Yesterday, home and auto insurer, Allstate Corp. projected about $1.4 billion in catastrophe (CAT) losses for April 2011. Insurer expects prices to rise as a result of Japan and New Zealand earthquakes and Australian floods and recent tornadoes in the U.S. **** **What's the News**: When residents living on the central coast of Maine experienced a bunch of nearly 30 small earthquakes in early May, some phoned their local authorities to report gunshots and unexpected blasting. That's because Maine lies far from any active faults and rarely experiences more than two earthquakes a year. Measuring less than 2 on the Richter scale, these small tremors were actually vestiges of the most recent Ice Age. As mile-high slabs of ice plowed their way across most of North America 25,000 years ago, they compressed Earth's crust hundreds of feet, and ever since the ice melted away around 14,000 years ago, the land beneath our feet has been decompressing, much like a (very slow-moving) bed springs back to an equilibrium position when you get up in the morning. "The crust of the Earth is constantly moving," Maine's Bureau of Geology director Robert Marvinney told _Wired_. "We just don't think about it that way, because it seems stable during our lifetimes."**** **How the Heck**: Around 25,000 years ago, a lobe of the Laurentide ice sheet, a massive sheet of ice that eventually covered most of ... The earthquakes that struck New Zealand in September and February will eat up about 7.5 percent its GDP, more than the cost of the recent disaster in Japan on Tokyo's economy, the IMF said Monday. Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer by premium revenues, swung to a net loss in the first quarter, as the high burden from the recent string of earthquakes, floods and other disasters around the globe took its toll and it realized fewer gains on investments. If world governments could turn to a central information source on natural disasters, many lives could be saved through better preparedness Devastating natural disasters have killed close to a million people and caused billions of pounds of damage in the past few years. Despite its sophisticated technology, humanity remains hugely vulnerable to earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and other calamities. The danger is only likely to increase, say geologists and weather experts. Earth's swelling numbers are forcing more and more people to live in geological and meteorological danger zones. As a result, death tolls are destined to rise. In addition, human impact on the climate, which is warming relentlessly as more and more carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere from cars, factories and power stations, will also worsen the problem. At higher latitudes, melting glaciers and ice sheets will modify the pressures acting on tectonic plates and volcanoes, potentially provoking more earthquakes and eruptions, while rising sea levels will leave many regions more vulnerable to hurricanes and storms. Our planet needs help, badly, and Bill McGuire, professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, believes he has a solution. We need a global clearing house in ... Concert promoters announced the Foo Fighters raised upwards of $1 million at two recent concert fundraisers for victims of the Australian floods and New Zealand earthquakes. At Saturday's annual gathering of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, investors are anxiously awaiting Warren Buffett's words about the controversy surrounding a former lieutenant. But they're also anxious about the health of Berkshire, plans for Buffett's successors and the state of the economy. According to a new report issued by Canalys today, the global PC market grew 7% during the first quarter of this year – largely fueled by tablets. There were 88.6 million PC shipments during the quarter, up from 82.8 million during the same quarter last year. HP had a 66% share of the shipments, followed by Acer (12.8%), Dell (11.3%), Apple (9.5%), Lenovo (9.2%), and others (40.6%). "Apple set the standard in the pad market, mainly at the expense of notebook and netbook shipments, as pads competed for a share of consumer IT spend," Canalys said, noting that Apple's iPad products accounted for 74% of the 6.4 million tablets shipped globally in Q1. "The [tablet] represents a real threat to Recent advances in ground-penetrating radar could be used to help structural engineers and conservationists assess the stability of historic buildings or buildings affected by earthquakes that otherwise appear sound. AXIS Capital estimates preliminary losses from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan at $285 million, net of tax, reinsurance recoveries and reinstatement premiums. A house decimated by the 2010 earthquake in Chile. **What's the News:** Enormous earthquakes are rare; there have been only seven quakes with a magnitude 8.8 or above since the start of the 20th century. Of those seven quakes, three of them have happened in the past seven years: off the coasts of Indonesia in 2004, Chile in 2010, and Japan last month. Some researchers think this earthquake cluster marks the start of a period of megaquakes, while others believe that the earthquake cluster is simply a statistical fluke, with these unusually massive quakes just happening to occur within a short amount of time, according to recent analyses (PDF) of Earth's earthquake history presented at the Seismological