Topic: Disaster management (Page 5)
You are looking at all articles with the topic "Disaster management". We found 53 matches.
Hint:
To view all topics, click here. Too see the most popular topics, click here instead.
π List of aerial disappearances
This list of missing aircraft includes all of the aircraft that have disappeared in flight for reasons that have never been definitely determined. According to Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organization, an aircraft is considered to be missing "when the official search has been terminated and the wreckage has not been located". However, there still remains a "grey area" on how much wreckage needs to be found for a plane to be declared "recovered". This list does not include every aviator, or air passenger that has ever gone missing as these are separate categories.
In the tables below, each missing aircraft is defined (in the Aircraft column) using one or more identifying features. If the aircraft was known by a custom or personalized name (e.g. Pathfinder), that name is presented first (in italics) followed by the aircraft type (in parentheses). The make of aircraft, although not necessarily a unique identifier, is also provided where appropriate. Aircraft registrations began to be used in the early 20th century for individual identification, so this is also included in the later tables (in parentheses).
Discussed on
- "List of aerial disappearances" | 2014-03-11 | 12 Upvotes 7 Comments
π Great horse manure crisis of 1894
The great horse manure crisis of 1894 refers to the idea that the greatest obstacle to urban development at the turn of the century was the difficulty of removing horse manure from the streets. More broadly, it is an analogy for supposedly insuperable extrapolated problems being rendered moot by the introduction of new technologies. The phrase originates from a 2004 article by Stephen Davies entitled "The Great Horse-Manure Crisis of 1894".
The supposed problem of excessive horse-manure collecting in the streets was solved by the proliferation of cars, buses and electrified trams which replaced horses as the means of transportation in big cities. The term great horse manure crisis of 1894 is often used to denote a problem which seems to be impossible to solve because it is being looked at from the wrong direction.
The name refers to a supposed 1894 publication in The Times, which said "In 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure". The reasoning was that more horses are needed to remove the manure, and these horses produce more manure. An urban planning conference in 1898 supposedly broke up before its scheduled end due to a failure to find an answer to this problem. No such statement in the Times, nor conference result, is known, but in 1893 London there was a complaint that horse manure, formerly an economic good that could be sold, had become a disposal problem, an economic bad.
The supposed crisis has since taken on life as a useful analogy.
Discussed on
- "Great horse manure crisis of 1894" | 2023-12-16 | 14 Upvotes 5 Comments
π There have almost been as many mass shootings in the US as days this year
This is a list of mass shootings in the United States that have occurred in 2019. Mass shootings are incidents involving multiple victims of firearm-related violence. The precise inclusion criteria are disputed, and there is no broadly accepted definition.
Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group that tracks shootings and their characteristics in the United States, defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people, excluding the perpetrator(s), are shot in one location at roughly the same time. The Congressional Research Service narrows that definition, limiting it to "public mass shootings", and defined by four or more victims killed. It excludes counting wounded survivors. The Washington Post and Mother Jones use similar definitions, with the latter acknowledging that their definition "is a conservative measure of the problem", as shootings with fewer fatalities occur. The crowdsourced Mass Shooting Tracker project defines a mass shooting as "an incident where four or more people are shot in a single shooting spree. This may include the shooter themself, or police shootings of civilians around the shooter."
There were 434 mass shootings in 2019 that fit the inclusion criteria of this article. This averaged 1.19 mass shootings per day. In these shootings, 1,643 people were injured and 517 died, for a total of 2,160 victims.
Discussed on
- "There have almost been as many mass shootings in the US as days this year" | 2019-06-01 | 10 Upvotes 8 Comments
π 2018 Hawaii false missile alert
On the morning of Saturday, January 13, 2018, a ballistic missile alert was accidentally issued via the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alert System over television, radio, and cellphones in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The alert stated that there was an incoming ballistic missile threat to Hawaii, advised residents to seek shelter, and concluded: "This is not a drill". The message was sent at 8:07Β a.m. local time. Civil defense outdoor warning sirens were not authorized by the state.
Thirty-eight minutes and 13 seconds later, state officials blamed a miscommunication during a drill at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency for the first message. Governor David Ige publicly apologized for the erroneous alert. The Federal Communications Commission and the Hawaii House of Representatives launched investigations into the incident, leading to the resignation of the state's emergency management administrator.
