BULLSHIT

Namibia teenagers barred from Olympic 400 over testosterone

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Two 18-year-old runners from Namibia were barred Friday from running in the 400 meters at the Olympics because of high natural testosterone levels, becoming the latest female athletes to be affected by the same contentious regulations that have sidelined Caster Semenya.

Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, who burst into Olympic medal reckoning with some blisteringly fast times this year, were subjected to “medical assessments” by track governing body World Athletics at their training camp in Italy, the Namibia Olympic committee said.

They were withdrawn from the 400 meters by the Namibian team after the tests revealed high natural testosterone which meant they wouldn't be allowed to run in the 400 in Tokyo.

The pair can still run in the 200 meters, where they've also qualified, because track's testosterone rules only apply to distances between 400 meters and one mile.

In a separate statement, the Namibian track federation said the two teenagers would still go to the Olympics and “will focus their full attention on the 200m event." It said the runners were “disappointed" but “they remain in high spirits.”

Their exclusion from the 400 sparked angry reactions and criticism of the rules from numerous political parties in Namibia.

Before this year, both athletes were relative unknowns.

Mboma ran 48.54 seconds to win a 400 race in Poland on Wednesday, which was an under-20 world record and the seventh-fastest time ever recorded by a woman in the 400. It was also the fastest time in the world this year ahead of all the event's big names, and the fastest time in the world since 2019.

Masilingi's 49.53 seconds at a low-level meet in Zambia in April stands as the third fastest time of 2021 behind Mboma and Shaunae Miller-Uibo, the current Olympic champion.

Those eye-catching times spurred World Athletics to order the testosterone tests.

“It is important to understand that both our athletes were not aware of this condition,” the Namibia Olympic committee said.

The Namibian Olympic body said it was in close contact with World Athletics' medical officer Stephane Bermon, one of the architects of the testosterone rules, “with regards to the way forward in the interest of our two sprinters.”

The situation is reminiscent of the highly controversial sex verification tests conducted on a teenage Semenya when she broke onto the international scene at the 2009 world championships in Berlin.

World Athletics' latest testosterone regulations have been fiercely debated since they were introduced in 2018.

They have resulted in Semenya, the two-time Olympic champion, being unable to run in her favorite event and defend her title in Tokyo. She has launched legal appeals in various courts, calling the rules unfair and discriminatory, but has lost two of those appeals and is waiting for a third to be heard.

The rules have also affected two other high-profile African athletes, Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi and Margaret Wambui of Kenya, who won silver and bronze behind Semenya at the 2016 Olympics, where the testosterone issue became a dominant story.

Niyonsaba and Wambui have both also been barred from the 800, although Niyonsaba has qualified for the Olympics in the 5,000 meters and says she will run in Tokyo.

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Gerald Imray, The Associated Press

HIPPY REUNION USA

New Mexico forest draws crowd for annual 'Rainbow Gathering'

CARSON NATIONAL FOREST, N.M. (AP) — Across a mile-long stretch of forest in a remote part of northern New Mexico, the party is in full swing.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Tents dotted mountain meadows flanked by dense stands of trees. Makeshift kitchens were erected to feed the hundreds of people gathering for what would be a weekend-long celebration attended by grandmothers, families with children and others in search of peace, camaraderie and perhaps to smoke a little weed.

This is the Rainbow Family.

The Carson National Forest, just beyond the tourist enclave of Taos, was chosen as the spot for this year's national gathering. But people also were congregating for the July 4 celebration in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

The so-called Rainbow Gathering — which draws an array of characters who range from office workers looking to get away from the daily grind to nature lovers and those who have mastered van life — was set to culminate Sunday in a silent hand-holding circle punctuated by a loud “ohm.”

Normally, the gathering, which was first held in 1972 in Colorado, draws around 10,000 people to a single forest. This year, the participants are less numerous and heading to regional meet-ups because of COVID-19 concerns. Last July 4, regulars joined each other online to “ohm from home.”

For Gina “Mama G” Prince, the gathering is about peace. For others, they are united by anti-authoritarianism rooted in the religious and congregational freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.

With pandemic restrictions easing, Prince said she was happy to be at her first Rainbow Gathering since 2019, when the event was held in Wisconsin.

“I’ve been counting the moments to come out here,” said the 67-year-old Florida resident, who picked up a fellow Rainbow participant in Tennessee on the way. Wary of the virus and bogged down with underlying health concerns, her partner stayed in Florida.

In one camp, cooks prepared sweet strawberry pastries and served them to whoever was around the campfire. Money is frowned upon at the gathering, and participants bring food donations to share. Volunteers run every aspect of the camp, from piping water out of streams to digging latrines, to cleaning up the camp and packing up trash.

Drum circles are a nightly event. So are fireside discussions about everything from dinner plans to the nature of existence and metaphysics.

The annual gatherings also draw close scrutiny from the U.S. Forest Service.

Officials with the Carson National Forest held an online forum last month for residents to ask questions about enforcing drug laws, respecting sacred tribal lands in the forest, and the plan for taking out the trash.

Forest Service officials say gatherings in recent years left surprisingly little impact on water, erosion and other areas of concern to forest officials. With a fraction of the normal participants this year, the concerns are even fewer.

