Mud flood newsflash

The reservoir barrier is slowly moving and collapsing, Kolontár and Devecser is being evacuated. We are expecting a more massive flood of corrosive alkaline mud.

Horror and despair

There's still little or no information from official sources regarding the toxic flood. Eye witnesses are telling about a 2m deep wall of mud going through their homes burying everything including livestock, pets and loved ones. Several others tell they saw someone in a car crossing a bridge when the flood destroyed it. Another witness told me about a man who rushed to his home to save his family. His 12 years old son was with him when the flood lifted their car and buried them. The workers later found their bones. And this is the really horrifying part, the first wave of the flood was well above pH 13, highly corrosive that quickly eats up soft tissue. There are a lot more people missing, more than the official sources claim. Most of those missing are believed to be in Kolontár, in the narrow valley, buried in the deep sludge. The next town, Devecser was more lucky, the flood spread to a much larger area, quickly shrinked to 10-20cm thickness.

Edit: Unofficial information says the reservoir could contain 300,000 cubic meters, while the flood carried over 1,000,000 cubic meters. That's 3 times overload!

These images are from Devecser. Kolontár is still closed from the public, soldiers and military vehicles can be seen on the roads leading to the flooded town. Some say the soldiers are looking for survivors. They let the locals back for a couple of hours to get their personal belongings.

These two pictures show the area wher the flood started spreading. Cars and rubble carried from Kolontár.  The trees and bushes still show some green, but all the vegetation is dead.

There's not even bacteria remained in the contaminated water an earth.

Toys on the table. The kids were playing when the red sludge invaded their home.

Toxic mud flood in Hungary!!! new pictures

"(CNN) -- Four people, including two children, were killed after a reservoir broke and flooded three villages in western Hungary with toxic red mud, officials said Tuesday.

The government has declared a state of emergency in three counties, the State Secretariat of Governmental Communications said.

The National Catastrophe Protection Directorate (OKF) said the two children who died were 1 and 3 years old. A 35-year-old man was killed in his car, and a woman was killed in her home, the government said.

Rescue workers are looking for seven people who are missing. They have treated at least 116 casualties, including eight people who were seriously injured. Most have been airlifted by helicopter to hospitals in the capital, Budapest.

The reservoir burst in the town of Kolontar on Monday afternoon, the government said Tuesday.

At least a million cubic meters of red mud have spilled so far, the government said, affecting the villages of Kolontar, Devecser and Somlovasarhely.

The toxic sludge -- a waste product from aluminum production -- could potentially endanger two major rivers, the Danube and the Raba, the government said. It has already reached the river Marcal.

The Environment and Water Management Center has experts working on preventing the sludge from affecting the Danube and Raba, it said."

Information is still scarce on this topic, mostly gossips and very few official newscast, there was even a panic about false news of another breach. People ran to the highest points of the towns, some have fainted. The locals are terrified, no one knows if they can ever go back to pack their personal belongings.

There are more reservoirs in the region, all are part of the aluminum industry in Ajka. The mud is red sludge, a toxic side product of alumina production. If the sludge touches the skin it makes immediate toxic burns due to its high pH level.

More information and pictures will come so stay tuned

The route of the flood. Note that the flood loosely followed the small stream but still flooded all of Kolontár (smaller town, lower center) and Devecser (upper left)

Edit: Red sludge may contain small amount of radioactive material. The OKF workers scanned the affected area but so far found no sign of radioactivity.

Edit 2: Aerial shots from the flooded area

The sludge reservoir. The breach is at the far corner.

The breach itself. Note the remaining sludge, it only takes a little rain to get it loose.

The way of the flood. Yes, it was an agricultural area.

The flooded town of Devecser. Toxic waste all over everything.

The flood destroyed bridges, raillines, houses, cars... and devastated lots of lives. The white stuff is gypsum (plaster), workers are trying to counter the alkaline mud, but reports say it only lowers pH levels from 13 to 11. Still deadly.

There was a house here. All the red stuff you see is highly toxic, causes immediate serious chemical burns.

Minecraft Halloween Update! OOOooOOooooOO!

