Global

Image: The Keeling Curve

economist.com - May 11th, 2013

Charles D. Keeling, mostly known as Dave, was a soft-spoken, somewhat courtly man who changed the way people and governments see the world. A slightly aimless chemistry graduate with an interest in projects that took him out into the wild, in 1956 he started to build instruments that could measure the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a scientific topic which, back then, was barely even a backwater. In 1958, looking for a place where the level of carbon dioxide would not be too severely influenced by local plants or industry, he installed some instruments high up on Mauna Loa, a Hawaiian volcano.

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In this Sept. 25, 2009 photo, opposition candidate from the Aruban People's Party, Mike Eman, center left, and his wife Doina ride atop a jeep upon their arrival to a polling station in Oranjestad, Aruba. Prime Minister Eman and several legislators launched a hunger strike Friday, July 11, 2014, to protest what they say is meddling by the Dutch government in local financial affairs.(Photo: Pedro Famous Diaz AP)

usatoday.com - AP - July 12, 2014

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Aruba's prime minister and several legislators have launched a hunger strike to protest what they say is meddling by the Dutch government in local financial affairs. . .

. . . The hunger strike comes after the Dutch government asked Aruba's governor to hold off on signing the 2014 budget into law pending an evaluation of it. The Dutch Caribbean island, which approved the budget two weeks ago, is facing a major deficit and its national debt represents 75 percent of its GDP.

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The efforts to contain the largest Ebola outbreak in history have so far failed. International response teams, desperate to limit the toll of the fast-spreading epidemic in three West African countries, have been calling for the use experimental drugs or vaccines to try to stop the deadly virus. Many experts, however, including the scientist who led the work on a Canadian-made Ebola vaccine, say that using untested medications in the current West African outbreak could be disastrous. Other scientists disagree. The World Health Organization reports that the current outbreak, which is the first in West Africa, has so far infected 844 people, causing the death of 518 of them. This is double the size of the next largest outbreak, in Uganda in 2000, and this outbreak has just begun...

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Twitter - @M_Ryuki0529 - https://twitter.com/M_Ryuki0529/status/486648262749732865/photo/1

weather.com - July 9, 2014

In Okinawa, heavy rainfall triggered flash flooding, prompting the Japanese Meteorological Society to reissue an "emergency warning" for landslides and damaging floods for the prefecture, having downgraded it earlier after the typhoon's eye had moved north. The city of Nago on Okinawa Island reported 17.24 inches (438.0 mm) of rain between 9:10 a.m. Tuesday and 9:10 a.m. Wednesday local time.

A Twitter user in Nago posted photos of floodwaters swamping the city of 60,000 Wednesday morning, warning residents of his or her native Miyazaki Prefecture that this was coming their way.

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/typhoon-neoguri-japan-okinawa-flood-threat-20140709