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McCain: Clean energy a ‘national security issue’

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. John McCain took his weeklong environmental tour to Washington state Tuesday, addressing the need for reducing the nation’s dependency on foreign oil and sparking investment in environmentally friendly technology.

McCain spoke at an environmental roundtable at Cedar River Watershed Education Center in North Bend, Washington.

Washington is among several potential battleground states in the West — including California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Oregon — where voters count the environment as a top issue.

McCain said Tuesday that coming up with new forms of clean energy is a national security issue when we’re dependent on more than $400 billion a year in imported oil from countries that don’t like us very much … some of that money is helping terrorist organizations.

The Arizona senator also said the heightened awareness of global environmental concerns could help push new forms of energy to the forefront of the nation’s political agenda.

Environment, national security and economy are all coming together, perhaps … to spark … an incredible impetus for us to sit down together, Republican and Democrat, environmentalists, business and bankers and retailers … all together and address this problem.

McCain also discussed nuclear energy — namely the lack of investment in the controversial technology.

Why is it that European countries have come up with solutions that people generally approve of? They have been able to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, he said. In the case of France, 80 percent of their electricity is generated by nuclear power.

McCain acknowledged the controversy surrounding nuclear technology — including the billions we’ve spent already trying to clean it [nuclear waste] up … It’s staggering and we have a whole lot more to do.

If other countries are able to make use of nuclear power … I don’t know why the United States of America can’t.

On Monday, McCain delivered a speech outlining his vision for combating global warming.

We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great, McCain said in Portland, Oregon. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge.

McCain’s commitment to fight global warming puts him at odds with some Republicans in Congress and with the Bush administration, which has not made climate change a priority.

McCain’s stance on carbon emissions places him closer on the environmental spectrum to the Democratic candidates, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

But some evangelicals, a vital voting bloc for Republicans, are warming up to McCain’s plan.

The Rev. Jim Ball, a spokesman for the Evangelical Climate Initiative, issued a press release after McCain’s speech Monday. Ball said the group is greatly encouraged by the principles and proposals.

We consider the decisions we make about energy to be at their root moral choices, as Christians we commend the speech’s moral high road. … Sen. McCain’s support of strong policy on emissions is in line with the evangelical community.

In his speech Monday, the presumed GOP nominee proposed capping carbon emissions incrementally, with the goal of returning to 1990 emission levels by the year 2020 using a cap-and-trade program.

Such a program would cap greenhouse gas emissions at certain levels, and allow more efficient energy producers to sell emissions permits to other, less efficient companies, thereby creating market-wide incentives to reduce carbon output.

According to McCain’s campaign Web site, He has offered common-sense approaches to limit carbon emissions by harnessing market forces that will bring advanced technologies, such as nuclear energy, to the market faster, reduce our dependence on foreign supplies of energy and see to it that America leads in a way that ensures all nations do their rightful share.

McCain said this system will encourage companies to seek more efficient means of production.

McCain also released a television ad Monday in Oregon that connects climate change to increased destructive weather phenomena like hurricanes. The spot features a McCain voiceover: It’s not just a greenhouse gas issue, it’s a national security issue. Watch the ad

This week, the Democratic National Committee accused McCain of hypocrisy on the energy issue, e-mailing reporters a list of McCain advisers who have served as lobbyists for the oil industry.

found here.

Sunrise to Sunset in Hong Kong

LONDON, England (CNN) — Perveen Crawford became Hong Kong’s first female pilot in 1995 and is soon to be Hong Kong’s first female astronaut when she blasts off to sub-orbital space as a paying customer on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipOne.

The Hong Kong socialite shows us around her city’s favorite haunts.

For the best seafood in the city, Crawford recommends Po Toi O a small fishing village at Clear Water Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. At the village’s two seafood restaurants diners can sample the freshest fish picked from teeming water tanks and enjoy specialties such as fried mantis shrimp with peppery salt and fried rice with sea urchin.

