Archive for the 'Collapse' Category
Thieves Stealing Manhole Covers
July 1st, 2008Via: USA Today: Cities and counties are battling manhole-cover thefts, a crime spree that police tie to the weak economy. Hundreds of 200-pound covers have disappeared in three months in California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Georgia as scrap metal prices pop up. “It’s a sign of the times,” says Sgt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee […]
Olympic Nightmare: A Red Tide in the Yellow Sea
July 1st, 2008Serfs up! Via: IHT: With less than six weeks before it plays host to the Olympic sailing regatta, the city of Qingdao has mobilized thousands of people and an armada of small boats to clean up an algae bloom that is choking large stretches of the coastline and threatening to impede the Olympic competition. Local […]
Grave Robbing
June 30th, 2008Via: St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Grave robbing has become an above-ground affair. Gone are the days when enterprising thieves would dig up an old grave and pillage for gold teeth and rings. Today, it’s mostly the bronze markers and flower vases that draw their attention. Rising scrap metal prices, coupled with the lagging economy, have triggered […]
America’s Aviation System Could Be at Risk of Collapsing by the Beginning of Next Year
June 27th, 2008Via: Christian Science Monitor: America’s aviation system could be at risk of collapsing by the beginning of next year. That warning from aviation experts has prompted some industry leaders to call for re-regulation, something considered almost heresy until now. Others are urging Washington to do more to rein in the oil speculators pushing up fuel […]
Iowa: Severe Soil Erosion
June 24th, 2008Via: Des Moines Register: Soil erosion has caused substantial damage to Iowa’s farm fields hit hard by heavy rain and flooding this spring, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said after touring two areas of the state. Heavy rains this spring came when the soil was most vulnerable to erosion – when the soil has […]
Los Angeles: More People Living Out of Their Cars
June 24th, 2008Via: IHT / AP: Having lost her job and her three-bedroom house, Darlene Knoll has joined the legions of downwardly mobile who are four wheels away from homelessness. She is living out of her shabby 1978 RV, and every night she has to look for a place to park where she won’t get hassled by […]
Milwaukee: Rumor of Free Food Vouchers Draws 2,500 People to Community Services Center, Fights Break Out, Cops Called, Barricades Established; No Food Vouchers Today
June 24th, 2008Via: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee police said they have restored order this morning but will remain outside of the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center after a crowd awaiting free food vouchers – which never were to be distributed – became unruly this morning. Police Department spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said Vliet St., between N. […]
Floods: More Expensive Beef, Pork, Poultry, Eggs, Cheese and Milk on the Way
June 23rd, 2008Via: AP: Raging Midwest floodwaters that swallowed crops and sent corn and soybean prices soaring are about to give consumers more grief at the grocery store. In the latest bout of food inflation, beef, pork, poultry and even eggs, cheese and milk are expected to get more expensive as livestock owners go out of business […]
New Zealand Hitting the Wall
June 22nd, 2008No surprises here. I can’t be arsed to find the story, but years ago, I wrote that I’d pick New Zealand in a state of collapse over Southern California any day. The theory could be put to a test here soon enough, the way things are going. It’s funny, up here in the Far North, […]
Unbelievable Pictures of Iowa Flooding
June 20th, 2008Must see. Via: Boston Globe.
