Saturday, March 28, 2009
Now that's funny
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said that our current economic crisis is as bad as the attack on Pearl Harbor, but still not as bad as the movie 'Pearl Harbor.'
~ Jimmy Fallon
Hard Times Require Play Time
Seriously
Now comes a psychiatrist, and the author of a new book about the rewards of play, who argues that when it comes to avoiding depression, play is every bit as necessary as work.
In this interview in USA Today, Stuart Brown, author of Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul, asserts that play is particularly important during periods that are stressful, like this very moment in history.
What exactly is play?
Brown warns readers that real play is not what many people believe it is.
It is not, for example, the special round of golf at a fancy club.
Neither is it a determined effort to achieve some impressive fitness goal. Play, says Brown, is that relaxing thing you did as a kid when you wanted to have fun .The psychiatrist tells USA Today that it is no coincidence that people who stay sharp as they age are those who keep working and playing. And couples who stay together also play together, he says, especially when they have different play personalities that might lead them in different directions. He tells readers who want to hear it that sex counts big time in the world of play. "When partners try to draw each other out," he says. "they are in effect freeing themselves and relaxing."
Read more in USA Today and free yourself.
Health News
A puff of exhaled air could give an early warning of lung disease by morphing a liquid into gel.
Morphing liquid could lead to cancer breath test
Was the Tunguska Fireball a Comet Chemical Bomb?
Over a century ago, on June 30th, 1908 a huge explosion detonated over an unpopulated region of Russia called Tunguska. It is probably one of the most enduring mysteries of this planet. What could cause such a huge explosion in the atmosphere, with the energy of a thousand Hiroshima atomic bombs, flattening a forest the area of Luxembourg and yet leaving no crater? It is little wonder that the Tunguska event has become great material for science fiction writers; how could such a huge blast, that shook the Earth’s magnetic field and lit up the Northern Hemisphere skies for three days leave no crater and just a bunch of flattened, scorched trees?
Although there are many theories as to how the Tunguska event may have unfolded, scientists are still divided over what kind of object could have hit the Earth from space. Now a Russian scientist believes he has uncovered the best answer yet. The Earth was glanced by a large comet, that skipped off the upper atmosphere, dropping a chunk of comet material as it did so. As the comet chunk heated up as it dropped through the atmosphere, the material, packed with volatile chemicals, exploded as the biggest chemical explosion mankind had ever seen…
Fly Ash Used To Build Virginia Golf Course Threatens Private Wells
Image credit:Resource International, LLC
With existing fly ash lagoons filling up, the electric power utility, Dominion Virginia Power, helped a golf course developer "build" a course by selling it fly ash to use in the landscaping. The Virginian-Pilot reports this statement from a nearby resident: "They paid people to take it from them, dig up the sand, the good land that we had over there. The developers sold the sand, took the fly ash that Dominion was paying them for and put it in our backyard." Recent test results showed arsenic in groundwater samples taken from the course-area at eight times the municipal drinking water standard. Now, of course, there is talk of a class action law suit.
Earth Hour
From TreeHugger:
McDonald's is one of a few major corporations that have received extra green credit for its announcement of their one hour sacrifice to help the Earth. In the case of Mcdonald's, about 1.5% of its locations will dim their lights for .000114 % of the year.
Is Unemployment Near a Peak?
The headliner of this week in economic news is the Labor Department's employment report for March.
Three Mile Island, Thirty Years Later
The U.S. nuclear power industry has only recently begun to recover, based on concerns over global warming.
Teaching assistant climbs 300 feet to rescue students
A teaching assistant scaled a 300ft cliff without climbing gear to get help for pupils stranded on rocks below.
Full Story
Cow gives birth to twins of different breeds
Photo: APEX
A cow has baffled experts after giving birth to twin calves of different breeds.
Cop rear-ends car while checking BlackBerry
A Washington police chief has issued a public apology for hitting another car while he was checking his BlackBerry.
Man dies trying to catch suicidal girlfriend as she jumps from 7th floor
A Chinese man was killed last night after trying to catch his suicidal girlfriend as she jumped from the seventh floor of their Quanzhou apartment building in south-eastern China.
His girlfriend survived the fall. She was not in critical condition and expected to make a full recovery.The lost subway tunnel
Could an abandoned subway tunnel yield clues about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln?
