Headline August 19, 2018/ ' WORLD'S -*DANGEROUS*- WOBBLES '

' WORLD'S -*DANGEROUS*- WOBBLES '

NOT JUST LAND HEAT WAVES - OCEANS are in terrible hot water too.

EVEN the oceans are breaking temperature records in this summer of heat waves. Off the San Diego coast, scientists earlier this month recorded all-time high seawater temperatures since daily measurements began in 1916.

''Just like we have heat waves on land, we also have heat waves in the ocean,'' said Art Miller of the Scripps Institution of Ocenography.

Between 1982 and 2016, the number of ''marine heat waves'' roughly doubled, and likely will become more common and intense as the planets warms, a study released Wednesday found.

Prolonged periods of extreme heat in the oceans can damage kelp forests and coastal reefs, and harm fish and other marine life.

This trend will only further accelerate with global warming,'' said Thomas Frolicher, a climate scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, who led the research.

His team defined marine heat waves as extreme events in which sea-surface temperatures exceeded the 99th percentile of measurements for a given location.

Because oceans both absorb and release heat more slowly than air, most marine heat waves last for at least several days - and some for several weeks, said Frolicher.

''We knew that average temperatures were rising. What we haven't focused on before is that the rise in average comes at you in clumps of very hot days - a shock of several days or weeks of very high temperatures,'' said Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton University climate scientist who was not involved in the study.

Many sea critters have evolved to survive within a fairly narrow band of temperatures compared to creatures on land, and even incremental warming can be disruptive.

Some free-swimming sea animal like the bat rays or lobsters may shift their routines. But stationary organisms like coral reefs and kelp forests ''are in real peril,'' said Michael Burrows, an ecologist at the Scottish Marine Institute, who was not part of the research.

In 2016 and 2017, persistent high ocean temperatures off eastern Australia killed off as much as half of the shallow water corals of the Great Barrier Reef - with significant consequences for other creatures dependent upon the reef.

''One in every four fish in the ocean lives in or around coral reefs,'' said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a marine biologist at the University of Queensland. ''So much of the ocean's biodiversity depends upon a fairly small amount of the ocean floor.''

The latest study in Nature relied on satellite data and other records of sea-surface temperatures  including from ships and buoys.

It didn't include the recent record-breaking measurements off Scripps Pier in San Diego - which reached 79.5 degrees Fahrenheit on August 9 - but Frolicher and Miller said the event was an  example of marine heat wave.

Miller said he knew something was odd when he spotted a school of bat rays - which typically only congregate in pockets of warm water - swimming just off the pier earlier this month.

Changes in ocean circulation associated with warm warmer surface waters will likely mean decreased production of phytoplankton - the tiny organisms that form the basis of the marine food web, he said.

Marine biologists nick-named a patch of persistent high temperatures in the Pacific Ocean between 2013 and 2016 ''the Blob.'' During that period, decreased phytoplankton production led to a cascading lack of food for many species-

Causing thousands of California sea lion pups to starve, said Miller, who had no role in the nature study.
   
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PASTOR BRUNSON'S PARITY

ISTANBUL : PASTOR BRUNSON at centre of Turkey-US row and market turmoil.

Only week ago it would have seemed fanciful to draw a link between the fate of an American pastor in Turkey, a crises between two Nato allies and turmoil on global financial markets.

But Andrew Brunson, a Protestant clergyman who had lived in Turkey for a quarter of a century without disturbance, is now at the center of a bitter row pitting Washington against Ankara that caused the Lira to crash and the economic jitters to spread globally.

Bruson's world were turned upside down on Oct 7, 2016 when he and his wife Norine were arrested in a government crackdown following a failed coup bid in July that year aimed at toppling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Norine was released two weeks later but Brunson was kept in jail and then charged with assisting two organisations regarded by Turkey as terror groups : the group of Fethullah Gulen blamed for the putsch and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party. [PKK].

Brunson, who marked his 50 birthday behind bars on June 3, faces 35 years in jail if convicted.

His arrest received relatively little media coverage at the time and efforts by US officials to release him were given initially only a very low profile in public.

But his continued detention for almost two years - without being convicted - has turned into one of the biggest bones of contention in the increasingly troubled relationship between Turkey and the  United States.

The tensions reached a new peak last week when President Donald Trump announced sanctions against Ankara, sending the Lira into a tailspin and raising fears of a full-blown economic crisis. [AFP]

The honor and serving of the world in *financial  crisis*, of this publishing continues. 

LOMBOK'S EARTHQUAKE LUMBERING

DUBBED : ''The Island of a Thousand Mosques,'' Muslim-majority Lombok was always a path less travelled destination than its bigger neighbor -

Bali, the Hindu Majority island that forms the backbone of Indonesia's $19.4 billion tourist sector. 

But it had been earmarked as one of Indonesian President Joko Widodo's ''10 new Balis'' with the regional government hoping to develop into a major destination, especially in the booming halal tourism sector.

THE POWERFUL earthquakes that struck the Indonesian island of Lambok in recent weeks killing some 400 people have sent holidaymakers fleeing, raising questions about how its lucrative tourism sector will bounce back.

Two deadly tremors a week apart - accompanied by dozens aftershocks - wrought widespread damage on homes and livelihoods, striking during the crucial tourism season, when hotels, local businesses and seasonal workers earn the bulk of their annual revenue.

In the Gili Islands, a popular backpacker and diving destination just off Lombok's northern coast,  thousands of terrified tourists jostled on powder-white beaches for departing boats.

Lombak's airport was briefly crammed with holidaymakers rushing to get flights out.

Alfan Hasandi depending on peak time tourists to see his family through the rest of the year.