Still, rangers had seized an undisclosed number of guns and cited people for things as minor as a cracked windshield. Other charges involved marijuana and methamphetamine possession.

For decades, the Rainbows have complained that law enforcement assigned to patrol them have used any excuse to pull them over and search them.

Prince said she and another woman were searched on their way into the gathering, and her friend's marijuana stash was seized. New Mexico this week legalized the recreational use of marijuana, but it's still illegal on federal land.

“They pulled people over and took all their weed,” Prince said. “Pulled over a couple of grandmas.”

The gathering normally boasts a giant bakery, hauled up mountainsides by hand and constructed out of metal barrels. Volunteers crank out as many as 8,000 dinner rolls per night from their perch in the woods.

“It takes about 35 of us to make the magic happen,” said long-time Rainbow member Darrell Schauermann of Taos.

There are perils that can come with camping in a remote spot at high altitude.

On Friday, an elderly man with cancer fell gravely ill. It took an SUV, a Forest Service pickup truck and an ambulance to get him to a spot miles down the mountain where he could be loaded into a helicopter and taken to a hospital. Along the way, he was tended to by John Hartberg, a 33-year-old physician from New Orleans who was attending the event.

Shirtless and wearing a hat and a turquoise stethoscope, he declined to comment on the patient's condition, citing medical privacy rules.

Usla Gregory, 45, of Taos said the patient was his best friend. “We share the same astrological signs,” he said, before breaking into tears.

After the July 4th celebration, Rainbows who choose to participate in a selection committee will pick a spot for next year’s gathering. Insiders suggest that Colorado is the leading contender.

___

Cedar Attanasio is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Cedar Attanasio, The Associated Press

NELSON HIPPIES RETURN
New developments see future in tiny homes, communal living

A Slocan Valley couple is hoping their new housing development will attract high-tech workers and others looking for a simpler life.

And their project is only one of several that are looking to launch a new generation of alternative community living in the region.

“The tiny homes will be spaced out along this ridge here,” says Steve Hardy, pointing across a field of white and yellow sub-alpine flowers. “We want to give each unit lots of space.”

Hardy and his partner Abby gave the Valley Voice a tour of their 37-acre property recently. They purchased the acreage between Slocan City and Winlaw two years ago, after getting disillusioned with life in Calgary.

“We were making regular trips to the Kootenays and Okanagan, seeing what each place had to offer, the culture of each area, and we kept coming back to the Slocan Valley,” says Steve Hardy. “We liked the charm, the locals we met, the beauty of the area. And then we found a piece of property that we thought would be a great pocket neighbourhood for people who could work remotely and would like to do so in a nice place.”

The pandemic just reinforced their determination to try to find a new way of life. And they figured others shared their vision.

There wasn’t much on the property: an old cabin that has to be torn down, a second that needs major overhaul, and some fencing. But there is an organic garden, spring water, spectacular views, and a cool breeze not felt on the valley bottom on a hot day. Out of a somewhat unremarkable piece of property on the east slope of the Slocan Valley, however, they hope to create something special.

They call it ‘Big Calm,’ a “permaculture-guided tiny homestead community for remote digital workers,” in the heart of the Kootenays.

“It’s a fairly modest community, within the natural landscape of the property,” says Hardy. “The majority would be long-term renters, and a couple would be guest stays.”

The Big Calm Tiny Homesteads website outlines the project’s scope.

“We envision an ecologically sustainable, self-reliant tiny home community guided by the ‘Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share’ ethics of permaculture; and strengthened by collaboration, mutual support and the diversity and skills of its members,” it says. “Hands-on work is a feature, not a bug.”

There’s no shortage of hands-on work to do. Before the first community member arrives, the concrete pads for 10 tiny homes have to be poured, and utilities like water and electricity hooked up. The septic system is going to be top-of-the-line when it’s installed, but the last part of that project’s been delayed by red tape and supply problems.

It’s a complicated bit of development for two admitted amateurs, who are managing the building project while trying to attract residents and investors in a timely manner. But Hardy says it’s going well.

“Most of the development will take shape next year, and we’re currently putting out an investment raise – dividend-producing shares so that we can accelerate the build actually. Our business plan was perhaps too conservative. The interest is certainly there to fill the spots as we can build them.”

The Hardys hope to welcome their first tenant in the fall. That person has already purchased a tiny home for placement on the property.

It won’t be cheap to be a resident of Big Calm. At $1,500 a month for pad fees – which includes utilities – the Hardys are working to attract upscale, higher-income knowledge workers like themselves. Steve ran a software company and now consults high-tech start-ups, while Abby was a communication specialist for biotech companies.

They plan to build Big Calm to allow residents to live the Slocan lifestyle, while still earning a good living.

“This has been one of the best parts of the process for us, the people who have been reaching out to us because they are interested,” he says. “It’s from all across the country and the US.

“We have geochemists, social innovators, arts fundraisers… all across the board. But they all have a similar appreciation of wanting to make a smaller footprint in a nice natural location and still be able to effectively do their jobs.”

The Hardys have been surprised by the potential for communities like this to help grow the local economy.