Mysteries remain in lost subway tunnel
Saturday Jam
On a Dark Night
Dixon Odom recalls that March 28, 1984, dawned as a “beautiful morning.”
“The sun was shining, it was warm,” says Odom, longtime fire chief in Bennettsville, S.C.
By the end of that day, Odom was helping oversee a recovery and rescue operation in what meteorologists consider the worst tornado outbreak in Carolinas history.
It happened 25 years ago today.
The National Weather Service says an outbreak of severe thunderstorms and possibly even tornadoes is expected somewhere in the Southeast today. The Charlotte metro region would be most at risk late this afternoon or this evening.
But forecasters say today's storm system pales in comparison to the one 25 years ago.
Charlotte escaped the fury of the 24 tornadoes that crushed the countryside that day on a path from the South Carolina-Georgia border, across the Palmetto State and then northward through the Sandhills and coastal plain of North Carolina.
By the time the last tornado moved into the Atlantic Ocean, 57 people were dead – 42 in North Carolina, 15 in South Carolina – and more than 800 injured.
“It was a classic major tornado outbreak,” says Lara Pagano, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Raleigh.
None of the two dozen twisters reached F5 level on the Fujita scale, the strongest classification of tornadoes. But there were seven F4 storms (winds of up to 260 mph), including a twister that rumbled through Bennettsville, where Odom was assistant fire chief at the time and on duty when the storms struck.
“We had been sounding our sirens since 2 in the afternoon, when they issued a tornado watch,” he recalls. “About 6:30 p.m., they issued a warning, so we started sounding a different siren alert.”
Odom says the storm was so loud that he couldn't hear the siren, which was a short distance up the street.
“A few minutes later, we started getting calls from the boys who live on the north side of town,” he says.
That is where the Northwoods Shopping Center stood. A milewide funnel cloud roared through the shopping center and a nearby apartment complex, leveling them in seconds. Most of the seven deaths and 100 injuries in the Bennettsville area happened there.
“We couldn't get to the scene from the center of town, because of the damage,” Odom recalls. “We got crews to arrive from the north, from Rockingham and Hamlet (in North Carolina's Richmond County).”
Odom called nearby Robeson County, across the border in North Carolina, and asked for help. But they were busy. Another F4 twister had hit there, damaging nearly every building in the Robeson County town of Red Springs.
“The downtown area was ripped apart,” recalls Martha Pearson, who works in the town's billing department. “It was absolutely amazing.”
That tornado killed four and injured 395.
Earlier, a tornado had roared across Interstate 77, flattening trees in a quarter-mile-wide path that motorists traveling between Charlotte and Columbia could see for years afterward.
Meteorologists say the tornado outbreak was the result of a familiar set of circumstances – a strong low-pressure system, and strong winds blowing from different directions at various levels of the atmosphere, creating a twisting motion.
Pagano says many newcomers to the Carolinas think of killer tornadoes as a Midwest phenomenon.
“But they can happen here – and they have,” she says.
*****
I remember that night well. And today's forecast (March 28th) is:
Heavy rain, thunderstorms and damaging winds are expected to move into the Charlotte area this afternoon.
A low-pressure system is forecast to bring widespread areas of moderate to heavy rain with thunderstorms this afternoon and tonight, according to the National Weather Service.
Some storms could produce damaging winds, hail and isolated tornadoes. Storms east of Interstate 85 may produce more than 3 inches of rain with possible flash flooding.
Once the rain gets here it will last through the rest of the day.
The heavier rain and the chance for severe weather will move into the Charlotte area around 4 p.m.
The highest risk for severe weather will be from Georgia through South Carolina and then into the eastern part of North Carolina mainly this afternoon.
Charlotte's on northern edge, our highest risk is going to be for gusty winds in some of these thunderstorms. Combine those gusty winds with all of the wet weather that we've had - the ground is saturated so we could see some trees knocked down.”
The forecast is better for Sunday. It's expected to be cloudy through mid-morning with gradual clearing and a high of 65.
Afghan, Pakistani leaders praise new US strategy
Afghan President Hamid Karzai lauded increased civil and military aid to his country and highlighted a plan for reconciliation with moderate elements of the Taliban as the new strategy's most important initiative. He also welcomed President Barack Obama's focus on countering militant sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan in the plan, announced Friday.
