 The Insolvency Service - the Government department which regulates the industry - said that 135,089 people went bankrupt or took out an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) or debt relief order over the year. This compares to 134,142 in 2009, which itself was the highest figure since records began 50 years ago.
According to the stats, the number of bankruptcies fell nearly 21% on the previous year, but the number of IVAs rose 6.5%.
But Stephen Speed from the Insolvency Service told Sky News that forecasting numbers for 2011 would be difficult.
Read more
 A 2007 briefing by General Patrick O’Reilly, director of the US Missile Defence Agency, disclosed that the radar system would be unable to detect long-range missiles in the launch phase because it could only see in a straight line, not over the horizon. By the time the radar "saw" the missile, it would be too late to launch an interceptor in time to stop it striking its target. The Czech radar system was the lynch-pin of George Bush’s “son of star wars” missile defence plans, ostensibly intended to intercept missiles launched from North Korea and Iran. Russia reacted furiously to the proposed system, which it claimed could threaten its own defences and be used to spy on its interests. A leaked cable obtained by WikiLeaks detailing US talks with Moscow describes a briefing by General O’Reilly on the capabilities of the Czech radar.  Mexico has always considered the US dollar almost a secondary currency to their Peso as the fact that billions of US dollars spent their way through the Mexican economy in 2009 and 2010 which speaks for itself, but sometimes even the best of friendships come to an end.
The Mexican government in September 2010 enacted a new law which basically restricts the use of US Dollars for almost all purchases inside of Mexico.
In early 2010 travelers and visitors could shop at many of the large US corporations inside of Mexico such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot or even one of the hundreds of American food establishments such as McDonalds or Dominoes Pizza and pay for their meal using US Dollars but under the new law using US Dollars is no longer an option.
Read more
 The Bay Street consensus is that the Canadian housing market skirted the worst and managed a soft landing and homeowners are likely able to absorb higher mortgage payments once interest rates head upward.But one analyst warned Thursday that people are overlooking a key risk that threatens to push down housing prices by as much as 25% over the next several years: subdued wage growth in a low-inflation environment.
That mix could make mortgage payments increasingly onerous for households already carrying record levels of indebtedness, David Madani of Capital Economics said, adding the knock-on effects to consumer spending could be so significant they could push Canada into another recession.
Read more
 All over the world honey bees are working as hard as they can, yet they cannot keep up with all the crops that need pollinating in order to meet our ever-growing demand for food. The call for fruit, vegetables and nuts continues to increase, but there aren’t enough bees to pollinate all the crops. As a result, global food production is in danger, says the Rabobank.
It seems a bit strange that a Dutch bank should be concerned about honey bees. Director of the Rabobank Dirk Duijzer explains that his company always takes a keen interest in issues concerning food production. The bank, which started off as a bank for farmers, is seriously worried about the shortage of bees and the consequences for the agricultural and food sectors.
Read more  It's not just people dying in the winter blast, fish are dead too. The bay, turned into a watery grave, for a variety of species of fish.
It's a fear come true in spots like Boca Chica Beach and by the Swing Bridge at Port Isabel.
"I've been here for 15 years...and this is the worst I've seen it yet," Sgt. James Dunk with Texas Parks and Wildlife said.
Just before the Valley's first of two nights of hard freeze, Sgt. Dunks predicted fish would be left paralyzed by the plunging temperatures.
"Dead trout... rough fish... Grouper,” he said.
The total impact on fish by the winter blast remains a mystery.
Wildlife experts believe the prolonged frigid temps could be detrimental to the resource.
As one person put it: “It was simply too cold... For too long.”
Friday night lows in the 20's once again, only adds insult to injury.
Law enforcement has been policing the waters since Wednesday afternoon to ensure anglers don't fish in areas designated off-limits.
It's a last ditch effort to protect, what nobody can predict, will be left when the warm-up begins this weekend. Source..
 SABASTIAN, FL (CNN) - Thousands of dead fish were found washed up on the shore of a Florida state park. The animals were found along the beach of Sebastian Inlet State Park in Melbourne Beach, FL, on Friday.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials believe the fish died because of the lack of oxygen.
"Just because there's such a large school of them, they use up the oxygen really quickly, and because they are coming closer to shore, there's not as high of a water turnover rate and sometimes when you're in an area with not as much tidal flow," said Kelli O'Donnell, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
If the oxygen continues to run out, officials believe more fish may die. Source...