He and his brothers ran a now shuttered business on one of the islands, Gill Air, offering boat tickets, snorkeling, trekking and vehicle rentals, usually earning  five million rupiah [$350] a day during peak season.

''We hope we can rebuild........but it's impossible because people are still traumatised,'' the 25 year old told AFP. ''Our homes have been completely destroyed ....... .We don't have money to rebuild, we need help.''

Located in one of the most tectonically active areas in the world, Indonesians are used to  natural disasters and its tourism industry has bounced back from catastrophe in the past.

But for Lombok, the quake struck at an especially cruel time, when the island's tourism industry was on the way up. [Agencies]

SCHOOL -[FLORIDA]- SECURITY

THE Florida high school where a gunman killed 17 people in February opened on Wednesday for a  new school year with three armed guards and other new security measures that-

Some parents and students  worried  would not be enough.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, doubled its campus security detail to 18, including three armed uniformed sheriff's deputies.

The school's 3,300 students wore new identification badges as they funnelled through three entrances at the sprawling 45-acre campus.

During the school year, only one heavily monitored entrance will allow visitors on campus.

''I know the extra security is necessary, but it makes you know that your school isn't normal,'' Nariah Depina, a  15-year old sophomore, said as, she arrived for the first day of class.

School administrators considered and then against requiring students to use see through backpacks or installing metal detectors, finding if would be too difficult to screen all students each morning class.

On Feb. 14, in the third deadliest shooting by a single gunman at a US school, police say Mikolas Cruz, 19, opened fore on teenagers and teachers with an  assault-style weapon.

Cruz, who had been expelled from Stoneman Douglas, is awaiting trial on 17 counts  of  first-degree murder.

The latest outburst of violence in a decades-long series of  shootings at US schools and colleges prompted   Stoneman Douglas  students to help form a nationwide  youth-led  gun control movement.

The US  House of Representatives  did not tighten gun laws but did approve more spending for school security.

Broward County schools Superintendent Robert Runcle defended the security decisions, including the lack of metal detector, from criticism, by parents and some school board members,but acknowledged that anxieties remained high.

In addition to more security personnel, including the number of armed law enforcement officers    increased to three from one, students were greeted with classroom doors that lock automatically. [Agencies]

Headline August 18, 2018/ '' 'BEATLES' -SPIRITUAL- BEARINGS' ''

'' 'BEATLES' -SPIRITUAL- BEARINGS' ''

FIFTY YEARS  after the Beatles came to India, the bungalows where they had lived, the post office where John Lennon sent Yoko Ono postcards and the giggling guru's house are all ruins.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram, where the world's most famous group sought refuge and spirituality in 1968 and wrote much of their seminal White Album, fell into disuse in the early 2000s.

But thanks to the efforts of locals the site has been reclaimed from the jungle and tourists now roam where tigers and snakes were until recently the most common day trippers.

''Before, people used to sneak in, which could be dangerous,'' said journalist Raju Gusain, instrumental in rescuing the area overlooking Rishikesh in northern India.

''There used to be leopard paw marks and elephant dung. Now we have erected a fence to stop animals getting in from the tiger reserve next door.''

By 1968, following the death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein the year before, fissures were beginning to show between John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. But they found a new mentor :  the magnetic Maharishi who promised them happiness and enlightenment without drugs, through transcendental mediation.

The bushy-bearded sage persuaded them to travel to his spiritual retreat and so, in February 1968,  they fetched up their partners, not knowing quiet what to expect. A world away from ''Swinging London,'' the band appeared to reconnect, penning almost 50 new songs.

Others there included fellow musicians Donovan and Beach Boy Mike Love, actor Mia Farrow and her reclusive sister Prudence, inspiration for Lennon's song Dear Prudence.

The local wildlife - although the song is also supposedly about heroin Yoko Ono - inspired   Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and my Monkey as well as Blackbird. Love's presence sparked Back in the USSR, a pastiche of the Beach Boys' California Girls.

The band - except Starr, who left after 10 days - enjoyed the break and the mediation too. ''I felt like I actually was a feather floating over a hot-air pipe,'' McCartney recalled later one session, ''and I reported that to Maharishi, and he giggled, ''Yes, this is good!''

One local old enough to remember is Ajit Singh, the owner of a music shop - still open - in the nearby town of Dehradun, who fixed Lennon's guitar and performed at Harrison's 25th birthday.

The 86 year old recalls the band wandering into the store one day pursued by a crowd outside and him inviting them home for tea. ''They were polite, not haughty or something,'' he said. ''I always said to people that they were good.''

After a while though, relations worsened between the Beatles and the Maharishi, the atmosphere soured by the yogi's rumoured sexual advances and his evident desire to make money from his famous new pupils. McCartney left after five weeks and Harrison and Lennon after two months.

But still, the Beatles helped put Rishikesh on the map for Westerners, and popularised meditation and Eastern spirituality. The Maharishi even made the cover of Time magazine in 1975. His ashram initially thrived but then went into decline and was abandoned in 2001.

Nature slowly reclaimed the site, while parts of the buildings were removed and people snuck in and left graffiti

But in 2016, paths were cleared, a fence was put up and some of the structures repaired. Ruins they remain, however, a few new murals have been added. The site now boasts a cafe and a small photo exhibition and some information signs.

One recent visitor was Prudence herself, revealed Raju Nautiyal a ranger with the Rajasthan Tiger Reserve who has helped in the clean-up. ''I used to sing Dear Prudence and one day,  Prudence came to play,'' he said.

American visitor Atta Curzman, 68, a ''great Beatles fan'' inspired to take a lasting interest in Indian spirituality, said she hoped the site would not be restored too much.

''I hope they don't make it too lovely and perfect because you want to see that antiquity, that part of that shows history.''. 

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