There's some kind of odd natural gas smell all over the city, with no origin yet known.  Apparently, they can even smell it in the FOX news room.

-b0b
(...weird.)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,242342,00.html


Quote:

Mysterious Gas Smell Hits Manhattan Monday, January 08, 2007 NEW YORK —  A mysterious natural gas-like odor hit Manhattan Monday morning, causing building evacuations from Rockefeller Center to the city's West Side, but the city's mayor said it was not dangerous. The New York Fire Department began getting calls about the odor around 9 a.m., said spokesman Tim Hinchey. The city's 911 system has been flooded with calls about the smell. "It may just be an unpleasant smell, but at this point we don't know anymore than that," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a press conference Monday. "One thing we are very confident of is it is not dangerous, but how long and what the sources are, we just don't know." Natural gas is a colorless, odorless gas. The chemical mercaptan is added to make it smell. "What you're smelling is mercaptan, which may or may not come from treated natural gas or may be a leak of that particular chemical on its own," Bloomberg said. "At this point, we don't know." Bloomberg said the city's air sensors have not reported any elevated or "unusual" levels of natural gas. A small leak did occur Monday morning at Bleecker Street and Sixth Avenue, but it doesn't appear to be the cause of the smell, Bloomberg said. A U.S. counterterrorism official said nothing indicates terrorism. New York FOX affiliate WNYW-TV reported that New Jersey's PSE&G is investigating whether the smell might have originated with a gas leak in Jersey City, N.J. That city's mayor's spokeswoman Maria Pignataro, a spokeswoman for Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, said officials there were told the odor was due to a gas leak in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, just north of Greenwich Village. Commuter train traffic was suspended for a time by the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey between Jersey City and 33rd Street in Manhattan, officials said. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority temporarily evacuated a control tower at West 4th Street and also closed the 23rd Street subway station briefly. Utility officials with Consolidated Edison had no immediate comment. "We have been in touch with Con Ed but they're not reporting any drop in pressure that would be the kind of thing you would expect if there was a large break to their gas system," Bloomberg. In August, seven people were treated at hospitals after a gaseous smell in the boroughs of Queens and Staten Island.

-b0b
(...thinks Taco Bell was having a two-for-one special.)

Simultaneously, downtown Austin, Texas is closed because of a bunch of dead birds being discovered.  Weirder yet!

-b0b
(...keeps a close eye on things.)

According to John Scott, some people are getting ill from the gas.  Nausea and headaches are being recorded.

According to Glenn Beck, New York City has closed Radio City and some other buildings and the subways are either down or are possibly going down.

-b0b
(...hmms.)

Quote:

www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2007/01/08/drivers_should_avoid_congress.html Congress Ave. shut down after dead birds discovered By Tony Plohetski | Monday, January 8, 2007, 05:41 AM Congress Avenue from Cesar Chavez to 11th Street is closed this morning after authorities discovered a dozen dead birds in the area. Workers in downtown office buildings along Congress will not be allowed in the area until about noon, authorities said. Austin police spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz said authorities received a call about 3 a.m. this morning about the birds in a two-to-four block area on Congress. Austin fire officials responded and began collecting samples from the birds. “What they are doing is some follow-up testing to see if there is anything we need to worry about,” Chovanetz said. “At this point it is strictly precautionary. We want to make sure there is nothing in the air, the water, the buildings before we let people in.” Austin-Travis County Medical services officials said no one was injured in the incident.

-b0b
(...thinks it might be time to buy more ammo.)

The smell is reportedly very strong around the Lincoln Tunnel.  They still don't know what it is.  The local news in New Jersey says the smell is stretching into the Hoboken, NJ area.


Quote:

US OFFICIAL: NO SIGN OF TERRORISM

Wow, they were able to conclude that investigation pretty quickly!  Nothing to see here, move along!

-b0b
(...wow.)

ConEd says the smell isn't originating from their system.  FNC is reporting that it could be a gas leak in the Chelsea district.


Quote:

NYPD:SMELL IS NOT HARMFUL

I love this.  Nobody is sure what is going on or where the small is coming from, but we know it's not a terrorist attack and we know it isn't harmful, even though people are getting sick from it.

It reminds me of this overblown event where the city of New York smelled like Maple Syrup, which was possibly a test of dispersing aerosolized toxins.

-b0b
(...GUNS!)

Boy you think people would have gotten use to the smell of New Jersey by now?

X
(ZING!)

b0b wrote on Jan 8^th, 2007 at 12:05pm:

According to Glenn Beck, New York City has closed Radio City and some other buildings and the subways are either down or are possibly going down.

I don't know if I would believe anything that Glen Beck says.

....aww, shit.



I don't have any guns.