“There’s actually quite a pent-up demand for it. Our sense is it’s an enormous economic development opportunity for the valley… it’s people with a commitment to the local area, who bring a net income from outside because they already have their jobs from elsewhere.”

Alternative options growing

The pandemic has created a wave of people moving out of the cities to places like the Slocan Valley. But that’s driven up house and land prices significantly, and only the well-financed can afford to buy or build these days.

That’s what’s made places like Big Calm Tiny Homesteads attractive to some. Offering a small space for a tiny home or RV, sharing the cost of services and supporting each other in a community has become an appealing idea.

Similar projects are starting or being contemplated along the valley, aimed at a more local audience.

“Off-the-grid site rental available in exchange for work trade outside of Slocan City,” a post advertised on Facebook recently read. “…We are asking for 30 hours a month in exchange for the site.”

With 150 acres on Perry’s Ridge, the developer plans to create a 15- to 20-unit permaculture community on part of the property.

While the Hardys across the valley work with contractors and hope to attract higher-income residents, this developer is pulling his project up by its bootstraps, offering space for people with chainsaw and other skills to build the community themselves.

“Skills with building, energy systems and all trades are desirable at this phase,” the post says. “Long-term, the community will require skills with permaculture, agroforestry, livestock management, medicine making, fibre arts, practical crafts, communication, facilitation, etc.”

The post makes no bones about what’s involved.

“We are looking for hardy folks to help us pioneer this effort. Experience roughing it is required,” it notes.

The post says they hope to have six sites ready for occupancy with tiny homes or RVs by this winter. Eventually a community centre will be built on site, with a kitchen, bathing and laundry facilities. The dream is to run the community as a co-op.

The carrot is building a community with others who share the same values.

“We are a group of people passionate about ecovillages, healing nature, and the arts. Looking for other passionate and inspired folks who are open-hearted and open-minded,” the post says.

The developer declined to be interviewed by the Valley Voice at this time, saying after the original post he was inundated with inquiries.

Other projects are popping up along the Valley and elsewhere in the West Kootenay. In Winlaw, the Raven’s Perch offers a single vacation unit at this time, but has plans to “build more space on the property to live and work.”

The pitch the Winlaw property makes has a familiar ring: “We’re creating an environment that encourages those who visit to reconnect with nature – the forest, lakes, rivers and mountains,” their website says. “We encourage visitors to disconnect from the outer world reality so that they might reconnect with their own nature.”

History repeats

A century ago, cheap land and a desire to live communally brought thousands of Doukhobors to the region; counter-culture hippies and draft dodgers 50 years later established communes across the valley (there’s even an old one neighbouring the Hardys’ property).

The drivers may be different today – concerns about climate change, the cost of housing, and technology enabling remote work – but the attraction is the same: a desire to live in peace, in beauty, and in support of each other.

But just like past immigrants, the newcomers bring the promise of both change and growth.

“The type of people being attracted to the pitch we have would be great additions to the community; they share the values that are already here,” says Steve Hardy, who notes jurisdictions like Nova Scotia have whole campaigns devoted to attracting those kind of workers.

“I don’t’ think it’s fully set in how amazing this opportunity can be and how strong a contributor these folks would be, and how much they want to be kind of outside of the fray.”

Despite modern trappings, some things don’t change.

John Boivin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Valley Voice

I SPY WITH MY LITTLE I

Confidential national security docs left on human rights lawyer's Halifax porch

OTTAWA — A human rights lawyer says documents that the Canadian government argues contain confidential matters of national security were shoved into his door frame, with no signature or password needed.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Benjamin Perryman, who teaches constitutional law at the University of New Brunswick, represents a Roma Hungarian couple who claim border officials discriminated against them on the basis of ethnicity.


The government argues that no discrimination was involved when Canadian authorities cancelled the "electronic travel authorization" of the couple, Attila and Andrea Kiss, at the Budapest airport in 2019.

In April, the Federal Court of Appeals ordered the immigration minister to send sensitive documents containing screening criteria as an encrypted online file to parties in the case using the Microsoft SharePoint platform.

Instead, Perryman says the government FedExed a CD-ROM that was "stuffed" into the door frame of his house in Halifax and needed no encryption, password protection or signature upon receipt of the package. The Canadian Press has seen photos of the envelope lodged in the door.

The process is inconsistent with the government's claim that releasing screening indicators — used to weed out potential illegal immigrants before arrival in Canada, where they could hypothetically claim asylum — would harm the country's safety and security, he said.

"Canada makes the claim that if material got into wrong hands that there would be substantial injury," Perryman said. "And I arrived at home to find it stuffed into my door on the outside.

“Theft of packages is common in Canada, including in my neighbourhood. This is not a remote possibility," he said.

The Immigration Department says the government "takes privacy and security issues very seriously."

"Processes in relation to the transmission of court documents and for the protection of privacy and sensitive information are in place and will be reiterated to all employees in order to prevent any further reoccurrence," Immigration spokesman Jeffrey MacDonald said in an email.

The package included a cover letter stating the government had permission from court staff to send the package as a CD-ROM, Perryman added, but stressed that it was unencrypted.