Discussed on
- "2018 Hawaii false missile alert" | 2021-04-20 | 16 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Russian Apartment Bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing more than 300, injuring more than 1000, and spreading a wave of fear across the country. The bombings, together with the Invasion of Dagestan, triggered the Second Chechen War. Then-prime minister Vladimir Putin's handling of the crisis boosted his popularity greatly and helped him attain the presidency within a few months. Russian courts ruled that the attacks were orchestrated by Chechen-linked militants, while some scholars, journalists, and politicians have argued that Russian security services likely organized the bombings.
The blasts hit Buynaksk on 4 September and in Moscow on 9 and 13 September. On 13 September, Russian Duma speaker Gennadiy Seleznyov made an announcement in the Duma about receiving a report that another bombing had just happened in the city of Volgodonsk. A bombing did indeed happen in Volgodonsk, but only three days later, on 16 September. Chechen militants were blamed for the bombings, but denied responsibility, along with Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov.
A suspicious device resembling those used in the bombings was found and defused in an apartment block in the Russian city of Ryazan on 22 September. On 23 September, Vladimir Putin praised the vigilance of the inhabitants of Ryazan and ordered the air bombing of Grozny, which marked the beginning of the Second Chechen War. Three FSB agents who had planted the devices at Ryazan were arrested by the local police. On 24 September 1999, head of FSB Nikolay Patrushev announced that the incident in Ryazan had been an anti-terror drill and the device found there contained only sugar.
The official Russian investigation of the Buynaksk bombing was completed in 2000, while the investigation of Moscow and Volgodonsk bombings was completed in 2002. In 2000, seven people were convicted of perpetrating the Buinaksk attack. According to the court ruling on the Moscow and Volgodonsk bombings, which was announced in 2004, the attacks were organised and led by Achemez Gochiyaev, who remains at large. All bombings, the court ruled, were ordered by Islamist warlords Ibn Al-Khattab and Abu Omar al-Saif, who have been killed. Five other suspects have been killed and six have been convicted by Russian courts on terrorism-related charges.
Parliament member Yuri Shchekochikhin filed two motions for a parliamentary investigation of the events, but the motions were rejected by the Russian Duma in March 2000. An independent public commission to investigate the bombings was chaired by Duma deputy Sergei Kovalev. The commission was rendered ineffective because of government refusal to respond to its inquiries. Two key members of the Kovalev Commission, Sergei Yushenkov and Yuri Shchekochikhin, have since died in apparent assassinations. The Commissionβs lawyer and investigator Mikhail Trepashkin was arrested and served four years in prison for revealing state secrets. Former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who defected and blamed the FSB for the bombings, was poisoned and killed in London in 2006. A British inquiry later determined that Litvinenko's murder was "probably" carried out with the approval of Putin and Patrushev.
The 1999 attacks were officially attributed to Chechen terrorists. According to some historians and journalists, the bombings were coordinated by the Russian state security services to bring Putin into the presidency. Others disagree with such theories. Independent investigations have faced obstruction from Russian security services, raising further suspicions about their involvement in the attacks.
Discussed on
- "Russian Apartment Bombings" | 2022-03-05 | 16 Upvotes 1 Comments
π 2024 Lebanon Pager Explosions
On 17 September 2024, communication pagers simultaneously exploded across Lebanon and Syria in an apparent coordinated attack. Many of the pagers were owned by members of the Hezbollah militant group. Eighteen people were confirmed killed: eleven in Lebanon (including a child and at least two Hezbollah members) and seven in Syria. Around 4,000 people were reportedly injured, including Hezbollah members and civilians.
The blasts affected several Hezbollah strongholds, including Beirut's Dahieh suburb, southern Lebanon, and in the Beqaa Valley. Over 500 of the group's militants lost their eyesight. They called the incident the organization's "biggest security breach yet" and accused Israel of responsibility.
