News of the world that we never hear about Pt.1

In my never ending quest to find more useless information, I occasionally happen upon some really interesting news stories that we, in the US, never hear about.

My most recent find is an ongoing story on the island of Java in Indonesia. Mud has started flowing out of the ground where a well was being drilled. Now there is some debate whether the drilling caused the mud flow, or if it was an earthquake that had occurred a day or two before the flow began. In all 10-11K people have been displace, I think the report said 13 villages have been buried. One more thing it started May 29th, 2006.

Obviously, I am shocked by the catastrophe, but part of me can't help but think about, in some ways, how cool this is. What I'm getting at is can you fathom how much mud that is? Is a giant hole being created under the island/seabed? Is this what really caused the sink hole in Guatemala? Or, are we really going to use the giant cave that is formed to protect ourselves from the meteor coming to destroy the planet? Didn't hear about the sink hole? OK, the last two are a small attempt to create an Internet conspiracy theory or two.

I think one of the older stories said the flow had covered almost 1000 acres, and some of the pictures have people in it up to their waists. Of course being an island the easiest way to get rid of the mud is to direct it towards the sea and that has the environmentalists up in arms about the damage, that is creating.

They have finally come up with a plan to try an stop the flow. Basically they are planning to drop concrete balls connected to each other into the hole hoping that it will slow the flow so they can start getting it cleaned up. I am a little dubious of it working. Part of me envisions some sort of Loony Tune, Wile E. Coyote event with a mud geyser a la "Old Faithful" shooting these balls up into the air; where they fall harmlessly back to earth. In reality they probably will be popped back out of the hole, but you can always hope for the best.

As I write this I am realizing that my desire to see some humor in the situation, is that if I were in it myself, I would be shaking my head with utter disbelief, and have to crack a joke to keep my spirits up and continue on.

You can read more about the story at the BBC website. The link below is where the article is located. I am still figuring out how to do a few things. Or, you can go to the BBC and type in "mud flow in Indonesia" that will bring up the list of all the articles.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6392995.stm

What to name your Blog

I have been meaning to start this blog for a while now, but my major hang-up has been what to name it. I finally came to the realization that this is what coming up with a band name must be like. You have the strange names that are very esoteric.

Cool!!! I have spell check.

Sorry, there are some words that you just need it on. Esoteric is just one of them. Where was I?

The names that will be changed very soon after the band performs at some regional "battle of the bands", those that try to sound cool, but really aren't, and then there are the very simple, truely cool, almost spur of the moment band names.

So I have put off naming my blog until the moment of inspiration comes to me. Or, I can claim that I reverted to an acronym from my former life.