The incident marks the second security hiccup related to the couple's case this year.

According to an affidavit from a Canada Border Services Agency manager, the government in February sent Perryman files with "sensitive information" on which CBSA officials had performed "redactions by applying black highlighting" that could be lifted with the click of a mouse.

A judge ordered that copies sent to Perryman, who had forwarded them on to Gabor Lukacs, president of the Air Passenger Rights advocacy group, be destroyed.

Now those files are back in play following an appeal, resulting in last month's snail-mail porch delivery, including to Lukacs, who found his own FedEx package sticking out of his mailbox.

He argues that federal officials are trying to use "national security as a smokescreen to cover up racial discrimination," an allegation the government rejects.

Lukacs also provided documents from an access-to-information request showing that he had received in unredacted form some of the same text that was blacked out by the CBSA. Other Western countries often publish their screening criteria, which are largely in the public domain, he said.

The Kisses say Roma travellers seeking to visit relatives in Canada face "systemic discrimination" by border officials.

"The humiliation we experienced at the Budapest Airport was exceptional even compared to the prejudice and discrimination that I have experienced all my life in Hungary. A flight to Canada was the last place where I would have expected to be treated this way," Attila Kiss said in an email.

His wife's sister, Edit, was granted refugee status in Canada several years ago. Andrea Kiss visited her for three months in 2017, and sought a second, two-month visit — still under her five-year electronic travel authorization (ETA) — in April 2019 to help care for her sibling following abdominal surgery at a Toronto hospital, according to court filings.

At the airport with round-trip tickets — Attila also now had an ETA — on April 2, 2019, the couple was referred by authorities to agents with BUD Security, a Hungary-based company that screens passengers on behalf of airlines. The firm receives training from the CBSA.

Shortly after, the Kisses learned a CBSA liaison officer in Vienna had cancelled their ETAs. Asked why, the BUD Security agent told them that "the biggest problem is that the person whom you are travelling to has no status" — as a Canadian citizen or permanent resident — according to an August 2020 court submission from the Kisses, who recorded their interaction with the agent.

The officer's notes also say the couple was "unable to explain how they can take three months off work” and "do not own a home."

Attila Kiss, who has worked at lighting company Tungsram — owned by GE Hungary — since 1994, got approval for a six-month leave of absence and owns a house, court documents show.

"These alleged indicators are based on ethnic stereotypes depicting the Roma as nomads who neither work nor have a home," the Kisses state in their filing.

Perryman said asserting national security to justify withholding information, including screening indicators, amounts to opaque governance, with implications for fundamental rights.

"The problem with this as an approach is that it deprives all Canadians of actually being able to see the work of the court and to evaluate Canada's policies, whether or not they discriminate against travellers and whether or not they are defensible on behalf of Canada," he said.

Asked why indicators should remain secret, the CBSA cited legislation that allows the immigration minister to appeal court decisions requiring information to be released "if, in the minister's opinion, the disclosure would be injurious to national security or endanger the safety of an individual," the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act states.

"No comments on its content will be provided," CBSA spokeswoman Rebecca Purdy said of the screening criteria.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Gruesome images of snared osprey show how deadly discarded fishing lines can be
Colin Butler 

© Ian Geleynse The body of an osprey lies on the bow of a kayak after it was cut down from the place it died: tangled in fishing line below the Adelaide Street bridge.

It was a gruesome sight: An osprey, a bird of prey rarely seen in urban southern Ontario, dangling from a fishing line beside a bridge as if from an invisible hangman's noose.

"My mind was racing as to why this bird could possibly be hanging like that," said Ian Gelynse, an avid kayaker who spotted the bird a distance away while paddling with his son Will along the Thames River in London, Ont. on Father's Day.
'Definitely outrage over this'

It was only when Gelynse got closer that his curiosity turned to despair.

"I knew it was an osprey immediately. It's one of my favourite birds," he said. "To see that, I was devastated. I could see all the fishing line bound around it so it was pretty obvious what happened.

"We were both horrified to see it. My son immediately said, 'We can't leave it like that.'"

Gelynse cut it down and took pictures before he put the bird's body in the forest so "nature could take its course," as he puts it, but the jarring sight stuck with him — a sanguine reminder of how our trash can be deadly for wildlife.

The area where the bird died, under the busy Adelaide Street bridge, is a popular spot for anglers in the city. The evidence is in the amount of fishing line that gets tangled across the hydro wires that run parallel to the bridge. The obstacle is invisible and acts like a ghostly spider's web, capable of ensnaring anything unlucky enough to fly into it.

"It doesn't take much before the bird gets tangled in the fishing line before it's going to go into a panic," Gelynse said.

He posted the images on social media, touching off a firestorm of debate that he said got so hot at one point, moderators on one of the websites ended up pulling them down because of the battle that started raging between bird lovers and people who like to fish.

"They don't like to deal in too much controversy," he said. "They pulled it down, but I've had 22 people sharing it."

Pigeons, ducks snagged on fishing gear

On another social media site for kayakers, Gelynse said, he had hundreds of reactions to his images of the dead bird.

"There's definitely outrage over this. I had a lot of praise for cutting that bird down, to try to give it some dignity.

