Cat 5 Hurricane Felix headed to Honduras & Belize

The warm waters of the Caribbean hosts its second Category 5 Hurricane in two weeks. Hurricane Felix is already at the top of the Saffir-Simpson Scale as a 5 with nothing to do, but replenish itself and soak up the heat from the water. A dangerous amount of water is in Felix causing landslides and flooding in Trinidad & Tobago, disruptions in Aruba and one death in Grenada. That was before Felix stretched into one of eight category 5 hurricanes in the past 5 years.

The Yucatan Peninsula is bracing for a direct hit with hurricane hunters predicting a weakening to a category 4 before hitting land. Over the weekend the storm changed course, wobbling enough to upset its predicted path.

Belize, Nicaragua and Honduras expect to greet Hurricane Felix, currently packing 165 mph winds by Wednesday.

As Hurricane Felix approached in the Caribbean, Honduras issued a hurricane warning from Limon on the north coast to the border with Nicaragua, and a watch was placed from Limon westward to the Guatemalan border. The Bay Islands were placed on red alert, and the regions of Gracias a Dios, Colon, Atlantida, Olancho, Cortes and Yoro were put on yellow alert, according to the Honduras Permanent Commission of Contingencies Web Site.

Farther north, Jamaica and Grand Cayman were under a tropical-storm watch, while to the west, Guatemala and Belize issued hurricane watches for their Caribbean coastlines.

Felix is the second hurricane of the June-to-November Atlantic season. Dean last month killed at least a dozen people in the Caribbean, on a course that was north of Felix's predicted track. (photo courtesy NWS)

Central America braces as international oil markets prices creep up. Crude Oil inventory at the end of summer in America are low. Meteorologists are reviewing upper level wind patterns to narrow the Hurricane's predicted path. The eyewall is overfed by the heated waters and high pressure systems over the US affect the storm's direction and power. No one knows by exactly how much though.

Hurricane! is a 2007 release from Anne Rooney outlining facts and case histories for the weather phenomenon.


Bill Henry Paul makes the salient point about a variety of factors that affect energy prices and everyone on the planet consuming energy. Future Energy: How the New Oil Industry Will Change People, Politics and Portfolios is a 2007 release.



The National Hurricane Center has up to the minute reports on Hurricane Felix.

Storytime: Iraq Happy Talk & Iran Horrors

George Bush is going to tell the world a story. Smallish pieces of it might well be true according to Giupetto Cheney. It will feature real estate demons of al Qaeda devaluing Bush's trillion dollar Iraq foreclosure property and the evil nouveau nuclear stepneighbors amassing illegal weapons in the uranium bunker dungeon for nefarious purposes. International fairies with heavy British accents pre-emptively have commanding generals blasting gaping holes in Bush's presidential "truthiness", pointing to rank incompetence and daring to show the troll errors of American neocon wisdom.

Against this dire backdrop, the evil furry trolls from Siberia planted a titanium flag claiming the Arctic sea as theirs, put fighter pilots in the sky - accidentally fragging Georgia with a bomb as they tested their prowess under a shirtless, strangely hunky leader Putin. Canada, the nicest ever quiet neighbors to the north, threw a temper tantrum any toddler would give great thumb suck approval on at Resolute Bay with their new harpy leader, Harper, showcasing Maple Leaf ferocity in taking on Russia's absurd assertions. Canada owns the North Pole. Norway not to be frozen out says, no way, because they are sprouting new islands for the coming land grab. Future battles will be fought sumo astronaut style on the moon with Red Riding Wolf betting the crater on The Global Warming Super Polluters as a War & Peace novel defies gravity and decks Porky Pig.

With the American economy held at knife point by lenders who built a Great Wall and a 5,000 year old culture, a seven year old president is reduced to weepy moans and pleas to the patient China parent holding all the ca$h because the kid stupidly spent it on a fake WMD house of cards. Of course, China's recent war games with Russia mean nothing to the plot. It was a million dollar one night stand, except they invited Iraq's evil stepneighbor to party on like it was 1999. Ah, but then American flying monkeys captured some of the evil stepneighbors, and um, realized more mistakes were made releasing their merry Iran men back into Sherwood Desert. War plans against the stepneighbors have hit fever pitch with storyboards saying exactly what to blowup in the Pentadragon's animation fantasy.

Meanwhile, presidential fake story time was booked for September, a very Magical September with excellent ratings numbers for Americans hypnotized by the stage music, bad boys, bad boys - whatcha gonna do when they come for you -bad boyz, bad boyz... Bush anointed a general to comeback to spread happy talk manure about how the magic beans were sprouting after a surge in troops and a splurge in dollars. Thank goodness the fertilizer being used is environmentally friendly. Except, these other people kept under the toll bridge felt a copyright infringement by Bush lying about their actual reality documentary version of Magical September. Thier real tales are of the good elves being disappeared as the Halloween stage set explodes in a shock of body parts around other areas as the president pleads for more time to make Texas Chainsaw Massacre MMVIII really bloody as remaining friendly fairies pull out of Basra. The Iraqi dwarf government makes a Grumpy appeal for calm on behalf Happy who was on vacation as a member of either the parliament or the American Congress, after Sneezy achooed all over Dopey's government.

