Southern California stages biggest U.S. quake drill
Source: Reuters
Southern Californians simultaneously dropped to the floor and huddled under tables and desks for two minutes of imagined seismic turmoil on Thursday in the biggest U.S. earthquake drill.
The Great Southern California ShakeOut was organized by scientists and emergency officials as part of a campaign to prepare the state’s 22 million inhabitants for a catastrophic quake that experts say is inevitable and long overdue.
The drill is based on the premise of a magnitude 7.8 quake striking the southern portion of the famed San Andreas Fault, a subterranean chasm between two massive plates of the Earth’s crust that extends hundreds of miles (km) across the state.
The hypothetical quake, similar in strength to the devastating tremor that hit China in May, also is the basis for this year’s annual Golden Guardian exercise — a days-long disaster simulation for emergency-response agencies statewide.
“This helps us hone our skills,” said Patricia Aidem, a spokeswoman for Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in suburban Los Angeles, whose trauma center is taking part in the larger mass-casualty drill.
“We live in earthquake country, so being prepared to help the public is just an amazing advantage for the community.”
Teaching people quake survival skills also “means fewer patients for us,” she added.
Technorati Tags: Great Southern California ShakeOut
Homosexuals awash in tears over gay marriage defeat
Source: breitbart.com
In a heartbreaking defeat for the gay-rights movement, California voters put a stop to gay marriage, creating uncertainty about the legal status of 18,000 same-sex couples who tied the knot during a four-month window of opportunity opened by the state’s highest court.
Passage of a constitutional amendment against gay marriage—in a state so often [...]
Earliest Known Hebrew Text In Proto-Canaanite Script Discovered In Area Where ‘David Slew Goliath’
Source: sciencedaily.com
The earliest known Hebrew text written in a Proto-Canaanite script has been discovered by Hebrew University archaeologists in an ancient city in the area where legend has it that David slew Goliath – the earliest Judean city found to date. The 3,000 year old finding is thought to be the most significant archaeological [...]
Boy Sent Home From School For Dressing As Jesus
Source: wcbstv.com
A Paramus middle school student was sent home Friday after he came to school dressed up as Jesus for Halloween.
For a few hours, Alex Woinski was the messiah of West Brook Middle School, but like the real Jesus, Woinski was condemned, so to speak.
“Sort of like a new remake of what supposedly happened,” [...]
Survival in the Snow
Source: TheStar.com
What should you do if you’re stranded outside in -15C weather? According to survivalist lore, burrow into the snow.
Weather researchers agree, and they provided the supporting scientific evidence in a recent issue of the Bulletin of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS).
During most winters, York University buries electronic thermometers at ground level beneath snow at a campus weather station. This past Feb. 29, when the air registered -15C, the temperature at the ground surface was a comparatively balmy 0. Three days later, when the air temperature rose to 12C, the ground surface remained at 0.
This is nature’s thermostat at work. The 10-centimetre-deep snow insulated the ground from the cold air. Also, any heat conducted up from the earth goes mostly into melting snow rather than raising temperatures.
Finally, when melted water freezes, it releases what’s known as “latent heat,” again maintaining the temperature near 0 at the spot where ground and snow meet.
But the survivalist thermostat fails when air temperatures are really frigid, says atmospheric science professor Peter Taylor in the CMOS Bulletin.
York also operated a weather station last winter at Iqaluit, Nunavut. The late February temperatures there were -25 to -30, both in the air and just beneath the snow surface.
“If you are stranded, burrowing under snow is still a good plan to conserve body heat,” writes Taylor, “but do not expect to find a -5C layer after several months of -30C temperatures.”