By MICHAEL TARM "CHICAGO (AP) - A would-be terrorist tries to board a plane, bent on mass murder. As he walks through a security checkpoint, fidgeting and glancing around, a network of high-tech machines analyzes his body language and reads his mind.Screeners pull him aside.
Tragedy is averted.
As far-fetched as that sounds, systems that aim to get inside an evildoer's head are among the proposals floated by security experts thinking beyond the X-ray machines and metal detectors used on millions of passengers and bags each year."
Next shall be palm readings to tell if your a future terrorist.
-- Edited by Bernad on Saturday 9th of January 2010 12:13:53 AM
AccuWeather.com Following a rare occurrence of snow, sleet and freezing rain in central Florida Saturday morning, colder and drier air will continue to expand across the Florida peninsula through the rest of the weekend.
Widespread record cold and freezing temperatures will pose a threat to crops along the Gulf coast and through southern Florida by Sunday night.
Just check out how cold it is getting across the map here.
By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writers Don Thompson, Associated Press Writers – 15 mins ago
EUREKA, Calif. – A powerful offshore earthquake that struck near the Northern California coast left a hodgepodge of debris for communities to sort through Sunday but spared residents any serious injury.
The 6.5 magnitude temblor hit at about 4:27 p.m. PST Saturday and was centered in the Pacific about 22 miles west of Ferndale. It was felt in towns more than 300 miles south into central California and as far north as central Oregon, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Ferndale is about 240 miles north of San Francisco.
Dozens of people suffered minor injuries and thousands lost power.
In Eureka, north of Ferndale, residents of an apartment building were evacuated, and an office building and two other commercial structures in the town of about 26,000 people were declared unsafe for occupancy, according to Humboldt County spokesman Phil Smith-Hanes.
"Our initial reports were that, though this was a pretty decent quake, we survived it well," Smith-Hanes said, adding that damage assessments would continue Sunday across the county.
Here is a map of the recent earthquakes. http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/
-- Edited by Bernad on Sunday 10th of January 2010 08:45:04 AM
The average temperature in December 2009 was 30.2 F. This was -3.2 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average, the 14th coolest December in 115 years. The temperature trend for the period of record (1895 to present) is 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit per decade.
2.88 inches of precipitation fell in December. This was 0.65 inches more than the 1901-2000 average, the 11th wettest such month on record. The precipitation trend for the period of record (1895 to present) is 0.02 inches per decade.
A major earthquake struck just off the coast of Haiti late this afternoon, reportedly causing extensive damage in the capital of Port-au-Prince. The center of the earthquake was 700 miles from Miami. The quake had a magnitude of 7.0 according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and was centered just 10 miles from Port-au-Prince.
Its center's location was also relatively shallow, less than 10 miles below ground, raising the risk of damage.
Early reports said a hospital in nearby Petionville had collapsed, and a videographer for The Associated Press said he could hear people screaming for help.
A Reuters reporter, quoting workers for a U.S. charity, Food for the Poor, said there were more houses destroyed than standing in Delmas Road, a major thoroughfare in Port-au-Prince. An employee of Food for the Poor said a five-story building had collapsed.
There were other reports of damage, but they could not be immediately confirmed.
"I couldn't even stand up. that's how bad it was," said Valerie Moliere, a 15-year-old resident of Port-au-Prince, reached by ABC News . "There's a lot of people in the street everywhere. Some are wounded."
PARIS, Jan 13 (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Wednesday he feared everyone inside the United Nations headquarters in Haiti were killed when the building was destroyed by a powerful earthquake.
"The U.N. building has collapsed and it seems that all those who were in the building, including my friend Heni Annabi who was the special envoy at the United Nations ... are dead," Kouchner told France's RTL radio.
However, he said Haiti's President Rene Preval had managed to escape his collapsing palace during the earthquake that rocked Porte-au-Prince on Tuesday.
The U.N. itself has said the people in its building were unaccounted for.
Kouchner did not specify how he had obtained the information, although he said he had spoken to France's ambassador to Haiti who reported chaos and destruction in the capital.
"Certainly I'm going to talk to President Preval, whose presidential palace also collapsed but he got out. I'm going to speak to him soon," Kouchner told RTL, according to a transcript of the interview.
The earthquake killed possibly thousands of people, as aftershocks rattled through the night and into Wednesday. (Reporting by Sophie Hardach; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Bolivia, Costa Rica hit by strong earthquakes http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/305356,bolivia-costa-rica-hit-by-strong-earthquakes.html
Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:57:52 GMT
Washington - Bolivia and Costa Rica were struck by strong earthquakes with magnitudes of up to 5.3 on the Richter scale on Saturday, the US Geological Survey reported. Bolivia was hit by two quakes within an hour, one with a magnitude 5.3 and other 5.2, the Virginia-based earthquake monitoring center reported.
The border region of Costa Rica and Panama experienced two quakes in the same time period, one a magnitude of 5.2 and the other 4.7.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12 registered 7.0 on the Richter scale.
Professor Paul Davies, a physicist at Arizona University will tell a meeting at the Royal Society that the best way of proving that extra-terrestrial life exists elsewhere in the universe is to use evidence from earth.
The meeting at the Royal Society, which will include representatives from Nasa, the European Space Agency and the UN Office for Outer space Affairs marks the 5th anniversary of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) programme. Lord Rees, President of the Royal Society will also lead one of the sessions.
by Mike Krumboltz http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/93359?fp=1
Giant squids! Sorry to startle you, but we're just so excited. You see, they're giant squids! And they're invading California beaches by the hundreds! And in a heavily attended press conference this morning, they announced plans to star in their own reality show!
