Earthquake strikes San Francisco Bay Area

Bay Area residents were jolted awake Monday morning when a 4.0 earthquake rattled the region.

The quake struck at 6:49 a.m. with an epicenter about one mile north of Piedmont along the Hayward Fault, according to the United States Geological Survey. Maps provided by the USGS indicate the quake was centered near Modoc Avenue east of Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.

People reported feeling the temblor, which had a depth of 5.4 kilometers, in San Francisco, further inland in the East Bay and in the North Bay. There were no immediate reports of damage.

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Six aftershocks followed the quake, the strongest of which was magnitude 2.4, according to the USGS.

The USGS said there is a low likelihood of casualties or damage due to the quake, but there is the chance of secondary hazards from the shaker such as landslide.

Via: SFGate

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[VIDEO] Mega Quake Could Destroy a Portion of the Pacific Northwest

A new report predicts that a mega-earthquake could kill an estimated 13,000 people and destroy a sizable portion of the Pacific Northwest.

Even more disturbing? It's overdue.

The New Yorker reported that FEMA calculations show these types of earthquakes happen at regular intervals in this specific part of the world, roughly every 240 years.

The last one was more than 300 years ago, in 1700, when a quake there sent a 600-foot wave of water all the way to Japan.

Michio Kaku, a physicist and professor at City College of New York, told Shepard Smith today that the troubling article does not overstate the danger.

"The Cascadia fault is an earthquake waiting to happen," Kaku stated. "We know it's going to happen with an energy 30 times the maximum energy of the San Andreas fault."

Kaku said Hollywood has "brainwashed" people into thinking that California is where the next massive earthquake will hit. 

He added that before the mega-quake actually hits, there is a compression wave that is detected by animals.  

"Animals start to act very strange. We've seen that happen before earthquakes," Kaku said. "And then, a minute, two minutes later, boom!"

The massive quake, with a magnitude of up to 9.2, would last about four minutes, according to seismologists, with a wall of water following about 15 minutes later.

Kaku said he's concerned that many of the 70,000 residents in the potential "inundation zone" have very little knowledge about this risk. 

"It barely rates on the radar screen," he said.

Shep asked Kaku whether he would live in the Pacific Northwest if he had children. 

"I'd think twice," he said, advising residents to educate their children on emergency preparedness and what to do in case of an earthquake.

Watch the full segment above.

Via: Fox News Insider

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‘San Andreas’ Set to Rock Box Office with $47 Million Debut, ‘Aloha’ Left in the Dust

Warner Bros.’ “San Andreas” is no box office disaster, with the 3D action film drawing $18.2 million on Friday, setting it on track for a projected weekend haul of $47 million at 3,777 locations and smashing past early estimates that put it around the $40 million mark. Cameron Crowe’s “Aloha,” meanwhile, was left in the dust, eyeing a modest $10-11 million weekend after a slow Friday that drew approximately $3.6 million at 2,815 sites.

Critics may not be giving “San Andreas” points for its brains, but the Dwayne Johnson film is certainly demonstrating its brawn — its strong performance is the best of Johnson’s career outside the “Fast & Furious” franchise, handily beating the opening weekend haul for “Hercules” ($29.8 million), “Pain and Gain” ($20.2 million) and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” ($40.5 million).

There’s still a chasm between “San Andreas” and the opening weekend tallies for Roland Emmerich’s similarly cataclysmic movies, “The Day After Tomorrow” ($68.7 million) and “2012” ($65.2 million), but it’s a vast improvement over last year’s “Into the Storm” ($17.3 million) and “Pompeii” ($10.3 million), which barely measured on the Richter scale.

SEE MORE:‘San Andreas': Experts Break Down What’s Realistic, What’s Not

While the romantic “Aloha” offers counter-programming for viewers who may have grown tired of the endless CGI carnage that has become a staple of summer blockbusters, the Bradley Cooper film has received a critical mauling. A $10-11 million opening is in line with Crowe’s two most recent drama offerings — 2011’s “We Bought a Zoo” garnered $9.3 million and went on to make $75.6 million, buoyed by the star power of Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, while 2005’s “Elizabethtown” bowed to $10.6 million on its way to a $26.8 million total.