There’s also a 300-year-old temple in the village and hiking trails abound in the hills around the bay.

found here.

Officials assess damage as Florida wildfires burn

PALM BAY, Florida (CNN) — Assessment teams plan to fan out around Palm Bay, Florida, on Tuesday to gauge the damage done by a wildfire that continues to burn.

City officials have estimated that flames damaged or destroyed about 50 homes, said Jim Stables, assistant chief of the Palm Bay Fire Department.

Investigators were looking into the possibility that an arsonist started the 3,500-acre blaze, officials said.

Mazziotti said a $10,000 reward was in place for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for starting the fire.

Investigators were acting on several tips, he said. Watch the fires continue to burn

I think its sick, Halie Vail, who had a neighbor lose a house, told CNN affiliate WFTV-TV. I think they’ll probably burn in hell. They created hell, they’ll burn in hell for it.

Palm Bay Mayor John Mazziotti said the fire was burning about three to four blocks from my place and he had moved his family to a safer area.

If there’s smoke, you probably need to pack up and go someplace else because it’s pretty dangerous, Mazziotti said.

The Brevard County city on Florida’s Atlantic side has not announced mandatory evacuations, said Assistant Fire Chief John Stables.

We’re handling it on a case-to-case basis depending on the conditions of the homes and things like that, Stables said.

Stables and Mazziotti said the city was running short of resources to fight the fire.

We’ve exhausted all local resources, and we’re utilizing several resources from around the state, Stables said, adding that two helicopters with drop buckets from the state Division of Forestry were just not enough.

We’re at limited water as well, he said.

We’re in a really bad situation right now with the drought index, he said. We have no rain, and in turn, this wind has caused us a great deal of issue with that as well.

Mazziotti, asked if the city had enough resources, said simply, No.

Residents took it upon themselves to try to help each other out.

I can’t sit by and watch, resident Matt Call told CNN affiliate WKMG-TV. I can’t evacuate and run away. I have to step up.

Call and Robert Johnson were part of a group running to fire lines to help strangers.

If it makes a difference of me saving one of my neighbors’ homes by staying here and helping, then I stay here and fight, Call told WKMG.

If this house goes, then it is going to jump to the next house and then the next house and then eventually to mine, Johnson told WKMG reporters.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency earlier Monday as the fires, fed by drought conditions and strong winds, spread. Crist activated the National Guard to help battle the blazes and help with evacuations.

Palm Bay Fire spokesman Yvone Martinez said three firefighters were injured — including one who was airlifted from the scene — but she did not know the nature of their injuries.

All 18 schools in Palm Bay were closed Tuesday, according to the Brevard County Public Schools’ Web site. Parts of Interstate 95 and U.S. Highway 1 in Brevard County that were closed because of smoke conditions have reopened, according to CNN affiliate WKMG-TV.

Palm Bay wasn’t the only place affected by the drought-fueled wildfires. Two other blazes in Brevard County burned about 200 acres in Cocoa, but were almost completely contained, authorities said. Watch a home go up in flames

found here.

Pleasure prints

Mystery Monday - CCSI Review: The Missing Mummy Caper

today it is my great pleasure to bring to you my review of shallow productions’ latest ccsi thriller, “ccsi iii: the missing mummy spring.”the scene opens at the opulent catroville manor on mother’s era morning, with a blood-chilling cry for help.



it is cleocatra, shocked at the sight of her father lying in a pool of blood on the Nautical galley floor. when her three brothers step on it to the scene, they not only find their wounded father, but also strange clues: a puddle of water on the floor, large paw prints, missing food items, and worse yet - a missing mama patti! ccsi detective bucky bun and an ambulance are called for pronto.

Boys sandals

detective bucky bun and his helper detective harry moe quickly get ahead in the world and scope wrong the situation. discovery no source of forced player, detective bun speedily concludes that the catnapper knows mama patti. who could have catnapped mama patti, and on mother’s day, too?



following a set of clues, the fearless ccsi detectives some time experience out the source of the strange clues, and what happened to mama and papa.