Cait
  (...and the one time she doesn't like being pro-gun control)

Foxnews is reporting people getting sick in New Jersey from the gas.  Hmmm...



Quote:

New York probes 'gas-like odour' Authorities in New York are investigating a persistent gas smell across a large part of lower Manhattan. Police said they were dealing with many reports of a strange gas-like smell, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was confident it was "not dangerous". A stretch of the commuter train service between New York and New Jersey was temporarily halted, and some Manhattan office buildings were evacuated. The US Department of Homeland Security ruled out any link to terrorism. Mr Bloomberg said there were no indications of high levels of natural gas on New York's energy network. "It may just be an unpleasant smell," he told a news conference, but said investigations were continuing. And the BBC's Jeremy Cooke, in New York, says the city is returning to normal. Across the Hudson River in New Jersey, officials said the source of the smell was a gas leak originating in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, but that could not immediately be confirmed. "We are getting several calls of a foul odour. Our units are responding. It's in various parts of the city," a police spokesman said. 'Spread wide' Office worker Brandon Atkins told the BBC that the fumes seeped into his Manhattan building. "Most people evacuated although the smell was worse on the street," he said. "My wife in Jersey City told me she could also smell it there so it seems to cover quite a large territory." New York residents contacted the BBC, describing the smell as a mix of natural gas and burnt rubber, or saying it was a strong methane odour. Gas supplier Consolidated Edison, which pipes gas into much of New York City, said it was investigating the reports, but told US TV network MSNBC that there was "no abnormal flow" of gas in Manhattan. There was a previous report of a gas-like smell in August last year in parts of Queens and Staten Island, the Associated Press news agency said. Natural gas is mainly composed of methane, but has no smell itself. An odour is added to the compound to allow its early detection in the even of a leak. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6241927.stm

Ruled out, eh? Why even bother investigating if you know it's not dangerous, it's not linked to terrorism, it's not flammable natural gas, and it's only "unpleasant?"

Friggin' blowhard know-nothing overlords.


-b0b
(...meh.)

Here's more tinfoil for your hat.  F-16's in pairs have been sighted over the suburbs of Cincinnati.  Whatcha think, Stewie?

-b0b
(...goes to DefCon -6.)

True...it's like if Osama did a one man hand puppet show in Central Park...sure he's a "terrorist" but it's not hurting anything.

X

Wow, it's on now!  An explosive device "resembling C4" has been found on a ship docked at the Miami naval port.  The United States Coast Guard has ordered the captain of the ship (which reportedly is a cruise ship) to move the ship into open water.)

-b0b
(...might need to plan a trip to On Target tonight.)

The substance tested positive six times.

There's another story on the news about a chemical leak in Sugarland, Texas.  A chemical cloud is hanging in the air.

-b0b
(...woah!)

CNN is now reporting that four schools may be evacuated in Sugarland, Texas due to a chemical leak and vapors leaking from some sort of tank.  No word yet on what the chemical is or why the problem happened.

News helicopters have been ordered out of the airspace.

Regarding the other story at the Port of Miami....


Quote:

Possible Explosive Scare At Port Of Miami (CBS4) MIAMI One day after a case of miscommunication turned into a security scare at the Port of Miami, now there’s another situation unfolding that involves possible explosives found at the busy Port. According to Port of Miami spokeswoman, Andria Muniz-Amador, a cargo pallet has been discovered and may contain a large amount of C-4 explosives. The pallet was discovered in an area located at Gate H, located right next to Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines “Majesty of the Sea”, which does have passengers on board who are preparing to embark later Monday afternoon. Terminal H is cordoned off as police investigate. A bomb squad is also on the scene.

-b0b
(...watches with interest.)

what a random day of events. Next time an odd smell happens in NY everyone will just shrug. Then theyll all die from mustard gas.

yep.

Here's one that will get you guys thinking.

First some background:

RDX, the primary explosive in C4, is not detectable.  As such, the military and civilian companies add a "marker" called DMDNB to C4 to make it detectable.

Natural gas, of course, is an odorless, colorless gas.   Because of this, gas producers add a "marker" called Mercaptan which gives it the rotten egg smell.

Now, if your goal is terror, couldn't you get the same results by releasing huge amounts of Mercaptan in one location (NYC), and trace amounts of DMDNB in another location (Miami)?

Further, if you wanted to pull off an actual attack, wouldn't it make sense to "strain" the detection and response infrastructure with some false alarms beforehand to soften things?

-b0b
(...beat Stewie to the conspiracy theory.  Yay!)

The C4 turned out to be "residue on some fire sprinkler parts" that were being loaded onto the ship.  The situation has ended and normal operations are resuming.

I call bull.

-b0b
(...is going home now.)