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Bride's bouquet crashes plane in Italy
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hA-4sQcNd7WGbwtMce7kcCPcsZeAD99EDEAG1
ROME (AP) — A romantic wedding in the Tuscan countryside ended with injuries after an attempt to launch the bride's bouquet from a plane brought down the tiny aircraft. Italian police say two people were hurt in the crash of the ultralight plane after the bridal bouquet they launched got caught in the aircraft's rear rotor.
The flowers blocked the engine, bringing the plane down by a youth hostel.
Police in the nearby town of Piombino said Tuesday the pilot was lightly injured in Saturday's crash, while the passenger who threw the bouquet had several broken bones.
The bride and groom were not aboard the plane.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hA-4sQcNd7WGbwtMce7kcCPcsZeAD99EDEAG1
ROME (AP) — A romantic wedding in the Tuscan countryside ended with injuries after an attempt to launch the bride's bouquet from a plane brought down the tiny aircraft. Italian police say two people were hurt in the crash of the ultralight plane after the bridal bouquet they launched got caught in the aircraft's rear rotor.
The flowers blocked the engine, bringing the plane down by a youth hostel.
Police in the nearby town of Piombino said Tuesday the pilot was lightly injured in Saturday's crash, while the passenger who threw the bouquet had several broken bones.
The bride and groom were not aboard the plane.
Huge blob of Arctic goo floats past Slope communities
IT'S NOT OIL: No one in the area can recall seeing anything like it before.
http://www.adn.com/2835/story/864687.html
Something big and strange is floating through the Chukchi Sea between Wainwright and Barrow.
Hunters from Wainwright first started noticing the stuff sometime probably early last week. It's thick and dark and "gooey" and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters, according to Gordon Brower with the North Slope Borough's Planning and Community Services Department.
"That's one of the reasons we went out, because in recent history I don't think we've seen anything like this," he said. "Maybe inside lakes or in stagnant water or something, but not (in the ocean) that we could recall ...
"If it was something we'd seen before, we'd be able to say something about it. But we haven't ...which prompted concerns from the local hunters and whaling captains."
The stuff is "gooey" and looks dark against the bright white ice floating in the Arctic Ocean, Brower said.
"It's pitch black when it hits ice and it kind of discolors the ice and hangs off of it," Brower said. He saw some jellyfish tangled up in the stuff, and someone turned in what was left of a dead goose -- just bones and feathers -- to the borough's wildlife department.
"It kind of has an odor; I can't describe it," he said.
"From the air it looks brownish with some sheen, but when you get close and put it up on the ice and in the bucket, it's kind of blackish stuff ... (and) has hairy strands on it."
Hasenauer said the Coast Guard's samples are being analyzed in Anchorage. Results may be back sometime next week, he said.
The two Coast Guard experts sent up to overfly the area with the borough said they saw nothing that resembled an oil slick, Hasenauer said.
"We brought back one sample of what they believe to be an algae," he said, and a big algae bloom is one possibility.
more.....including a photo.
IT'S NOT OIL: No one in the area can recall seeing anything like it before.
http://www.adn.com/2835/story/864687.html
Something big and strange is floating through the Chukchi Sea between Wainwright and Barrow.
Hunters from Wainwright first started noticing the stuff sometime probably early last week. It's thick and dark and "gooey" and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters, according to Gordon Brower with the North Slope Borough's Planning and Community Services Department.
"That's one of the reasons we went out, because in recent history I don't think we've seen anything like this," he said. "Maybe inside lakes or in stagnant water or something, but not (in the ocean) that we could recall ...
"If it was something we'd seen before, we'd be able to say something about it. But we haven't ...which prompted concerns from the local hunters and whaling captains."
The stuff is "gooey" and looks dark against the bright white ice floating in the Arctic Ocean, Brower said.
"It's pitch black when it hits ice and it kind of discolors the ice and hangs off of it," Brower said. He saw some jellyfish tangled up in the stuff, and someone turned in what was left of a dead goose -- just bones and feathers -- to the borough's wildlife department.
"It kind of has an odor; I can't describe it," he said.
"From the air it looks brownish with some sheen, but when you get close and put it up on the ice and in the bucket, it's kind of blackish stuff ... (and) has hairy strands on it."
Hasenauer said the Coast Guard's samples are being analyzed in Anchorage. Results may be back sometime next week, he said.
The two Coast Guard experts sent up to overfly the area with the borough said they saw nothing that resembled an oil slick, Hasenauer said.
"We brought back one sample of what they believe to be an algae," he said, and a big algae bloom is one possibility.
more.....including a photo.
I rode my bike to work for the first time since the break 6 weeks ago. Arm and shoulder are still stiff/sore but I can turn and handle the bike well enough that I just had to get off the bus. Feeling pretty great today. All told I figure I lost about 300-350 miles, missed out on 25 commuter stamps (30 gets me $35 off my bus pass) and picked up about 5 pounds (mostly on my vacation). Looking forward to ditching those pounds, getting through the next month or so of physical therapy and gradually returning to kickball one step at a time.
