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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2010 20:58:42 GMT
Cloudless day in northern France but the horizon definitely seemed 'smoky' at sunset.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 17, 2010 22:01:22 GMT
Well, you've been warned, so don't stand on any bridges screaming if you see an exceptionally dramatic sunset.
Seriously, I hope all of you in the path keep your cameras with you. I also hope it doesn't get so bad that it causes breathing problems, etc.
Has anyone else noticed how the earthquake tragedy in China seems to have been eclipsed by the eruption in Iceland?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2010 22:14:50 GMT
Watching the BBC News tonight, I saw that Kenya is losing $3 million a day due to the volcano problems. Flowers (mostly roses) and vegetables are their main exports to Europe and everything has to be thrown away at the moment. They are so poor that they were carefully unwrapping the items to be tossed, so that they can reuse the wrappings for new items whenever it becomes possible.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 20, 2010 17:13:12 GMT
Too bad they can't ship the vegetables to parts of Africa where people are starving everyday instead of to Europe where people probably won't even miss them, except to remark how high the prices are on the produce coming from elsewhere.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2010 17:30:15 GMT
I did see that the New Zealand salmon farms are making a fortune because the Norwegian ones are unable to ship.
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Post by bjd on Apr 21, 2010 8:33:14 GMT
In the article I read about Kenya, they don't even give the vegetables like zucchini away to the poor because they say the Kenyans won't eat them.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 21, 2010 20:41:19 GMT
Shouldn't they be using Kenyan soil to feed Kenyans? Or other starving Africans who aren't adverse to vegetables?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2010 20:52:29 GMT
All of the fresh green beans of Europe are imported from Kenya during the winter.
Meanwhile, I remember one year in France when the artichoke crop was much too plentiful and people were horrified to see so many tons of artichokes destroyed. But as the growers said, "do you really think that Africans would eat artichokes?"
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Post by Kimby on Apr 21, 2010 21:16:42 GMT
I've seen on TV that hungry people will eat DIRT if there was nothing else! Artichokes aren't any worse than dirt. Guess even poor Africans have their standards!
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Post by onlymark on Apr 21, 2010 21:46:28 GMT
They've worked out a simple economic principle. They make more money growing flowers and selling them to Europe than growing food to eat themselves and supplying the locals.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2010 21:49:06 GMT
And it's the same in lots of other countries. Even in France, there are numerous products that are mostly for export and not at all for local consumption.
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Post by onlymark on Apr 21, 2010 21:55:25 GMT
Also, and maybe you can put it down to poor education who knows, but you are fighting intransigence, arrogance, stupidity, nativity, sheer bloody mindedness, selfishness, cutting-your-nose-off-to-spite-your-face, corruption, nepotism, laziness, lack of ambition .....and anything else I can't quite think of right now. Just don't get me started on this whole Aid, self induced poverty, crying out for help but picking and choosing thing I have with the majority of Africa. It's not pretty and you wont agree with me.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 21, 2010 22:04:13 GMT
They've worked out a simple economic principle. They make more money growing flowers and selling them to Europe than growing food to eat themselves and supplying the locals. works fine, till there's a disruption in the global economy. I see the pres of Iceland is cautioning Europe to develop a contingency plan for the next volcanic eruption. ("Don't blame us if you don't!")
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2010 22:19:51 GMT
I have been thinking about that -- the fact that some people are actually going to blame Iceland for their problems.
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Post by onlymark on Apr 21, 2010 22:23:32 GMT
The plan is also very simple - RUN!
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 22, 2010 16:43:47 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 10:23:37 GMT
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Post by spindrift on May 1, 2010 11:29:11 GMT
Hmmmm.... Katla is quiet at the moment. Let's keep watching your link.... I hope it doesn't go up.
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2010 21:07:15 GMT
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Post by spindrift on May 3, 2010 21:32:04 GMT
Oh no! I plan to fly to Dublin this month...oh well...no great loss.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2010 12:10:58 GMT
Anybody taking a European or transatlantic flight, here is a useful site to track where the ash is going. No, I don't understand all of the terms either.
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Post by spindrift on May 12, 2010 13:07:26 GMT
Thank you for that information.
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Post by onlymark on May 12, 2010 14:22:00 GMT
I've been looking at that site due to several flights I'm interested in and as far as I can decipher the 'FL' number refers to the thousands of feet. So they've split the heights between 0 feet to 20,000 feet, then 20,000 feet to 35,000 feet, then 35,000 feet to 55,000 feet. The times and dates for actual and forecast are self explanatory(?) The issue time, e.g. 201005121200 means - year 2010 - month 05 - day 12 - time 1200UTC
Or do you not really need to know that?
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2010 20:13:25 GMT
London, England (CNN) -- Volcanic ash may force British airports to close again next week, the country's Department of Transport said Saturday.
If a volcano in Iceland continues to erupt at current levels and if current weather conditions prevail, air travel in Britain could be disrupted between Sunday and Tuesday.
"The government is carefully monitoring this situation, and the safety of passengers will remain our paramount concern," said Transport Secretary Philip Hammond.
The department said predictions remain fluid, urging passengers to check with airlines before taking any action.
British Airways said it would notify passengers of potential disruptions on its website.
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Post by spindrift on May 16, 2010 10:14:28 GMT
I've been looking at the Met website that someone put up...and I can see my chances of flying to Dublin on Tuesday are not good.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 8, 2021 13:57:11 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Jul 31, 2021 12:59:22 GMT
My sister and I were just in Iceland for 10 days, during which time we had reserved a helicopter flight over the “new” volcano, the one that’s been erupting since March (but hadn’t erupted in 800 years before that). Geldingadalir is a different sort of volcano than Eyjafjallajökull which erupted violently spewing ash and gasses and magma violently into the atmosphere. Geldingadalir gently spills molten lava over its sides, and the lava quietly fills the little valleys surrounding the fissure with Pahoehoe (ropy) lava. Tourists have been hiking to the edge of the lava floe to watch the red hot lava creep beneath its crinkly black skin, creating tinkly breaking glass sounds as it breaks the fragile cooled crust. CBC 60 minutes had a segment on this, I’ll try to post a link: www.cbsnews.com/news/geldingadalir-iceland-volcano-60-minutes-plus-2021-05-23/So interest in helicopter overflights skyrocketed, and we had a hard time getting a reservation, but finally did. And then waited, and watched reports that said the volcano was slowing down and may quit erupting soon. And then it did stop for most of the time we were in Iceland, traveling the ring road. But miraculously, Pele smiled on us as Geldingadalir started bubbling and spilling over again the morning of our flight. And the cloud layer that was too low for overflights all morning, finally lifted moments before our scheduled 15:30 lift off. It was amazing! Looking down into the blurping red hot cauldron and seeing the miles of blackened lava flows. The pilot circled the cone at least 4 times from different directions so we could all see and photograph it. We had hoped that we would land and walk up to the tinkling, creeping lava flow, but only one helicopter company has a permit to do this, and ours wasn’t it. No matter. The cone has grown high enough that you can’t see into the cauldron from the ground anymore and the overflight was just amazing. I’ll try to insert a couple photos.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 31, 2021 13:47:25 GMT
Fantastic photos, Kimby. I think that just about everybody has always wanted to see a volcano in eruption, and you managed to do it!
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Post by Kimby on Jul 31, 2021 14:07:37 GMT
Our “tour director” explained how to pronounce the name Eyjafjallajökull: just say “I forgot my yogurt” really fast and people will know what you mean.
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Post by mossie on Jul 31, 2021 14:12:44 GMT
Thanks, must have been a great experience for you
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