OK, so maybe that last one hasn't happened (yet), but the rest of it is the honest-to-god truth. An article from the AP explains that the squids weigh up to 60 pounds each, but most tip the scales somewhere between 20 and 40 pounds. And, yes, they squirt ink when irritated.
Web searches on the giant squids (GIANT SQUIDS!) are already off the charts. One-day spikes on both "giant squids" and "giant squids in california" surged from near-zip into the thousands. Folks clearly want to see these gargantuan creatures for themselves.
Despite their intimidating heft and tendency to spew ink, the squids aren't scaring off local fishermen. As of today, around 400 of the giant squids have been nabbed by anglers. That number is likely to rise. An article from San Diego 6 explains that locals "started booking twilight fishing trips over the weekend to catch them."
The last time the giant (aka “jumbo” aka “Humboldt”) squid made waves in Search came last September, when a record-breaking 19 ½-foot-long, 103-lb beast was pulled from the Gulf of Mexico.
Now they're back with a vengeance. Wanna see the new ones for yourself? MyFoxLA hosts a collection of photos of nabbed squids.
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 1002 AM EST SAT FEB 6 2010
DCZ001-MDZ007-011-013-014-062315- /O.CON.KLWX.BZ.W.0001.000000T0000Z-100207T0300Z/ DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA-HARFORD-SOUTHERN BALTIMORE-PRINCE GEORGES- ANNE ARUNDEL- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...WASHINGTON...BALTIMORE...ANNAPOLIS 1002 AM EST SAT FEB 6 2010
...BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM EST THIS EVENING...
A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM EST THIS EVENING.
* PRECIPITATION TYPE...MODERATE SNOW.
* ACCUMULATIONS...AN ADDITIONAL 4 TO 8 INCHES TODAY WITH TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 20 TO 30 INCHES.
* TIMING...MODERATE INTENSITY SNOW BANDS WILL MOVE SOUTHEASTWARD THIS MORNING THROUGH EARLY THIS AFTERNOON. SNOW WILL BECOME LIGHTER THIS AFTERNOON AND WILL TAPER OFF BY EARLY THIS EVENING.
* VISIBILITIES...VISIBILITIES AS LOW AS ONE-QUARTER TO ONE-HALF MILE ARE EXPECTED THROUGH EARLY THIS AFTERNOON.
* TEMPERATURES...TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN NEAR 30 DEGREES THIS MORNING AND WILL FALL INTO THE MID TO UPPER 20S TONIGHT.
* WINDS...NORTHEAST WINDS 15 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 25 MPH THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON...ESPECIALLY ALONG THE COAST.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
ALTHOUGH WIND SPEEDS WILL DECREASE THROUGH THE DAY...VISIBILITIES WILL BE AT OR BELOW ONE-QUARTER MILE AT TIMES IN MODERATE SNOW... WHICH WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY DANGEROUS.
A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY.
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 922 PM EST MON FEB 8 2010
DCZ001-MDZ003>007-009>011-013-014-VAZ042-053-054-WVZ053-091030- /O.CON.KLWX.WS.W.0007.100209T1700Z-100211T0000Z/ DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA-WASHINGTON-FREDERICK MD-CARROLL- NORTHERN BALTIMORE-HARFORD-MONTGOMERY-HOWARD-SOUTHERN BALTIMORE- PRINCE GEORGES-ANNE ARUNDEL-LOUDOUN-FAIRFAX- ARLINGTON/FALLS CHURCH/ALEXANDRIA-JEFFERSON- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...WASHINGTON...HAGERSTOWN...FREDERICK... WESTMINSTER...GAITHERSBURG...COLUMBIA...BALTIMORE...ANNAPOLIS... LEESBURG...FAIRFAX...ALEXANDRIA...FALLS CHURCH...CHARLES TOWN 922 PM EST MON FEB 8 2010
...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TUESDAY TO 7 PM EST WEDNESDAY...
A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TUESDAY TO 7 PM EST WEDNESDAY.
* PRECIPITATION TYPE...SNOW.
* ACCUMULATIONS...10 TO 20 INCHES.
* TIMING...MID-AFTERNOON TUESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY.
* TEMPERATURES...TEMPERATURES NEAR FREEZING AT THE ONSET TUESDAY AFTERNOON. TEMPERATURES WILL DROP INTO THE UPPER 20S TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY.
A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. THE COMBINATION OF SNOW AND STRONG WINDS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS.
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Winter Storm Poised To Pack Strong Punch For NYC Chance Of Significant Snow Wednesday Throughout Tri-State Totals Likely To Fall From 6-12 Inches, With Winds Gusting To 40 MPH
On Saturday, New York City residents feared the worst, only to be pleasantly surprised when blizzard-like conditions that dumped more than 2 feet of snow on Washington D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia never quite made it to the heart of the city and points north.
On Wednesday, however, we all won't be as fortunate.
A Winter Storm Watch has been issued for most of the CBS 2 HD viewing area in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, including all five boroughs of New York City, from Tuesday night through Wednesday night.
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 21 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is poised to sign the landmark health care bill ushering in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in the nation's history — and then he'll hit the road to resume selling it to a reluctant public.
Obama will travel to Iowa City, Iowa, on Thursday, the White House said, as he turns to seeing a companion bill through the Senate and talking up the overhaul's benefits on behalf of House members who cast risky votes.
Obama is expected to sign the bill Tuesday at the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday. A South Lawn ceremony is planned. Obama is inviting all lawmakers who supported the bill and other Americans whose stories represent the need for reformed health care, Gibbs said.
"Last night we made history," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters as she signed the legislation, a formality before Obama's own signature. "It's on a par with passing Social Security and Medicare."