Elsewhere, Universal’s “Pitch Perfect 2″ is still humming along, eyeing a weekend total of around $14 million in week three, while Warner Bros.’ “Mad Max: Fury Road” clearly has plenty of gas in the tank, on track for a three-day total of around $13 million. Disney’s “Tomorrowland” is nipping at “Max’s” heels for a similar $13 million weekend.

Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is still showing its box office muscle in week five, with Joss Whedon’s superhero sequel expected to pass $425 million this weekend, which could relegate “Aloha” to sixth place on the chart. 20th Century Fox’s “Poltergeist” remake scared up $2.6 million on Friday, looking to chill audiences to the tune of just under $8 million in its second weekend.

Via: Variety

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San Andreas Ready to Blow – In Theaters and In Real Life

Admit it, there's nothing more fun than sitting in a dark theatre, munching on a bucket of buttery popcorn, and watching the Earth get demolished. In the latest round of catastrophic flicks, California is destroyed as the famous San Andreas Fault unleashes unimaginable (and unrealistic) devastation across the state.

The new film, San Andreas, depicts the rupture of an unknown fault near the Hoover Dam in Nevada, which gets the destructive ball rolling by setting off powerful earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault. And although earthquakes are nothing new to Californians, and pose serious threats along the famous fault, Hollywood has once again thrown caution (and science) to the wind in order to feed our catastrophic needs.

The San Andreas Fault is a very real hazard. At almost 800 miles long, the fault marks the boundary where the North American plate meets the Pacific plate. And it's the movement of these plates against each other that cause the powerful quakes characteristic to the region.

A recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey shows the inevitability of just such a quake, which is predicted to hit within the next couple of decades.

"The new likelihoods are due to the inclusion of possible multi-fault ruptures, where earthquakes are no longer confined to separate, individual faults, but can occasionally rupture multiple faults simultaneously," lead author of the study and USGS scientist, Ned Field says. "This is a significant advancement in terms of representing a broader range of earthquakes throughout California's complex fault system."

The study shows that the likelihood of a magnitude 8 or larger earthquake in the next 30 years has risen from about 4.7 percent to around 7 percent, based on recent findings. However, the area most at risk is along the southern end of the fault, not the northern end near San Francisco.

Via: The Science Times

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L.A. earthquake: Shaking, jolted nerves reported across wide area

A 4.4-magnitude earthquake that struck near Westwood provided an early morning jolt for the greater Los Angeles area, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The quake struck at 6:25 a.m. at a depth of 5.3 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake was centered two miles north of Sherman Oaks, not far from the intersection of Mulholland Drive and the 405 Freeway.

A shallow magnitude 2.7 earthquake followed up at 7:23 a.m. four miles from Westwood, according to the USGS. That quake was reported at a depth of 4.3 miles. 

The Los Angeles Fire Department was in "earthquake emergency mode" as crews surveyed the city by air and on the ground, but public safety officials across the region said there did not appear to be any significant damage.

“We did our initial survey and it was felt only. No reports of any damage,” said County Fire Supervisor Michael Pittman.

FULL COVERAGE: Southern California earthquakes

Joe Ramallo of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said that as of 6:45 a.m. there were no reports of water main breaks or power outages immediately following the earthquake. But he said crews are conducting routine safety checks after the quake to ensure their durability.

Metro light rail service, meanwhile, had resumed normal service shortly after 7 a.m. after a system-wide inspection found no damage.

Stacey Dirks, the 25-year-old assistant manager at Noah’s New York Bagels in Westwood, was at work at the time and said “it just felt like a sudden shake, it was just like rapid and quick.”

No bagels fell off the shelves and “everything stayed in place,” Dirks said.

Via: LA Times
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Laying it on thick, Obama lavishes praise on Clinton at medal fete

It’s no secret President Obama and former President Clinton have at times had a rocky relationship.