"Through comments I'm learning a lot about the real problem fishing causes," he said.

"To consider that a fish that they don't catch and the line breaks, and the hook is in that fish's mouth, that's potential food for any of these birds."

Environmentalists who clean up trash along the Thames River told CBC News that discarded fishing lines, lures and Styrofoam bait containers are an all-too-common sight during their cleanups, and wildlife often pay a price for our carelessness.

"We have seen examples of wildlife getting caught up in that," said Tom Cull, one of the organizers of Antler River Rally, a volunteer group that organizes monthly cleanups of the Thames River.

He said recent examples include a pigeon snared in fishing line at the Wellington Street bridge and a duck with a hook snagged in its bill.

Through years of clearing debris from the riverbanks, he's found there are two kinds of anglers.

"There's an angler who's maybe more recreational. Saturday morning, go down, have a couple of beers, cast a couple of lines and then there's the serious anglers," said Cull.

"I find the serious anglers are really conservationists and stewards. It's the folks who buy that stuff and then leave it all down at the river — that's an unfortunate thing we see too often."
Fishing group says 'trash has no place in nature'

It's also the kind of littering the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) discourages. The organization has more than 100,000 members and is the province's largest charitable non-profit fish and wildlife conservation organization.

"The bad behaviour of a few individuals can not only lump responsible anglers into the same category, but can also threaten fish and wildlife, their habitats and the ecosystems that support them," OFAH fisheries biologist Adam Weir wrote in an email to CBC News on Friday.

"Discarded lures and fishing lines should always be safely and properly disposed of — trash has no place in nature."

Weir said that to protect the environment, anglers should remove hooks from lures and replace them in a screw-top bottle or can, and dispose of them in a bin. He said many areas now have fishing line recycling depots near boat launches and shorelines.

If that's not available, he said, place the line in a sealed bag or box, and dispose of it in the trash.

Tesla top-of-range car caught fire while owner was driving, lawyer says

BERKELEY, California (Reuters) - A Tesla Inc Model S Plaid electric vehicle burst into flames on Tuesday while the owner was driving, just three days after the $129,900, top-of-the-range car was delivered following its June launch, an attorney for the driver told Reuters.© Reuters/Geragos & Geragos Handout photo of Tesla Inc's new Model S Plaid electric car seen in flames in Pennsylvania

The driver, identified as an "executive entrepreneur", was initially not able to get out of the car because its electronic door system failed, prompting the driver to "use force to push it open," Mark Geragos, of Geragos & Geragos, said on Friday.

The car continued to move for about 35 feet to 40 feet (11 to 12 meters) before turning into a "fireball" in a residential area near the owner's Pennsylvania home.

"It was a harrowing and horrifying experience," Geragos said.

"This is a brand new model... We are doing an investigation. We are calling for the S Plaid to be grounded, not to be on the road until we get to the bottom of this," he said.

Tesla did not have an immediate comment when contacted by Reuters.

Video: New Tesla model caught fire while driving: lawyer (Reuters)

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk touted the performance version of its Model S sedan as being "faster than any Porsche, safer than any Volvo" at a launch event at the automaker's factory in Fremont, California, last month.

Earlier in April, he said the new Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle had a new battery pack.

"It took quite a bit of development to ensure that the battery of the new S/X is safe," Musk said on a conference call, addressing production delays. "There were more challenges than expected in developing the new version."

Local fire authorities in a now-deleted Facebook post said "a Tesla was on fire" and that they cooled "the batteries down to ensure complete extinguishment".

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it is "in touch with relevant agencies and the manufacturer to gather information about the incident".

"If data or investigations show a defect or an inherent risk to safety exists, NHTSA will take action as appropriate to protect the public," the federal safety agency said.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and David Shepardson; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

Tesla Reveals How Often Its Cars Burn From Fire

https://insideevs.com/news/501729/number-tesla-vehicle-fires-2020

2021-04-18 · Tesla's Vehicle Fire Data provided for the period 2012-2020 reveals that there has been ... which alone could increase the number of miles per fire instance. ... Tesla Owner Caught …

1. Plug-in electric vehicle fire incidents - Wikipedia

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicle_fire_incidents
   • Overview
   • Electric vehicle incidents
   • Background
   • See also
   • External links

   

   About 6 a.m. on 17 November 2010 a fire broke out on the vehicle deck of the MS Pearl of Scandinavia on its way from Oslo to Copenhagen. The ferry's fire sprinkler system put out the fire before any of the crew or the 490 sleeping passengers were injured and the ship could dock in Copenhagen under its own power. It was determined that the cause of the fire was a short circuit in the plug of an extension cord used to charge a rebuilt Nissan Qashqai, converted into a battery electric vehicle by the Sakskøbingbased compan…

EV BATTERIES ARE DANGEROUS
Batteries exploding in burning abandoned Illinois building

By DON BABWIN

June 30, 2021

1 of 4

Firefighters work the scene of an industrial fire Tuesday, June 29, 2021, in Morris, Ill. Lithium batteries have been noisily exploding inside a burning abandoned paper mill in northern Illinois and firefighters are letting the blaze burn out because they fear trying to extinguish it could trigger more explosions, officials said Wednesday. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via AP)

CHICAGO (AP) — Lithium batteries exploded loudly overnight inside a burning former paper mill in northern Illinois that officials had believed was long abandoned, and fire officials have decided to let the blaze burn out because they fear trying to extinguish it could trigger more explosions.