“ccsi iii: the missing mummy caper” has a surprise twist ending, which is what the series has in a recover from to be known for. fans bequeath not be disappointed in this latest entry. special note has to be given to orlando bun, who gives a stupefying performance as the first-ever bun ccsi detective! this reviewer gives it two paws up, and a exuberant twitter for a job well done! if you haven’t regardless seen it, you can see both parts at the links farther down than: part onepart two moulddetective bucky bun - orlando bundetective harry moe - mickeypoliceman #1 - rockypoliceman #2 - mayapapa adam ball - mr. hendrixmama patti ball - marilyn monroewcleoctra ball - charlottetonto ball - pablomika ball - ericrudy ball - merlinling ling - jessicamr. doog - roxy the devil dogpeachy pitt - miss peachcatherine pitt - arieluncle tab - cameronparamedic #1 - tylerparamedic #2 - derbynurse #1 - tamra maewnurse #2 - zippydr. kieran - dr. tweetytownsfolk - scyllatownsfolk - beautownsfolk - sassy (from taylor catsssss)townsfolk - brainballcameo display - sassy katproductionofficial financial manager - sassy katproducers & directors - opus & roscoepen-pusher - criz laiexecutive board - sassy kat, momo pool, karl & ruis
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Nearly 10,000 reported killed by China quake

CHENGDU, China (CNN) — Rainy weather and poor logistics thwarted efforts by relief troops who walked for hours over rock, debris and mud on Tuesday in hopes of reaching the worst-hit area of an earthquake that killed nearly 10,000 in central China, state-run media reported.

Setting out from Maerkang in Sichuan Province at 8 p.m. Monday, the 100 or so troops had to travel 200 kilometers (124 miles) to go before reaching Wenchuan, the epicenter of the quake, also in the province, Xinhua reported. After seven hours, they still had 70 kilometers (43 miles) to go.

I have seen many collapsed civilian houses, and the rocks dropped from mountains on the roadside are everywhere, the head of the unit, Li Zaiyuan, told Xinhua.

Added CNN Correspondent John Vause: The roads here are terrible in the best of times … right now they’re down right atrocious. They’ve resorted to going in one man at a time on foot.

Nearly all the confirmed deaths were in Sichuan Province, but rescuers were hindered because roads linking it to the provincial capital, Chengdu, were damaged, Xinhua reported.

Local radio quoted disaster relief officials as saying a third of the buildings in Wenchuan collapsed from the quake and another third were seriously damaged.

The earthquake was powerful enough to be felt throughout most of China. Many children were buried under the rubble of their schools.

The Chinese government said the death toll was sure to rise.

An expert told CNN the 7.9-magnitude quake at about 2:28 p.m. Monday (6:28 a.m. GMT) was the largest the region has seen for over a generation.

Residents as far as Chongqing — about 200 miles from the epicenter in Sichuan Province — spent the night outdoors, too afraid of aftershocks to sleep indoors.

Local radio in Sichuan quoted disaster relief officials as saying a third of the buildings in Wenchuan collapsed from the quake and another third were seriously damaged. Watch as the death toll rises

The state-run Zhongxin news agency reported that a survivor who escaped Beichuan county in Sichuan Province described the province as having been razed to the ground.

The Red Cross Society of China, coordinating some of the international aid efforts, encouraged financial donations because of the difficulty of getting supplies to those most in need.

At least six schools collapsed to some extent in the quake or aftershocks that followed, Xinhua reported. See a report on rescue operations at the school

At one school, almost 900 students — all eighth-graders and ninth-graders, according to a local villager — were believed to be buried. See workers in Chengdu hiding under their desks during the quake

At least 50 bodies were pulled from the rubble by Monday night at Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan Township of Dujiangyan City, Sichuan Province, Xinhua reported.