A day after Hamas launched its October 7 attacks on Israel in 2023, the Iranian-backed organization Hezbollah joined the conflict in support of Hamas by firing on Israel. This led to a series of cross-border military exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel. In February 2024, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, told the group's members to use pagers instead of cell phones, claiming that Israel had infiltrated their cell phone network. Hezbollah then bought a new brand of pagers that were recently imported to Lebanon.
Earlier on the day of the explosion, Israel's domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, announced it had thwarted a Hezbollah plot to assassinate a former senior defense official using an explosive device.
Around 150 hospitals across Lebanon received victims of the attack, which saw chaotic scenes.
Discussed on
- "2024 Lebanon Pager Explosions" | 2024-09-17 | 14 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Gutter Oil
Gutter oil (Chinese: ε°ζ²ζ²Ή; pinyin: dΓ¬gΕu yΓ³u, or ι€Ώζ°΄ζ²Ή; sΕushuΗ yΓ³u) is oil which has been recycled from waste oil collected from sources such as restaurant fryers, grease traps, slaughterhouse waste and fatbergs.
Reprocessing of used cooking oil is often very rudimentary; techniques include filtration, boiling, refining, and the removal of some adulterants. It is then packaged and resold as a cheaper alternative to normal cooking oil. Another version of gutter oil uses discarded animal parts, animal fat and skins, internal organs, and expired or otherwise low-quality meat, which is then cooked in large vats in order to extract the oil. Used kitchen oil can be purchased for between $859 and $937 per ton, while the cleaned and refined product can sell for $1,560 per ton. Thus there is great economic incentive to produce and sell gutter oil.
It was estimated in 2011 that up to one in every ten lower-market restaurant meals consumed in China is prepared with recycled oil. As Feng Ping of the China Meat Research Center has said: "The illegal oil shows no difference in appearance and indicators after refining and purification because the law breakers are skillful at coping with the established standards."
Some street vendors and restaurants in China and Taiwan have illegally used recycled oil unfit for human consumption for the purposes of cooking food, leading to a crackdown against such establishments by the Chinese and Taiwanese governments.
Gutter oil is an acceptable raw ingredient for products that are not for human consumption, such as soap, rubber, bio-fuel, and cosmetics.
Discussed on
- "Gutter Oil" | 2019-05-01 | 11 Upvotes 3 Comments
π Mediterranean tropical like Storm Daniel
Storm Daniel, also known as Cyclone Daniel, was the deadliest Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone ever recorded as well as the deadliest weather event during 2023. It caused catastrophic damage in Libya and also affected parts of southeastern Europe. Forming as a low-pressure system around 4Β September 2023, the storm affected Greece, Bulgaria and also Turkey with extensive flooding. The storm then organized as a Mediterranean Low and was designated as Storm Daniel, in which it soon acquired quasi-tropical characteristics (TLC) and moved toward the coast of Libya, where it caused catastrophic flooding before degenerating into a remnant low. The storm was the result of an Omega block, as a high-pressure zone became sandwiched between two zones of low pressure, the isobars shaping a Greek letter Ξ©.
Discussed on
- "Mediterranean tropical like Storm Daniel" | 2023-09-12 | 11 Upvotes 3 Comments
π 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash
The 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash was an accident that occurred near Goldsboro, North Carolina, on 23 January 1961. A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two 3β4-megaton Mark 39 nuclear bombs broke up in mid-air, dropping its nuclear payload in the process. The pilot in command, Walter Scott Tulloch, ordered the crew to eject at 9,000 feet (2,700Β m). Five crewmen successfully ejected or bailed out of the aircraft and landed safely, another ejected, but did not survive the landing, and two died in the crash. Information declassified in 2013 showed that one of the bombs came very close to detonating.
Discussed on
- "1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash" | 2016-12-16 | 10 Upvotes 3 Comments
π Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse
On July 17, 1981, two walkways collapsed at the Hyatt Regency Kansas City hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, one directly above the other. They crashed onto a tea dance being held in the hotel's lobby, killing 114 and injuring 216. As a product of a corporate culture of profound neglect, the disaster contributed many lessons to the study of engineering ethics and errors, and to emergency management. The event remains the deadliest nonβdeliberate structural failure in American history, and it was the deadliest structural collapse in the U.S. until the collapse of the World Trade Center towers 20 years later.