The fire that started in Morris Tuesday prompted city officials to order the evacuation of 3,000-4,000 people in some 950 nearby homes, a school, church and small businesses.

On Wednesday, as thick, black smoke continued to billow from the building, Police Chief Alicia Steffes said the evacuation order would remain in place until at least 9 p.m. and “might be extended.”

Police are stationed throughout the area to prevent people from entering, although anyone who can prove they live there may return to retrieve essential medicine, she said.

Fire Chief Tracey Steffes said thus far air quality tests were “coming back favorable,” but he cautioned that changing weather conditions and other factors could cause the air quality to deteriorate.

Mayor Chris Brown urged anyone experiencing respiratory problems to contact their physicians.

The fire chief said he’s gathering information from fire departments and other experts on how to fight the fire in a building that — to the surprise of his department and other city agencies — was being used to store nearly 100 tons of lithium batteries ranging in size from cellphone batteries to large car batteries.

Steffes’ firefighters stopped using water on the blaze minutes after they arrived when they discovered the batteries because water and firefighting foam can cause batteries to explode. And he said while he has heard some ideas on how to battle the blaze — road salt has been suggested — he won’t send crews to battle the fire because of the unknowns about what’s inside.

“I don’t know 100% what was stored in that building, only what they’re telling us what was stored in that building,” he said.

Further, Steffes said that while his department and other agencies have fought fires at buildings that contain lithium batteries, he had thus far found nobody with fires that involve so many batteries. He said the battery explosions overnight could be heard across the city.

The mayor said the city didn’t know the building was being used to store batteries until it caught fire, and that he knows very little about the company that owns them.

“The name of the company is Superior Battery ... and we didn’t know they existed until yesterday afternoon,” said Brown. Apparently nobody else at City Hall did either, because there’s no record of a business license or any communication between the company and any city department, he said.

Barely concealing his anger at the very serious danger his firefighters were in, Steffe suggested that he couldn’t trust any information coming from the company as a result

“We had no way of knowing they were doing business ... there,” said Steffes, adding a company official told him they had occupied the building for about a year. Steffes said the paper mill had been vacant for decades.

No information was immediately available on Superior Battery. The fire chief said company representatives were not invited to Wednesday’s news conference.

The mayor said the police department will conduct an investigation about the storage of the batteries and that other agencies, including the state fire marshal and the Illinois Attorney General’s office, have already been contacted.

Morris is about 70 miles (115 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

The Morris fire came two weeks after an explosion and massive blaze at a chemical plant near Rockton, an Illinois town along the Wisconsin border, forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes for several days. Nobody at the plant or the surrounding community was injured by the June 13 fire that officials later determined was started accidentally during maintenance work.

AS IF THEY WERE NOT SCARY ENOUGH

Supermassive black holes could host giant, swirling gas 'tsunamis'

© Provided by Live Science This artist's visualization shows a supermassive black hole surrounded by dust and gas forming tsunamis on its outer edges.

Could gas escaping the gravitational grasp of supermassive black holes be forming "tsunamis" in space?

In a new, NASA-funded study, astrophysicists used computer simulations to model the environment around supermassive black holes in deep space. They found that there could be massive, tsunami-like structures forming near these black holes that are essentially massive, swirling walls of gas that have narrowly escaped the intense gravitational pull of the black hole. They even think that supermassive black holes could host the largest tsunami-like structures in the universe.

"What governs phenomena here on Earth are the laws of physics that can explain things in outer space and even very far outside the black hole," Daniel Proga, an astrophysicist at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada (UNLV), said in a NASA statement.

Gallery: Black Holes of the Universe

In this study, researchers took a close look at the strange environment around supermassive black holes and how gases and radiation interact there.

Supermassive black holes sometimes have large disks of gas and matter that swirl around them, feeding them over time in a combined system known as an active galactic nucleus. These systems, which often shoot out jets of material, emit bright, shining X-rays above the disk, just out of gravitational reach of the black hole. This X-ray radiation pushes winds that stream out of the center of the system. This is called an "outflow."

This X-ray radiation could also help to explain denser, gaseous regions in the environment around supermassive black holes called "clouds," the researchers think.

"These clouds are 10 times hotter than the surface of the sun and moving at the speed of the solar wind, so they are rather exotic objects that you would not want an airplane to fly through," lead author Tim Waters, a postdoctoral researcher at UNLV who is also a guest scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, said in the same statement.

The team showed with computer simulations how, far enough away from the black hole to be outside of its reach, the atmosphere of the disk spinning around the black hole can start to form waves of gas and matter. With the addition of the outflow winds that are pushed out by X-ray radiation, these waves can grow into massive tsunamis. These swirling waves of gas can stretch up to 10 light-years above the disk, the researchers found. Once these tsunami-like structures form, they are no longer under the influence of the black hole's gravity, according to the statement.

