming conference which begins in Nairobi next week. They are urging the Government to negotiate an international deal to make sure that global temperatures do not rise more than two degrees centigrade from their current levels, and to introduce a Climate Change Bill that demands annual reductions in...

North Korea warns catastrophe after border incident 1 hour, 4 minutes ago North Korea warned of catastrophic consequences on Sunday if South Korea's military engaged in "unforgivable military provocation" like the weekend skirmish at a heavily fortified border between the two Koreas. South Korean troops fired warning shots on Saturday after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed over the border, adding to mounting tension after Pyongyang said on Wednesday it planned to conduct a nuclear test. "This was an undisguised challenge against us and an unforgivable military provocation," the North's KCNA news agency said in a commentary. "It was only the...

Just over one month ago, the Crystal Ball argued that a larger wave than currently existed at the time would have to build in order for Republicans to lose their congressional majorities. At the time, the race-by-race rather than national dynamic of competitive races pointed more towards a "micro-wave" than a "macro-wave" for out-of-power Democrats. But now, with a quarter of time elapsed between that pulse-reading and the election, surer signs are emerging that something more substantial than a "micro-wave" is heating up this summer. Historical trends and big picture indicators--generic congressional ballot tests and approval ratings of President Bush's...

Al Gore warns of pole shift Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has been touring the world and making presentations of an impending global pole shift. "The world is in a greater danger now than ever before", Mr. Gore said, "and the time for us to take action is drawing short". "Any time between now and the year 2012 the earth will shift on its axis, causing massive flooding, worldwide suffering and death." Mr. Gore also urged action on the part of his audiences, including massive migration of humans from one continent to another to shift the load on the...

The crack is 8m-wide in places The largest tear in the Earth's crust seen in decades, if not centuries, could carve out a new ocean in Africa, according to satellite data. Geologists say a crack that opened up last year may eventually reach the Red Sea, isolating much of Ethiopia and Eritrea from the rest of Africa. The 60km-long rift was initially sparked by an earthquake in September. Follow-up observations reported in the journal Nature suggest the split is growing at an unprecedented rate. See the rift in detail We think if these processes continue, a new ocean will...

White farmers facing catastrophe as Zimbabwe reneges on property deal By Stephen Bevan in Pretoria (Filed: 25/06/2006) Zimbabwe's white farmers' union has given warning of an impending "humanitarian catastrophe" after the government reneged on a promise to pay evicted white farmers the full value of the buildings and equipment seized along with their farms, leaving many of them destitute. The government refuses to pay for the land seized from the estimated 3,800 white farmers forcibly evicted since 2000, but it had pledged to pay in full for the "improvements". Last week, however, farmers were outraged to learn that they will...

Despite California's history of disasters, state government is underprepared for a catastrophic earthquake, flood, pandemic or terrorist attack, an independent agency warns. Sweeping changes in the bureaucracy are needed to bolster readiness, the Little Hoover Commission said in a report that was sharply critical of the leadership in Sacramento. "Prevention and mitigation efforts are lacking, California's response plans are inadequate and the state has no recovery plans to guide rebuilding," concluded the commission, an independent state agency that helps make state government more effective. But Eric Lamoureux, spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Services, said the state is already...

TALE OF ARTHUR POINTS TO COMET CATASTROPHE From The Times, 9 September 2000 http://www.the-times.co.uk BY NICK NUTTALL Arthur: myth links him to fire from the sky THE story of the death of King Arthur and its references to a wasteland may have been inspired by the apocalyptic effects of a giant comet bombarding the Earth in AD540, leading to the Dark Ages, a British scientist said yesterday. The impacts filled the atmosphere with dust and debris; a long winter began. Crops failed, and there was famine, Dr Mike Baillie of Queen's University, Belfast, told the British Association for the Advancement...

Giant wind farm will be a 'catastrophe', warns charity FRANK URQUHART CONTROVERSIAL plans to build the world's largest wind farm on Lewis will have an "unprecedented impact" on endangered birds and wildlife and the island habitat that supports them, a major charity said yesterday. In a damning report, published to coincide with a meeting in Edinburgh today between the developers and MSPs, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland claims that the £411 million development, involving the erection of 234 wind turbines across 43km, will have a "catastrophic" effect on more than 6,000 hectares of protected peatland other...

Harriet Miers' Texas law firm, Locke Liddell, was investigated by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for agreeing to write favorable tax opinions for clients regarding Ernst & Young tax schemes that are now under criminal investigation. In August 2005, accounting firm KPMG LLP agreed to pay $465 million in fines and cooperate with federal authorities to avoid criminal prosecutions for popular tax schemes that were aggressively marketed in 1999-2000. Rival accounting firm Ernst & Young, or E&Y, remains even today under federal grand jury examination for similar slick tax avoidance schemes, often marketed in conjunction with banks, during the...

Government officials are evaluating and revising disaster plans around the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, just as they did after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While war and automobiles kill more people than nature, find out what natural disasters top scientists’ worry lists. #10 Pacific Northwest Megathrust Earthquake Geologists know it’s just a matter of time before another 9.0 or larger earthquake strikes somewhere between Northern California and Canada. The shaking would be locally catastrophic, but the biggest threat is the tsunami that would ensue from a fault line that’s seismically identical to the one that...

Sound from last December's huge tsunami-causing earthquake was picked up by underwater microphones designed to listen for nuclear explosions. Scientists this week released an audio file of the frighteningly long-lasting cracks and splits along the Sumatra-Andaman Fault in the Indian Ocean. The spine-tingling hiss and rumble is an eerie reminder of the devastation and death that is still being tallied in the largest natural disaster in modern times. At least 200,000 people are thought to have died as a result of the magnitude 9.3 earthquake, the tsunami, and the lack of food, drinkable water and medical supplies that followed. The...