The unbelievable happened, Notch released a plan for the next update. Not just a simple update, a big real developer-like update! Of course it will be available on October 31st and no updates till then.
The updates will be:
- Torches will burn out, has to be reignited with flint and steel. Infinite light source will be added as Lanterns. During the update existing world torches will be converted into lanterns, but not in the inventory. I hope you have good aim if you plan to build a house from wood :P
- Less light emitted by torches/lanterns the more deep you are. Also you can carry lanterns to light your way
- Biomes. I really hope you actually finish this one Notch!
- Hell world, teleportation, new monsters. You can teleport to a hell world to walk small distance and teleport back to travel several hunderd meters. Sounds Marvelous... Also existing monsters will be a bit more difficult to fight
- New weapons. Hell yeah, we will need lots of those to fight hellspawns and such
- Fishing. The fishing rod will be useful. I hope there will be some seamonster too
- Carve pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns and wear it as a stupid completely useless helmet. Notch, we want to craft more hats! Maybe a trading system to trade crafted hats and weapons...naaah just joking

You can see the whole list on www.minecraft.net/boo/

On slightly related note, Torchlight 2 is confirmed to be a lot more awesome than Diablo 3. More starting characters, random huge overworld area with random dungeons, day-night cycle, weather, and 8 player Multiplayer WITH LAN support!!!



&&

Forever a loan

Hello dear readers!


Tonight I decided to go on a club night instead of the regular loser way of drinking beer and some shots with my friends and go home. Oh boy, talk about wrong decisions! I feel like an outcast, I usually follow the recent charts, even if I don't like most of it (don't bash me, I'm a jazz person). So tonight after the usual beer and talks and such, some of my friends decided to go to the local hub of night society, the local university club. For better understanding, the local uni club consists of 3 parts: Blue, Red and Miller. Yes, the last one is named after the supporting american pis..I mean beer. Blue offers hits from the last 30-20 years mixed to a dance rythm. Red offers Canada style "it was cool 15 years ago in the USA" dance and Miller is.. well it's more of a mush-pit with techno. Not the good kind of techno (lol good+techno) but the bad kind of "two rythms overlapping and some dance mixed in" "music". I always regret going to the "Rocky" but I always end up tagging along with my friends...
Well, this pretty much describes the night life around my town.. *sigh* if there was a jazz club around..
Shallow music and shallow girls get boring after a while (I like to talk to girls, but if their interests go as far as the color of their bags, I'm shot) and I'm doing this loop for almost 10 years now. Not to talk about all my debt of whiskey+colas to my friends...
Link me up some great chilling music, will ya'? here's some old sleepy hands in exchange:

   

Plans

For the next couple of weeks (maybe the month) I plan to review a book not available everywhere, but I'm sure there are lots of books in the same topic.
The book is "The Diary" (A Napló) from hungarian writer György Moldova, best known about his political novels and documentaries of the past communist/socialist era of Hungary, satires and reports. The book is centered around the diary of Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna that was found when he got captured and arrested in Bolivia, Oct. 8. 1967. The diary consists of 3 bolivian school notebooks, and tells the story of El Che from Oct. 2. 1966. till the day he was arrested. György Moldova tells us the book is not the diary itself, but strongly based on it, trying to show the real personality of Che Guevara.
I can tell this is a very interesting book, I feel lucky that I found it in a discount books basket.

MOLDOVA GYORGY - A NAPLO
    

Nintendo 3DS

Nintendos new upcoming handheld, the 3DS comes out in spring 2011. Nintendo, I am dissapoint.
I know a new console, even if it's mostly an upgraded one needs launch titles, it doesn't need that much time
to port existing titles to the new (read: upgraded) platform.

Let's see what new features the 3DS offers:
 Improved dual core CPU with integrated GPU
 3.53-inch top screen @800x240 resolution (400 pixels for each eye during 3D gameplay) and a 3.02-inch bottom touch screen @320x240
 three cameras (one inner and two outer) to deliver the 3D effect and take 3D pictures @640x480, 0.3 Mpixel
 gyro sensors/motion sensors
 an analogue slide pad above the D-pad
 Cartridge slot for DS and 3DS cards and an SD card slot

These specs are looking promising, especially the computing power being comparable to the PSP, even the launch titles are mostly ported N64 and Gamecube games.
I know a lot of us gamers hold a special spot in our hearts for such games, and playing Mario Kart, Starfox 64, Paper Mario, Legend of Zelda: OoT, and MGS: Snake Eater on the go, in class or on the john sounds awesome.
For me I'd like to see Banjo Kazooie, MGS: Twin Snakes, Windwaker and of course Conker's Bad Fur Day.
What other great games would you like to see again, maybe with better graphics on this new handheld? Comment away.

Here are some leaked screenies from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater

Looks awesome

Jaggies galore, also note the polygon neck

Edit: $299!!! I'm glad Nintendo announced the launch at Q2 2011, I'll need that time to save up the money for it (and the games)