In these simulations, the researchers showed how bright X-ray radiation close to a black hole seeps into pockets of hot gas in the outer atmosphere of the disk. These bubbles of hot plasma expand into nearby, cooler gas at the edges of the disk, helping to spur the tsunami-like structures. The bubbles also block the outflow wind and spiral off into separate structures up to a light-year in size. These side structures are known as Kármán vortex streets, which are weather patterns that also occur on Earth (though on Earth, this pattern of swirling vortexes looks quite different.)

Kármán vortex streets are named for the Hungarian-American physicist Theodore von Kármán, whose name also marks the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space.

This research goes against previous theories that have suggested that clouds of hot gas near an active galactic nucleus form spontaneously because of fluid instability, according to the statement. This study also contradicts the previous notion that magnetic fields are necessary to move cooler gas from a disk around a supermassive black hole.

While no satellites currently operational can confirm their work, the team hopes to bolster their findings with future research and hopefully telescopic observations. Additionally, observations of plasma near active galactic nuclei from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton space telescope are consistent with this team's findings, according to the statement from NASA.

This work was published June 15 in the Astrophysical Journal.

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Mississauga hydrogen bus pilot moves forward; future depends on Ottawa

The 40-foot bus comes to a stop on Derry Road. It barely makes a sound.

LED headlights wink like eyes squinting in low light, glass windshield and metal roof melt into one another. With its rounded edges and seamless joints, the hydrogen bus is the iPhone of municipal transit vehicles, and the City of Mississauga wants to see them gliding along its streets in the years to come.

The ultra-modern bus stands in contrast to some of MiWay’s diesel fleet, currently nearing the end of the road. For these beleaguered buses, the past 12 years have meant people sticking gum to the floor or putting muddy shoes on the seats. They have belched smog into the air, the vibration of combustion engines shaking the floors as they work overtime.

This loud, grimey public transit experience is one Mississauga wants to leave in the past. MiWay, its transit agency, hopes sleek and comfortable modern buses powered by the lightest element on the planet will pave the way for future expansion.

To achieve this, Mississauga is pushing forward a first-of-its-kind Canadian pilot for hydrogen transit. It plans to prove the fuel is a viable successor to diesel and an alternative to the battery-powered electric buses Brampton, among other jurisdictions, is piloting.

A range of companies have been brought together by the Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) to bring the project to life. MiWay, which has wanted to demonstrate hydrogen buses for years, is the champion transit agency, alongside New Flyer Industries, tasked with providing and maintaining 10 buses for the project. Ballard Power Systems will develop fuel stacks (used to create the electricity that moves the bus), while Cummins (formerly Hydrogenics based in Mississauga) will work alongside Enbridge in Markham to deliver hydrogen for Mississauga to power its buses.

The pilot is MiWay’s second attempt to put hydrogen buses on the road, after its previous plan was scuppered by the PCs after the 2018 election.

The scheme had been built on the Liberal cap-in-trade program, a system mandating companies to purchase additional carbon allowances if they exceeded specific emissions. In order to avoid paying penalties, CRH - a cement company with operations in Mississauga - had partnered with MiWay to produce hydrogen from its emissions. When the cap-in-trade program was scrapped by the incoming PC government, CRH no longer needed to produce hydrogen with MiWay and the plan crumbled.

CUTRIC now says there is another option to push hydrogen in Mississauga through new federal funding streams. MiWay, CUTRIC and its various partners are in the process of writing a funding proposal that will be sent to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Natural Resources Canada.

A Mississauga staff report says the proposal will be submitted by the end of June. The value of the request is unclear, but an October cost estimate suggested $11 million to help purchase 10 buses and $7 million to subsidize hydrogen fuel before fleet expansion brings economies of scale.

If it is successful in securing help from Ottawa, Mississauga plans to run 10 forty-foot hydrogen buses from its Malton transit facility.

“The 10 buses to start with are a fleet demonstrator that will help them learn everything they need to know about the training, the facility, the fueling and all the things that for sure will go wrong in a first deployment,” Josipa Petrunic, executive director and CEO of CUTRIC, said during a recent panel discussion at CUTRIC’s annual Low Carbon Smart Mobility conference. “You cannot easily deploy one or two buses in any meaningful way for hydrogen. The fundamental issue is you can’t build fueling supply change, you can’t plan for your facility and it’s not scalable, so it’s kind of a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

MiWay’s potential investment in 10 hydrogen buses would allow the transit service to scale its zero-emissions fleet in the future. Its fuelling infrastructure would need incremental changes rather than a complete overhaul to support new vehicles.

Geoff Marinoff, director of MiWay, previously told The Pointer hydrogen buses cost roughly $1.1 million more than their diesel counterparts, totallying $1.7 million per bus. He said the plan is for Mississauga to budget its standard $600,000 unit cost and ask Ottawa to fund the difference.

Video: WATonoBus is the first self-driving shuttle bus at a Canadian university (cbc.ca)


Despite initial barriers to setting up a hydrogen bus network, the system has a slew of benefits on paper.