 A widespread drought in the Amazon rainforest last year caused the "lungs of the world" to produce more carbon dioxide than they absorbed, potentially leading to a dangerous acceleration of global warming. Scientists have calculated that the 2010 drought was more intense than the "one-in-100-year" drought of 2005. They are predicting it will result in some eight billion tonnes of carbon dioxide being expelled from the Amazon rainforest, which is more than the total annual carbon emissions of the United States. For the second time in less than a decade, the earth's greatest rainforest released more carbon dioxide than it absorbed because many of its trees dried out and died. Scientists believe that the highly unusual nature of the two droughts, which occurred in the space of just five years, may be the result of higher sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic, which could also be influenced by global warming caused by the release of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Anglo-Brazilian team of researchers has emphasised that there is as yet no proof that the two highly unusual droughts in the Amazon are the direct result of rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, but the scientists have warned that the world is gambling with its future if it fails to curb fossil fuel emissions. Read More..  An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter Scale shook most of North-East this evening, creating panic in the region. The epicentre of the quake was located at the Indo-Myanmar border and it occurred at 7.24 p.m., Central Seismological Observatory here said. People ran out of their homes as the quake shook the buildings for about 10 seconds. The epicentre was located at 24.8 degree North Latitude and 94.6 degree East Longitude. The quake occurred 30 km below the earth’s surface and was felt in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and parts of Mizoram and Nagaland. No immediate report of any damage or casualty has been received. Source...  DEVASTATED locals in the coastal hamlet of Tully Heads are struggling to cope as they try to comprehend the destruction of Cyclone Yasi. The sleepy seaside community was virtually annihilated by the category five cyclone which struck on Wednesday night.
Some residents of Tully Heads, almost obliterated by Yasi, only discovered the extent of their heartbreak today after getting into the community by four-wheel drive.
Those who could make it into town were in tears as they surveyed the damage.
Many broke down and cried unashamedly.
Others stood wide eyed, their jaws dropped.
It could have been a disaster movie, but it wasn't.
The storm surge washed entire homes away like they were sandcastles and reduced brick and concrete structures to rubble.
Fridges, yachts, ovens and pool tables have been washed 100m inland, while the remnants of homes litter the streets creating obstacle courses for vehicles. Read More...  Over five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the aesthetic scars may be slowly healing but the impact clearly still remains - as it was revealed that the population of the city is nearly 30 per cent smaller than a decade ago.
The Louisiana city, which was the 24th biggest city in the U.S. two decades ago, is now languishing as the 53rd most populated.
According to the Census Bureau, just 343,829 people were living in the city as of April 1 last year.
In 2000, five years before the hurricane which claimed the lives of over 1,800 people, New Orleans was inhabited by a healthy 484,674.
African-American residents were hit particularly hard by the natural disaster, which impacted most heavily on predominantly black areas, such as the 9th Ward where there were several breaches in the levee holding back flood waters.
The city, which was once more than two-thirds black, now has 118,000 fewer black residents, shrinking the overall share to 60 per cent, according to figures published in the New York Times.
It is believed many who are yet to return to the city are still waiting for promised insurance or government money which would enable them to repair their damaged homes and make them habitable once again.
The number of children is down 56,193 - a staggering 44 per cent drop. Read more...
 A new type of mosquito discovered in Africa could further complicate the fight to control malaria, according to scientists.French researchers collecting mosquitoes from ponds near villages in Burkina Faso, West Africa, say they have identified a subtype of the Anopheles gambiae unlike any documented before.
The mosquito is highly susceptible to infection with the malaria parasite, likes to rest outside, not indoors, and can therefore evade most current control measures.
Dr Ken Vernick discovered the mosquito - nicknamed Goundry after one of the villages near where it was discovered - with colleagues at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris.
He said: 'They are very susceptible to the human malaria parasite, we know they belong to a species that has an exquisite preference for human blood, and we know they are abundant in the population.'
Dr Vernick said his team is not yet able to quantify how much malaria transmission this new mosquito subtype is responsible for, but they feared it might be a major factor. Read more...
New Mexico in a deep freeze
| |
3 Feb 11 - Email from New Mexico
Hello Robert, A phenomenal outbreak of arctic air has plunged New Mexico into a deep freeze the past couple of days. The final new record tallies are not in yet, but some new historic readings have been set. Holloman, AFB which is located near Alamogordo, NM plunged down to -19F this morning. A few miles away, up in the Sacramento Mtns, a personal weather station located at Dry Canyon, just east of Cloudcroft, recorded a low of -27. Yesterday, nearby El Paso, Texas recorded a temperature of 17, its lowest daily maximum high temperature in 120 years. I have compiled a listing of the lows and records that are available thus far, on my web page.
Wendell L. Malone (KE5WLM)
Regional Skywarn Coordinator
| See Wendell's web page here: http://www.senmwx.com/ (Scroll down to see interactive map.) I notice that Tucson, Arizona. and surrounding areas are also in a deep freeze. |
Freezing rain shuts down Corpus Christi
City's entire interstate system is closed link
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.