Locusts lead to blackouts....

Bet you don't see this too often...
Big flying grasshopers, the small ones the size of your palm, the big ones the size of your whole hand, are causing blackouts in Argentina. The locusts land on transformer substations and for some reason swarm about on the insulators. Locust bodies, it turns out, are fine conductors of electricity. When enough of 'em swarm, current arcs through their shells, shorting out the substation. Five villages in the Qulino area have been without power for the past ten days.


from Clarin.com
Una plaga de langostas dejó sin electricidad a tres pueblos cordobeses

Son las denominadas "tucuras quebracheras", que tienen entre 5 y 12 centímetros de largo. La acumulación de insectos en una estación transformadora provocó un cortocircuito.

Las langostas conocidas como tucuras quebracheras miden entre cinco y 12 centímetros y tienen, según especialistas, la particularidad de ser excelentes conductoras de la electricidad, una propiedad por la cual dejaron sin luz a tres pueblos cordobeses.

El norte de la provincia se ve afectado por una plaga de estas langostas. "Se instalan en los seccionadores de la estación transformadora (de energía) y, cuando se acumulan, hacen un arco eléctrico y provocan cortocircuitos", explicaron Nicolás Lobo, gerente de la Cooperativa Eléctrica de Quilino, y Ricardo Vergara, encargado del sistema eléctrico de la cooperativa, al comentar el corte de luz que sufrieron hace 10 días las localidades de Quilino, Lucio V. Mansilla y San José de las Salinas.

Los técnicos indicaron que las langostas aparecieron quemadas y que al estudiarlas descubrieron que "técnicamente por el cuerpo de las tucuras circula la energía en un 100 por ciento".

Las tucuras habitan generalmente en el monte y según dijo el intendente de Quilino, Víctor Maggi, al periódico La Voz del Interior, aparecieron en la región "hace dos años".

La invasión de las langostas también arrasó con pastos, cultivos y árboles en la zona, por eso, "los productores ganaderos están preocupados", remarcó Maggi. Por sus características, la fumigación se realiza de manera manual y, según el intendente, es responsabilidad de cada productor.

Violence in Sao Paulo

Something is happening in Sao Paulo.

A gang of criminals - the PCC - with an organizational structure modelled on a revulutionary guerilla movement has been directing armed attacks against police and prison guards, and ordering the takeover and burning of public buses. Some 75 police and prison guards have been killed since the attacks began, about a dozen busses burned. In reprisal, police have killed some 300 people they believe might have some connection to the PCC gang. Twice in less than a month the PCC attacks have brought Sao Paulo, the largest city in South America, and one of the ten largest or so in the world, to a complete standstill, as worried bus line owners kept their fleets in the garage and worried workers stayed home.

The first time it made the news in North America. This second time, it has been ignored. Repeated news is no longer news, except when it involves Israel, where the headlines have been unchanged all my adult life, yet somehow continue to make the front page.

Curious too, how different newspapers treat the city's urban violence. In Argentina, readers of Clarin are told that There is panic in Sao Paulo as a result of a Mass Prison Break

19:41 | Brasil: pánico por una fuga masiva de presos en el interior de San Pablo

El Mundo

Al menos cuarenta presos se fugaron de una cárcel de Iguacu do Tieté, en el interior del estado brasileño de San Pablo, causando pánico en la población, informaron hoy medios locales.

In Sao Paulo, readers of the Folha de Sao Paulo are told that Sao Paulo had a peaceful Sunday, with no new attacks, and bus line circulating normally.

16/07/2006 - 16h06

São Paulo tem domingo tranqüilo e sem registros de novos ataques

da Folha Online

O domingo está tranqüilo em São Paulo. Nenhum novo ataque foi registrado desde a noite de sábado, segundo dados da Secretaria de Segurança Pública do Estado.

Ônibus circularam normalmente e a empresa EcoUrbis montou esquema especial de coleta na zona leste da cidade, depois de ataques a três caminhões de lixo desde quinta (13).

In Canada and the US, as I mentioned, readers are told nothing at all.

Sociologists in Rio have speculated that given the number of dead on both sides (50 cops, 400 civilians, presumbed to be gang members in a ten day persiod. This is only slightly higher than the norm. In Rio for example, a cop dies about once a week, and the police kill about four people a day) Brazil could technically be considered to be in a state of civil war.

But so far, the outside world hasn't noticed.

Canadian in Afghanistan

As it turns out, the error on that NY Times report seems to have been with Reuters. No other newspaper carried the story, and about 20 minutes later when I checked Times site again, the piece had been removed. So Toronto either had better access to information than New York, or being asleep at the switch paid off.