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Signs of the Times #834
Huge Blast at Factory Glasgow [May 11] http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1134817,00.html ‘Two people are feared dead and up to 20 trapped in the rubble of a Glasgow factory destoyed in a major explosion. Unconfirmed reports say around sixty people have been injured. The incident happened at Stockline Plastics in Grovepark Street, off Maryhill Road, just after midday. The four-storey building was all but destroyed in the blast with rubble collapsing onto parked cars. A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow said accident and emergency rooms at the city´s Western Infirmary, Royal Infirmary and Southern General hospitals were prepared to take casualties. A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service confirmed it had three special operations teams and a mobile control unit which specialises in handling major incidents at the scene of the blast, along with 16 ambulance crews.’ [and from another source] Explosion like an Earthquake [May 11] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3705293.stm ‘The scene following a major explosion in Glasgow was compared to an earthquake by firefighters battling to free those trapped beneath the rubble. Only a corner of the four-storey Stockline Plastics factory building remained standing, with the rest an unrecognisable pile of bricks, wood and dust following the incident. Many of those trapped were believed to have been in offices above the factory floor when the building gave way under the force of the explosion.’ [Note: no known cause. Scotland is in the stretch zone.]
 
Signs of the Times #833
Tube line Open after Derailment [May 11] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3706031.stm ‘No-one was hurt, but 150 passengers were led to safety after the accident near White City station in west London. The Central Line was shut for months in 2003 while trains were taken out of service for checks, after one hit a wall at Chancery Lane station. LU says the initial investigation into Tuesday's derailment will focus on the track, not the rolling stock. Metronet, which maintains the track, said it would be looking into its work amid reports maintenance had only been carried out the night before. An LU spokesman said the rolling stock was unlikely to have caused the derailment. He said the initial investigation has focused on the track. The derailment occurred at a set of points that were immobilised while they were awaiting further track work.’ [and from another source] Trains collide in northern Italy [May 16] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3719501.stm ‘Two trains have crashed outside the north-west Italian city of Genoa injuring about 30 people, Italian emergency services say. It appears a fault in the track may have caused the accident, which happened at about 1630 (1430 GMT). Skipping its track, the passenger train struck a goods train travelling in the opposite direction and also hit an uninhabited building before coming to a halt. The drivers of the passenger train have told police they pulled emergency brakes because "something was not right on the line" and the track seemed to be "deformed", AFP news agency reports.’
 
Signs of the Times #832
Hundreds Forced from Homes After Indonesian Volcano Erupts [May 15] http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newstories/RANewsStories_1109058.htm ‘Hundreds of people on an eastern Indonesian island have reportedly been forced from their homes by a volcanic eruption. Mount Sirung on Pantar Island in East Nusa Tenggara province began spewing smoke and dust about two days ago.’ [and from another source] Volcano Erupts in Southern Japan [May 15] http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2004/5/15/latest/17383Volcanoer&sec=latest ‘A volcano erupted in southern Japan on Saturday, shaking the nearby area with an explosion and spewing smoke high into the air, an official said. There were no reports of damage or injuries. The explosion of Mount Sakurajima registered as large on the Meteorological Agency´s scale for both the sound and the strength of the tremors it caused, an official at the local agency office in Kagoshima said.’ [and from another source] Kilauea Volcano Banana Flow Widens near Ocean [May 14] ‘The terminus of the Banana flow is 450-500 m from the ocean. In the past few days, the flow front stalled as the flow widened.’
 
Signs of the Times #831
Steel girder collapses onto I-70 [May 15] http://9news.com/default.aspx ‘I-70 is closed in both directions at C-470 after a steel girder collapsed onto the eastbound lanes of I-70 and landed on a SUV. Stegman said the girder weighed several tons. The girder was put up Tuesday as part of a project to widen a ramp that leads to I-70 from Colorado 470, she said. The beam remained connected to the concrete ramp at both ends, with the middle draped across all three lanes of the highway. The crushed remains of the car were beneath. The girder that fell was not a support girder, CDOT says. Traffic on C-470 over the accident is getting by.’ [and from another source] There have been two train derailments in Colorado this week. One in Denver, a freight train derailed near Coors Field. The other one was in the mountaions, said to be caused by a rock slide. [and from another source] New Orleans [May 14] http://www.theneworleanschannel.com/news/3306093/detail.html ‘A fire broke out but was quickly brought under control Fridayat about 12:25 PM. at the Murphy Oil refinery in Chalmette. The fire broke out in a crude unit, where a pump seal ignited. The cause is under investigation. Neighbors reported hearing a loud explosion, but refinery officials would not confirm that an explosion occurred.’ [Note: Colorado is on the Continental Divide for N America, and New Orleans in the stretch zone.]
 
Signs of the Times #830
Mexico Air Force Video Creates UFO Stir [May 11] http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=5109891 ‘The Mexican Air Force has released footage of what a UFO expert said were 11 invisible unidentified flying objects picked up by an infrared camera as they whizzed around a surveillance plane. The ministry confirmed to Reuters it had provided the video, filmed by the Air Force on March 5 over the eastern coastal state of Campeche. The film, recorded by a plane looking for drugs trafficking near the Gulf of Mexico, shows 11 objects as blobs of light that hover in formation or dart about, sometimes disappearing into cloud. Interviewed by Mausson on another section of the video, the pilots said they grew nervous when the objects, still invisible, turned back during a chase and surrounded the plane.’ [Note: see also Sign #813, the Iran UFO blitz on Apr 28, apparently a worldwide blitz occuring at this time!]
 