Congressional delegations traipsed to Iraq to get a first hand "view" of Iraq from neato military pre-made powerpoint presentations, surrounded by picturesque armored personnel carriers and fortunate brave soldiers carrying 75 pounds of protective gear in 130 degree heat to guide the lambs of peace on a tour of a small neighborhood with intermittent electricity nor regular running water inside a little area in the Green Zone prison. As the Congressional professional Bush water carriers got on their special Hercules C-130 and exit stage right, it is shot at by accidental insurgent tourist terrorists, a salute open to interpretation. Congressional members said it proved the surge was working. The koolaid in the Green Zone is magnificent:

Sen Shelby, Sen Martinez and Mr Cramer said the recent increase in US troop levels had helped stabilise parts of the country.

These blind oracles of obfuscation missed the fatal outbreak of cholera in other areas. This comes amidst whispers of a wishin' and a hopin' for a new leader to rise amidst the rubble of a once proud country. We want that for Iraq too.

The End...

Roadkill

A nation's infrastructure is only as good as the roads. Roads appear as people populate areas and a need to get to and fro creates demand, then a path forward. A road replaces what existed already, so any road in the middle of a fragile ecosystem affecting the entire planet is a cause for concern and alarm. Certain roads in Brazil are making a mockery of the environment.

"We're cut off from the rest of the world, and that's the truth," Costa said recently

outside his house. "It's like how people lived 50 years ago. We don't have electricity. Sometimes, we don't have a road. We've been forgotten."

Costa and thousands of other Amazon residents would like to see the government finish paving the 1,100-mile road, known as Highway BR-163. The Brazilian government has been promising to do so for more than 30 years.

Yet others oppose paving the more than 500 miles of BR-163 that are unfinished. They fear that a reliable road would spark a land rush and lead to the destruction of more of Brazil's environmentally sensitive rain forest.

The debate symbolizes the dilemma facing Brazilian Amazonia, as the zeal for economic development in the region butts up against worries that the world's largest rain forest is rapidly disappearing. (Picture courtesy Jack Chang/McClatchy Newspapers)

Soybeans for US Conglomerate, Cargill are driving the development in part. They need to get to market so profits can be made. Capitalists argue that everyone should have an economic development opportunity to take part in the market without fully acknowledging longterm environmental degradation happens as part of unrestrained capitalism. In less than thirty seven years, Brazil has cleared or deforested an area the size of Texas.

For under ten dollars, Ziporah Hildebrandt has a paperback offering support and rationales for protection of Brazil's environment. She authored the book, Marina Silva: Defending Rainforest Communities in Brazil. It is part of the Women Saving the World series.

Last Forest: Amazon in the Age of Globalization by Mark London and Brian Kelly is a must read look at Earth's disappearing treasure that is the Amazon.

Kirkus Reviews...Authors note that the TransPacific Highway and other new roads will bring still more change, since most deforestation occurs near roads. Any effort to "save" the species-rich Amazon, they conclude, must now take into account human populations. An incisive, information-packed update on man and nature in our greatest rainforest.

Savvy Superstar Supports Rock Star Obama

Oscar winner, George Clooney, displays his political savvy on a multitude of intractable issues. His straightforward endorsement of Barack Obama for president comes amidst the release of his new film at the prestigious Venice Film Festival. Clooney who knows a tad about fawning adulation notes Obama's rock star status.

"You’ve been in a room once in a while with a rock star. He walks into the world and he takes your breath away. I’d love him to be president, quite honestly,” Clooney told a group of international reporters at the Venice Film Festival, where the legal thriller Michael Clayton in which he stars premiered last night.

Clooney, who banked a check for Obama at a private 1.3 million US dollar (£645,000,) fundraiser in Beverly Hills, California, in February, praised the US senator from Illinois for displaying courage in 2003 by writing “a piece saying how stupid going into that war was going to be”.

Skip the hunk fluff. Clooney is more interesting because of his dexterity with other real world subjects. He has long-range environmental and foreign policy vision plus a heavy investment in fuel cell technologies. Clooney also takes an avid interest into the local and national politics of Italy because he owns a home on, not in, Lake Como. Most of all, he is interested in American politics because Obama had the sense of the stupidity of a War in Iraq in 2002 and said so aloud. Good and proven Judgment matters in an age where incompetence dominates American politics as many Democrats aided and abetted the Iraq Debacle.

Hollywood stars often campaign for presidential candidates to varying degrees of success. Clooney says he would endorse Obama and promise to not go anywhere near Obama, if it would help him win the White House. Now that's a superstar Hollywood pal. Next week, alongside a wedding contretemps, A-List Hollywood, including George Clooney, are turning out in droves for mega media mogul's Oprah's Celebration for Barack Obama.

Clooney's choice of films mirrors his interests. He acknowledges the Academy Award nominated Syriana and Good Night & Good Luck are reactions to the tyrannical policies of the republican messes in American politics. They are both excellent keepsake films with Syriana providing a formidable contextual montage for the systemic issues involving the Middle East & US politics based on a book by the CIA's Bob Baer.