"This is better than we were expecting as a matter of fact," Karzai told a news conference.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari promised his country would not allow its territory to be used for terrorism and said the billions of dollars in additional civilian aid for Pakistan under the new U.S. plan endorsed his strategy of fighting extremism with development."The U.S. presidency's new approach represents a positive change," Zardari said in a speech to Parliament.
Now I Know
She said I was the Sean Connery of the Renaissance Faire circuit and that all the ladies love my rugged good looks, deep voice, broad shoulders and they want to hang around me.
I have wondered why I was always surrounded by gaggles of women at any Faire I've been at - now I know.
President Obama's Weekly Address
Weekly Address
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Washington, DC
Even as we face an economic crisis which demands our constant focus, forces of nature can also intervene in ways that create other crises to which we must respond – and respond urgently. For the people of North and South Dakota and Minnesota who live along rivers spilling over their banks, this is one such moment.
Rivers and streams throughout the region have flooded or are at risk of flooding. The cities of Fargo and neighboring Moorhead are vulnerable as the waters of the Red River have risen. Thousands of homes and businesses are threatened.
That is why, on Tuesday, I granted a major disaster declaration request for the State of North Dakota and ordered federal support into the region to help state and local officials respond to the flooding. This was followed by an emergency declaration for the State of Minnesota. And we are also keeping close watch on the situation in South Dakota as it develops.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency continue to coordinate the federal response. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is helping to oversee federal efforts and she remains in close contact with state officials. Acting FEMA administrator Nancy Ward has been in the region since yesterday to meet with folks on the ground and survey the area herself.
In addition, The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is assisting in the emergency construction of levees. The Coast Guard is aiding in search and rescue efforts while the Department of Defense is helping to move people and supplies. Members of the National Guard have been activated and are on the scene as well.
Hospitals and nursing homes in the area are being evacuated and residents in poor health or with special needs are being transported to higher ground. Teams from the Department of Health and Human Services are aiding in this work. And the Red Cross is in place to provide shelter and supplies for folks in need.
It is also important for residents in these states to remain vigilant in monitoring reports on flood crests and to follow instructions from their state and local leaders in the event that evacuations become necessary.
My administration is working closely with Governors John Hoeven, Mike Rounds and Tim Pawlenty. And I’ve been meeting with Senators Byron Dorgan, Kent Conrad, and Amy Klobuchar, as well as Congressmen Earl Pomeroy and Collin Peterson, to pledge my support. I will continue to monitor the situation carefully. We will do what must be done to help in concert with state and local agencies and non-profit organizations – and volunteers who are doing so much to aid the response effort.
For at moments like these, we are reminded of the power of nature to disrupt lives and endanger communities. But we are also reminded of the power of individuals to make a difference.
In the Fargodome, thousands of people gathered not to watch a football game or a rodeo, but to fill sandbags. Volunteers filled 2.5 million of them in just five days, working against the clock, day and night, with tired arms and aching backs. Others braved freezing temperatures, gusting winds, and falling snow to build levees along the river’s banks to help protect against waters that have exceeded record levels.
College students have traveled by the busload from nearby campuses to lend a hand during their spring breaks. Students from local high schools asked if they could take time to participate. Young people have turned social networks into community networks, coordinating with one another online to figure out how best to help.
In the face of an incredible challenge, the people of these communities have rallied in support of one another. And their service isn’t just inspirational – it’s integral to our response.
It’s also a reminder of what we can achieve when Americans come together to serve their communities. All across the nation, there are men, women and young people who have answered that call, and millions of other who would like to. Whether it’s helping to reduce the energy we use, cleaning up a neighborhood park, tutoring in a local school, or volunteering in countless other ways, individual citizens can make a big difference.
That is why I’m so happy that legislation passed the Senate this week and the House last week to provide more opportunities for Americans to serve their communities and the country.
The bipartisan Senate bill was sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Ted Kennedy, a leader who embodies the spirit of public service, and I am looking forward to signing this important measure into law.
In facing sudden crises or more stubborn challenges, the truth is we are all in this together – as neighbors and fellow citizens. That is what brought so many to help in North Dakota and Minnesota and other areas affected by this flooding. That is what draws people to volunteer in so many ways, serving our country here and on distant shores.
Our thanks go to them today, and to all who are working day and night to deal with the disaster. We send them our thoughts, our prayers, and our continued assistance in this difficult time.
Thank you.
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