Today was a very happy start.
Today was a very happy start.
Explorathon '09: Event for community to promote Westchester Children's Museum
I was talking to one of my friends about an event that we had went to back in June. I looked on their website and found these two pictures:
That's some of my daughter's after-school program. I'm the green shirted lady!
I was talking to one of my friends about an event that we had went to back in June. I looked on their website and found these two pictures:
That's some of my daughter's after-school program. I'm the green shirted lady!
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Spent the weekend in SF with my wife - we went to go see the Kenny Chesney concert (her Mother's Day gift). It was a child-free weekend, as we left our little guy at her parents place for a sleepover.
Had a great time!
A couple shots of the setup and concert. Also, we found out Boudin makes turtles, lobsters, teddy bears, and alligators with their bread now! Very cool.
Had a great time!
A couple shots of the setup and concert. Also, we found out Boudin makes turtles, lobsters, teddy bears, and alligators with their bread now! Very cool.
Attachments
Black goop afloat off Arctic coast identified as algae
http://www.adn.com/front/story/867160.html
A sample of the giant black mystery blob that Wainwright hunters discovered this month floating in the Chukchi Sea has been identified.
It looks to be a stringy batch of algae. Not bunker oil seeping from an aging, sunken ship. Not a sea monster.
"We got the results back from the lab today," said Ed Meggert of the Department of Environmental Conservation in Fairbanks. "It was marine algae."
Miles of the thick, dark gunk had been spotted floating between Barrow and Wainwright, prompting North Slope Borough officials and the Coast Guard to investigate last week. A sample was sent to a DEC lab in Anchorage, where workers looked at it under a microscope and declared it some kind of simple plant -- an algae, Meggert said.
The goo fast became an Alaska mystery. And the new findings still leave questions unanswered: Why is there so much of it in a region where people say they've never seen anything quite like it?
Local hunters and whalers didn't know what to make of it. The Coast Guard labeled the substance biological, but knew little else. The stuff had hairy strands in it and was tangled with jellyfish, said a borough official.
Terry Whitledge is director of the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He hasn't had a chance to look at the DEC's sample yet, but a friend with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration e-mailed him a picture of the gunk.
"Filamentous algae," he concluded.
Filamentous?
"It means it's just stringy."
Whitledge said he doesn't know why an unprecedented bloom of algae appeared off the Arctic coast.
"You'll find these kind of algae grow in areas that are shallow enough that light can get to the bottom ... If you had a rocky area along the coast, you could have this type of algae."
It could have been discharged from a river, he said, flushed out by runoff from spring breakup and melting ice. But that's just speculation, he warned.
The North Slope Borough took samples of the stuff too, for a separate round of testing, said Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer.
The results of the state's analysis came in at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. It was the last day on the job for Meggert, the retiring on-scene coordinator.
"Had it been petroleum, then we really would have had our work cut out for us," he said.
That was the initial fear -- that an oil spill had appeared in the Chukchi Sea, or maybe the blob was oil bubbling up from a sunken vessel or underwater seam.
The goo didn't fit any pattern that made it easy to identify from afar, Meggert said. "First of all, it was at the end of the Earth. Pretty hard to get to.
"While we've seen some algae bloom from time to time, we really haven't seen something quite like this."
The color, in particular, didn't make sense, he said. You might expect to see green or reddish algae but not this black, viscous gunk. Whitledge, with the university, said one possible explanation is that the algae has partially decomposed into a darker hue.
He looks forward to the university examining the sample too, to identify exactly what kind of algae it is.
It's worth noting that Alaska Natives in the region reportedly hadn't seen anything like it before, he said.
But asked if the blob's surprise appearance could be connected to global warming, Whitledge hesitated to draw a link.
"The water's actually very cold this year compared to other years," he said.
http://www.adn.com/front/story/867160.html
A sample of the giant black mystery blob that Wainwright hunters discovered this month floating in the Chukchi Sea has been identified.
It looks to be a stringy batch of algae. Not bunker oil seeping from an aging, sunken ship. Not a sea monster.
"We got the results back from the lab today," said Ed Meggert of the Department of Environmental Conservation in Fairbanks. "It was marine algae."
Miles of the thick, dark gunk had been spotted floating between Barrow and Wainwright, prompting North Slope Borough officials and the Coast Guard to investigate last week. A sample was sent to a DEC lab in Anchorage, where workers looked at it under a microscope and declared it some kind of simple plant -- an algae, Meggert said.
The goo fast became an Alaska mystery. And the new findings still leave questions unanswered: Why is there so much of it in a region where people say they've never seen anything quite like it?