Some buried teenagers were struggling to free themselves from the ruins while others were calling for help. Eight excavators were working at the site. Devastated parents watched as five cranes worked at the site and an ambulance waited, Xinhua reported.

A tearful mother said her son, ninth-grader Zhang Chengwei, was buried in the ruins.

Meanwhile, 2,300 people were buried in two collapsed chemical plants in Sichuan’s Shifang city, and 80 tons of ammonia leaked out, Xinhua reported. Six hundred people died there. The plants were among a series of buildings that collapsed, including private homes, schools and factories.

The local government has evacuated 6,000 civilians from the area and was dispatching firefighters to help at the scene, Xinhua reported.

Much of the nation’s transportation system shut down. Xinhua reported there were multiple landslides and collapses along railway lines near Chengdu. Quake victims have been sleeping outside in Chengdu

Sichuan Province sits in the Sichuan basin and is surrounded by the Himalayas to the west. The Yangtze River flows through the province and the Three Gorges Dam in the nearby Hubei Province controls flooding to the Sichuan — though there were no reports of damage to the world’s largest dam.

Monday’s quake was caused by the Tibetan plateau colliding with the Sichuan basin, Zhigang Peng, an earthquake expert at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, told CNN.

Earthquakes in this part of China are infrequent but not uncommon, he said.

The last major earthquake in the region occurred in the northwestern margin of the Sichuan basin when a 7.5-magnitude quake killed more than 9,300 people on August 25, 1933.

President Hu Jintao ordered an all-out effort to help those affected, and Premier Wen Jiabao traveled to the region to direct the rescue work, Xinhua reported.

My fellow Chinese, facing such a severe disaster, we need calm, confidence, courage and efficient organization, Wen was quoted as saying.

I believe we can certainly overcome the disaster with the public and the military working together under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the government.

Peter Sammonds, professor of geophysics at University College London, called the earthquake tremendous.

Particularly in the more remote, the more mountainous part where this has taken place, a lot of the buildings are built on sediments that are quite unstable. They’re probably liquifying, causing the buildings to collapse. You might expect landslides to occur, which could actually stop the relief efforts going through on the roads, so this could be very grim in the remoter, more mountainous parts of this province.

While many of the most immediate efforts were focused on Sichuan Province, Xinhua also reported dead and injured in Gansu, Chongqing and Yunnan provinces.

A provincial government spokesman said they feared more dead and injured in collapsed houses in Dujiangyan City in Wenchuan County.

A driver for the seismological bureau said he saw rows of houses collapsed in Dujiangyan, Xinhua reported.

Bonnie Thie, the country director of the Peace Corps, told CNN she was on a university campus in Chengdu about 60 miles from the epicenter, in the eastern part of China’s Sichuan province, when the first quake hit.

You could see the ground shaking, Thie told CNN.

The shaking went on for what seemed like a very long time, she said.

Bruce Presgrave, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said this quake could cause major damage because of its strength and proximity to major population centers. Also, it was relatively shallow, and those kinds of quakes tend to do more damage near the epicenter than deeper ones, Presgrave said.

An earthquake with 7.5 magnitude in the northern Chinese city of Tangshan killed 255,000 people in 1976 — the greatest death toll from an earthquake in the last four centuries and the second greatest in recorded history, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Tangshan is roughly 995 miles (1,600 km) from Chengdu, the nearest major city to the epicenter of Monday’s quake. Read an explanation about earthquakes

After the quake struck Monday, the ground shook as far away as Beijing, which is 950 miles (1,528 km) from the epicenter. Residents of the Chinese capital, which hosts this year’s Olympic Games in August, felt a quiet, rolling sensation for about a minute. See CNN’s interview with an American in Chengdu

Thousands of people were evacuated from Beijing buildings immediately after the earthquake.

At least seven more earthquakes — measuring between 4.0 and 6.0 magnitudes — happened nearby over the four hours after the initial quake at at 2:28 p.m. local time, the USGS reported.

found here.