Signs of the Times #829
UFO in Scotland [May 12] ‘Several people reported seeing a huge silver object in the area as they drove past at around 8.45am last Wednesday. Silver in appearance and looked like the dishes you see on the side of television transmitters. Colleagues in Cumbernauld had seen a similar object around half an hour previously, and alerted their South Lanarkshire counterparts that it appeared to be heading in their direction. Lee Close, of the Anglo-Scottish UFO Research Agency, has been investigating last week's events in tandem with the local UFO club.’ [and from another] Callers Report Strange Lights In Central Fla. Sky [May 13] http://www.local6.com/news/3301170/detail.html ‘Several people in Central Florida said they spotted a series of mysterious lights in the sky Tuesday night.. One resident filmed the lights in Polk County, Fla. Officials at Avon Park Air Force Station in Polk County were conducting regular exercises in the area the same night the lights were spotted. The strange lights may have been flares from the operations but officials would not release details of the operation.’ [and from another] UFOs Reported Over South Texas Skies: Man Captures UFOs On Video [May 15] NBC5i.com ‘A Texas man claims he captured the images of an unidentified flying object on his camcorder. The man from Mission, Texas, doesn´t want to be identified but did say he was alerted to the object by his dogs in the middle of the night. The man said the dogs woke him up by barking and he saw the light when he went outside to investigate.’ [and from another] Glowing UFO Photographed In Poland [May 12] http://ufo.internauci.pl/ ‘The photo below was taken by J. Puszkarewicz over the city of Rzeszów, Poland May 4th or 5th. Enlargement with high contrast.’
 
Signs of the Times #828
The cup of Ursa Major was observed [May 11] at 10:40 CDT near Madison to be between Azi 285°-290°, with the handle stretching to just past dead North. This is a full 30° too far to the West! [and from another source] Katkam encompasses a span of 34.2 degrees. Vancouver (photo at right) is on daylight savings time, based on the photos showing the sunset. Thus, in this photo [May 13] where Venus is visible, is showing Venus where expected! [and from another source] I just checked Sky and Telescope [May 11]. Went outside to look. According to S&T Venus should have been right on the horizon. Instead, it was still high in the sky about 35°. [and from another source] And there's Venus again, on film! I wonder how far above the horizon in this wide cam view? For a Caribbean setting where the Sun is setting at 19:00 (as the 19:14 time stamp seems to indicate) Venus would be at 19 deg above the horizon at 19:58, per Skymap. This Venus is far too high! [and from another source] Venus is presumed to be 15° above the horizon at 20:40, but is too high. Two hours later at 22:46 the Moon is presumed to be at 27° above the horizon. Either the Moon or Venus, or both, are in a wrong position. Bonaire webcam. They appear to be at the same approximate position [Apr 25] but per Skymap the Moon should be 12d higher than Venus, thus Venus is too high.
 
Signs of the Times #827
The Transit of the moon was, according to the US Navy chart, at 3:30 AM [May 8]. Yet, the moon had barely moved a quarter of the way across the sky by 3:30 AM, much less passed it´s meridian! Not only that, but it is in a very odd trajectory. It is moving up from extremely low on the Southeastern horizon and moving to the West, north west at a skewed angle. This flattened trajectory was even more pronounced last night than ever before. Something is very wrong here. http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=48521 [and from another] Last night´s moon was late again as usual. Here are the numbers for my latitude and longitude: According to the US Navy Chart Moon rise was due at 12:41 AM May 8, 2004. However, the moon did not rise until 1:33 AM. That´s a difference of 52 min. compared to 47 the day before and 43 the day before that. There is a common ratio here of a five min. increase each time. That is a huge difference in astronomical terms! [and from another] Moon is late 1:04 hours here [May 11] in Cordoba, Argentina. [and from another] On this past Sunday the tide in Mid- Florida, where I was visiting [May 11], was 34 minutes late. Yes that was 34 minutes late. Just to be clear the observations came from Mid- Florida on the Atlantic side. [and from another] I have noticed here in Louisiana [May 13] that the moon's orbit has been way to the South recently, as compared to a northern orbit just weeks ago.
 
Signs of the Times #826
I have noticed here in Louisiana [May 13] that there appears to be another planet in close proximity to Venus, something I haven't seen in the past. [and from another] Thanks to katkam [May 12], there is also a Dark Twin. I suppose that that one is such planet because in that zone of the sky there are no stars or planets. A month ago, I have taken a photography of the Dark Twin and was approximately at half height of this. [and from another] I now have observed [May 11] here in California that an object moved exactly parallel with the supposed Dark Twin and another with Venus. My latest photo shows Dark Twin stalled near the same location. [Note: In May, several independent observers placed the Dark Twin in the vicinity of Venus, moved behind the Earth from its former position to the NW. The Dark Twin has come up behind the Earth in their shared orbit and stalled.]
 
Signs of the Times #825
Job numbers are fictional lies! [May 11] http://www.nypost.com/business/23936.htm ‘Most of the 288,000 jobs that the Labor Department says were created last month may not really exist. Labor Department´s computers making happy predictions about seasonal job creation that could neither be verified nor justified. Back in the March employment report, the government added 153,000 positions to its revised total of 337,000 new jobs because it thought (but couldn´t prove) loads of new companies were being created in this economy. That estimate comes from the Labor Department´s birth/death model. As staggering as the assumption about new companies was in March, the Labor Department got even more brazen in April. Last Friday, it was disclosed that these imaginary jobs had been increased by 117,000 to 270,000 for the latest month. Without those extra 117,000 make-believe jobs, the total growth for April would have been just 171,000 - sub-par for an economy that´s supposed to be growing at more than 4 percent a year, but right on the pros´ targets. Take away all 270,000 make-believe jobs and, well, you have the sort of pessimism that the political pollsters are seeing.’