Society of America's annual meeting last week. **Some Scientists Say:** In a 2005 paper, researchers Charles Bufe and David Perkins from the US Geological Survey identified a cluster of large earthquakes about 50 years ago: three earthquakes with magnitudes of at least 9.0 in Russia, Chile, and Alaska between 1952 and 1964. The random probability of this earthquake cluster--that is, the likelihood the three quakes occurred within that timeframe just by chance--was 4%, they found. ... Several companies have reportedly decided to postpone tablet launches as a result of concerns over the state of the industry and possible component shortages due to the recent earthquakes in Japan. DigiTimes cites anonymous industry sources in reporting that ASUS will delay the release of its Eee Pad Transformer tablet. The report also claims that HTC will push back the date it had previously set for volume production of its Flyer tablet, though it will supposedly still launch the device in the second quarter. DigiTimes also states that XOOM sales are failing to meet expectations, though we don't think sales have been terrible so far and we also don't recall Motorola ever having revealed any targets or estimates. In response to It was a through-the-looking-glass moment for Chris Goldfinger, sitting in a meeting about Sumatran earthquakes on a recent Friday afternoon in Chiba, Japan, on the outskirts of Tokyo. The floor started heaving as if a switch flipped. That terrible shaking turned out to be the magnitude 9.0 Sendai temblor, tsunami-maker and devastator. "We felt pretty safe," says Goldfinger, director of Oregon State University's Active Tectonics and Seafloor Mapping Lab, "but, oddly, still had time to run outside and ride through four or five minutes of mainshock. That was a very long time for the Earth to feel like the ocean." [More] Semiconductor-equipment maker ASML's profit surged and the company is confident of posting another record year in 2011, despite uncertainty across the sector about the impact of the recent earthquakes in Japan. Right up front, let me note that voodoo simply has to be one of the most confusing, complex and loaded subjects in the wide, wide, wide world of religion news. For starters, there is no such thing as a formalized, doctrinaire form of voodoo. There is no voodoo canon or hierarchy to which reporters can turn to settle issues of fact, history and interpretation. There is no orthodoxy in this syncretistic, melting pot faith. The voices inside voodoo are legion. Read more on Lazy Pat Robertson disease lives on… At its Council meeting in Sydney, Australia (April 7-9), attended by delegates from more than 30 national medical associations (NMAs), the World Medical Association discussed a number of issues, including the following: Disaster Relief Oral reports were received from Japanese and New Zealand representatives about their recent earthquakes and delegates debated the need for the WMA to provide policy support for information exchange and learning for NMAs on disaster preparedness and medical response...
Key Words: recent earthquakes
References:
http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/53263/Allstate+CAT+Loss+Soars+for+April+
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheGlobeAndMail-Business/~3/fg_T2J-9LUk/
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/80beats/~3/OhfSjai-LWI/
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/nzealand-quake-cost-heavier-than-japans-imf-20110510-1eg9y.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576312380483437692.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/may/08/earthquake-tsunami-early-warning
http://www.billboard.com/news/foo-fighters-raise-1-million-for-australian-1005167362.story
http://feeds.wsjonline.com/~r/wsj/deals/feed/~3/wV0Ol60NQg4/
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBoyGeniusReport/~3/dspQkGEPcGQ/
http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/KIn7co-3ulw/110425081305.htm
http://www.zacks.com/blog/post_detail.html?t=51563
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/80beats/~3/rBsMzOmPjIw/
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/milkandcookieslatest/~3/V8npNfYKT5c/
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBoyGeniusReport/~3/WVb0uwq-wO8/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-tsunami-warning-system-save-lives-eartquake
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730104576260091610455466.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/getreligion/DmXm/~3/R808Y9SEhg8/
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mnt/healthnews/~3/th09_XycFKU/221925.php
http://pixelhat.net/
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Allstate CAT Loss Soars for April Analyst Blog Lloyd's sees disaster claims at $3.8billion Rash of Earthquakes—in Maine!—Brought to You by the Last Ice Age NZealand quake cost heavier than Japan's IMF Munich Re Swings Bill McGuire 'A global databank could warn natural disasters' Foo Fighters Raise $1 Million For Australian New Zealand Disasters 5 Themes Warren Buffett’s Annual Meeting Tablets fuel 7% growth in PC market report says Radar checks buildings after earthquakes AXIS Estimates Japan Cat Losses Is Planet a Period “Megaquakes ” or Just String Bad Luck Supernatural Episode 7 Superstars HTC ASUS delay tablet launches according Make Breaker Can Tsunami Warning System Save Lives During an Earthquake ASML Sees Record Year Lazy Pat Robertson dise