But both men were all smiles Wednesday as Mr. Obama bestowed the 42nd president with the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

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PHOTOS: Best Frenemies: Bill Clinton and President Obama

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At a ceremony at the White House, Mr. Obama praised Mr. Clinton for both his work in elected office and also his post-presidential efforts with his Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative.

“As president he proved that with the right choices, you could grow the economy, lift people out of poverty, we could shrink our deficits and still invest in our families, our health, our schools, science, technology. In other words, we can go further when we look out for each other,” Mr. Obama said, looking directly at Mr. Clinton as he spoke. “As we’ve all seen, as president, he was just getting started. He doesn’t stop. He’s helped lead relief efforts after the Asian tsunami, 

Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake. His foundation and global initiative have helped to save or improve the lives of literally hundreds of millions of people.”

Mr. Obama joked at one point he had been grateful for his Democratic predecessor’s counsel and advice “both on and off the golf course.”

The two men smiled and laughed as Mr. Obama gave Mr. Clinton his medal.

Via: Washington Times

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With nuclear plants idled, Japan launches pioneering wind project BY CAROL J. WILLIAMS

Japan inaugurated a floating offshore wind turbine Monday that energy industry leaders hope will open a new frontier in Japanese renewable technologies and help the country reduce its dependence on nuclear energy and fossil fuels.

The floating platform is anchored 13 miles offshore from the crippledFukushima Daiichinuclear power plant, the scene of earthquake, tsunami and reactor meltdown disasters in March 2011.

The platform, anchored to the seabed 400 feet below the surface, is the first project of its kind in Japan, and is intended to show that emerging energy technologies can take advantage of powerful offshore winds despite the challenging ocean depths around most of the island country.

Electricity generated by the new 2,000-kilowatt wind turbine is relayed at the adjacent floating substation to an underwater cable anddistributed to about 600 householdsby Tohoku Electric Power Co., the Jiji Press agency said.

The project, which envisions two additional floating turbines next year with 7,000-kilowatt capacity each, is a joint public-private undertaking by the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, the University of Tokyo and 10 major industrial enterprises.

Japan's wind energy potential could generate 1,570 gigawatts, orfive times current national electricity output, the Japan Daily Press said in its report on the turbine start-up. It hailed the project as reflecting the hope that nuclear power, which supplied nearly one-third of Japan's electricity needs before the Fukushima disaster, can be significantlyreduced or phased out.

All 50 of Japan's nuclear reactors are shut down or inoperable following the March 11, 2011, disasters that began with a magnitude-9 earthquake, which triggered the tsunami that smashed through retaining walls at the four-reactor Fukushima complex. Electrical utilities have already petitioned the government to restart 14 of the idled reactors following safety retrofits and more stringent regulations put in place after the Fukushima meltdowns.

Via: McClatchy

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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/11/208225/with-nuclear-plants-idled-japan.html#storylink=cpy

The Impending California Pension Property Tax Earthquake

The most widespread and persistent folktale about California is that some day the entire state will break away from the North American continent and fall off into the vastness of the Pacific Ocean.  That day may not be too far off if what is unfolding in the growing number of municipal bankruptcy court cases in California plays out to its logical consequence without massive and politically legitimate pension reform.

As reported by urban economist Steven Malanga, municipal bond insurers may lose out in court in their attempt to get bankrupt California cities to reduce pension costs.  This may lead to more than just bondholders getting wiped out and much higher borrowing rate costs across the state.

If the courts uphold pensions as a constitutional right over bondholders’ rights, municipal workers will be entitled to earn more in pensions and health benefits than cities can currently pay.  About 70 to 80 percent of municipal operating costs are allocated to salaries and benefits.  And the lion’s share of salaries and benefit costs go to police and fire protection.  There is little room for large budget cuts in most municipalities.

Some municipalities with pre-existing pension bonds may be able to refinance them without voter approval and shift the explosion in pension costs into long-term debt. Issuing brand new pension bonds would require voter approval. But such cities would have to have enough extra budget cash flow to handle the added debt.

Via: CA Political Review

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