News Stories

[DonQuigleone]

Snow, earthquakes? I didn't know those things were REAL. I thought they were just fictional things on TV.

(NB Ireland never gets earthquakes, and rarely snow, when we get snow the entire country falls apart)

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by solomon

Dude, I'd LOVE to see good old fashioned Nor'Easter type snow come hit you people in LaLa Land and the Bay City.......lightweights.....

not a problem for me since most of my work can be done at home

[solomon]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

That would be interesting. It has snowed at total of three times in this city since I was born...and only stuck to the ground once.

We go to the mountains for our snow and can experiance heavy snow some winters in the Sierra Nevada.

Don't they get snow in like Lancaster and Palmdale and of course near Big Bear?

[Ithekro]

We prefer earthquakes to all the other natural disasters. Almost all the rest of them you can see coming and get the feeling of dread and inevibility. Earthquakes are sporatic and once it happens, it is over. Hurricanes you can see for days coming towards you. Tornadoes have a season. Floods and heavy snow get warning due again to the weather. Earthquakes? little to no warning and it lasts usually less than a minute. If the building didn't fall, or a fire didn't start, there usually isn't a problem afterwards. Unless it happens in the ocean, but out here our fault lines run through the land and not out at sea. So Tsumami aren't usually our concern...thought he one form Japan in March did throw a two foot swell our direction that messed up a bunch of marineas and I think killed one person.

Most Earthquake damage is from aftereffects, like fires started because of broken gas mains, or a few fallen buildings. True that sometimes freeways collape, but that was poor construction (by California standards). Chile's newer building are built to San Fransisco standards and ride out their giant earthquake with ease. Their older ones crumble. Our gripe up here is the Bay Bridge. In 1989, one piece fell loose on the Oakland side (it slipped out it the expansion gap, it was suppose to move, but not quite that far). They refitted it so it wouldn't do that, but also planned to replace that half of the bridge. It is now 2011. That replacement span will be completed in either 2013 or 2014. It adds nothing to the servicablitiy of the brigde at all (oh a bike lane...that can't go to San Fransisco because it is on only on half of the bridge...you could bike from Oakland to Treasure Island...whoopie.) But from 1989 to 2014 to make half a bridge....a bridge that was orginally built in less than 5 years.

Originally Posted by solomon
Don't they get snow in like Lancaster and Palmdale and of course near Big Bear?

Heading out towards Truckee or Bear Valley would be easier from here. Or much closer, Mt. Diablo, but the experiance is more interesting in the Sierra Nevada than in a single lonely peak.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by solomon

Dude, I'd LOVE to see good old fashioned Nor'Easter type snow come hit you people in LaLa Land and the Bay City.......lightweights.....

What's hilarious is the rare thunderstorm in the Bay Area. Lightning starts forking, thunder booming and people LOSE THEIR SHIT. It's comedy gold.

I was born in Alabama and spent half my life in the South, so thunderstorms are old hat to me.

[solomon]

No way, thunderstorms?

Jesus. In DC, Thunderstorms and Summer are like Peanut butter and Jelly.

[DonQuigleone]

Yep, Ireland, no extreme weather lalalala.

Well it does rain all the time but...

[Ithekro]

Not many thunderstorms out here. My father takes timelapes photography of them when we get really good ones though. Did the same when we went to Florida or Arizona.

I don't see much panic though...except at swimming pools, rivers, lakes, and the ocean.

[MeoTwister5]

You people need to live in an equatorial area country for a while to see what a REAL STORM is like. Lightning strikes meters outside my house at least once a month.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

You people need to live in an equatorial area country for a while to see what a REAL STORM is like. Lightning strikes meters outside my house at least once a month.

Maybe if you lead a more austere life of no lolis or 2D girls, lightning strikes may not be as prevalent.

[Tom Bombadil]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

That's where you got it wrong. In Japan, the ministers don't really need to know anything, as they are nothing more than glorified rubber stamps. It's the civil service that actually runs the country. Any other advanced country would have probably fallen apart in confusion by now, after five or so Cabinets in as many years.

Oh, this reminds me so much of the BBC series "Yes, Minister". Sir Humphrey is right, after all.

Edit: Oh, I see this has already been discussed.

[andyjay729]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

We prefer earthquakes to all the other natural disasters. Almost all the rest of them you can see coming and get the feeling of dread and inevibility...

On another anime board I visit, someone from Mississippi said, "At least you can see hurricanes coming" on why she disliked earthquakes more. I guess one way to put it is, would you rather be stabbed to death by a guy sneaking up on you from behind, or someone coming at you from the front?

But, the reason my family is in Southern California is because of the salubrious climate (in our opinion), not out of preferring earthquakes to hurricanes. That said, we occasionally get humid monsoon weather in late summer as well as, once in a great while, the remnants of hurricanes coming up from Central America. I saw a history blurb in the news recently that among the highest rainfall San Diego got in a day in August was during a hurricane.

And just last winter I went up to Santa Cruz when a cold winter storm left snow on the nearby mountains. It didn't last the whole day, but it sure looked pretty the next morning.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

Oh, this reminds me so much of the BBC series "Yes, Minister". Sir Humphrey is right, after all.

Edit: Oh, I see this has already been discussed.

Indeed Humphrey is always right.

[Doraneko]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

We prefer earthquakes to all the other natural disasters. Almost all the rest of them you can see coming and get the feeling of dread and inevibility.

Then there should be no point for the Japanese to develop such a sophisticated earthquake warning system.

Remember, the feeling of dread and fear may save your life. As long as the public is well trained to respond immediately to take cover, even an earthquake warning merely 10-30 seconds in advance is said to be very effective in reducing the death count.

[synaesthetic]

Just had a tiny little tremor here in the Bay Area. I thought someone had slammed a door very hard, lol.

[Ithekro]

Yeah I felt that too. Didn't do much.

[ganbaru]

With CIA help, NYPD moves covertly in Muslim areas
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...08-24-06-10-47

[killer3000ad]

DNA study deals blow to theory of European origins

A new study deals a blow to the idea that most European men are descended from farmers who migrated from the Near East 5,000-10,000 years ago.

The findings challenge previous research showing that the genetic signature of the farmers displaced that of Europe's indigenous hunters.

The latest research leans towards the idea that most of Europe's males trace a line of descent to stone-age hunters.

Archaeological finds show that modern humans first settled in Europe from about 40,000 years ago - during a time known as the Palaeolithic.

These people survived an Ice Age some 20,000 years ago by retreating to relatively warm refuges in the south of the continent, before expanding into northern Europe again when the ice melted.

But just a few thousand years after Europe had been resettled by these hunter-gatherers, the continent underwent momentous cultural change. Farmers spread westwards from the area that is now Turkey, bringing with them a new economy and way of life.

The extent to which modern Europeans are descended from these early farmers versus the indigenous hunter-gatherers who settled the continent thousands of years previously is a matter of heated debate.
.....

[Xellos-_^]

Nice,

another Earthquake just now.

last night was a 3.6, this was smaller then that.

[Ithekro]

Russian resupply spacecraft does not make it into orbit

I really hope the Dragon/Falcon combo works for NASA come December.