The Busy Lens

Friday, December 30, 2011

No Business Like Snow Business

New Island Forms from a Volcanic Eruption in the Red Sea

MODIS image from NASA's satellites shows a new island and a volcanic plume in the Red Sea on Dec. 23, 2011. Photo from NASA's Earth Observatory.

MODIS image from NASA's satellites shows the same area of the Red Sea on Oct. 24, 2007. Photo from NASA's Earth Observatory.

A volcano eruption in the Red Sea that gave birth to a new island was recently captured by satellite images.

The Yemen Observer reported that fisherman observed a volcano eruption near Saba Island in the Red Sea on Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. Lava was reportedly expelled 20-30 meters into the air.

Satellite imagery from NASA had been capturing the ash plume from the submarine volcanic eruption for days before the MODIS image from Dec. 23 revealed the new island.

According to NASA's Earth Observatory, "the image from December 2011 shows an apparent island where there had previously been an unbroken water surface. A thick plume (of ash) rises from the island, dark near the bottom and light near the top, perhaps a mixture of volcanic ash and water vapor."

The island is the latest in the Zubair Group, a chain of 10 islands in the Red Sea. It is located between the Haycock and Rugged islands.

All of the islands of Zubair Group have been formed by submarine volcanic eruptions from a shallow platform in the Red Sea.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Sears Announces Closure Of 79 Stores, Including 2 In NH « CBS Boston

Sears Announces Closure Of 79 Stores, Including 2 In NH « CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) –Two outlet stores in New Hampshire are among the first 79 Sears and Kmart stores to close after lower-than-expected holiday sales.

“Grant/Essentials” Sears stores in Nashua and Keene will close at some point, the company announced Thursday.

Sears didn’t list the number of employees that would be affected, but did say each store set to close employs between 40 and 80 people.

No Massachusetts stores were included in the first round of store cuts.

Sears plans to close 21-41 more stores nationwide. Complete PDF:

Verizon Wireless To Charge $2 Fee For Some Bill Payments « CBS Boston

Verizon Wireless To Charge $2 Fee For Some Bill Payments « CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) –Verizon Wireless plans to starting charging its subscribers $2 every time they pay their wireless bills online or directly over the phone.

The new “convenience fee” will start January 15.

Verizon issued a statement explaining the move on its website Thursday.

“The fee will help allow us to continue to support these single bill payment options in these channels and is designed to address costs incurred by us for only those customers who choose to make single bill payments in alternate payment channels (online, mobile, telephone). It is waived for those who pay by electronic check or enroll in AutoPay —