Hundreds of millions of people have been left without electricity in northern and eastern India after a massive power breakdown.
More than half the country was hit by the power cuts after three grids collapsed – one for a second day.
Hundreds of trains have come to a standstill and hospitals are running on backup generators.
The country’s power minister has blamed the crisis on states drawing too much power from the national grid.
The breakdowns in the northern, eastern, and north-eastern grids mean around 600m people have been affected in 20 of India’s states.
Traffic jams
In a statement on national TV on Tuesday evening, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said he had appealed to states to stop trying to take more than their quota of power.
“I have also instructed my officials to penalise the states which overdraw from the grid,” he said.
Media reports in India have suggested that Uttar Pradesh is among the states that government officials have been blaming for the grid collapse.
But officials in the state denied this, saying there was “no reason to believe that any power operations in Uttar Pradesh triggered it”.
Anil K Gupta, the chairman of the state’s power company, called for “further investigation to ascertain the real cause”.
Also on Tuesday it was announced that Mr Shinde had been promoted to the post of home minister, in a widely anticipated cabinet reshuffle.
‘Complete mess’
By late on Tuesday, officials said the north-eastern grid was fully up and running. The northern grid was running at 75% capacity and the eastern at 40%.
In Delhi, Metro services were halted and staff evacuated trains. Many traffic lights in the city failed, leading to massive traffic jams.
Much of the country’s railway network has started moving again, although a full service is not expected for many hours and there is a huge backlog to clear.
The failure on the northern grid on Monday also caused severe disruption and travel chaos across northern India.
One shopworker in Delhi, Anu Chopra, 21, said: “I can understand this happening once in a while but how can one allow such a thing to happen two days in a row?
“It just shows our infrastructure is in a complete mess. There is no transparency and no accountability whatsoever.”
In eastern India, around 200 miners were trapped underground as lifts failed, but officials later said they had all been rescued.
With so many areas without air conditioning, some Indians decided to jump the train and head to the beach.
LONDON — Mitt Romney’s trip to London was supposed to be about the Olympics. And it was — but not quite in the way he had expected.
Mr. Romney’s choreographed visit here caused a diplomatic stir after his comments on the British Olympics preparations and whether Londoners would turn out to support the Games prompted a rebuke from Prime MinisterDavid Cameron and grabbed the attention of the news media.
“There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging,” Mr. Romney said in an interview with NBC on Wednesday.
That brought a tart rejoinder from Mr. Cameron: “We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.” The allusion was to Salt Lake City, which hosted the Games that Mr. Romney oversaw in 2002.
Stan Bennett’s shrimp boat sank beneath the waterline on Saturday, the same day he was buried.
CBC
A shrimp boat sank this weekend while it was tied up at the wharf in St. John’s, just hours before its owner was buried after a long battle with cancer, in an incident that the family describes as “spooky.”
Stan Bennett died last week after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Early on Saturday morning, the family learned that Bennett’s vessel was taking on water while it was tied up at the small boat basin near Prosser’s Rock, on the south side of St. John’s Harbour. It continued sinking into the water, with most of it submerged despite efforts from the Canadian Coast Guard to pull it up.
His son, also named Stan Bennett, said the circumstances — especially the timing — were bizarre.
“She’s been out in storms, the spring of the year and the fall of the year. Hurricanes. For her to sink tied up at the wharf, in the middle of the summer, the word of the day is spooky,” Bennett told CBC News.
“The day we put our father in the ground, his boat goes to the bottom of the harbour. What other word can you use?”
The cause of the problem has not yet been found.
The coast guard had been preparing for another attempt Monday to lift the boat with a crane.
Bennett said while the boat was insured, the family still take a financial hit because they will lose the rest of the shrimp harvesting season. He said the overall loss is more than $300,000.
Spooky!
This was one very, very strange coincidence. But it is great ammunition for believers in the paranormal!
Below are some photos I have taken of cow herds in south central Manitoba. To me the cow of the pasture seems so content and satisfied. As they chew their cud and let off the odd rare moo, their faces look like they do not have a worry in the world. They just shift from one corner of the pasture to the next where the grass is more tasty and thick. Just have a cow crap whenever and wherever the need arises. No complications, no bickering with the bull, no calf running away with the other cow’s calf to go breed in the other corner of the pasture, no drunken steers to deal with, all is good.
The Cow – by Robert Louis Stephenson
The friendly cow all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple-tart.
She wanders lowing here and there,
And yet she cannot stray,
All in the pleasant open air,
The pleasant light of day;
And blown by all the winds that pass
And wet with all the showers, She walks among the meadow grass
And eats the meadow flowers.
Down by the sliprails stands our cow
Chewing, chewing, chewing,
She
does not care what folks out there
In the great, big world are
doing.
She sees the small cloud-shadows pass
And green grass shining
under.
If she does think, what does she think
About it all, I
wonder?
She sees the swallows skimming by
Above the sweet young
clover,
The light reeds swaying in [...]
The Cow is too well known, I fear, To need an introduction here.
If She should vanish from Earth’s face It would be Hard to fill Her place;
For with the Cow would disappear So much that every one holds Dear.
Oh, think of all the Boots and Shoes, Milk Punches, Gladstone Bags, and Stews [...]
Thank you, pretty cow, that made Pleasant milk to soak my bread,
Every day and every night,
Warm, and fresh, and sweet, and white.
Do not chew the hemlock rank, Growing on the weedy bank;
But the yellow cowslips eat;
They perhaps will make it sweet. Where the purple violet grows,
Where the bubbling water flows, Where the [...]
This is one of the most timid herds I have ever come across. They were huddled near Manitou, Manitoba. The matriarch cow must be paranoid, as all her underlings look like they just saw a Sasquatch! This herd should relax, a sudden thunder-clap could send them into a hysterical stampede, which could lead to a kamikaze charge into a barbed wire fence.
Here is a very content pasture cow herd in south central Manitoba.
This magic moment So different and so new Was like any other Until I met you And then it happened It took me by suprise I knew that you felt it too I could see it by the look in your eyes
Sweeter than wine Softer than a summer’s night Everything I want, I have Whenever I hold you tight
This magic moment, While your lips are close to mine, Will last forever, Forever, ’til the end of time
So why won’t you dance with me? Why won’t you dance with me?
This magic moment So different and so new Was like any other Until I met you
And then it happened It took me by suprise I knew that you felt it too I could see it by the look in your eyes
Sweeter than wine Softer than a summer’s night Everything I want, I have Whenever I hold you tight
Thunderbirds is a British science fiction television series first broadcast during 1965 and 1966 which was devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by their company, AP Films, using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed “Supermarionation”. The series followed the adventures of International Rescue, a secretive organisation created to help those in grave danger using technically advanced equipment and machinery launched from its hidden Tracy Island base. The series focused on the head of the organisation, ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, and his five sons who piloted the “Thunderbird” crafts. Its London agent, Lady Penelope, also makes frequent appearances. Perennially popular, the series has benefited from periodic revivals since – as well as subsequently inspiring other television programmes and advertisements, theatrical productions, feature films and substantial merchandise.
Maverick Arts Publishing has created a new calendar depicting guinea pigs going for gold at a huge sporting event like the Olympics. The Guinea Pig Games 2013 calendar features the furry creatures competing in events such as hurdles, swimming, showjumping and cycling.