Local hunters and whalers didn't know what to make of it. The Coast Guard labeled the substance biological, but knew little else. The stuff had hairy strands in it and was tangled with jellyfish, said a borough official.
Terry Whitledge is director of the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He hasn't had a chance to look at the DEC's sample yet, but a friend with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration e-mailed him a picture of the gunk.
"Filamentous algae," he concluded.
Filamentous?
"It means it's just stringy."
Whitledge said he doesn't know why an unprecedented bloom of algae appeared off the Arctic coast.
"You'll find these kind of algae grow in areas that are shallow enough that light can get to the bottom ... If you had a rocky area along the coast, you could have this type of algae."
It could have been discharged from a river, he said, flushed out by runoff from spring breakup and melting ice. But that's just speculation, he warned.
The North Slope Borough took samples of the stuff too, for a separate round of testing, said Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer.
The results of the state's analysis came in at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. It was the last day on the job for Meggert, the retiring on-scene coordinator.
"Had it been petroleum, then we really would have had our work cut out for us," he said.
That was the initial fear -- that an oil spill had appeared in the Chukchi Sea, or maybe the blob was oil bubbling up from a sunken vessel or underwater seam.
The goo didn't fit any pattern that made it easy to identify from afar, Meggert said. "First of all, it was at the end of the Earth. Pretty hard to get to.
"While we've seen some algae bloom from time to time, we really haven't seen something quite like this."
The color, in particular, didn't make sense, he said. You might expect to see green or reddish algae but not this black, viscous gunk. Whitledge, with the university, said one possible explanation is that the algae has partially decomposed into a darker hue.
He looks forward to the university examining the sample too, to identify exactly what kind of algae it is.
It's worth noting that Alaska Natives in the region reportedly hadn't seen anything like it before, he said.
But asked if the blob's surprise appearance could be connected to global warming, Whitledge hesitated to draw a link.
"The water's actually very cold this year compared to other years," he said.
On Scott Adams (Dilbert author) and his voice
In case you didn't know, Scott lost his ability to speak a few years ago with a very rare condition. This article is very interesting and documents his struggle to speak normally again.
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/17-08/ff_adams?currentPage=1
In case you didn't know, Scott lost his ability to speak a few years ago with a very rare condition. This article is very interesting and documents his struggle to speak normally again.
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/17-08/ff_adams?currentPage=1
I was talking to one of my friends about an event that we had went to back in June. I looked on their website and found these two pictures:
That's some of my daughter's after-school program. I'm the green shirted lady!
That's some of my daughter's after-school program. I'm the green shirted lady!
I just heard some gun shots outside, they started to go off a minute after I came home. I'll find out what they were when it is morning, when I can see outside. I hope it wasn't someone just shooting for around for fun. I saw someone wandering around before when I came out of my car. I know I posted hearing gun fire before but this time it scared me.
Just received a notice as a USDA employee. Always sad news and he was so young. Our flags will be at half mast. 
TO: All USDA Employees
FROM: Thomas J. Vilsack, Secretary
SUBJECT: The Loss of Forest Service Firefighter Thomas Marovich
This is to inform you of the recent fatality of a Forest Service firefighter who was killed while performing in the line of duty.
Thomas Marovich fell and incurred fatal injuries while performing rappel proficiency skill training at the Backbone Fire Helibase in Willow Creek, California.
Mr. Marovich was a second year apprentice firefighter with the Forest Service at the Modoc National Forest, and was working with the Chester Helicopter Crew from the Lassen National Forest which was assigned to the Backbone Fire at the time of the accident. Thomas Marovich was 20 years old and was from Haywood, California. He is survived by his parents.
In honor and memory of Mr. Marovich, flags at all USDA facilities will be flown at half staff from dusk until sundown from the date of this declaration for an additional five consecutive days. Please keep the Marovich family in your thoughts and prayers, and join me in extending my heartfelt sympathy to the family of Thomas Marovich.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20250
FROM: Thomas J. Vilsack, Secretary
SUBJECT: The Loss of Forest Service Firefighter Thomas Marovich
This is to inform you of the recent fatality of a Forest Service firefighter who was killed while performing in the line of duty.
Thomas Marovich fell and incurred fatal injuries while performing rappel proficiency skill training at the Backbone Fire Helibase in Willow Creek, California.
Mr. Marovich was a second year apprentice firefighter with the Forest Service at the Modoc National Forest, and was working with the Chester Helicopter Crew from the Lassen National Forest which was assigned to the Backbone Fire at the time of the accident. Thomas Marovich was 20 years old and was from Haywood, California. He is survived by his parents.
In honor and memory of Mr. Marovich, flags at all USDA facilities will be flown at half staff from dusk until sundown from the date of this declaration for an additional five consecutive days. Please keep the Marovich family in your thoughts and prayers, and join me in extending my heartfelt sympathy to the family of Thomas Marovich.