Unlike battery-powered buses, which can require lengthy breaks to charge, hydrogen models can be refueled in roughly 10 minutes (compared to five minutes for diesel buses). The vehicles also boast significant mileage on a single tank: a test in Orange County, California, showed they could travel 560 kilometres in one go, compared to the 250 kilometres average MiWay buses currently travel. If these figures hold true in Canada’s frosty winter climate, hydrogen buses could sidestep the need for on-street infrastructure that battery-powered buses require. Mississauga could begin to directly swap out its diesel buses for hydrogen without streetscape changes.

“The Malton facility does not currently meet the energy requirements to operate battery-electric buses,” a June Mississauga staff report explains. “MiWay also does not own all of the on-street infrastructure such as stations and terminals, therefore opportunity charging is limited.”

All of this is yet to be set in stone, waiting for a funding commitment from other levels of government. Councillors in Mississauga have approved less than $50,000 so far for MiWay to participate in a feasibility study led by CUTRIC to determine what is required to potentially fully transition its fleet to hydrogen power. The study began in April 2021 and is expected to be finished by April 2022.

The success of the pilot project is inextricably linked to Mississauga’s environmental goals. According to Mississauga’s 2019 climate change master plan, 67 percent of the City’s emissions come from its transit fleet, meaning lowering the municipality’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can only be achieved through changes to how its buses run.

In October, Marinoff told councillors the City had to immediately end its purchase of diesel buses to avoid missing its goals. Mississauga plans to reduce its emissions to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030, dropping to 80 percent by the year 2050.

“In order to meet the City’s GHG target, MiWay cannot purchase any conventional diesel buses moving forward, and will be required to purchase hybrid-electric and electric buses with little to no emissions,” an October report signed off by MiWay’s director states.

During CUTRIC’s recent conference, Stephen Bacchus, MiWay transit fleet manager, said a second and more onerous transition was on the horizon. To meet climate targets, hybrid buses alone will not be enough to carry Mississauga’s ambitions. Bacchus says 2028 is a preliminary estimation for when MiWay will need to move to the exclusive purchase of zero emissions buses to achieve the City’s GHG goals.

Although it is still early, a range of companies and stakeholders are hanging their hopes on Mississauga’s hydrogen trial.

The technology allows MiWay to avoid building on-street charging infrastructure. It will also play a key role in Mississauga’s hopes of lowering its carbon emissions and provide a smooth, modern bus that could even attract leisure transit users in the City.

“In essence this project links all of the hydrogen technology developers in the Canadian ecosystem,” Stephanie Laubenstein, director of sales and business development for New Flyer, said during CUTRIC’s conference. “We’re very excited to be a part of it.”

Email: isaac.callan@thepointer.com
Isaac Callan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer

26 fires in Okanagan, Shuswap, Revelstoke, Similkameen and West Kootenay regions

Doyle Potenteau - Yesterday 


© BC Wildfire ServiceAn aerial view of the Gultch Creek wildfire burning southeast of Chase, B.C., on Friday, July 2, 2021. The fire is estimated to be one hectare in size.

Twenty-six wildfires are currently burning in B.C.’s Okanagan, Shuswap, Revelstoke, Similkameen and West Kootenay regions.

Most of the wildfires are considered new, having been discovered either on July 1st or 2nd, with BC Wildfire equally portioning shares of the causes as either lightning, person or unknown.

Currently, most of the wildfires are listed as being small, with only a handful being bigger than a hectare. Notably, four fires are considered under control, while another two are considered being held.

Read more: Lytton wildfire: Preliminary reports of at least 2 deaths, coroner says

The biggest fire in the combined area is the Derickson Lake fire, burning in Graystokes Provincial Park east of Kelowna. That fire, discovered on June 29, is listed at 1,140 hectares.

Also in Graystokes Park, the Long Loch fire is now at 60 hectares after being previously listed at 100 hectares, That fire was also discovered June 29, and along with the nearby Derickson Lake fire, is considered out of control.


A third fire, the Hilda Creek fire, was listed at two hectares on Thursday, but is now considered extinguished.


On Friday, provincial fire officials said there were 136 wildfires across B.C., with most burning in the Interior, courtesy of a storm cell with lightning that tracked through the area.

The director of provincial operations for BC Wildfire, Cliff Chapman, said there were nine fires of note — a marker indicating serious fires.

Read more: ‘He chose to stay to fight the fire’: Lytton, B.C. resident says her dad saved homes

“Yesterday, we saw the storm system track in the late afternoon to the southeast of the province,” said Chapman. “And then additionally, it started to move into the Interior, around Kamloops, as the evening progressed.

“We saw 12,000 lightning strikes roughly (on Canada Day). Many of those lightning strikes were hitting near communities.”

Video: Retardant dropped on wildfire near Monte Lake, B.C.

Chapman added there were 70 new confirmed fires, "mostly focused in the Southern Cariboo, Interior and southeast of the province."

He also noted that none of those grew bigger than 100 hectares.

"Saying that, we do expect to pick up additional fires from the lightning activity yesterday," he said. "Likely to see somewhere in that same neighbourhood, 70 fires, for today and we are anticipating the potential for additional lightning."

Video: Will there be more lightning in the B.C. Interior forecast?